Jan. 5th, 2003
Int. Notice the phrase here, "For ye are not come" with the phrase in (Vr. 22) "But ye are come."
1. Paul here is distinguishing between the two covenants, that is between Judaism and Christianity.
2. A. W. P. says: "The contrast here drawn is virtually parallel with the one instituted between Hagar and Sarah, the figure of two "mounts" being used instead of the two women."
3. J. F. & B. says: "The fact that we are not under the law, but under a higher, and that the last dispensation, the Gospel, with its glorious privileges, is the reason why especially the Hebrew Christians should "look diligently, " etc. (Heb 12:15,16).
I. LET US CONSIDER MOUNT SINAI. (Vr 18-21)
A. HERE WE FACE GOD’S HOLY LAW.
1. YE ARE NOT COME...YE ARE COME..(Heb 12:18& 22)
a. This is a transition from law to grace.
b. This is a transition from fear to faith. ‘
c. This is a transition from solitude to fellowship.
d. This is a transition from failure to fulfilment.
2. If the majesty of the law was so great, how great do you think the glory of Christ and the gospel is?
B. CONSIDER THE MEANING OF "NOT COME" (Vr. 18)
1. The Greek word for "come" in our text is that technical or religious term which had been used repeatedly by the apostle in this Epistle to express a sacred access or coming to God in His worship: (See usage below)
a. (Heb 4:16) "Let us therefore ‘come’ boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
b. (Heb 7:25) "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that ‘come’ unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
c. (Heb 10:1) "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the ‘comers’ thereunto perfect."
2. Ye are not come unto the "mount"---alluding to (Deut 4:11)
a. (Deu 4:11) "And ye came near and stood under the ‘mountain’; and the ‘mountain’ burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness."
C. CONSIDER THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS "MOUNT" OR MOUNTAIN.
1. The place of this glorious and solemn appearing of the Lord was also full of significance.
2. It was neither in Egypt not yet in Canaan, but in the midst of a great howling desert.
3. It was an absolute solitude, far removed from the habitation of mankind
4. Here the people could neither see nor hear anything but God and themselves.
5. There was no shelter or place to hide from this awful sight.
6. This presented a picture of the Great Judgment day that is to come when man will face God all alone.
7. (John 1:17) "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
8. The law of God is great and honorable in itself. It is the law of God! It is holy, just, and good! But it never appeared so honorable as when Christ appeared to fulfil and satisfy it.
9. Issac Watts wrote: "Moses and Christ"..
The law by Moses came,
But peace, and truth, and love
Were brought by Christ (a nobler name)
Descending from above.
Amidst the house of God
Their different works were done;
Moses a faithful servant stood,
But Christ a faithful Son.
Then to his new commands
Be strict obedience paid;
Oer all his Fathers house he stands
The Sovereign and the Head.
D. CONSIDER THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LAW AND GRACE.
1. LAW manifest what is in men---sin! GRACE manifests what is in God ---love!
2. LAW demands righteousness from men! GRACE brings the righteousness of God to men!
3. LAW sentences men to death! GRACE gives life to dead men!
4. LAW speaks of what men must do! GRACE tells what Christ has done.
5. LAW gives a knowledge of sin! GRACE puts sin away!
E. CONSIDER THE ‘TOUCHING’ OF THIS MOUNT (Vr. 18)
1. Only Moses was allowed to touch the Mount.
2. (Exo 19:12-13) "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: {13} There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount."
F. CONSIDER THE FIRE UPON THIS MOUNT (Vr. 18)
1. It burned with fire. (Exo 19:18) "And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly."
2. In Scripture "fire" is the symbol of Divine wrath and judgment.3. (Deut 4:24) "The Lord thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God,"
4.
(Deut.33:2) ".......from His right hand went a fiery law"G. CONSIDER THE DARKNESS UPON THIS MOUNT. (Vr. 18)
1. This has reference back to (Ex 19:16,18) "a thick cloud upon the mount,... mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke"
2. (Deut 5:22-23) ""The Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness... ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, for the mountain did burn with fire."
H. CONSIDER THE TEMPTEST. (Vr. 18)_
1. Under this term the apostle comprises the thundering, lightings, the earthquake which were on and in mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16, 18)
I. CONSIDER THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET. (Vr. 19)
1. This sound of a trumpet was designed to inspire both awe and fear.
a. (Exo 19:19) "And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice."
2. John Gill says: "the noise of the trumpet made it still more awful, as the sound of the trumpet will at the last day: "
a. (Exo 19:16) "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled."
b. (Exo 19:19) "And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice."
c. (Exo 20:18) "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off."
J. CONSIDER THE "VOICE OF WORDS" (Vr. 19)
1. This is the seventh and final detail which the apostle here noticed.
2. Those "words" were the ten commandments, written afterward on the two tables of stone:
a. (Deu 5:22) "These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me."
b. (Exo 20:1) "And God spake all these words, saying,"
3. (Psa 29:4-5) "The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. {5} The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon."
K. CONSIDER THE VOICE OF "WORDS." (Vr 19)
1. The "Ten words" or the law.
2. The law is called the word spoken by angels. (Heb 2:2).
3. The law is represented, as the voice of God himself. (Ex 20:1).
4. The law is called and "the voice of words" (Deut 4:12).
L. CONSIDER THEIR ENTREATY TO MOSES CONCERNING THESE WORDS. (Vr. 19-b)
1. The reason for this entreaty is found in (Vr. 20) "They could not endure the law."
II. CONSIDER THE EFFECTS OF MOUNT SINAI ON THE PEOPLE. (Vr.20)
A. THEY COULD NOT ENDURE THAT WHICH WAS COMMANDED.
1. (Gal. 3:10) "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them"
ISAAC WATTS WROTE
Cursed be the man, for ever cursed,
That does one wilful sin commit;
Death and damnation for the first,
Without relief and infinite.
Thus Sinai roars, and round the earth
Thunder, and fire, and vengeance flings;
But Jesus, thy dear gasping breath
And Calvary, says gentler things:
"Pardon and grace, and boundless love,
Streaming along a Saviour’s blood;
And life, and joy, and crowns above,
Obtained by a dear bleeding God."
B. CONSIDER THE PENALTY FOR EVEN A BEAST TOUCHING THAT MOUNT.
1. (Ex. 19:12, 13) "Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever touchest the mount shall be surely put to death: There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live."
2. John Brown said: "If even an irrational animal was to be put to death in a manner which marked it as un-clean — as something not to be touched —what might rational offenders expect as the punishment of their sins? and if the violation of a positive institution of this kind involved consequences so fearful, what must be the result of transgressing the moral requirements of the great Lawgiver?"
C. CONSIDER HOW TERRIBLE WAS THIS SIGHT OF THE GIVING OF GOD’S HOLY LAW.
1. Paul reminds his hearers of what it was like to be under God’s law.
2. A. W. P. says: If Rome and Ritualists are guilty of being occupied with "the mount that might be touched," then those who are constantly presenting God before His people in His dread majesty — instead of as a loving Father — are taking them back to the mount "that burned with fire."
"When God of old came down from heaven,
In power and wrath he came;
Before his feet the clouds were riven,
Half darkness and half flame.
"Around the trembling mountain’s base
The prostrate people lay;
A day of wrath, and not of grace;
A dim and dreadful day."
(Keble.)
3. Consider Moses’ testimony:
4. J. F. & B. says: "Moses is not recorded in Exodus to have used these words. But Paul, by inspiration, supplies (compare (Ac 20:35) this detail." Compare (Deut 9:19)
a. (Acts 20:35) "
b. (The Gospels don’t cover this either), but Paul under divine Inspiration, adds this in (Acts 20:35)
5. Moses had a similiar experience in (Ex 3:6), but here, he did exceedingly fear and quake
a.
III. CONSIDER NOW OUR COMING TO MOUNT ZION. (Vr. 22)
A. MOUNT ZION IS THE MOUNT OF GRACE UPON GRACE.
1. "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched," then, is a figurative way of saying that Christ has opened a way into something infinitely superior to a system which, as such, had nothing better than "a worldly sanctuary" and "carnal ordinances"
a. (Heb 9:1) "Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary."
b. (Heb 9:10) "Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation."
2. The Expositor Sermons: "But ye are come" — come to what? To things preeminently glorious; but they are at present invisible, being spiritual realities, objects of faith, and not of bodily vision.
B. THEY WERE COME TO MOUNT ZION.
1. These folk had been delivered from "the wrath to come" (1 Thess 1:10).
a. They were now as secure in Him as Noah was in the ark.
2. Moody related the following: "I live there: — Some one asked a Scotchman if he was on his way to heaven. "Why, man," he said, "I live there." He was only a pilgrim here. Heaven was his home.
3. (Romans 8:15) "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father"
C. CONSIDER A DESCRIPTION OF MOUNT ZION.
1. It is spiritual in its constitution. It is called "The heavenly Jerusalem."
2. It is hallowed by God’s Divine presence. "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
3. Its members are individually consecrated to God. "To the Church of the Firstborn."
4. Its members are heirs to a glorious inheritance. All Christians are called "firstborn" because they are all heirs of the heavenly inheritance.
5. Its members are individually known unto God. They "are written in heaven." (Lk 10:20)
6. At Sinai "the people stood afar off."; under grace, "we come boldly." (Heb 4:16)
7. A. W. P. says: "But ye are come unto mount Sion" no more has reference to a natural mountain than "We have an altar" (Heb 13:10) means that Christians have a tangible and visible altar.
D. CONSIDER THIS MOUNT ZION FOR A FEW MOMENTS.
1. Mount Zion is the place of God’s habitation, where He dwells forever:
a. (Ps 9:11) " Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings."
b. (Psa 76:2) "In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion."
2. Mount Zion is the seat of the throne, reign and kingdom of Christ:
a. (Ps 2:6) "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion."
There awaits for me a glad tomorrow
Where the gates of pearl swing open wide
And when I have passed this spell of sorrow
I will camp upon the other side
Someday beyond the reach of mortal kin
Someday God only knows just where or when
The wills of mortal life will all stand still
And I shall go dwell on Zion's Hill
3. Mount Zion is the object of Divine promises innumerable: (Psa.125:1; 128:5, of Christ Himself: (Isa. 59:20).
a. (Ps 125:1) "They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever."
b. (Ps 128:5) "The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life."
4.
It was from Mount Zion that the Gospel did proceed and the law of Christ come forth:a. (Isa 40:9) "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
b. (Micah 4:2) "And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."
5. Mount Zion was the object of God’s especial love, and the place of the birth of His elect: (Psa. 87:2, 5).
a. (Ps 87:2) "The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob."
6. Mount Zion is the source for the joy of the whole earth:
a. (Psa 48:2) "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King."
7. Mount Zion is the source of salvation and all blessings.
a. (Psa 14:7) "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad."
b. (Ps 110:2) "The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies."
8. We have nothing more to do with the mount "that burned with fire," but only with "the Throne of Grace." Hallelujah!
E. CONSIDER WHOM WE SHALL HAVE FOR COMPANY IN HEAVEN. (Vr. 22)
1. "And to an innumerable company of angels." (Vr. 22) "This is the third great privilege enjoyed by the worshipers under the Christian economy: having mentioned the place to which Divine grace has brought believers, the Holy Spirit now described the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem."
2. Pulpit Commentary says: "The cherubim and seraphim, all the princes, potentates and rulers of the celestial hierarchy."
3. John Owens said: "It is the highest madness for any one to pretend himself to be the head of the church, as the pope does, unless he assume also to himself to be the head of all the angels in Heaven,"
4. Angels were heaven’s earliest inhabitants, when " the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." (Job 38:7)
a. Angels sang at Creation. (Job 27:7)
b. Angels sang At our Lord’s Incarnation (Lk 2:13)
c. Angels sing at the conversion of sinners too. (Luke 15:10)
Conclusion: To be concluded next Sunday Evening.