Eyes on "It is Finished" (Part 2) | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from axt church. We hope this message

will light up your day. I was privileged to share here the last time.

I think it was the New thirty first, Yeah, the New Year's

Eve celebration here and I shared and I taught on Hebrews Chapter twelve. That

time. It was verses one to seventeen. And since I was I'm privileged

now to be back here. I thought of continuing on the teaching from Hebrews

Chapter twelve. I'm going to be teaching now from verses eighteen to twenty nine,

okay, eighteen to twenty nine. In the short host time. I'm

going to read it. Of course, when you first read it, you'll

be like scratching your head, So stay with me, okay, stay me.

I hope my voice holds. It feels like it's going to give anytime

soon. But thank you for the water, Raphael, you're good man.

I'm going to read from the NLT because I think it's slightly easier for us

to understand. But I always want to encourage y'all read from different versions.

It's okay to get a full grasp and a full understanding of God's word of

course, the official translation that we use here in extras is usually the NKJAV,

so that's, of course one of the translations in which I would encourage

us to read. But I'm reading from the NLT because I think to teach.

Maybe it's easier for us to grasp it first, and then hopefully as

I'm sharing and teaching, it starts to make more sense. Cool, everyone,

all right, everyone doing good? Okay, just give me sixty minutes

of your life, and I hope I will help you make sense of the

second part of Hebrews. Chapter twelve and verse eighteen reads as such, I

think there are slights XTV. Again, God bless you with my slides.

I hope you can follow me as I go along. So it says this

straight away. It starts like that you have not come to a physical mound,

to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind,

as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. For they heard an awesome trumpet blast

and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. They staggered

back. Under God's command, if even an animal touches the mountain, it

must be stoned to death. Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that

he said, I'm terrified and trembling. No, you have come to Mount

Zion, to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and

to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the

assembly of God's first born children, whose names are written in heaven. You

have come to God Himself, who is the judge over all things. You

have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in Heaven, who have now

been made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the

new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks

forgiveness in state of crying out for vengeance, like the blood of Able.

Verse twenty five says this, be careful that you do not refuse to listen

to the one who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not

escape when they refuse to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will

certainly not escape if we reject the one who speaks to us from heaven.

When God spoke from Mount Sinai, his voice shook the earth. But now

he makes another promise once again, I will shake not only the earth,

but the heavens. Also. This means all that all of creation will be

shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. Since we are

receiving a kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by

worshiping him with holy fear and awe, for our God is a devouring fire.

The Lord bless the reading of his word. Amen. Okay, all

you are clueless, right couse, Sally, you read something so heavy like,

okay, a little bit of context. He Brewis chapter twelve. I

think if you all remember correctly, if you didn't get a chance to listen

to what I had shared on the christ New Year's Eve service. Of course,

he Rules chapter twelve Versus one to seventeen has that famous scripture that says

that we've got to keep our eyes focused on the pioneer and the perfector of

our faith, Jesus right. And so I was teaching quite a fair bit

on the first part of he Rules chapter twelve about three weeks ago. And

you've got to continue to have that in mind, because I need to give

y'all a little bit of context. If not, you'all won't understand where this

is all coming from. Because this portion of scripture not many people want to

teach from me is like one of those scratch hits scratch hit moment. Okay,

So overall contexts of this portion of scripture, let's start with this.

Let's start with this. I want you all to think a little bit.

One of the greatest dangers of our Christian life is that we go back to

our old life. Okay, for believers, you will probably understand this,

because all of us here can claim that if we are believers of Jesus,

we are born again and we started a new and we had a new life.

So there is always the danger of going back to the old life.

What's that called. There's a very Christian term for it, backslide. You

slide back into your old life. And it's usually done unintentionally on but it's

true that many of us can actually drive back into our own ways, our

own way of thinking, our own way of life. It's a normal thing

that can happen. And so just a little bit of context. Again,

the entire letter to the Hebrew Church here, okay, Hebrews, if you

read all I think it's thirteen chapters, you'll probably be wondering what is it

about? What is the Life to the Hebrews about? And you must realize

this it was. Of course, you know, we don't know who the

author is. I've really established this the last time round. A lot of

us can speculate who the author may be, but since we don't know for

sure, let's just keep it at that. We know possibly it was most

likely written to the Roman Church, the Hebrew Church, or the more Hebrew

centric church churches in Rome. Why do I say, okay, imagine it's

a Rome is of course not Jerusalem, It's not Israel. But there were

a lot of Jewish believers in Rome because back then, of course it was

one of the Roman empires where they were from. So Christianity was birth from

the nation of Israel. It was birth out from there because Jesus was hanging

around mainly in Jerusalem back then. And so those who hurt what they did

was the knowledge of what they have. They took it out. And we

know the Jews are very very used to being in in sort of like living

a diaspora lifestyle. They are always out, either they sent out by by

God because of their stubborners, but one way or the other they have been

out and about for centuries actually, and so there was a concentration of them

actually in Rome itself, and so in the in the Roman churches. Of

course, this is early days of Christianity. It's quite natural that you would

have Jewish believers, and then you can also have the gentile believers, right,

Jewish believers Gentile believers. That that makes sense. So this letter is

actually written mainly to the Jewish believers. That's the context that you have to

be able to see and understand it better. Why was it written to the

Jewish believers? So again the possibility of of of looking at it from this

angle is back then Judaism was a legal religion followers of the Way or followers

of Jesus basically, basically that's ajarano. It's like it's a is like a

cult. So it was technically an illegal religion. It doesn't doesn't have legal

status. But Judaism has been around for centuries. And so when you are

followers of the Way, the way they look at you is they will they

will persecute you. They will say that you are like a cult follower.

Uh. And so the pressure was on mainly the Jews because they could so

easily go back to something that was from a state of illegitimacy to something that

is legitimate. Does that make sense, uh? And that is the context

of Hebrews. Basically, the author was writing to them to encourage them.

Whatever it is, please please hang on, hang on to your faith.

And that's why when we read he Brews chapter twelve, and when we were

studying three weeks ago, the plea was as such, fix your eyes on

Jesus. Get rid of anything that ensnares us, anything that can handicap us,

anything that can pull us back. Get rid of it so that you

can keep running the race and you'll be determined to get there. That was

what he Brews chapter twelve was trying to do. It was trying to encourage

them to keep their eyes focused on the goal and the goal and the finishing

line is again I entitled the last message eyes on it is finished? Who

say it is finished? Jesus? Right? So eyes on Jesus. Basically

he is the pioneer and the perfector of our faith, and so we are

to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus if we want to run this course of

life. That's the context that was the first part of he Brewised, chapter

twelve, it was sad. If you want to listen to the teaching,

you can get on Spotify and listen to it. But so I'm here now

at the second part. So what this letter is is essentially saying at this

stage is this, it's not so much, it's not so important how you

actually begin to be a Christian, but it's actually very important that you continue

and complete your journey. That is the entire urgency of this letter, return

to the Hebrew Church. And so there was this particular problem backsliding. And

basically when you talk about backsliding, the person is actually addressing it to the

Jews because they could so easily go back to Judaism. Which again you have

to realize that it's not always when you backslide you think you're backsliding into something

bad. Rights we have that flow backsliding like as though he became sinner and

then start doing all sorts of wrong things. So that there are these when

sometimes we can actually backslide into not into a place of non religion, we

can backslide into another religion or our previous religion. It's it's moral. You

can't say that it's wrong. You can't say that Judaism is wrong, but

it's not of the right kind that the Lord has taught us. And that

is the truth of the matter. This whole letter is trying to tell us

that good is the enemy of best, because sometimes you can actually baxlight into

something that seems good, but that's not necessarily the best. You see,

Judaism was a good religion. It's a moral religion, it's a godly religion.

But it's constantly in conflict with Christianity. We know it. We read

scriptures, and time and time again we are reminded of them. It was

like new wine in old wine skin. And so what God wants is he

wants the best for each and everyone of us, and the best is Christ,

the best is Jesus. You can live a religious and moral life and

still do not know the best that God has for you in Christ Jesus.

That's the reality of it. And so the author wrote this to the converted

Jews, and he kept drawing a contrast between Moses and Jesus, between the

old religion and the new one. That's why as I was reading that's now

you see all these different characters appearing. You see both of them were good,

Moses and Jesus. Both of them were from God. But when you

have got the best one, the good one becomes the bad one to follow

per Sae. Okay, does that make sense? So the key word in

this letter is actually better, There is a better way, There is a

better person to follow. Right now, this is where we are at,

and let's not go backwards. Let's go with what is best and what is

better. And so this letter is essentially saying Christianity is the better of all

those religions, including Judaism, because christ is better than any other religious leaders.

And so let me run through some of the claims that you will read.

If you read Hebrews chapter one all the way to the end, you

will see a lot of compare and contrasts. Okay, the first contrast is

this is essentially saying that Jesus is better than all the prophets. Read go

go back and read it. Don't don't just take my word for it.

Read the whole of Hebrews. So, first contrast, Jesus is better than

all the prophets. Then the second thing you realize is it starts talking about

Jesus is better than all the angels, read. I think it's in Hebrews

chapter one. You'll see that the comparison between Jesus and the angels. Then

the next one is you read that Jesus is better than the great pioneers,

you know, all those apostles in the Old Testament, like Moses and Joshua.

Well, Hebrews to tell you Jesus is better than them. Then the

next contrast between Jesus is made with the priests of the Old Testament. Basically,

all the priests of Erin came and went through the Aaronic lineage, but

none of them succeeded in getting people right with God. If you realize what

was the role of the priest back then. Of course they were there to

offer the sacrificers, but they had to do it annually every year. Got

to do the same thing, go and kill the animals, and then the

blood becomes the redemption. But we know that Jesus is better because he became

there once and for all sacrifice right. So there was the contrast that was

made. All the sacrifices of the blood, of the bulls, of the

God's slain, or all the many altars year in year out, did not

was not able to cover the sins of the whole world, like what happened

when Jesus died on the cross. So Jesus is better. Then. The

next contrast was between all the believers of the Old Testament and the pioneer and

the perfector of our faith, Jesus, you see, the believers of the

past. That's why he Brews Chapter eleven naturally comes before he Brews chapter twelve.

He Brews chapter eleven talks about all the great heroes of the faith by

faith, so and so did this by faith, so and so this by

faith. So it's powerful. No, we read about them and suddenly you

think, that's the crowd of witness that is there cheering you on. But

basically we just look to them as reference. They are still if you read

the last part or he Brush chapter eleven, they are still waiting in a

way, cheering us on, so that when we finish our race, they

also complete their salvation. They are waiting for us. They have not come

to an end yet. And that's the reality of it. It's I know,

it can get a little bit deep. I won't teach all the end

times and what happens. Know when Jesus comes back et cetera, et cetera.

But take it from me that they are waiting for us to complete the

race. So that's what it means. No, between all the heroes of

the faith in Hebrews chapter eleven, you want to compare that with the pioneer

and the perfector of your faith, Jesus in Hebrewster is essentially saying that Jesus

is better. He was. They were all examples of faith, but they

were never pioneers, and neither were any of them perfectors of faith. That

is the difference. And so for all these reasons, no, no,

Jesus was better than the prophets, better than angels, better than apostles,

better than priests, better than the sacrificers, better than the believers of the

past. Basically, it is much better to be a Christian than a Jew.

That's what the scripture is saying essentially. So then comes this next question,

why then we go back? Why do we slide back? Why do

we backslide? Have you ever asked that question? Because Hebrews is a letter

that tells us the new is better than the old, why do we still

slide back? By having said this? Having said this, one of the

things that has been a challenge in Christian teachings today in churches. Is this,

we got to get the right relationship between the Old Testament and the New

Testament. Okay, okay, stay with me, Stay with me, don't

lose me, because if you get that wrong, then your church life can

go wrong. Old Testament and New Testament. Okay, because both are from

God, both are holy scripture, right, they both come from the same

God. They are both true. Question is how do we relate them?

Because sometimes when we read it, there is always this tendency, you know,

of us looking at the Old and the New Testament too far apart,

and then you start drawing a contrast between the two that starts to set the

Old Testament and the New Testament against one another. Ever ever heard of that?

Sometimes we always say, oh, the God of the Old Testament and

the God of the New Testament a bit different one quite common or right?

Or the God of the Old Testament he's quite horrific, and you know he

was slaughtered innocent people. He's quite a cruel god. Ever heard that mentioned

before? It has been it will alway? People always ask why why did

God no swallow up thousands of people, open the ground everyone black. Why

did that happen? No, innocent people. You know, he must be

a very cruel God. But that's not the God that I mean a New

Testament, I mean a nice, loving God. Knows Jesus there caressing the

lambs, and I don't know what else he's doing. So that's that's the

picture that we have. And so the Old Testament gives a false picture of

God. That's the record that some people have in their mind. That's the

false understanding of God. And what we need is the God of Jesus,

not the God of the Old Testament. Have you ever heard that being spoken

about? People do talk about it. In fact, whenever they have a

road block in their mind on how God can be good, they are always

making references to Jesus or not to God in the Old Testament. No,

that's not very good God. He's quite cruel. But people like to go

on to say, no, God will never send anybody to hell. The

God of the Old Testament might by the God of the New Testament. He

is not so bad one. But you think about it. Actually, all

the teaching about hell is in the New Testament, most of it. In

the Old Testament, not much is mentioned in fact, who thought about hell

the most in the New Testament? I want to take a while, guests,

Jesus all the most of the teachings about hell or ride golarn Okay,

great words, and that's the reality of it. And so people like to

sometimes know like, oh, no, God of the Old Testament, that's

the cruel and God of the New Testament. No, And then it creates

this tension and a dichotomy that starts to exist today between the old and the

New. In fact, sometimes people who draw this kind of false distinction,

they draw this contrast between the old and new. There are some things in

the New Testament they cannot accept. Also, they don't like the book or

revelations for a start, because again a revelation is a book that really makes

God look like the God of the Old Testament. That's true. Then sometimes

they don't quite like some of Paul's teachings, which can be very strong,

very harsh, a bit old fashioned, a bit like the God of the

Old Testament. And then there's some parts of the Gospel science they're reading the

Gospel. Oh, this one's very strong. No, it looks like in

a way, like I said, the last time I was teaching. Sometimes

what we have done is we have created God in our own image. We

have created a sentimental version of God in our hate. God is not father.

God is grandfather. No, he is a grandfather who comes, who

takes care of us. Not like how grandparents are two grandchildren. They were

siaan their grandchildren who so good. One school on, then after that bye

bye, after that, you know, they just move on, And that

is what can happen. Sometimes we create this sentimental image. And you know,

some people like this, they will never preach this part of Hebrews twelve

because you see her the end of Hebrews twelf actually says this, No,

for our God is a consuming fire. How many of you all like to

hear that kind of teaching? God is a consuming fire? I know it's

here in Hebrews, But where do you come from? He came from Levit,

because it came from Deuteronomy, it came from Exodus. And sometimes we

be like, oh, that's the Old Testament concept of God. We Christians,

we don't think of God like that. But this letter is written to

Christians, and this is New Testament, not Old Testament. And this is

an Old Testament quote in the New Testament, and it is the same God,

true and true. So from beginning to end we have the same God

through the whole Bible. Everything said about him in the Old Testament is true

and will always be. And that's why there was once this wise man said,

the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is

the Old Testament. Review makes sense. I say that again, the Old

Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament reveal.

I think it was Augustine, one of the early church fathers, who

say that. So is there an old and new dichotomy? Is it there?

Because the reality is, we do get a different feel of God in

the New Testament and in the Old Testament right right when you're reading, sometimes

like oh, because that's the reality of it. And we have got to

face this very honestly. Why is it that in the Old Testament you get

an impression of a God that you want to run away from, and in

the New Testament you get a God that you want to run towards. Do

you get that when you read the scriptures? We do? That's the reality

of it. Have you had the impression, I'm sure you have Why the

difference? Has God changed? No? And I tell you why, something

quite profound has changed. It is not God, but our experience of God

which has changed. Does that make sense? And this underlines a very important

truth? And I want to go deep with your I want you to think.

I want to underline this important principle. Never judge God by your experience

of him, judge Him by the ebolation of himself. Does that make sense?

What do I mean, my dad? I mean that your experience of

a person can be misleading if it is limited. You know, we can

experience one aspect of each other's lives, and we are Let's just say I

always go to church meetings and I meet one of the church leaders. In

the meetings. We can experience that person through that kind of a environment.

But your experience may change if you actually have to live with that person.

Your experience of a person may never have included seeing them lose their temper in

no science. Maybe some people always say that I don't lose temper and forever

compassionate until you meet my children who say that. Hang no, because someoney

might come and say, oh, no, I saw that person last week

and they were angry, and then you can say that's impossible. I've never

seen that person angry in my entire life. But that does not prove a

thing except that you have never known that person to be angry. That's all

it proves. It doesn't prove that they couldn't be angry. And you see

what I'm trying to get at right now makes sense. So in the Old

Testament they experience a very great deal of the wrath of God. And that

is how we know that the wrath of God is real, because if I

have not experienced that, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If I have

never seen God as fire, that doesn't mean he isn't fire. If I've

never met God as judge, that doesn't mean he isn't judged. It simply

means that I haven't experienced that side of his character, that's all. So

the fact is that Christians have not experienced the side of God's character that the

Jews did in the Old Testament. But it is still there and it is

still real, and we could experience it makes sense we should thank God that

we haven't. Now I'm sure, I'm sure none of you will be like

I want to experience what the Jews went through in the Old Testthma fire.

We're all consuming fire, earth opening and all the shattering moments, but we

haven't. That's why we can't drop that kind of picture of God, not

from our own experience, but we can draw it up from what he says

and what he has done. We can let me focus on this even more.

You know, I have never I think none of us, no,

no, I think none of us have experienced a total destruction of our society

by flood? No idy. Now am I to say that God will never

do that because I have not experienced it? Am I to say that God

will never destroy an entire society with water simply because I never saw it and

I wasn't there. What did God say? Instead? He said this while

the earth remains, I will never do it again. While the earth remains

doesn't mean he isn't the sort of God who would do it. It just

means that nobody, since no one's they, has experienced it the similar act

today, and we, of course, thank God, thank God, hallelujah.

Right, we are now, I believe, ready to approach the passage.

I'm only at the painting the context. Okay, you're still me The

whole meaning of this passage is that the experience of the Jews is different from

the Christians experience of God. Again, go back to what we are reading.

Just now, keep your mind, keep your eyes. If you have

your Bibles with you on Hebrews chapter twelve Versus eighteen onwards. What they experience

is still true because God has not changed, and what we experience is still

true. And you must put this together to get a whole picture. Otherwise,

the danger is this, and the Script wants us. The danger is

we will not have enough reverence and awe in our worship. That is the

danger that we have because we don't experience what the Jews experience. Sometimes we

tend to be very chummy. We got hey God, well your homies.

No, sometimes we come to church like going to cinema because we don't have

the same experience of God that they had. You know, today, if

we have a fixed form of worship, we have order, we have decorum.

It can be thought to be very artificial in church. That's the reality

of it. There's always this desire or let's be natural, let's be real,

know this new objective. Let's set people free, free to do what

they want. Free to worship God, and then suddenly form and order becomes

the enemy, or at least it becomes something that ticks away people's liberty and

people's freedom. And that's why sometimes sometimes we consider it a lot of us

like to dress down when we come to Again, I'm not putting anyone down.

I'm not, but that's the reality of where we are today. You

know, we find that are dressing more formally to meet God not really needed

because well, the Bible says, a man looks at the outward appearance,

but the lot looks into the heart. So as long as my heart is

okay, But we still dress up to go for interviews. Right, if

you have to meet a king or a foreign dignitary or someone of the higher

you will still dress uplying. Right for Samuel sixteen seven, a man looks

at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. We have

to also remember that that is in the context of the selection of a king

doesn't talk about worshippers like us. I mean, in reality, why can't

we come before the Lord and give our best? In that sense, formality

and reverence still has value, but we have allowed it to creep into our

thinking the way we view things and the way we perceive things. And then

slowly, when you I like to link this together, you know, you

start being more and more informal. We've God, You're also start being less

and less punctual with God. We are never on time when it comes to

things of God. It's something that God will understand is going to be cool.

So it's because of this assumption that being spontaneous and free means we are

more spiritual. But the truth is that form and freedom need each other.

They need each other. Without form, there's going to be chaos without freedom,

it's dead. Why do I say that, Well, as believers,

what are we? We are free? We are people who are free because

we have been set free from the shackles of sin, which means that today

we have the liberty to choose to do what is right, as compared to

before Jesus. If Jesus didn't die for us on the cross, we didn't

even have that choice. Basically, we are all condemned. But because of

what Jesus has done today we have the freedom to choose to do what is

right. Form and freedom goes hand in hand, And this is the message

of Hebrews God hasn't changed, our experience has changed. So let's develop this

even more. Why is it that we go more by our own experience of

God as compared to other people's experience? Ever, ask yourself that it's quite

obvious one, because we always trust our judgment better than we trust other people.

Again normally, okay, because if we have experienced something, we will

accept that to be more of the authority than we accept someone else's experience.

So if a man actually says, well, to me, God is like

this, and I say, well, that's not how he is to me,

who do you think you will? You'll sign more your side yourself la.

And that's the human thing. We tend to go by our own personal

experience. And hebrews now is saying, praise God for men of faith who

are prepared to go by other people's experience, who are prepared to believe that

God is the kind of God whom Noah experience, who is prepared to believe

that God is the kind of God the Abraham experience, that God is the

kind of God that Moses experience, and to take this Bible as a book

of their experience and believe that as well, and have a balanced approach to

Almighty God. Does that make sense? Now, let's go into Hebrews Chapter

twelve, verses eighteen to twenty one will end on time, trust me,

because if you read it, let's look first at the experience. By going

back read read the studying part. No, it talks about firstly Mount Sinai.

Right all you're scratching, hit, huh what what? What talking the

floor mount signa westling of Mount Sinai. Let's look, let's look at the

experience because Mount Sinai in history is the day that God got married. Basically,

it is the time in which the covenant was set and the ceremony that

that covenant, that marital ceremony happened in the middle of the desert, happened

in Sinai, and they're amongst all these barren mountains. God got married to

Israel and form a covenant relationship between him and them. There was a marriage

born, and from then on God actually called he was like the groom to

them, he's the husband, and he called Israel the wife. When they

went to other gods, he will accuse them of adult tree. Remember that.

Remember the sequence of events, and that's why you know you remember this

preacher Joseiah Hoseah, what what what? What? What's famous about Hosea?

Who do you marry? Take a while, guests, he married a prostitute.

And then when everybody knows about the scandal, you just imagine the headlines.

Preacher marries the prostitute. Then he says, you tell them, that's

what all of them are doing. They become unfaithful to me, he's referring

to Issia. God, he's referring to Israel. They are like a prostitute

wife to me, that is what Sinai represents. So God was on that

mountain and he said, don't come near this mountain. Don't touch it.

Even even animal comes and touches it. You must kill that animal. That

was where the marriage took place. That was where it was. It's like

holy ground. And this was there experience of God, and it was an

experience of their senses. It was a tangible, physical experience of God.

To their senses. They saw darkness, they saw the storm. There was

black thunderclouds above them. The sense of touch was also involved. It was

a mountain, so basically you can touch the mountain literally, and yet it

must not be touched. There was also the sense of smell because there was

burning. I'm sure there was some sort of volcanic activity that was happening around

the area. And then there was also hearing. They heard the thunder,

and they heard a sound that later they described as a big loud trumpet blast.

Now, how would you feel if you come to church and you saw

all those things today and you smell those things, You heard those things,

you know, thunder, lightning, smell of sulfur, and the building was

moving like as though there's a mini earthquake. Hebrews actually says that you ought

to feel like that anyway, that's how we should feel. You ought to

approach God like that when you go to church, because He has not changed.

The only thing that has changed is that we don't have a sensory experience

of Him today like back then. Do you see that we have a different

experience of Him in another dimension, But God is still the same. So

that was their experience. God's presence was real physically. You could touch,

you could smell, you could hear, you could see that God was right

there, and everybody knew. In fact, their experience was not only tangible,

it was terrifying. As soon as they got there. They wanted to

not be there. They wanted to run, they wanted to go home.

They wanted together and say, Oh God, adios. If God showed himself

physically like that, what our reaction be. Their reaction was not to come

near him, but to pull away. Their reaction was due to this horrible

fear. And the whole situation produced fear. It produced terror, and even

they wanted to pull away from God. Even Moses, we read, was

terrified. Right, you read the scriptures, He actually says Moses trembled with

fear. Now, what the Letter to the Hebrews is saying is this.

You may have come to church for years and never have had such an experience.

That does not mean that God has changed. It means that your experience

of Him is different, that's all. And then from Mound Sinai it goes

on to talk about maund Zion. Right, I'm not making this up in

the scriptures. And you look at now, look at our experience New Testament

believers. Okay, we're all here, which is quite different our experience.

No, I still believe God works and moves in science and wonders. I'm

not saying he doesn't, but it's not always so tangible. It is things

which are not seen, not touch, not not diasted, well, at

least not in the physical sense all the time. All our experience is based

on faith, which goes beyond the sensus. It is therefore not a sensory

experience. It is just a different experience. Does that make sense? So

we now have come to a mountain, but not a physical mountain. We

have come to a heavenly mountain. That's what Mount Zion represents instead of Mount

Sinai. It's a heavenly mountain. And what is the difference here? Mount

Sinai is the place where God gives his demands, his laws. That was

where the Ten Commandments came. Mount Zion is the place where you are at

home. We've got it is a heavenly mountain, not an earthly one,

and that is the experience that we have. It is totally different from their

experience of the Old Testament. But God is still the same. You're still

with me. So we have not only come to a mountain, we have

come to a city. Read Read the whole thing and you will start seeing

what it means. No, it doesn't just talk about mountain. It then

goes on to say that we have come to a city. It's crowded with

people. That's a population there. And so we meet God in a heavenly

city, not in the wilderness like before. Back then was in the wilderness.

And so this experience basically has drawn us closer, for we have come

to the Living God as they did the same Living God. They came and

they wanted to pull away, and they didn't want to listen. We come

and we want to draw here and we want to listen. Why is the

question that we have to ask. Well, I'll tell you why. Because

we don't see God sitting alone on the mountain. We see him surrounded with

people, a city full of people. And then it goes on to say,

we see thousands upon thousands of angels. So you have come to the

Living God, and you have come to angels in a joyous assembly celebrating.

That is what makes us want to celebrate. That's why we say when someone

is safe here, the whole heaven rejoices. Right, all the angels in

heaven rejoices. That's what it really means. The angels are singing no,

when you're born again, they're celebrating up there. As soon as each of

us repents of our sin. But not only that, it also says that

we have come to the Church of the first born. You ever wonder why

he says that. Now this expression firstborn, what does it mean? You

see in any family in the Bible, there is one person in the family

inherits only one child, and it's usually the first bond. And sometimes we

read the first born or the main one, receives a double portion because he

has to take care of everyone else. So our father's business was inherited by

the firstborn. So we have come to the Church of the firstborn. And

basically every member of the Church of Christ is the firstborn, because every one

of us stands to inherit God's blessing in our lives. Makes sense, So

to come to a church of the firstborn, it wouldn't make you like I

want to run away, right, It draws you closer the privilege of being

part of Christ's Church and finding anywhere in the world we go. When we

step into church, we are stepping into not just the angels celebrating, We're

also stepping into a place where fellow believers and fellow Christians are there. We

have come to be with people. Hey, it doesn't stop there. It

goes on to say, we have also come to the spirits of just men

made perfect. What does that mean? That refers to the men and women

who have died and who are now. They're just waiting for us to complete

the race. But they are already almost there. They were righteous on earth,

and they have been made perfect, and they will eventually be made perfect

when we join them. So to summarize all this, when you are in

church, you are in the Church of the Firstborn. There are thousands and

thousands of angels rejoicing and watching what happens in the service. They rejoice if

one person comes to Christ. We have come to the spirits of just men

made perfect. We are surrounded with a great cloud of witnesses, the communion

of the saints. That doesn't put you off right believing God in the midst

of his angels, his church, his saints. What more could you ask

for? That is our experience of God today that is different from the Jewish

experience on Mount Sinai. Why has God change? Has got changed in the

slightest because you have come to the Living God, the judge of all men.

It says here the same God that they met at Sinai, the Judge

of all men, exactly the same title, the same god. They came,

they met the judge. They wanted to run away. We come,

we meet the Judge. We wanted to run to him. Why because not

just the crowd of angels and the people around him, but there was someone

else. And who is there someone else? Jesus. That's the difference.

Because today we have now come to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant.

We are not filled with terror. Why not because the blood of Jesus

now speaks louder. Do you know, all the blood that was shed in

the Old Testament cries for vengeance, punishment, retribution. That's what it's about.

All the blood that was shed, not every animal that was slaughtered.

It was crying out for that, and yet it could not take away the

sins. It spoke about the price that is needed to be paid, and

we understand that from all the sacrifices of the Old Testament there is a price

that needs to be paid for every person's wrong. But did it pay the

price in full? We know it doesn't. But that is what the couse

of sin is. And need everything that you do in your life that causes

us to sin has to be played in blood. But when Jesus died,

his blood did not cry out for punishment. It did not cry out for

retribution. It actually cried out for mercy. You see, even the first

bloodshed in the Bible. When was blood first shed in the Bible? Two

brothers who Cain and Able murdered by his own brother Cain. And this is

Able and the first family, and all the scripture she records your brother's blood.

Cries to me from the ground. Why did he cry for it?

Cried out for the punishment of kin, That's what he was crying out.

In other words, that which stands between me and this god of Sinai now

is actually the blood of Jesus. Because even at Sinai, back then,

they took the blood of animals. They sprinkle it on the fence, they

sprinkly on the mountain, is sprinkly on the people. There was blood everywhere.

In fact, it was quite a bloody affair. If you studied all

the Old Testament sacrifices to be made, it's quite a pretty bloody affair.

But everything was to remind them of punishment. But right now I have come

to Mount Zion, and now the blurred is sprinkled on me, not for

vengeance, not for punishment, but for pardon and mercy. The blood of

Jesus now stands between me and the living God. And that's why I am

protected, are protected as believers of Jesus Christ. Does that make sense?

Therefore, here am I in the same position as the Jew in Sinai.

We are all sinners facing a living God. But I'm not running away.

I don't see any of your running away. In fact, you're just avoid

You don't run away most of the time, right, avoid coming to church.

But we're not running away. We're not terrified because today we have come

to the mediator of a new covenant. There is someone between me and God,

and there is something between me and God. That someone is the mediator,

Jesus, and that something is his sprinkled blood. So I'm not frightened

to worship the living God. I have come to Mount Sion, not Mount

Sinai, and my experience is different. Right, So what is the position

in today's church? And I simply entitled this message. Heaven must rule by

revelation, not solely by experience. It must rule by revelation. You see,

we are in a greater danger than the Jews of Sinai. Why because

the thought of God's holiness was so obvious to them back then. That's so

obvious now that they actually fear God, and the fear of God was literally

in them. It is not so obvious to us today. And therefore we,

now with the greater privilege of a more wonderful experience we've God, sometimes

tend to take God less seriously. If you went to church and there was

fire and thunder and trumpet blasting, and the whole building is shaking, maybe

you will take notice of God more than you are taking of Him right now,

me included, me included. And the danger is that, because God

doesn't manifest himself in that way, we take his word likely we don't pay

a lot of attention to it. But the Letter to the Hebrews say is

quite simply, if they did not escape when they refuse him who warned them

on earth, how much less will we if we turn away from Him who

warns us from heaven. You see, they back then had an earthly,

tangible warning. We have a spiritual, heavenly warning that places us a greater

responsibility on us, not a lesser one. On how we choose to respond

to God's word. You see, that should be a greater sense of reverence

in us, not less. That should be a deeper sense of listening and

obeying His word than there was in that dramatic surroundings back then, with thunder

and lightning and whatnot. Yet, this is the sad part that we see

today. Do you see the church today hanging on to God's word like their

very life depends on it? Again, I'm not just preaching to you and

preaching to myself. It's the reality. Our experience is different, but the

revelation is the same. His word is the same. And his word states

that at Mount Sinai he shook the earth. But his word states He's going

to shake not only the Earth, but space and all planets in it.

Basically, the heavens are going to be shaken. God is going to take

this whole universe and he's going to shake it. I think we are starting

to see it because He's going to shake everything out that is not lasting.

And at the end of the day, the only thing that remains are those

that last. Now, what will you lose? No, if he shakes

the whole universe, I don't know. Maybe we could lose our house,

we could lose our cars, we could lose our businesses, we could lose

church buildings, basically all created things we can lose. What will you keep

when He shakes the whole universe and only unshaken things remain. Well, there

is only one kingdom which will remain, and scripture tells us that it is

the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, the kingdom to which we

belong, the kingdom on which Mount Zion is where we are standing today.

The heavenly city Jerusalem will stand and all other cities cities will be shaken.

And that is the truth. For you see, God is not only father.

I'm just going through the scriptures. It also says that he's fire.

You see, my earthly Father was never fire, even though he had a

fiery temper. But our God is a consuming fire. And there is only

one thing between you and the fire. And we are not covered with as

best to us. No, thank God, it's not just as best to

us that we are covered with, but we are covered with the sprinkle blurt

of Jesus. So how do we work out all this in practice? And

it doesn't just and then tells us a story. She tells us what we

need to do. You know, we must not set the Old Testament against

the new. We must not say, oh, back then, that's the

God of fire, and this is Mount Sinai. That was for the Jews,

not for me. I have a nice God, and I just come

to him. We can cheit chat No, we can be pelly pelly with

him, chummy. No. Scripture tells us that we must recognize that God

is still a consuming fire, and that he's still going to shake the earth

and the heavens once more, and he will shake out everything and everyone who

is not eternal. By recognizing that, and then you will come to God

with two things in your heart. Only two things is needed, and his

two attitudes of heart and mind. And this is what he rules is essentially

teaching us. Firstly, we will come in reverence and in awe in coming

to church. No, you come closer to the living God. It is

of his mercies that we are not consumed. He would just need to say

one word, and really we can all be swallowed. But yet when we

come to this amazing God, I pray that we will learn the meaning of

the word all. He is an awesome God, and that I revere him,

I respect him. And then the second approach is this, we will

approach him with gratitude, that you will not be burned up when everything else

is burning up, because we are covered by the blood of Jesus, and

that you can climb right into His presence by faith and you can stand there.

That's what we are doing today when we come to church. We stand

here together in the presence of God because of our faith in Christ Jesus.

His presence is holy. It's not something in which we take for granted.

And this is my hope and my prayer for each and everyone of us,

myself included, that we learn to be thankful, and we learn how to

approach God in reverence and all let's stand and let's worship him because he deserves

all glory, all praise, all honor. Every bit of our lives belongs

to him because He is the giver of life. We hope you've been blessed

by this message. For more information on our church, please visit aschurch do

org. We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this

week is going to be a good week, a hit for you. God bless