Serve with Reverence and Godly Fear

I'm asking you to turn with me first of all in Hebrews chapter 12. Now you look, I hope my message is not as scattered as these notes are, but somehow they couldn't seem to come together any better than that. So I may be slightly disjointed, not unusual, but maybe it'll make some sense in the end.

And I hope I don't follow the advanced advice. My brother Al said I could speak an hour, but I don't think I will. Hebrews chapter 12.

Begin from verse 18. Hebrews 12 and verse 18. I believe we're coming to the climax of the epistle to the Hebrews.

He's coming to the end of the latter part of that following this in chapter 13 or miscellaneous exhortations are no doubt based upon what he's been dealing with. Well, this is the point he's coming to especially. He says, for you're not come out of the mouth that might be touched and the burned with fire, nor the darkness and blackness of tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

Well, they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.

But you're coming to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, a general assembly and a church of the firstborn, firstborn ones, which 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 speaketh better things than that of Abel. See then that you refuse not him that speaketh.

For if they escaped not who refused him to speak on earth, much more shall not we escape that we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he is promising yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifyeth the removing of those things that are shaken as the things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, not to be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may serve God. We may worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. I'm going to read back in Leviticus chapter, I'm sorry, Exodus chapter 38.

Let me get this straight. Exodus chapter 19 first. We're reading about what took place in this chapter when you read the portion in Hebrews chapter 12.

You find the Lord recounting what he has done. He has brought the people of Israel to himself under the eagle's wings. In verse five he says, Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. Let me read down verse nine. The Lord said unto Moses, Behold, lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear what I speak with thee and believe thee forever.

And Moses told the words of the people unto the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes and be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will come down to the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.

And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about. Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, nor touch the border of it. Let's go over to Leviticus chapter 10.

I have a number of references. I'll quickly read with you. Leviticus chapter 10.

Let's read from verse one. And Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took either of them a censer and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And they went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

And Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. Go over to Psalm 89. Look at the Psalms 89.

This is a psalm for instruction, as they all are for us. Psalm 89 verse 7. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness round about thee? And he goes on to speak about the greatness and the marvel of God.

Verse 14. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne, mercy and truth shall go before thy face, lest it is a people that know the joyful sound. I'll skip over to one more scripture to read in Malachi chapter 1. Malachi chapter 1 verse 6. A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master.

If then I be a father, where is mine honor? If I be a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise, or they slight, the word is they slight it, they neglect it, they count it of little merit, they despise my name. And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread, or sacrifices upon mine altar. And ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? And then we say, ye say, the temple of the Lord is contemptible.

It's too low, too low, too unimportant for us to be concerned about it, not very valuable. And so far as they were concerned, the table of the Lord is contemptible. If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor.

Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? Saith the Lord of hosts. More could be read, but we'll stop there. I just want to touch on this expression that's been heavy upon my heart lately, and I want to do it without picking a bone, and without being critical.

I want to do it by way of concern, and to seek to encourage us to maintain reverence and godly fear. I'm getting to the point where I can say, back in the old days, to tell now that you and I are getting to that point where we can talk about when we were young. I don't want to do that.

But it's not hard for older ones of us, and I'm not that old as some here are. We can see there's a deterioration in the expressions of reverence in the gatherings of the saints. And what concerns me very much is the fact that, you know, these tendencies can develop and continue, can't they? Once we go in a certain direction, it accelerates and it moves along the same pathway.

The word reverence is really a word that's only found one other time in the New Testament. It's the word for shamefacedness, having to do with the attire and the adornment of sisters in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 9. It's a word that carries the idea of modesty. It has to do with bashfulness and perhaps basically a guarded respect, a guarded care about how I'm going to conduct myself and how I'm going to express myself before others.

So he says we have reverence and godly fear. Godly fear, of course, is the idea very simply of a reverential attitude. The fear of the Lord is the theme of the Old Testament, and it's a fear really of offending another person.

It's a concern that I might do what is right in such a way that it might not be offensive to the person that I'm identified with. I would take it that these two expressions go together. It seems to be in a way that reverence is an outward display of the inward attitude of godly fear.

You may argue with that a little bit, but nevertheless, reverence is an outward expression of how I'm going to conduct myself before others in order to express the fact that I have a reverential attitude toward the person that I'm identified with and I'm gathering unto. And he's, in this whole context, it's a very solid passage. Obviously so when you look at what he's writing about the Old Testament.

He's telling them about the time when Israel came as a nation born on the eagle's wings as God could say. Merciful God in all of his power who had brought them to himself and brought them there to be a kingdom of priests, a kingdom of those who were capable of approaching unto him and offering praise and worship and that's what he longed to have from them. That's what you and I are really.

First Peter chapter 2 tells us that. Our brother's already been mentioned in that. We are holy priests.

We are capable of drawing near to God and offering spiritual sacrifices of various kinds that he desires to accept from us of various various expressions of course. And so we are also corresponding that way as a royal priesthood as well. We go out to represent the Lord Jesus before this world in our testimony, in our life, our behavior, our conduct, and our verbal expressions of what we know and what we believe.

Reverence and godly fear. You'd almost think that this is Old Testament language, wouldn't you? You'd almost think this is something you would find back in Leviticus. Well you do find it in Deuteronomy.

It is found there. But it's here in Hebrews. It's in the New Testament.

You know sometimes I think Christians think that there's two gods. A God in the Old Testament with all the laws and the legal requirements and all the righteousness and the judgments and all the rest of it. But there's a different kind of God in the New Testament.

He's just a God of grace, a God of love and kindness. You know he just accepts anything that goes. I don't believe that.

That's not what this verse tells me. You know sadly man's attempt to worship in the very beginning began with a man that thought he could bring God what seemed right to him and God rejected it. It wasn't what God expected.

I mean the things that came produced they were probably very attractive. They were the result of his work. He had labored hard to make it possible.

Here he presents it perhaps a great quantity and God didn't accept it. A man has been trying to do that ever since. That's what you have in Malachi.

The people to that day their sense of the presence of God and their reverence for God and what it meant to approach him to God had degenerated to such a point that they thought that they could bring God anything. Even what they would not bring to the governor. You got to have one of these morals.

And so you find that throughout the Old Testament this is what concerns me especially in any day among any people there's always a tendency to degenerate religiously and spiritually. So in this chapter the writer here is reminding them that in the culmination of what he's been bringing to them concerning the sacredness of all that pertains to the Lord Jesus, the superiority, the supremacy of his high priestly work, the real genuine privilege it is that has made it possible for you and me to draw near and to enjoy fellowship with him. In fact in chapter 13 he says we are able to do something that the priests of the tabernacle and the temple couldn't do.

We're able to enjoy the fellowship of God in a unique way far different than what they can. They can't feast on this. They can't enjoy all these things.

We have the fullness of it. We have the ultimate result of it. And it was all purchased by a tremendous price, the price of the Savior's blood.

But he tells us here in this passage that we are coming to something that is very precious. We have been brought as believers unto a high ground. We've come to the Mount Zion.

Well you say what's the difference between Mount Zion and the temple that was in Jerusalem? Because Mount Zion is really Jerusalem, isn't it? Basically the same thing but has a different thought altogether. One was a physical aspect of what they were carried on in the Old Testament. The other was a reality of the presence of God, the place of God.

He says as believers you and I have been brought in to enjoy this place, a heavenly Jerusalem, a place that is far greater and far superior and far more valuable and precious than what they ever had. He says it's different. It's not that we have to come with the kind of fear that they had.

Those people came and they were coming to a place that terrified them. They were like Jacob when he first encountered God in the vision in Genesis chapter 28. How terrible is this place? But you and I have been brought to something far better.

We've been brought to the city of the living God. He says that this place where we've been brought into fellowship with God's people in such a unique way and he brings in all these privileges, all the blessings that we have and all the results of the work of Christ that we just revel in and we appreciate to the depths of our heart. He says listen, don't refuse him that speaketh.

Because being brought into privilege does not mean that there are not responsibilities. He's coming back to the theme of chapter 2, isn't he? How shall we escape? In other words, he's saying there are definite requirements that are imposed upon anyone when it comes to being brought near to God's presence. You can't just do whatever you please.

You can't respond as you desire. There are certain requirements. And so he says that these people back in the Old Testament, I'm equating this with what happened in Exodus chapter 19.

They were a kingdom of priests. Now, if you read in chapter 19 with me again, you don't have to look at it directly, but the Lord tells them, first of all, you're going to have a meeting with God. First of all, sanctify yourself.

That is, deliver yourself from anything that is contrary to God's presence. Set yourself apart in a very unique way. This is no common thing to have a meeting with God.

This is no simply everyday adventure, a matter that you can just do whatever you want to and come into your normal character and under your normal conditions. He says, sanctify yourself. In other words, there had to be preparation of hearts.

There needed to be preparation of their souls and spirits. There needed to be preparation of their personal lives and cleansing. And not only that, he says, not only sanctify yourself, but wash your garments.

And garments, of course, speak of outward righteousness. And all that would be seen in their character or their life, he says, you cleanse yourself. There were requirements if they were going to meet with God.

And then he says not only that, he says, there are bounds set around the mount. They had to be a distance away. There was separation.

But the fact is that the Lord is making it very clear to them that you can't treat this place where the Lord's presence is known as just a common ground where you do whatever you want to. It's not part of your own normal life. It's set apart.

It's something distinct. It's precious. It's superior to everything else.

So you can't just make it your own common property. So be careful. There have to be bounds.

And then he says not only that, but they were so impressed when God made himself known with the awesomeness of the tremendous reality that they were dealing with a God that was real, who was very genuine, powerful, and able to express himself in ways that would make great impressions upon their hearts. You know, reverence is really a sense of the awesomeness and the greatness of God. You know, some of us are old enough to remember Mr. Maxwell.

I talk about the old days. But when I was young, I listened to Mr. Maxwell a lot. Sidney Maxwell, a wonderful man.

You remember, he used to say, when you cease to wonder, you cease to worship. And I wonder sometimes, brethren, in thinking about this, have we ceased to wonder of the awesomeness that when we come together as God's people, we're coming into the presence of a holy, righteous God. The entirety of the Old Testament, with reverence to God, was the desire of God to impress upon these people the uniqueness of their relationship with a God who was so holy, a God that had to deal with sin, a God whose requirements were far higher than that of meeting a great person in this world.

They were having meetings with a living, true, genuine God. The Word of God says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 that the local assembly is church of living God. These people had come out of Egypt, and you know that every plague that was brought upon the land of Egypt was a judgment upon one of their gods.

You know what those gods were associated with? Filth and dirt, flies, gnats, and things of that nature, diseases. No, he says, you just leave those gods behind. You don't think about going back there.

You've been brought into the presence of a living God that is far different, far more supreme, far more sublime than they ever were. He says, that's what I want you to focus your attention on. And be occupied with.

And so he says to us, let us serve God with reverence and Godly fear. This word serve is found four times, this particular Greek word is found four times in the book of Hebrews. It's a book that has, it's a word that has to do with religious service.

It's priestly service. It's the idea of serving as priests. That's what corresponds with what we've read about as a kingdom of priests.

And again I'm following up with the subject our brother had, and that is the fact that you and I have priestly privileges. You know, the priests of the Old Testament had very stringent requirements. We don't go to them.

I'm not trying to re-emphasize them and give legalistic rules and things of that nature. I'm not, that's not my point. But he says that his desire is that we might have grace, so that we might religiously serve with reverence and godly fear.

When you look in the Old Testament, I want to trace it just a little bit in the Old Testament. Because in the entire Bible, there's an emphasis on the fact that when it comes to our relationship with God in this priestly way, it's not a matter of our just a familiarity, a commonplace kind of thing. It needs to be held in high esteem.

It needs to fill our hearts with a great anticipation whenever we come to meet with the Lord in assembly capacity especially. This is an act of a priest going in to worship before God. And you think about the entire Bible that seems to emphasize that as already said.

But in the tabernacle, when you look at the tabernacle, it was so constructed as to impress the people that this area where God's presence was known in the midst of the camp, it was set apart from the rest of the camp. There was a distance between the tents of the Israelites and the tabernacle. Because God was going to impress upon them by the white courtyard that was erected, that there must be a proper means of approach.

It could not be on their own ground. It could not be they just pressed right up against it as if it was just a part of their own common dwellings. So he said this is special.

This is unique. This has to be treated in a different way altogether. And so God was emphasizing that and making it very clear that there were standards by which they would approach.

Different ways in which they could come that God had prepared and God had ordained for them. And there were limits as to how far they could go. When you look at the, when you come into Isaiah chapter 6, you find that in the presence of God there was a seraphim.

The seraphim cried, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. They covered their face with two of their wings. They covered the feet with two of their wings.

And two of the wings they flew. Because in the presence of God they were so impressed with the holiness of God, they dared not look upon him. And their feet were even contaminated by their activities in the service of God.

And here they are coming to the presence of God and they're serving him in all their holiness and holy character. And they're impressed with the fact this is a different place. It's a holy place.

And it's in the midst of a temple of course that you see physically that it was contaminated. You find the lack of reverence when you think of the time when David, you remember, he was bringing the ark back to Jerusalem. They brought it out on the land of the Philistines and it was recovered from the Beth Shemesh.

First of all, you notice the lack of reverence on the part of those men of Beth Shemesh. He opened the lid of the ark. That was a disaster.

Because when they opened the lid of the ark, they were handling the place where God dwelt in the midst of his people. He dwelt between the cherubim. And they were handling that in a careless way that was not allowed to them.

Nobody was ever allowed to open the ark. And they removed the mercy seat and therefore they were exposed to the judgment of the broken law. They showed a lack of reverence.

And you find there of course when Uzzah put his hand out and started the ark on that cart. He had a good motive but his action was wrong. He should never have touched the ark.

Those are all examples of the Old Testament of those who fail to realize the importance of reverence when it comes to handling divine things. You come to those in Malachi's day and the conditions among God's people in the Old Testament have degenerated so drastically. Sadly, even the temple in that day there was not even an ark.

But they were bringing their offerings. They were bringing their sacrifices. And what was happening? They were bringing what they would never present to the governor.

A lack of reverence. A lack of respect. They're failing to realize that God demands the best.

He must have the best. He deserves the best. And the best that we can give him is not good enough.

No matter how hard we try. But it's what we should do. So we come down to our day brethren and I ask you, is there a lack of reverence among us? I'm not going to tell you how to dress when you come to meetings.

I'm not going to lay down laws. I don't have the authority to do that anyway. But I can say this, we need to ask ourselves, am I showing reverence? And how can I show reverence? Because reverence is not an inward attitude only.

Reverence is an outward display of a reverential fear and an attitude that recognize the greatness of God I wonder sometimes, and I ask myself this personally, I really do, when I consider coming to a meeting of the assembly, do I really understand that I'm coming to meet with God? I'm coming to have a meeting with an unseen person. And I'd ask my brethren kindly, if the Lord Jesus were actually physically present when we come together, how would you dress? I'm not going to tell you how to dress. But I'll tell you, if it were me, I would want to dress the very best I could.

Sometimes we illustrate it by thinking about meeting with some great person in this world. Listen, we're coming to meet with somebody that's far greater than the greatest person in this world. But we forget that.

And the problem is, we can lapse into a condition where we're just going to church. I'm one of those that's convinced that life is like a pathway. And you take one step, it's going to lead to another.

And so I ask my dear brothers and sisters, if we're taking a certain pathway and going a certain direction, what's the next step? How can I show reverence? I believe we can show reverence, first of all, by doing our very best to prepare our hearts spiritually before we come. You know, sometimes I feel I've done it myself. You just pick up and go.

Never thought ahead of time. We come to the meeting and there's no exercise beforehand. That's not reverence.

And different ways in which we should ask ourselves, are we showing reverence for the presence of God? I've been in some assemblies, and I won't identify them, but sitting before the Lord's Supper, the believer was just talking, just gossiping. What about the other? Right up until the time the first day was given out. All of a sudden, you switch gears, and now you're in your worship attitude.

And somehow you made a change there. I can't make that change that quickly. I'm sorry.

It's just the role of sitting a little bit in quietness and preparing our hearts and souls. I'm here to worship God. I'm here to remember the Lord, because that's the purpose.

I wonder sometimes if we show reverence. Are we showing reverence if we play or texting on our cell phones during the meeting? I'll ask you that question. You can answer it yourself.

Are we doing other things that really indicate, I don't remember, I don't realize where I am? No, listen. The assembly is to be a place of reverence. It's a place of spiritual exercise.

And I just encourage my brothers and sisters to ask yourself, is there any way that I can truly, genuinely display the fact I am coming, and I have a reverential fear, the solemnity of coming to meet the Lord and to be with Him. I won't tell you who it is that said this, but I could tell you who told me it, but I won't tell you. But there's a sister that I know who was told by her family that she could easily go to church just by going around the next door, practically.

And she told them, this is a woman that hasn't been to the assembly very long. She said, I don't go that distance to go to church. I go there to meet the Lord.

And I wonder, dear brother, are we forgetting that's why we come together. And is it reverence? Is it really reverential? If it comes to a meeting night and you say, well, I'm a little tired tonight. I think I'll stay home.

I can watch it on Zoom anyway. Why should I have to go? I could just lollygag on the couch, you know, and I'm going to meet Him. I don't think so.

Because if the things of God are not first in our hearts and minds, are we really showing reverence and godly fear? I'll leave it with you. Are the ways, you should ask yourself very simply, are the ways in which I can maintain and even lift up the reverential attitude and condition of the assembly? Or am I going downhill? Which direction are we going? I really believe that God established local assemblies, brethren, as we've been hearing already so well from our brethren, as places where His Word can be truly carried out. And in truth, that in a world that has rejected the Lord Jesus and rejected the authority of Christ and has no interest in genuinely obeying His Word, that there could be a gathering of people whose ultimate desire is we want to honor the Lord.

We want to do what is right for Him. We want to carry out His Word. We want to maintain what is the evidence of the fact that we love Him and we desire what is for the glory of our Lord Jesus.

Listen, brethren, one day we're going to be in His presence. Sometimes I wish it were today. I honestly do.

May the Lord preserve us in our day. May God help us not to become like the people around us, like the churches. The Israelites desired a king so they could be like the other nations.

It's always a tendency. And I say to younger people today, why is the great privilege of being in the assembly? Recognize the value of it, the importance of it, the preciousness of it, and what it really means to the Lord Himself. And may we come to the meetings of God's people with a desire to be conscious of His presence and do everything to express a deep reverential attitude of the Lord Jesus.

Amen.