Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.heritagesermons.org/sermons/24497/gospel-liberty-and-acceptable-service-quality-poor/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] We will speak with the Lord's help on the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 12 and verses 28 and 9. [0:12] The last two verses, that is, in the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Wherefore, we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God exemplify, with reverence and godly fears, for where God is the consuming God. [0:46] What an underlining of this extortation in the 28th book. [0:59] For our God is a consuming God. He will never accept any of this. That is not his own work, the outcome of his own grace. [1:13] We've burned up. And this, after such an Epistle, setting forth the virtues and merits of Christ so highly, unfolding the Epistles, leading us into the ancient Lord, the Leviticus, and the post of Christ. [1:38] The next whole title is uplifting. So it is in the 13th chapter. Look at the blessing benediction in the end of the 13th chapter. [1:54] The God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot make this mighty truth impressive in our own minds. [2:13] And we cannot make this mighty, because of the seed of God, we're consuming fire. Men won't have it. [2:25] Naturally, we wouldn't. We're told of God, a God of love. And do you believe that he sends people to hell? [2:36] We're told. Do you believe he does? Could he? Would he? Or say for Scripture? That's the only answer. [2:48] It isn't what we think. We have one answer, and one answer is the picture. Our God. That's the beauty of it. [3:01] Our God, says God, is a consuming fire. So that it once. Showed its relationship with worship. [3:16] Or in other words, with service. Which he is exhorting to hear in his 28th verse. To revel in that service. [3:30] God of fear in that service. God of fear. And something proper and light. Indifferent and careless. But of a common point in that matter, I'm going to realize I'm going to go. [3:46] What is not of his spirit, you will burn up. And it will be gone, whatever profession we have made. [3:59] Is out of it. I just cried and grieve in the night. I don't pay much attention to it. But this morning when I woke up, I thought, what day is it today? [4:15] And they realized it was a sudden. And I read for the night. And I saw a man. And two or three others watching it. [4:28] And they asked him, does this spirit ever melt? And can you burn it up? And he took a little fire. It sparked a heart and a heart. [4:42] It began to soften and then melt. And it absolutely drained into the cold. [4:56] I had an impression on my mind as regards this text. Which has been on my mind before. Do we realize that there are professions? [5:09] And there are thousands of professions in the world. As many professions go on as there are bottles. Do we realize that the work of the flesh will be burnt up? [5:28] Consumed. Which is a stage further than being burnt up. Ashes of all that will be left. [5:40] Our God. Not their God. The God of the heathen and the ungodly. But our God. [5:52] That deals with us as poor. That has dealt with us. That has dealt with his living people all through the ages. Our God who commanded at Mount Sinai. [6:08] Giving of the law. The blackness. The darkness. And the tempest. Our God. For there appeared. Such terrible effect. [6:19] That even Moses himself. The God. The God. Would not abide. The side. And did exceeding. [6:31] Fear. And quote. Our God. Is this the answer then. To the general question. Is this a God of love? [6:43] Would be indeed a strange character. You know. That was composed only of love. And contained no other of these characteristics. [6:58] Which man has. That was a proper jealousy. Nightly extreme of love. Death had what is considered. [7:12] You know. You would be absolutely. Powerless. And helpless. Any more than the fire-crued-spurgeon. [7:23] Could have forced open that door. And Lord. Would you be able to force. Your way into heaven. Not by your own means. [7:35] No more. Could. Cain. Become. A life spirit. With Abel. Or Isaac. [7:49] Or Esau rather. With Isaac. We are not our own. We are. God's creatures. We have not options. [8:03] This. Vine and powerful deceit. The best day. This equality. [8:14] With God. Is that a. Solemn. Is that a. That it be over. And it will. Work. [8:26] In that. Way. To those. That fear of God. They will believe this. In all. Humility. [8:36] They will tremble. That God. Can burn up. Therefore. For. Paul. Speak to this. In his. [8:47] Epistle to the. Corinthians. Where he. Has every man's work. To be tried. He refers. [8:59] To those. Combustible things. As wood. High. And stubble. Don't take much. Burning up. And. Prepare. [9:09] With. More solid. Metals. Of gold. Silver. I say. What do these things. Here for. They are not. To have to. [9:20] Really. Search us. In life. And to have. Dealing with us. Get really. [9:32] Into our heart. And to make us. To. Understand. These things. Our. Facts. Should not. Pants. It. And they. [9:43] re... Refer to you. And me. And they. Are for the. In the glory of God. He is a consuming God. [9:54] Abundant heaven. Abundant heaven. Up only. At solemn. And tomorrow. He has. [10:05] He decided not to discothe, work with his own hands so that if you were faced with this solemn truth it will be your mercy and mine to take it before the Lord. [10:31] You might be shocked. One hymn writer asked that the Lord would detect and destroy what's not his own. [10:46] I wonder how often we come to that point. So it is that the Gospels you are so favourably and faithfully and kindly and sweetly too for it's a good thing to have your heart searched out and any false hope discovered that you may not be deceived and having exhorted them to service he then refers or has referred to a kingdom which cannot be moved. [11:37] Therefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God. [11:50] and then he tells us in what way? Acceptably. Acceptably. God is a decider. [12:03] He judges. Your employer decides. He knows whether you are acceptable. You are not the arbiter of your own work and you do not decide on your own excellency and acceptability. [12:22] You serve God acceptably. Acceptably. Acceptably not with proud hearts and hard looks and say of ourselves and if you can equal me but rather acceptably. [12:42] And we are in no doubt as to what this means on the word of God. And we are in no doubt as to what this means on the word of God. [12:54] to worship Him in spirit and in truth. For the Father speak inside to worship Him. There is no good having any of your service with the group that you put on on the Sabbath and take off on Monday morning. [13:13] Or Sunday night for that matter. And leave it alone for a whole week. Now this isn't this isn't service. [13:24] Service is once called for service. It's the service of a lifetime. Yes? Oh yes, there is no charismatic service about it. [13:39] God doesn't give you a day off and say you want to go in the world today. Oh no. Some people think he does. [13:51] They say yes, well it doesn't matter much now. The poor Catholic after he's done his morning penance has arrested a Sabbath himself. [14:04] called thy devotee of a false religion. Not one to have the finger of scorn pointed out but the heart of sympathy directed towards the Sabbath is in this therefore there is an acceptable service. [14:26] and that service is with two things reverence and godly fear. [14:41] Reverence and godly fear. And if you look these two riches perhaps they are it doesn't matter it doesn't matter whether you are poor or rich learned or unlearned power removed from the realm of human things reverence what is one of the things of which will beget this reverence why a knowledge of what I've just been speaking of the majesty of god the holiness of god is being a consuming fire he was visibly so to Moses in a strange strange way and less no case to equal the story of Moses in the third book the children can't understand it certainly the adults can't and you can see this book so pretender like and dry that would burn the utmost heat and so these bushes all did it yet it was not considered the voice spoke from it draw not near take off thy shoes from off thy feet the place where on thou stand it is holy ground that's where God spoke to Moses out of the burning booth this is where he speaks to his people but that is a very different matter and they are not consumed nor is his word from which he speaks to them from which he speaks to them and certainly it's found in the wilderness and certainly it is one that you could burn up if you wanted to thousands of Bibles have been burned in them but no it stands as uh inconsumable if there is such a word and certainly cannot be destroyed for this end therefore [17:28] Paul directs the attention of the the the but he is in a very blessed place when he comes down to this last exaltation angel he's left Mount Sinai you are not crowned he says to Mount Sinai for the Lord a wonderful thing uh to have one uh clear of the uh knowledge of faith belief that the Lord God is perfectly perfectly honored in Christ that it is no longer no longer the uh the uh the uh the the the the the the the the the if you do and you are in your own judgment then that law curses even one we're so bound to the law, we've got so many answers, we can bring so many arguments to bear upon it. [19:05] Well, we're not lawless creatures, we cannot do as we like. No, of course we can't. No one says we can. What is the fulfillment of the law by Christ if it is not a liberating and mighty work which was intended? [19:29] You want to fulfill the law and honor it in all its parts and escape nothing of its condemnation? Then that law is fulfilled in Christ. [19:43] There's no curse. Now the glory of liberty at this service then, we will take with reverence for the fulfillment of the law, not only reverence but also godly fears. [20:08] What kind of a godly fear? Speaking about it only we should think of it. Of fear to sin. [20:20] A godly fear to break any. One of those known commands of God. A hundred others too. [20:30] And Jesus compacts it all into one. He says that there is one Lord. [20:43] That is the Lord's love. Our godly fear is. That fear restrains you. [20:54] You can feel it in you, you who have Christ. You can understand what it's telling you. You're doing also what it tells you. [21:09] It's a precept. It tells you. The Lord comes here an ini solution. That you know you're left hand to be prized. You know you're left hand to be prized. And you are not left to argue that because the law is fulfilled and honored, he's advised, that you're a free man, he said, to go after the world again. [21:31] You couldn't do it. You just couldn't. As much of you may have got rooted in you, a love of some particular thing, or some particular weakness or lust, you could not deliberately run into it again. [21:53] Why? Godly fear. Godly fear. This is service. Free across the yoke of the law and feeling well, yes, I've got on tolerably well today. [22:12] Lord, not been too bad a day. I haven't sworn as much as I used to. [22:23] I haven't endured the pleasure, or the one particular besetting pleasure. Lord, that's my besetting sting. Things are great today, Lord. I've done pretty well. [22:40] That's all vanity. Turns out, that is, under the liberty of the gospel. Why is it therefore that the godly fear is so precious? [22:58] Why is it because it's fulfilled in a precious person? And a perfect person. And there could be no undoing on it. [23:09] What he has done, he's done forever. This is why it's taken out of the way, and it's no longer the believing code. [23:24] He has a better one. And that is love. And that is love. His love now is centred in one particular thing. [23:36] True love is the same. True love is the same naturally. Once a man is married to the woman he loves, all other loves are gone. [23:49] If he does indulge any, uh, uh, wrong. His affection to repent one and one over. He's allowed that absolute liberty that no more. [24:09] So, with the love of Christ, and his majesty of the perfect law of liberty, to all its perfection, he has one love. [24:26] And one love only, and that's Christ. And one of the great aspects of his affection is this. [24:40] That he loves because he fulfilled the law. And he nailed it to his cross. [24:51] Through the palms of his hands and through his feet. He took it out of the way. [25:02] Nailing it to his cross. It was the testimony of Paul, who do well on the remarkable effects of this godly fear. [25:20] And the way of the world is to serve God, who is a consuming fire. Now, every admixture therefore of the flesh with this, by way of presentation, for some meritorious work, is going to be burned up. [25:43] It's going to be burned up, I say. I thank you just now for the liberality in the influence of the chapter. [25:54] That stands perfectly secure and true, what I said. But, it isn't what you give, is it? For merit of beauty. [26:07] For any spirit of self gratification. For gone by. There is the perfection. [26:19] For the giving of love. Not letting your left hand know what your right hand does. And feeling the prompting of the good spirit of God within your heart to give in love. [26:39] And not to begrudge it and say, oh I wish I hadn't done that. I could do with that town note which I put in the collection on Sunday. Could you? [26:51] Well then you far better, never put it in, far better. And so with minor things like that, there are the major, greater things. [27:05] The sacred workings. But this reverence and godly fear is a principle. [27:17] Reverence in the house of God. Reverence to the word of God. Reverence in any approach of God. [27:30] Reverence if you are committing your way to his. Any healing that you have with us. This is part of this great exhortation. [27:46] All that passed from it will be burnt up and consumed. God will not have it. You can read Malachi's prophecy and see there how God burns it all up. [28:02] He said, I cannot away with it. Think of their worship me as tension is not for. [28:14] An abomination is he that maketh you. And so on. That is all. Blessed Hebrews. Gives such a glorious life therefore upon this acceptable service. [28:36] Because if someone else enacts in Romans 12 your reasonable service. [28:47] I beseech you therefore, brethren, he said, that he presents your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy. Holy. [28:58] Acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Not unreasonable. Not asking too much of you. Not expecting that you shall overwork yourself for Christ's sake. No. Not that you shall be prostrate. [29:09] in hell because you do too much. Your reasonable service. Here it is. The survey of the people who have been doing this is the most important thing. The most important thing is that you are not going to be doing this is the most important thing. interilles of you whose本 notice that you will避 Jamie私達 who婦 Jana, ノ i will... And they believe that the most important thing is that you shall overlate assembly you shall however you shall overwork yourself for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. [29:20] No. No. Not that you should be prostrate in hell, because you do too much. Your reasonable service. Here it is. The service that is acceptable. He are a reasonable service. Here it is. [29:32] good. The service that is acceptable. Yeah. Pharaoh. There it is. You shall. There it is. The service that is acceptable. [29:42] Are a bit spicy. And there you have a tester. And the other side of this, which would be, is the law of love. This is what is the nice blood in Zion, the law of love. [30:02] It isn't to gain people's good opinion, or to give yourself some credit or standing. [30:16] It is not to be well thought of at all, but that's why you're finding this pathway so difficult. [30:30] And I think last Sabbath and third, repeating, can't forget to me when I was a young man, seekest thou great things for thyself? [30:43] Seek them not. There is the law of love, actuated by love, motivated by love, the moving principle, faith, that is moved by the Sabbath. [31:07] And it's work. These are not things for adults only. Not that young people think that you've got to be of age before these things begin to work. [31:24] But they do. And children, young people, Grace begins her fair work early in some cases, you know. [31:38] Very early. Far earlier than we may support, the people who find a prompt, a movement, to do something they don't know why or how, to describe to other people they don't know and they don't say. [32:02] I wouldn't set myself up as any example. But I know that when I was a young man, I had half a chalbert left me in a wheel, and it was cold, it's day to be there. [32:21] And I kept this in my waist pocket. I couldn't tell you for how long. And one day, one time, revisiting the little chalbert cove, where I was brought up, I felt a spontaneous movement in my heart, to put that out of someone in the box. [32:50] I then go by that box, which I'd looked at, that ever since I was a boy, couldn't understand what it meant on the box really. [33:02] That would turn your own luck, young old ones. It said, in aid of the cause. And I put it in. I put it in. [33:13] And I'm telling you that, I paid it around a little bit years ago, I pointed out to you, to show you young people, how God can move you to do things for God's help. [33:28] And his people, doesn't matter what the circumstances are, if you have the promptings, you obey them. [33:41] These are the things that God works in early days, in early days. When you get on to a course, there's a question of serving God, the little difficult. [33:57] One example, that is, of the man that was bankrupt, was sold, served his master for the appointed time under the law, the year of jubilee tax. [34:19] And he was given the option of going, his wife and children. He could be a free man, he could go and try again. [34:35] But under the law, God said that if he didn't want to go, he didn't. He, if he loved his master, although he was a slave, or a bondman, which is pretty much the same, not quite, then he could say, yes, well, I love my master, and I want to stay with him. [35:04] I'm quite satisfied, and this will be my hope. And he would say that with so many words. But that wasn't God's law. [35:20] Words weren't enough. It needed witnesses. Now this man had to submit to a command of God, to have his ear, bore to the doorpost of his master's hand. [35:43] So down through the globe of the ear, pretty painless. When they do it, to die it up, they just, the passion of the thing. [35:57] His ear was bore to the doorpost, with an awe, as to the other side of it, pain or anything, that matters not. [36:15] Now he did that in the presence of witnesses. And that was what today, we call an evil document. [36:27] I did it, where there were plenty of people in the gateways of the city, as the Burge called the brethren together, when he took root. [36:47] And there was a legal proof of it. Now this man's love, he embodied his family as well. [37:04] And he had it here, bored from the doorpost. He loved. I loved, I loved. Now that's all. [37:16] He had the option, you embrace, or we embrace. We haven't got this option, so far, as it was in the last. [37:29] That is the main thing. He was to serve, at his master now, not to another, if it were possible, 50 years, or seven. [37:43] He would have been there. That's the life. You would want to serve the Lord Jesus for 50 years, but then leave him. [37:56] Could you? I wouldn't. No. Right down to the end of the church, before. No halfway paper, no demand. [38:09] No demand. Like the marriage service demands. It were only honored for the full, which it is, of course, in so many cases, until death must be gone. [38:28] It is this, therefore, that is the law of liberty in an illus Christ. Scriptural illus Christ. [38:43] And this man, from that time onward, would be known to have been one who led, he loved his master. Now if his master came, or circumstances came, because master died, he would, of course, be a free man. [39:08] But all other things begin, he could. He, uh, bound himself by that super ordinance for life. [39:19] So he believes that chisel. I don't know why I gave that first him out of church. I thought the last minute he presented that chisel. [39:32] Yes, for life. For life. But, uh, as Hart said, it's in faith. And faith moved by love. [39:48] It is this that is the reverence. Reverence. If you make it into contracts, that you honor it. [40:01] That contract is your bond. Oh, in the gospel. These staggers are a holy contract, a reverence, and a godly fear. [40:19] Wherefore, we're receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. This is the realm of it. Circle of this vast kingdom. [40:35] Let us have grace. grace. Now, perhaps this may, and I hope it does, and I hope it does, so firmly if they hope it does, stir up this prayer in some of your hearts, because this is the secret of it. [40:57] Let us have grace. Do you want grace? Is this the secret of it all? I'm not sending you home to get to work and put this into operation. [41:12] I'm saying the word of God says, let us have grace. And nowhere to get that from, has it? [41:26] And the Lord helps you to go to it and get it. Amen. You'll now sing Hymn 872 tune 11 872 tune 11 Gold in the furnace cry near losing all the gold the plain high [42:31] The End The End The End [44:01] The End The End The End [45:31] The End The End The End [47:01] The End The End The End [48:31] The End The End The End