"The Holiest of ALL" part CXIX

NOT SINAI, BUT ZION.
Hebrews 12:18 - 21   For you are not come to a mount that might 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; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken to them: For they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, It shall be stoned; And so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.

Continuing in The SECOND HALF- PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10:19 - 13:25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.

Now in the FIFTH WARNING
Hebrews 12:14 - 29
To beware of Sin and rejection of Jesus.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

In confirmation of the call to follow after Sanctification, and the Warning against falling short of the Grace of God, or despising the birthright blessing, we are now reminded of what our true position is as believers, and what the fulness of Blessing of which we have been made partakers. This is set before us first by way of contrast: We are not come to Mount Sinai (18-21) the place and state of the Hebrews at the giving of the Law. Then we are told (22-24) what the wonderful Life is to which we now have access: We are come to Mount Zion. It is only by way of the Living Faith that realizes our true position and privileges, that will nerve fail us in the spiritual pursuit of Holiness, and keep us from falling short. For we are now walking by His faith and not dependent on our sight.

Our whole Epistle has taught us that all God's dealing with man is founded on the principle of two dispensations---the one of preparation and promise, of weakness and failure in the material realm; the other of Fulfillment and Perfection, of Life and power, of promise the power of the Endless Life only found and experienced in the spiritual realm. The Epistle has taught us, too, that though we now have our place in the promised New dispensation, we, just as the Hebrews, may be living in the old, through ignorance and unbelief, experiencing nothing of the power and the Life of the Better Covenant. As a consequence, all the weaknesses and sin of the Hebrews of old still continues in the Christian and their churches; they know not what the Eternal Redemption is, and cannot live in it. We have the difference between these two dispensations in the suggestive words: You are not come to a mount that might be touched: You are come to Mount Zion. Which things contain an allegory or metaphor: for these are two covenants; one from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, and answers to the Jerusalem that now is, the material world and the external priesthood copied after that of Aaron's order, which failed. But the spiritual mount Zion and Jerusalem that is above is Free, which is our mother, but it to remains veiled (Galatians 4: 22-26, emphasis added). The whole secret of the Christ- Like life lies in the right apprehension of the difference between the two systems, the one with the spirit of bondage and fear (fear of sin and death), the other with its boldness and liberty, Newness of Life in the spiritual realm.

You are not come to the mount that might be touched, ( "The apostle reminds us of seven things in connection with the giving of the Law (1) The mount touched by God; (2) Fire; (3) Blackness of cloud; (4) Darkness; (5) Thunder; (6) The sound of a trumpet; (7) The voice of God." SAPHIR. Notice in the next passage the sevenfold glory of Mount Sinai.) with its fear and terror, with its command not to draw near under pain of death, and its words which only made them that heard entreat that no word more should be spoken to them, with the mediator of the covenant himself (Moses) saying, I exceedingly fear and quake. All this is a symbol or metaphor of what the Law does; it works wrath and fear and death. It comes with demands we cannot fulfill; with its threats it rouses to effort and performance or proof of self-efforts, works, but gives neither the Love of God's Will nor the power to do it. It only discovers and condemns sin; the sense of self-reproach and self-condemnation is all it can bring to anyone who chooses to remain under it. Read Romans 7 and see there, where the Law alone, and not the Spirit, is mentioned, the impotence and the wretchedness which it reveals. Read Romans 8 and see there what the Liberty and the Peace, the Life and the Love, the Joy and the Strength is which comes with the Spirit of Life that is only found in Christ Jesus.

You are not come to the mount that might be touched. Why should it be necessary to tell the Christian this? If Sinai is so terrible, who could wish to live there? Who would not gladly accept the first message that God calls him away from there? Strange to say, the awakened soul is ever in danger of thinking that there is no way to pacify Sinai but by fulfilling its demands. God's Grace is so wonderful, the Way in which He has met the claims of Sinai is so Divine and beyond man's comprehension, that the human heart, when it begins to seek Salvation after receiving redemption, ever does so in the way of effort (wrong, not knowing and misguided). And even after we have believed in Jesus, we are always inclined to look to what we can do to satisfy the demands of God (again because of not knowing or having the  Spirit of Truth or not listening to Him emphasis added in both). We know not that in calling us away from Sinai to Mount Zion (not a physical mountain but rather spiritual), God not only gives us a free and full pardon for sin, but the Law NOW written in the heart, the power for a New Obedience by the Holy Spirit, and the fitness for entering into His presence, and dwelling in unbroken intimacy and fellowship with Him.

You are not come to Mount Sinai. This is just the word every Christian needs who is in danger of being discouraged and fainting in the race ( All of those misguided souls who have been sold a bill of goods and are in err in following another god or gods. emphasis added). You are not under the Levitical Law. Your complaints that when you would do good, evil is present with you, prove that you are still under that Law ( of works such as tithing seeking to buy your way into the the Blessing of God not knowing what that True Blessing is. emphasis added), trying to fulfill it. It is all in vain. You must ask and seek for the Holy Spirit's teaching, to show you how entirely you are taken from under the shadow of Sinai, and placed on spiritual Mount Zion. Oh, try to understand what God is speaking to you in His Son. Christ is to be your Life. In the Authority and power of an Endless Life He is your High Priest, He brings you near to God; He is your Covenant Mediator, putting in Divine spiritual Reality the Law into your inmost parts; your High Priest-King, sending from His Throne the True Blessing the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself as the Law of your life. You are not come to Mount Sinai; its fear and terror are exchanged for trusting in Living Faith and Trust Come and live by faith, and Christ Will be your spiritual Life.

1. In studying the meaning of a word or Truth, It Is often most helpful in cases where we are In danger of confounding, owing to apparent resemblances, things that differ, to find out what It is not. There Is so much in Salvation by the law that looks like True Salvation, that many are all their life led astray. It is, therefore, of infinite consequence to know well what this means: You are not come to. The place to which Christ brings you to, not in the least Mount Sinai. Say now, I have nothing to do with Mount Sinai.
2. Mount Sinai means, as man takes it, life by self-effort and works, by our own goodness, God helping us; by a religion of self, with God's Grace to fill out what self cannot do. Mount Sinai, as God means it, Is sin and wrath and condemnation: the death and the end of self, to prepare the Way for Christ. Mount Sinai points away to Mount Zion and to Christ. There He does all in us and for us.