Well, good morning to everyone. Good to see you this morning and feels like it's been a month of Sundays since I've been up here, so a little illness and then pastor at communion. 

So we're getting back to Hebrews chapter 12, continuing our study in the book of Hebrews, and it does seem like it's been a long time since our last study in this important chapter contrasting God's law and grace, Sinai with Zion, the old covenant, and the new covenant in Jesus' blood. 

You remember in the last part of the chapter, the author highlighted the contrast by going back to the giving of the law at Sinai, and we saw that that was an exceedingly terrifying experience, and the people begged that the Lord would no longer speak to them, the tenants of the law. They could not bear it. 

As I was thinking about that passage we studied last time, it reminded me of Peter's words in Acts 15. You remember in Acts 15 they had a meeting at the council at Jerusalem, and Paul had come up from the issues that were going on in Galatia, and they were discussing whether the law was binding on the believers and necessary for salvation. 

And in Acts 15:7 it said, "And when there had been much dispute Peter rose up and said to them, 'Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the same Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.' 

Listen to Peter's words, 'Now therefore why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear?' The law is a fearful thing, bringing judgment because we cannot bear it, we cannot keep it perfectly. 

And this is why it is such good news to come to Jesus, to Zion, to grace, to the new covenant. The Hebrews to which he writes were afraid. You remember they were experiencing persecution and rejection from their families, their friends, their community because they had left the temple and gone into the church and professed faith in Christ. 

Fear was a motivating factor that was leading some of them back to the law and the temple sacrifices, but the author makes a clear and powerful argument in this chapter that what they should really fear is the law, is coming back under a works-righteous system where the judgment of God would come upon them. 

This is truly the only thing to fear, but in coming to Christ there is nothing to fear. There is grace, there is security and peace and joy and promise, promise of grace of salvation for today and for eternity. 

This is the great message of this twelfth chapter of the book of Hebrews and what we see in these closing verses is a final warning to the Hebrews to not reject Christ, to not return to the law, but rather to look to the promise and receive grace. 

Let's look at our text in verse 25, Hebrews 12:25. He says, "...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, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he is promising, yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven." 

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. 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, for our God is a consuming fire. 

I've given you three points on your outline. First, we see a final warning. Second, the promise of a kingdom. And third, let us have grace. 

Well, first in our text we see this final warning. "...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." This is a very similar warning to the one we saw back in chapter 10. 

"...for those who refuse him who sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, who reject Christ and his grace gift, choosing rather to go back to law and religion, there only remains a fearful expectation of judgment and the wrath of God." The law brings only wrath. 

The author says, think about this. Look back to those who heard his voice at Sinai. Those who broke the law of Moses were put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more shall we expect the judgment of God if we refuse Christ as God in this new covenant time speaks through him? 

God speaks through his Son. You remember the very first chapter of this book, it tells us that God now speaks through his Son. And he speaks good news. He speaks the gospel, grace, salvation by faith. If we refuse him, what is there but wrath to come? 

This is the warning, my friends, a clear statement, the fifth and final warning passage of this book. We've seen this consistent pattern of teaching, of doctrine, of truth concerning the greatness of Jesus, his sacrifice, his priesthood, his saving work, and offer of salvation by grace through faith. 

And the consistent warning is that if we reject him, there is no other way. And that wonderful statement of promise in John 14, Jesus says, "and where I go you know and the way you know." And Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?" 

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Listen to those clear words. No one comes to the Father except through him. He is the way. He is the offer of salvation in the new covenant, only by grace, only through faith. 

Every man must decide what he will do with Jesus, and many of these Hebrews in this community were at a decision point. For those who would receive him, that is to believe on his name, to them he would give the right to become the children of God. This is the promise, but with it is the warning to not refuse him who speaks. 

Well next we see in our text the promise of a kingdom, a deliverance, an eternal life. Look at verse 26, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, "yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." 

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. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace. 

The emphasis here is the eternal in contrast with the temporary. The author quotes Haggai; that's Euper's favorite book, by the way, Haggai. Haggai 2.6 states, "for thus says the Lord of hosts, once more it is a little while I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land, and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the desire of all nations, and I will fill this temple with glory," says the Lord of hosts. 

The great shaking of the earth will come at the end of the Great Tribulation when Jesus sets his feet on the Mount of Olives and then sets up the promised kingdom. 

Revelation 16:18 says, "And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 

Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." In Revelation 17 and 18, we see the judgment of the great harlot, the fall of Babylon. 19 speaks of the second coming. In chapter 20, we see the setting up of Christ's kingdom on the earth, the millennial reign, and then the final judgment at the great white throne. 

In Revelation 21, we read these words, "now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. 

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.' 

Then he who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And he said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful.' A new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. This is the promise of that which cannot be shaken, the eternal kingdom of God in the new heavens and the new earth. 

Peter spoke of this promise as well. He said the elements will melt with a fervent heat and God will destroy the old and create new heavens and a new earth where we will dwell with him for eternity in the day of God. This is the promise, and the appeal is to leave behind the old and look to the new, to receive grace and trust God by faith in Jesus Christ. 

They thought Sinai and the giving of the law was bad, was a fearful thing, but to be on the wrong side of God when he fully and finally brings his wrath and judgment, when he shakes the earth and only the eternal remains, is to experience eternal judgment in the lake of fire. This is what they needed to fear. 

This is the truth they needed to know and believe and focus on. Look to the eternal, not the temporal, and come to Zion, come to Jesus, come under grace, and leave the law behind. 

So we see the final warning, we see the promise of an eternal kingdom, and we see the tremendous statement in verse 28, "let us have grace." 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. 

This is a tremendous statement of the truth of God's grace in Christ, and it's full of meaning. I'd like to divide it into three parts for our study. First, coming to God by grace. Second, living for God by grace. And third, trusting the promise of grace. 

Well, first we see that these Hebrews who had not believed needed to do—who had not believed needed to do was to come to God by grace. They needed to come to salvation. And this is a theme of all the warning passages of the book. 

Let us have grace. What a message for today. Turn from law and legalism, leave behind the old, completely abandon and forsake the law covenant as we saw in chapter 6, verse 1, which is obsolete, which we saw in chapter 8, and go on to perfection in the new, in Christ. 

Let us have grace for justification. This is not only a theme of Hebrews, but of the entire Bible, my friends. Even the law and sacrificial system was meant to show us our sin and bring us to grace, to faith in Christ. 

This is so clearly laid out in Galatians 3. Turn over to Galatians 3 with me, please, at verse 19. 

Galatians 3:19 asks the question, "What purpose then does the law serve?" That's a good question, isn't it? What purpose then does the law serve? Why did God give it? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 

Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 

But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 

Romans 3 teaches us the same truth. The law was given to show us our sin, to shut our mouths, to lead us to Jesus, to grace for salvation. The righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, he says in verse 21. Righteousness through faith. 

Romans 4 makes this abundantly clear, and this is not only true now, this salvation by grace through faith, justification by faith, but it was true for Abraham and David as well. In Romans 4:1 he says, "What then shall we say that Abraham our father is found according to the flesh?" 

Listen to these words. "For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." The author says a mouthful when he says in our text, "'Let us have grace.' 

No one comes to the Father except through faith in Jesus Christ, and this is a grace gift, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us. By grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." 

My friends, the Scriptures could not be clearer if we are to come to God through Jesus, which is the only way, then it will be by grace through faith apart from the works of the law, and this was the salient message for this Hebrew community. 

I'd like you to turn to Romans 5 as we kind of transition to our next point. Romans 5 at verse 1. Justification is by faith. 

Romans 5:1 states, "Therefore, having been justified by faith." What are the implications, then, of this salvation? Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. 

Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. What a great passage for these Hebrews who are experiencing trial, tribulation, persecution. 

What a contrast with law, to have peace with God, to stand in grace, to trust God in keeping His promise through the trials of this life, to conform us to the likeness of His Son. 

Let us have grace for justification, but notice the words of our text in Hebrews, let us have grace for sanctification as well. He says, "Let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." 

These words reminded me of Paul's words to Titus in chapter 2. That's one of the most amazing passages in Titus 2. He says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us." 

What does grace teach us? "Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." 

Paul says that the grace of God teaches us holiness. This is amazing truth. Grace is not a license to sin as so many charge, as they charged Paul. But rather, when we understand grace, when we stand in grace by faith and trust in the promises of God, it teaches us holiness. 

Only God's grace, His life in us, by His power, can produce holiness in our lives. And this is really the truth we must understand and take for ourselves by faith as we abide each day, looking for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. 

It is the grace of God and regeneration that has given us a basis, a foundation for a new life in Christ. We must know this, we must understand this, we must reckon it to be true. And it is the grace of God in Christ Jesus, His life in us, His power working in us that produces holiness by a life of faith. 

And this all sits in contrast to life under the law. Turn over to Galatians 2 with me, please. 

Galatians 2:18, Paul explains this clearly, talking about how he now lives as a believer in Christ. The Galatians were in danger of going back to legalism for sanctification. 

In 2:18 he says, "For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." 

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." Paul is here talking about sanctification, about holy living. 

Follow along in chapter 3. "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" 

Now I want you to look closely at verse 3. We’re going to build on this thought from Paul here. He says, "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" 

Having begun in the Spirit by grace through faith, are you now being made perfect by the flesh by the works of the law? This is a great question, not only for the Galatians who were being drawn back into legalism, but it's also a great question for us today, for the church today. 

I think evangelical Christians understand very well justification by grace through faith, but sanctification by grace through faith is a little bit more cloudy. There seems to be a great desire to bring the law on believers again in order to produce holiness for each of us to some degree to bring to begin in the Spirit, but then try to make ourselves perfect through the flesh by keeping some law. 

We looked in depth a few weeks ago at Romans 6 and the truth that I in Christ, in my union with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection, died to sin. This is such a vital truth. We who died to sin can no longer continue in it as we did in Adam, Paul says. 

Our old man in Adam was crucified with Christ for the express purpose that the body controlled by indwelling sin would be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Grace teaches holiness. 

Remember the words of 5:20 to 21 when he said, "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." Why? Why did God's grace abound much more? Just to get me out of hell? To take me to heaven? Yes, but not just that. 

Why? He tells us, "So that." So that. Here's God's purpose in saving you. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God saved you for the very purpose of making you like Christ, making you holy, giving you new abundant life, a life that brings glory to Him and shows the power of the gospel and Christ's life in us as we walk in grace by faith. 

So that—this is the purpose of God in our salvation, that grace might reign through righteousness. The scriptures consistently teach living today by grace through faith with a view to the eternal deliverance and promise of Christ Jesus. 

So we saw this vital truth of our death to sin and the amazing transforming work that God performed in us by grace. Now I want you this morning to look at Romans 7 with me. 

Romans 7 at verse 1. Paul wants them to know something again. He says, "...or do you not know, brethren? For I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. 

But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 

For when we were in the flesh..." This is in Adam. "...the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." 

These are profound truths of our salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. Again, we see the purpose of God in verse 4. "...you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, for the purpose that we should bear fruit to God." 

This is God's plan for producing fruit through us. Why can we bear fruit to God? Because we died to the law and we are now married to Christ. We died to sin, we died to the law, and now we live how? Not by the letter, but by the Spirit. 

Remember what Paul said to the Galatians who were going back to legalism as a rule of life. "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect, sanctified by the flesh, by the letter, the works of the law?" 

Look at what Paul says in Romans 7:6 again, "...but now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by." Why? "...so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." 

So that. Please, my brothers and sisters, pay attention to these purpose words when you read the Bible. "...so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." 

Let us have grace for sanctification. Let us have grace for holy living. Now look down to Romans 8 with me, verse 1. 7:7 to 25 is really a parentheses, and he picks it right back up in 8:1. He says, "...there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," who what? "...who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh." 

Why? "...that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." We do not walk in the flesh. We do not walk by the law, controlled by indwelling sin. 

My friends, we are under grace, and it is grace that teaches us, that produces righteousness in our lives, as we walk in the Spirit by faith. For what the law could not do, God did. The law wasn't bad; the law was good. The problem was indwelling sin. 

The righteous requirement of the law, which is love, is fulfilled in us when we walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. Not by the law, by the letter, but in the Spirit, by grace through faith. 

Let us have grace for justification. Let us have grace for sanctification, that we may serve God. The author of Hebrews says in our text, finally, let us have grace for glorification and eternal life, receiving the promises of God. 

Look at verse 28, "...therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace." I don't know if you noticed in every one of those passages we looked at, we see the truth of holy living today, fruit-bearing today is by grace, but it's also consistently tied to our eternal hope, the kingdom which cannot be shaken. 

In Titus, where we read that, it says, "...for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age." And then he says, "...looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." 

Romans 5:20 and 21, he talks about us now living in righteousness by grace, grace reigning in our life to eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Grace is for salvation; grace is for living today, sanctification, and my brothers and sisters, grace is for eternity as well. What do we have by the grace, the gifts, the promises of God? 

Think about Jesus' words in John 14, "...let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." 

Do you believe this, my friends? Do you believe the words of Jesus, the promise? How do you know that you have eternal life? How do you know that Jesus will come again to take you to heaven to be with him forever? How do you know that you will go to heaven? 

You can ask all the religious people of our communities, those looking to the law and works for salvation, what will they say? They will invariably say, well, I hope I'm good enough, I hope I will make it to heaven, because they cannot know. They cannot know, because they can never know if they have done enough. 

Because they have this warped view of God that says if they do more good than bad, then he will accept them. But that's not what God says. That's not the truth of the law and sin and judgment. 

But we who have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, we can know that we have eternal life. 

Because we are depending not on our works, not on the letter, the law life, earning our own righteousness, but we are depending on the righteousness of God imputed to our account as our sins are imputed to Christ on the cross through faith in him. 

We are depending on grace, on the gift and promise of God, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Our brothers and sisters in Christ, our eternity depends on the grace of God in Christ and the promises made in him. 

And all the promises in him are yes. Thus, we have confidence, not in ourselves but in God and his grace and his promises. For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. 

If it were not so, Jesus would have told us. But we have his promise, the promise of his coming to take us to be with him forever. 

We have his word, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life." This is our hope. This is our confidence, our assurance of eternal life. 

Let us have grace. What a statement concerning the new covenant life in Christ by grace through faith in Jesus one day at a time, constantly abiding. And what a privilege it is for us to study and know and believe these truths in the Word of God, and the only book he ever wrote. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for your words, your truth. We thank you for your grace and for salvation in Jesus Christ. Thank you for the truth that your grace is sufficient in him and his sacrifice for our justification, your life, your grace to us, your power in us is sufficient for sanctification and your will to make us like Jesus. 

And we thank you that your grace is sufficient to take us to be with you forever. Thank you for the promise. In Jesus' name we pray.