in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
9 sermons cite this verse
… Either way, I'm preparing for eternity with him. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 23 is an important verse. It says this. you are the church of God's children. Okay, remember, it's the family of God. You are the church of God's children whose names are registered in heaven. You ought to be grateful for that because you have come to God himself and you have come to Jesus. Now, notice this. Your names are registered in heaven. You know, I've met a few of these Hollywood types and done some Bible studies for producers and stuff like that up in Hollywood. And the big deal in Hollywood is to get on the A-list. Because if you're on the A-list, you get invited to all the A-list parties. You don't want to be on the B-list or the C-list or like some of us, the Z-list. Okay? Because you really want to be, because the A-list are the best parties after the Oscars and stuff like that. Well, let me tell you something. …
… Hebrews so manifestly exalts Jesus. And in this final chapel, we come to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 18 to 24. And in it, we have the final use of the word better. Kraton. Verse 24. Jesus' sprinkled blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So what word did Abel's blood speak? Well, in Genesis 4, God comes to Cain and says, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are accursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. so I take it that Abel's blood cries out for justice for righteous retribution for a curse on the one who murdered him and Jesus blood Hebrew says speaks a better word not curse but blessing not condemnation but sanctification not justice but divine mercy before getting into the rest of the passage uh it's an important reminder about the repeated line of comparison in the epistle to the hebrews that it's not bad versus good but it's good and then better. …
we're going to come into his presence now. This blazing fire. And when he spoke, the people back then is like, please don't speak anymore. I can't take this voice. And I'm literally going to speak to him right now. Would you come with me into his presence? Oh God, are you kidding me? That we are in your presence right now, speaking to you because your word says we can come with confidence through the blood of Jesus. as millions of angels are just celebrating you right now. And you, this blazing fire, our judge, our savior. And God, all we are asking for is you. Can we have more of you? Would you open our eyes to who you are? God, may we truly experience you. by the power of your Holy Spirit, please, please, please make something real happen. for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. I want to read a couple verses that I think are very important for you to understand, very important to this generation. …
"The general assembly and Church of the First-Born, which are written in Heaven." Hebrews 12:23. 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 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 exceedingly fear and quake." Paul intends that description to teach us the effect that the legal dispensation can produce—it can alarm and condemn—but it cannot save! You who are under the Law of God, you who are trying to win God's favor by your good works. You who fancy 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 lightning blazes before your eyes and whose voice of thunder must alarm the most stout heart! Terrible is the plight of the man who has to depend upon what Sinai can give him—he is wretched in life, he shall be troubled in death, he shall be lost forever 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 are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." …
1. Let it be considered that the church on earth is the same society with those saints who are praising God in heaven. There is not one church of Christ in heaven, and another here upon earth. Though the one be sometimes called the church triumphant, and the other the church militant, yet they are not indeed two churches. By the church triumphant, is meant the triumphant part of the church; and by the church militant, the militant part of it: for there is but one universal or catholic church. Cant. vi. 9. “My dove, my undefiled, is but one.” Christ has not two mystical bodies. 1 Cor. xii. 12. “The body is one, and hath many members.” The glorious assembly and the saints on earth make but one family. Eph. lii. 15. “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” Though some are in heaven, and some on earth, in very different circumstances, yet they are all united: for there is but one body, and one spirit, and one Lord Jesus Christ. One. God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, find in all. God hath in Christ united the inhabitants of heaven, and the holy inhabitants of this earth, and hath made them one. Eph. i. 10. “That in the dispensation of the fulness of time, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him.” Heaven is at a great distance from the earth: it is called a far country. Matt. xxv. 14. Yet the distance of place does not separate them so as to make two societies. For though the saints on earth, at present, are at a distance from heaven, yet they belong there; that is their proper home. The saints that are in this world are strangers here; and therefore the apostle reproved the Christians in his day, for acting as though they belonged to this world. Col. ii. 20. “Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” …
But the practice of wicked men is very inconsistent with such a hope, it is very displeasing to that God, and that glorious Redeemer, with whom they hope to spend their eternity in heaven. Though they live wickedly, yet they hope in a little time to go to be with an infinitely holy God, to be received by him with perfect approbation and delight, to be near to him, and to dwell in the courts of his love. They hope to enter into that same holy of holies, into which Christ the forerunner of saints has entered, and there to dwell, there to be as a pillar in the temple of God, to go no more out. Yea, they hope there to sit in that heavenly holy of holies, to be admitted to a higher privilege than the high priests were of old in the earthly holy of holies, who were admitted only to appear in the holy of holies once a year. What holiness was expected of the high priests of old who were admitted to this privilege! What holiness then may well be expected of those who hope to be admitted to a so much greater privilege! Their wicked life is very unsuitable to that state of heaven. Those who are in heaven are all perfectly holy, and so must they become if ever they go to heaven; they will perfectly hate all wickedness, and perfectly delight in the contrary. How disagreeable therefore is the hope of spending eternity in such a heaven, to their wallowing like swine in the filth and mire of sin, and feeding with such eagerness and delight on the loathsome objects of their lusts, as worms feed with pleasure on the loathsome carcass! …
1. Christians are a distinct nation. First, The saints are all of the same native country. Heaven is the native country of the church. They are born from above; their Father, of whom they are begotten, is in heaven. The principles that govern their hearts are drawn from heaven, since the Holy Ghost, whose immediate fruits those principles are, is from heaven. The word of God, which is the seed by which they are begotten, is from heaven. The Bible is a book, as it were, sent down from heaven. The saints in this world are not in their native country, but are pilgrims and strangers on the earth, they are near akin to the inhabitants of the heavenly world, and are properly of that society. Heb. xii. 22, 23. “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Heaven is a country that much better suits their natures than this earth, because it is their native climate. When they are in heaven, they breathe their native air; in heaven is their inheritance. Heaven is the proper country of the church, where the greater part of the church is, and where they all will be, and where is their settled abode; from thence all that are now upon earth are derived, and thither they will return again. Though they are for a little while dwelling at a distance from their native country, yet they are of the same nation with those who now dwell there. …
This is the design, of Christ, I say, implied in the institution of the baptismal rite. Whether He will be merciful, over and above His promise, to those who through ignorance do not comply with this design, or are in other respects irregular in their obedience, is a further question, foreign to our purpose. Still it remains the revealed design of Christ to connect all His followers in one by a visible ordinance of incorporation. The Gospel faith has not been left to the world at large, recorded indeed in the Bible, but there left, like other important truths, to be taken up by men or rejected, as it may happen. Truths, indeed, in science and the arts have been thus left to the chance adoption or neglect of mankind; they are no one's property; cast at random upon the waves of human opinion. In any country soever, men may appropriate them at once, and form themselves at their will into a society for their extension. But for the more momentous truths of revealed religion, the God, who wrought by human means in their first introduction, still preserves them by the same. Christ formed a body. He secured that body from dissolution by the bond of a Sacrament. He committed the privileges of His spiritual kingdom and the maintenance of His faith as a legacy to this baptized society; and into it, as a matter of historical fact, all the nations have flowed. Christianity has not been spread, as other systems, in an isolated manner, or by books; but from a centre, by regularly formed bodies, descendants of the three thousand, who, after St. Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, joined themselves to the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. …
It is the feast of the universe. There never was such another and there never can be its like! It is the antepast of the great Supper of the Lamb. What provisions are put upon the table! Men do eat angels' food when they come here. Yes, they eat viands better than the bread of angels, for the body of Christ has become the meat and the drink of His mourners. Poor Souls, you feast upon Incarnate Deity! Speak of oxen and of fatlings? These are poor types compared with the wondrous provision of celestial Grace with which the Infinite Jehovah has loaded the table of the Covenant! And all these things are yours. You may have as much as you will. There remains no need to eat bread by weight, or to drink water by measure—He will satiate your soul with fatness and nothing shall be withheld from you! Ought you not to bless Him that you are now a guest at such a table and that such food is at this very moment spread before you? Think of your fellow guests. Look around you and inspect the company. Remember where you were a little while ago—you were strangers and foreigners, yes, you were as dogs in the street! Where are you now? You are permitted to sit with the children of God, with the saints of the Most High! Does it not bring the water into your eyes to think that you—you who long refused to come and despised the feast of Grace—are, at last, brought in? No, not only are you sitting here at the feast of love with God's people, but the saints above are your comrades—for "you are come to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." We sup with the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of martyrs and the holy Church throughout all the world! Now, also, have we fellowship with angels. We have come unto Mount Zion and to an innumerable company of angels. Better still, we have fellowship with Jesus. "Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant," is the center of the whole! It is His wedding feast and we are glorifying Him by partaking of His Father's bounty. We cannot at this moment actually put our heads upon Jesus' bosom as John did, nor need we wish for that visible and physical delight, but our heart rests upon His breast and enjoys an unspeakable bliss in so doing! Jesus, Immanuel, we are safe in Your arms, and our heart is at perfect rest in You! We are even now abiding in You, while at Your Passover we keep the feast. We are feasting with the great Father, Himself, for, Beloved, when the glorious Sacrifice becomes a meat offering, God Himself delights therein and partakes with us in the satisfaction made by His Son! Oh, the satisfaction which God the Father finds in Jesus! It is a theme upon which we dare not attempt to speak, …