Focal Point

Guest (Male): Today on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: We need a high view of God. He is the ultimate authority. And when God speaks, he's not Dr. Phil or Oprah or Dr. Laura. He's not giving you an opinion. When he speaks, see, he speaks as the absolute authority. He is your creator. He is the judge of the world. And he is, if you want to give him some kind of imagery here, he is a consuming fire.

Guest (Male): Picture God in your mind. What shows up? Maybe a grandfather or a good buddy upstairs? It's easy to skip past what the Bible says about his character and shrink God down to our own reflection.

Today on Focal Point, Pastor Mike Fabarez calls us toward a bigger view of God, because knowing him changes how we live to please him.

And for first-time listeners, Pastor Mike's got a booklet called Battling Sin. Reach out at focalpointradio.org and we'll send you a free copy.

Now here's Pastor Mike with today's message, Seeing Obedience as an Act of Worship.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: If you've been around Compass Bible Church, you've likely seen our eight core values plastered around all over the place on our bulletin, our website. They're everywhere. We sometimes call them our eight distinctives.

And most of those distinctives are pretty cogent, pretty clear, pretty simple, pretty forthright. But number three seems to cause people to pause and kind of wonder what we mean by that. Distinctive number three states our resolve to always try to maintain a high view of God. And that one's sometimes hard to articulate to friends and what exactly do you mean by that. And it's just hard to unpack.

It's just that the concept that it represents is really difficult to put into one simple phrase. Now a high view of God is clearly set in contrast to a low view of God, which often is easier to identify. Low view of God, we see all the time, we great against it almost intuitively when people speak of our Creator as the man upstairs. You know, or even the Mike Copilot.

You know, when we, when we see God expressed in those terms, we intuitively great against that. And we think, well, that's not right. You know, that, that stands in stark contrast to what we find in the scriptures. As a matter of fact, any prolonged exposure to the content of the Bible will lead us to dismiss these caricatures of deity and start to retool and redefine what we mean when we talk about God. Consider the words of Solomon.

After building the most ornate and expensive building on Earth for worship, after he was done, he stood there and he said, but come on, you know, is God really going to hang out here? He said, even Heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain you, much less this, this temple that I built for, for you.

I mean, he understood. After spending the major work of his life, poured all of his money into this and he said, you know, come on, God, you know, God's not going to hang out here. That stands in start contrast to a culture that likes to think that God can easily fit in their back pocket. I mean, that's really where we're living. People have the tendency, the propensity to want to bring God down to a level that's much more, much more comfortable. And that, of course, is not what we find in the scripture.

And if we don't understand God biblically, if God becomes this, this, this buddy, this friend, this guy upstairs, this grandpa, we will never get the Christian life right. Which is why we find and it makes sense that the writer of Hebrews would bring us to the last part of this chapter and say to us, you know, it's a lot has to do with how you view God. The end of chapter 12 has been dealing with this, this topic that was brought up and it started with this verse that we need to throw off every encumbrance and every, every sin that so easily entangles us.

We need to get rid of that. We need to fight this battle with sin. And we've all got our, our things that we trip up in and in the, the transgressions that we, that we fall into. And he says, you got to get, you got to fix that. You've got to fight to be a godly person. You've got to fight temptation. Grace does not relinquish the responsibility of being a godly person. As a matter of fact, it instructs us to be a godly person.

To be sanctified, to be more like Christ. Well, it ends with this statement, if you turn there in Hebrews chapter 12, he brings us to a perspective that is kind of retooling our view of God. He takes our view of God to the heights if you will. He, he brings our perception of God and reminds us who we're dealing with here.

Notice where this goes now in verse 25. He says, see to it that you don't refuse him who speaks. Which by the way is how the book of Hebrews started, wasn't it? God has spoken through the prophets in many portions, many ways. But now in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son. His son is the, is the mouthpiece. His apostles explained him. The Word of God, the New Covenant tells us how to live. Not only to trust him and repent of sin, but how we are to conduct our lives. And he says, don't refuse that.

And he said, now he makes the comparison again. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, and the context, just glance back up at it, was the Mount Sinai giving of the law. When Moses got the law and the people said, wow, this is kind of a dreadful sight. This is, this is amazing. This is, this is scary. This is forboding. This puts me at a distance with God. There's caution, yellow tape all around this thing.

He says, you know, if, if they couldn't disregard the Word of God in the Old Covenant, if they couldn't escape the punishment of that, he says, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from Heaven? Now that's a major statement, because a lot of us thinks it's a lot more casual in the New Testament. And there's a lot less, you know, a forboading feeling of oh, I'd better get this right.

The Old Testament, that was the Old Testament. And he says, just the opposite here. No, no, no, now in the New Covenant, the ante hasn't gone down. The ante has gone up. Now all of a sudden, it is a bigger deal if you disregard the words of him who speaks. He says, we're not going to escape. If they didn't escape, the argument from lesser to greater, and then he gives the example in verse 26.

There was a shaking of the earth when the law came down and God said, here, do this. He said, at that time, he shook the earth. But now he has promised, and he's quoting Haggai chapter two, that old, the little minor prophet in the Old Testament, who looked forward to a time of, of judgment on the world. And he says, he quotes it saying, and once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.

Even that, think about that for a second. The greatest judgment of God has yet to come. I mean, we have to think of God as the angry guy in the Old Testament. Right? I mean, he's the guy who flooded the world. He's the guy who, who judged everybody. He had Israelites march into those Canaanites and and kill them all. Wow, he was uptight then, really took sin seriously. I'm glad we have Christ now, because, you know, it's not as big of a deal.

He's reserved the greatest judgment for the future. It hasn't even happened yet. I mean, you think the flood was a big deal. According to this passage, he's going to, he's going to shake not only the Earth, but the heavens as well. And he describes what that means, verse 27. The words once more, indicating the removing of what can be shaken. Shaken is just an analogy. Right? It's not about earthquakes here.

He says, when God talks about shaking the heavens and the Earth, he's talking about that time of judgment, which Peter says, and we've read this a few times in this series, in Second Peter chapter three, it means he's going to reserve this place for his ultimate judgment. He's going to say, sin has to be judged. And my patience now is over with mankind. And the Bible says, it's going to be removed. Everything that can be shaken, that is, verse 27.

He's talking about created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. And there's not a lot of things that can't be shaken. As Paul put it, the temporal things we see, but it's the things we can't see that are eternal. The mediation of Christ, my relationship with God, my commitment to follow him, the kinds of things that he summarizes now in verse number 28 as his kingdom.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, we've got this relationship with God. We're in his family, adopted into his family now. That can't change. And since we are safe in that, quote, unquote, ark, right? He says, now, we should be thankful. Let us be thankful. And let us so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. And then he blows our mind with this quotation from Deuteronomy 4.

For our God is a loving teddy bear. Underline that. Do you see that there? What does it say? Our God is a, oh, man. I thought that was Old Testament stuff. Do you see how in the scripture, it's very clear that God has not changed. The grace of God has appeared. And that means that he's given us an opportunity to be forgiven. But the God who is repulsed by sin hasn't changed his mind about sin.

As a matter of fact, when he tells us to do the right thing and forsake the wrong thing, he's just as serious about it now as he was then. And if we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, if we are experiencing a relationship with God that will never go away, it doesn't let us off the hook. It actually, according to this text, it ups the ante in a few ways. Let's jot down four reasons according to this passage we should, we should obey God.

I mean, that's what it gets down to. That's what this, this passage is all about. And it ends this way. We've got to obey what God says. We got to do it so that we can earn our way into Heaven, right? Thank you. That's what everybody else teaches. That's what religions teach. That is not what the Bible teaches. We are not doing good things to earn our way into Heaven. We are doing good things in this text for a number of reasons.

Let's start with this one. And to get this, we'll weave our way through this and just look through what we've just read. Number one, he's got this authoritative voice. Look at verse 25. I mean, we can't refuse him. He is one who speaks with authority. He shook the Earth, verse 26. I mean, when he spoke in the Old Covenant, and he promises some kind of dominion over the future and he's going to shake not only the Earth, but he's going to shake Heaven too.

And then if, if for nothing else, if you want to paint a picture of the God that is presented in this, you want to talk about a a dreadful picture in verse number 29, he's described as a consuming fire. Not he was a consuming fire. He, he is a consuming fire. Let's jot this down. Number one, the flavor of this passage leads us to this statement. We must obey God, okay? Because you and I recognize, number one, that he is the absolute authority.

Number one, we need to obey God because he is the absolute authority. He is presented this way in the text. And that again gets back to what we say all the time at Compass Bible Church, we need a high view of God. One word we could put, which wouldn't capture the whole essence of that value, is that he is the authoritative one. He is the ultimate authority. He is the absolute authority.

And when God speaks, he's not Dr. Phil or Oprah or Dr. Laura. He's not just giving you nice opinions of, hey, why don't you try this? This might work. He's not giving you an opinion. When he speaks, see, he speaks as the absolute authority. He is your creator. He is the judge of the world. And he is, if you want to give him some kind of imagery here, a consuming fire. Because here's the deal. You're never going to obey anyone you don't respect, right?

Really, you, I mean, you are not ever going to obey or follow someone that you don't see as an authority. And you open God's Word and it says, here's how you ought to conduct yourself at work. Here's how you ought to conduct yourself in your marriage. Here's how you ought to raise children. You're never going to take that seriously unless you see him as an absolute authority. The reason we call them Dr. Phil and Dr. Laura is we want to remind you that they are authorities.

But see, in our culture, authorities, it's just a popery, a cacophony of, of advice and we're getting advice from the scripture. Don't ever use the word advice when you open up the Bible. It's not about advice. You know that, right? This is a command from God. God has spoken. He is the ultimate authority. He's a consuming fire. And again, I know flag on the play. Well, Old Testament, isn't it? Is, you said that was a quote from Deuteronomy 4.

Turn with me if you would to First Timothy. I'm sorry. First Timothy chapter 6. And by the way, if you want to know where he got this, if you're taking notes, you might want to jot down in the margin. Exodus chapter 24. Just throw out some more confusing numbers. Verse 17. Exodus 24:17 says the children of Israel looked at the mountain and they perceived the glory of God. Here's what it says. It was like a consuming fire.

So that's the picture in the Old Covenant of God. God comes down to visit us. He gives us a bunch of rules and we stand back and go, ooh, he's a consuming fire. Big time authority. We can't go and and just hang out with, with, with God. Too majestic, too big, too powerful. Now, New Covenant. Same context as Hebrews 12. It's about being godly. Paul writes his protégé, Timothy. He is the pastor in Ephesus.

And he's saying to him, you need to be godly. You need to teach people to be godly and you need to be godly. And he just talked about materialism and he says in verse 11, hey, you, man of God, flee all of this. He just talked about materialism, love of money. And he says, and pursue, this is about righteousness, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. And verse 12, fight the good fight of faith.

And I know the, you know, LA sports caster fight the good fight. They it's not about sports, right? This is about fighting sin and temptation. This is about walking the, the, the, the path of righteousness in a world that wants to say, no, don't be righteous. We're fighting that fight of trusting in God and keeping his rules. He says, and take hold of eternal life to which you were called and you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

In the sight of God, who by the way, let's remember who we're talking about. Now, note the connection between sanctification, being godly and our view of God. Here it comes. He's going to unpack some things about God. Who gives life to everything. Do you realize that? Everything. Go, go watch National Geographic. There isn't a creature on the screen, on the Discovery Channel that is not living because God is sustaining the life of those, those cute, cuddly little creatures on Sunday afternoon on Channel 21.

Every single one of them lives because God's powerful word sustains them. That's what the Bible teaches. He gives life to everything. And of Jesus Christ, who testified before Pontius Pilate and made the good confession. I charge you, verse 14. Here's the command to be godly. To keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time.

And then let's talk about God again for a second. God, the blessed and only ruler, capital R on that, right? The ultimate absolute ruler, the King of Kings. Now here's the problem with a statement like that. You don't know any kings, right? You may know a boss, you may have seen a president. You don't know a king. Kings, you, if you knew a king, you would be totally impressed with his sovereignty and authority.

They can kill people with a word. They can toss people out of the country with just. They don't. There's no Congress. There's no checks and balances. They are absolutely sovereign and absolute in their authority. That's what kings are. And if you knew one in the ancient monarchy of the ancient Near East, you would be like, wow, kings. And you know what? They're nothing in this passage. because he is the King of Kings.

Every king has to answer to this one. And he is the, the Lord of Lords. Who alone, by the way, is immortal. Have you thought about that one lately? I know you think you're going to live forever, but you had a beginning, right? Unless you're really couked out, you know, you had a beginning. God alone, the triune, perfect, harmonious, eternal fellowship, called the triune God. He's the only one that's immortal.

He alone is immortal. And he lives, see this? In the clubhouse that we go visit at church on the weekend. Is that what it says? He lives where? In unapproachable light. That is is is a statement of of majesty. Whom no one has seen or can see. Now, where are we? In the Old Testament? This is Deuteronomy we're reading from, right? Leviticus? This is New Covenant stuff. This is near the end of the Bible here.

To him be honor and might forever, the Bible says. You're not going to obey someone you don't respect. The Bible makes it clear in Hebrews chapter 12, you want to be a godly person saying no to temptation, yes to righteousness. You'd better learn to respect God. He is the absolute authority.

And okay, another flag on the plate. People say, well, that's great, but you're talking about the Father. And I've learned enough in in the Bible to know he's the kind of the one who's out there. He's kind of dispassionate, disjointed. He's, he's away. But Jesus, now, that's my buddy. Jesus, my buddy. Because Jesus, I've read about Jesus. And he a cool guy. And when I meet him, high five, how you been? Shaken dude. My savior, Jesus. He's my friend.

Turn Revelation chapter one real quick. Our view of Christ is deficient because we always picture him in that short little period, that 30 to 33 year period of humility. Jesus is no longer existing in a humble state. You realize that. He's not the guy with, do you ever, did you have a children's Bible when you were a kid? My mom gave me my old children's. I don't know if they were cleaning out the closet or what, but she brought me my old children's.

I had my name scrolled in the front. And every third page has one of those watercolor pictures of Jesus. Oh, beautiful. What a great guy. Going to hang out with him. There was no picture on this page, Revelation 21. He didn't paint as well as the other one. Revelation chapter 1, verse 12. Are you with me? Now, John is the same John, James and John, Peter, James and John. The fisherman, the one who hung out with Jesus for three years.

John and Jesus, are they friends? Yeah, you bet. They have stories, inside jokes? Oh, I'm sure they do. Well, he's about to meet up with his old friend. Verse number 12. Let's see how that reunion goes. High fives and hugs is what I anticipate. That's not what I find though. I turned around, John says, to see the voice of the one that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, which by the way, was Mark's favorite phrase for Jesus. It's all over the gospels. That's what he liked to call himself, the son of man, which by the way, came from the book of Daniel, which was an expression of God incarnate living among people as their king. And he's going to, the humility though, was for the redemption. He was dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest.

Okay. Well, he's got a nicer outfit. Okay. He's, he's, he's been, you know, the men's warehouse or whatever. He's, he's looking better now. But it gets, it gets worse. He's not, they're not going to high five here. Verse number 14. His head and his hair were white like wool. Now that's not how you picture him, is it? You picture him with brown hair, don't you? Maybe black, of course, beard. Now he doesn't have that.

Erase that image from your mind. That was a, a short period of his life. Now his existence, this is what he looks like. And he doesn't have brown hair or black hair. He has white hair, as white as snow, as white as you can picture it. His eyes, by the way, were like blazing what? Fire. Ooh. Hmm. Okay. There's that fire image again. His feet, verse 15, were like bronze glowing in a furnace.

And if you haven't thrown bronze and and burnished it in a furnace lately, uh, this is glowing. This is, this is imposing. And his voice, by the way, was like the sound of rushing waters. And I know we only hear it through our little tiny three-inch speakers on our television, but if you were to go out into the wilderness and and stand at the base of rushing water, right? It's got some uh resonance and some bass and some power your subwoofer just can't provide, right?

This is authoritative voice. His right hand he held seven stars, which we learn later, the seven messengers of the church, in the seven churches he's writing. And out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. See? That's why they didn't paint this on on the page on Revelation 1. That just looks weird, right? Out of his mouth, he's got white hair, his eyes are like fire, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.

Does that remind you of an image in in the book of Hebrews? What's the what's the double-edged sword? Word of God. And his face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. And make sure all the fog burns off, but go outside after church and just stare at the sun for a while. Oh, wow. That's like looking at the face of Christ. That's why it doesn't paint very well either. In all of its brilliance.

When I saw him, John didn't give him a high five, didn't hug him, didn't say great to see you, couldn't wait to be here with you. He falls at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and he said, don't be afraid. Sorry, this is how I look now. Remember, I'm the first and the last. I'm not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. I'm the beginning and the end. The alpha, the Omega. I'm the living one. I was dead and behold, I'm alive forever and ever.

And I look at this, the guy with the keys. I hold the keys to death and Hades. Keys, authority, leadership, power. Eyes like fire, face like a sun. That's a little different image of Christ than most of us have. I mean, we could spend a lot of time on this, but we need to elevate our view of God. You will never obey someone you don't respect. We need to realize that God who speaks to us is not Dr. Laura, right?

Who gives us advice about good living. He is the creator of Heaven and Earth. He is the authoritative one. Even his son, who we picture as gentle Jesus, meek and mild, is one who speaks with a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. Now that's not modern evangelical Christianity. I realize that. But that's what my Bible says.

And if when when he speaks and says, don't think those thoughts anymore, do you think that's a suggestion? Not a suggestion. When he says, let no unwholesome word, is that just kind of a nice thing to do, I guess, if you're around church people? That's what the Bible says. That's the authoritative one, who when he speaks, shakes the Earth and will one day shake not only the Earth, but the heavens as well. When he says to bring up your children in the instruction and training of the Lord, it's not, you know, that'd be great because it'll keep them off drugs.

That'd probably be good. Don't want them in juvenile hall, right? It's not about bettering your life. It's about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords saying, this is what I'm telling you to do. We've had a lot of motivation in Hebrews chapter 12 to say no to temptation. This, I think, he ends with a punch. It's the biggest one of all. He is the absolute authority and when he speaks, we should listen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez and a message titled, Seeing Obedience as an Act of Worship. Our series in Hebrews chapter 12 is called Our Fight with Sin. And you can pull up any piece of it at focalpointradio.org, or carry it along with you anywhere you go on the free Focal Point app.

And if there's a Bible question or topic that's been sitting heavy on you, and you want to bring it straight to Pastor Mike, the phone lines are open Tuesday through Thursday, 1:00 p.m. Central on Ask Pastor Mike Live. If live doesn't fit your schedule, every episode lands on the Ask Pastor Mike YouTube channel, waiting for you on your own time. Get all the details at askpastormike.live.

Speaking of questions, what does it look like to make an impact for Christ in today's culture? This month, Pastor Mike wants to hand you a book aimed right at that question titled, Making a Difference, Impacting Culture and Society as a Christian by R.C. Sproul. Sproul isn't handing you a side to take in some culture war. He's building a steady, patient case that plain, everyday faithfulness matters right where you already stand. We'll send you this powerful book from R.C. Sproul when you give a generous gift to Focal Point today. Call 888-320-5885, or give online at focalpointradio.org. You can also mail your gift to Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California, 92654.

Every day this broadcast reaches someone who needs to hear it, a person wrestling with doubt, a marriage on shaky ground, a heart looking for truth in a noisy world. Focal Point partners are the reason that reach keeps growing, one faithful month at a time. Join with a recurring gift, and you become part of changed lives and a culture nudged closer to the truth of God's Word. Get started at focalpointradio.org, or call us at 888-320-5885. Well, I'm Dave Drewe, next time Pastor Mike Fabarez presents the final portion of our study called Our Fight with Sin. Discover a practical form of worship. Wednesday, on Focal Point.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. You know, it's an honor to be with you every day, helping you explore the depths of scripture. But I want to be clear, no amount of Bible knowledge is ever going to save you. Be sure where you stand with God. Get in touch with us. We'd love to pray with you and for you. Visit us today at focalpointradio.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

Guest (Male): Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.