3206. The Church Of The Firstborn

A Sermon Published On Thursday, July 14, 1910.

The general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are written in heaven. {Heb 12:23}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1689, “General Convocation Around Mount Zion, The” 1690}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3206, “Church of the First-born, The” 3207}

   Exposition on Heb 12 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3111, “Warning and Encouragement” 3112 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Heb 12 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3206, “Church of the First-born, The” 3207 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Heb 12 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3492, “God’s Word Not to be Refused” 3494 @@ "Exposition"}

1. Paul had just been giving a brief description of the great gathering of the children of Israel around Mount Sinai, “the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,” like a huge volcano. He had vividly portrayed “the blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of words,” and the frightened multitudes standing, trembling, at a distance, and even Moses, their great leader, so alarmed that he cried out, “I greatly fear and tremble.” Paul intends that description to teach us the effect that the legal economy can produce; it can alarm and condemn, but it cannot save. You who are under the law, you who are trying to win God’s favour by your good works, you who imagine that human merit can bring you salvation, look to the flames which Moses saw, and sink, and tremble, and despair. You who think that you can live as the law requires, and so attain to everlasting life, may well stand shivering and trembling before this almighty though invisible God, whose lightnings blaze before your eyes, and whose voice of thunder must alarm the stoutest heart. Terrible is the plight of the man who has to depend on what Sinai can give him; he is wretched in life, he shall be troubled in death, he shall be lost for ever in eternity. “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” “As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” “By grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

2. Having given that description of Sinai by way of contrast, Paul now brings out the much more pleasing picture of the gospel economy. Christians also shall have their great assembly; there is a mountain on which all those who are under grace shall one day gather,—a mountain that does not smoke, for it is Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. There will be words there, but they will be words of sacred song and names of holy gladness. There may be trumpets there, but they will be the silver trumpets that will proclaim the eternal jubilee. Moses will be there, but no longer fearing and quaking; for, when he comes to that mount of God, he will forget all his fears, and rejoice without ceasing in the Lord his God. Believers are the multitude, whom no man can number, who will assemble on that glorious mountain to keep the everlasting holy day. Happy indeed shall we be when, by grace, we come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven; when we shall see that sight which was revealed to John in Patmos,—a Lamb standing on the Mount Zion, and with him those who have his Father’s name written on their foreheads, who follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and who are without fault before the throne of God.

3. The first point to which I am going to draw your attention is the description given of believers as the church of the firstborn. Next, I want to remind you of what is said about their enrolment; they are written or enrolled (as the original reading renders it,) in heaven; and then, thirdly, I shall have something to say concerning their great general assembly, when all the righteous shall be gathered to Christ, to be parted from him no more for ever.

4. I. To begin then, from our text it seems that BELIEVERS IN CHRIST ARE DESCRIBED AS THE CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORN. I shall try to make my remarks, as I utter them, self-examining, so that you and I may question ourselves to see whether we belong to this general assembly.

5. By the term “firstborn” is often meant, in Scripture, the most excellent, the chief. Jesus Christ, because of the excellency of his character, is said to be “the firstborn among many brethren,” “the firstborn of every creature,” “the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.” So, although believers are, by nature, the children of wrath, even as others, yet, after Christ has renewed them, they become the excellent of the earth in whom should be all our delight. Point a man out to me who makes a profession of religion, but who is a drunkard, and I will tell him at once that his profession is a lie. Show me another who says he is a follower of Christ, although he oppresses the poor, defrauds the labourer of his wages, a covetous man, who cares only for himself, and shuts up his heart of compassion from his needy brethren, and I do not hesitate to ask, “How does the love of God dwell in him?” If the “grace” we profess to have does not make us better than others, the sooner we get rid of it, the better. “What do you do more than others?” was the question of Christ to his disciples. “If you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks do you have? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.” Of Christians there is something to be expected that is not to be looked for in others; they profess to be twice-born, and to have God dwelling in them, as Paul says to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Christians profess to be heirs of heaven, and members of the mystical body of Christ, so shall they talk and act as the ungodly do, and demean themselves as those do who have never received this new and higher life? God forbid! Where grace comes, it lifts us up, and keeps us up, and makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus, so that the evil things in which we once delighted we do not so much as name, while, anything that is virtuous or of good repute we pant after so that we may do it to the praise of his grace who has called us according to the counsel of his own will.

6. Now, dear friends, you can make this a test by which to test yourselves. What is your life, man? What fruits do you produce? If you produce thorns, surely you are brambles. If you produce the grapes of Gomorrah, surely you belong to Sodom’s valley. “Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?” If the stream is foul, what must the fountain be? If the outside of your cup and platter is filthy, what must the inside be? If what men see of you is foul, how foul must you be where only God can see you! Not one of us is better than we seem, but all of us are far worse than we think. May God tear away every veil which hides us from ourselves, so that we may see ourselves even as we are in his sight!

7. So you see that God’s firstborn are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,” “a special people, zealous of good works,” who seek to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things.

8. But the term “firstborn” has a second meaning in Scripture. The firstborn, under the old Mosaic economy, were chosen by God for himself. When he struck the firstborn of Egypt, he set apart for himself all the firstborn of Israel. He might have selected the youngest of the family, or the second, if he had chosen to do so, for God does as he wishes, and “he does not give an account of any of his matters.” You may ask him why he does this or that, but he does not condescend to answer your inquisitive or impertinent enquiries. He is not disturbed by your questions. He never gives the reasons why he chooses any man for salvation. That he does choose them, is clear enough from Scripture, so clear that even such an unbeliever as Bolingbroke said to Mr. Whitfield, one day, “Let it be taken for granted that the Bible is true, then no other doctrine but Calvinism can be true, for the Bible teaches it from beginning to end.” Certainly, if men’s minds were not wilfully perverted, they must read this truth in such words as these, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not by him who wills, nor by him who runs, but by God who shows mercy.” And what does the Scripture say when the sinner begins to criticize this truth? “No, but, oh man, who are you who replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does the potter not have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honour, and another for dishonour?” It is a fact that God has ordained to eternal life a multitude that no man can number; and just as the firstborn among the Jews were typically elect, so the saints become saints as the result of the divine decree passed long before the earth was created. When as yet this world and the sun and moon and stars slept in the mind of God, like unborn forests in an acorn-cup, even then the Almighty had written the names of all his chosen in the Lamb’s book of life, and fixed the place, the date, the very moment when they should be born, and when they should be born a second time, should come to Christ, and so should find salvation and everlasting life. This doctrine is far from palatable to men, but, inasmuch as it glorifies God, and makes man to be only like a grasshopper before the Eternal we delight in it, and humbly bow before the Sovereign Disposer of all events, and say, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

9. Then, thirdly, the firstborn were heirs of great privileges,—of which we cannot just now speak particularly, but will do so further on; and they became so entirely by birth. The rights of the firstborn lay only in his primogeniture; {a}—not in his stature, not in his attractiveness or beauty, not in his mental capacity, not even in his moral virtues. If he was as lame as Mephibosheth, yet, if he was the firstborn, he could not be disinherited; or if, instead of having the towering stature of a Saul, he was as diminutive as Zacchaeus, yet, if he was the firstborn, neither his parents nor all the courts of law could reverse the rights of primogeniture. So, beloved, all those who are believers in Christ, who are known to men by their excellence of character while God knows them by having chosen them by his grace, are in time brought to realize their privileges through the new birth which is created in them by the Holy Spirit. If we are born only once, we must die twice, but if we are born twice, we only die once, and after that one death which is not really death, we enter into eternal life. Regeneration makes us actually the children of God, just as adoption makes us virtually the children of God. By regeneration, we become really and truly heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, and our right to heaven, to all the blessings of the covenant of grace, and to the promises of God, arises from this new and heavenly birth. Heaven is the inheritance of the children of God, not a possession purchased by their money, or won by any deeds that they have done. This inheritance is the birthright of all who have been born again, born from above; so the question for every one of us to ask is, “Have I experienced this new birth?” “Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “What is born by the flesh is flesh,” and only flesh; “and what is born by the Spirit is Spirit”; and since heaven and all the other blessings of the covenant are spiritual, we cannot possess them until we ourselves are “born by the Spirit.”

10. The firstborn, then, had certain rights because of their birth, and the firstborn, spiritually, have certain rights because of their new birth. May the Lord help you all to make sure work here! Please, do not take it for granted that all is well with your soul, nor treat this question as though it were of little account. On the fact of your being born again, or not being born again, must hang your everlasting destiny. Live and die unregenerate, and unutterable woe must be your eternal portion. Pass from death to life, and all the glories of the paradise of God become yours by a permanent contract which death and the devil himself cannot break. Have you passed from death to life? How can you tell that? “By their fruits you shall know them,” is our Lord’s own test. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you trusting only in him? These are vital questions; and if you can truly say,—

   My hope is built on nothing less

   Then Jesus’ blood and righteousness,—

and if that hope is accompanied by the faith which works by love, and purifies the heart and life, then you are one of the children of God, and in that fact you may well “rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”

11. Now, fourthly, on the firstborn, more than on any others, God was pleased to multiply the types of redemption, in order to show to us very plainly that the heirs of heaven are a redeemed people. First of all, the great majority of the firstborn were redeemed by blood. In the dark and dreadful night, the destroying angel is let loose, with noiseless wings, and with a sharp sword that never misses its mark; he is speeding from house to house throughout all the land of Egypt, and from the firstborn of Pharaoh on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave woman behind the mill, they fall dead, and Egypt’s wail goes up to heaven in an extremely bitter and piercing cry. But throughout the houses of the Israelites a different scene is being witnessed. The doors are shut; a roasted lamb lies on the table, and men and women stand around it, clothed as for a journey, and with their staves in their hands, and they eat in haste. There is a firstborn child in his mother’s arms, or a firstborn male who is grown up, yet they show no sign of trepidation, though it is well known that, on that night, the firstborn are to die. Why are they so calm? Had you been present, an hour or two ago, you would have seen that the father, when he slew the lamb, drained the warm life-blood into a bowl, and, as his children gathered around him, he said to them, “Come, follow me”; and taking with him a bunch of hyssop, he went to the outside of his door, and struck the lintel until it was crimsoned with the blood of the lamb, and then he sprinkled the posts, on either side so that the blood-mark was all around the door. “And now,” he says, “my children, we are safe; for, when God sees the blood, he will pass over us, and our firstborn will not be killed, the blood will make them secure.” In the same way we who are the firstborn of God are saved by the blood of Jesus. Can you, friend, by faith say, “My confidence is only in that blood”? Has it been applied to your heart and conscience? Has it spoken peace to your soul? Does it cleanse you from all sin? Do you now rejoice that there is no condemnation for you, since you are in Christ Jesus, and he has endured all the divine wrath that was your due because of your sin?

12. But lest we should not learn this great truth by one type, God has given us another. In the course of two years, over twenty-two thousand children were born to that large population, and these had not been redeemed by the blood of the paschal lambs, for they were not then in being, so another method was adopted; a Levite was to stand in the place of each firstborn male child, and God accepted the Levite, and allowed the child to remain in his father’s house. Here was a symbol of the great truth of substitution, but the privileges which pertained to some of the Jewish firstborn in the type belong to all the spiritual firstborn children of God. Christ is the Levite who stands before God in our room, and place, and stead, and who ministers there for us, and honours his Father’s law, and fulfils its every jot and tittle on our behalf.

13. There were two hundred and seventy-three firstborn Jewish children for whom no Levite substitute could be found, so five shekels per head had to be paid to Aaron and his sons as redemption money for them; and, in the same way, the divine plan of redemption is very rightly described by the apostle Peter when he says, “You know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot.”

14. Put these three things together,—redemption by blood, redemption by substitution, and redemption by purchase,—and you will then have a very clear idea of what atonement in reference to the firstborn means. Any one of the three will be sufficient for the enlightened saint, but all three together will reflect a beautiful light on the cross of Christ, and in that light we may clearly see how he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and brought in everlasting redemption for all his chosen. Let each one of us ask these questions of himself or herself, “Am I redeemed with the precious blood of Christ? Did he stand as Substitute and Surety for me? Am I bought with the price that he paid for his people on the cross? For, if not, I cannot be numbered among the firstborn, for all the firstborn must be redeemed in this way.”

15. Our time flies so quickly that I am afraid the other two divisions of my discourse will have to suffer; but I must remind you, as I promised to do, that the firstborn, having been redeemed, had very special privileges. First, they had a double portion of their father’s goods. Hence, Elisha, who was, in the prophetic sense the firstborn of Elijah, pleaded with him as his spiritual son, “Please, let a double portion of your spirit be on me.” Now, God is good to all men, and his tender mercies are over all his works, but his special favour is reserved for the called and chosen, and faithful ones whom he has redeemed. The firstborn also had the privilege of priesthood in the old patriarchal times, and every true child of God is made a king and a priest to God, to offer, daily, spiritual and acceptable sacrifices through Jesus Christ. The firstborn was, in many respects, a ruler over the whole household; and Christ, the great Firstborn, is the supreme Ruler over his Church, and we, in and through him, are made rulers over many things, and he invites us to ascend the throne, and reign with him as God’s firstborn, kings and priests to him for ever.

16. II. Now, secondly, and only very briefly, let us enquire, WHAT IS MEANT BY THE ENROLMENT OF THE FIRSTBORN?

17. Moses had to write down the names of the Jewish firstborn, and we find that, right down to the apostles’ age, there were some who were very busy about what Paul calls “endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith”; but, dear friends, there is an enrolment about which we should be greatly concerned. There are certain names written in the Lamb’s book of life, and it should be to you and to me a matter of solemn interest to enquire if our names are written there. Is your name, is my name, inscribed on that secret, sacred roll of the elect of God? We cannot scale the heights of heaven to search the pages of that sealed book, nor can we discover the secrets that the Most High has recorded there. It is impossible for us to read our names there, yet there are certain evidences by which we can tell whether they are or are not there.

18. First of all, do you think they are there? Are there not many here who must truthfully say, “No, we have no reason to think they are”? When the muster-roll of our troops is called, if you are there you can hear the names, and the men’s answers, “John So-and-so,” “Here, sir”; “Thomas,”———“Here, sir”; “Here, sir”; “Here, sir,” and so it goes all down the ranks. Now, suppose it could be possible for an angel to read from this pulpit the muster-roll of the redeemed, do you think that he would read your name, and that you would be able to answer, “Here, sir”? “No,” you say, “unless I tell a deliberate falsehood, I dare not say that I think my name is in the Lamb’s book of life.” Well then, if your own hearts condemn you, remember that God is greater than your hearts, and knows all things, so how much more must he condemn you!

19. Possibly, there are some who say, “We hope our names are written there.” So I ask you, dear friends, are you like those whose names undoubtedly are inscribed there? Do you have the faith of Abraham, or something like it? Do you desire to have such holiness as Paul craved? When you read the record of a godly man’s life, do you feel that your life is in conformity with his? For character, character, CHARACTER must, after all, be the great basis for judgment; and if your life is not like the life of the saints, how can you hope to find your name recorded where their names are written?

20. Again, all the elect have their names written beneath the name of their Lord, the Lamb; so, are you trusting in Christ? Are you resting on him? Is your life linked with his? Do you feel that there is a bond, that cannot be snapped, which binds you and Christ together so that no one and nothing that can possibly happen shall be able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus your Lord? Very well then, if this is the case with you, rest assured that your name is in that book; but, “without Christ,” you are without hope; separated from him, it is certain that your name its not written in heaven, as one of “the general assembly and church of the firstborn.”

21. I ask you another question, are you really a child of God? Can you say to him, “Abba, Father”? Is God your Father? Have you learned to trust him as his children trust him, and to love him as his children love him? Do you depend entirely on him? Do you seek to submit yourself entirely to his will, and to walk in his way? For, if you are not a child of God at all, certainly you are not one of his firstborn.

22. I must also ask, Have you passed from death to life? Has there ever been a vital change in you, such a change as can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit? I do not mean such a change as some silly people talk of seeing, sometimes, when a man is dying. There may have been no sign of grace whatever in the man, yet someone said, “I saw such a change come over him, his face looked so different.” Very likely it did; but it is not a change of face that is needed, but a change of heart; it is no physical change, but a mental, moral, spiritual, divine change that is accomplished in regeneration. Do not let any one of you be satisfied unless you have unquestionable evidence that this change has been accomplished in you by the effective working of the Holy Spirit; for, unless you are born again, your names will not be found written on the roll of God’s firstborn.

23. Now, in closing, let me just remind you that to all these firstborn of God, whose names are written in heaven, the day is coming when they shall be assembled around the throne of God in glory. What a meeting that will be! There shall not be one unholy person there, for they shall all have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. How happy they will all be! There shall be no tear in any eye, nor a groan in any spirit, nor a single note of sorrow on any tongue, for the days of their mourning shall be ended for ever. How united an assembly it will be! There shall be no heresy, no schism, no discord, no coldness of heart; they shall all love even as they have been loved. What a vast assembly it will be, and when ten thousand times ten thousand meet together there, what a shout of sacred joy it shall be when they lift up hallelujah upon hallelujah! John says, “I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters.” You may have heard the sea roar in the fulness of its strength; possibly, you have heard the mighty Atlantic Ocean booming on the shore when lashed to fury by the storm. Such is to be the grandeur of the singing before the throne of God in the general assembly and church of the firstborn; only it is not merely to be like the voice of one water, but of many waters;—oceans piled upon oceans, the Atlantic upon the Pacific, and the Arctic, and the Antarctic, and all other oceans piled upon these; and such shall be the music of the saints, such shall be the song of the blessed when they see their Father’s face without a veil between, and pour out their vast volume of praise “as the voice of many waters.”

24. Let each one of us ask himself or herself, “Shall I be there?” If anyone says, “I fear that I shall not be there,” let him cry mightily to the Most High to pull him out of the horrible pit, and to set his feet on the rock, and to establish his goings. Sinner, you will either be there or in that dreadful place where the wailings shall be more terrible than the cry of men in a battle or the shrieks of women in a massacre. You will either be up there in glory or else down there where darkness, death, and long despair sit on their thrones of woe. Flee, sinner, flee away to Christ! His wounds, like clefts in the rock, are open to the doves that need a shelter. Flee, sinner, flee! The avenger of blood pursues you; I hear the sound of his feet close behind you, and he is about to strike you dead; but the city of refuge is near at hand, standing with open gates ready to welcome you. Flee, sinner, flee! “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” To believe in Jesus is to trust him; to be baptized is to be immersed in water on profession of that faith. I dare not alter my Master’s commission: “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be damned.” There is no other alternative. Turn or burn; believe and be saved, or reject and be lost. May God, in his mercy, make the choice for you, sinner, this very hour, and lead you in the everlasting way; and to Father, Son and Holy Spirit shall be the glory for ever and ever! Amen.

{a} Primogeniture: The right of succession or inheritance belonging to the firstborn; the principle, custom, or law by which the property or title descends to the eldest son (or eldest child). OED.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Heb 12}

After giving a long list of the heroes of faith, the apostle adds:—

1-3. Therefore since we are also surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him— {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1073, “A Honeycomb” 1064}

Look to him, look at him, study him, know all you can about him, meditate on him,—

3, 4. Who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.

It has not come to that yet with any of you who are now here; you have not shed your blood for Christ yet, for these are not martyr days, so can you be wearied and faint? If you run with the footmen, and they weary you, how will you contend with horses? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we grow weary in a race that is so easy compared with that of the men and women who laid down their lives for Christ’s sake.

5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him:

Both these states are wrong, either to think nothing of chastisement or else to faint under it; we are not to fall into either evil, but to keep the golden mean between them.

6. For whom the Lord loves—

The Greek word is a strong one, and means, “whom the Lord tenderly loves”—

6. He chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”

Everyone does not receive the same measure of chastisement, and he who has the largest share of the love of God will feel the most of his chastising hand. Are you not willing to take that position, and to be among the Lord’s tenderly loved ones?

7. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father does not chasten?

God had one Son without sin, but he never had a son without suffering; and the Son who was without sin was the “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

8. But if you are without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.

If you are without chastisement, you may bear the name of sons, but you are not really so; you are mere professors.

9. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?

Should we not give him reverence when we are chastened, instead of murmuring and complaining against him, so calling him to account at our judgment seat? Oh, yes let us be in willing subjection to him; and the more willingly subject we are, the less painful will the chastisement be. Our bitterest sorrow will be found at the root of our self-will; and when our self-will is gone, the bitterness of our sorrow will be past.

10. For they truly for a few days chastened us according to their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Is there no way for us to “be partakers of his holiness” but through chastening? It would seem so from the wording of this verse. The Lord, as our loving Father, makes use of the rod so that he may make us to be truly holy.

11. Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyful,

How could it be? It would lose the very nature of chastening if there were joy in it.

11. But grievous: nevertheless afterwards— {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 528, “Chastisement—Now and Afterwards” 519}

These are truly blessed words: “nevertheless afterwards”—

11-13. It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it. Therefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest what is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2854, “Lame Sheep” 2855}

Come, children of God, do not be despondent because of your tribulations. You are in a race, so run; even while you are smarting from your chastisements, still run, and keep on running until you win the prize.

14. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2902, “Holiness Demanded” 2903}

The holy God can only be seen by holy eyes. He must make us like himself before we can see him.

15. Looking diligently lest any man fall short of the grace of God;

Seeming to have grace, and yet not really having it

15. Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and by it many are defiled; {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 940, “The Winnowing Fan” 931}

Sin is a bitter thing and a defiling thing; and unless we look diligently, it will grow in our hearts like the weeds grow in our gardens after a heavy rain, it will spring up before we are aware of it.

16. Lest there be any fornicator.

Fornication was far too common in the early church, but it was not thought to be sin by the great majority of the heathen; but, oh, what a defiling sin it is!

16. Or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

By this he was guilty of spiritual fornication, preferring his food to his Maker, thinking more of one morsel of food than of his birthright.

17. For you know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

He could not get his father to change his mind concerning Jacob; on the contrary, he said, “I have blessed him; yes, and he shall be blessed.” His many tears did not avail, they were not repenting tears, but only selfish ones. He did not repent that he had bartered his birthright for a mess of pottage; he regretted that he had lost the blessing, that was all.

18-21. For you are not come to the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice those who heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. (For they could not endure what was commanded, “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with an arrow.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I extremely fear and tremble.”)

We have not come to that mount of terror, for we are not under the law, but under grace; we have come to a very different place from that.

22-24. But you are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 211, “The Voice of the Blood of Christ” 204} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 708, “The Blood of Abel and the Blood of Jesus” 699} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1888, “The Blood of Sprinkling” 1889} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1889, “The Blood of Sprinkling” 1890}

We are come to that blood, and it is that blood which has made such a change in us. We may rejoice together now, and we ought to do so, if we are all one in Christ Jesus.

25-29. See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, how much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” And this word, “yet once more” means the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.

Not “God outside of Christ,” as some say, but God in Christ, God is a consuming fire in both cases, and each one of us should pray, “Consuming fire, refining fire, go through my heart and purge me of all that can be consumed! Holy Spirit, drive out of me all that can be shaken and removed, so that only your enduring kingdom may remain in me, and yours shall be the praise and the glory for ever! Amen.”

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