Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• The law always makes a distinction between law and grace
• We are not under law but under grace
• We have a contrast between Mount Sinai (the law) and Mount Zion
• We have not come to a physical mountain
• We have not come to a place of law
• We have come to a place of welcome, to the city of God, to the ministering angels
• We have come to the judge of all, but not with dread as we have Jesus as Mediator
• We have come to Mount Zion [not Sinai] to grace
• The law condemns people - it cannot save people
• v25-29 the implications of this [saving grace]
• We have a greater responsibility to listen to, obey and serve God
• God's grace is not an excuse to take things easy but intensifies our responsibility to obey God

Immense Privileges (v18-24)

Mount Sinai

• The people who came to Mount Sinai found a boundary that could not be crossed for pain of death
• The people had to purify themselves
• The people were afraid and shrank back
• God demonstrated His utter purity and Holiness
• No person can approach God or stand in His presence as they are
• We are all sinners
• God was going to write the Ten Commandments with His own fingers
• The moral law
• God was also going to give the religious and ceremonial laws
• However all this has been done away with
• Do not be tempted to go back to the old
• You have come to a much better place - Jesus the Mediator
• The law gives no power to save - the moral law condemns you to hell
• You will not go to heaven by fulfilling these laws
• You have not understood the requirements of God's law - that perfection is required
• You have not understood your sin - that you have fallen so far short of God's standards
• It is not only keeping the outward requirements of the law but inwards too (e.g. 13:4)
• You have not understood the awesome holiness of God
• If you think you can keep God's law and live - you are foolish
• Trust only in the Mediator, in Jesus Christ
• Remember you are part of a world wide Church
• Moses now lives in heaven by faith
• Think of Abraham and David

Mount Zion

• Always meant Jerusalem in the Old Testament
• Psalm 50:21
• Psalm 113:13-14
• The dwelling place of God
• A place of great joy but also a place of great sorrow
• A place were Jesus was crucified
• The physical Jerusalem is not the true Mount Zion - this is the heavenly city
• Don't think of the earthly but the heavenly Jerusalem, to a wonderful city, to innumerable angels
• Do not forget angels and their ministry
• You have come to an invisible realm: do not go back to the physical
• You have come to an assembly of the Church of Jesus Christ
• The Blood of Christ covers all
• The Church triumphant above and militant below
• You are part of this glorious company that worships the living God
• Does the author speak about something in the future or now?
• v22 - you "have come"
• We have access now
• They and we have a very high privilege
• We come to Jesus Christ (v24)
• It is not about what we have done but what He has done
• It is all about what God has done in this New Covenant
• What we do is embrace Christ; turn and repent

• Have you come to Mount Sinai or Mount Zion?
• Have you trusted in the blood of Christ?
• Think of all the entreaties in the New Testament - come to Jesus

Our Great Responsibilities (v25-29)

• It is very easy as Christians to become lax and forget that God hates sin
• God is a consuming fire
• We ought never to be lax or casual as Christians
• There was no escape from the physical laws at Mount Sinai
• How much more shall we escape from the law given in the gospels?
• To reject the gospel is an awful thing
• God is a speaking God and will yet speak once more [at the final judgement]
• Only one thing will remain - the unshakable Kingdom of God
• There will be a new heaven and earth
• Let us have grace and serve God now
• We are to rejoice always but also to have a fear of God
• We are to serve God acceptably
• We are to please Him all our days
• We are to reverence Him
• We are to pray with our hearts
• We are to remember that God is watching us
• Our God is a consuming fire
• This might have been a surprise to the Hebrew Christians
• God still hates sin but it has now been dealt with
• In the Lord Jesus Christ we can now draw near
• Deut 4:23
• True in Old Testament days and true today
• Our God does not change - may we serve Him as we ought