Jack, you always like a title.
But you have come to Mount Zion.
You know, we have been fellowshipping on Hebrews for some time in the Friday-night fellowships, and I have been encouraged by those times. Sometimes, over the years, Hebrews is kind of difficult to relate to. It is so Jewish, and what does all this stuff mean? But I feel like the Lord is really meeting us this time.
It is an encouragement to me when all the groups are on the same subject and taking it seriously. It kind of builds us up and encourages fellowship. How many openings have we had from Hebrews? I believe the Lord is using Hebrews, so it should not surprise you that I had a couple of thoughts today from Hebrews.
It started a month or two ago—I do not know when—when our group was in Hebrews 4. Let me read something from Hebrews 4.
Therefore, let us fear, if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For we who have believed enter that rest.
So I got to thinking about this rest. Hebrews 3:16-19 kind of leads into that Hebrews 4 passage.
Who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?
So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
I believe this passage, on entering into their possession, uses Jewish history in the wilderness to make a point concerning the present-day experience of those who had become Christians. They had been set free from their bondage in Egypt. What a great deliverance they had received.
And He had given them the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But they did not enter into what God had provided for them. They wandered around in the wilderness. Very sad. They did not possess their possessions.
Those who had become Christians were doing the same thing spiritually. They had entered into being born again, being soundly saved, but they were wandering around in Judaism, just as the people who had come out of Egypt had wandered around in the desert.
They were encouraged to enter His rest, to possess their possession of their full salvation—their so-great salvation. They were stuck in Judaism, and I believe the Lord today is calling us to enter His rest.
What is His rest? His full salvation. He has redeemed us for Himself for a purpose. He would call us.
Are we guilty of coming out of Egypt and stopping? Are we guilty of being born again, saved from this world and our sin, and just wandering around Egypt?
I want to look at another passage that gives us a description of our so-great salvation that we are to enter into. How many of you read the last chapter of a book first sometimes? How many read the last chapter? Jim does, right?
Do you find the conclusion? With your left-handedness, right? You always flip to the back; you have to flip it backwards. It is true. When you do a magazine or a book, you go anyway.
If you flip forward toward the end of this book of Hebrews, I think there is a wonderful—if I can say it—one of my favorite passages that describes the conclusion of this book. Let us turn to Hebrews 12.
I would even call this a marvelous and majestic passage. You know, it is a picture. It is a picture more than a doctrine or theory. It is a spiritual picture that has to be apprehended by spiritual eyes.
Hebrews 12:18-24. Remember, this is speaking to the Hebrews in their history, but it is also speaking clearly to us. He is using their experience as a type, an example, a picture, so that we can gain spiritual insight from it.
For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,
and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.
For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.”
And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”
Remember, in the wilderness they were camped before Sinai, and Moses went up on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. Do not go up there. You know, you cannot go up there. God is up there. He is not happy with you. This powerful thing.
But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
to the general assembly and church 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 than the blood of Abel.
Praise God. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God. This is a climax to this book, and I believe this is a picture of the rest referred to in Hebrews 4.
This is My rest forever;
Here will I dwell;
For the Lord has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His habitation.
Not Sinai, but Zion.
But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
to the general assembly and church 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 than the blood of Abel.
Does anybody rejoice when they read that? But you have come to Mount Zion. Hallelujah. What a beautiful picture.
It is a spiritual picture, and we have to apprehend it spiritually. Pray with Paul that the eyes of our heart might be enlightened to see the fullness and reality of what it is to be a Christian and to be in Zion.
Newell, in one of the books we have on Hebrews, has a very nice book on Hebrews. He says that the New Jerusalem will be a literal city with actual physical dimensions given. Our passage today describes the spiritual reality of that city that we are meant to experience today.
You know, we have talked about a subject this summer for this coming conference: “Are You Ready?” Be prepared. What better way to be prepared than to be living in Zion?
This is My rest forever;
Here will I dwell.
Today I wanted to look at a couple of things. To expound this passage would certainly not be in my capacity. I think if anyone told us they could expound it, they might get a lot of it, but I do not think we can get the fullness of it. The eyes of our heart have to be enlightened.
This message to the Hebrews was that they had come out of Judaism, and He was calling them to turn completely to simple, redeeming faith in Jesus Christ, our Apostle and High Priest. I believe that call is the same to us, and we really need to see these pictures opened up to us today.
Let us compare the two mountains. I have a few things; like I said, it is impossible to compare them all. First, two things about Sinai—Mount Sinai.
For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,
and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.
For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.”
And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”
The first point is that sin separates us from God. We were meant to have fellowship, openness, and communion with God. But our sin has separated us and left us in a spirit of fear.
You know, in the garden after the fall—we talk about this often—Genesis 3:24 says:
So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
You know, this picture of God with blazing fire, this strong God, is not very popular. How often do we hear people say, “Well, I thought God was a loving God.” He is, but He is also awesome, powerful, and mighty, and we ought to be humbled before Him.
Dana says in his book on Hebrews, “He is a holy, righteous, truthful, loving God, and we are dealing with the God whose dimensions are greater than any man can figure out.”
But God, because He is holy and righteous, cannot bear our sins; but He sent forth His Son—a great provision for covering and forgiveness of our sins. We should not live under our sins.
Hebrews 10:19 says:
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
That fear at Sinai has been dealt with. We no longer should find ourselves standing afar off, cowering in sin. We need to be careful that we do not live under condemnation and miss our privilege.
Get beyond the sin which easily entangles us. Confess our sins, take the blood afresh, and draw near. We need to be set free from thinking of ourselves in our own capacity—not to be sinners anymore—and take the blood and thank God for the blood.
Do not allow unconfessed sin to dominate us. We need to be active in taking the blood and be trained to realize when we need to take the blood and confess our sin, to cut off the ground of the enemy.
Unconfessed sin will give great ground to the enemy. Do not wait. Do not save them up and say, “Well, I will get to that later.” I think that is a training in spirit: we learn to acknowledge our sins and keep short accounts.
Another thing that Sinai reveals is, I think, the principle of the self-life living in us. Let us look at Exodus 19:1-8.
In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain.
Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.
Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him.
All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
All that the Lord has spoken we will do. What do we think of that?
I think this exposes the self-life. The Lord went on to show them the Ten Commandments, and the right response to those commandments would be, “Oh, I cannot do it. Oh my gosh, I need a Savior. Lord, have mercy. How can I approach You? Lord, I take the blood. Thank You so much.”
This should have been their preparation, but what did they say? “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” We need to be careful that we do not do the same thing: keep the law of the Christian religion. Be careful that we do not make Christianity a religion unto itself.
We can say, “I cannot, but He can.” We need to take the cross daily and deal with our self-life and realize that we cannot do it.
Paul saw clearly through this problem of trying to do in the end of Romans 7 and the beginning of Romans 8.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Paul was taking the position completely opposite to what Israel did at Sinai. His deliverance was through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, as is ours. Thank God, we are delivered from the law of sin and death to the law of the Spirit of life. That is part of our rest. Rest in that.
Not only has the bad flesh been dealt with at Calvary, but the good flesh. Do not miss this: the good flesh has been dealt with. We can think we are doing right, but in doing right and concentrating on right, are we creating a religion unto ourselves?
We can easily create a new religion. Good flesh creates a law unto itself and judges its performance against it as good. We need to be careful. God is not interested in religion; He is interested in His Son being expressed.
Those are a couple of things from Mount Sinai: no reason to live under sin, and no reason to live under the bondage of self. We need great wisdom and spiritual insight to move beyond that.
We know we have been called out from those things. We have been called out from Sinai, but we need to make sure we do not stop there. We have come to Mount Zion, and we need to enter into God’s full salvation.
It is easy to come out with an initial salvation, say we are born again, and quit. Is that not what a lot of evangelicals do? We need to get born again; we definitely need to get born again. But God has called us to a great salvation unto maturity.
We need to be careful that we do not come out of that stuffy religious organization we are members of and think that is it. We need to go to Him outside the camp: Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
I have a few thoughts about Mount Zion and how we can enter His rest. Number one: in Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the King is in Zion. There was a King in Zion. Praise God, there is a King in Zion.
And He is a most gracious, benevolent King. We get so caught up in politics these days, but the best form of worldly government would be a benevolent king: one who takes care of us, takes care of all our needs, and looks out for us. We have a great King.
We have an awesome King in Zion, and that ought to give us rest. Our response to that King is one that will give us rest.
I think the response to the King that gives us rest is in Romans 12:1:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
What a great way to enter His rest. Are we exhausted from wrestling through our time on earth? We can find no greater rest than in giving our lives to the Lord, asking Him to take care of everything.
You know, there is no fear of losing out. “I do not want to give up. I do not want to give up because I am going to lose out. I will not be able to do all the things I love to do, to ride my Harley-Davidson and stuff like that.” You cannot do that now anyway, right?
Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
He is our rest.
Number two: the King in Zion is trustworthy. We can present our lives, our bodies, to Him because He is trustworthy.
Proverbs 3 is one of my verses:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
He is trustworthy. He will make our paths straight—not easy, but straight.
Matthew 6:33:
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
He will take care of us. Give our lives to Him, and He will take care of us.
Number three: Zion is a safe place. It is a walled city. It is impenetrable. Whoever held Zion was in charge. You know, it could not be broken into.
Spiritually, we live in Zion. It has been won by a battle—Calvary won by a battle over the enemy, a defeated foe—and we retain our spiritual safety by residing in His walls.
We should be those who rest in the blood, in the finished work of Calvary. We need to rest in our covering. Lance wrote the book on covering for that very purpose: that we do not get independent and out on our own, out from the walls of Zion, out from under the headship of Christ, and give ground for the enemy to pick us off.
Why do we get out? Pride. We think we can do it. We are strong; we are special. Or ignorance. I think ignorance: we are in a battle, and we are to abide in that city.
Safety is under the blood. Psalm 91 says:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.
Dwell in the shelter of the Most High; abide in the shadow of the Almighty. It is a safe place.
Number four: concerning Zion, we have royal blood in us. We have royal lifeblood in us. We have overcoming life brought to birth in us, and we are children of the King.
This should make us rejoice and give us great rest. We are children of the King.
Just a couple of verses:
I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
He strengthens me in my spirit within.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”
Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
The way that God’s power is to be expressed in and through us is through the end of our self-life, so that the life of Christ may be expressed through us.
We can come to the end of ourselves and say, “We cannot do it, but God can and will.” Then we find great rest.
Paul was so upset in Galatians about the Judaizers chasing him, and he wanted to give the saints a principle there in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
A lot of this has to do with denying ourselves and living through the life of Christ. Peace in that heavenly city comes through coming to the end of our self-life and living out the Christ-life.
Now the fifth one—the last one. Thanks for getting the water out of the fountain instead of the faucet. It is much better.
Let us read again the passage I started with, Hebrews 12:22:
But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
to the general assembly and church 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 than the blood of Abel.
This is my favorite verse. This is what always makes me so excited: we have come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. It sounds like worldly words, but it is so powerful: the general assembly and church of the firstborn. We live in the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
To be a member of the body of Christ is God’s calling for us to exist in the fellowship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with the saints. What a privilege. Do not despise the day of small things. We have a great calling, a great honor, and a great privilege.
Let us think about Peter’s side of these things. In Matthew 16, the Lord said:
“But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
It is a spiritual body, and we should encourage one another in the Spirit. Please do not take for granted this great calling to be a member of the body of Christ.
It is more than a teaching. We have to have teaching, but we need to live in the spiritual reality of the body of Christ. We need to know one another not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
We need to know and appreciate the deposit of Christ in one another and build up the body. Do not despise the day of small things.
As we decrease, He increases. The way of denying ourselves, taking up the cross, and following Him is not popular, but it is the way to the expression of Christ through His body.
We know Peter had to be dealt with quite a bit. It is not always clear all that happened to Peter. We know he is very evident early in Acts, speaking. We know that the Lord had really dealt with him, but we do not know all that happened to him.
But we know something happened to him, because in 1 Peter 2:4-5 he could say:
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We did not see Peter a lot, but we see this real picture: “Upon this rock I will build My church,” and then in the epistle he says, “You are living stones,” being built up as His house.
He saw that we are living stones, that we are alive from the dead and alive in Christ. What good is a stone? What are stones good for? Kenny said, “Stones are good for building, for building a house.”
My youngest and his wife just bought a new old house that was built in 1900 or something, and it has a stone foundation. I am not sure there is any mortar in it. There might be, but they have a stone foundation, and that solid foundation has lasted this long.
So stones are good for building, and this passage says we are living stones. The question for us today is: what are we doing with our living-stone life, with our eternal life?
We have a choice to build or not. It looks like there are three things we can do.
We can be living stones, but the other way we can be is all over the place. We can be drifting. Instead of building up a house, we can be a heap of stones, like at Ai. Just a pile of stones does not make a house, saints.
And the third thing we can do is tear down. We can be critical—a critical spirit—criticizing one another, criticizing what the Lord has done and is doing among His people.
Or we can be living stones, building up the body of Christ by laying down our lives. The stone that is moving around and being critical has no possibility of building.
So living stones are being built up. Let us be living stones and build up His body in our midst.
That is all. It is a great passage. Praise the Lord, we can live in the goodness of the general assembly and church of the firstborn today. Are we doing it?
A few thoughts in closing. The book of Hebrews was written to early Jewish Christians to spur them into all that they had received in their coming to Christ—their so-great salvation.
They had been called to enter the rest of God’s provision, as we have. They did not do it. Through lack of faith, they stayed in the wilderness and wandered around the wilderness.
In Hebrews 12, it talks about the condition of the Hebrews, and the comparison is obvious for us: not Sinai. We have been set free from the fear of the presence of God. He has redeemed us by sending His Son, that we might draw near.
We have been set free from the trap of the inadequacy of the self-life. We need to see that we cannot please Him, but we can live by His life, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice and trusting Him.
But we are to live in Zion—spiritual Zion—today. It is available to us today.
The King is in Zion. The King is in Zion, and we can live in the good of that. Submit ourselves to Him. Give our life to Him.
The King is trustworthy. He has our best interest and will bless us.
Zion is a safe place. We need to stay covered and hidden in Zion. Days of great pressure are upon the Lord’s people, Brother Sparks said, and we are going to get picked off if we do not rest in that safe place.
We are born of royal blood, children of the King. The Lord is after sons going on to maturity in His house.
We are members of the general assembly and church of the firstborn. We need to realize who we are, where we are to live, and what we are to value. We are to be builders of His house—not drifters, not tear-downers, but laying down our lives, encouraging one another, and building up His body.
Therefore, all those things would give us rest, satisfied in Him.
Lord, we thank You for this book of Hebrews that, for years, maybe we just scratched the surface of, but it seems You are trying to show us much more—much more.
And so we pray You would lead us in the days ahead, and You would grant us to enter into that rest, to enter into a Zion rest, and to be preparing for Your return. In Jesus’ name.