Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Hebrews 12:18-29 - God is a Consuming Fire

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Hebrews 12:18-29 - God is a Consuming Fire · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hi there, Faith for listeners, welcome to the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Explain podcast on this lovely, lovely Tuesday morning. So
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  Speaker 1: today we're going to be talking about part two of
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews twelve eighteen through twenty nine. Right after this quick
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  Speaker 1: advertisement from one of my sponsors. Okay, hopefully you got
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  Speaker 1: your Bible in front of you. If you are unable
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  Speaker 1: to read the Bible with me at this moment in time,
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  Speaker 1: then please just go ahead and listen, and also I
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  Speaker 1: encourage you to later on tonight if you get a
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  Speaker 1: chance to sit down with this passage and read it,
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  Speaker 1: because it's you always gain more. I feel like if
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  Speaker 1: you have the physical Bible in front of you now. Granted,
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  Speaker 1: you can use your phone as well. I often read
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  Speaker 1: the Bible from my phone, but just having the physical
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  Speaker 1: Bible in front of you is usually very helpful if
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  Speaker 1: you are able to sit down and read it with me.
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  Speaker 1: So I encourage you guys to do that. But for now,
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  Speaker 1: let's go ahead and read Hebrews chapter twelve eighteen through
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  Speaker 1: twenty nine together. As usual, I'll be reading this from
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  Speaker 1: the w EB For you have not come to a
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  Speaker 1: mountain that might be touched and be burned. With fire,
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  Speaker 1: and to blackness, darkness, storm, the sound of a trumpet,
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  Speaker 1: and the voice of words, which those who heard it
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  Speaker 1: begged that not one more word should be spoken to them,
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  Speaker 1: for they could not stand that which was commanded. Even
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  Speaker 1: if an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.
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  Speaker 1: So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, I am
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  Speaker 1: terrified and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion,
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  Speaker 1: and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festival gathering
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  Speaker 1: and the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,
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  Speaker 1: to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of
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  Speaker 1: just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a
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  Speaker 1: new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks
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  Speaker 1: better than that of Abel. See that you don't refuse
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  Speaker 1: him who speaks. For if they didn't escape when they
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  Speaker 1: refused him who warned on earth, how much more will
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  Speaker 1: we not escape who turn away from him who warns
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  Speaker 1: from heaven, whose voice shook the earth then? But now
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  Speaker 1: he has promised, saying, yet once more, I will shake
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  Speaker 1: not only the earth but also the heavens. This phrase
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  Speaker 1: yet once more signifies the removing of things that are shaken,
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  Speaker 1: as of things that have been made, that those things
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  Speaker 1: which are not shaken may remain, therefore receiving a kingdom
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  Speaker 1: that can't be shaken. Let's have grace through which we
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  Speaker 1: serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God
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  Speaker 1: is a consuming fire. So if you faithful listeners didn't
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  Speaker 1: get a chance to listen to Thursday's episode, I do
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  Speaker 1: recommend going back and listening to that because that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of the part one and today is part two. But
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday, a quick recap. We talked about how God
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  Speaker 1: came to Mount Sinai in the Old Testament days back
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  Speaker 1: in Exodus nineteen and twenty, and he came with fire
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  Speaker 1: and with earthquakes and basically consumed this entire mountain. He
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  Speaker 1: specifically told Moses, I am going to appear. I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to audibly talk to the people so that they know
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  Speaker 1: I am God, that I am alive, and that I'm
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  Speaker 1: the one that brought them out of their slavery in Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: So God did this specifically to show himself to his people,
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  Speaker 1: and he did it in a very dramatic way by
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  Speaker 1: literally consuming an entire mountain in fire, and beforehand he
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  Speaker 1: told the people, you cannot touch the mountain under any circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: Neither you or any of your animals are allowed to
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  Speaker 1: touch this mountain. If you do, you will be either
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  Speaker 1: stoned or shot through with arrows. He was showing the
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  Speaker 1: people how unworthy they were, and also how unworthy the
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  Speaker 1: people's animals were as well, because remember who the Israelites were.
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  Speaker 1: They were nomadic shepherds. They had been shepherds basically from
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  Speaker 1: the very beginning Abraham Isaac Jacob. They were all shepherds.
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  Speaker 1: So you can imagine the type of animals that the
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  Speaker 1: people had were goats, sheep, cattle, bulls, basically the sacrificial animals,
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  Speaker 1: the animals that people would go and sacrifice to God
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  Speaker 1: so that they could be temporarily forgiven of their sins.
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  Speaker 1: So even the sacrifices, the animals were not worthy. A
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  Speaker 1: couple chapters ago in Hebrews, we actually talked about what
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  Speaker 1: the animal sacrifice truly did in the Old Testament. It
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  Speaker 1: didn't take away sin like Jesus's sacrifice did. The animal
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  Speaker 1: sacrifices would cover over sin, kind of like a you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you have a mess in your room and you
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  Speaker 1: just don't want to deal with it. You like shove
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  Speaker 1: it away somewhere, like under your bed, so your bed
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  Speaker 1: is covering it. It's out of sight, out of mind,
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  Speaker 1: but you still kind of know it's there, and eventually
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to take care of it. That's kind
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  Speaker 1: of like what the animal sacrifices did in the Old Testament.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't fully take away sin, but it covered over sin.
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  Speaker 1: But when Jesus came and gave his sacrifice, his perfect
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice on behalf of all of us, that was when
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  Speaker 1: that mess, that sin was fully cleaned, full taken care of.
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  Speaker 1: But unfortunately, especially later on, the Israelites just did not
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  Speaker 1: understand that those animal sacrifices did not equal salvation. But
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  Speaker 1: God puts this rule in place. He says, do not
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  Speaker 1: touch my mountain, because I am holy and you are
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  Speaker 1: not not. Even your animal sacrifices are holy, so don't
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  Speaker 1: touch the mountain. And of course, everybody, once you hear
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  Speaker 1: a command like don't touch the mountain, your sid nature
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  Speaker 1: automatically says, okay, I want to go touch that mountain. Now.
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  Speaker 1: That's why the author of Hebrews says in verse twenty.
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  Speaker 1: They could not stand that which was commanded. Even if
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  Speaker 1: an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. But
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  Speaker 1: another reason they didn't like the command was because I
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  Speaker 1: think they truly finally understood how unworthy they were. Don't forget.
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  Speaker 1: God put this command in place three days before he
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  Speaker 1: even appeared on that mountain. So for three days the
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  Speaker 1: people were not allowed to go near the mountain, and
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  Speaker 1: I can imagine there was a lot of belly aching
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  Speaker 1: about this, Well, why can't we go near that mountain?
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  Speaker 1: And who cares, It's just a mountain. We should be
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  Speaker 1: allowed to touch the mountain all we want. And then
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  Speaker 1: three days later, when God actually appears to his people
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  Speaker 1: and sets the entire mountain on fire, and there's this
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  Speaker 1: earthquake and this like storm taking place, with all of
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  Speaker 1: this thunder and lightning, you know, the people who are
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  Speaker 1: standing afar back seeing this are absolutely terrified out of
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  Speaker 1: their mind, and they finally realize how unworthy they actually are. Basically,
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  Speaker 1: the fear of God was put into the entire nation
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  Speaker 1: of Israel. Even Moses himself, you know, the friend of God,
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  Speaker 1: He was terrified, it says in verse twenty one. So
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  Speaker 1: fearful was the appearance that Moses said, I am terrified
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  Speaker 1: and trembling. So God did all this to show his
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  Speaker 1: power to his people and to show them how unworthy
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  Speaker 1: they are in front of a holy and magnificent and
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  Speaker 1: powerful God. And the reason God did this was because,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the people had already done so many things
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  Speaker 1: to go against God before this, even they had just
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  Speaker 1: gotten out of Egypt. Their faith had been shaken on
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  Speaker 1: multiple occasions. They just didn't trust in God. And so
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  Speaker 1: God was like, I'm going to show these people that
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  Speaker 1: I am alive and that I am real. So that
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  Speaker 1: is exactly what God does. And so through this display
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  Speaker 1: of power, the people could not approach God. If you
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  Speaker 1: read Exodus nineteen and twenty, you can see that the
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  Speaker 1: people were standing at a far distance. They wanted nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do with what God was doing. Especially when God
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  Speaker 1: starts speaking the Ten Commandments at them through the thunders.
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  Speaker 1: The people hearing God's voice start freaking out, and so
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  Speaker 1: they call Moses to them and they're like, we cannot
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  Speaker 1: hear God's voice for another second, or we are going
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  Speaker 1: to die. So Moses, you go listen to God and
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  Speaker 1: then relay everything that God says to us. So Moses
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  Speaker 1: agrees to do that, and it turns out that God
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  Speaker 1: actually was a little bit saddened by the response of
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  Speaker 1: his people. He told Moses, if only they would fear
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  Speaker 1: me and listen to me. So even in this display
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  Speaker 1: of power, the people still didn't exactly fear God. They
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  Speaker 1: didn't fear him. They didn't have a respect or a
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  Speaker 1: reverence for him. That's what it means to fear God. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: there is some aspect of having like a legitimate fear
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  Speaker 1: of him, just knowing that he is so much more
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  Speaker 1: powerful than us. That's kind of what Jesus says to
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  Speaker 1: his disciples. He says, don't fear humans who can only
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  Speaker 1: kill the body. You got to fear God, who can
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  Speaker 1: kill both the body and throw your soul into Gehenna.
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  Speaker 1: So there is an aspect of actual fear that we
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  Speaker 1: can have of God, especially if we don't have a
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  Speaker 1: relationship with him. But the fear that God is speaking
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  Speaker 1: of is more of a reverent kind of fear, and
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  Speaker 1: unfortunately the Israelites and Christians in general don't really have
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  Speaker 1: that reverent kind of fear of God too often, not
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  Speaker 1: saying every Christian is like that, and I'm certainly not
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  Speaker 1: saying that any of you faithful listeners are like that,
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  Speaker 1: but some people really don't understand how to truly fear
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  Speaker 1: or revere God for who he is. But that being said,
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  Speaker 1: just because we should be fearing God and God is
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  Speaker 1: so much more powerful and more worthy than we are,
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that God doesn't want to have a
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  Speaker 1: relationship and true fellowship with us. You can even see
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  Speaker 1: this in the Old Testament. A lot of times God
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  Speaker 1: would show these big displays of power for his people,
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  Speaker 1: but then institute peace offerings with the people, basically fellowship
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  Speaker 1: offerings where the people would come and bring this offering
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  Speaker 1: to Yahweh and then take part of it home, where
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  Speaker 1: it would be symbolically sharing a meal with Yahweh and
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  Speaker 1: like fellowshipping with him and having peace with him. So
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  Speaker 1: God was always approachable, but more so in the Old
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  Speaker 1: Testament he was showing his nature of power and might
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  Speaker 1: and strength and judgment, whereas in the New Testament he
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  Speaker 1: shows another aspect of himself, this grace aspect under the Covenant.
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  Speaker 1: And that's the thing. God is the same, yesterday, today
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  Speaker 1: and forever. A lot of times people get this misunderstanding
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  Speaker 1: that the God of the Old Testament is this mean
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  Speaker 1: old god, and the God of the New Testament is
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  Speaker 1: this nice hippie type god. But that is not the case.
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  Speaker 1: The God of the Old Testament is the same God
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  Speaker 1: of the New Testament, and the God of the New
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  Speaker 1: Testament is the same God of the Old Testament, because
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is God. It actually says in Jude one. I
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  Speaker 1: think it's verse five. There's only one chapter in Jude.
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  Speaker 1: Let me look that up, that Jesus was the one
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  Speaker 1: who was actually leading the people through the wilderness. Let
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  Speaker 1: me find that. Okay, here it is. It is actually
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  Speaker 1: verse five. It says, so I want to remind you,
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  Speaker 1: though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued
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  Speaker 1: the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed
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  Speaker 1: those who did not remain faithful. Jude, who by the way,
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  Speaker 1: is the brother of Jesus, like the earthly brother of Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: says that Jesus, his brother, was the one who led
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  Speaker 1: the people out of Egypt into the wilderness. He led
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  Speaker 1: them out, and he also destroyed those who did not
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  Speaker 1: remain faithful. Jesus, the one who everybody thinks is the
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  Speaker 1: nice god, he was actually the one orchestrating everything in
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament, which is really amazing here. So God
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  Speaker 1: is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Jesus is the
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  Speaker 1: same yesterday, today and forever. And that being said, Jesus
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  Speaker 1: deserves reverence for his power, might, and worthiness. But he
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  Speaker 1: also is gracious and kind and loving to his people
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  Speaker 1: and truly wanting fellowship with us. And that's what the
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  Speaker 1: author of Hebrews goes into right now, verse twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: You have come to Mount a Zion, and to the
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  Speaker 1: city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
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  Speaker 1: innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festival gathering assembly of
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  Speaker 1: the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the
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  Speaker 1: judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
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  Speaker 1: to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to
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  Speaker 1: the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of able. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: So that shows that Jesus is in fact approachable, and
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  Speaker 1: he is kind, and he wants to have a true
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  Speaker 1: fellowship and relationship with all of his people. He wants this.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, look at this amazing celebration we're going to
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  Speaker 1: be having with Jesus. It's going to be a festival gathering,
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  Speaker 1: is what it says. All of these people gathering together
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  Speaker 1: to the City of the Living God, all of these
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  Speaker 1: angels flying around, this big, beautiful feast taking place, this fellowship.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is going to be there, and this is something
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  Speaker 1: that us Christians can look forward to. Now. Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: still the same person that he was back in Exodus
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  Speaker 1: twenty when he's setting mountains on fire, but because of
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  Speaker 1: the Era of Grace, because of the New Covenant, can
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  Speaker 1: now look forward to this intimate relationship that we have
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  Speaker 1: with Jesus and everybody else that is part of his family.
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  Speaker 1: Whereas before, you know, the people could only watch God
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  Speaker 1: light a mountain on fire from a huge distance away.
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  Speaker 1: But now through Jesus's sacrifice, we can have a personal,
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  Speaker 1: very close relationship with Jesus. And you might be like, well,
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  Speaker 1: why didn't God do this at the very beginning? Why
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  Speaker 1: did he wait thousands of years to have his son
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  Speaker 1: come down to earth and sacrifice himself for the people?
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  Speaker 1: You know, why go through all of that Old Testament stuff? Well,
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  Speaker 1: because God never does anything on accident. The Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: serves several purposes. The first purpose, of course, is to
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  Speaker 1: show people their sin nature right, to show people that
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  Speaker 1: they have fallen astray and why they really need a savior,
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  Speaker 1: and how even animal sacrifices were not worthy enough they
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  Speaker 1: could not take the sin in completely away. The second
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  Speaker 1: reason is to show other attributes of God. God shows
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  Speaker 1: big displays of power through miracles, through just conquering nations,
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  Speaker 1: through changing time, like literally bending time. God does all
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  Speaker 1: these big displays of power in the Old Testament more
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  Speaker 1: so in the New Now. Of course, we see some
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  Speaker 1: of God's power in the New Testament, obviously through the
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  Speaker 1: miracles that Jesus performed and the disciples performed in Jesus
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  Speaker 1: being resurrected on the third Day, But the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: really shows the power and magnificence of God. So that's
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  Speaker 1: another reason why the Old Testament exists is to show
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  Speaker 1: another attribute of God. And thirdly, the reason the Old
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  Speaker 1: Testament exists is to show us more of God's heart,
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  Speaker 1: of how much he despises sin, of how important this
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  Speaker 1: really is, and how our spiritual health is the most
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  Speaker 1: important thing we should worry about in our short lives.
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  Speaker 1: The Old Testament really did have to exist in order
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  Speaker 1: for the New Testament to be as effective as it
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  Speaker 1: possibly could be, because if we didn't have the Old
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  Speaker 1: Testament and we only had the New we wouldn't understand
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  Speaker 1: how evil sin is. We wouldn't know how corrupting it is.
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  Speaker 1: We wouldn't understand as much about our spiritual health. We
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't really see big displays of God's power and understand
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  Speaker 1: how majestic God is and why we should worship him.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, don't get me wrong, it's all there in
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament. We can find all of these attributes
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  Speaker 1: of God listed in the New Testament because the entire
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  Speaker 1: Bible cross references each other. But certain things are talked
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  Speaker 1: about far more often in the Old Testament than they
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  Speaker 1: are in the New. So the Bible is a cohesive book,
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  Speaker 1: and it's needed all of it in order to show
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  Speaker 1: the entire picture of salvation. So that is why we
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  Speaker 1: have the Old Testament and why everything was done the
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  Speaker 1: way God chose to do it. It was all necessary
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  Speaker 1: for the bringing of salvation. And look how good the
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  Speaker 1: salvation is going to be. Here's what it says. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to be having a feast with God. It's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a festival, gathering, an assembly of the firstborn
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  Speaker 1: who are enrolled in heaven. So verse twenty five ends
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  Speaker 1: with a warning. It says, see that you don't refuse
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  Speaker 1: him who speaks for if they didn't escape, in other words,
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  Speaker 1: the people in the wilderness, if they didn't escape when
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  Speaker 1: they refused him who warned on earth, how much more
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  Speaker 1: will we not escape those who turn away from him
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  Speaker 1: who warns from heaven, whose voice shook the earth? Then?
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  Speaker 1: But now he is promised, sing yet once more, I
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  Speaker 1: will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.
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  Speaker 1: So actually those verses are an excellent example of God
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  Speaker 1: displaying his power in the New Testament and his judgment
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  Speaker 1: in the New Testament as well. And what this verse
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  Speaker 1: is saying is if God didn't spare the people in
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness who refused to fear him, even though he
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  Speaker 1: spoke audibly to the people, right the people were hearing
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  Speaker 1: God's voice through the thundercracks. So God is coming down
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  Speaker 1: to Earth, a corrupted place, and speaking from earth to
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  Speaker 1: all of these people. And by the way, that's something
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  Speaker 1: that I kind of misunderstood. Actually, if you read about
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  Speaker 1: it in the Old Testament, I think I said God
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  Speaker 1: spoke from the heavens, but Hebrews makes it very clear
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  Speaker 1: right here that God did not speak from the heavens.
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  Speaker 1: He was physically on earth when he was speaking to
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  Speaker 1: those people. And that actually makes a lot of sense
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  Speaker 1: to me now because again, the mountain was physically on fire,
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  Speaker 1: like God was clearly on that mountain, and so he
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  Speaker 1: was clearly speaking to the people from an earthly place.
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  Speaker 1: And that's an important thing to understand because if God
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  Speaker 1: spoke to his people from earth and they still didn't
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  Speaker 1: listen to him after seeing his magnificence, and through that
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  Speaker 1: rebellion that they had, God did not spare them. The
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  Speaker 1: warning is is God going to let us get away
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  Speaker 1: with rebellion when he is speaking from the heavens now?
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  Speaker 1: And you might be like, how is he speaking from
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  Speaker 1: the heavens right now? I don't hear him. I don't
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  Speaker 1: hear God in my life. So what does that mean
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  Speaker 1: speaking from the heavens. Let's explain actually in Hebrews two
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  Speaker 1: verses one through four, which says, therefore we ought to
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  Speaker 1: pay greater attention to the things that were heard, less
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  Speaker 1: perhaps we drift away. For if the words spoken through
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  Speaker 1: the angels proved to steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
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  Speaker 1: received a just penalty. How will we escape if we
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  Speaker 1: neglect so great a salvation, which, at the first, having
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  Speaker 1: been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by
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  Speaker 1: those who heard God also testifying with them both by
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: signs and wonders, by various works of power, and by
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if you guys remember us talking
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: about that, but the angels were the ones that actually
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: delivered the temple plans to Moses, and possibly the laws
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: as well. Whereas today we didn't get the New Covenant
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: through the angels. We got the New Covenant through Jesus himself,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: through God the Father, speaking from heaven. When Jesus came
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: up out of that water, God said from the heavens,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: this is my son with whom I am well pleased
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: listen to him. And God did that actually on three
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: different occasions. I believe it was. It was when Jesus
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: was baptized, It was during the transfiguration when Jesus brought
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: his two disciples up to the mountain and Jesus transformed
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to something great in front of their eyes. And then
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: it also happened I believe when Jesus encountered some Greeks
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: who wanted to meet with him. There was another voice
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: from heaven then, So God actually spoke from the heavens
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: on three different occasions that I know of, talking about
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: who Jesus was. And then on top of that, the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended back up, proved the power
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of God, it says, through the miracles, by signs and wonders,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: by various works of powers, and by gifts of the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. So all of these things being heavenly in nature. So,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: going back to Hebrews twelve, verse twenty six, it says
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: God's voice shook the earth then, but now he has
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: promised us saying yet once more, I will shake not
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: only the earth but also the heavens. This phrase yet
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: once more signifies the removing of things that are shaken,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: as of things that have been made, that those things
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: which are not shaken may remain. This means that everything
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: we see here and now, God is eventually going to
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: remove it. In fact, that's discussed in onverse Corinthians thirteen,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: verse eight. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: they will be done away with. Where there are various languages,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: done away with. But when that which is complete has come,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: then that which is partial will be done away with.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And jumping down to verse thirteen, it says, but now faith, hope,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and love remain. These three. The greatest of these is love.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: So what all that means is that God is eventually
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: going to do with everything temporal that we see right
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: here and now. Now, whether it's the prophecies or the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: earthly knowledge that we have, or the various languages that
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: we speak, all these things are going to be done
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: away with because God is going to make a new
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: heaven and a new earth. But there are certain things
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: that will remain, specifically faith, hope, and love, which is
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: what Paul talks about right here, and so the salvation,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the love that Jesus had for us, the faith that
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: we have in Jesus, these things will always remain. Though
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: everything that we understand right here and now is eventually
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: going to be gone. It is going to pass because
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: we're not going to need them anymore when Jesus makes
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a new heaven and a new earth, and that is
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: what Hebrews twelve talks about here at the very end. Eventually,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: all these things are going to be shaken, and they're
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: just not going to exist any longer. So we need
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to have reverence and fear for God. That's why the
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: author warns us see that you don't refuse him who speaks. Therefore,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: verse twenty eight, finishing out here receiving a kingdom that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: can't be shaken. Let's have grace through which we serve
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: God acceptably, with reverence and awe for our God is
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a consuming fire. And there's another verse in the New
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Testament that talks about the power of God. God is
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a consuming fire. That is a very, very scary thought.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I'm sure some of you listening might live on the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: West Coast, where forest fires are a real problem that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: you have to deal with. You know, here in my
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: great state of Ohio, I don't have to deal with
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that really, not too often. Anyway. Every once in a while,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: there's like a fire that happens in some state and
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the smoke like drifts over into Ohio, and everybody in
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Ohio freaks out. They're like, oh my gosh, we're dying
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: because of the smoke and the air quality. But we
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: don't really have to deal with like intense forest fires
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: here too often. But in the West that is a
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: probably a yearly kind of problem that many of you experience,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and you understand how scary a consuming forest fire can be.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: The author specifically uses that phraseology to describe God. He
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: is a consuming fire. He is somebody to be feared
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and revered and in awe of. And we shouldn't take
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: these things that he tells us lightly. Though many people
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: have a misconception that the God of the New Testament
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: is hippy dippy and mamby pamby. That's not who Jesus is.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: He is a God worthy of reverence and awe, So
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: don't refuse him because He is speaking to you through
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: his word and through the Holy Spirit. Well, faith listeners,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: thanks for taking this time to go through Hebrews twelve
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: with me. Before I end out the podcast with a
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: happy listening and God bless please listen to this one
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: last sponsor who has a message for all of you guys.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: So I would say the gist of the passage we
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: read today is talking about the reverence that we should
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: have for God. That is something that the American Church
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: just really does not have a good grasp on, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: we should because God is worthy of reverence. He is
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: worthy of fear. He's worthy of all these things because
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: he is so powerful. Jesus himself said it, we should
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: be fearing God, and we don't do that unfortunately here
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: in America. That's something I talked about on yesterday's podcast
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: where I went into the biblical prayers, and they usually
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: follow the same kind of formula. They start out by
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: not asking God for all the things that they want,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: but they start out by giving God so much glory,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: being like, God, you are awesome, you are amazing, You're
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: a good father, you are kind, all these different attributes,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and a lot of times we forget to do that
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: in our prayers. Even we forget that we are talking
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to the God of the universe who put breath in
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: our lungs, and we forget to praise him for who
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: he is. And the author of Hebrews reminds us that
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: we shouldn't abuse God's grace. Even though because of Jesus
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: we now have this personal fellowship with God where we
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: can approach his throne boldly, that doesn't mean that we
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: just trample on him and trample on his grace. He
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: still deserves our respect and our awe because he is
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: a consuming fire. So we need to keep that in
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: mind as we give God reverence and worship throughout the week.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: All right, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful day.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Before you go, make sure to check out the description
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: of this episode, where I link other related episodes about
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: the podcast that I would love you all to check
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: out once you're done with this podcast episode. And also,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: if you haven't it, make sure to subscribe to the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: email list because that's where I post all of the news.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Like if I don't have a podcast episode out, then
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: I will email all of my faithful listeners and tell
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: you guys why or what's going on. In fact, on
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I almost didn't get yesterday's episode done because my was
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: flickering when I was in the middle of recording and
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh no, And thankfully the power just
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: stayed on and did not flicker off and I was
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: able to get the episode done. But I was thinking
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: at the time, I'm like, I might not be able
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: to get tomorrow's episode up if the power goes out.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: So it's things like that where I might not be
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: able to record an episode for whatever reason, and I
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: will email all of you guys, but I also email
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: you just updates with the podcast and things that I'm
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: up to, or advertising one of my books or something
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: like that. So please, if you have not subscribed to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the email list yet, go ahead and do that now.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Faith listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: happy listening, and God bless. I just want to take
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.