Heb 12:25-29 Behold Our God!
Notes
Transcript
I heard this story from another pastor who heard it from another pastor, let’s call him Larry. Pastor Larry went to visit a member of his church – let’s call him Henry, who was in the hospital with terminal cancer. The family called Larry and told him that the doctors had given Henry just a few days to live and he was in great despair. So, Larry went to see Henry and encouraged him to look to Jesus and to see the hope he had in Jesus. As the conversation went on Pastor Larry asked Henry where his Bible was so they could read it together. The man pointed to the side table, on which his Bible lay, but the only part left were the covers of the Bible. Pastor Larry was shocked and asked Henry what had happened to his Bible. Henry said: One Sunday morning you said that a particular verse was irrelevant, that we would not lose anything if we just ignored it. So, I took you at your word but decided to just rip that particular verse out of my Bible. But I kept finding other verses that I felt were irrelevant and found it was easier to rip the entire page out rather than just the verse. Throughout the years I ripped one page after the other until all I was left with was this.
This might seem a little dramatic, but this story shows that the logical conclusion of making even a small portion of scripture irrelevant yields the possibility of making all of scripture irrelevant. What prevents us from arguing that the Bible itself is irrelevant? And sadly, many have done this today.
There are many who refuse to listen to God, to what God has said in His Word. It started many years ago, at the Garden of Eden when the Devil asked “Did God actually say?”. This line of questioning “Did God really say” or “Did God really mean” continues century after century until today.
One false teacher that led many away was Marcion in the second century. I mention him because the influence of his teachings can be seen even today in some famous preachers.
Marcion taught the total incompatibility of the Old and New Testaments. He believed there was a radical discontinuity between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament—between the Creator and the Father of Jesus. So Marcion created a new Bible for his followers that had no Old Testament and a severely hacked-up New Testament that consisted of only one Gospel (an edited version of Luke) and ten select and edited Pauline epistles (excluding the Pastorals).
Even though, during his lifetime there were godly teachers who presented refutations to his teachings like Tertullian, Marcion’s teachings never died out. In the nineteenth century, especially, with the rise of liberalism, it underwent a revival among those who wished to separate what they considered to be the crude and primitive parts of the Old Testament from the New.
Friedrich Schleiermacher, the eighteenth—and nineteenth-century father of liberalism, said the Old Testament has a place in the Christian heritage only by virtue of its connections with Christianity. He felt it should be no more than an appendix of historical interest. Adolph Harnack argued that the Reformers should have dropped it from the canon of authoritative writings. Likewise, there are thousands today who have rejected the Old Testament and the New Testament either formally or in practice. There are so many false teachers today that we would not be finished before supper, let alone lunch, if I were to mention all their names. In all of this, I would encourage you to pay close attention to whom you listen to, watch, or read. While they likely say many of the “right” things it does not mean that everything they say is Biblical. One of the easiest ways to determine this is to do a little bit of research on people. Who do they associate with (share a stage with)? One example would be Andy Stanley. He has bought into this lie rooted in Marcion. Does this mean that everything Andy Stanley has ever said or written is wrong? No, but it means we need to pay attention to whom we are associating ourselves.
The times we are living in are bad. I believe it is a lot worse than we think. I have lost count of how many profess to be followers of Christ, worse yet ministers of the Word, but have no regard for God’s Word. Again, take everything you read and hear into consideration what scripture has to say rather than what man has to say.
Ok, now why all this talk about Marcionism and false teachers? Because there are many who refuse to obey God’s Word and are teaching and leading others to do the same.
Furthermore, sadly, there are many Christians today who are so ignorant of their Bibles, especially the Old Testament, that they have a tragically sentimentalized idea of God—one which amounts to little more than a Deity who died to meet their needs—the sin question is minimized or ignored. The result is the incredible paradox of evangelicals who “know Jesus” but who do not know who God is!
The remedy for this tragedy is the Bible, specifically Sinai in the Old Covenant and Zion in the New Covenant—both mountains give us a better understanding of God.
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God is Righteous and Loving
Hughes describes this juxtaposition well and I’m going to borrow and summarize this in the next point. From Mount Sinai we learn, in Moses’ words, that God is a consuming fire—“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God.… For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:23, 24). The vision is stupendous—a mountaintop blazing with “fire to the very heavens” (Deuteronomy 4:11)—cloaked with a deep darkness—lightning illuminating golden arteries in the clouds—celestial rams’ horns overlaying the thunder with mournful blasts—the ground shaking as God’s voice intones the Ten Commandments. God is transcendentally “other,” perfectly good and holy. He radiates wrath and judgment against sin. God cannot be approached.
This is the vision for the heart of every believer—“the Lord your God is a consuming fire.” It is the corrective so needed in today’s church that has shamefully trivialized worship, turning it into a self-assured farce. Here God’s divine intention in creating Sinai is obvious because “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Flaming Mount Sinai shows us GOD!
Of course, the other mountain, Mount Zion of the New Testament, completes the picture. There we see God’s love as God the Son takes all of his people’s transgressions on himself so that he “became sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21; cf. Galatians 3:10, 11, 13)—writhing under its load like an impaled serpent (cf. Numbers 21:4–8). There on the cross we see God the Son dying for our sins and extending forgiveness to all who will believe in him, trusting his work alone for salvation. What a vision we are given from Calvary: God with his arms nailed wide as if to embrace all those who come to him—his blood covering the earth, speaking a better word than the blood of Abel (12:24)—the consuming love of God. Mount Zion, crowned by Golgotha, shows us God!
Both mountains—Sinai and Zion—reveal the true God. Neither can be separated from the other. God is not the God of one hill but of both. Both visions must be held in blessed tension within our souls—consuming fire and consuming love. This will save us from the damning delusion of false teachers!
It is this great righteous and loving God to whom we come as we marathon onward to “Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (v. 22). The massive dual revelation of the mountains is meant to shape our marathon. The question we must ask is, how then are we to run? What are we to do? The answer is in vs 25-29.
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
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What shall we do:
1. Obey v25-27
There are many reasons for us to obey God’s Word, but the author of Hebrews here gives us very specific reasons why we should obey God. First, because God’s word is effective, unstoppably effective.
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
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1.1 God’s Word is Effective
Here the author of Hebrews gives an argument from the lesser to the greater. In the lesser case, God’s earthly warning at Sinai first suffered subtle refusal by the Israelites when they “begged that no further word be spoken to them” (Exodus 20:19)—though their refusal at Sinai was more from fear than from outright rejection of God, they still requested Him to be silent.
Furthermore, in the years that followed, they explicitly refused God’s word by repeated disobedience during the four decades of wandering in the wilderness. So grievous was their disobedience that Numbers 14:29 records that God pronounced judgment in that everyone who was twenty and older would die in the desert. And, indeed, none did escape except faithful Caleb and Joshua. A million plus corpses littered the desert because of disobedience.
Considering the inevitable penalty for disobeying God’s earthly message, how much greater will the penalty be in the greater instance of disobeying his heavenly message of grace through his Son? (cf. 1:2).
Surely no one will escape! This, of course, has been the writer’s message all along. In 2:3a he warned, “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” Later in 10:28, 29 he said much the same thing, emphasizing greater punishment:
28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
The message is so clear: we had better obey God’s Word because his threat that no one who disobeys will escape is inescapably effective. It is a “done deal.” No person will escape who refuses the gospel! God is a relentless “consuming fire.”
Furthermore, why should we obey God’s Word? V26,27
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
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1.2 God’s Word is the Final Word
If this is not sufficient reason to obey the God of the two mountains, there is another, and that is that God’s Word is the Final Word.
The initial historical event where God’s voice shook the earth was at Mount Sinai when he verbally spelled out the Ten Commandments with a thunderous voice. Imagine how terrifying it was to have the ground under one’s feet tremble in response to God’s audible word. No one was thinking about their plans for lunch or sleeping during that sermon.
But that was nothing compared to the much greater shaking that is yet to come. The shaking of the whole universe when God arrives again, which also will be triggered by God’s Word.
Here the author of Hebrews quoted God’s promise from Haggai 2:6 which says “Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land”—indicating that every created thing will be shaken to utter disintegration. This is in accord with what the Scriptures teach us about the power of God’s word. Genesis says God created everything by His word as He spoke the universe into existence. Therefore, one “little word” from Him can and will cause creation to crumble!
Psalm 102 says In the beginning “you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 26 They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away”
Isaiah says of the future, “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.”
The apostle Peter identifies these things with the day of the Lord in 2 Peter 3:10 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Think of it! It is estimated that there are 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the universe. In our galaxy, the Milky Way, alone it is estimated that there are 100 billion stars; the Sun is only one of them… The distance between all these galaxies and stars is so great that we cannot measure, and all of them, all of creation will hear God’s Word and tremble and be shaken out of existence! Just one little word from God, and it is done.
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
“in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.”
God’s people are part of the order of those things that are unshakable, we will survive. But everything else in the universe will be shaken and therefore purged. Everything that is wrong will be eradicated. No sin, no imperfection will remain. Then there will be a blessed reconstruction—“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1).
To those who are obedient, this is great good news. The author of Hebrews means it to be a powerful encouragement to the struggling little church to which he writes, in which some feel as though their lives are being shaken to pieces by Rome. “Stand firm amidst the Roman tremors,” he seems to be saying, “because the ultimate shaking is coming when Rome, and indeed the entire present evil order will fall into extinction. And you, as part of the new order, will survive. Take heart!” On the other hand, to those who are ignoring God’s word and drifting further away, this was an alarming revelation and a challenge to obedience.
But to all, including us, there is here a mighty call to obey God’s word, because it is effective and final. No Israelite who disobeyed God’s earthly word survived the desert, and how much more will be the case with those who disobey the heavenly word through Christ. God’s word is effective—it never fails. And God’s word is final. It started the universe, and it will stop it! So the command to all us pilgrims in verse 25 comes with great force: “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.”
Are you refusing God? Has he been speaking to you, but you have been ignoring his word? What folly! His word is effective, and it is final.
28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
What shall we do:
2. Worship with Gratitude v28-29
As we come to God, recognize that He is a consuming fire, that God is perfectly, absolutely, Holy! As the angels say Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
And we must come to Him with gratitude.
That is the attitude that God expects from us. When we recognize who He is, who we are, and how much we have been given in Christ, it should cause us to be grateful.
We members of the unshakable Kingdom are meant to worship with thankful hearts. Our pulses should race with thanksgiving—“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). Whatever we do or wherever we go, we must be “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).
When we give thanks to God, we are worshipping Him, praising Him for who He is and what He has done for us. We can be thankful because we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Everything in creation will be shaken when God will speak a little word, but we belong to the Kingdom that cannot be shaken, to God’s eternal Kingdom.
We have done nothing to deserve it, there is nothing that we will ever do that deserves such a gift, everything is a gift from God, so that no man may boast, we come to God to worship Him with empty hands and the only thing we can do is to give thanks.
When we come to worship God, we must keep both mountains in view—the approachable Zion with its consuming love, and the unapproachable Sinai with its consuming fire—and then come in reverent boldness to the very throne of God.
Everything depends on how we see God. If we see him biblically we will experience awe and reverence. We will know that God is completely Holy and righteous and loving and compassionate to us.
The twin peaks of our spiritual life demand two things as we run the race that God has set before us, that we obey and worship Him. Let us obey God’s Word, because it is effective, it will never fail, and because it is God’s Final Word, it will shake the whole universe. Let us give thanks to God and worship Him with reverence and awe. For Our God is a consuming Fire.
Behold Our God, seated on His Throne. Come Let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, let us adore Him.