Contrasting Testament Beginnings (Part A)

The New Testament remembers this relationship a little differently same God saying Yahweh.

John writes this is that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon in our hands of handle concerning the word of life to Christ.

I walk with him. I touched him ice to lean back on. We reclined at meals together. That's drastically different from let Moses speak to him. We don't want any part of this. This is cross reference radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Hebrews. Please stay with us after today's message here. More information about cross reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching, but for now let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Hebrews chapter 12 as he begins his message contrasting testament beginnings in Hebrews chapter 12 verses eight through 24 Hebrews chapter 12 verses eight through 24.

Beginning in verse 18. You have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burns with fire and to blackness and darkness and Tempest the sound of a trumpet in the voice of the words so that those who heard it bag that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. They could not endure what was commanded and if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. So terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to the innumerable company of angels to the general assembly, the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven to God, the judge of all the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Well, the writer of Hebrews is writing to an audience that is familiar with the passage he is quoting from Exodus. You've got a better chance of understanding what's going on. If you have at least a basic familiarity with the subject and contrast of Testaments that there beginnings when God first gave the Old Testament and one God gives gave the New Testament that is what the writer is contrasting to his audience and for those of you not up to speed on what's going on in Hebrews we have these Jewish believers was the first church was all Jewish and then the Gentiles.

Of course, became in but there were Jewish believers who were pressured by their family and their community to leave Christ that he is not the Messiah that they have to come back and practice the Old Testament rituals and and they were beginning to succumb to this. There were beginning to turn away from Christ. And so he writes this letter to tell them that if they do, the consequences would be severe. But not only that, that what they have turned to in Christ there is much better and they know this so really makes this appeal to them.

He had just pointed in the previous paragraph to Esau.

He was a man in the Old Testament who was what we would say today is a man's man and he had no appetite for spiritual things, but he did have an appetite for carnal things for natural things with things of the flesh for common things but when it came to the invisible things of God are you so really was not impressed and so the day came when pressure was put upon his flesh, and he sold his spiritual blessings for food. His reasoning was what I need food now, what good is a spiritual blessing.

I can eat that.

I'm hungry, and he justified it, and in so doing, he forfeited the spiritual blessing in the writer is saying. Remember Esau, he forfeited what God had for him. He made the wrong decision, and he paid for it and the time came when he wanted it back and it was too late and he started with much tears couldn't get it back. You Hebrews you're on the identical path of Esau, you are about to forfeit something very spiritual and wonderful and unique and better for that which is transient, which is short-lived, which is not what you think it is.

They wanted relief from the religious pressures Esau wanted relief from hunger valid but not worth not worth sacrificing your relationship with God to satisfy your relationship with your own nature and circumstances and predicament, and this is what the persecution of the saints is always been about when you renounce Christ so you can escape the suffering will you go to your death, preaching the gospel. So he says don't reach backwards for the visible things while letting go of the invisible thing that has impressed upon you. It's reality. He says this to the Corinthians. He says while we do not look at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal saying there are invisible things about God that you know you very much are in touch with and you cannot see them with your physical eyes but you have another pair of eyes is spiritual. You see the reality the truth the goodness of God in this life because he is able to show it to you and you are able to catch it.

What you see from God is more real than what you see here because what God has is everlasting and everything you see in this life is temporary, so now we look at verse 18, he says, for you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burns with fire and to blackness and darkness and Tempest the sound of a trumpet in the voice of words so that those who heard it bag that the word should not be spoken to them anymore so here is another wave of his sharp contrast between Christianity that they were now part of Judaism that they had left behind in all of this runs parallel to our lives when we leave behind the world we come to Christ. It is the same experience. You're the same temptations to pull us back in time.

If you serve the Lord. Especially, there will be those temptations to make you say it's not worth it is not true. Give it up and you'll have to battle against yourself or your natural self and the enemy in the spirit in you are supposed to win. God believes you are supposed to prevail because he is with you, but he's pointing back to the day when Moses was giving the 10 Commandments and the law law of the Jews. We call it the Mosaic law, known as Judaism had come down from Mount Sinai and he was given the law of the storm surrounded the mountains, smoke and darkness and funders and lightnings, and prohibitions.

It was a spooky time.

If you if you are in a safe place. Storm can be quite amusing, thrilling and fun. If you feel that it can't get to you. But if you living in tents near out of the wilderness and there is lightning and thunder and darkness and wind and all those things coming right from God, could be terrifying. That was their experience and so he's going back you think this is the route you received the law of Moses you receive it on a stormy day with lightnings is so intense you want to hear anything from God. You were so afraid of God's majesty and his power and made such an impression upon you.

You just wanted someone to go between you and God. And that was Moses, stand between YouTube and mediator is what would be known as an he's writing to them. He sees trying to impress upon them. Remember when you came from because I'm going to show you where you're going and you make the choice personally.

He had already made his decision. He was aware of these things, he knew of their experiences is saying as he has been saying throughout this Hebrew document. Our faith is better because it is superior that you cannot say that to people. So many people today they get offended you know I don't feel I'm obligated to make someone feel comfortable when I disagree with them.

I don't have to be nasty and mean.

I don't mean that way at an unexcused will not excuse that we are not to be nasty and mean to be firm and we are not just Christians trying to you know make everybody fit in somewhere.

We stand by what we say you have to renounce false faith.

Here is why they are false. If you going to embrace the true and the subsets many folks while they going to have to be upset. I'm always puzzled by people who come from another church or even another religion come here and hear the word and get offended.

What would you think we got to preach what your church preaches what your religion preaches of course not going to preach opposite of that. And as we go through a for instance if I say, when we get to the mediator in this section if I said you the Bible says is one mediator between man and God, and that is the man Jesus Christ not marry. If you're coming from a Roman Catholic Church. You might get very offended at that well that's your problem. I don't mean that rudely, but I'm not going to change the message to accommodate views that I think are false and anyone it's gotten so now you cannot speak against homosexuality. Well, I can because it's condemned by God now doesn't mean he hates the individuals only.

I have yet always see if say that so much that they don't even listen to that.

They just want you to accept, and you say less. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings and not trying to make you feel as though you're unimportant, it's quite the other way around. I'm trying to let you know you are very important to God.

God's long-suffering ruling that none should perish, but perish they will if they die rejecting him and preaching lies to you and accommodating your sin as I could do anything for you, Mme.

Your soul you could find that anywhere in the world. Christ did not do it. John the Baptist did not do it.

Paul did not do it. Peter did not do it and they murdered all of her standing up for the truth. Words have a meeting with Menem with God to the end.

He will judge so serious.what is writing to that Mrs. remember how the law was given, but he is also telling them is throughout this document, and throughout the New Testament. The Old Testament was one part the beginning part of the New Testament, it is obsolete now, but it was critical essentially had to have it. Peter says it this way of this salvation that is in Christ, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully. Prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what to what manner of time. The spirit of Christ was in them and indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow me saying you know Isaiah 53.

For example, Christ is the author of that and he is also the one that has refilled it.

The Old Testament prophets are writing about him. They did not fully understand all the things we do.

As we've seen them come to pass. We've experienced them because he's been with us is given us his Holy Spirit. Peter continued, he says to them, it was revealed not themselves but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things which angels desire to look into Peter were saying to the church that was being persecuted. Incidentally, he was saying. The prophets have told all about Christ.

We got the evidences you should be rejoicing in this you should find power in this. This is true or not following fables of man. We have not created our own religion according to our own preferences.

This is by the revelation of God, not the speculation of men is alive and it is powerful.

Paul wrote to the Romans he says, 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 spirit and not in the oldness of the letter you got to make a break from everything that is interfering and contrary in your thinking when it comes to Jesus Christ and to God. You've got a break from those things. So he says here in verse 18 and to blackness and darkness and Tempest, so that giving of the lore lost stormy severe storms hold onto that as we move around one of the things God was saying to the people when he revealed a lot of them is I'm not to be trifled with.

God is a consuming fire that the writer to Hebrews will quote the Old Testament with that he's been preaching at throughout. But God is not someone to fall around with it does him no honor to refer to him as the big guy in the sky. The man upstairs those insults to him. He is more than that. He is the ultimate he is holy and high and pure lofty and every splendored thing we can think of and more and to downsize him to be somebody walking around upstairs does not work in your favor, God was revealing himself to the people he was saying. I'm not like anything you've ever seen anywhere else and let's start off getting this understanding right in verse 20 of Hebrews 12. He continues, for they could not endure what was commanded and if so, as much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. This is Exodus 19 Exodus 20 get the 10 Commandments. But first, God makes his grand entrance called a theophany, God making an appearance through a created object.

The cyanide was a storm clouds spoke to the people and they knew the storm was unlike anything else they had ever been in contact with it created a distance between the people and God. You don't just walk over to me. This was upheld. It even into the days of Solomon into the days of Christ with the veil in the temple and only the high priest once a year, could enter behind. And even then he had to be very careful. Of course, when Christ was crucified that veil in the temple was torn in two, God saying I'm doing it differently now but the contrast is stark. It is right here before them. It is right here before us in so many Christians again. They don't know who they are when it comes to the Bible. Many Christians think they still live in the Old Testament under the law covering other people under that they'll say things like, what a diet was for them to keep them healthier and you know what that really that diet was just separate them from everyone else. If you say what they were living longer live there were other people living longer in the reading as much bacon as they get their hands on yet to understand where God was going with these things, or else you going to go on the wrong direction with them, and the result will be.

You will not be as fruitful as you would like to be the beauty of the New Testament when Paul comes along, he says, look, food is not was going to make you right with God.

Understanding and your obedience towards him. Your quest for him. Your hunger and thirst for him. Holiness and righteousness. Those things register with God, but all God look at me. I don't need chocolate.

I even tell me that's is not going to God's. And wow you are really a deep individual so it is out of the church get there by not knowing who she is. Her identity and he is trying to say no. You are no longer the people in the wilderness under the law, yet you are of the law of Moses.

You are now under the law of grace that includes much of the law of Moses is not lawlessness, that it had gotten so intense on that day.

Exodus 20 then they said to Moses you speak with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us, lest we die. Unfortunate. I mean, it is difficult if you put yourself in their place and were terrified by the storm around them. If you've ever been close to a lightning strike. You know how terrible that can be. And if you got them all around you know where to go. This was the people that was they were unraveling and solicit Moses. God is too much for us.

We need someone to go between us and it was, of course, Moses.

Now we have Christ, but we don't have the same attitude we don't want someone to speak to God for us, because God is invited us to speak to him directly were not terrified of God as they were there me. There is certainly a reverence that can be terrifying if we are in blatant sin than the wrath of God may be upon you, but as a rule we walk in communion with Christ.

The communion table is a meal it is a happy it's a happier place that I want to say it's a happy place.

It just that's been messed up, but it is a it is supposed to be a joyful experience based on his sacrifice of the New Testament remembers this relationship a little differently. The same God.

The same Yahweh. John writes this, he says that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life, talking about Christ. I walk with him. I touched him high is to lean back on. We reclined at meals together that's drastically different from let Moses speak to him.

We don't want any part of this revelation chapter 1 John writes when I saw him. This is after the death, resurrection and ascension in years after I fell at his feet as dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying to me. Do not be afraid. I am the beginning and the end the Alpha and the Omega, the A-Z I sum it all up. I am God.

So when much of this paraphrase, if you don't have the verse in front of you. Revelation 1 verse 17 to you. Make sure you can separate his comment from the pulpit versus what is quoted Scripture. So when he says again in Revelation 117, I fell at his feet dead, but he put his right hand on me.

We have a God that is approachable, that will touch us that we can touch and return albeit now.

Not physically but spiritually, which is, as I began to try to outline his eternal far-reaching.

So we again refuse unworthy expressions of our God.

He is no less awesome to us today than he was on that day, when Moses gave the law.

We have a different relationship because of Calvary. The place where Christ was crucified, those Jews out of Egypt. They needed that Terra to sort of shock them out of the influence of all the idolatry and the godlessness that they had been in as a people for over 400 years, while slaves and in Egypt they were not slaves. The entire 400 years. What a great part of it. They were God began to filter out this irreverence in their heart and we watch it in their wilderness experience, many of them died because they treated God as though he was who he said he is verse 21 of Hebrews. So terrifying was a sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. These words are not found in Scripture at this event there in the Scripture with Moses when he first met God. They are in Mount Sinai in Exodus 3 we read Moses hit his face what he was afraid to look upon God. But what this is is expressed here is through the Jewish tradition, the verbal tradition that was preserved in the Holy Spirit green lighting. This commentary on those events because they were real.

So on that day.

Even Moses was jarred as Moses he's been in front of God is been dialoguing with God.

And yet God shows up in such an intense way makes a such a dramatic impression on the people that even Moses the great lawgiver was with 40. This is a bit much.

Now if you been attending here anytime. You know my great disdain for the trivializing the reduction of that word. Now language called awesome so out a hand and it's it's done for every single thing the people of God. We will reserve that word for things that are truly awesome you giving me a lot of cash would be awesome.

Small denominations and brown bags, but it would not match the awesomeness of God, that one day when we see him eye to eye face-to-face is nothing going to be all some is that that day in the wilderness, God was awesome. He is no less awesome because he does not perform this way. Now move you've been listening to cross reference radio the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick asked Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia.

As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast. Today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to cross reference radio.com that's cross reference radio.com would also like to encourage you to subscribe to the cross reference radio podcast subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick, you can subscribe cross reference radio.com or simply search for cross reference radio your favorite podcast to the next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on cross reference radio