Hebrews 12:18-29

[0:00] About verse 18 in Hebrews chapter 12 says, For year not come to the mount that might, to the mount that might be touched, And that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which, which voice they that heard and treated that the word should not be spoken to them any more.

[0:26] For they could not endure that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touched, if so much as a beast touched a mountain, It shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.

[0:39] And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, But year come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, And to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, Which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of able.

[1:17] See, there you refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on the earth, Much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heaven.

[1:40] And this word, yet once more signifyeth the removing of those things that are shaken, As of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

[1:54] Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, With reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.

[2:07] And that finishes off the chapter there. So as I said at the beginning of this chapter, We see Jesus Christ being the author and the finisher of our faith. We see that God, The chastisement of God, and how we're to endure those chastisements that might come from God.

[2:27] And then we have a small section of peace, practicing peace with all men. And then we come to this section that says, for year not come, under the mount that might be touched, And that burned with fire, nor under blackness and darkness, and tempest, and in the sound of the trumpet, The voice of words, which voice that they heard, that they heard and treated, That the word should not be spoken to them any more.

[2:57] What mount is this that we're speaking of here? The next section of this is, But year come to mount Zion, and under the city of the living God. What mountain though, at the beginning of this passage, How are we talking about here though? That we read about over in Exodus chapter 19, actually.

[3:17] And Exodus 19, right before the law is given, the 10 commandments are given in Exodus 20. But in Exodus 19, we see them come to this bound, and we see God give commandment, That Moses comes up into the mount, and God is going to command Moses to go down and to sanctify the people.

[3:40] Folks, Moses being a wonderful picture of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, Especially there in Exodus, Exodus 19, Exodus 20, Exodus 21, and so on.

[3:54] But God calls Moses into the mountain, and he tells him to go down and to sanctify the people. And of course, this is to prepare the people to receive the law, That Almighty God is getting ready to give them.

[4:08] But the thing is, here in Hebrews, the writer to the Hebrews, He says that this was a mountain, it was a mountain of fear, it was a mountain that quaked, It was a mountain that the people themselves, the Israelites, They were afraid of not the mountain, but the one that was descending down upon the mountain.

[4:29] For God told Moses, he said, I will come down in the third day, I'll come down, And I'll do these things, I'll come down on this third day.

[4:41] But as far as the people that are with you, these people that you have brought up out of Egypt, That I commissioned you to do, as far as all these things go, They are not to come near the mountain, they are not to touch the mountain, If so much as a beast or a man touches the mountain, They shall be stoned or they shall be thrust through, Thrust through, they shall be impaled.

[5:07] Basically, is what the Lord was getting at here. Why was the Lord making such commandment unto Moses? Because Moses was God's elect, Moses was God's chosen.

[5:20] I know that the Jews were God's chosen people. I understand that Moses was the deliverer of these people. He is the only one that God commissioned to bring the people up out of the bondage Of this place called Egypt, and into a place that he called the promised land.

[5:42] Moses was the one to do that. Moses was the one going to receive the commandments. And Moses was the one that was going to deliver the law of God Under those people, Jesus Christ, 1500 years after this, After what we're talking about, Jesus Christ came into a world That was riddled with nothing but sin, Sin and heartache and wickedness and evil.

[6:09] Jesus Christ came into the world to preach the things of God, To teach the things of God, to show the ways of God, Much the same way that Moses did for these people at Mount Sinai.

[6:25] He simply told them what God wanted. That's what Jesus Christ did as He walked this earth. He showed them what God wanted.

[6:35] I've said it before, Jesus Christ in His ministry here, He represented Almighty God to the people that were here on earth. And now, after He's ascended, now that He's sent to the right hand Of glory and of power, He represents those people unto God.

[6:55] That's why in the last days, hey, if Jesus Christ, If we come before Jesus Christ as a priest in the Sermon on the Mount, And we say, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out devils in Your name?

[7:10] Have we not done this and done that in Your name? Jesus Christ can look at those false teachers, Look at those false professors, look at those false people, And say, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, For I never knew you, I never knew you, What sad words that would be for anyone to hear, To go their entire life thinking that they were in good standing with God, Thinking that they were okay with God, But at the end of the way, Jesus Christ tells them to depart, For He never knew them.

[7:50] Folks, that word never in Scripture, it means never. It means that He's talking to people there that never got born again.

[8:00] He's talking to people that were never saved. If Jesus Christ says, I never knew you, that means, That doesn't mean I might have known you 20 years ago, But I don't know you now, that means, I never knew you, We were never in fellowship, I do never walk with me, Never talk with me, I never heard one prayer that you prayed, I never heard any of these things because I never knew you.

[8:30] This is the mount that He's talking about. That's the mount of judgment, that's the mount of fear, That's the mount of, that the writer to the Hebrews here is speaking of when he says, you're not come to the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor in the darkness and tempest.

[8:53] Folks, that's a fearful picture that he's painting there, and it was fearful for a reason. God didn't want those people coming close to the mountain. God didn't want those people coming up and touching the mountain.

[9:06] You know what that tells me? God didn't want them to be stoned, God didn't want them to be thrust through, God didn't want those things to happen to them. When God descended upon the mountain, He descended in a fearful state, He descended in a way that calls those people to tell Moses, You go home, you get what the God, What God has to say to us, we don't want any part of this.

[9:33] And that's precisely what Moses did. He went up on the mount, God gave him the commandments, He came back down, and we all know what happened after that, we won't get into that.

[9:44] But this is the fearful picture that the writer of the Hebrews was painting for these people. This mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor in the darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, the voice of words, which they heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

[10:10] I said they told Moses, they said, We don't want this, we don't want anything to do with this, You go, You go. And that's precisely what Moses did. And that was God's plan, hollow along was to have a mediator between himself and his chosen people, to have a mediator between these people that he had delivered out of Egypt and himself.

[10:32] Moses was that mediator in the Old Testament, along with countless other ones, but Moses was the mediator in this particular instance.

[10:42] Right now, Jesus Christ is the only mediator that is between God and man. The New Testament says that, the New Testament teaches that, and bless God, I believe that I cannot go to God, on my own.

[10:58] If I go to God, on my own, it'll be much like this description of Mount Sinai. It'll be fearful, it'll be dreadful, it'll be a fearful thing for me to come before God, on my own.

[11:14] But when I come with Jesus Christ, on my behalf, I can go to God. That's the only way that I can come boldly before the throne of grace.

[11:25] That's the only way I can obtain mercy in my time of need. Through Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, now, you move forward just a little bit.

[11:38] You move forward to where God's telling them about the tabernacle. You move forward to where God's given instructions for the priests, the Levites, and for their service work of the tabernacle, for their offering of sacrifices, for their burning of incest.

[11:54] Now folks, those were commandments of God, just like the Ten Commandments given on Mount Sinai were. And those were to be followed to a T. And those were given unto Moses, that Moses was to give them unto the people, give them to Aaron, to the sons of Aaron.

[12:12] It was to be dispersed among the people, what their specific jobs were to be. But it was still Moses that got the messages from God. It was still Moses that delivered them to the people that God expected him and told him to deliver them to.

[12:30] Otherwise, it was a fearful thing. But folks, it was fearful for Moses as well. It was fearful for Moses to go to that mountain. Now that being said, why would that be folks?

[12:43] It's fearful for a Christian to come before God. It doesn't mean we need to be afraid of punishment. Hey, if we're in the wrong, if we sin, we're going to get punishment.

[12:54] I promise you that. That's the chastisement we were talking about before this part of the chapter of chapter 12 of Hebrews. That's chastisement of God.

[13:05] But when we go to God for forgiveness after he's chastised us, there's no reason to fear him. I don't think God punishes twice for the same crime. I don't believe that's kind of God.

[13:17] I try my best raising my voice, not to punish them twice for the same crime. If I busted the tail in, that was it. Nothing else. I didn't bust their tail and then ground them for a week, or I didn't ground them and then bust their tail for the exact same thing.

[13:32] I don't think God works that way either. If we get out of line, if we sin, if we get off of the path that God has placed us on, God will chastise us.

[13:44] He'll bust our tail in, right back to the house over and over until we come back to him in remorse. We come back to him in repentance with a penitent attitude and that's the whole purpose of the chastisement of God.

[14:02] And when we come to him and ask forgiveness, I don't think he's going to say, I ain't quite done with you yet. That's precisely why he does that. When he gives the instructions for those that might be called in sin within the church, he gives instructions for a brother or sister to approach that man or that woman that's in sin and that they won't hear him.

[14:22] He's together with a couple of witnesses and they're all to go to him and to call him out in the sin that he's in. And if he still won't hear him, then they're to bring him before the church. And if he won't hear it after that, what are they to do?

[14:35] They're to cast him out. They're to put him out there. Not that he goes to hell. Not in hopes that he goes to hell. Nothing along those lines. They are to release him under the devil.

[14:49] Let the devil have his way for it with him. So that he comes back to God in repentance. That's why they do it. And so many in the church world, they say, well, the Bible says just to throw him out there and the devil let him have him.

[15:03] And God don't want anybody, anybody, anybody going that route. God wants no one to go to hell. God knows people's going to hell.

[15:14] He's well aware of that. He told us an Old Testament. Told us a New Testament. That that would happen. And he also told us why because of unrepentant sin. He told us because of an unrepentant heart.

[15:25] He told us in the New Testament it was because these people had never cried out for mercy. These people never acknowledged that Jesus Christ paid the debt for them.

[15:37] That's why the Pharisees were in such bad trouble. In the New Testament, they were dependent on their own works, dependent on their own actions, dependent on their own walk. That has nothing to do with my walk.

[15:48] It has to do with the work that Jesus Christ performed upon a cross at Calvary. And that is all I had to depend on. That is it. That is all.

[15:59] And folks, his work on the cross at Calvary. That is what makes it possible for us to not come to Mount Sinai where the law was given, but that we can come to Mount Sinai as the scripture here in Hebrews 12 says.

[16:14] Hey, that's a pleasant place to go to. That's a good place to go to. That's where we receive mercy. That's where we receive grace. That's where we receive forgiveness.

[16:25] That's where we receive all of these things from our God is at Mount Sinai. Why is that? The law was given at Mount Sinai.

[16:37] The law does nothing more than cannot save us, will not save us, and has never saved a man. Not in the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament, that the law ever saved a man.

[16:50] It is only Jesus Christ that does that. It is only Jesus Christ that made it possible for that to happen. Keeping the law to a T, as I said, the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the scribes and the chief priests and all these people, they gloated in themselves.

[17:06] They prided themselves on their ability to keep the law. When in all actuality, they weren't keeping the law, but before men, they were keeping the law. Before men, they were holy.

[17:17] Before men, they were righteous. But what did Jesus Christ tell the people in the Sermon on the Mount, that lest your righteousness exceed that? But the righteousness of the Pharisees, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

[17:34] And those people all around him, they were like, wow, because the Pharisees were considered really righteous. The Pharisees though, were dependent on Mount Sinai.

[17:45] They were dependent on the law that was given there. What does Jesus Christ say to that religious budge? He said, search your scriptures.

[17:56] You then them, you think you have eternal life, but they or they would testify of me. In Jesus Christ, we have eternal life. And only in Jesus Christ, do we have eternal life.

[18:09] Only through the blood of Jesus Christ, will we have eternal life. Jesus Christ is life. He is life. He is grace. He is mercy. He is all these things.

[18:19] And it is only in him that we will have any of those things. But folks, we don't go to Sinai to get those things. We go instead under Mount Sinai.

[18:30] We go to this place that God has designated. It calls it a heavenly place here in the Scriptures in Hebrews 12. It says, you come under Mount Sinai.

[18:41] And under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirit of just men, made perfect.

[19:00] Hey folks, we are made just how? Not through Mount Sinai, not through the law. We are made just in Jesus Christ. The Bible says that the just shall live by faith.

[19:14] Our faith is none of the law, none of the deeds of the law, the works of the law. Our faith is in Christ, in Christ, alone. The just made perfect.

[19:27] Am I made perfect when I'm saved? No, absolutely not. It's talking about Mount Sinai in here. It's talking about this place, Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai, a place of the living God, a heavenly place.

[19:41] It talks about the church of the firstborn, and their names are written in heaven. Folks, I understand that, and I understand, hey, my name's in the Lamb's Book of Life.

[19:52] Right now, as we speak, if you're born again, your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, as we speak, but we have not been made perfect yet. We still sin every day of our lives.

[20:02] Folks, that is far from perfect. And you might look out at the world, you might look out at all the evil that's going on, all the human trafficking that's going on, all the drugs, all the drinking, all the prostitution, and say, I'm not as bad as they are.

[20:19] But when you compare yourself to one that walked 33 years on this earth and never had a bad thought about anyone, never sinned, never done anything against the laws of God, then you'll see just how unrighteous you really are.

[20:38] And that includes me. We have to compare ourselves with this book. And it wasn't just 33 years he's been without sinning, or he was without sinning either. He has never, ever committed sin, and he is the author and the finisher of it all, from beginning to end, from the get-go, until far out in the future.

[21:01] He is not, and he has not committed sin, and he will not commit sin. When we compare ourselves with somebody like that, we are unholy, and we are wicked, and we are unrighteous.

[21:15] That's why Mount Sinai, really and truly, the only thing Mount Sinai did, is showed us that we needed a deliverer. It showed us that we needed a Savior. Paul makes that clear in the book of Romans when he talks about it.

[21:29] He said, the law basically done nothing more than show us that we were sinners, and that we needed a Savior. That's all the law did. Paul also wrote to the church in Galatia that the law served as our schoolmaster.

[21:44] But hey, once we graduate that school, once we get that diploma, once we go on our way, there's no more need for the schoolmaster. The same born again child of God does not retain salvation, but keep me the law, he retains it by the same grace that's saved him.

[22:04] Period. It is Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai that we depend on, or rather, he that inhabits Mount Sinai, Almighty God, on Mount Sinai, and the Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, to the blood of Franklin, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

[22:25] What's so significant about that? What did the blood of Abel speak? Flip over to Genesis 4. We all know the story. Cain killed his brother Abel because he was jealous.

[22:37] He was jealous because God accepted Abel's sacrifice and didn't accept his, even though God gave him fine instructions, gave him wonderful instructions. He said, hey, this wasn't accepted for a reason.

[22:50] He said, go back, correct it, and you'll be accepted. That wasn't good enough for Cain. Cain slew his brother. What does the Bible say? It says that God heard the blood of Abel screaming to him from the ground, screaming out for vengeance, screaming out for vengeance for his bloodshed.

[23:10] And as far as scripture goes, that was the first murder that took place in all of the Bible in history, for that matter, was one brother killing another, but this blood, and people, especially the Jews, they looked at that blood of Abel, screaming out for vengeance, and that's why you read some of the things that David wrote in the Psalms.

[23:32] That's why you read, God, how long are you going to stay quiet before you dash the little ones of my enemies against the rocks? God, why or how long will you be quiet before you take vengeance on my behalf, on my enemies?

[23:46] They look back at that blood of Abel that screamed for vengeance, but folks, listen to me, this blood of Jesus Christ does a hundred million billion times more than the blood of Abel was ever able to do.

[24:00] The blood of Abel might have screamed out for vengeance, but the blood of Jesus Christ is able to save souls, is able to keep us safe, able to help us walk, help us talk, help us do the things of God.

[24:15] It is much better than you think Abel could have offered. Good morning. But the product of the Hebrews uses this as an example. Because it's right into a bunch of Jews that would understand what he was trying to say with Abel.

[24:30] Jesus, the meteor of the New Covenant, to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See, they refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not, who refused him to speck on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.

[24:52] Speaking of the Jews here, those Jews that were gathered around Mount Sinai, now listen, you read that account. They had basically a little section, or a big section, that was fenced off.

[25:03] So those Jews didn't get that so close to the mountain. I said, God didn't want to kill them. God didn't want to inflict harm on them. God didn't want to chastise them.

[25:15] He didn't want to do anything along those lines. So he had them build this border. So they couldn't come close enough to that mount where the law of God would have to take effect.

[25:25] And they would either be stoned or thrust through God, wanted none of those things. But it says here, it says that the seed that you refuse not him that speaketh, who is him that speaketh?

[25:38] That's Jesus Christ. It says, for if they escape not, who refused him to speck on earth? Who was that? That was Moses. What did God tell Moses about what the children of Israel were doing?

[25:48] He said, get you down off the mountain, Moses. These people have been turned to a false God. They gathered up their gold. They made a golden calf. They're down there worshiping around the false God.

[25:59] Go get something done about this matter. And post when Moses came into the camp, hey, there was death that happened. There was rebuked that happened.

[26:10] They escaped not. The one that spoke upon the earth, there was Moses. And it says, how much more shall we not escape the one that speaks from heaven?

[26:21] Hey, that's Almighty God speaking from heaven. That says, behold, this is my beloved son. And who I will please hear ye? And what did he say?

[26:32] I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the resurrection. I am the hope. I am everything that you need here, ye me.

[26:44] Yeah. How are we going to escape that? If these Israelites go over in the Old Testament, if those Israelites couldn't escape a mere human, Moses, most Moses wasn't a God.

[26:58] And he certainly wasn't God Almighty. He was a human being. That later on, a lot of Jews put up on a pedestal and probably would have worshiped him as a God if God himself hadn't buried him and no man knew where his sub-baker was.

[27:17] But he was not a God. He was a human. And those people down there at the bottom of that mountain, they could not escape that not because of who Moses was, but because of what God had said.

[27:32] Hope God says in his word, you believe in. Orville quoted it this morning from Romans chapter 10, that if we confess with our mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead.

[27:48] Shout, be saved. Folks, what does that tell me? That tells me if we don't do those things, we shall not be saved. It's that simple. It's no different than John 3.16.

[28:00] Whosoever believes in him should not perish by everlasting life. What does that tell me? Whosoever does not believe in him shall not have everlasting life. It's that simple.

[28:11] It is that easy to understand the scripture. Folks, if those Jews that were gathered around Mount Sinai could not escape the word of a human being.

[28:22] Now that word came from God. Don't you get me wrong? I understand that. But how much shall we not escape? The very one that speaks from heaven.

[28:33] That was a relayed message to a human being that he relayed to a bunch of human beings. This is a message directly from God to an entire world.

[28:43] You either accept what Jesus Christ has done, or you reject what Jesus Christ has done. And there is no, I'll get right in my own time. I'll get right when the time comes.

[28:54] I'm gonna live my life. I'm gonna party it up, live it up. I'm gonna do what I want to. And right before I die, I'll get saved. If the Holy Ghost of God is not drawing you at the time that you die, you have no hope of getting saved.

[29:08] If Jesus Christ himself hasn't sent the Holy Ghost to say, come unto me, all ye that later enter heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If Jesus Christ himself is not doing that, drawing through the Holy Spirit, there will be no salvation.

[29:27] And we got an entire world of people that think that. That think, I'm gonna do this how I want. Yeah. That's not the case, folks. And folks, we're not gonna do it on our own terms.

[29:39] On our own time, it all belongs to God. He is the author and the finisher of it all. And folks, God will let us go.

[29:49] And yes, God will let us enter. Hey, there's been 80 and 90 year old men that got saved. And I have no doubt in my mind that they got saved. And there's also been five and 10 year old children that's gotten saved.

[30:02] And I know that in my mind that they have received salvation. I know all these things, but it happened in God's time. It happened in His drawing. It happened in His will.

[30:13] And it happened for no other reason than God. Nothing to do with us. It don't mean we don't pray for it. It don't mean we don't ask for it. It don't mean we don't ask how could we did this morning?

[30:25] Oh my God, get a hold of somebody that we know is lost. That doesn't mean we don't do any of those things. And I believe that God will honor those prayers. It don't mean that it happened.

[30:35] The second that we say amen, it doesn't mean that it happens the next day. It might be a year from now. It might be 10 years from now. It might be after I'm dead for 50 years. But I believe that God answers the prayers of His people in His own time.

[30:50] Amen. Hallelujah. I think there's all kinds of scripture to back it up to when we ain't going to preach it. Whose voice then shook the earth. But now, He has promised saying, yet once more I shake not the earth, but also the heaven.

[31:08] And this word, yet once more, signify the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

[31:20] What's going to shake? This entire world's going to shake. This entire world, not only this scripture here, states not the earth only, but the heavens also will shake.

[31:32] That's Old Testament prophecy as well. The voice of God and the demands of God are going to shake the earth. They're going to shake the heavens. They're going to shake everything that's right.

[31:43] Not only are they going to shake, it's going to burn up this world with a holy fire. Folks, this world's got to be cleansed because it's cursed. It's under the same curse as human beings are.

[31:55] It must be cleansed. But that shaking and that burning and that destruction that's coming, it's not all for naught. God's got a purpose in that. He's got a reason in that.

[32:05] So that that which does come can be set up. That which does come won't be founded on something that's sinful. Won't be founded on something that's wicked. It'll be founded on something that has been cleansed.

[32:19] That has been made holy. That has been made pure by God. Amen. That's the foundation that we need right now. Not as far as the earth goes, not as far as the world goes.

[32:31] This book and Jesus Christ, we will find nothing more holy and we will find nothing more righteous and we will find nothing more purifying than Jesus Christ.

[32:42] But he does it that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Oh, the kingdom of God cannot be shaken.

[32:52] It cannot be moved. It cannot be tumbled to the ground. God has established it. And what is established by God is just as eternal as God is.

[33:05] What God has deemed as law. What God has deemed as commandment. What God has deemed as righteous. And what God wills in his mind and in his heart.

[33:17] And as established in his mind and his heart it shall and will come to pass. And it will not be moving. It will not be shaking. It will not be any of these things.

[33:28] Every demon on earth right now, Satan himself. Every evil person. Every wicked doer. Every lost person out there can come against God. And his kingdom will not be shaken.

[33:42] I am part of that kingdom. Praise God. And if you're saved, you're part of that kingdom. We cannot be shaken. We cannot be moved. Yes, we can be discouraged.

[33:54] Yes, we can be made sad. We can be depressed. We can be all these things. But the God that lives inside me cannot and will not be shaken.

[34:05] Amen. Praise God. This kingdom has come. That those things which can't, I'm sorry.

[34:18] Yeah, once more signify the removing of those things. That they're shaken. We're removing what can be shaken. Folks, our bodies just can be shaken.

[34:30] Every one of us has had fear struck in us from illness. Some of us have it right now. Some of us have it in the past, maybe not personally. Maybe for a loved one.

[34:41] Something along those lines. It don't matter how strong we are in God. Doesn't matter how much faith we think we have. When the dot comes in and says, so and so's got two or three months to live.

[34:52] And that's somebody you've known your entire life. Maybe somebody who's married to for 20, 30, 40 years. Maybe it's a mom or a dad. Maybe even a child. Hey, I don't care how much faith we got.

[35:03] That's gonna shake us in the very shoes that we are wearing. That is going to intimidate a child of God, a born again child of God that will cause them to shake in their booth with those things.

[35:16] That's one of the things that's got to be removed. That which is shaken must be taken out of the way so that that which is immovable can be set up. I'm gonna have a body one day that will not wear out, will not get sick, will not see death, will not see hurting, will not see anything other than the glory of God.

[35:37] And that can't be shaken. Nope, it won't be shaken. Therefore, we receive in the kingdom, which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve but acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

[35:52] That sounds like an awesome note to end on. But there's one more verse. One more verse after that one. We receive in the kingdom, receive in the kingdom.

[36:06] Folks, we don't earn our way to that kingdom. It is received as a gift. And we receive it from the gift of salvation. We receive salvation as a gift.

[36:16] We receive the kingdom as a gift. As I've said a hundred times, and I'll go to my grave preaching it. If we have to give God anything, it is no longer of grace.

[36:28] It is no longer of His mercy. It is at that point, it's something that we have done to obtain His grace and to obtain His mercy. Folks, we give God nothing.

[36:39] We receive Jesus Christ as our salvation. And at the end, at the culmination of that, we receive the kingdom of God.

[36:50] And both of them are as gifts from God. How about that? Salvation is a gift that we receive.

[37:00] The kingdom of God is a gift that we receive. Praise God. But we receive in the kingdom, which cannot be moved. Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.

[37:18] We may serve God with reverence and with godly fear. I've said it before, we can't have godly fear unless we're godly people. It's impossible.

[37:31] You can't have anything godly unless you're a godly person. Period. That goes for fear, that goes for sorrow, that goes free, any of those godly things that we find in scripture.

[37:44] I've heard it over and over since I've been saved. I heard it when I was a kid too, but I just didn't put two and two together then. But since I've been saved, I've heard men standing the pulpits after they've preached, having an altar call, and begging lost people to come to an altar with godly sorrow.

[38:02] Folks, if they're lost, they cannot have godly sorrow no more than a lost person can have godly fear. We cannot have those things. Hey, we can have a fear of God as we're lost.

[38:14] We can have a fear of all kinds of things if we're lost, but not to have godly fear that is only for godly people. Period.

[38:25] I mean, to say that we can have anything that is godly, being a lost person is to contradict the entire word of God. It contradicts the entire word.

[38:37] Only the godly have godly things. Now, that's not to say it doesn't rain on the just and the unjust. That's not to say that he makes his son derise on the just and the unjust, or that he doesn't do that, I should say.

[38:51] But, as for things like sorrow, repentance, fear, we don't know why we have those kinds of things in a godly manner as to be a godly person.

[39:01] But why do we do that? Why does it say, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear for our God, is a consuming fire. He begins that with let us have grace, but let us have grace.

[39:15] Why, because our God is a consuming fire. The same God that gives us that grace, he is that consuming fire. My God is a consuming fire. That's why I say it probably at least once a month that my God is not a sissy.

[39:31] My God is not some pansy that just sits around. He's certainly not a grandfather figure, sitting up there in his lazy boy recliner, chuckling at what's going on down in the world.

[39:42] My God is a consuming fire. The book of Exodus says that his very name is jealous. Hey, the Bible also says that his name is holy. The Bible calls in all kinds of things, but folks, my God is a consuming fire.

[39:56] That's why we must have grace to come before him. Without the grace of God, we can't approach God. Without the grace, or without the mercy of God, we can't approach God without things from God.

[40:10] In particular, the blood of Jesus Christ, which is mercy, which is grace, shed for an entire world without those things. We cannot go to God.

[40:21] And we'll never get there, not death. So the writer says, let us have grace. Whereby, in other words, only by grace, will we be able to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

[40:35] For our God is a consuming fire. Just because we're saved doesn't mean we don't fear God. We should fear him that much more. Why is that? Because if we're saved, we have a better understanding of who that God is.

[40:48] We have a whole world of lost folks out there that say, I don't think God'll do this. And I don't think God'll do that. Folks, it's not based on what we think, and it's not based on what they think.

[41:00] It's based on what does say the word of God. And my Bible says that those that are in Jesus Christ are going to come to this Mount Zion one day that we've been reading about.

[41:10] And those that are outside of Jesus Christ, they're going to wind up in hell one of these days when they come down to the end of the line. That's the final word from God. Jesus Christ is the final word from God.

[41:23] We either accept Jesus Christ and his atoning work on Calvary's cross, or we reject that work when the Holy Ghost draws us. And if we reject it, we reject it Jesus.

[41:34] We've rejected God. We've rejected the only door to heaven that will ever be. And once we reject that, that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. That is the only unpardonable sin that there is in Scripture.

[41:50] It's to reject what God has done through Jesus Christ. That's the unpardonable sin. But we do these things as say, born again Christians, because our God, I like how the writer phrases that, when he says, let us have grace, he says, for our God, our God, if oh, she's my God, he is my God, he's still a consuming fire.

[42:16] Therefore I fear him. I know what he's capable of. I know in this book what he's capable of. I've seen too much destruction come from God in Scripture to believe that he is not a consuming fire and to think that I can go before him outside of grace that he gives me freely.

[42:36] So that's why that's praised. I believe the way it is. Let us have grace for our God is a consuming fire.