Well, I invite you to turn this morning to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews we are continuing now after a few weeks. Our study in this book soon coming to an end as we will this week and next week conclude chapter 12. And then we have one chapter left. But this morning we come to Hebrews chapter 12 and that's found on page 1197. We'll be looking at verses 18 through 24. I'd like to read from 18 to the end of the chapter, since it is a flow of thought. We'll be breaking this up into two sermons. So, this is Hebrews chapter 12, beginning at verse 18. Let's give this morning our attention to the wonderful word of the Lord. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them for they could not endure the order that was given if even a beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned indeed so terrifying was the sight that moses said i tremble with fear but you have come to mount zion and to the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem and to an innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to god the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of abel 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 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 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 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 all for our god is a consuming fire and there will end the reading of god's word notice that um that psalm that we sang before this said our feet are standing on holy ground when we come to worship the lord ever wondered why we've had so many worship wars you ever wonder why this is the sort of hot button topic that everyone gets a little bit nervous about why is that why has this been such a controversial subject to address it really comes down to i think a great issue that is before us today especially in the book of hebrews but it is that we all have wanted to experience god we've wanted to experience god we want to get close to god we want to feel that god is close to us and especially in this act of worship which seems to be the most supreme moment where we come to meet with god and we rate of course the challenges is that we sort of rate in our day that experience based on the things that make us feel we're getting direct access to god that's really what it comes down to how we feel those things that make us feel that we're getting direct access to God. And so the answer, I think, has to do with experiencing God in those things that make us, Him or us, make us feel close to Him. There's been difficulty, and it's been a very difficult struggle for us since we've judged worship, we have judged worship, based on the rated quality of experience. so our questions are focused on things like these how'd you feel today how did it go for you today was it an uplifting experience for you and be honest what are those things that make us you think experience god the way that we want to experience god how hot was the band today are some of the questions people ask it's about our experience it's about how we feel and what is the most powerful tool that elevates the emotions with the great goal that makes us feel that we're in God's presence what is it that's why music is such a controversial issue in the church because we desperately want to experience God and we believe that that is a way of accomplishing feeling his powerful presence. It does beg the question, does music accomplish that? Did you notice in this passage how much emphasis was on him speaking to us? Well, it's been a huge struggle in our day. This is the sort of hot-button topic, and I say we are emotional creatures. Nobody denies that. Emotions in life are important. Emotions have to be controlled. Emotions are important. But how we feel in and of ourselves doesn't determine whether God's present. That's a concept we have to understand. That's a concept that we have to grasp in this life. How you feel doesn't determine whether God's present. It's always been the struggle of the church when it came to the worship of God right here on this issue. The reason the prophets were most hated, listen, the reason the prophets were most hated in Israel and spoke against among the people of Israel was because they called out the people for idolatrous worship. Jeremiah was thrown in a dungeon for it. Isaiah was sawn in two for this stuff. it's the same as true today if we have any conviction on the holiness of god in a culture that doesn't understand the holiness of god in a church culture that struggles with that you're going to get beat for saying things like this the problem from the beginning was always the assumption that the experience of god is determined by what we think will bring god to us well that was the very problem of the early hebrew christians this is a very important point to the book there's a reason he's circling back to this and he keeps coming back to the issue of worship they did not appreciate what it meant to worship god in spirit and in truth they struggled with that the kind of worshipers jesus was seeking he said this have you given thought to it god is seeking worshipers to worship him in spirit and in truth what is that i think you see the problem the spiritual worship of an unseen christ when we cannot see him and do not have images of him when we do not have this things it's much more challenging especially in a sensual culture to appreciate what true worship in spirit is it runs against the grain of everything we think it should be we want to experience god in a much more tangible way because of this these early christians were really struggling they did they would have said listen we're just not experiencing the power we think we should have that's what i said on the resurrection when i was preaching where's the power to this power dunamis where's the power to this we expect more from this we're not satisfied with this it should be when we get into worship that we're experiencing real great power no that's true and so you know what they said the old covenant was a lot better this way the old covenant was a lot better this way at least we could see things at least we could come near so they thought at least we could get close in a much more tangible way to God and experience god this is what the author of hebrews is now addressing so you know it's hard if we have presuppositions with this sometimes it's even hard to hear messages you have to have to set them aside for a minute and listen to the text it's really important because there's so much baggage in this area what the author is doing now is helping new covenant christians to appreciate what worship is in the new covenant in the spirit and what access to the throne of grace means in the spirit and how dangerous it is to turn to something else away from the lord in christ to go back to more sensory worship with those things that elevate desires those things that elevate the emotions in an artificial way to think that we're actually getting god to experience more of his power in this present age and he wants to help them with this because he sees embedded in this in the line of thinking here a real danger of apostasy in this very area there's a reason it follows the warning of apostasy one of the strongest warnings of apostasy the issue of worship follows this and so he does this he does something really simple here and it's a really simple point he's making here he's he's drawing a great contrast to help you with this to think through this with the goal of understanding the differences between since they were struggling with this going back to something else old covenant worship with the goal of appreciating what is happening in new covenant worship that's really the basic thing that he's doing in this particular passage so what i want to do today is look at this contrast that he draws between israel's worship experience to see how easy and how much this sort of sounds like a lot of what happens today with the goal of having you reframe your view of worship and having the blessing of what it means to worship in spirit and in truth having christ as your mediator so that you would enjoy this the way that you should and enjoyment comes with understanding enjoyment true worship comes with proper understanding that's why we need to look at carefully passages like this today one of the things we don't appreciate enough i think is the purpose for which god saved us people struggle with this people struggle with what's my purpose in life and what is what is my what is the most important thing that i do in life and what matters the most in life and for this you have to really go back and look at the whole sort of history and redemption of this little of this concept of worship and this is exactly what exodus helps us with. This is where he's going to help us with certain things. Do you remember what Moses told Pharaoh when he was delivering the children out of the bondage of Egypt, which was all symbolizing bondage to sin in the world? Why am I delivering all you? Why am I doing this? Remember what Moses said to Pharaoh? Then the Lord said, say to Pharaoh, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you, let my people go so that they may worship me in the wilderness. And you're in the wilderness. We're in the wilderness. We're heading home. One of our great purposes is worship. Notice this. Let my people go that they may, Exodus 5, hold a feast to me in the wilderness. and when pharaoh finally got it pummeled with all the plagues this is what he says in exodus 12 during the night pharaoh summoned moses and aaron and said up leave my people you and the israelites go and worship the lord as you requested worship was the goal of their deliverance worship was the purpose of their lives Worship is why God saved them. One of the great purposes was to save them and justify them and redeem them to be a worshiping people. Christ freed us to be this. What is your great purpose in life? That's a really kind of big question, isn't it? Hebrews is not saying it like American Christians often say it. All of life's worship. All of life's worship. That's kind of true, isn't it? All of life's worship. But when we carelessly throw that around, what do we do? We undermine the actual gathering of worship. And I think this is one of the great reasons why we battle today to get people even to value this. And so we downgrade the actual gathering. It's just not that special. Everything else is more special. Everything else that we do out there is more special. Well, the author doesn't speak this way. The author doesn't speak this way at all. He is specifically thinking of our most special privilege in this life to come before the throne of grace. He's already been developing this. You get to now have access and come with boldness to the throne of grace, to worship him. come with boldness he said in chapter 10 come with eagerness come with happiness to worship your god well as we'll see in a minute like the festal angels do in heaven notice of everything that is central to the christian life isn't it something god set up a sabbath gave a commandment that our whole lives would be centered on this even the pagan world is set up this way you have a work even in america work five days and saturdays mow the lawn day but they know this day something very special even though they've set it aside the great problem of hebrews comes out in our text this morning the new covenant community was turning from this they weren't satisfied with this which shows it's perennial problem of of not being satisfied with spiritual worship saying notice this you know the experience is just not that good israel seemed to have a much greater and more powerful experience of god than in worship than we do it's that mentality that's deadly to spiritual worship it's that mentality and dissatisfaction that has caused in the history of the church untold problems on this issue. And so he tackles it. He tackles it. Verse 18. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched. So notice here, talking about a physical mountain where Israel went up to worship God. You have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of word so that those who heard it begged even that the word should not be spoken to them now he's clearly challenging the assumptions of early christians essentially saying okay you're dissatisfied with new covenant worship you're dissatisfied with the time of refreshing the time of reformation as he said You have not read carefully what happened then back in Sinai. You know, they reached the mountain. And yes, they had their worship service experience. Do you remember what happened? Israel, dear Hebrew Christians. As Moses was on the mountain, they got a little bit impatient because things weren't going very well and it wasn't very exciting standing out there at the mountain. and they grew impatient and remember they they constructed a calf and they they brought that calf into the worship service and they did something overwhelming they said this is the lord who brought you out of the land of of egypt and it says there in exodus 32 that the people rose up early for worship and they brought burnt offerings according to the law and they sat down to eat drink and they rose up to play clearly a euphemism for all kinds of immorality that then began to happen it was so powerful that Joshua remember when he was sort of halfway up the mountain when he came down he couldn't distinguish something remember what he couldn't distinguish he said it's not the shout of victory that i hear nor the noise of the cry of defeat but it's really powerful music i've never heard anything like it i can't distinguish the singing from shouts of war must have been the best worship concert in the history of israel remember what happened the lord got real critical get down for the people have corrupted themselves in that great experience what was the problem god had nothing to do with it god had nothing to do with it moses then got really critical well here's what the author's doing what happened when god told them let's have the worship service then let's have our first worship service when they would come into the presence of god what happened when the worship service began and what happened when god met with them and what were what was to be the preparation of that here were the instructions this is exactly what the author of hebrews is tackling here the covenant was agreed upon in exodus 19 how was this to go what was the worship to be like what was this like here's what happened behold i come to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when i speak to you and believe you forever so moses told the words of the people to the lord big moment the lord was coming to meet with them exodus 19 verse 10 then the lord said to moses go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow let them wash their clothes and let them be ready for the third day for on the third day the lord will come down from mount sinai in the sight of all the people so the lord gives the announcement here that he's coming and in this he gave them three days to prepare for this and and the preparations were intense i want them consecrated so so some of the things you are to do here i want you to think about in our context you know if i ask the question how did you prepare for worship today did we at all or was it just a you know rolling out of bed and a scramble just to get here and no thought about it you imagine these instructions today just put them in our context just for a minute and i think you'll see um what the worship experience was like i want you to command them to wash their clothes i don't want a speck of dirt on their clothes i want them fully clean zest fully clean i want them in their sabbath best i guess that's the last thing i could ever say today you understand that if i said that today you know we're we're obsessed with telling nobody any standards for worship. So it's dress however you want to dress and that means different things to different folks. That's not how this was. That is not how this was. God said, my dress code's deadly. I want them in their absolute best. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day. Do not even come near your wives. No sex. I want full, undevoted attention. When you come into my presence, I don't want the least distraction or the least lust in your mind. I don't want them wondering. I'm coming. I want you totally pure. I want total, undivided attention. Then this. And then I want you to set bounds around the mountain. Imagine today if you walked up and there was yellow tape all around this. Keep out. It's a crime scene if you touch it. Stand way back. Authorized access only. Moses, I want bounds everywhere. I want everyone to see the yellow tape. I want archers ready. I want you to position archers in every corner. If anyone comes near up here, you shoot and kill. If they just touch it. As a matter of fact, if even a beast touches the mountain, you kill it. if someone touches they were immediately to be put to death anyone who touches the mountain they die then the third day came actually this is all preparation for worship then it came to pass on the third day in the morning there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and the holy sound of a trumpet was very the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that all the people in the camp trembled and Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God and they stood at the foot of the mountain now Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly I don't know how you really describe this the author of Hebrews is telling us to look at this carefully he descended in a fire theophany and everything went black it'd be like looking up you know yet today you can't but yesterday was just glorious and looking up and all of a sudden the whole sky goes black a blue black in front of you from the awful ominous clouds that have appeared and set on top and imagine if you were coming today and it's set right on top of all of this it's just awesome the only light was a massive fire column sort of going straight up into the heavens lightnings are flashing everywhere thunders it's shaking the ground we had a little earthquake here everybody remember that i was thankful for a strong building a little earthquake and i got I was a little scared up here. I really was. I was ready to go under here, you know. The trumpet begins to sound. It gets louder. It gets louder. They can't bear the strength of it. So they physically can't control in their bodies, not trembling. The ground shakes. The earth is about to crumble under your feet. It's the highest known on the Richter scale. cosmic upheaval creation is seeming to come apart. God has come to meet with you. This thick cloud becomes His garment so that sinners cannot see Him lest they die. The trumpet's so loud, the King had come. His glory had arrived. And they trembled. what was the response don't even let him talk to us if that voice speaks we're done and our text says something interesting that when moses said don't be afraid our text says moses was scared to death himself now that's the contrast they wanted to go back to this the problem is they were saying listen it's just better we're not experiencing in the spirit worship power you understand you know if we don't underappreciate what it means and what's happening in new covenant worship what it means to worship in spirit and in truth our propensities will be to turn worship into something that pulls god down to us our way and then you don't have a mediator dangerous we've all said it's all okay it's all okay you can't criticize any of it where does this leave us the imagery of exodus is worship from afar you don't get there what a contrast he says but you've not come there he wants you to understand and appreciate how wonderful new covenant worship is and so he breaks into new covenant worship in spirit and in truth he explains that for us what's so special what is so special about this what's what's happening today boys and girls what's happening when we come together see we have it hasn't clicked with many of us yet because we just see it as sort of this thing we could take or leave when the worship is called what's happening when the hands go up what what do we view as happening he explains it when you come to worship guess where you come you're not on that mountain anymore you've come to the mountain you've come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God and you've come to the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels who are festual now that's truly exciting when you gather as god's people something truly great is happening you've come to your city well listen listen to me you've come to your city you've come to your city you've come to where you're going you've come to the city that abraham looked for there's something so magnificent about the work of christ already it's already not yet thing because we're not we're not fully there you're that in body but in spirit we've already come we're enjoying the city yes it's future but but since christ is raised and seated we're seated with him ephesians 2 and so in union with him we're there in principle and what he's saying is we're actually elevated to the heavenly city you're in the presence of god and guess what you're not being consumed if only your eyes could see right now in spirit you have come to the mountain you've come to a multitude of angels and festal happy gathering he wants you to know what's happening when you worship by faith because we're not by sight yet that's glory that's coming there's a joyful celebration happening when we gather the angels are rejoicing and he says you've come to the church of the firstborn registered in heaven that that was such a special thing for Israel God had registered his people he says you're the ones registered not by Sinai but by Jerusalem in Jerusalem this is taken from Psalm 21 it's Jesus saying I will declare your name to my brothers where in the midst of the assembly I will sing praises to you he's declaring himself to you it's the name firstborn given to Israel when they were redeemed from egypt what he's saying is all your names are written in the heavenly register you are the redeemed community you're his people whom he saved to be worshiping people you've come with favor before god to god the judge of all who favors you and here's a great encouragement in worship here's one i bet you've not thought about a lot do you miss your loved ones do you miss them wouldn't you love to be with them right now if you could would you where do you think that happens when you gather you are gathering you know who you've come to the spirits of those who are already perfected in glory waiting for you, he said. So that means when you're gathering, you're gathering with them right now. You believe that? That's what he just said. You see the problem. You can't see everything put under Jesus' feet, Hebrews 2. We're not raised in body yet, but he wants to tell you when you worship in spirit and you come and you are receiving this implanted word by faith. This is what's happening. You are getting the experience they thought they should get. And he says something powerful. Have you considered really the most important one who you're coming to? You're coming directly to Jesus. This is why he said, come with boldness to the throne of grace. Worship him. You come to Jesus because he's the mediator of the new covenant. And when you have that reality, you have him. That's what's true. His blood has perfected. Remember what he said in Hebrews? His blood has perfected by means of his sacrifice all who draw near in faith. That's what he's talking about. Yeah, we want to see. Sure, I'd like to do a lot more to make it more exciting. What a shameful, prideful statement. Do you know where you've come? Doesn't that make all the difference in the world? You've come right now into the presence of angels who are celebrating your repentance and faith that God has worked in you. You've come to God and His Son who mediates for you. You've come to the blood of sprinkling that speaks of things better than Abel? His blood cries out from the ground. Jesus is from heaven covering you. See, he wants to change your whole view of what's happening. And this is hard for us. See, I said you have to, the presuppositions on all this because of all the worship wars. Do you know where you've come today? Do you know what you're receiving today? You have access. You've come to where you're going. Well, they wanted to go back to Israel under the law, not the gospel. This is absolutely wonderful, beloved. So when we come to worship, he says, prepare your hearts by preparing them to receive his wonderful word. because that's what he's going to say in the next section listen carefully to him who's speaking to you from where does he say from earth from heaven that's what the ministry of the gospel is it's a speaking from heaven appreciate what's happening change your thinking on what's happening when you have this, you don't go to Egypt to try to make the worship better. Egypt will draw you right into idolatry. Look who's speaking to you. Consider him who endured such hostility and for the joy that was set for him endured the cross and now is seated on the right hand for you. And know that, listen, you lack absolutely nothing. So what should be our response? Our response should be what he says. Did you look at the end of this? Some people say, well, you know, in the New Testament, then that means it's a free-for-all. Really? Well, 28, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And let us offer to God acceptable worship. what is acceptable worship in spirit in the new covenant acceptable worship is coming we'll look at this next time believing and receiving the word but notice this how he characterizes this because of the propensity to idolatry with reverence and with awe because god has not changed he is indeed a consuming fire but that fire is not destroying you Jesus' blood has covered you and that should make us say all the more in his very presence holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for helping us today with this and we recognize throughout history that this was the great rub with your people because of idolatry and the prophets rose up early warning against this. Change our hearts to give us such joy and satisfaction with receiving the very voice of the living God in Christ who speaks words of peace to us and love. Thank you for your favor and thank you for bringing us to the throne of grace and to the city which we shall soon see with our resurrected eyes. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.