You Have Come

I love being here on Sundays. It's so great to be with my family. This is our brothers and sisters in Christ, and there's no better place to be. There's no better thing to do than to make much of Christ. And especially when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. Because that's what we're doing here with the bread and the wine that's set before us. We're celebrating the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our highest celebration. We celebrate games, football games, when our team wins or whatnot. But that's all transitory, it passes. But what we celebrate in Christ matters, right? We're proclaiming His death until He comes. And we're looking forward to that day when we eat and drink this with Christ in heaven.

Please open up your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews is a wonderful book. Of course it celebrates Christ. And it's a great book to preach from when we celebrate the Lord's Supper. Hebrews chapter 12.

In Hebrews chapter 12, the writer is comparing the old covenant to the new covenant. And he's showing the differences between the two. He does that under the figure of Mount Sinai being the symbol, or the emblem, of the old covenant. Because it was on Mount Sinai that Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments, that he received the law there at Mount Sinai. And then he compares that to Mount Zion, which is a symbol for Jerusalem, for the heavenly Jerusalem, for the people of God.

And when he makes his comparison, he shows that under the old covenant it was marked by terror and marked by inadequacy. And then he compares that to the new covenant and shows the transcendent glory, the peace, and the blessing — in every way where the old covenant is triumphed by Christ, because He completes the old covenant and offers us the new covenant.

We're going to be reading in verses 18 through 24. I'm going to begin by reading verses 18 through 22, which is the first half of this text. I'm reading from the ESV translation. It says, "For you have not come to what may be touched." He's writing to Christians. He's saying, "You haven't come to what may be touched." You haven't come to Mount Sinai, to where Moses went up onto the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. He says, "You're not under the old covenant. You're under the new." He says, "You have not come to what may be touched — a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."

"Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I tremble with fear.'"

We're going to stop right there, and in a few minutes we'll pick up in verse 22.

In verse 18 he says, "For you have not come." Some of your translations may say, "You have not come to Mount Sinai," or, "You have not come to the Mount." That's supplied by the context. It's not there in the Greek. It's simply, "You have not come." And the reason why that's supplied is because starting in verse 22, it compares Mount Zion to Sinai. It says, "You have not come."

When it says, "You have not come," it then goes on to say, "To what may be touched." He's using imagery in the next few verses that's going to describe the tangibility, so to speak, of the old covenant. What happened at the old covenant on Mount Sinai was what we call a theophany — where God manifests His presence in a way. We can't see God, right? God is spirit, and no man has seen God and can live. But what did Moses see? He saw fire, right? He saw thunder. He saw lightning. He saw dark clouds. He saw the tempest, the whirlwind, right?

And he's drawing here from Deuteronomy chapter 4. Let me read to you verses 11 through 14. Moses says, "Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain. And the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form. You only heard a voice. So He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you the statutes and the judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess."

So Moses is recounting the history of Israel and telling them about what they saw. And they remembered, of course. We have the same recollection of that being written by Moses in the book of Exodus. In chapter 19:16–20, it says, "Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain. And the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace. The whole mountain quaked greatly. And the blast of a trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up."

So he's describing this very surreal theophany of God, where God is appearing in fire and in smoke and in thunderings and lightning and a tempest. He says, "You have not come to what may be touched." God had called Moses and the children of Israel to come to a specific mountain — a tangible mountain, a real mountain — and there God was going to come down and meet with them, right? And we often think, "Well, that would be kind of cool, because we live by faith, right? Wouldn't it be great to see the manifestation of God on a mountain?"

Let me tell you, Moses and the children of Israel didn't think it was so great.

It says, "That which may be touched" — that which may be touched is the exact same verbiage used in the Septuagint in the book of Exodus, where the plagues are coming upon Egypt because Pharaoh has refused to let Moses' people go. There's a part of that plague where it describes a thick darkness that you can feel, it's so thick. That's the same word that's used here. And he's saying, "We haven't come to that." In other words, the old covenant was based upon tangible things. It was based upon outward things. It was based upon things that were external to us. And those things were quite terrifying, right? And they were a bit overwhelming.

In the New Testament, remember when Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman? What does He tell her? He says, "The day is coming, and now is, when you're not going to worship Him in that mountain or this mountain, but you will worship Him in spirit and in truth." Right? Under the new covenant, we worship God as He's revealed Himself, and we worship Him as He's commanded us — in spirit and in truth, as He is. We're not content with just the shadows. We're not content with the forms, so to speak, of His theophany. We're content with seeing the face of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

He says, "A blazing fire — for you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire." This would remind them of what happens to those who disobey God. What happens to the chaff, Jesus said? It's burned, right? Because it's worthless.

It also points to darkness. It says, "You have not come to that which may be touched." He says, "A blazing fire and darkness." Darkness oftentimes in the Old Testament speaks of God's majesty, of His mystery, and also of His power.

In the Old Testament, they didn't see clearly as we see, because we're on this side of the cross, right? We have the symbols before us of the body of Christ in the bread, and the wine representing His blood, that Christ would be our sacrifice, that He would die in our place. Well, they didn't understand that. It was very much a mystery in the Old Testament. And that mystery can be described as darkness, right? Psalm 97:1–6 says, "The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of the isles be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. A fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies round about. His lightnings light the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness and all the people see His glory."

Not only was it fire, not only was it darkness, but it describes gloom. We see that: "And gloom and a tempest." God's holiness, which was revealed in the law — the Ten Commandments given to Moses, and then the six hundred-some-odd rules that followed — placed a heavy burden on the children of Israel, right?

Who could obey those? It's hanging over your head like gloom, right? You know that you're a dead man walking. Because what does Paul say? The law kills, right? It renders us guilty before God. The law was meant to drive us to Christ, to show us our need for the Savior, right? But that hadn't been revealed all the way yet. And so it was a very heavy thing for them. It was a gloomy thing for them.

Later on, of course, when we read in the book of Psalms, David says, "How I love Thy law." When we're regenerated, right, all of a sudden the law's not a threat to us. Because we know that our sins have been covered, right, with the sacrifice — in this case the sacrifice of Christ. Also says that they not only met there with fire, and with darkness, and with gloom, but a tempest. A tempest is another way of saying a storm. What normally accompanies thunder and lightning? A storm, right? Remember in the book of Job — what did God speak to Job out of? A whirlwind, right? A display of His power. It's no mistake that on the day of Pentecost, there was a sound of a rushing mighty wind, right? Because again, this was a theophany displaying, in this case, the Spirit coming upon them.

So in verse 18, we see some of these physical manifestations, but in verse 19, we hear some of the audible manifestations. Look at verse 19. "And the sound of a trumpet."

Trumpets were used in the Old Testament for gathering the people, for religious celebrations. For example, the trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement, right? They called Israel forth to worship. Trumpets were also used for announcing royal edicts or introducing an anointed one, right? And trumpets were also used to declare war, right? And when you heard a trumpet, it was very, very loud.

I grew up in Texas, in a small little town, and about a hundred yards from my house was — and still is — Fire Station number four. And Fire Station number four is home to Jefferson County, Texas's emergency siren. This is a Cold War bomb-raid siren from the '50s. And they would test it on the first Wednesday of every month at 10 o'clock. And when it went off, good luck having a conversation, right? You couldn't hear yourself speak. I had three beagles and — "Rrrr!" — they were joining in, making it even louder during that time. It's a terrifying thing, right? And as we read earlier, when the sound of the trumpet blew, it got louder and louder and louder because it was a royal invitation saying, "Come to this mountain."

It says that, "They also heard a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them." They heard the voice of God. They didn't see God. They heard His voice. And it was so overwhelming that they begged Moses, "Don't let God speak to us anymore. Let Him speak to you, Moses, and then you speak to us. We want a human mediator. We cannot bear to hear the unfiltered voice of God."

In the new covenant, we have a divine human mediator, right? Jesus Christ. They didn't have that in the old covenant. Moses was a human mediator, and so they missed out, of course, on some of the blessings that we have in the new covenant.

Israel was so overwhelmed that they begged Moses to be their intermediary, and look what it says here in verse 20: "For they could not endure the order that was given." They couldn't endure. They could not endure the commandments that were spoken to them. And part of that was that if a beast, or a person, were to touch that mountain where God was, what would happen to them? They'd be stoned or shot, right? Shot with an arrow or stoned. That was a heavy thing for them. It says, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned."

In verse 21, "Indeed, so terrifying was the sight." Moses seeing the physical manifestation of God and hearing the voice of God was so terrifying that Moses says, "I tremble with fear." This is actually coming from a later quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 9, where Moses comes down after being on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, and he's appalled. He's shocked by the evil that's going on in the camp.

They're engaged in the worst form of idolatry. They're engaged in the worst type of sexual immorality and rebellion against God. And he knows that God is going to break out in wrath against them. And he fears — it says he trembles at the wrath of God, right? But he uses this to explain the entire Exodus here, where he goes to the mountain and receives the commandments. Moses would have feared just as much then as he did at Israel's rebellion.

When it says he was terrified, it says, "Indeed, so terrifying" — the word there in the Septuagint, and also here in the Greek New Testament, is ekphobos. "Ek" being "out of" and "out of fear" — it translates literally to that you're so fearful you're out of your mind. You're out of your wits. You're out of sorts. Have you ever had that kind of fear? It's usually rare, right? That's the kind of fear that Israel faced when God revealed Himself on Mount Sinai in the old covenant.

The application is this. Israel was fearful because they knew they were unholy. They knew the commandments that God had given to them they could not bear. They could not keep them. It was terrifying to them, especially seeing the fire and the smoke, the shekinah glory of God, seeing the tempest, hearing the voice of God and the trumpet resound. They were afraid that God was going to break out in war against them for not keeping it. So they were terrified of that.

Let me ask you — are you living in fear as if you're still under the old covenant? That's what the writer of Hebrews is asking them. He's telling them, "You've not come to that mountain that can't be touched, right? You're under the new covenant." But so many times, new covenant believers live in fear. We wonder, has Christ really paid our debts? Has what He did on the cross — His body broken for us and His blood spilled — has it canceled out all my sins? I mean, you don't know the depth of my sins. You don't know how often I sin. So how can God forgive me?

The grace of Christ is always greater, right? Under the old covenant, they were afraid to approach God. Only Moses and Aaron were able to go on the mountain, and then later some of the elders of Israel were. Are you afraid to approach God? When we have wrongly ordered views of God, when we fail to see Him as Father, when we fail to see Him as a loving Creator who has provided salvation for us in His own Son, then we're not worshiping God in spirit and we're not worshiping Him in truth, right?

Do you, like the children of Israel, refuse to hear the Word of God? Say, "I'd rather have a mediator speak to me. I'd rather hear Pastor Casey. I'm not going to open up the Bible. I'm afraid to. I don't know enough."

That's not what Jesus would have you do in the new covenant, right? He said He would send you a Helper who would lead you and guide you into all truth — His very Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, right? So the application is: saints, don't live like you're under the old covenant. Your relationship with God should not be marked by terror, nor should it be marked by inadequacy, as if God's covenant wasn't enough for you, as if His promises weren't effective for you.

How should I view God then? I'm glad He asked. The writer of Hebrews does the same thing. He answers that in verses 22 through 24.

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better things than that of Abel."

He begins to say, "But you have come to Mount Zion." When he says, "You have come," he means, "You literally have drawn near." Every believer in Christ has come to Mount Zion. Mount Zion is another name for Jerusalem. It's another name for coming to Christ, right? Who sits upon the throne of His father David but our Lord Jesus Christ, right? We read in Psalm 2 that at the resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Christ, He is installed as King of the universe. We see the same thing in Psalm 110, right? Those are coronation psalms of the exalted Christ, and He rules the world, right? And Jerusalem is His. Zion is His. He says, "You have come to Zion" — right? You're not at Sinai, which is marked by distance, which is marked by terror, which is marked by inadequacy. Not at all. You have come to Zion.

He says, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God." The city of the living God is a city where Christ sits on His throne. We serve a God who is present with us, one who bids us to come near, right?

Jesus did that. Didn't He come near to us? John 1:14–18 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." John bore witness to Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'"

Verse 16: "And of His fullness we have all received, grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

Christ's sacrifice transforms the fearful approach at Sinai to a free, grace-filled invitation to come to Him. No one's seen God, but Christ has. He's in the bosom of the Father, and He has revealed Him, right? And He has given us grace upon grace, right? He's not stiff-arming us, holding us back, saying, "Don't come to this mountain." He's not threatening us with fire and smoke and mystery. He's revealing — revealing the very love and heart of the Father. That's what He did on the cross. He actually revealed the holiness and the severity of God by being our sacrifice. But He also revealed the love of God that met the holy God's demands, right?

Not only did Jesus come to us, but when we read the New Testament and the new covenant, all came to Jesus, didn't they? Didn't lepers come to Jesus? But they were unclean. Was Christ tainted by them? No. Didn't fathers and mothers come to Jesus, bringing their children to Him? Didn't Jairus say, "My daughter" — I don't know what to do, right? But Jesus knew what to do. Didn't the blind come to Jesus? Didn't the poor come to Jesus? Didn't the lame come to Jesus? Didn't people even carry lame people to Jesus? They removed the roof and lowered the paralytic to bring him to Christ, because they knew that Christ says, "Come, come to Me," right? What does He say? "Suffer the little children to come to Me." Didn't He tell the disciples to come to Him, right?

Let me read to you Matthew 17:5–7. This shows how Jesus invites us to Himself. This is a theophany not unlike what Moses saw at Sinai. This is the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus had called a few of His disciples to come up with Him, and they're on the top of the mountain. He unveiled a little bit of His glory, peeled it back so they could see.

Verses 5–7 say, "While He was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.'"

He's standing there with Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets. And God says, "Listen to Christ. He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. He is what the Law and the Prophets were testifying about, right? He is the One in whom I am well pleased." Verse 6: "And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid." Sounded a lot like Moses, right? But look at verse 7: "But Jesus came and touched them and said, 'Arise, and do not be afraid.'"

In the new covenant, God comes to those who tremble before Him, and He touches them. "Arise, don't be afraid."

Christ is One who speaks peace to the storm, right? By Christ, we have access to our Father in heaven, right? What does Romans 8:1 tell us? "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."

So the application for this is, first of all, draw near to Christ, who welcomes you in His arms. Matthew 11:28–30: Jesus says, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Remember at Sinai, they said, "We can't bear under these words. We can't bear under their yoke. They're too much for us." But what does Jesus say? "My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Because He gives us His Spirit, who helps us not only receive the commandments, but empowers us to obey them, right? We obey them out of love, and it's a joy. So we can say, "How I love Thy law," as David does in Psalm 119.

The second application is this. Don't just come to Jesus, but be like Jesus and go to others. Mirror Christ. Christ came to others. Let me give you an example from a parable that Jesus told in Luke 10:33–34.

You'll know it as soon as I say it. "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was." Who was this person? This was a man who had been beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. The Samaritan came when the holy men of Jerusalem had passed right on by. He came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. And he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

That's going to others, right? Binding up what is broken, going to those who are blind and telling them about the light of Jesus Christ who shines in darkness, going to those who are spiritually infirm and telling them of the Holy Spirit who can empower them, right? Going to prisoners who sit in darkness and proclaiming liberty to them. We must go to others just as Christ went forth to us, right? We who are recipients of His grace in the new covenant.

It says in verse 22, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God and the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable angels in festal gathering." Now, this is the ESV. There are different ways to parse the Greek here. Some of your translations may say "the general assembly" and may even place the gathering or the assembly in the next verse, verse 23.

But in verse 22, the ESV says, "To innumerable angels in a festal gathering." I believe that's the closest to the Greek. When I had Greek, I'm by no means a Greek expert, but I had some wonderful Greek professors, and they agreed with the way the ESV interprets it here. That's why I'm using the ESV this morning.

Let me speak to that first. What is innumerable? Some of your Bibles may say "myriads," right? In Greek, the biggest number you could have was myriads — it was 10,000. They didn't have numbers past that. We come up with crazy numbers — a gazillion, right? But they didn't do that. But if you used myriads, or ten-thousands, in the plural, it meant an innumerable company, right?

Now, we know from the New Testament and also from the Old Testament that the law was given to Moses via angels. In other words, angels were there at that theophany of God on Mount Sinai, right? Well, in the new covenant, we have come to a mountain — Mount Zion — that not only do we come to and experience the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we come to a mountain marked by a heavenly city, meaning life and not the desert. We come to the New Jerusalem, where Christ sits on His throne. But when we come to worship, we are met here, even today, by an innumerable, invisible angelic host.

We can't see them, but they join us in worship. They are worshiping 24-7. When we lift up our voices in praise, we're simply joining their chorus, right? This is an innumerable company of angels that are in a festal gathering.

In the Old Testament, there were certain feasts — three of them in particular — where all men, twelve years old and older, were required to appear personally in Israel. They made these pilgrimages, right? And there were festive times, and we read about that. Remember when Jesus was a lad and His family was coming home and He tarried behind in the temple, right? This was part of their life, these festal gatherings. He's saying that part of our worship in the new covenant is the attendance of myriads of angels, innumerable angels.

I want to read to you a picture of that from Revelation 5:11–14.

"And every creature that is in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, 'Blessing and honor, glory and power be to Him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.'"

We worship, but we never worship alone. And let that change the way you worship. When you sing, don't just mutter it out. Sing to join His heavenly chorus, right? Sing in joyful anticipation of that day when we'll be able to see what Elisha's servant saw. Remember Elisha had a servant, Gehazi? He said, "Lord, open his eyes that he may see." And he saw the chariots of fire around them. There were more in heaven than there were here on this earth, right? What a glorious day that's going to be. God marshals His countless angels to attend our worship. That's one of the privileges of the new covenant.

Verse 23 says, "And to the assembly of the firstborn."

Consider that we are part of the assembly of the firstborn. Now, Christ is called the firstborn, right? Many places in the New Testament. He's the firstborn from the dead, right? He's the firstborn among many brethren, right?

Firstborn does not mean that Christ, the second person of the Trinity, came into being. It's not a matter of being, but it's a matter of rank. When you say someone's firstborn, you're speaking of privilege. You're speaking of authority, and you're speaking of inheritance, okay?

In the Old Testament, the firstborn male received a double inheritance, right? He was also responsible to appear before God on behalf of his family, right?

Well, Christ is the One who has attained the inheritance of the church, right? We're the assembly of the firstborn. We are named after Christ. All of His privileges, His inheritance, is shared with us as believers, graciously lavished upon us. Who does that?

I don't know if anyone won, but it's been in the news this week. Powerball's been some crazy number, one and a half billion dollars or whatnot. Could you imagine someone getting that and then giving every cent of it away? Christ shares His inheritance with His church. We are part of the assembly of the firstborn. 1 Peter 1:3–5 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time."

The application is: be blessed in Christ. What does Ephesians 1:3 say? We receive every blessing in Christ Jesus, right? Think of the glories that He has shared with us — that we have access to the Father, that we have His Word, right, that we have grace. It's all because of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can boldly approach the throne of grace because of Him.

It also describes in verse 23, "to the assembly of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven." The world enrolls. This is the same word used, by the way, in Luke and in Matthew — remember, Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem. Why? Because of the census, and that census was for taxation, right? Whether you know it or not, you're on a roll, right? I'm on Palm Beach County Tax Assessor's roll. I got my statement just a couple of weeks ago. This world enrolls us for taxing, right?

God enrolls you in His heavenly city as part of His congregation, for blessing and for redemption. God does not make any errors on His roll, right? Your name is written indelibly in the blood of Jesus Christ. It cannot be wiped away, right? And it's there for your blessing. It's there to share His inheritance with you.

What does Philippians 3:20 say? I know the co-ed class recently did the book of Philippians. But your citizenship is in heaven. You have an ID card. It says you belong there, right? And it's written by God.

The application for this, first of all, is treat your fellow brothers and sisters as VIPs. Their name is written in the blood of Christ on heaven's rolls. So don't mistreat them. Don't look down upon them. Someone may be an irritation to you. Pray for them, that your heart would be changed toward them, because they are on God's rolls. Treat them as a VIP, right?

The second application: go and fill the rolls of heaven, right? How do we do that? By proclaiming the gospel, right? Jesus promises that whoever believes in Him, the Father will in no wise cast out. Don't we want that roll to be as full as possible when we reach heaven? So participate in that.

So not only have we come to those who are enrolled in heaven, but we've come to the God who is the judge of all. We see that in verse 23. "To the assembly of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all." They knew at Mount Sinai that God was judge, therefore they trembled and feared and were loath to approach Him. Because they knew that His fire burned — His holy fire, right?

Well, we have the same judge. That judge is Jesus Christ, but He has provided for our pardon, right? Because of Christ, we can come near.

Let me read to you Hebrews 4:13–16. "And there is no creature hidden from His sight" — the judge of this world — "but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Christ beckons us to come. "I understand," is what Christ says. "I was tempted. I have provided for your sins. Come and find grace and help in time of need."

In the men's class, we just finished 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:8 — Paul is giving his valedictory. He knows he's about to have his head taken off by Nero. And what does he say in verse 8? "Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing."

He gives us the righteousness of Christ. It's not something we earn. It's something He freely bestows upon us. The judge can pardon us because He says, "I've paid your price." The application: look forward to His appearing, right? Just as Paul says that this crown will be given to all those who look forward to His appearing, look forward to His appearing — to the day when the Judge of the world will step foot on earth. What a glorious day that will be.

It says, "And to the spirits of the righteous made perfect." We see that in verse 23. "And to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect."

Just as the angels join us in our worship, in a very real way — though not fully described in Scripture — we are connected in a very real way to the saints who are already in heaven, right?

If I am united to Christ through faith by the Spirit, those in heaven are also united to Christ through faith by the Spirit. The Spirit still indwells when we get to heaven, right? So just as you and I are brothers and sisters, we have brothers and sisters in heaven, right? Now, that does not mean that we pray to them or seek help from them. No. But do you know what we can do? First of all, we can learn from their godly example. If you go to the chapter before Hebrews 12, Hebrews 11 — it's called the Hall of Faith. By faith, Moses — what did he do? Because of the glory of Christ, he forsook all the pleasantries, all the treasures of Egypt, right? By faith, each one of these people did great things for the Lord and lived a life of faith. And we can learn from their godly examples.

And secondly, we can look forward one day to meeting them in heaven. There are so many Christian brothers and sisters over time who have gone on. I would love to meet in heaven. I'm looking forward to meeting Corrie ten Boom one day. I'm looking forward to meeting John Elliott. I'm looking forward to meeting William Carey. I'm looking forward to meeting Lottie Moon. I'm looking forward to meeting Martin Luther. I'm looking forward to meeting John Wycliffe. I'm looking forward to meeting the Apostle Paul, right? They are my brothers and my sisters in Christ. What a glorious day that will be. And we are part of the saints, right?

We should remember the hymn, "Onward, Christian Soldiers," right? "Like a mighty army moves the church of God. Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. We are not divided, all one body we, one in hope and doctrine, one in charity. Onward, Christian Soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before." Amen.

Verse 24: "And to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better words than the blood of Abel." He's saying, "We have come to Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant." When Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, did He not say, "This is the blood of the new covenant," right? He was ratifying it right there. Just as the children of Israel, once they heard the Ten Commandments spoken by God, vowed at the foot of Mount Sinai to obey them — an animal was sacrificed and blood was sprinkled upon the children of Israel. They were making a covenant, a Mosaic covenant with God, that they would obey that command.

Of course, 40 days later, when Moses went back up to the mountain to receive the written tablets, they were breaking every single one of them, right?

But in the new covenant, a better covenant, Christ our Mediator has paid our price. The obedience was not set on us, but was on Him. He fulfilled the old covenant to give us the blessings of the new covenant, right? And because He is the Mediator — He's not just God, but He's the God-Man — He warmly invites us to come to Him, and He understands our weaknesses. Because He too, even in heaven, is humanity — glorified, perfected humanity, joined forever to the person of God in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 8:6 says, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises." The old covenant was inferior in every way to the new covenant.

Hebrews 9:13–15: "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of the heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death for the redemption of transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance."

Christ says, "I give you My inheritance, because I paid your price." And that's what He says when He institutes the Lord's Supper. Paul recounts this in 1 Corinthians 11: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'"

When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we are celebrating Christ. We are celebrating what He has done for us. What He has done for us speaks far better than Abel. When it says in verse 24, "And the sprinkled blood speaks better words than the blood of Abel" — Abel's blood cried out from the ground for what? Vengeance, right?

Christ's blood calls out mercy, calls out grace, calls out love and redemption to all who will receive it.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank You that we can approach You boldly because of Jesus Christ. We have all the blessings, Lord, that He has earned and shown to us. I praise You, Lord God, that we are part of the heavenly Jerusalem. That we are part of the city of the living God. That when we worship You, we are joining a heavenly chorus of innumerable angels. I praise You that we are part of the church of the firstborn, receiving all the privileges and divine right of Christ as conferred on us — unworthy though we are, He blesses us. I praise You that we are in a way connected to the church that has lived before us, and we can follow in their examples. I praise You that we have Christ as our Mediator, whose blood speaks better things than that of Abel — speaks of mercy and grace. And I pray, Lord, now as we enter this time of receiving the Lord's Supper, that we would do so out of grateful hearts, praising Christ for all He's done for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.