Verses eighteen through twenty-nine: In verses 18-24 Paul compares God’s method of speaking to His people anciently to His method of communication today. Initially He spoke in an audible voice from atop Mt. Sinai/Mt. Horeb. Today He speaks by His Holy Spirit which leads Truth seekers to His Holy Scriptures. Take particular note of Paul’s warning found in verse 25 where he tells the Hebrew Christians (and God’s saints today) that the Hebrews of old did not escape the wrath of God when they rejected His Words coming from atop the mountain. Therefore “we” (Paul included) will not escape His wrath if “we” turn away from the Words of “Him” Who speaks to us from heaven. His Words are found only in the Holy Bible. To reject any of those Words is to reject Christ, Who is the Word (Jn. 1:1-4), and Whose name is “the Word of God” (Rev. 19:13).

In John 8:32 Jesus–the God of the Old Testament–tells us that we will know the Truth and the Truth will free us from false doctrines, customs, etc. It is only by the “voice” of the Holy Spirit that we can “know” that Truth–God’s Word (Jn. 17:17). All church people know “about” God’s Truth. Only those who are inhabited by His Holy Spirit actually “know” it and obey it. Only those who know it and obey it will escape the wrath of God, enter the Kingdom of God and live with Him forever. This is what Paul is making clear to the Hebrew Christians. By placing it in His Holy Bible, the Lord is saying the same thing to those who claim to be His children today. As was the case anciently, only a few hearers of the Word believe it and obey it. Evidence of this fact can be found in the heathenistic anti-God, anti-Bible, doctrines and customs practiced by Catholics and Protestants. See the Introduction to this website for a few examples. The Lord  warns us through His ministers about the Institutional Church’s deadly spiritual disease: “Be ye doers of the (God’s) Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jam. 1:22). “For not the hearers of the Law are just(ified) before God, but the doers of the Law shall be (remain) justified” (Rom.2:13). “(Only) he who endures (in a state of justification) until the end shall (at that time) be saved” (Mat. 10:22). God’s message could not be any clearer. Still the church masses reject it. Truly, “Satan has deceived the whole world,” including the worldly church (Rev. 12:9).

On Mt. Sinai God’s voice shook the entire earth. He promises in verses 26,27 to also shake the heavens. This “shaking” refers to separating spiritual sheep from religious goats. God’s obedient sheep will still be standing when the shaking ends; His goats (the Counterfeit Church) will fall into the Lake of Fire. See The Church, the Gospel and the Goats. God’s saints, because of their total faith in His Words, and therefore God Himself, “cannot be moved (shaken)” because they “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” His saints fear Him because “our God is a consuming fire” (vss 28,29).

The message is abundantly clear: Only those who know, believe and obey God’s written, Spirit-spoken Word until death or the return of Jesus Christ will join Them in the eternal kingdom. L.J.