Hebrews 12:25-29
You may be seated. Please turn in your copy of God’s
word to. Hebrews, Chapter 12, our reading today is Chapter
12, verses 25 through 29. After today, we’ll just have
one chapter left. But today, at the end of 12,
it marks the end of 12 chapters of exhortation. Remember that
we don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews. Many think it was
the Apostle Paul, but evidence proves otherwise, we think. But
whoever it was, was pastoral. When he gave Hebrews, it was
a long sermon. And so the passage we come to
today is sort of an in conclusion. Those are the golden words you
love to hear at the end of Sunday, right? In conclusion, you know,
there’s hope. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. But in
conclusion, and he’s going to circle back to the very beginning
of the book, to the arguments that he made before. And those
arguments are this. If Jesus is speaking, listen
to the voice of the Son. And so let’s hear together from
God’s Holy Word, reading from Hebrews chapter 13, beginning
at verse 25. He says to us this, See to it
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 us 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. Pray with me. Our gracious God,
we pray that now This very moment as you’re speaking to us, though
we do not have to shake and tremble at your holy word because of
the grace that is ours in Christ, do help us to see that it is
you who is speaking. That you are the God of the universe,
that you are an all-consuming fire, that your voice is one
of judgment. Your voice is one that shakes
and the deer give birth. Your voice shakes and the seas
move, the mountains tremble. So, Lord, speak and may we tremble
at the hearing of your word, but may we tremble with. Fear
and joy, knowing that. Knowing that you are a good God,
you’re good to us in Jesus, but you’re not safe, you’re not safe
because because you’re a great and awesome God and you will
accomplish all your holy ends. or give us grace to hear, give
us faith to believe, and give us zeal to go and do what you’ve
called us to do as we leave this place today and we ask it in
Jesus’ name. Amen. There are some things that you
learn as a kid. You learn what are the dangers
in life. We learn things like not running
in the street. We learn things like don’t talk to strangers.
We learn things like not touching the hot stove or sticking our
fingers or other objects into the electric outlets in our houses. And if you had a good mother
who followed you around, she would follow you around in those
years of the terrible ones and twos and threes saying, no, don’t
do this, don’t do that. You might get a little pop on
the hand. But these were the ways that you were trained to
avoid danger, to keep you in safety, to keep you from great
harm. These were the ways that you
were redirected from danger to safety. Now, there’s a big danger
that we learn as kids. We have the fireman visit us
at school. We have Sparky the fire dog come
and say to us, don’t play with fire. We hear instructions on
how to escape if there’s a fire in our home. We know of Smokey
the bear who says only you can prevent forest fires, for fires
are dangerous. They can consume what is precious
to us, even life. Well, you know the church. The church could use a little
safety speech here and there. The church could use a little
safety speech about fire. But what does this passage say
to us at the very end of verse 29? It says, our God is a consuming
fire. That’s a reminder to us, that’s
a warning for us that God is not to be trifled with. God is
not safe. Oh yes, He’s good and Christ
Jesus. But friends, God is not safe
and we need to remember that. Our God is a consuming fire.
He judges. Our God is a consuming fire.
We’ve seen in the scriptures where he breaks out against those
who sin against him. We’ve seen that he is a consuming
fire and that light guided his people by day and night in the
wilderness. His fire descended upon Mount Sinai at the giving
of the law, before all the eyes of rescued and redeemed Israel. We’ve seen accounts where His
fire comes down from heaven, and when the Baals and other
gods cannot accept offerings, God comes and consumes what is
before Him on the altar. God self-describes himself as
a consuming fire. And so, friends, we in the church
ought to be warned. We ought to understand a little
fire safety, if you will, that God is a consuming fire. He is
not a trivial deity. This imagery that is in our passage
today is meant to motivate us as Christians. It’s meant to
motivate us to listen and to worship. It’s meant to motivate
us, to remind us of who God is. We’re forgetful. It was meant
to motivate the original audience in this way. You’re tempted to
go back to the Old Covenant. You’re tempted to go back and
worship in the Old Testament customs and practices. And He’s
reminding them throughout this sermon, this epistle, Jesus is
better. Old Covenant, obsolete. New Covenant,
Jesus, better, supreme, satisfying. But He’s reminding us that the
God who is our God, the God of the audience of Hebrews, is a
consuming fire and that He is to be heard and He is to be worshipped. There’s a sense where we may
say it this way in our modern language, Sundays are required
or we’re going to get burned. Sundays are required or we will
face the fire and the judgment of Almighty God. I don’t know
about you, but as I look around the American culture, the view
of God, the view of church, the understanding of worship, the
the need for the scripture and the life of the people of God
is lower and lower. It’s lesser and lesser. But we,
on the other hand, will decry and we’ll say aloud, oh, look
at what the world is coming to. And more and more, that means
to me we need God. We need worship. We need the
word. We need Jesus. We need to latch a hold to that
which is unshakable when all the world around us is shakable.
If God exists. He doesn’t care about us, that’s
what many think. If God exists, all the problems
in the world prove that he is not able to save. And if we believe
that, that will affect our Christian walk. That will affect our world
and life view. That will affect our obedience,
our worship, doing our duties. But friends, God does exist.
As one writer has said many years ago, he is there and he is not
silent. And this passage is telling us
not only is he not silent, but he speaks. And he speaks and
he wants to be heard as well as worshiped. Now, if we lived
our lives out in the Midwest, in addition to some of our special
training for living safe lives, we might need to learn what it
means to live in a tornado alley. Where do we go? What do we do
when a storm strikes? And then if we were to move further
out west to California, we might need to understand what it means
to live in an earthquake zone. What do we do? Do we stay put?
Do we hide? Do we get under something? Will it fall on us? What do we
do? Well, at least we know we watch our heads and protect that. And so in addition to fire training, the church needs a little earthquake
training as well. You see these two phenomenons
in this passage, I hope. God is a consuming fire. But
He’s also the one who will shake. He will shake the heavens and
the earth and nothing will remain that is not eternal. And so as
we walk our way through this passage, understanding that God’s
voice shakes the earth and that at His second coming, nothing
that is not everlasting will remain. Only the unshakable remain
as we understand that God is a consuming buyer who speaks
and he speaks words of judgment. We need to remember two key things
as Christians. Obedience and worship, two very
simple words loaded with meaning. Brothers and sisters of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are part of an unshakable kingdom. You are
part of an unshakable kingdom. Your God is a consuming fire
and he wants simply two things from you, obedience and worship. Let’s look at both these important
pillars of our Christian life. First, obedience. Obedience to
God’s voice. We find that in verses 25 and
26, where He says to us these words, “…see to it 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. What is He saying to us? He’s
saying, unstop your ears. Put yourself in the pew. Open
your Bible. When God speaks, listen. When
God speaks, have both your eyes open, your ears open, your heart
ready to willingly and readily receive His Holy Word as He speaks
to you. He’s saying to us, make good
and sure that you’re listening. You see, God, when He wanted
to speak to His people in the old days, He would tell Moses,
His servant, He would say, gather the people together and say to
them, the day after tomorrow, I am coming into your midst and
I’m going to speak to you. And he would say to Israel, take
a bath, wash your clothes, make yourself ceremonially ready to
present yourselves before the living God. For God himself is
going to come and speak. And we’ve just read of This in
Exodus chapter 20. Last week we read from Exodus
19. God comes into the midst of His people. He comes down
onto the mountain and He speaks to them. And the earthquakes,
the mountain trembles, the lightning flashes, the thunder peals, and
the trumpet of the Lord sounds, and the people are terrified. And in the same way, but in a
greater way through Jesus and through ministers of the new
covenant after the ascended Christ has risen into heaven and been
seated at the right hand of God. He does this through his new
covenant ministers. What does the apostle Paul say
in Ephesians chapter four? When Jesus ascended on high,
he gave gifts to his church. He gave apostles. And He gave
pastors and teachers to gather the church and to proclaim to
them the Word of God so that they may be equipped to do the
work of the church and gain full maturity in Christ Jesus. And
so think of yourselves every Lord’s Day, not coming to Mount
Sinai with all its thunder and lightning and scariness, but
you’re coming to the church of the living God. You’re coming
to the very voice of Jesus, yes, through a minister of the New
Covenant, but you have a weekly appointment with God And through
grace, you don’t need to tremble. You don’t need to fear. You don’t
need to wonder if you’ll be consumed. You simply sit and receive. Oh
yes, it’s a scary event. We should see that. Yes, God’s
Word is, what does the writer of Hebrews tell us? It is sharper
than a two-edged sword. And it cuts deep and wide into
us. It gets down into us. And yes,
it does the hard work of reconciliation and remediation and reformation.
But friends, we come into this place week after week to hear
God’s voice. You don’t come to hear my opinions.
You don’t come to hear sermons about politics or cultural phenomenons. We simply come to hear who God
is and what He’s done and that He might encourage us as we are
walking and making our way to heaven. Now, you come in here
week after week having heard many voices. You’ve heard the
voices of the world telling you with all its systems and ways
and sparkles and glitters, live this way, love this way, serve
this way, indulge yourself. You come hearing the voice of
Satan who speaks against Christ saying, set up for yourself your
own kingdom. You don’t need God. He wants
to ruin your life. He wants to give you rules. He
wants you to live his way. He’s not kind and loving to you.
That’s what Satan said to Eve in the garden. We come having
heard the voice of our own hearts. You know, we hear this phrase,
follow your heart. Follow your heart. Pursue your
wildest dreams. Friends, do you remember what
happened when Eve followed her heart? It’s caused the death of millions
and possibly billions of people. Because in Adam and Eve all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Don’t follow your
heart. Don’t follow Satan. Don’t follow the world. Sometimes
we pray this way. We say, Oh Lord, let us hear
your word and not the world’s word. Oh Lord, let us follow
Christ and not Satan. Oh Lord, let us follow after
living according to the spirit and not the flesh. So we come
in here having heard many voices. But what does the apostle Paul
tell us? He says, take every thought captive and make it obedient
to Christ. And so we come in here with with
all kinds of mess from the week accumulated and we run it through
the scriptures. We run it through Christ. We
run it through the word and we see what is good and right and
true. What is sound? What is biblical? What is accurate?
Friends, we remember what God is able to accomplish in his
word. Remember the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and God
spoke. Let there be light. And there
was light. Let there be a sun and a moon
and stars and animals and plants and fish and seas and dry land.
He spoke and all that exists came into being. He creates with
his word. He forms with his word. Remember
Abraham called by God’s word out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Just
the same as He called you out of darkness and into light. So
God creates with His Word. He forms with His Word. He warns
with His Word. Do not sin. Do not go into idolatry. He reforms with His Word. This
is the way. Walk ye in it. He raises the
dead with His Word. Remember Jesus, who stood outside
Lazarus’ tomb and said, Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth. You see
how powerful God’s word is. And what is our writer saying
to us? You have a better word than they had at Sinai. You have
Jesus speaking to us. And his warning is this, see
to it that you don’t refuse his word. Well, remember what he
said before in Hebrews. Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your heart as the Israelites did at Meribah, when
they put the Lord their God to the test. For what did God do
when they rebelled against him? He put them to death. They died
in the wilderness. And if this is not testimony
enough, millions of bodies lying dead in the desert of Sinai,
because they refused the voice of God, then friends, I don’t
know what else will do it for us. The Apostle Paul says in
Corinthians, these things, the stories of the Old Testament,
these things were written for our instruction, for our warning,
that we will not be like the wicked and rebellious, idolaters
and coveters, of the old covenant, but that we would follow Jesus.
What is he saying to us here? He’s saying don’t shrink from
the word. He’s using that same word he’s
used in the past where he tells us as Christians, don’t shrink
back, don’t fall, don’t stumble, don’t shrink back from the voice
of God. If you do, if you do, there was
no escape for the old covenant. How much more will there be no
escape for you when it is Jesus who is speaking? They were warned
by the word and they refused to hear it. And he’s saying to
us, don’t be warned by the word and refuse to hear it. For today,
it will be worse. Today, it will be worse. Now,
there’s an interesting little twist in this section we’re considering. You find it in the rest of 26
where he says these words. At that time, His voice shook
the earth. That was at Mount Sinai. 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 the things that are shaken. That is, things that
have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken
may remain. Now think of this all under the
heading of us hearing God’s Word and obeying it. His voice shook
the mountain at Mount Sinai and they trembled. Now the next little
moment in redemptive history he’s speaking of here is a little
quote that we can find in the second chapter of the book of
Haggai. Haggai was a prophet when Israel returned from Babylon
and under Zerubbabel and then Nehemiah and under other leaders
as they returned from exile in Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild
what the Babylonians had utterly destroyed. They’re standing there
looking at the ruins of the temple And Haggai, quoting from Exodus
chapter 20, that God shakes when He speaks. He says this to the
returnees. He said, God is going to shake
the earth. And all the pagan nations around
Israel during that time of the return from exile are literally
gonna fall on their faces and all the riches of their kingdom,
all the gold and the silver and the articles that are needed
to fill this new temple that we are building are gonna enter
our treasury. And God is saying to the Israelites
through Haggai the prophet, you think Solomon’s temple was wonderful,
wait till you see this one. And you see God is going to shake
and the riches of the nations is going to come. You kind of
look at it as a God’s a pickpocket. He’s going to shake all the wicked
nations around Israel and he’s going to rebuild his temple to
a state of glory greater than it was under Solomon through
him shaking the pagans down and stealing their riches. Well,
there’s a third way he’s using this passage, and this is the
one that brings us most hope. I mean, we don’t have much interest
in the temple that Haggai and others were rebuilding. It’s
gone anyway. We don’t have a whole lot of interest in the mountain
of Sinai and God speaking His law. And why is that? It’s because
we are listening to the voice of Jesus now. And so what is
he saying from this passage to us? He’s saying that when God
speaks, His voice shakes. And there is going to come a
shaking of the heavens. That’s an added piece to this.
He’s going to shake the heavens and the earth and all that will
remain after that has taken place. Is what will be eternal. And
here we are worried about politics, are we not? I mean, we’re worried
about what is it, November 8th? We read our history books and
we read about the Roman Empire. But what did God do to it? He
shook it and it fell. What has God done with other
great nations and great leaders throughout the century? He’s
shaken them and they have fallen. What does God do when men and
women get a little too big for their britches? Remember the
Tower of Babel? God looks down from heaven to
see that little tower coming up. And what does he do? He goes
down and confuses the language. They can’t work on it anymore.
It falls into disrepair. They can’t build it. God, friends,
will shake. He will shake. He will shake.
And what gives you the most fear in this life today will be gone
tomorrow. But think eternally, you who
listen to the voice of Jesus, who heed God’s Word, at the end,
at the last, when God shakes and shakes and shakes, and what
is temporal, what is of this life, is burned away. It falls away, it crumbles. You,
who have listened to the voice of Jesus, will be found standing,
because you will be unshakable. having the righteous robes of
Christ placed upon you.” Do you see what he’s saying? If you
hear his Word, and by faith receive Christ alone for your salvation,
you will be unshakable. But if you refuse his Word, you
will be shaken, you’ll be consumed, and you will crumble and fall.
And so the first thing he’s saying to us is obedience. But the second
thing he speaks to us is that we must worship. We must worship
the living God, the true God, the God who is a consuming fire.
And he says that to us in verses 28 and 29. Therefore. After all, he said, this is the
conclusion, 12 chapters, therefore, let us be for a grateful. for
receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus let us offer
to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God
is a consuming fire.” Y’all know John Newton, the slave trader. He wrote a hymn that we love
to sing, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch
like me. Many of you in recent years, in the last decade, have
read his biography. You’ve seen the movie that was
made about his life. Well, he also wrote many other
wonderful hymns, one which we just sang a moment ago. Let us
love and sing in wonder. Let us praise the Savior’s name. He has hushed the law’s loud
thunder. He has quenched Mount Sinai’s
flame. He has washed us with His blood.
And He has brought us nigh to God.” You know, one of the great
things about John Newton, one of the things that he puts before
us, it’s simply this. Saved people sing. You know, when we come to church
sometimes and the singing is a little dull, we come to church
sometimes and we just seem a little off. You remember this. Saved people sing. Now, I didn’t
say saved people have musical skills. I mean, you hear me up
here. I sing at the top of my voice. Some of you who are closer
up have to put up with it. I know that the audio goes straight
to the nursery and I’ve heard a good report that they can hear
it in there. But friends, saved people sing.
That’s what we do. Saved people sing. And He’s saying
to us, saved people are grateful. They worship God. For the last
year on Sunday nights, we’ve made our way through the Heidelberg
Catechism. It’s broken up into 52 Lord’s
Days. And it’s broken up into three sections, guilt, grace,
and gratitude. And those German reformers, after
the Reformation, wanted to put together a catechism that took
us through our stages of redemption. We’re guilty of our sin. It’s
polluted us. It’s destroyed us. But God in
His grace saves us. And so guilt, sin, grace, Jesus. Where does that lead us? It leads
us to gratitude. And again, I say it this way,
friends, saved people sing. They sing loud. Look at the last
verse of let us love and sing and wonder. Let us praise and
join the chorus of the saints enthroned on high. Remember last
week we talked about those we worship together with the saints
who have gone before us. Here they trusted Him before
us, now their praises fill the sky. Thou hast washed us with
Thy blood. Thou art worthy, Lamb of God.”
Friends, saved people sing because we have been rescued. Rescued
from sin and darkness and slavery. from the wrath of God, from eternal
destruction. We’ve been saved from those things,
but we have been saved to something. We’ve been saved unto good works,
as Paul tells us in Ephesians. But friends, we have been saved
to worship. What will you be doing forever in heaven? Playing
bridge? cutting the grass, playing golf
on the celestial courses. No, you’ll be worshiping God. What we do on Sunday reflects
what we’ll be doing for eternity. We have been rescued from something
and to something. And that to something is to worship
God. And so he says to us, therefore,
let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Remember, your names are written in heaven. You are part of that
new Jerusalem, that city which is above. And since we have received
it, let us worship God. Let us offer to God acceptable
worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Friends, since we have been brought
near, since we have been sprinkled clean with the blood of Christ,
it is required of us to worship God with reverence. Reverence,
for He is the holy God of Israel. With awe, because He is awesome. With. With great care, because
he is good, but he is not safe. As C.S. Lewis tells us in The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he is a consuming fire. Just
think of Nadab and Abihu. Think of Ananias and Sapphira.
Think of the wilderness generation. They did not hear God’s word
and obey, nor did they have gratitude and worship. And God consumed
them. Friends, you know what I think?
I think the church is largely unaware of who God is. And largely unaware of the reality
of entering in God’s earthly sanctuary and the connection
we have in Christ to the Heavenly One. I think we just play church. I think we give God an hour,
maybe an hour and 15 minutes on Sunday, and we don’t realize
that weekly God is speaking to us. Weekly, God gives us the
opportunity to hear and obey Him. And to thank Him and to
worship Him. We mentioned earlier that there
are two natural disasters in this passage, two phenomenon
of nature that we need to be aware of fire and earthquakes.
Friends, God is a fire. He’s a judge, he will consume
you. He’s an earthquake. He will he will shake and remove. What does not listen and obey
and worship and thank him. So if you want to be safe. If
you want to make it through the firestorm, through the earth
shaking, listen to the voice of Jesus. Listen to it with faith. Because all else that is around
you will be shaken and it will be burned. But guess what? If
you have faith in Jesus, you will stand and you will stand
on his mountain. Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem
with him. If you, by faith, hear and obey
and worship him with gratitude, pray with me. Our great God,
we thank you. But though this day, this hour,
many of our friends, our loved ones, our neighbors may be. Maybe
living their life for this or. Out on the golf course, cutting
the grass, washing the car. And grossed in football on television,
all good things. But here we are before you and
before the best things help us to see that. Remind us of what
will. What will pass away when you
shake the earth in the heavens? Remind us of what is eternal
and show us what is temporary. May we be like that missionary
from the last century who said he is no fool who gives up what
he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose. Help us to lay
hold of Christ, to hear his word and to obey it, to worship him
and to have hearts full of gratitude, for he has washed us with his
blood and he has presented us unto you. Help us, we pray in
Jesus name. Amen. Let us stand together and
respond to the word of God using number 241. Lo, he comes with
clouds descending. I’m sorry. Amen. Go into the world with
God’s blessing upon you that you may serve him with all his
strength. The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance, his face upon you. And may he
give you peace now and forevermore. And all God’s people said, Amen.