Well, today we come to the conclusion of Hebrews chapter 12. Which is also the conclusion of the main body of the book of Hebrews. Because chapter 13, the final chapter, is filled with practical exhortations. and the closing benediction.
So we are really coming to the end of the body of the book in our text for today. And it is a summary. And a conclusion of the final message of this book, the main message. of this book. And what that is, is don't neglect to receive the Word of God.
Don't neglect to receive. divine revelation that has been delivered to us from heaven. It is a warning to the Hebrew professing Christians of that day.
Some of whom Apparently, we're being tempted to turn back to the old covenant to avoid persecution. And the writer of this book says, don't do that, don't do that, that's far more dangerous than you understand. But it is also a warning to modern-day professing Christians who. may give lip service to Christ, but have not truly surrendered to him. And therefore they, we, can be neglecting the word of God that comes to us from heaven.
And the right of Hebrews would say to us, don't do that. Don't do that. That's far more dangerous than you realize. And so this morning, working through verses 25 through 29 of chapter 12, we will see. These four things.
Number one, a reiteration in verse 25. To a prophecy in verse 26 and 27, Third, an exhortation in verse 28, and finally, a declaration in verse 29. A redire reiteration. In verse 25. See that you do not refuse him who speaks.
For if they did not escape, who refused him who spoke on earth, Much more shall we not escape If we turn away from from him who speaks. from heaven. We are admonished here to remember God's former judgments. Upon those who heard God's word, in the wilderness at Mount Sinai, They heard God's voice speaking to them. from the mountain.
And so terrible was that voice to them that they begged that God not continued to speak with them in this way, but rather to speak to Moses and let Moses speak God's word. to them. Remember that? That's from the previous text that we examined. In verses.
29 and or 19 and 20. In Hebrews chapter 12, The sound of the trumpet, the voice of the word, so that those who heard it begged. that the word should not be spoken to them any more, for they could not endure what was commanded. That is apparently is a reference to the Ten Commandments. The God actually spoke in an audible voice that all of them could hear, and in that way gave the Ten Commandments that later, of course, were engraved on stone.
and were written in the Penatook but first were spoken from heaven And so awesome was that sound, so So compelling was that voice, so difficult were these commands. That The people of that day shrank back from hearing them. As God Reminded them that there was no other God, truly was no other God, but. Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. the creator of this world.
He is the only true God. They must not worship anything or anyone else as a God. They must not make to themselves graven images and worship them as gods.
Something that they seemed almost incapable of doing, refraining from that. Their whole wilderness wandering period was a time of worshiping idols. And long after that, they worshipped idols, a constant Departure from the very first words of the Ten Commandments. And then of course on from there, thou shalt not. Steal, thou shalt not Bear false witness, thou shalt not commit adultery.
Honor your father and your mother and so forth. And these words were spoken to them audibly from heaven. Or from rather from Mount Sinai, from earth, as we are told in our text for today. And Those who transgressed these words from God were severely judged. I Tried to make a little calculation and I gave up.
of how many people of the children of Israel that came out of Egypt and went into the wilderness on the way to the promised land. How many of them died? I don't know that that could be calculated. We read several occasions where thousands of them died because of their rebellion against God. And we're told actually that all of them who were above the age of 20 died in the wilderness.
That probably would have amounted to a million people. Died. Under the judgment of God. Why? Because they refused to hear the word of God that was spoken to them.
from Mount Sinai. Those transgressions Those rejections of God's word were severely judged by God. God held them accountable. For the word that he spoke to them. Remember God's former judgments.
But in remembering God's former judgments, this same text in verse 25. tells us to consider God's present judgments. Verse 25 again, see that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape. who refused him who spoke on earth.
Much more shall we not escape If we turn away from him, who speaks from heaven. We consider the history of the judgment of God that fell upon the people. Of Israel in the Old Testament days who did not heed God's word, but now consider the judgments of God that fall upon people today who hear his word and yet. Do not Listen, do not obey the word that comes to them. Upon those, as he tells us here, who heard God's word from Zion.
From heaven. That, of course, goes back to the previous verses that we looked at a couple of weeks ago. But the contrast continues here between God meeting with his people in The wilderness on Mount Sinai Speaking from earth, And the contrast between that and God speaking today from Mount Zion, which is actually heaven above, not the earthly Zion, but the heavenly Zion. And so God is speaking today from Mount Zion. He is proclaiming to us the gospel, the good news.
That there is salvation from sin to those who trust in Him. Good news for those who believe it, bad news for those. who reject it. The writer even includes himself in this warning about rejecting this word spoken from heaven. When he says, For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall We, not you, but shall we not escape.
If we turn away from him who speaks From Heaven. It's a strong warning. A strong warning to all professing believers. The writer of Hebrews was a professing believer. Of course, he was a true born-again believer, we know.
But he was a professing believer, and he was writing to professing believers. Most of whom, perhaps even all, we do not know. truly born-again believers, but We're being tempted. to turn back We don't know if any of them did. We trust that none of them did.
The writer of Hebrews, on the one hand, earlier in the book, warns against turning back and then says, but I don't think you're going to do that. I don't think that's going to be true of you. Because we can't see hearts. Not even an inspired writer of scripture can actually see the hearts of the people that he's ministering to. He has to go by their profession of faith, or lack thereof, but their profession of faith.
And he's writing to them in that vein. And he says, now, if God judged in the wilderness those who Outwardly accepted his word, but inwardly rebelled against it. Think about the judgments of God that will fall upon those today. who outwardly profess faith. in the gospel, profess faith in the word of God that comes from heaven.
but inwardly have not truly surrendered to it, Watch out. This is a warning. of a greater judgment a judgment that is more certain and more severe than the judgment which fell upon the Old Testament people. Do not reject God's word. Back to the beginning of verse 25.
See that you do not Refuse him. Who speaks? God spoke. from Sinai. Past tense.
He spoke. In an audible voice? Which they shrank back from He spoke by appointed messengers. Moses? And Aaron.
That he gave as an assistant to Moses, so that at least part of the time, and perhaps all of it, we don't know for sure. God spoke his word to Moses. Moses spoke his word to Aaron. Aaron spoke his word to the people. But it was just as much the word of God when it came from Aaron, from Moses.
from God. as it was God's word when he spoke directly. from Mount Sinea.
So God spoke. In the past, in an audible voice, God spoke in the past by appointed messengers. God spoke in the past by written Revelation that word that he spoke from Mount Sinai. He wrote in the His own hand, his own the finger of God upon the ten. Upon the tablets, the Ten Commandments.
And then other word that was spoken to them by Moses was written down in the portion of the Old Testament we call the Pentateuch. And so through audible voice, through appointed messengers, through written revelation, God spoke to them. And all of that was His Word. and he held them accountable for it. But if God in the past spoke from Mount Sinai, God in the present is speaking from heaven.
And how is God speaking to us from heaven?
Well, first of all, through his son. How did this book begin? Hebrews chapter 1. Verse 1. God who at various times And his various ways, spoken time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son.
whom he has appointed heir of all things. Through whom He also made The worlds. God is speaking from heaven. Through his son. In other words, And he goes on, and I didn't read verse 3 in Hebrews chapter 1, but he makes it very clear that the Son that he's speaking through today, in these new covenant days, is none other than God Almighty.
He's as much God as God the Father. Did you catch that? I guess I should read verse 3. Hebrews 1.3. who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
So when God is speaking to us through his Son, who is speaking to us? This arm is not. is speaking to us. In the Old Testament, from Mount Sinai, God spoke to them in an audible voice. In the New covenant age.
God speaks to us. Spoke to them. Certainly, when Christ was upon the earth, God spoke to them with an audible voice, as much the voice of God as that voice that thundered from Mount Sinai. By his son. God speaks through his appointed messengers, the apostles.
And those that he appointed to be The penman who would write down The books. of the New Testament that we call Scripture, and together with the Old Testament, we call the Holy Bible.
So God has spoken to us. by his audible voice. God has spoken to us by his appointed messengers. God has spoken to us through his written revelation. and is still speaking to us today.
The description of the Revelation, the word of God, that came. in the Old Testament days is past tense. This is how God Spoke. The description of God speaking in the new covenant days is present tense. This is how God is speaking.
He has spoken, but he is speaking still to us today. And so the warning is be very careful. that you receive The word that has come to you. See that you do not refuse him who Who speaks? Present tense.
Speaks. In the first century, when Hebrews was written, speaks. In the 21st century, as God is still speaking through His Word. written revelation through the messengers who proclaim the word of truth. He's still speaking today.
Be very careful that you receive his word. Don't Don't reject it, don't avoid it, don't refuse it, either by open rejection, by saying, oh, I don't believe that, that doesn't make sense to me, I can't accept that, be careful, or even what is more common, I think, giving outward lip service to faith in the message of God, but inwardly failing. Submit to it. Which is the same as disbelieving it, secret rejection. Because As in the Old Testament, So now Those who refuse his voice will receive severe Judgment.
No exceptions.
Now As then, Those who failed to receive his word. Shell is experience severe judgments Dear People. Dear men and women, and boys and girls, don't let that be you. Hear his voice. Believe it.
Obey it.
So we have, first of all, a reiteration. What we have here in verse 25 has been said previously, more than once, earlier in the book of Hebrews. But secondly, we have a prophecy. In verses 26 and 27, Whose voice Still talking about the voice of God. Whose voice then In the Old Testament, shook the earth.
But now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not only the earth but also the heaven.
Now, this, yet not once more, indicates. the removal of those things that are being shaken. as of things that are made. that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. A prophecy.
First of all, something to remember. Again, remember how God spoke. and how God in speaking shook Mount Sinai. It the whole mountain shook. It was like an earthquake.
It may have been an earthquake, but it shook. The voice of God shook that great mountain, which really is a mountain range. It shook. at the voice of God. And that shaking is recalled frequently in Scripture.
Look for it as you read through the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, especially the book of Psalms. How many times you will hear reference to the mountains shaking? And recognize that as a reference to what happened at Sinai in the wilderness. God shook that mountain. God shook Mount Sinai.
But also, along with that, consider God's next. Shaking. That is his former shaking, but there's one to come. Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, And this is a quote from Haggai. We read it earlier, Haggai 2.6.
Yet once more, I shake. Not only the earth, but also heaven. There is a future shaking. God has shaken. Mount Sinai.
God will shake The Earth. And the heaven and that. Reference to heaven has got to be the celestial. bodies, the sun, moon, and the stars that we see. in the heavens above.
God will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. And this is going to be a final shaking yet once more. It's also going to be a Refining shaking. It's going to separate the eternal from the temporal. It is an extensive shaking, not only earth but also heaven.
It is a future shaking. I will shaking. Shake. And consider the final outcome. As we continue this Look, this prophecy in verse 27.
Now this. Yet once more, indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken. as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. This is the final outcome of that future shaking which has not yet occurred. And it is that it eliminates everything.
Temporal. And that's probably the best way to describe it. Peter talks about this in 2 Peter chapter 3. I'm sure you're familiar. with this text, but let me pull it out at this time.
2 Peter 3.10. We read. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. That's the Heaven part that will be shaken along with earth. in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
This is why. Among other things. that I don't get alarmed at those Who say If we don't do this and we don't do that, Uh we're going to destroy The ability of of planet Earth to maintain life. I'm not worried about that. It's going to maintain life as long as God wants it to, but it's not intended to.
Yeah. Maintain life forever and ever, amen. It's not intended to maintain life for millions and millions and millions more of years. I don't think it has maintained life for millions and millions and millions of past years, but that's another subject. But it's not intended to do that.
And there's a day coming when Everything that we see and touch and experience through our senses, the physical things. are all going to be Burned up. Peter Contrasts. This coming destruction. with the past destruction of the flood.
as God destroyed The ancient world by water, so he will destroy. This present world by fire.
Okay. The writer of Hebrews contrasts it with the shaking of Mount Sinai. With a greater shaking that is yet to come, that will be so great that it will literally shake apart. into shrambles. all of earth and all of the heavenly bodies, the material part of this universe.
with which we are familiar. And that Exposes, therefore, when all that we see that's material is gone. That exposes to more clear view those things that are temporal. Are there those things that are eternal, in contrast with those things that are temporal? Unregenerate people.
have great difficulty seeing anything beyond the temporal, the physical. There's some that are insistent. If I can't measure it, if I can't weigh it, if I can't see it in the microscope or see it in the telescope, If I can't. Examine it. With scientific Principles.
Then I don't believe it. In other words, nothing exists except that which is. material and temporal. Wrong. God Almighty existed before this world.
And the universe that we see that is material and temporal came into being. God lives in a place called heaven, of which we have very little understanding, but apparently from this text we learn that heaven is eternal, and heaven is not part of the temporal and material that's going to be shaken. And when all of this is shaken into nothingness, God spoke it into existence, God will destroy it, God will judge it back out of existence, and when all of this that we are so familiar with is gone, then there will only be the eternal left. And We'll see that. Clearly.
Because that's all there will be. You say, Well, I don't know about that. You're going to have to explain that to me in greater detail. If you are waiting for me to explain it in detail before you believe it, you are waiting in vain. Just believe it.
Accept the word that came from God from heaven. Just believe it because God said it, it's true. And that shaking is coming. And only that which is eternal remains. That's the prophecy.
But that brings us, therefore, number three, to the exhortation of verse. Therefore... Here's What rests upon what has been spoken and upon the prophecy, therefore. Since we, believers, are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken. Let us have grace by which we may serve God.
acceptably. with reverence. and godly fear. The underlying presentation. Premise to this exhortation.
is that believers Receive a kingdom. We are going to B Kings and priests. Unto God. We are going to Reign with Jesus Christ. Who is king of kings and lord of lords over this great reality, which now seems so ethereal to us, but is actually a greater reality than the material.
universe in which we live. But there is a great kingdom, the kingdom of God Almighty. upon whose throne sits our own Redeemer, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And all who belong to him are going to rule and reign forever with him in this kingdom. It's a kingdom, it is an eternal, indestructible kingdom, unlike this universe.
This eternal kingdom cannot be shaken. If it could, it wouldn't be eternal. Eternal things cannot be shaken. Eternal salvation cannot be shaken. The eternal World.
cannot be shaken. The material world is shaken. In this material world, we join with the songwriter in saying, change and decay. And all around I see Thou God who changes not, Abide with me. And if he's abiding with me, and I am abiding with him, then when all of these.
Shakable things are shaken away, and only what remains are those things which cannot be shaken. I'll still be standing. And so will you as a believer in Jesus Christ. Thou God who changes not, Abide with me. We shall inherit in full That eternal kingdom which now to us Is difficult to see.
But we can see through the eye of faith. Faith does enable us to see things which otherwise we could not see. And what is faith? Faith is believing the revelation of God. And acting accordingly, right?
So we believe these things because God has revealed them in his word. What God spoke from Mount Sinai, he held. Men and women accountable to believe and obey, and judge those who didn't. What God is speaking now from heaven, he holds men and women accountable to believe and to obey. We believe these things because God said it.
And we act accordingly. We live our lives. in the light of these amazing and somewhat obscure truths, but nevertheless we can see them. By faith. And therefore, the appropriate response.
to all of this. He's in the last part of verse 28. I read the whole verse again. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom. which cannot be shaken.
Let us have grace. By which we may serve God acceptably with reverence. and godly fear. What's the appropriate response? What is the believing response to that word which God has spoken?
It is. Gratitude, worship. Service Reverence. And awe. Let us have grace.
This is one of those rare times, but there are other times in the Bible. where the word grace carries the idea of thanksgiving. I don't know how many of you when you Pray for a meal. Say Let us say grace.
Well, what are you saying? Let us give thanks. Let us give thanks. Grace carries that idea along with the other. More weighty concepts that are included in that word grace.
But grace has the idea of being thankful.
So, when the writer here tells us, let us have grace, he's saying, let us have gratitude, let us have thanksgiving, let us be thankful to God for these truths which He's revealed to us. And in believing them, we. benefit from them, we gain from them, we enter into these things. Let us have gratitude. And beyond that, let us worship and serve him.
And that too is bound up. In this word, Since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, Let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably. And interestingly, that word serve is sometimes translated service. and sometimes translated worship. It's a word that includes both of those ideas.
So here we have another word in addition to grace. which carries In this case, a double meaning. We worship God. And we serve God. And we serve God acceptably when we do so with a worshipful attitude.
And we worship God acceptably. when in worshiping him we give ourselves to serve him in whatever way he commands us to serve. We serve. In a worshipful way, We worship in a serving way. And all of this in response.
to the word that he has spoken. And then we have reverence and awe. Let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with. Reverence and godly fear, FF Bruce says reverence and awe before His Holiness. are not incompatible with grateful trust and love in response to His mercy.
We are so prone to take one truth and use it to minimize or cancel out another one. And that is Immature and it is foolish and it will lead to wrong conclusions. And so many times we we have ideas like Well, I'm glad I'm not serving that. Old Testament God of judgment. Instead, I'm serving the New Testament God of love.
Don't you realize? that the Old Testament God of judgment was also a God of love. It's the same God. Here's Judgmental character may have been more emphasized in the Old Testament. Then it seems to be emphasized in the new, though there's plenty of that there in the New Testament.
But it's the same God. play one attribute against another. We can't say because God is love, He's not holy. Of course, He is. What do the angels, the seraphim, say around the throne of God?
When they're praising and worshiping Him, they don't sing Love, love. Love, they sing. Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God. Almighty. Just because we know God is a God of mercy.
A God of grace, a God of love. And we delight in that. That doesn't cancel out that he's also a God of righteousness and of inflexible justice. Reverence and awe before His Holiness. are not incompatible with grateful trust and love, in response to his mercy.
We serve God. Out of gratitude. We worship and serve him. because of who he is and what he has done for undeserving sinners. We serve him with reverence and awe.
Why? And that brings us to our last verse, the short one, into our last. statement, which is a declaration. What have we seen in these four or five verses, we've seen four things. Number one, a reiteration, number two, a prophecy, number three, an exhortation, and finally, this declaration in verse 29.
For our God is a consuming fire. We worship God. We serve God. We bow before him in reverence and Aww. Because of his love, because of his mercy, because of his grace, yes, yes, yes, yes, but also because our God is a consuming.
Fire. A declaration. about the nature of God. This is as much the nature of God as love is the nature of God. And the Bible does tell us that God is love.
His very nature. Yeah. But his very nature is also Holiness, righteousness, justice wrapped up in this concept of a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. And one is as much true as the other, and one is as much the nature of God, the character of God.
as is the other. That, by the way, is the quotation from Deuteronomy 4. And in Deuteronomy 4, Moses is getting the people of God ready to go into the promised land shortly. And so he's reiterating. To use that word again.
Many of the things that were clearly said at Mount Sinai, when God spoke from Mount Sinai and when the Ten Commandments were given and so forth. And Moses is reiterating these things. And reminding the people. That when they take possession of the land, they must not forget. This word of God that came to them from Sinai.
Verse 23, take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you. and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything. which the Lord your God has forbidden you for verse 24, Deuteronomy 4, verse 24, 4, the Lord your God is a consuming fire. A jealous God. And the write of Hebrews picks that up here and declares that at this point In the conclusion of the body, Of the Teaching part of the book of Hebrews.
Our God is a consuming fire. It is the nature of God. What does that mean? God is absolute purity. With Irresistible power.
God is glorious in holiness. and inflexible injustice. God's holiness is not diminished by His mercy. He doesn't set aside His holiness. In order to show mercy, God cannot fail to destroy sin because of his nature.
A righteous Holy God, who is a consuming fire? fire. God cannot fail, therefore, to consume sinners. And that puts us in a precarious condition. All who are outside of Christ will be consumed.
Why? Because our God is. a consuming fire. And that truth is the reason why we serve God, according to this text. The statement of verse 29 begins with the word for.
It means. What we just said about how we serve God, this is the reason why we serve him in these ways, for our God is a consuming fire. We serve God to avoid eternal destruction, for our God is a consuming fire. And the remedy, therefore, is to become devoted to him. And this is interesting.
Because again, and that tendency we have to play one truth against another. We sometimes act as if it's possible to savingly believe in Christ, but not necessarily to serve Him. We want to separate the Saviorhood of Christ from the Lordship of Christ, impossible to do. accurately. And so here we We Serve God.
Because he's a consuming fire. We serve God to avoid destruction. We serve God. As an evidence of salvation, and that's what it is. It's telling us that those who serve God Well, maybe I should put it this way: those who have been born again inevitably will worship and serve God.
We don't worship and serve God in order to secure salvation, but everyone who truly has been born again will serve God and worship Him as a result of this work of the new birth within Him. Lip service is insufficient. For our God is a consuming fire, and He will consume those. who only give lip service to him without heart devotion. Heart surrender.
is the only acceptable response. to this God who has spoken to us from heaven, who is a merciful God, who has given us His Son for salvation. But he is also a consuming fire.
Now, let me quickly give you two lessons that I think grow out of this passage. First of all, it clarifies some things about the gospel. Every every evangelical Christian Thinks he believes and knows the gospel, but sometimes important elements are left out or are minimized. What about the gospel? For a full understanding, we need to realize that in understanding the message of the gospel, we dare not, we must not, minimize sin.
And sin demands judgment. Because of God's holiness. And that's why we need a savior. We cut the foundation out of the gospel when we minimize the sin issue. which is the main problem.
Why we are estranged from God, and need to be reconciled to Him is because of our sin. All have sinned. against the holy God. And we need to personalize that, not just generalize it.
Some people I have talked to over the years have taken the attitude When I remind them that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and I'm trying to get them to understand their need of Christ. And the attitude is something like this.
Well, yeah, I know I'm a sinner, but everybody is.
So what's the big deal? I mean. Everybody is, so. Why should I be concerned that I happen to be a sinner too? I'm not a really bad one, like some people are.
I'm a sinner, like everybody's a sinner. Ah, but you don't understand. One sin. will damn you to eternal hell. Apart from Christ Jesus.
Since is an important issue. Damnation is our just reward, all of us. for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God Who is merciful? has provided the remedy.
For our Condemnation. He satisfies his mirthy without compromising his holiness. He gave us His Son to bear the wrath of His Holiness in the place of guilty sinners. that he might be just. And the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.
Romans 3.26. But moving beyond The gospel message, let's also understand.
Something about gospel transformation because this text. touches upon that very very clearly. And that is, we must not omit, minimize, trivialize, or deny. The transformation that inevitably takes place in the life of anyone who has been born again. If you have not been transformed, you have not been saved.
The new birth destroys the old creation and makes a new creation. We know that text. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Now, link that truth with what we just read about the. Obliteration of the old creation and the revelation, the clear revelation of the new creation in the new birth. We are made citizens of that new creation. And As the old creation will be destroyed at the second coming of Christ, So the old man is destroyed. In the new birth.
will not experience the fulness of that destruction until We are in heaven. We're still wrestling with remaining sin, but it's not the same. Sin doesn't have the same hold upon us. We're not unchanged. It's not that nothing has changed in our lives except now we've asked Jesus into our heart, so we're going to heaven.
Your claim to the new birth has not transformed you. You haven't been born again. Please understand that. The gospel transforms. It causes us to grieve because of our sins.
and the sins in the world. It causes us to repent of personal sin. Daily. We are lifelong repenters because of the new birth. We weren't that way before.
It causes us to become grateful worshipers. to love, serve, and obey this God. who saved us by his grace. This new birth reverses the effects of Adam's sinful rebellion. What?
Was The nature. Of this estrangement that took place between God and man at the beginning when. In the Creation of Adam, he had perfect fellowship with God. And then all of that was broken. It was separated.
What caused that? It was Adam's. Sinful rebellion. He refused to surrender his will to God's revealed word. He refused to hear and heed the word that God has spoken to him.
And that became his destruction. from which God mercifully saved him. And that is our destruction. And in the new mirth, God mercifully saves us from that. But when He does, He changes the attitude of our heart.
And we no longer have this rebellion, this rejection, this unwillingness to surrender to His will. We now bow before His authority. And though we do not obey Him perfectly, we want to. We desire to, we pray to. And we repent.
in acknowledging those times when we failed to, That's what takes place in the new birth. That's the transforming power. that reverses the effects of Adam's sinful rebellion. The new birth causes us to long for the destruction of the present. World order, and long for the revelation of that new glorious kingdom.
that the Bible tells us about and which we can see only dimly. By faith. Now the question in closing is Does this description of the transformation that the gospel brings. Does it describe you? And if not, why not?
Do you think you're going to be the one exception? to what the Word of God Declares is what God does in saving sinners and transforming them. If it doesn't describe you. You need to go to Christ for fresh cleansing and renewal. and start ramping up your walk with him or If you recognize you don't have a desire for that at all, then you need to go to Christ for saving grace.
Say, I am a lost sinner who has evidently not experienced a new birth. No matter what I've claimed, no matter what I've professed, no matter how many aisles I've walked. No matter how many sinners' prayers I prayed, evidently I haven't been born again. Oh, merciful Lord Jesus Christ, please, please. Receive this hell-deserving sinner.
I embrace you. by the faith which you have given to me. Please hear This word of God. which comes to you from heaven. Shall we pray?
Lord God. Seal this truth to every heart today, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.
