Hebrews 1 verse 14 through chapter 2 verse 18, these are God's words. Are they, I mean angels, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also bearing witness both to signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. He has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place saying, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him, but now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, here am I and the children whom God has given me, inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood. He himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. Amen. This ends this reading with God's inspired and inerrant word. One of the reasons why we've taken Hebrews chapter two as our primary text is because it would have taken 50% more than the time allotted if we were to try to take the entire book of Hebrews as the primary text just to read it. But really it is the entire book of Hebrews that is what we're thinking through here in that God has given his son, who is God, and has in himself infinite glory. to redeem and retrieve many children whom God has intended from the world before the world began to bring to glory. So that not only as in chapter one is Jesus infinitely superior to all the angels, but that you yourselves, if you belong to Christ by faith, are intended by God to be glorified above angels. Angels do not rule in the world to come. You, who are in Christ, will rule in the world to come. Angels who sin and fall are not redeemed. God is not obligated to redeem any, and there's no quicker proof for that than to show the angels. But those who are of the seed of Abraham, those who believe in the same Christ that Abraham believed in, his seed by faith, the Lord helps. These are the many sons that he is bringing to glory. These are the children whom who have partaken in flesh and blood, which is why the only begotten son who does not in his divine nature from all eternity have flesh and blood added to himself a human nature in order to retrieve the many children and bring them to glory. And one of the things that we, because of our sinfulness, have a hard time wrapping our minds around is just how great is that glory to which God is bringing us. How great is the glory of the triune God. Now, one of the things that has happened in the Reformed churches, as we are thinking this week about recovering our biblical heritage, is that there has been a loss of the knowledge of the glory of God corporately. And we need look no further than the public worship on the Lord's Day to see that. For we could not even consider adding things to the worship of God that God himself has not commanded. or doing worship in any other way than to do those things that God has commanded as consistently and excellently as possible according to the specific command and according to the theology that he gives us in his word about the things that are commanded, we would not be able to consider adding to, or dumbing down, or altering, or cheapening anything that God has commanded for the public worship. If we had the slightest inkling of the glory, of the glory of Him to whom we gather week by week in the Lord's day, which is itself a foretaste of that gathering that is the whole of the history of redemption as he brings many sons to glory in an ultimate sense. Now we might think that perhaps if God would incinerate some who add to his worship like he did to Nadab and Bihu, that we might be shaken and scared back into worshiping only and entirely as God has said to worship. But to that we may say the same thing as was said to the rich man when Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus. They have Moses and the prophets, and now we have Moses and the prophets and the apostles, prophets and evangelists, by whom the Lord has given us the New Testament. If we do not listen to them, neither will we listen if someone is incinerated by fire that comes from the Lord. There has been centuries of increasing idolatry even now in the Reformed and Presbyterian churches, is already starting to crumble. Well, there's a sense in which we're constantly under that threat from the sin in our own hearts every week. But corporately, historically, it's already starting to crumble. Late 18th, early 19th century. The ability to travel inexpensively and quickly accelerated the decline. As churches started competing for members, you could go to a place that pleased the flesh more. It's actually perhaps a little beyond the scope of tracing some of the historical causes and contours of how, even in the associate reform Presbyterian church, things like adding man-made songs and adding instruments and something that our forefathers would have just seen as the resurrection of something that belonged to the Levitical priesthood and doesn't belong to Christ's priesthood. The adding of man-made holy days and the decline of the keeping of the Lord's Day, something that has been so harmful to all of our religion as we've thought about in the last week. And yet God has not incinerated anyone with fire that we know of for doing that. Well, even centuries of idolatry during which God has demonstrated his great patience by not incinerating worshipers does not mean that he has changed. He is still bringing many sons to glory, bringing them to an unshakable kingdom, as the thought continues throughout the book of Hebrews, and you get to Hebrews 12, and it talks about the worship assembly again, the Lord Jesus who spoke from earth, identifying Jesus as the speaker at Mount Sinai. So that's a Christophany there when he shakes the mountain and it smokes and it burns and he thunders with his voice and Israel says, don't let us hear him again, it's Jesus. at Sinai, but now he speaks from heaven, and he uses servants on earth by which to do it, but it's Jesus, not just now in his divine nature, but in his office as our prophet, who speaks from heaven, and what is he doing? Well, he is preserving for us an unshakable kingdom. But then he says at the end of Hebrews chapter 12 that he is still a consuming fire. Jesus is our God. and we must therefore approach with reverence and awe. God is still bringing many sons to glory, and his glory is such that he describes himself to us as a consuming fire. But God is not made of hyper-rapid oxidation reactions any more than he's made of flesh and bone and blood. He's using that language to communicate something to us of his glory and the intensity of his glory. Indeed, the gospel is much exalted and the Christ of the gospel is much exalted when we remember the greatness of the glory that we had sinned against. for the despising of which the wrath of God has been revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, and the greatness of the glory, therefore, that we have sinned against and of which we have fallen short, but now the greatness of the glory unto which we have been redeemed. And how great then is the righteousness of Jesus and the sacrifice for whom he is the righteousness, for whom he is the sacrifice, and now brings those many sons to this burning glory of God. But now we are, in many decades, in a couple of centuries at least now, the trend in the church in which we have become obsessed with casual familiarity which is not the same as nearness to the ever-blessed, infinitely glorious God. And casual familiarity certainly is not a consequence of intimacy with the all-glorious God. So we desperately need a balancing restoration of godly fear, of reverence and awe. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the public worship of God. Indeed, the consuming fire language comes in part from Sinai, where it appeared that the mountain was being consumed, but it comes also in part from a passage that is very parallel for us, at least theologically, the end of Leviticus 9 and the beginning of Leviticus 10. Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people and fire came out from before Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane, strange, foreign fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them. So fire went out from Yahweh and devoured them. And they died before Yahweh. And so there is this display. of the glory of God and the fire that comes out from Yahweh and consumes the ascension. Remember, what's being translated burnt offering in your English Bibles is just the Hebrew word for ascension and the fact that is on the altar. And then when the strange fire is offered, the fire again comes out from Yahweh. It comes out from the mercy seat. It comes out from the holy of holies. But even the mercy of God would not spare Nadab and Abihu, because they were not coming to the glory of God in the way that God had provided. And so when Hebrews 12, 29 comes and says, our God is consuming fire, It's saying that in the New Testament worship that is led by Christ from heaven, God is still the same consuming fire that He displayed in Himself in Christ at Sinai. God is still the consuming fire that He displayed in Himself when He consumed the sacrifices at the end of Leviticus 29. God is still the consuming fire. that he displayed in himself when he consumed Neda in a Bible, who tried to come to the all-glorious God in a way other than he, than God himself, had provided. And so when that happens in Leviticus chapter 10, Moses immediately says to Aaron, This is what Yahweh spoke, saying, by those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified. It's a very simple question, children. Should we treat God as holy? It's a yes or no question. And it's so obvious that I hope for you it's a yes or yes question. Should we treat God as holy? Should we glorify him? Should we draw near to God in the right and biblical fear of God? They're all yes and yes questions. But then the question that follows is, well, what does that mean? And a huge part of the Bible answer is it means coming to the glorious God only in the way that he has provided. that if we draw near to God with anything in addition, not just anything instead of, but anything in addition or beside the way that He has provided, then we are despising His glory. We are not treating Him as holy but common. We are not treating Him as glorious but small. And so, this rejoicing in Hebrews 2 that God is bringing many sons to glory and the further rejoicing of the way in which he has done so. We're going to come back to Leviticus in a moment and spend some time there. But one of the things we must remember when we're looking at Leviticus is that we're in the middle of a how much more argument. That if these things were true when God had given his people to draw near by way of these shadows, by way of these pictures that taught about Jesus before Jesus came, how much more is it true now? That Jesus has come. That Jesus took on flesh. That Jesus died in order to consecrate our worship. That Jesus has passed into heaven so that from there he might lead our worship. That Jesus is in heaven actually presiding over and participating in the worship of his assemblies on earth. your flesh might respond by thinking, well, God was really serious about those things in the Old Testament. Well, now that Jesus has come, he has lightened up. The only reason your flesh would think that is because you have been worshiping with congregations and from your own heart in a way that has not been treating God as glorious and holy feeling free to just add whatever besides what God has given and commanded, putting ourselves in the place of God, who alone can decide what worship is, upon whom we depend entirely to draw near to Him. As if we could add something and that would automatically function in bringing us near to God? this theological and spiritual insanity, which is exactly what we get from the darkness of our own hearts. Even worse, Deuteronomy 4, when Moses is preparing to tell them the Ten Commandments again, he zeroes in on this one, and he says, you saw no form. You only heard a voice. Meaning that if we try, to come to God in any other way, we're actually coming to another God. This is why in the second commandment, when he has said, don't make, don't make things by which to worship me. Don't make things by which to worship me and don't worship using those things. Because I, Yahweh your God, I'm a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. But of course, mercy to thousands who love me, he says. And would you not want to be the thousands who love Him? The thousands who say, the glorious God has communicated Himself to us, has given Himself to us, has drawn us near to Him in these specific ways. Let us have him as he is. Let us have him as he has given himself to us. Let us not have him as we like to think of him, or him as we wish him to be, and let us not draw near to him in ways that feel to us. worshipful, or feel to us near, lest we be those who prefer our idea of God, or our idea of experiencing God, to the actual God and His actual worship. Because preferring our image, and we're not just talking now about the thing we carve, we're talking about the thing in the mind, and in the heart, and in the desire. Preferring our image to Him is hating Him. To use an infinitesimally smaller relationship by analogy, it would be like if you were, whenever you were with your wife, you were thinking of, eh, kind of like her, but adding in your mind and heart ways that you wish she was. and not actually spending time with her, but doing other things that feel good because you think spending time with her should feel good. Do you think your wife would call that loving her? Would she not be right to say that thinking of her that way and doing those other things and calling it spending time with her, with your caricature of her in your mind, Would she not be right to say that that is hating her? And so this is what is meant when he says, by those who draw near to me, I must be regarded as holy. And the context is actually very similar, because the end of Leviticus 9, God has brought many sons to glory. Now, it's nothing to be compared to what he has done now in Christ, because the people are not united by faith to Moses and Aaron's sons. And so even this is looking forward to Christ, something that they couldn't quite participate in. Only the Levites could approach the tabernacle. Only the family of Aaron could enter the tabernacle. Only the high priest himself could go into the Holy of Holies. But still, this was a huge answer to a huge problem at the end of Exodus chapter 40. The end of Exodus chapter 40, The cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting. Sorry, this is verse 34. The cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting. The glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it. And the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. That's a problem. It's a tabernacle of meeting. Imagine. that in a couple of hours, when it's time to meet for the presbytery, someone asked, where are we meeting? And we said, in the chapel. And we came, and the chapel was locked, and no one could get in. It wouldn't make a very good meeting place, would it? Well, here you have the tabernacle of meeting. and they can't enter because of the greatness of the glory of God. And to that, God has given that wonderful answer. In Ephesians chapter one, the ascension is often called the whole burnt offering, but the Hebrew is just the ascension. Christ as the shadow and picture of our ascending to him in Christ. The tribute. Christ as the shadow and picture of our coming to him with Christ in our hand. The peace, chapter three, Christ as our fellowship with God, even eating from God's own table. Chapters four and five, the sin and trespass offerings, Christ as the cleansing of our conscience. Chapters six through nine, the priesthood and its procedures. Christ is the one in whom we draw near, who consecrates our drawing near by his blood, the one who leads the worship that he has consecrated. And you see what they had done now. They were despising both God's glory and the way that God had made this great salvation by which God had given them to be able to approach his glory. Well, now we are in a covenant administration that is mediated by Christ. But just because Christ has come does not mean that there isn't a danger in his church. We've already read Hebrews chapter 2. We'll read the first six verses of Hebrews chapter 3. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. who was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the whole firm to the end. And so there's this change in administration from the Moses administration of the house of God on the earth, just talking about the visible church now, to the Jesus administration of the house of God on the earth. But even in the Jesus administration, we're still being addressed today if you hear his voice. And that's the rest of chapter three and chapter four. And so there is this necessity, continued necessity, of regarding God as holy, even as we draw near to him in Christ. Did God provide a great salvation, not just in delivering the people out of Egypt, but even more so in enabling them to enter the tabernacle by way of Moses and Aaron? Yes, he provided a great salvation. He gave them a picture of bringing many sons to glory. And this is what he is doing now, verse 10 of our primary text. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory. to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Now, this is occurring in an ultimate sense, like we mentioned, Hebrews 12, 28, that he is bringing us into, or we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, but it also occurs in a weekly sense. If you're working out of a copy of the Word of God, turn in it to Hebrews chapter 12, and you can see that His bringing many sons to glory, yes, it's especially about when you come to the last day and you've risen again from the dead and you're perfected in holiness and there's new heavens and the new earth and we enjoy God himself in this glorious new creation as the new humanity in the new Adam who is Christ Yes, so there is that bringing many sons to glory in the ultimate sense, but there's also this weekly sense. He's writing to those who are on the earth. He says, for you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, and heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that available. And so there is this, there is this weekly bringing many sons to glory. When we gather in this room on the Lord's day, as the Lord's children in Jesus, we join the worship of glory. And there's no way to join that worship except by and through Jesus. Jesus, our ascension. Jesus, our tribute. Jesus, our peace. Tribute, by the way, is the actual translation of the Hebrew word that most English translations use the word great offering for. This is just the word tribute. Jesus, our ascension. Jesus, our tribute. Jesus, our peace. Jesus, the sin offering who has cleansed our conscience so that we can approach God in good conscience. Jesus is the only way to come. And that's why we may only do those things that Jesus is leading from heaven. And that's why we select it from the whole book of Hebrews, especially chapter two. Because chapter two gives us those examples of how one of the reasons Jesus took on himself flesh and blood is so that he might sit in heaven as our priest selected from among men. He leads our worship especially according to his human nature. Now we're not dividing the person of Christ into two persons. He's just the one divine person. But his human nature was necessary to be our priest, because a priest has to be selected from among men. And so since the children whom God gathers to glory in this age of the church participate in flesh and blood, Jesus, the priest who is selected from among us, had to have flesh and blood. And what does he do? Well, he leads reading and preaching. First part of verse 12, I will declare your name to my brethren. Jesus is the one who speaks to us from heaven in the preaching of his word, where chapter 12 says, see that you do not refuse him who speaks, because he speaks from heaven. What else does Jesus do? He leads the singing. The rest of verse 12, in the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. The scripture putting this on the lips of Jesus. He also leads the praying. When he says in verse 13, I will put my trust in him. Jesus prays for us. He calls upon God's name for us. He draws near to God. Chapter 7, verse 25 says, He always lives to intercede for us. His having passed through the heavens, end of chapter 4, means that when He takes His seat on the throne of glory, seeing then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. The one who sits on the throne of glory is our high priest, and therefore The throne of glory is for us because of the resurrected man who sits on it. The throne of glory is for us a throne of grace, where there's not just requesting, there's that we may obtain mercy. And there's not just looking for, seeking, but and find grace and help in time of need. Jesus leads the reading and the preaching and the praying and the singing. He presents us in heaven. He says, here am I and the children whom God has given me. Jesus attests from heaven that we are His. He does this in part, especially by His sacraments on the earth. Lord willing, we'll spend some time in Hebrews 10, 19 through 22 tonight. But if we add to His worship, what's happening? Does Jesus lead special music? Does Jesus lead Interpretive dance? Does Jesus lead drama and video clips? If we add to his worship, we don't regard him as holy. If we bring that which he has not commanded, We come without Christ. However worshipful, we are convinced in ourselves that it might be. Do you think Nadab and Abihu, on the day that they were ordained, moments after seeing the glory of God appear and the fire fall upon or come out from Yahweh and consume the sacrifices, do you think that when they filled their pans with additional fire, they thought, we're blaspheming God now? The whole nation had just fallen on their faces and shouted at the greatness of the glory of God. It is unthinkable that they thought they were doing anything else than improving the worship or embellishing, adorning, adding to it something good. We must not, under any motive or rationalization whatsoever, add to the worship of the living God. For not only is he infinitely glorious, but it is his son now, not the ascension offering, not the tribute offering, not the peace offering, not the sin and trespass offerings to cleanse our consciences. It is his son through whom he brings us near and by whom he leads us. No wonder, no wonder we have so little appreciation for the gospel of Jesus Christ. For we neither appreciate the greatness of God's glory, which we deserve to have burn upon us in wrath, nor do we appreciate the greatness of God's glory unto which he has redeemed us, showing mercy to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments, especially the commandment of how to come to him, which is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we have very little appreciation for the greatness of the glory of Christ, in whom we could be saved from the one glory and saved unto the other glory in this Son of glory. But it was God's pleasure to bring many children to glory as a way of glorifying his only begotten Son. Shall we not take the same pleasure as God? in his glory, in his son. Amen, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, oh, help us to see your glory. Make the light of the knowledge of your glory, oh God, shine in our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ. Grant us faith by your Spirit that we would behold His glory as the only begotten of the Father, the glory of the Word made flesh, full of steadfast love and faithfulness. Oh, forgive your church, O Lord, You have not yet consumed her with fire. We praise you for your patience, but we pray that you would, by your word, convince her so that we might worship you as you have directed, so that we might come through Christ. so that we might see and honor and enjoy your glory. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.