Open your Bibles if you would to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. We will read verse 15 just to remind us of the context, and then we'll read verse 25. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God. lest any root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by this many become defiled. And in verse 25, see to it 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? Let's pray. Father, we don't want to fall short of the grace of God. We don't want to reject Your Word. Your Word can and does confront us with things we don't want to hear. We pray that You would help us to open our hearts to hear those things. To admit our own wrongdoing. To see that our Word is not enough. that we were made to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Give us the grace to listen to the One who speaks from heaven in His Son. Don't let us be those who shrink back to destruction, those who refuse to listen. We pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this is the writer's second exhortation that begins with this phrase, see to it, as we just saw. In verse 15, he says, see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God. And now he tells us, see to it that you do not refuse to listen to the one who speaks. Part of making sure that we all make it to heaven, that none of us falls short of the grace of God, is listening to the Word of God. This is a key part of what we are called to do. Pay attention to God's Word. That's one of the ways we watch out for each other. This is hardly the first time that the Hebrew writer has told us this. Already in chapter 2, verse 1, he said, pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Chapter 6 warned us about the field that has been watered and cultivated, but only brings forth thorns and thistles, the field that does not yield good fruit. Chapter 10 urged us not to trample underfoot the Son of God, and warned that if we do, we will shrink back to destruction. Now, once more, the Hebrew writer reminds us, see to it that you listen to the one who is speaking. It's almost as though this verse is a continuation of Hebrews 1.1. God, who at many times and in diverse ways spoke to us in times past to our fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. The writer reminds us that God has spoken His final word in His Son and then tells us you need to listen to the Son of God who is the Father's final word. As you hopefully remember from Genesis 1, we never existed without the Word of God. God made us and His first act was to speak to us. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. The human being does not have this independent existence where the Word of God is an optional extra. God made us to live by His Word, to live with His Word, never to live without His Word. To the atheists who look around at the world, or who open the Bible and say, I just don't see the evidence for God. Maybe He is, maybe He isn't. But the balance seems to suggest to me that He isn't. To them we say, open your eyes. Unplug your ears. Take the plastic wrap off your brain. Understand with your heart. This entire world is made by the Word of God. Is there light? If so, it's because God said, let there be light. Do the waters team with fish? If so, it's because God said, let the waters teem. If you get down in the grass, pull apart the blades, will you see every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth? You will because God said, let the earth bring forth every little creeping thing. God speaks. See that you do not refuse the one who speaks. He speaks to us in creation, as I was just saying. He also speaks in Providence, as, for example, very clearly, Joram son of Ahab being killed right on the very plot of land that his father had stolen from Naboth the Jezreelite. The providence of God said very, very clearly, Ahab sinned when he committed murder and stole this piece of ground. I am setting that sin right today as Joram tumbles out of his chariot with an arrow sticking out of his heart. God speaks in providence. God speaks in redemption and saving the people for himself from sin, Satan, and the world and bringing us to heaven. God is speaking there. Above all, he speaks through his word. He does all of these things, creation, providence, salvation. through his word. And his word in the book of Hebrews is, stick with me. Don't fall away. Don't drift away. Don't leave the faith. Don't go back to the Mosaic religion. Stay with Jesus Christ. That's the word that God is speaking to us. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. The writer puts it in the present tense. There's no question in his mind that God is still speaking. How is God speaking? There are many answers out there among professing Christians and of course in the broader culture. One answer is that he's not speaking. That's what the broader culture would say. Hebrew writer says, don't refuse the one who speaks, but he isn't speaking. We already spoke to those atheists. We reject that answer. Other Christians say, well, God's speaking in contemporary prophets and apostles. Despise not prophesying. And if you want to hear the living voice of Jesus Christ, go to your local Pentecostal congregation. There, apostles and prophets who have heard a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge will come up front and speak the living voice of Christ to you. Don't refuse the one who's speaking. Don't despise prophesying. Don't quench the spirit. That's what our Pentecostal brothers and sisters say. Or, of course, our Roman Catholic friends, possibly brothers, will tell us, God speaks through the magisterium of the institutional church. You want to hear the word of the one who is speaking? All you have to do is pull the latest papal encyclical off the shelf. See that you do not refuse him who speaks. You want to know what God says? All you have to do is ask what Pope Francis is saying. He is the living voice of Jesus Christ. That's an answer out there that a lot of Christians of some stripe believe in. Other brothers and sisters will tell us, you want to hear the living voice of Jesus Christ? He speaks in the church fathers. He speaks in the councils and synods of the undivided church of the first 800 years. This is where one can locate the authentic voice of the Son of God. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. Make sure you become an expert in church history and in historical theology because that's where the living voice of Christ is found. All of these answers have major limitations at best. The book of Hebrews, of course, does not encourage us to look for the voice of Christ in prophets and apostles. especially ongoing ones in the church. It doesn't encourage us to listen for the voice of Christ in the institutional church or in the church fathers. The Hebrew writer consistently goes back to scripture to find what God is saying to us. Quotes Psalms from a thousand years before and says, this is describing what's happening right now in heaven. This is where the living voice of Christ is found within the written Word of God. Above all, of course, he tells us God spoke at past times by the prophets. He has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. The Son is God's Word. All Christians would agree with that. The Hebrew writer goes further and he says very clearly, the Son is God's last word. Jesus Christ is God's final word, which is why he uses that phrase. God has spoken to us in these last days by his Son. The clock has run out on New Revelation. That is, as the hymn puts it, what more can he say than to you he has said? There is, in a very real sense, nothing else for God to reveal, because He has shown us His Son, and whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father. We are not looking for a new word from the Lord, whether from a prophet, an apostle, a magisterium, a refreshed reading of the Church Fathers. We don't need that. Because Jesus is the Father's final word. He has nothing else to say. The Bible is the word of Christ. That's how Paul describes it. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Not the dead word, but the living word. How do I do that, Paul? How do I let the word of Christ dwell in me richly? Ephesians 5, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. How do you access the living voice of Christ? You do what we just did. Pick up your Psalter, turn to 76a, you stand up and you sing your heart out. God is truly known in Judah, great is name in Israel. Words that someone penned 3,000 years ago are the living voice of Christ. That's what the New Testament says very clearly. Of course, Pentecostals and Catholics and Eastern Orthodox agree that God does speak in the Bible. They wouldn't argue with us about that. Of course, they would say, read the Bible. That's where part of the voice of Christ is. We just have the rest. But we would ask them, what do the Magisterium and the Fathers and the contemporary prophets and apostles give us that is not here. Insofar as they elucidate the meaning already contained in Scripture, we value their contributions to the Church. Insofar as they contradict it, adding traditions of men that render void the Word of God, we reject them as no true teachers. We measure and judge all claimants to the voice of Christ, by the record in the book. Is that what the book says? Does that reflect Jesus Christ, the last word of the Father, not as you imagine Him in your mind, but as He speaks in His own voice in the Gospels and through His apostles in the epistles of the New Testament? When the Pope says, lead us not into temptation, should be changed to lead us away from temptation, we know what to make of his claim to be the living voice of Christ. A man who says, I have edited the Lord's prayer and made it more accurate, not a man that you and I should trust. Or the contemporary prophets that you can see on the television who say, send me money and your ills will be cured. Again, we know whether that is the living voice of Jesus Christ. Never once did he ask for money before curing someone. You can read the Gospels for the rest of your life. You will never find a moment where Jesus said, wait, wait, wait. Donations, please. All right, now I can cure you. None of His words will fall to the ground. He is speaking. God has not stopped speaking. But what He speaks is His final word, the Lord Jesus Christ. Many words of the prophets, many words of the magisterium, many words of the church fathers, have fallen to the ground and will stay there. You need not fear them, as Moses says. But you do need to fear Him who speaks. If they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, how much less will we escape if we turn away, stop listening, to Him who speaks from heaven. God is speaking, not through colorful weirdos in Pentecostal churches, or colorful cardinals in Roman office buildings, but through the written word of his Son. Those who listened to him speaking on earth did not escape. What is the writer talking about? He's talking about the contrast he just made between Sinai and Zion. On Mount Sinai, God stood on the earth, on the top of the mountain, and He spoke. His voice spoke from the earth, and the children of Israel heard it. God spoke the Ten Commandments aloud to them, and they begged that He would stop. Please, no more, no more, no more. We can't do this. The Exodus generation heard Him speaking on earth. And they went on from there and refused to enter the promised land and were punished with wandering 40 years in the wilderness until every last one of them but two had died. We had two million people reduced to two. Right? That's not an order of magnitude. That's what? Four orders of magnitude. Five orders of magnitude. Something like that. All did not escape. because they refused Him who spoke on earth." We don't want to hear the voice of God. And then when they did hear it through Moses, and they said, we'll obey it, but they didn't want to. They proved that they didn't want to by refusing to enter the promised land. They did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth. This is not primarily a warning for those outside. The writer is not saying Egyptians and Canaanites who disregarded the Mosaic system were severely punished. He tells us Israelites who disregarded the Mosaic system were severely punished. The message here is not for outsiders but for insiders, not for non-believers out there in the world, but for believers in here in the church. There are Christians who won't listen to the Word of God. That's what the writer is saying and what he's said many times. He's afraid, of course, that his audience, the Hebrews, are those people. You might be the Christian who is refusing to hear the Word of God. This is not good to do. Probably most of you feel that you could look around the room or certainly look around your circle of acquaintances who call themselves Christian and say, yep, there's one who doesn't seem to listen to God's word. Oh, there's another one who doesn't seem to listen to God's word. Now, that's a very limited value, but you should recognize that they could also do that back to you. There might be someone out there who would say, yeah, that's so-and-so, member of Harvest Reform Presbyterian Church. That's a major blind spot, a major problem with hearing the living voice of Christ. If the writer is not saying, you can go ahead and assume that you listen carefully to God's word. I know you guys are part of the club. Don't worry about whether you're listening to God's Word. He says, see to it that you keep listening to the Word of God. We can get wrapped up in the perfectly true idea that without hearing the Word of God, people are going to hell. But we need to spend a little more energy on the truth that also in here in the church where we do hear the Word of God. People like us, people who are us, who are pretty sure they're Christians, can also be headed down the wrong path. Every transgression received a just reward when they refused to listen to God when He spoke on earth. How much less will we escape if we neglect this salvation? How much less will we escape if in whatever moment we are confronted with the Word of God and we say, no. I won't do that. The writer is not saying every transgression was punished under Moses, but thank God those barbaric days are over. We live in an enlightened era when mercy triumphs over judgment. You'll no longer be cut off from among the people of God. Stoning is banned. You smite someone's eye or tooth, he'll just turn the other cheek and you'll get off scot-free. The writer is not saying under the old covenant every transgression received a just recompensive reward, but under the new covenant justice is out the window and mercy rules over everything. No. Under the old covenant, every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, and under the new covenant, every transgression also receives a just reward. This is because God is now speaking from heaven. The God who lives in heaven belongs in heaven, and when he speaks from heaven, his voice is even more impressive and terrifying and when he spoke from earth. Specifically, what Hebrews focuses on, the voice of God from heaven is greater in clarity and it's greater in cleansing power. When God spoke on earth, he buried everything under translation into material symbols. We talked about that at length. That's what most of Hebrews is about. God says, I will save you through the blood of my son, and he shows that by having them lead a lamb into the courtyard, kill it, and throw its body on this big burning fire. There's a lesson there in that material symbol. The lesson is buried, in a certain sense, under several layers of translation. Now, when God speaks from heaven, he's spoken with much greater clarity. The salvation is a greater salvation. To sin against it is a greater sin. To sin against 200 lumens of light is not as great a sin as to sin against 2,000 lumens of light. Because God is speaking from heaven, you and I know the stakes much better than Israel did. God did not specifically warn them, by the way, if you refuse to enter the promised land, you're going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until you all die. They found out. But there was not as much light in that moment when they heard the bad report about the giants and said, forget it. We're not going in there. We better listen carefully. God is speaking from heaven and His voice is great in clarity. We need to listen very carefully to what His voice says to us. That especially means that we need to weigh what we hear from the world about every topic. Creation, providence, human nature, psychology, politics, parenting, the list goes on. The world has a distinct line on all of these things. And if you're primarily sucking up with a straw what the world pours into your glass, beware. You need to be listening primarily to the one who is speaking from heaven. You should know what God says about those things. It just is a very good test. Those of you who are not familiar with the story of Ahab, Naboth's vineyard, and Jehu that I read this morning, that's most likely a sign that you're not listening nearly as carefully as you should be to the one who is speaking. If that story was new to you, that's a very bad sign. You should be listening to the one who is speaking, meaning you should know what's in Scripture very, very well. You should be familiar with this book. The light is greater. Revelation is more clear. What the Father has said in Christ cannot be superseded, cannot in a certain sense even be clarified. We have seen and heard the Father directly. And if we say, I want to know more, like Thomas, Lord, show us the Father. Jesus' only response is, You've seen Me. Have I been with you so long and you still don't know Me?" That's what He has to say to the Christian who says, I need more of the living voice of Christ. Jesus says, the Father says, I've been speaking to you your entire life. It's all right here. The cleansing power, though, is also greater. When God speaks from heaven, his word washes away our sins. If you believe the counsel of the wicked on some of these topics, psychology, parenting, creation, if you sinned in that way, there's hope for you. There's cleansing for you. It's as though, in a certain sense, that in the Old Covenant they were using olive oil for soap. Pour a little olive oil on your hands and then scrub them under water. Well, I guess it's better than nothing. In the New Covenant, we have extra-strength industrial degreaser, or should I say, de-sinner. The blood of Christ cleanses us in a way that the animal blood never could. No matter what you've done, no matter how long you've been in your sin, no matter what lies you've believed or wallowed in, you can be saved from them by the blood of Jesus. The one who speaks from heaven has given us all cleansing power. If you've lived in bitterness, in anger, in self-righteousness, in pride, Jesus' blood cleanses that. The New Covenant punishment is terrible. Those who refuse, who turn away from the One who is speaking, who stop listening to the Word of God, will not escape any more than the wilderness generation escaped from God's judgment. People get out of North Korea Zeks fled Stalin's gulag. Earthly justice systems have holes, hatchways, secret passages. Guards can be bribed. Judges are ready to reverse their predecessors' decisions. We will not escape if we refuse to listen to the one who is speaking. Open your Bible and listen to His words, alone with God. Read them with your spouse, with your children. Practice listening to the One who is speaking in His Son. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You are there and that You are not silent. We thank You that Your Word is clearly audible. That you speak in creation, in providence, in redemption, and in this book in our laps. Help us not to refuse to listen. Not to chase fanciful claimants to the voice of Christ. People who say, I am the living voice of Christ, or my tradition is the living voice of Christ. Help us instead to focus on learning the truth of Your Word, so that we can know Your Son, so that we can know You. Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. We thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have shown us the Father, and that He is enough for us, and that He has spoken to us in You, and that You are enough for us. You are the living and abiding Word of the Father. Thank you for speaking to us. Help us to listen. In Jesus' name, Amen.