If you want some more, take your copy of the scriptures and turn to the New Testament. Mark chapter nine. Mark chapter nine. I’ll bring you verses 30 to 37. Please give your full attention, this is the word of God.

And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, If anyone would be first, let him be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. John said to them, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. for the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. The word of the Lord. Amen, you may be seated.

Let’s go to the Lord once more and ask his blessing upon the preaching and reception of that word, let’s pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we come before and we revel in the glory of who you are, Lord, and in knowing the privilege of your presence, of you being with us here as we together now. We thank you, Father, that you have indeed instructed us, that you have given us your word, that you have sought us and found us. Lord, we pray that we would be attentive to this word, Lord, that it would grow us and strengthen us and challenge us and refresh us. Lord, and we do pray that you would be with the one who speaks and those who hear, that the meditations of all of our hearts will be pleasing in your sight. So we come once more, Lord, and we ask, speak, for your servants are listening. And we ask this all in Christ’s name and God’s people said together, amen. Amen.

Turn now, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews 12, verses 18 to 29. We continue looking at this text in regard to Christian worship, New Covenant worship. Hebrews 12, starting at verse 18. It says this. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest And the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them, for they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering. and to the assembly 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 that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of all things that are shaken, that is things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. The word of the Lord. Amen.

Well, sometimes I’m asked and you may be asked too about our church and about the worship. What is the worship like at Providence? And sometimes they’re referring to music, right, to music. But worship isn’t just the songs that we sing. It’s indeed all of what we do here corporately in worship on the Lord’s day, singing yes to be sure, but also prayer, listening, reading, reciting, communing. These are all part of the worship of the church. Sometimes they want to know about the auxiliary things, the secondary things, like the style of worship, the mood, right? Is the pastor a comedian? Is it a show? Will there be solos? I hope that we can give a more basic answer as we’ve looked at worship these past number of weeks and a more basic answer that’s faithful to God’s word from what Hebrews tells us, that our worship is acceptable worship. Acceptable worship. We see from our text that acceptable worship is, we looked at last week, worship in the right place. It’s in the heavenlies, right in the heavenlies. When we worship, we come to the heavenly city, the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of the living God, Hebrews tells us. The author of the Hebrews is saying, that’s where you are right now when you worship. That’s where you are right now. As a corporate assembly, when you come together to worship in the church, he’s telling them, you don’t need to go down to Jerusalem because you are really in Jerusalem, the true heavenly city. And where is it? Where is that heavenly city? It’s up in heaven where God is. That’s where you are when you’re gathered together in corporate assembly. And I hope you see that. I hope in this text that we grasp a little bit of that. In worship, we are drawn up into heaven itself, even now. The question is, do we believe that, right? Do you believe that? It’s an awesome thing to reflect upon, this truth that we read from Scripture. It’s hard for us really to let that sink in and detach from the rest of our lives. Our minds have a hard time thinking that that’s true. According to our physical senses, it seems like we’re merely here in an old brick building. But actually, really, spiritually, we are drawn up into glory when we worship the Lord as the Lord’s people. When we read here is that when we answer God’s call and come to worship, we aren’t simply here. Rather, we’ve been called up into heaven itself. We are assembled in the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem. And again, I know this is very hard for us to grasp and believe because of the weakness of our faith, because we are so physically minded and physically anchored in this world. But know for certain, brothers and sisters, Know that when you’re beat down from the life in this pilgrim land, that the rest of the week, when you’re weak from the journey, weak from the attacks of the enemies within and without, know that Lord’s day by Lord’s day, he calls you to come, come and experience just a foretaste glory in worship. And he calls you to taste a small taste of what that heavenly worship will be like, even here as we gather week by week in this small brick building. And by it, he strengthens us, right? In worship, he strengthens us, and he grows us, and he refreshes you. Acceptable worship is worship in the right place, first and foremost. And we need to grasp that. We need to grasp this heavenly worship, because what he tells us next intensifies the glory of what is going on in worship, as we work through this text. He says acceptable worship is in the right place, the heavenly city. And secondly, Worship must be with the right people, right? Or in the right company. Verses 22 to 24 tell us this. We are drawn into glory in corporate worship to the heavenly city. And who is there when we worship, according to Hebrews? Verse 22 says, but we have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, right? Speaking of the same thing three different ways. And he goes on, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering. It says you are gathered to innumerable angels, myriads, thousands upon thousands, is what it means. He says, not only should you not go back to physical Jerusalem, right, which is what they were, that’s what they were doing, they were erring, they wanted to go back to the old ways. You not only should not do that, but when you’re gathered for corporate worship, you are surrounded with thousands upon thousands of angels. That’s happening even now. And that’s mind blowing, right? This is the same group of angels that we read about in Revelation five, where John was taken up into heaven and shown what that was like. And it says this in Revelation five 11. He says he heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. How many? 10,000 upon 10,000, he’s saying. That’s what Hebrews says is happening. It says that the vision that God saw, that John saw of all these angels surrounding the throne, when you come to worship, Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, when you come together as the church, that is where you are, and that is who you’re with. And again, notice what kind of gathering it is, right? It tells us it’s not a dirge. It’s not a memorial service. It’s not dour, and it’s not down. This gathering of angels is what it says. It’s a festal gathering, a celebratory gathering. And we see in Revelation, the song that they sing, right? The song that they sing is what? It says, worthy are you, O Lamb, who was slain to receive glory and honor and power and blessing. They’re taken up in song about this slain and risen Christ who now rules in their midst. The author of the Hebrews is telling us that as the church, that is what we are called to, even now in corporate worship. In worship, we’ve been caught up into heaven, and you are part of that scene right now. Angels are truly present as we worship our Lord together as his people. So true and right worship is with the right people. And the first of those people we read about here is the myriad, the thousands upon thousands of angels. And then next in verse 23, he goes on, he says, you are also with the assembly, the church of the firstborn who is enrolled in heaven. We read here in Hebrews, the same language, from this discussion regarding those gathered at Sinai. The New Testament word for church, you may know, is ekklesia, it’s the called out ones. And that’s what Israel was when they were assembled at Mount Sinai. They were called, they were called out. And when you read in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament in Deuteronomy and in Exodus 19, Israel is called just that, the kohol, the ekklesia in the wilderness. And they’re also called God’s firstborn son. Remember that? God’s firstborn son. Remember when Pharaoh is spoken to by the Lord and he says, let Israel go for he is my son, even my firstborn son, speaking of corporate Israel. And again, it’s important for us to understand what is going on in the book of Hebrews, right? Again, the Jewish Christians are being tempted to go back to the old ways. They’re afraid that they’ve thrown off their birthright. And there are some who are doubting Christ, doubting if Christ is in fact the way. So they’re wanting to return to worship, worship in the temple, worship in Jerusalem. They wanted to go back to Jerusalem. And Hebrews is telling them, that’s not where you were gathering. That’s not where the gathering of the firstborn is. Hebrews is saying, whoever gathers in this assembly is God’s church, his assembly, his firstborn sons, those who are enrolled in heaven. The dividing wall that separated them has been abolished, right? Ephesians 2 tells us this. There’s no longer those who are far off the Gentiles and those who are near the Jews, but all together are gathered and they become part of the assembly of the firstborn. So we gather not only with the Christians in this room in corporate worship, but with all the saints who presently worship. As we worship in the spirit, all of God’s people are caught up into that same assembly. And notice who else is there. What does Hebrews say? Myriad of angels, all the saints. And who else? It says, God, who is judge over all. God is there. Of course he is. God is there. He is called judge in this assembly. Hebrews could have used any number of different titles or terms to describe God, but it says judge because of what God is. He’s present in our midst on his throne as father. Yes, but he also comes as a judge to show who are his and who are not his. So God, the judge is there with the saints and with the angels. Next, we see it says the spirit of just men made perfect. They are there. The spirits of just men made perfect. This, of course, is all true believers throughout history from the Old Testament all the way till now. God says what? He says they’re gathered there as well at the assembly in heaven. And also, what does it say? Also, Christ is there. The mediator is there. Praise God that he is. This is why the judge being there is not a terrifying thing. Jesus, your mediator is there. And God sees you, you who’ve trusted him for your life, clothed in the spotless perfection of that mediator. It’s glorious indeed, the company that we have in worship. And then Hebrews goes on to say, we’ve come to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You guys remember Cain and Abel. And Cain kills his brother Abel. And God came and judged Cain, and he said what? He said, I’ve heard the blood of your brother crying out, crying out. And you’ll remember from your Old Testament reading, what was it crying out for? What was that blood crying out for? It was crying out for justice, for justice, justice against the sin when he murdered his brother Abel. Christ’s blood is in the assembly, Hebrews tells us. And it speaks for something better on our behalf, not merely justice, but grace, but grace. It was the lamb who received justice. He took the penalty that we deserved. And that’s why it is a joyous and delightful and wonderful thing that we can be there bodily before God, the judge, boldly rather. And so according to scriptures, the church is gathered in the heavenly city, Jerusalem, even now, that’s the place. And the people, the company that are there, we are gathered together with the myriads and thousands of angels, and all the saints who come before in history, all the saints still on earth, as well, all at the same time with us. And God, the judge is there and with him, the mediator, Jesus. is there. And it’s Jesus blood that speaks on our behalf. It’s grace for you because it was justice for Christ. This is the gathering that Hebrews is telling us about. It’s telling us to which we’ve come. And that’s a staggering thing. And do you believe it? We’re called to believe the declaration of Scripture. And this is the declaration. It’s staggering. It’s an incredible thing. coming in corporate worship, the company we keep and the place that we are, and in your prayers and in your meditation and preparation, has this truth settled into your mind and heart? Again, I asked last week, how much different would your life be, how much different would worship be for you if you truly believed these things that it’s telling us, if you truly knew and in faith trusted that this is what’s going on. You’re being called up into glory itself with God and Christ and all the saints that are before you and all this spectacular reality of these angels all around. Do you believe it? And do you trust God’s word when it tells you these things? Or do you think, man, only if that were true, only if it were true. Or do you by faith trust what God is telling us here and embrace it as a certainty? You are truly there. We’re all weak of faith. And so this is a prayer that we can offer before the Lord to help us to believe, help us to see that this is true. This is the reality of this glorious assembly to which we have come. And the author is telling them all of those things that you want to go back to all of those regulations and all that system. They are pathetic and weak and dismal compared to the reality of what and where you are now as the assembled Church of God in worship. All that that pointed to all that points to what we have in Christ, and he’s here with you along with all the rest. These things, of course, drive our liturgy. They drive our worship. We don’t put this liturgy together. We don’t do what we do just because we want to be different or old-fashioned or traditional or because we want to be contrary to corporate worship. It’s no small thing when we come as God’s church to worship him, and we do well to keep in mind the reality of these things. If we truly believed what was going on, we would be aghast at those who would come and have a coffee break during worship service, right? Or other things that are not heavenly and not glorious, not reflective of the reality of what we’re doing and who we are with. You are gathered corporately with the church, universal on heaven and in earth. and all of God’s angels before him on his throne, and Christ on the throne, seated next to him. That’s the scene. That’s what’s going on in worship. And if that’s true, and it is, it’s reflexive and natural to change your focus from yourself and to other things, and to put that focus on him, right? And this is what we’re all called to do, right? Put Christ center, central, and as the goal. knowing these things, that’s the natural outflow of our minds and our hearts. Glorious indeed. Our worship certainly will be affected by that as we grow to increasingly believe the truth of what we’re told. And so the type of worship that is acceptable will be informed and affected by the place of worship, knowing that it’s true, knowing where that is, and the people, the company in worship. Hebrews both demands a proper and acceptable worship, and it defines it as well. It demands it, and it defines it, and that also is a gift from God. And so lastly, what is acceptable worship? It’s in the right place with the right people, and also it’s worship with the right posture, right, the right posture. Verses 25 to 29, that posture, Hebrews says, is worship that is joyful, full of gratitude, with reverence and with awe. That is acceptable worship. That’s worship that the Lord expects and worship that the Lord accepts. And I hope that you see that in your text this morning as we’ve been looking through it. After telling us where we are and who we are with, he tells us the author to the Hebrews there in verse 28, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship. And then he defines what that is, with reverence and awe, for God is a consuming fire, a consuming fire. This church in Hebrews is being warned not to reject, not to refuse this God. Don’t go back to inferior worship is the call. Christ came so that you no longer would have to worship like that. All that system, all that was built up, all that was set in place has been replaced with Christ. Those were types and shadows. The substance is Jesus, and he has come. We’re not to go back to those things. There’s something better before you, Hebrews is telling them. Back at Sinai, it was a very grave thing for those who refused and rejected God. And that way is even inferior now. We’ve come to a superior way, the better way. worship, for Christ has come. The kingdom has come. How do we know? The king has come. Christ is here with us and with the angels as well. Hebrews is saying that if you neglect and refuse him now, how will you escape? How will you escape? Notice also there’s not a sentimental softening of who God is and the character of God from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. This is very common for people to believe. There’s been a change, right? The sentimental softening is not the testimony of Scripture, though. It is not that God was dangerous, but thankfully now He’s just nice, right? We’re called to think rightly about the Lord. And we’re told who the Lord is in Scripture, right? Remember at the end of Job, his friends are chastised. Why? He says, you’ve not spoken of me what is right. These are important things. We want to think right things about God. We want to think biblically. We want to have a biblical worldview in all that we do, especially and particularly in regards to worship. The sentimental softening of God from old to new, though popular It is not that God was dangerous, but thankfully now he’s nice. God is still, what Hebrews says, a consuming fire. This is serious business. And the same God who was on Sinai, in the flame, in the midst, in the tempest, in that terror, he is here in our midst now. That’s what Hebrews is telling us. And that’s why the warning. That’s why we offer acceptable worship, according to Scripture. This should inform our worship, to be sure. And see, it’s informed by what? Those two words, reverence and awe. Reverence and awe. And it’s because of who God is. Because God does not change. He is still a consuming fire. Think of all those, what’s characteristic of God being present in the Old Testament is clouded. and smoke and fire. Remember the pillar of cloud and fire that led them. Remember the glory of the Lord that filled the temple with smoke and it terrified those. This should indeed inform our worship, because God does not change. And so we come, how? With joy, because you’re forgiven. We come in gratitude because of all that he’s promised to you. And when you come, you come with reverence and with awe. We often think that grace is something that has neutered God or domesticated God, but God is still the judge of all. He is still and forever holy. He’s a holy God. And when you come before him, you come before him as he is holy and perfect and pure. And the only possible way and reason we can come at all before him We who are creatures, saints, yes, but we’re sinners saved by grace. We still are yet perfect. We still carry around the sins and the sins that we commit. And the only way that we can come before him is because what? Because Jesus is our mediator. He is there and because his blood was shed for us. Those of you who believe in Jesus Christ, who’s named him as your own and more. and more that we realize this, this very fact will catapult us into greater and greater reverence and awe. We don’t become less and less awestruck and amazed the more that we know God and the more that we’re with him. No, it increases. We become more and more in awe at the grandeur and glory of the Lord. And I hope you’re grasping some of the reality of this. And I pray that you would meditate upon this to fill up the rest of your Lord’s day. God, yes, is a consuming fire, and he’s holy and pure, but Christ did what needed to be done that we could be before him boldly. And the more and the more that we believe this and think about this, we could never think the church was boring, right? Someone once said that the church is boring. Well, maybe you’re boring. But maybe it’s just that we’re not realizing what’s going on there. Maybe we’re so self-focused of all the little things, the idiosyncrasies that we like or dislike, that we’re distracted from the glory of what’s happening. We’re to come with reverence and awe. We’re being called up into glory. When people actually grasp this and actually see it, they find that they actually want to be here and take part of this event. Throughout your life, I hope as you are sanctified and as you grow and as you long for Jesus and to follow him, you will long more and more to come be with his people before him. As he tunes your hearts for heaven and gives you a foretaste, a glimpse, Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, intruding into time, that final state, that consummate glory. So brothers and sisters, this great and glorious reality should indeed drive us, it should change us, it should drive us to think about the way we enter into worship. It should drive us to prepare ourselves before we come, right? We shouldn’t think about worship just in the morning when we’re rushing to get ready and leave, right? Prepare for worship, right? Ask the Lord’s blessing, ask that he would be here with you and with us. Ask that he would bless the preaching, ask that he would bless all that we do. Before you come and when you get here, you’ll see that he will indeed answer that and he will. It should drive us to sing when we come with all of our hearts. Even those of us who were not blessed with great singing voices, we still sing from our hearts because we love the Lord and the joy of what’s going on. It should drive us to see that showing joy and gratitude is expected when we worship, not as a duty, but as a privilege, as a delight, as an expression of our hearts for our Lord. Because truly what you can only see by faith is actually taking place, actually taking place. If only we think God would just reveal to you what was here, if only he would, it would surely change the way we worship. even we who take seriously and care deeply about these things. Well, he’s shown us in his word, and we have to accept it by faith. We don’t have to wonder, if only he would. He has shown us in his word. He’s told us, we just need to accept it by faith. And we can go on and on, but let us just remember and focus on these things from Hebrews. The place of worship, where we are brought, Again, we’re drawn up into glory itself. And the people of worship that we are with and the posture of worship we’re to have because of who God is, reverence and awe and gratitude and joy and delight. We shouldn’t have a ho-hum attitude towards what we’re doing at all. It’s the glory and the blessing of the Lord. It was John Owen who said, if you have no taste, no longing, no hunger for the things of God in this world, why would you think you would have them in the next, right? So we’re to cultivate that longing and that hunger, right? And that appetite to be with God’s people and to worship him in corporate worship. And that should truly blow your mind when we think about these things. So let us brothers and sisters by faith grasp what is truly going on when we come as his people in worship. And let us as a result come with what? With hearts full of joy for what Christ has done for us. For he has accomplished salvation. He is seated at the right hand of God. Remember in Luke 164, I’m sorry, 168, this event where the muted man, right, he’s made mute. And after all this time of being made mute, right? The father of John the Baptist, when his mouth is finally open, when his tongue is finally loosed, what does he say? What’s the first thing he says? Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has accomplished redemption for his people. He has accomplished redemption. We come with hearts full of joy because of the reality of what Christ has done for us, and that we are his people, that he saved us into a body, into a family, to come and worship and experience that foretaste, that intrusion into time. Your sins have been dealt with fully and finally. Reflect upon that. It’s an incredible thing. Christ has accomplished your salvation. He’s seated at the right hand of the Father. And that should truly make you rejoice, right? We are purchased with the price and we are now living sacrifices to God. And we come full of reverence and awe with joy and gravity. God has come to do business with us. God has come to feed you by his word and spirit and to feed you at the table to know once again that you are at peace with him. So believe by faith and come again and again and again and come with great thanksgiving and joy and reverence and all for our God is a consuming fire. And we praise God that that fire has consumed the Lord on our behalf. And accomplish what all that needed to be done for us to have salvation and praise him brothers and sisters. Praise him that all was needed to escape that punishment due to us was provided for us powerfully and completely in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for the salvation that you worked in Jesus and applied to us by your spirit. We pray, Lord, that as we stumble and stammer through life, that you would continue to lift us up, even in our brokenness, even in our weakness, even in our foolishness. Lord, fill our hearts with truth. Help us to recognize the love that’s been poured into our hearts. Lord, help us one to another to truly love your people, Lord. and live the lives that you love as we follow Jesus for all of our lives. Be with us, we pray, Lord. For the remainder of this service, we ask this all in Jesus’ name. Amen.