The Nature of Christian Faith

by the music here, but it’s especially nice when you play one of my favorites right before. Ron asked me to announce that the Elders Council will start at 1050 today. Try to move it along faster. Would you bow with me in prayer, please? Heavenly Father, we’re so grateful for everything that you have given us in the church, for your design for our lives centered around you. For the opportunity to open your word and look at it together, hear from you through your word. Lord, as we do that today, we pray that you yourself would be our teacher, that your spirit would empower these words, that each of us would benefit according to our need. We commit this time to Jesus. This morning, we’re going to be thinking about the nature of Christian faith. Looking at Hebrews chapter 12, verses 14 to 25, I invite you to turn in your copy of God’s Word, Hebrews chapter 12, beginning with verse 14. This passage is about the nature of our faith, and it’s a subject that has become incredibly murky. Maybe it always was, but it certainly is now.

It’s confusing to a lot of people what Christianity is even about. So if we toss out the extremes, if we toss out the people picketing funerals in the name of Christ, and we toss out the people promoting alphabet plus open wickedness in the name of Christ, in the broad middle, we still have thousands of opinions being expressed about what Christianity even means. There are many assaults on the authority and sufficiency of scripture. There are constant arguments about how the Holy Spirit works in our lives, or the work that Christ accomplished on the cross.

What does that mean? People can’t even agree on that. Or what the church is supposed to be like, or how God blesses our lives in the church, and what our individual responsibilities might be. If we tried to name them all, we would all be exhausted. But the core problem in any of these things that people parading under the banner of Christian disagree on is a misunderstanding of the very nature of biblical Christianity. And it’s such a significant problem that we ourselves could have some blind spots. We ourselves could have missed some important truth about the basics along the way. And so today we’re going to think about the nature of Christian faith. Look with me, if you would, at Hebrews 12, beginning with verse 14.

God’s word says, pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

For you know that even afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears. For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to blazing fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet, the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the commandment, 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, but you have come to Mount Zion. and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, and 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.

Save that next verse for a few minutes. And the book of Hebrews was written to show the superiority of Jesus Christ over everything else a person can worship. It was originally directed to Jewish converts to Christianity. And many of them were struggling with how their new faith related to their lifelong practice of the Mosaic law. And a primary point of this book, because these people were trying to blend the two, many of them, and a primary point of this book that there is no value in blending anything with Jesus because he is the whole deal. He is superior to everything else people can worship. The law foreshadowed what Jesus fulfilled. Now that we have the fulfillment, we need nothing else. Nothing is ever to be added or blended with Jesus.

But there’s a sense in which this text that we’ve just read is the pinnacle of the book of Hebrews. At the very least, it’s a powerful summary of the points that have been made. And having made his assertions, the author is now applying his ideas to the readers. What comes immediately before where we started reading today is a call to disciplined living. And verse 14 starts a new paragraph where the discipline becomes specific. It’s applied to us personally. So in the text that we just read, there’s a lot, a lot happening.

There are five commands. And then there are six declarations regarding what our faith is not. And then there are nine declarations regarding what our faith is. And so much is packed into this concise summary that, you know, I could talk about this for six months, but we’re going to do it in an hour. We’re going to do it in the time I have. Now the commands here are pretty basic. In verse 14, there are two commands.

Pursue peace with all men and pursue the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. Now sanctification is a word that describes the process of becoming holier. So it’s the process of godly living that increases in godliness. And so we’re commanded to pursue these things intentionally, personally, using the discipline that was referenced in the previous verses. Pursue peace with all men. Pursue our own growth in holy living.

Those are pretty basic commands. But they’re the kinds of things that immediately fall to the wayside if we misunderstand what Christianity is at its core. And so they’re put here, leading up to a climax later in this passage. And then in verse 15, in the first part of verse 16, there are three more commands.

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. See to it that no root of bitterness bringing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. And see to it that there be no immoral or godless person. These three commands are about how we relate to one another within the church. First two are individual. These are about all of us together. Our individual responsibility for the life of the whole church. Each one of us and all of us together must see to it that there are no ungodly people among us. Nobody’s fallen short of the grace of God. No root of bitterness is bringing up causing trouble. There’s no immoral or godless person in our midst.

We’re commanded to see to that. And the scope of these commands can only be the church. Nothing else fits the wording. It can’t be me looking after me and you looking after you. That doesn’t fit at all. It just seemed to that no one comes short. That bitterness doesn’t harm a lot of people. That there’s no ungodly person among us. Can’t apply one by one. It can’t apply to the whole wide world. How are you going to get rid of the godly people in the world?

Well, God bless people in the world. So there are five commands. First two are about how we grow individually, how to live. The next three are about our responsibility within a congregation for the well-being of the whole congregation. But with that last command, we get something more. our responsibility to see to it that there be no immoral or godless person comes with an example. It says of the godless person, like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For as you know, even afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, so he sought it with tears.

Now this is an intriguing example And it’s intriguing because Esau seemed pretty much like the rest of the family. He seemed to be a decent guy. He made a really foolish choice. And that’s the kind of thing that we would tend to look at and go, well, pretty good. Made one really big mistake, but that doesn’t necessarily define his whole life. It’s easy for us to think that way. We like to think that way, give people the benefit of the doubt. But in Esau’s case, it wasn’t how it seemed. Something was fundamentally wrong with this guy who probably seemed like he was OK to most people.

The problem was something that required some discernment to see. He didn’t just lose his land and his wealth and the inheritance or the blessing given to the firstborn. His problem was deeper down than one mistake. He was unqualified for a spiritual blessing because he had not come to repentance. And he was so different from the godly people that he’s used here as an illustration of the ungodly that must not exist in a congregation that honors the Lord. There were a lot of people more outwardly, obviously godless than Esau. Yet deep down, he was unrepentant. He’d never been reconciled to his creator. He was part of the family. He was part of the group. He was in the community. He was not like the others.

As members of the church, our responsibility is to discern what is deeper down than outward appearances. not to allow such clean-cut looking unrepentant sin to exist in our midst. We’re to discern people’s condition, prayerfully, carefully. And if we discern that someone is not like the rest of us, our duty to call them to repent, to warn them of the danger that they’re in despite their acceptability, despite their presence in the group.

Now the Esau illustration might stretch us a little bit, but so far the things in this passage are not particularly provocative, are they? These are five pretty much non-controversial commands. They’re pretty basic. And yet this illustration using Esau reminds us that even with the basics, we need to be discerning. We need to be attentive. every single one of us.

But why these five commands? I mean, there’s so many things you could say to lead up to a definition of the faith that is coming. Why something basic? There’s so much more than these things that is a part of our lives. And I think maybe it’s because we all have to start with the basics. And then for the rest of our lives, we have to be stubbornly rooted in the basics so nobody pushes us off of them. There’s always that temptation, move on, add something better, more, get something to add to Christ. We have to just be rooted in the basics.

So the five commands are an excellent setup for the following verses that define what we’re not and what we are if we are biblical Christians. This is the most basic question of all, isn’t it? What is Christianity at its core? That’s what’s going to be answered in the following verses. We find the answers to what Christianity is not in verses 18 to 21, and in what Christianity is in verses 22 to 24. All of these statements involve the nature of our faith.

The first six are presented using Israel’s experience at Mount Sinai during the exodus. That’s when the law was handed down and God spoke to them. And that’s the imagery being called to mind in the text that would have been incredibly familiar to the first readers of this book. And the point of these statements that the biblical Christianity that you have come to if you’re in Christ is not like this, not. Verses 18 and 19 say this, look if you would please. You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to blazing fire and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind and to the blast of a trumpet and to the sound of words. All those things are exactly what Israel experienced at Mount Sinai. Difficult for us to imagine the intensity of that experience.

They had come to an actual mountain. They weren’t allowed to touch it. But theoretically, it could be touched. They’re all around the mountain. They saw these things. They heard these things. The amazing power of God was demonstrated in a way before their eyes. There was fire and darkness and gloom and whirlwind. And they heard the sound of this mighty trumpet. Then they heard the sound of words. The words they heard were spoken by God himself.

And what many people fail to realize is that this was a uniformly negative experience for the people of Israel. When God spoke to them, it was so bad that they begged never to have to hear him speak. They were terrified. Verse 19 goes on to say, The sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. They heard the voice of God, cried out not to have to do it ever.

The whole situation was terrifying. The voice of God was terrifying. It was because the law being handed down at Sinai could not be followed. There was no way to please this God. That’s why they were terrified. Verses 20 and 21 go on to say about that fear, for they could not bear the command.

If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. They were afraid of the boundaries that God had set on this experience. And then it says, and so full, so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling. Moses is the guy talking with God in the tabernacle all the time. But this glimpse of who God was terrified even him.

Now many today in that broad middle that we’re talking about between those two extremes are claiming to have experiences like this where God speaks to them in such a casual way. I’ve heard people say, oh, I was in the shower this morning and God said to me, many people are seeking after that They want a vivid experience. They want to move from experience to experience, always getting better, always getting higher. They bounce from church to church because it plateaued for them. Now they got to find somewhere where they can get more of that.

And this is saying your faith is not like that. The point here in bringing these experiences to mind, which were incredibly vivid, was that that’s not what you’ve come to. That’s not the nature of biblical Christianity. Those vivid experiences do not represent the nature of our faith. Biblical Christianity is not tactile, not visual, not physical, not sensory in any way.

It’s not outwardly observable. Change happens on the inside. It can be discerned, but it can’t be seen, out of sight. Our faith is not primarily experiential. Obviously we have experiences, everybody has experiences, but the experience is not the point. What our faith is about. And it’s good to be reminded, because our natural tendency is to gravitate toward what we can see, hear, and feel, and touch. And many are those, between the extremes, who think that that’s exactly what Christian faith consists of. and they’re chasing those things all the time.

We were never here to pursue a never ending series of vivid spiritual experiences. That’s not what we’ve come to. And if we pursue those things, to some degree, we’re going to miss out on what God has for us and suffer accordingly. That’s not what we’ve come to.

And then verses 22 to 24 tell us what we have come to instead. Look if you would at those verses, starting with verse 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, 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. Now this part of the text gives us nine versions of what our faith is like. But there’s some things to notice before we look at those nine things. The first thing to notice is that this is written in the past tense. You have come.

If you’re in Christ, you already have all this stuff. In every other religion, the practitioners are pursuing something that nobody has yet. They’re hoping to get it when they die, or maybe sometime long after they die, they’ll finally get there. In biblical Christianity, all of your sins are forgiven forever the moment you believe the gospel, and you have all the things we’re going to read about, talk about in the next few minutes.

The second thing we need to notice is that what is being described in these verses are heavenly realities. Heavenly realities. It’s not like Sinai that could be touched. None of us has ever seen any of this with our eyes, but we have come to them nonetheless. And third, before we look at the details, We should know that none of these things are experiential and none of these things are mystical. They’re illustrative of reality. They’re not just some mystical thing that you gotta read between the lines, find it in the white spaces. It’s not like that. These are rational ideas that have profound theological implications that are rooted in objective truth revealed to us from God. Rational and theological.

And so what have you come to if you have trusted Jesus Christ, poured your hope of heaven in Him and Him alone? Well, you have come to Mount Zion. But we know we’ve not come to a mountain that can be touched, so this can’t be the one in Israel or any other place on earth. This is about the heavenly Mount Zion. This is where God is, this is something that is made to stand in sharp contrast Mount Sinai where the law was handed down, there was no grace there. No one could please God on the terms of the law and that’s why they were all terrified.

All of us who have trusted Jesus as our only hope of heaven have come already into this heavenly reality, this place, holy place, come by faith. We can know that we’ve come by faith because the Bible tells us and we believe. We’ve been welcomed by grace already. And you have come to the city of the living God. This is another allusion to that heavenly reality that is ours by faith. This is personal. You have come to the city of the living God, to the place where God abides. You have come to God already. That’s the emphasis of this city of the living God. Come to God himself. And you’ve come to the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Jebusites owned Jerusalem before Israel finally, before David finally rooted them out. So this city was called Jebusite Salem. And it changed into Jerusalem. And they say it really different over there. But the Salem part means peace. and you have come to this heavenly city where peace reign.”

No pagan king ever ruled there. No godless Jewish king ever ruled there. No conquering army like the Romans or the Greeks ever took that over. Only one king in the heavenly Jerusalem. So these are three ways of talking about the same reality. Mount Zion, city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Each has a different emphasis. Mount Zion in contrast to Mount Sinai, the city of the living God because that’s where God is. Jerusalem, the place where there’s actual peace. Heavenly Jerusalem. You’ve come to all that. And you’ve come to myriads of angels. All my life, people have been wacky about angel. There’s so many angel myths in this culture, and I guess in every culture.

And the people that were the original readers of this book were tempted to elevate angels too high, to have all these extra biblical ideas about these heavenly beings. And when you have that, your view of Jesus comes down a little. Your emphasis is wrong doing that. And so the first thing the author addressed in this book after the introduction, in the first chapter, was the place of angels.

And in verse 14 of chapter one, he summed up his argument there saying, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? This is the point about angels. The point was never the angels. It’s the God who sends them to care for his people. And the assertion is that you who are in Christ have already come to myriads of angels. You’ve already got that. Don’t go off the deep end and get wacky about angels. They serve the God you serve. These powerful beings do God’s bidding when he sends them to take care of his children. You already have that.

And you have come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. This is still a heavenly reality. When you came to Christ, you became part of something that includes every believer who has ever lived. Everyone who has ever been transformed from the inside out by the work of the spirit because of the sacrifice of Christ is enrolled in heaven. And if you’re in Christ, your name is already on that roll.

Now this is an obvious heavenly reality, but with this one, it is remarkably like something that we’re doing right now. We have a taste of the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. Right now, together, this is an Assembly of the Firstborn. This is a Church of the Firstborn. And by God’s design and command, we gather together once a week to worship God, to glorify Him, to humble ourselves before Him, to be part of His assembly. Come together for a taste of what this is pointing to, heaven.

Mirrors, reality of heaven. And rightly understood, understood that way, the church stands in sharp contrast to the casual, laid-back, consumer-driven mess threatens to take over even godly churches. It stands in sharp contrast to the legalistic gatherings where people get together to celebrate what they think they’re doing for God. And it stands in sharp contrast to the self-exalting gatherings where people receive glory from one another, they have no idea about the glory of Christ. But rightly done, church is a glimpse of heaven.

We’ve already been commanded in this book to be a part of the assembly, to be a responsible part of it, to be an intentional part of it. Look back, if you would, at chapter 10, verses 23 to 25. Hebrews 10, 23 to 25. God’s word says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Now the author has already told us that. And then in our text for today, he tells us what this gathering is pointing to. This thing that we do. the foretaste of what’s coming in. How much more spectacular will it be when we can’t sin anymore? Even here, it can be mighty nice. It can be very much wonderful. It can glorify God and edify us. That’s what God designed it to do.

Now, the author’s still not finished telling us what we’ve come to. In verse 23 of Hebrews 12, you have come to God, the judge of all. I came to this passage weeks and weeks ago because I was frustrated with some things I was seeing in the Christian culture. I was looking for answers. And I have to tell you, this declaration stunned me.

God, the judge of all, is a remarkable emphasis. There are so many characteristics about God that are revealed in the scripture that could have been mentioned here. God is love, not here. Mercy, grace, tender loving-kindness, the God of all comfort, those are all in the Bible. They’re not here. You have come to God to judge all.

Now, I hope that we’re all Thankful all the time for the love and mercy and grace and tender loving kindness of our God. I hope that we’re thankful that we serve the God of all mercy, the father of mercies and God of all comfort. But in the midst of all these wonderful things about what our faith is, to get this emphasis about judgment could grab our attention.

It is perhaps a reminder even to us that this God is not to be trifled. This faith that we’ve come to is not something calling for casual involvement. It’s not something to be approached in an offhand way. It’s not something that allows for an entitlement mindset. It’s a serious thing to approach the living God in worship. You have come to God the judge of all. Now we can approach the throne of grace with confidence because of what Jesus has done for us, because he made us acceptable.

And yet here in this passage is a strong reminder not to take this lightly, not to be presumptuous in any way. Spend some time thinking about all the people in the Old Testament who died for worshiping God in a way that he had said not to. Or think about Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament in Acts 5 who died in a church gathering for their hypocritical worship. Their death was declared and they were struck down in the assembly.

You meditate on those instances long enough and you may come to feel like I feel sometimes I approached God in worship and didn’t die. I survived the experience. Praise God. You have come to God, the judge of all. And you have come to the spirits of the righteous, made perfect.

In coming to faith in Christ, you have come to all of the people who are already in the assembly, everyone who has gone before us. is in heaven waiting the resurrection when they’ll be united with a glorified body but their spirits are in heaven and somehow that we don’t understand but it’s reality it’s not mystical somehow we’ve come there too we’re a part of that already and then verse 24 says you have come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant Jesus is the name in which we hope. It’s why we can look on our holy judge without fear of condemnation.

It’s the name that brings to us all of the hope and comfort of the gospel. He brought us the new covenant that was promised explicitly in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, more subtly throughout the Old Testament. He’s the one who brought it about. He’s the mediator of a new covenant. Grace rather than fear. The reality of the gospel is driven home, particularly by the last declaration.

You have come to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood. This is what we might call an understatement of biblical proportion. There’s a lot of sprinkling of blood in the Old Testament law, but this is not about that. This declaration is about something else.

Abel was part of the first generation after creation. And his blood was shed by his brother who murdered him. And God himself said that Abel’s blood was. In Genesis chapter four, verse 10, God said to Cain as he confronted him, what have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.

That’s the reference the author’s pointing to. Not the Mosaic Law blood, not the sacrifice that Abel made, not the blood of Abel’s sacrifice. It says Abel’s blood. That’s not the sprinkling of blood we’ve come to. We’ve come to the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross, the blood of substitutionary atonement.

Jesus was also murdered from a human perspective, but his life was not wasted. The Jews and the Gentiles worked together, did exactly what they wanted to do, and God let them do it. Because God was doing exactly what he wanted to do, what he had promised to do. Sent his son for that, and Jesus’ blood was shed.

But it doesn’t cry out for justice. It cries out that justice has been met. Jesus paid for all of the sins, for everyone who would believe, and quenched God’s wrath over those sins. Justice was carried out on Jesus instead of on us. Jesus’ blood is still speaking. What it says is far better than what Abel’s blood was saying. Jesus’ blood is crying out that there’s hope, there’s grace, that there’s mercy for everyone who will trust Christ. That’s what we have come to. That’s the nature of biblical Christianity.

Not tactile like the experiences at Sinai. Not the terror of hearing from a God you cannot please because you don’t have a mediator. It’s not the law that you cannot follow. You’ve come to heavenly realities that are yours already by faith. Come to God the judge of all and been judged acceptable because of Christ. Your faith involves relying on Jesus, utter dependence on Jesus, what he’s done for you. Your faith involves doctrine. How much theology is wrapped up in these things we just read about that our faith is? Not mystical. Truth. Rational. It involves objective truth, and it involves our getting a deeper and deeper understanding as we live, thus that command.

How much theology is wrapped up in the character of the father in sending his son to die for sinners? Or in the son going to the cross? Or in the substitutionary atonement that he made on the cross? What you’ve come to involves faith, involves understanding objective truth. And what you’ve come to is serious. And then by God’s design, you live out what you’ve come to in a congregation of his people.

Now, the next verse that I didn’t read a minute ago is the beginning of the next paragraph, the next idea in this book. And I’d encourage you to read what I didn’t have time for before and what I don’t have time for after. But I can’t stop without reading verse 25 because it’s the first application of understanding what this is about, hearing what this is about. See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

God is speaking. Jesus’ blood is even crying out. And the message is that you can have mercy, that you must repent of all other hopes of heaven and depend on Jesus alone and nothing else. You must trust that his sacrifice is sufficient to meet all your needs. You must hope in him alone. If you have not acknowledged Jesus as your Lord, that’s what the message is crying out for you to do. Be to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

And the call comes with a warning. Still in verse 25, God’s word says, for if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape, turn away from him who warns from heaven. There were a lot of people at Sinai that heard the voice of God.

The vast majority of them died in their sin. Their vivid experience didn’t help them. Their being in the group didn’t help them. And if God did not spare those who refused him then, how much less will he spare people who refuse the son that he sent to die sinners?

If you’re not reconciled to him, it can change today. Humble yourself before him, cry out for mercy. You need to talk to somebody, talk to Ron, talk to me, talk to one of the deacons, get some help understanding this if you’re under conviction. And for the rest of us, my prayer is that we would all have a new and better sense of what we have come. The wonders of what God has done for us already, how serious it is, but also of how joyful. Bow with me in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, this is such an epic passage so much more there than I could say if I did have them. But Lord, we pray that you would use your word in our hearts, that you would teach us and give us understanding and give us the seriousness that it calls for and give us the joy. Look to you, we respond to your truth, live our lives more and more in holiness, your glory. Amen. In Jesus’ name.