Two Mountains, Two Messages

Let us begin reading at verse 11, Hebrews 12, verse 11, and we will read through verse 24. Hebrews 12, verse 11.

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto 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 voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: But ye are come unto mount Sion, 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 Abel.”

Amen. Ending the reading there at verse 24, and what you have heard, beloved, is the word of the eternal God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray.

O God, we ask that Thou wilt help us now in Thy Word, this little moment of time which we spend thinking upon this holy writ, that it might be owned of the living God. Therefore, we need Thee to take what is Thine. Settle every heart. Take away every distraction. Grant, O God, that Thou wilt powerfully move so that we feel ourselves to be shut up with Thee as Thou hast a word for us. God, we pray, bless us here. Extend Thy kingdom in ways that exceed what we can ask or imagine. Do a mighty work here, we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask, amen.

My hope this morning, beloved, is that as a result of the verses we will look at, you will learn why the Christian must be conscious—conscious that he lives at Mount Zion rather than Mount Sinai. You live at Mount Zion, not at Mount Sinai.

The focus of our attention this morning will be found in verses 18 through 24, so it’s quite extensive. It takes in language that points us back to the scene that is recorded for us in Exodus 19 and 20.

According to Exodus 19, Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is described as being carried on eagles’ wings. God graciously and mercifully put His arms around His people and led them out of their captivity and slavery and set them free. And they were carried, as it were, on eagles’ wings.

But as they come to Sinai, they find themselves in a position that strikes fear into their heart. They tremble. Because God reveals Himself in such a dramatic display that they are brought to an awareness that this God is a consuming fire. Boundaries are set. Exodus 19 verse 12 says, “And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death.”

God establishes there a perimeter that suggests to the people that you cannot in your own way and however you like just approach into the presence of God. The only hope is to have a mediator.

And as you read through the books of Moses, you will find the doctrine or the theology of needing a mediator to be one that permeates all those books in various ways, keeps pointing us back to recognize that man needs a mediator in order to come into the presence of God. Now, of course, that gets depicted in Moses, and we may touch on that a little, but certainly as you go back to those chapters, you will see Moses in the necessary place which he played in Israel’s coming before God.

What we learned last week, if you look back up to the verses previously—that Esau is used as an example to drive from their heart a sense of trifling with the blessings of the gospel. Esau craved the shadow of his inheritance. He looked for the temporal blessing.

We were talking about this last Lord’s Day after the sermon—one person remarked how that once Esau had what he really wanted, which was all the material blessings of life… Once he had accumulated wealth, at that point it was more easy for him to be reconciled to his brother Jacob. I’d never thought of that as being a factor in Esau’s willingness to reconcile with his brother.

Because what he really craved, and this is what we pointed out last Lord’s Day, what he craved was not that which was typified. He missed the message, the gospel, the messianic promise that was signified in the birthright and the blessings bestowed as a result.

Well, using that then as a diversion, the apostle goes on then to bring about another image before them, as these individuals are tempted to return to the types and the shadows of the old covenant. And two mountains then are put before them, as you read verses 18 through 24. Two mountains are presented: Mount Sinai and Mount Zion.

The distinction is put in terms that belief in Jesus Christ means something about what they have approached unto. So look at verse 18, “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,” and so on. But verse 22 notes, “But ye are come unto mount Sion.”

You have not come. The language there is going back to what happened when they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Something occurred. In believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, they had not come to Sinai. They had come to Zion. And that’s what you need to see as you look at this, because what we learn from this is the importance of where the believer is positioned and his identity in Jesus Christ.

He has come unto something. The language there is in the perfect tense, verse 22, “ye are come.” It’s something that has happened in the past and is ongoing. It is definitive. It is complete, but the blessings of it continue forward.

The significance of this language, I believe, must be seen not just in terms of the geography of the Israelites approaching Sinai. They came to Sinai. And you go back and you can see certain verses that talk about them coming to the Mount, but there’s more going on here. The Apostle’s not just drawing from language of geography, they came unto Sinai. He’s also drawing on that truth, the theology that has pervaded through Hebrews of drawing near to God.

Verse 22, “But ye are come unto mount Sion.” And we have seen through this epistle, we’ve seen how he has talked about drawing near to God, and how we draw near. And the only means that the sinner has to draw near is through Jesus Christ.

So this language is coming up again. You’re not drawing near… You haven’t come. In putting your faith in Christ, you have not come to Sinai; you have come to Zion.

This morning we will consider what I’ve titled “Two Mountains, Two Messages.” Two Mountains, Two Messages. And both of them are presented with a form of lists. They’re described in lists and there are seven things noted in each. You have Mount Sinai, which is not actually named, but that of course is what it’s being referred to—the mount that might be touched, and then the details that are given, and then the other, Mount Zion, and details are given there.

So you have seven on one side and seven on the other, and this will then form our message for this morning as we look at two things. We’re going to see the mountain of fear and the mountain of fellowship, the mountain of fear and the mountain of fellowship. Two mountains, two messages.

Look first then at the mountain of fear. Verse 18, “For ye are not come unto 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 voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart,” and so on and so forth. The mountain of fear.

Two things to note here. First, its terrifying elements. Its terrifying elements. You’ve seen here the details that describe the scene of the children of Israel gathering around Mount Sinai at the giving of the law. And these characteristics, the seven characteristics—one commentator describes as, quote, “visual and auditory phenomena.” Visual and auditory phenomena. God is overwhelming them.

But the point in all the details—not to look into all of them in any great detail—but to note something that is true about this particular mount in verse 18: you’re not come unto the mount that might be touched. You’re not come to the tangible mount.

There’s an irony here, an irony in which here’s one that you can handle, here’s one that you can go and approach in terms of physically. And yet, what you’re really to see yourself in, you’re to see yourself as approaching unto a mountain that you can’t handle and touch. You’re coming unto something and believing in Jesus Christ, you’ve come to something that isn’t tangible.

Now again, this all ties in, without elaborating too much, it all ties into leaving Jesus Christ to go back to the ceremony and all the things we’ve considered as we’ve looked through this epistle. Going back to the temple, going back to all the sights and the smells of the Levitical priesthood, going back to that which they could handle and they could see with their eyes and they could participate in in some fashion. The danger of leaving Jesus Christ to go back to a tangible religion, as it were. And you can understand the temptation of that.

But in coming to Christ, they have come by faith to God, and so things are different. But you see how it’s described, just summarizing the scenes there at the giving of the law, this mount that could be touched in terms—it was a physical place—that burned with fire, blackness, darkness, tempest, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words.

And it goes on then to say, “which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more.” In other words, the children of Israel upon hearing from God, they so feared that they request that Moses represent them, that he go before them.

Go to Deuteronomy 5 just for a moment to see. In Deuteronomy, Moses recounts the history and the various details, though it’s coming to the point where he’s about to die and Joshua will lead the children of Israel into the promised land, he goes over the history. Because again, those who are still alive, if they were alive at that time, they were young. And some of them were not alive at that time. So he gives the history, gives the details.

Look at verse 24. It gives an account here of what occurred in that occasion. And you can see in verse 22, the fire, the cloud, the thick darkness, you see the scene here. And there’s a voice out of the midst of the darkness, verse 23. “And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders.”

And here’s what the heads of the tribes say, verse 24, “And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, They have well said all that they have spoken.”

So, there’s an approval here that Moses becomes the mediator. These people sense the fear, the wonder, the awe. Again, the commands that encapsulate not just the drama of the scene—sensory experience—but the language that says, don’t touch the mountain.

And so in their fear, they come desiring then that Moses represent them. And so that’s what it says, meaning there in verse 19, “which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more,” saying, we don’t want to be the ones directly hearing from God. And they usher then Moses into that position, request of him to be in that role.

Now, the description of the events at Sinai are terrifying. And while God had graciously delivered His people, yet as He calls them together as a nation and gives them the law that was written in their heart by which every man will be judged, the mountain blazes with a sense of divine holiness, and they’re aware and they’re fearful.

And so in the midst of this, God gives His law and exposes them, and there’s a deepening of the trembling within their own heart. That’s all the law can do, you know. It can expose, it can restrain in a certain fashion, and it can educate. But it has no power to pardon and give a man a sense of confidence before the living God.

When we stand before the law, it is as a mirror that never flatters. It shows you warts and all. It exposes everything about you. And as you see the horrific nature of your real being, you stand condemned and you know it.

The sense, of course, of their fear is compounded by the language of verse 20. “They could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.” In other words, if God’s prepared to kill an animal that comes near the mountain, what will He do with us? This is a fearful thing. It is not to be trifled with.

So those are the terrifying elements. There’s also its trembling mediator. Its trembling mediator. This mountain of fear has a trembling mediator. Verse 21, “And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.” I exceedingly fear and quake.

Now he’s given this responsibility, and Moses is a man of God, we know that. And yet, his approach unto God was not at his own will. God would beckon him, God would call him, and he didn’t have the right just to go in and, again, in a manner that was without awareness of what was going on. He knew. I mean, we’ve read the language of Hebrews 10 and 31, going back there, that God is a consuming fire. Moses knew that.

Remember, this is the Moses that met with God in a burning bush, a bush that burned but was not consumed. God revealed Himself in that fire. He knows, he knows that God is not to be trifled with. He took his shoes off. He’s made to feel the weight on that experience, to feel the weight of the God he approaches. Here’s a man who knows.

But we’re told here then that he said that he exceedingly feared and quaked. And you go through the record and you’re not going to find… If you do, you can let me know, but I couldn’t find where the record is given that Moses… the record is given in Exodus 19 and 20 or Deuteronomy 4 and 5 where this account is given where Moses said these words.

The only record given is that which is found later as the account of the golden calf is presented. In Deuteronomy 9 verse 19, there, Moses confesses, “And I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you.”

And it seems then that the apostle, he brings together the posture of this mediator. And though the event is distinct, yet the idea is the same. He’s before God. The event itself is distinct, but he’s still before God. He’s representing the people. And in the midst of God’s expression of wrath against them for what they had done in forming this golden calf, Moses feels afresh a sense of trembling upon his heart in a way that he expresses explicitly.

So that’s Deuteronomy 9:19. And the apostle draws from that. Again, he’s talking then, he’s revealing this mediator, and he’s showing the weakness. He’s saying to these people, you’ve not come to this. You’ve not come to a mountain that’s tangible, where all of this display of God’s power and so on was there, and you’ve not come to a mediator who had a moment in his life where he exceedingly feared and quaked in the presence of God. You’ve not come to that.

Moses knew that the people needed someone beyond himself. He knew it and we need to know it as well. And he prophesied then in Deuteronomy 18 verse 15, “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” He speaks of another one.

In other words, this… and it’s hard for us because we’re not Jewish, it’s hard for us to think of Moses in the way a Jew thinks of Moses. Moses is—like there’s none like Moses.

And yet they’re going back, these Hebrews are tempted to go back to everything that had come from Moses, the appointment of the Levitical priesthood, all that was given that described how they were to approach God and everything, and they’re tempted to go back to that and leave the simplicity that’s found in Christ.

And what the apostle again is drawing from history and saying, do you want a mediator who trembled in the presence of God, who knew his own sin? And a mediator ultimately, though it’s not just given here, pointed to another one to come, another prophet.

This cannot be Israel’s ultimate hope of representation. It cannot be that the one who represents us is fearful of the party to whom we need to be reconciled. Surely there’s a more complete mediator. And there is. And as to him we have come, all the blessings that flow from that.

So we see the mountain of fear. We see also then the mountain of fellowship. There’s a mountain of fellowship. Verse 22 through 24.

A few things I want you to note here as we look at the various aspects that describe for us this mountain of fellowship. First note their city. Verse 22, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” “Ye are come.”

Again, underline that. This has happened in your past, and it’s still a present reality. When you turned your eyes to Christ, when you looked on Him, when you heard the gospel explained there in your synagogue, and you said, yes, Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. He’s the one appointed by God to be the Savior of the world. We believe on Him. In so doing, you’ve come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

And it’s not like they have come in a way that there’s not more to unfold. When we get to the next chapter, just to point out verse 14, you will know it, many of you anyway. Hebrews 13 verse 14, “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” So there’s a sense of what often is described as the already, not yet. And so they have come. They have come, but there’s a fuller revelation that still awaits the child of God.

Now, you’ve come unto Mount Zion. Historically, Zion was a fortress that was conquered by David, and it became then the place of God’s dwelling and the seat of the King. And sometimes when it’s referred to, it is pointed to as the temple, it’s referring to the temple in context, or it is sometimes putting its arms around Jerusalem and the people as a whole.

But the uniqueness of Zion is tied to the presence of God with His people. If you can just fix in your mind, the uniqueness of Zion is tied to the presence of God among His people. It is the reason why, listen, it’s the reason why we have no problem singing Psalms that refer to Zion and applying them to ourselves, because of a passage like this.

By belief in Jesus Christ, you have come unto Mount Zion. You have come into the presence of God, and you are collected among the people of God. There’s no problem with that. Don’t just look at a geographic place and say it’s over there in the Middle East and it has no relevance to me. Far from it, and you can see it, I trust, from the very passage itself.

So David was used by God, establishing it as a place where the temple would be built. And it symbolizes for us that place where God’s presence is and where His people assemble around it.

But the passage shows that the saints, whether Old Testament or New, have come unto that and are citizens of it by virtue of the promises that are found in Christ and the inheritance we have in Him. You’re come. You’re come unto Mount Zion.

You today have come by faith in Christ unto Mount Zion. You are in the place where God is known and where His people assemble. This means then that we are to be aware of this now. You are to be aware of where you have come to.

You have not just come to 1207 Haywood Road. In coming to Christ, you have come unto Mount Zion. In coming to Christ, you’re found among the citizens of Zion. In coming to Christ, you worship. You worship in the sense of being enveloped in this blessing of being part of Zion.

It doesn’t change the reality of God’s consuming holiness. But by faith in Jesus Christ, we can enter into the presence, the very place where God dwells.

And so the application of this, and this will be true of everything said here, the application is for the believer, you, Christian today, to have in your mind and be more conscious of the fact of where you’ve come to by believing in Jesus Christ.

Too many times we live our lives and when we’re coming to prayer, coming into prayer and feeling guilt. And when we do that, we come to prayer and we feel guilt. Maybe even we don’t come to pray because we’re so overwhelmed with guilt. What are we doing? We are coming to Sinai.

But you come to Mount Zion. And when you bow your head by faith in Jesus Christ, you stand at a different mount. You have access to God. This book has argued that repeatedly, that in Christ we have boldness, that is to say confidence to enter in by the blood of Jesus.

And you’re to keep that in your mind because you will sin. You do sin. You feel, and if you stay at Mount Sinai, you’ll be overwhelmed with guilt and crippled in fear and you’ll do nothing for God.

When you get your heart to where you are in Christ at Mount Zion, there you can come into His presence knowing that you’re part of a different city as it were. You’ve come to the city of the living God, the city of the living God.

We were urged to depart not, not to depart the living God in chapter 3 verse 12. We’re urged to serve the living God in chapter 9 verse 14. We’re urged not to fall into the hands of the living God in chapter 10 verse 31. And now we’re told that we’ve come unto the city of the living God.

It’s a good place to be. I am in the city of the living God. As we shall see, I’m not condemned. I have a right to be there. Christ has me there, places me there, in this heavenly Jerusalem, a heavenly Jerusalem.

And oh, how this would matter in just a few years, in just a few years from the penning of this epistle. These Hebrews who had put such weight on Jerusalem and saw it as a center of the planet are going to hear the frightful news that Jerusalem has fallen. The Roman armies have gone in there, the general Titus has gone and ransacked the place entirely, and the city is fallen.

And if their hope was in the tangible, then their hopes would be crushed. But their hopes are not in the tangible. It’s not in making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. It’s not heading up in the way if you take the Psalms that we sing, the Psalms of ascent which we sing of, and we think of these pilgrims going three times a year up to Jerusalem to worship God. There they are heading to Zion and singing about Zion and praying for Zion. If we think purely about that, we’re missing the point. We would lament with the fall of the city.

But the encouragement is, you have come unto a heavenly Jerusalem. Keep in focus where you are now in Christ.

Their city, their company also is delineated, isn’t it? “To an innumerable company of angels,” the end of verse 22, “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” Here’s their company.

And you go on and you read other things as well about their company, but the first thing you see here about their company is they have the company of angels. An innumerable company of angels.

Now when you read through Moses’ record of what happened at Sinai, you’re going to find that there were angels that were there at Sinai. Deuteronomy 33 verse 2 tells us of that. And so they were assembled around Mount Sinai, but they’re also, we’re not losing anything here. This is the point. Well, the angels were there at Sinai, but they’re not with us. We need to go back to the old covenant, back to the giving of the law, and stand there where the angels are. Well, the apostle says, no, the angels, innumerable, stand around this place.

Innumerable company of angels, and oh, what curiosity they have. You know they’re here. Right now, they’re here. 1 Corinthians 11 tells us the angels are here. Peter tells us that they have this curiosity in God’s redemptive plan for sinners. “Which things the angels desire to look into.”

Not just the theology, they’re not up there just studying the scriptures like theologians. They’re studying its working out in humanity. They’re studying how it is received. They’re studying how it changes the life. They’re studying how God is working among men, plucking men as brands from the burning. Extending His hand across the nations to gather in a fallen and lost people. They’re watching Him work graciously in a way that He did not for the angels that fell.

And they study it. And we stand among them. They’re here this morning. Oh, what do they see? What do they see?

Sometimes I wonder. I wonder what they see. I wonder what their thought processes are. And I, you know, preaching your imagination. I tend to impose the kind of things and frustrations that you might feel on them. So as they look and see, look at the lackluster offering of praise there this morning. Are they criticizing us for not really singing with all of our might? I don’t know. Perhaps they’re much more kind than sometimes we can be of one another. But they do look. They attend and they look.

Angels are here. Angels come to look and yet believers sometimes don’t show up for no good reason. But angels do.

And they are with us, we have learned of them serving us way back earlier in the epistle. But that’s not only the company, all living saints, all living saints, “the general assembly and church of the firstborn,” “general assembly and church of the firstborn,” this festive assembly, this joyous assembly, that’s the sense of it. It’s like some kind of festivity is going on here, great joy, and it’s among the Church of the Firstborn.

Those of us who are in Christ, that belong to the firstborn of all creation, the preeminent One, and all the thoughts of the firstborn, He is distinct. Oh, we don’t look to Esau, do we? We look to the firstborn among men, there’s no salvation there. We look to the preeminent One that the Father has set aside. God’s only begotten Son.

And in Him, then, we come into this standing. We join with them. They’re part, and we are part of them. Israel was designated the firstborn in Exodus 4. Jesus Christ, then, is the true firstborn. This new Israel, this new gathering of people are all brought into Him.

And so the saints, the saints all assemble. They’re all one assembly, the church of the firstborn, the called-out ones of the firstborn, “which are written in heaven.” Yes, that’s where their names are. Yes, they’re already written in heaven.

That’s what the Lord Jesus told the apostles, isn’t it? Do you remember that? When they went out on their first endeavor to preach the gospel and to face the demonic powers of their day and they go out there and they come back rejoicing because the devils were subject to them. And they’re so delighted, they’re so elated, their hearts are so overwhelmed with gratitude because Christ sent them out, they committed themselves to the mission, and they saw things that encouraged them of what God could do through them.

And they come back rejoicing, Lord, Lord, hear, hear what happened. And he tells them, and again I’ve said this before, he was not squashing their joy, he wasn’t telling them you’ve missed the point. He’s just pastoring their heart so that in the future their joy is not so inextricably linked to outward expressions of success in ministry. Because there are going to be times where they’re not so successful, where it doesn’t appear that things will advance.

And so he tells them, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” Your name, child of God, your name is in heaven, inscribed there. However much of a nothing you may feel yourself to be, however anonymous in this old world, heaven knows your name.

And so you’re part of this body, and there are people all across the world who are part of this body. Right now, we have not met, we do not know, and they’re in all sorts of nations, and they look different, they act different, they worship differently in some fashion, expressions of their gathering may look slightly different, in some parts they’ll be meeting today or have met today for a Sunday service that lasts for four hours. And you’re glad you’re not there.

And others of them are meeting in persecution and knowing that there’s a real threat upon their life. And others are new believers and they’re wondering where they’ll even find a Bible because they can’t just go on Amazon and order one next day delivery.

But God is at work and you’re part of this company, these living saints. This congregation, this is what you’re part of. This festal, joyous assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven. There’s no one there. Though they’re here, there’s no one there.

I know that young people would get this. This is where we crave attention, we want success, we desire companionship and all sorts of things. But young person, instead of looking at the world and judging yourself and trying to be, trying to find acceptance here, you already have acceptance. You already have acceptance. And you’re part of a people that matter more to God than anyone else on this earth.

So the company is also living saints. The company is also God the judge of all. “And to God the Judge of all,” as language reflects that of Genesis 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

And so every city has a judge, has law and order. So does this city. This keeps the balance because they came to Sinai and the law thundered there and they… And some would imagine that having come unto Mount Zion, then there is no law. You just kind of live how you please. But there’s still a judge in this city. And judges must have parameters. They have a law by which they test all things.

And so God still has a law because He’s judge. He’s really reflected on this. You go back to chapter 4, Hebrews 4, just to see this sense of expression of God seeing and judging. Hebrews 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”

And he encourages that to stimulate them, and so it is here as well, we have this one who’s His judge and he stands there amidst and we have his company. This is a frightening thing unless, unless we know that we have acceptance before this judge.

That such is the justification of believers that it communicates no sense of terror to stand before this judge. In fact, what it does, it pivots the whole thing. Instead of it, think of it this way. God the judge of all. At one point when we stand at Sinai, that’s frightening. Now that we’re in Christ, you might say, well, that problem’s just gone away and it’s a position of neutrality, but it’s not. It’s gone to the positive because what we need is acquittal.

And that’s what Jesus Christ procures for his people, that the judge, God the judge of all, will openly acknowledge, as the catechism puts it, and acquit on the day of judgment. So we stand in the company of God, who one day will give an open acknowledgment of us and acquittal of all because of Christ.

We’re also in the presence of all justified saints. “The spirits of just men made perfect” refers to the faithful who have died and now enjoy God’s presence in the heavenly city. They have reached the goal of their pilgrimage in one sense. They are the just who have life by faith.

And you see, if you go back to chapter 10, just to tie some of these things together, chapter 10 verse 14, about Jesus Christ, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Christ’s once-for-all offering perfects, completes those who are set apart by faith, those who belong to Him.

And so here we have language that refers to those who have gone on before, the spirits of just men made perfect. They await the fullness of their redemption. They await the union of their bodies to soul. The resurrection at the end. But they are currently now in a phase that we are not in. Yes, awaiting the reunion of their bodies. But we’re part of them.

You see, they’re not like, oh, up there and they mean nothing to us. We are part of them. You have come. You have come. This is why I said the mountain of fellowship. There is a certain communion between living and saints who have gone on. It’s not that we talk with the dead. That’s not my point. It’s that in Christ there’s a real union of the body.

They are not some people that are a different people. They are our people. We are one together. They rest from their labors, but they have not been removed to a different body. And also, we’ve come into the company of Jesus, the mediator.

“Jesus the mediator,” “and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.” Here’s the other, the fifth company we stand in, the presence of Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. And this is the one they’re encouraged to look to. Look unto Jesus. Look unto Him.

This is the one who stands in the presence of God without trembling. There’s no trembling in Jesus before the Father. He has appeased the wrath of God by His vicarious death. By the shedding of His blood, He became the guarantor of the new covenant, and those who believe on Him are come unto Mount Zion.

The mediator. You need this. You need a mediator. One to stand between you and God. And he needs to be the appointed one by God. And he needs to fulfill a role that no ordinary man can fulfill. And this is Jesus the God-man. He is the mediator. You’ve come unto Him. And again, the language, you have come unto Him. You’re not once in the past, I came to Jesus and I no longer come to Him. You keep coming.

Finally, their cleansing. Their cleansing. We’ve seen their city, their company. And note also their cleansing, their cleansing. Verse 24, “to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”

I’ve always heard this passage referred to that Christ’s blood speaks better than Abel’s blood. And of course, it points back to Genesis 4. Abel’s blood cried for vengeance. Christ’s blood cries for mercy and pardon.

I gave it some thought and I was wrestling with some things that I’ll not take time to delineate here in terms of the language and so on. I was wondering, is that really what it says? Ultimately, I came back to that view, that that is what is being said. There’s a sense of contrast here with Abel.

Abel, why mention Abel? Well, he was the first of the just men made perfect, wasn’t he? But as you think about his blood as well, his blood, we’re told, was speaking. It had a language. It had a voice. It cried from the ground. And all it could cry was the same as the language of the law. His blood cried out the guilt of his brother and the need for condemnation. And that’s the distinction.

Christ’s blood is different. His blood cries out, not that vengeance would be exercised, but that pardon would be granted. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ might have this cleansing. Look what it says, “the blood of sprinkling,” as the imagery of the application of the blood to the conscience, the application of the blood to the individuals, so that they come under the benefit, “that it speaks better things.”

Contrast of Abel’s blood and Christ’s blood. And of course, it continues to speak, “that speaketh,” participle. It continues to speak better things than that of Abel. In other words, you don’t come to the blood of Christ in the past and leave it there. You come to it every day. And every day you plead the merit of the blood. Every day you put yourself when coming to Zion, you say, I’m a citizen of this heavenly Jerusalem. I come to this city of the living God. And you come appropriating and believing in the power of the blood of Christ to continually cleanse from all sin.

Believer, I want you to understand this. The list of things given here are giving to you what should be in your mind as you approach God. If you come in your own flesh, you come to a mountain that is terrifying to look at. But if you come to Jesus Christ, you enter into Mount Zion, and you come among a different company, and you’re promised a real cleansing.

The blood of Jesus Christ is enough. The speaking blood of Christ will speak on your behalf. It is better. It’s a powerful reminder then of our identity.

Two mountains, two messages. We see here in this passage a sense of belonging, a sense of identity, a sense of acceptance. And if you leave Jesus Christ, you leave all that behind. You identify with something entirely different. You identify and belong to something entirely different, and you have no acceptance before God.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ that we encourage you to look to this morning. Look unto Christ. This is the whole point of the passage, going back to the beginning of the chapter, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Don’t look to anything else. Don’t go to religious activity and religious endeavor and all of your expressions of your own goodness. Away with all of it. Get yourself to Jesus Christ and stay there.

He gives you access to God unlike anyone else, so that the judge of all becomes your Father. The angels become fellow servants. The saints, whether in heaven or here, are your family. And the blood of Christ becomes your song, because that’s what we’ll sing of that day. “The one who washed us from our sins in his own blood.”

This is your hope, and without it you will perish.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

If anyone can say hallelujah, it is the Christian. The world stands, whether they know it or not, at Mount Sinai, with no representative, with no hope. But in Christ, you have come unto Mount Zion, accepted in the beloved.

Stay there, believe what you are in Christ. Get into your heart, not what the world tries to say you need to become. Trying to sell you things, sell you the promise that you’ll become this, that, and the other. Some of that may be legitimate even, but don’t lose out and don’t forget the identity you already have in Christ.

Lord, help us. Help us to know what we are. Help us to know that to which we have come. I pray that it might make us strong, give us a sense of stability in an unstable world. Let every believer here revel not in themselves but in Jesus Christ, not in their own obedience but in His, not in their own sacrifices, but in His once for all sacrifice, not in our fulfillment of our mission, but in His perfect fulfillment of His mission.

We pray that our eyes would look full upon Him and know the blessing of all that He has accomplished. So give to us that settled heart. Go with us from this place. Bring us back again this evening to enjoy Thy Word and Thy presence and Thy people. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all Thy people now and evermore. Amen.