Introduction
Are you treating God’s voice like an alarm you can keep snoozing, assuming you’ll wake up “eventually”, or are you responding with faith and obedience today? The central teaching of Hebrews 12:25–29 is this: because God truly speaks (through His Word, His Son, and the gospel of the cross), we must not refuse Him, so that when He shakes everything, we will belong to the unshakable kingdom and live the abundant life He intends.
Hebrews has been a year-long drumbeat: Look at Jesus, He’s better. Don’t give up following Him. And fittingly, Hebrews ends its warning passages with a final, urgent call: this is not a game. Your faith in Christ is your life, and there is no “alternate” life that satisfies like God’s will. I think about how I warn my own kids in the morning. First I whisper, “Wake up.” Then I come back louder. Finally, I give the last warning with a clear picture: If you don’t get up, you’ll miss where I’m taking you. God’s warnings often work like that, not because He enjoys threatening, but because He loves us enough to keep us from missing His promises.
Main Points
Are you treating God’s voice like an alarm you can keep snoozing, assuming you’ll wake up “eventually”, or are you responding with faith and obedience today? The central teaching of Hebrews 12:25–29 is this: because God truly speaks (through His Word, His Son, and the gospel of the cross), we must not refuse Him, so that when He shakes everything, we will belong to the unshakable kingdom and live the abundant life He intends.
Hebrews has been a year-long drumbeat: Look at Jesus, He’s better. Don’t give up following Him. And fittingly, Hebrews ends its warning passages with a final, urgent call: this is not a game. Your faith in Christ is your life, and there is no “alternate” life that satisfies like God’s will.
I think about how I warn my own kids in the morning. First I whisper, “Wake up.” Then I come back louder. Finally, I give the last warning with a clear picture: If you don’t get up, you’ll miss where I’m taking you. God’s warnings often work like that, not because He enjoys threatening, but because He loves us enough to keep us from missing His promises.
Do Not Refuse the One Who Speaks
Hebrews 12:25 begins plainly: “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks.” The danger isn’t merely hearing God’s Word, it’s hearing it and doing nothing with it. That’s the slow drift: we tune out, we forget, we harden.
James describes this as looking in a mirror and then walking away forgetting what we saw (James 1:23–24). I can sit under the Word, even feel that it’s for me, and still walk out and let it evaporate. Hebrews warns me: Don’t do that. Don’t refuse Him.
And notice: the warning is not only for outright rebellion. Refusal can look like:
- convenient forgetting,
- delayed obedience,
- distraction that becomes a lifestyle,
- letting other voices consistently outrank God’s voice.
This is why Hebrews keeps interrupting encouragement with warnings: because spiritual drift is real, and the stakes are eternal.
Remember Sinai: Refusal Has Consequences
The writer points back to Israel at Mount Sinai: “For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth…” (Hebrews 12:25). God’s presence came down with terrifying holiness, fire, trembling, and the shaking of the mountain. The people were afraid and begged for distance.
And what happened shortly after? They turned to idolatry. Even after witnessing God’s power, they worshiped a golden calf (Exodus 32). Their refusal didn’t lead to freedom; it led to wandering. Many did not enter the promised land because unbelief and grumbling hardened into a settled posture of distrust.
Hebrews is pressing the logic: if refusing God under the old covenant brought severe loss, how much more serious is it to turn away from the God who speaks from heaven in the fuller revelation of Christ?
I need to let that land: refusal always costs. It may not feel dramatic in the moment, but it slowly drains spiritual life and keeps me on the desert side of God’s promised joy.
God Speaks Through Word, Son, and Cross
This passage assumes something foundational: God speaks. He is not distant. He is not silent. He is personal, near, and committed to being known.
Hebrews has already told us how He speaks:
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Through His living Word: “The word of God is living and powerful…” (Hebrews 4:12). Scripture isn’t merely information; it discerns, exposes, and heals. If I want God to speak, I don’t need to wait for a mystical event, I can open my Bible in faith and humility and expect the Spirit to work.
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Through His Son: “God… has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). Jesus is God’s clearest speech. His teaching confronts and comforts: love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, don’t be anxious about tomorrow, follow Me, take up your cross.
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Through the blood that speaks: Hebrews 12:24 says Jesus’ sprinkled blood “speaks better things than that of Abel.” The cross is not silent. It proclaims forgiveness, reconciliation, and the love of the Father: God so loved the world He gave His Son. In the Lord’s Supper we “proclaim His death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The gospel keeps speaking.
So when Hebrews says, “Do not refuse Him who speaks,” it’s not abstract. God is speaking in concrete ways, Bible open, Christ revealed, cross proclaimed.
Competing Voices and the Danger of Drift
We live in a world of constant audio and constant influence, podcasts, news, influencers, friends, inner dialogue, cultural scripts. The more noise we accept as normal, the easier it is to treat God’s voice as optional.
But Jesus does not come as one voice among many. He speaks with authority and calls for allegiance. His way will often collide with the culture unless the culture happens to align with Him.
This is where refusal becomes subtle: I can keep “religion” while functionally letting other voices set my priorities, ethics, reactions, and identity. Hebrews calls that a dangerous game, because it trains my heart to ignore the One voice that leads to life.
So I need to ask myself honestly: Which voice gets immediate obedience from me? Which voice do I trust most? Which voice shapes my decisions when it costs me something?
A Coming Cosmic Shaking and Final Accounting
Hebrews 12:26–27 lifts our eyes: “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Sinai shook a mountain; God promises a day when He will shake everything, earth and heavens, the whole created order.
This is not a minor doctrine. Scripture presents a final Day when God will set everything right. And I notice how the sermon confronted our culture here: everyone has an “end-times” story, political fears, environmental collapse, technological takeover, war, personal death. Everyone has an eschatology, whether they admit it or not.
But Hebrews insists: God will not be mocked. He will not share His glory. The end is not ultimately in human hands. There is an appointed Day when God will shake creation so that what is temporary falls away and what is eternal remains.
That can sound terrifying if I’m clinging to idols. But it becomes good news if I’m clinging to Christ.
The Shaking Is Mercy: Only the Unshakable Remains
Hebrews 12:27 explains the purpose: the shaking removes what is made and temporary “that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.” God’s goal is not chaos, it’s purification and permanence.
This connects with 1 Corinthians 3:11–13: the only foundation is Jesus Christ, and our works will be revealed and tested. Some things are like gold and precious stones; others are like wood and straw that cannot endure fire.
I need to hear this as gospel mercy: God loves me too much to let my life be built on what cannot last. Even present-day shakings, persecution, trials, losses, cultural pressure, can function like previews of the final shaking. They expose what I’m truly relying on and invite me back to the only secure foundation.
So I don’t have to fear the shaking if I’m receiving it as grace: Lord, burn off what is empty. Strengthen what is true. Anchor me in Christ.
Conclusion
Hebrews’ final warning is also a final kindness: God is speaking, do not refuse Him. Don’t hit snooze on Scripture. Don’t treat Jesus as optional guidance. Don’t let the noise of the age replace the voice of the King.
A day is coming when God will shake heaven and earth. Everything temporary will fall, and only the unshakable kingdom will remain. The best preparation is not panic; it is faith-filled obedience, building on Christ, listening when He speaks, and walking steadily into the abundant life He promises.
So I’m calling you, gently and directly: wake up. Not to shame you, but to keep you from missing where the Father is taking you.
Father in heaven, You are holy, and You are near. Forgive me for the ways I’ve treated Your voice like background noise, when I’ve delayed obedience, tuned out Your Word, or elevated other voices above Yours. Thank You for speaking through Scripture, through Your Son Jesus, and through the blood of the cross that proclaims forgiveness and peace.
Give me a soft heart that trembles at Your Word and trusts Your love. Teach me to build my life on the only sure foundation, Jesus Christ. When my life is shaken, use it to purify me, not to harden me. Help me to receive Your unshakable kingdom with gratitude and to follow Jesus with endurance until the end.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
Hebrews’ final warning is also a final kindness: God is speaking, do not refuse Him. Don’t hit snooze on Scripture. Don’t treat Jesus as optional guidance. Don’t let the noise of the age replace the voice of the King.
A day is coming when God will shake heaven and earth. Everything temporary will fall, and only the unshakable kingdom will remain. The best preparation is not panic; it is faith-filled obedience, building on Christ, listening when He speaks, and walking steadily into the abundant life He promises.
So I’m calling you, gently and directly: wake up. Not to shame you, but to keep you from missing where the Father is taking you.
Closing Prayer
Father in heaven, You are holy, and You are near. Forgive me for the ways I’ve treated Your voice like background noise, when I’ve delayed obedience, tuned out Your Word, or elevated other voices above Yours. Thank You for speaking through Scripture, through Your Son Jesus, and through the blood of the cross that proclaims forgiveness and peace.
Give me a soft heart that trembles at Your Word and trusts Your love. Teach me to build my life on the only sure foundation, Jesus Christ. When my life is shaken, use it to purify me, not to harden me. Help me to receive Your unshakable kingdom with gratitude and to follow Jesus with endurance until the end.
In Jesus’ name, amen.