If you wish to follow along,
turn to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34. And I hope you will seek to intently
follow along this morning as I summarize the whole chapter
of Exodus chapter 34. I will break it down mainly into
Five different thoughts, the fifth one will just be a reiteration
of all the other thoughts, and then we will actually go to another
passage. The title of my message is actually
found in the scripture, but it's not found in the direct text
of Exodus chapter 34. But my title actually comes from
the scripture speaking about Exodus chapter 34. And the title
is this, the Apostle Paul gave these words, the glory that excelleth. The glory that excelleth. Now, I am not going to deal with
the types and the shadows. There are several very good types
and shadows. The feast of unleavened bread,
for instance, which is the Passover, the Passover. You have everything
that openeth the matrix, the womb. You have the firstling
of an ass. You have the feast of weeks.
You have the Sabbath day. All of these things are great
shadows and types. But let me give you this. These
things are but shadows and types to us today. Do you understand? These things are but shadows
and types to us today. These things were much more than
just shadows and types to our brothers and sisters in Israel
back then. So while I may mention a couple
of the types and the shadows, that's not what I'm getting at
this morning. I want to look at the actual
historical and spiritual meaning of the context of Exodus chapter
34. So let's get started. Here's
his direct context. Number one, God tells Moses,
hew again two tables of stones. Remember the first set Moses
had broken when he came down off of Sinai, the time before
this time mentioned here. So hew again two tables of stone
and return to the mount but you return absolutely alone. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Hew thee two tables of stone, like unto the first. And I will
write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables,
which thou breakest. And be ready in the morning,
and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself
there to me in the top of the mount. and no man shall come
up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the
mount, neither let the flocks nor herds feed before the mount.
And we've heard that before. We've heard that before. And
he hewed, that is Moses hewed two tables of stone like unto
the first, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went
up into the mount as the Lord had commanded him, and he took
in his hand the two tables of stone. Then secondly, we see
this. Moses goes up, and God comes
down. And now we hear that we're not,
we're never told the actual name, but now we actually are told
the fulfillment of the Messianic revelation. Remember last week,
God said, I'm gonna put you in the cleft of the rock. and I'm
gonna pass by you, but when my front parts come, I'm gonna hide
your eyes. And you will not see my front
parts, but once I pass by you, I will remove my hand and you
will see my hinder parts. That's messianic. The only body
parts God's ever had are the body parts of the Son of God
incarnate. And that's just a fact. Look
at what it says. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood
with him there. I can't imagine what this was
like for Moses, you know? And the Lord stood with him there
and proclaimed the name of the Lord. We're not told that name
right here, are we? But we're told that he did what?
Proclaim it to him. And that's what he promised he
would do when Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. Now we're
seeing this coming, he's back up into the mount, and now this
is going to happen. And proclaimed the name of the
Lord, and the Lord passed by before him. Remember he said,
I'm gonna pass by before you. And proclaimed the Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth. Isn't that good news to sinners? By default, this must be for
sinners. It can be for no one else but
sinners, right? You don't need mercy unless you've
offended someone. abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. And he
never has. Even unto this day, he never
has. God's always punished the guilty. Always. He either punishes the
guilty individual or we might say individuals, or he punished
men and women in the person of his son. And that's just the
way it is. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and upon the children's children, unto the third and fourth generations.
Somebody says that's not fair. Doesn't matter what we think.
This is who God is. And this is how offensive sin
is to God. This is how offensive it is to
God. Now, again, Moses goes up, God comes down, the Messianic
revelation is fulfilled. Now listen to me. The law alone,
and we'll look at this further, but I wanna just make these statements.
The law alone never reveals the total corruption of sin. It never does. Now Paul did say,
I had not known sin but by the law. For I had not known lust
except as the law said, thou shalt not covet. But that law
still does not tell us how heinous sin is in God's sight. The law alone never reveals the
total corruption of sin. As a matter of fact, in our context,
pure law Blinds. Pure law, blinds. Look at, turn the page if you
need to, look at verse 28. He was there with the Lord, that
is Moses, 40 days and 40 nights. He did neither eat bread nor
drink water, and wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant,
the Ten Commandments. So there is no doubt about what
was on those two tables of stone. The Ten Commandments. And it
came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the
two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from
the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone
while he talked with them. And this was a physical, though
I probably should say supernatural, phenomenon. This really happened. And when Aaron and all the children
of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and
they were afraid to come nigh unto him. And I can understand
that, and there's no way I can illustrate that to you. But this
was so frightening to them, they was afraid to approach Moses. Just Moses. Even Moses. This wasn't God himself coming
down off the mount. This is who? Moses! Moses. And Moses called unto them. And
Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him,
and Moses talked with them. And afterward, all the children
of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all the Lord
had spoken with him in Mount Sinai, until Moses had done speaking
with them. He put a veil on his face, But
when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, that
is at the tabernacle of the congregation, that's what it's referring to.
We've already read about that. But when Moses went in before
the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came
out. And he came out and spake unto
the children of Israel that which he was commanded. Now Moses is
evidently going back and forth receiving commands. We read that
in Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. We read about all of this in
Leviticus and Deuteronomy. And the children of Israel saw
the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, and Moses
put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with
God with him. These are the historical facts
thus far. Here's number three. True worship. I said true worship. Remember
last week? All of Israel worshiped, but
some refused to approach the tabernacle of congregation to
worship. They worshiped where they wanted, where they were
most comfortable, in the tent door. God had ordained them to
come to the tabernacle of the congregation to worship, and
God calls those people only the ones that were seeking him. We
will worship God's way, or we do not truly worship at all.
I didn't say we don't worship, but we're not truly worshiping
God. True worship, true cries for
mercy, true confession of sin, and I said sin, not just sins. Now yes, God's people confess
their sins, but we confess much more than that. We confess that
these sins have a fountain from which they flow. We confess that
as the major problem. We confess that as the true crime
against God. It's not just what I do, it is
who I am. So again, true worship, true
cries for mercy, a true confession of sin. can only follow the gospel
revelation of Jesus Christ because then it says, verse eight, and
Moses made haste. Do you see that? Moses made haste
and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said,
excuse me, and he said, if now I have found grace in thy sight,
Notice Moses is still not presuming on God. Moses, you owe us grace,
there's a covenant. What if you're not a part of
that covenant? What if you're not a part of that covenant?
And he said, if now I found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my
Lord, I pray thee, go among us. Because remember, God said, go
up by yourselves. Isn't that what we have already
read? Go up by yourselves. Moses knew this ain't a good
thing. This ain't a good thing. Go up among us. And here it is. For it is a stiff-necked people. You see, their problem wasn't
just some things they'd done. It was their actual, carnal,
fallen, depraved state. their stiff neck. Let me try
to illustrate this. You ever seen an animal, specifically
a dog? You ever seen that dog get angry?
What happens? Does it growl while it's moving
its head around and growl over here and growl over there? What
does a dog do? It stiffens, generally, most
of its whole body. Its hair will stand up on the
back of its neck. Its ears, for those breeds that
can, will point up straight and they will stiffen their neck
and look at the adversary. Do they not? I mean, even our
little house dog, when he's arguing with my wife, and he actually
argues with my wife. And he generally only argues
when you say no. Even the beasts are suffering
from the fall, folks. And what does he do? Now he's
not angry, wanting to bite her, but he said, I don't want you
to tell me what to do. And he's, he don't go, no, he's looking. I will not have you to reign
over me. That's what he's saying. And
by nature, folks, that's what we do. We are a stiff-necked
people. And that's dangerous. Because
he that being often reproved, and what? And hardeneth his neck,
shall be suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. Yet, What the natural man does
then is says, well, I'm not stiff-necked. I'm not stiff. This is the way we are toward
God until God Almighty gives us a revelation of the mercy
and the forgiveness of sins in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. And then we say, and then only
can we say, You hear what I'm saying? Then
and then only can we say, I'm stiff-necked. Today's so-called
Christianity is philosophically trying to convince men and women
that they're sinners. Only God can do that. Christ
himself said, when I leave, I'll send the comforter. He will reprove
the world of sin. Not me. Not you. Not the church. Only God can
do it. And let me tell you, it's not
a law work. It's a grace work. Now God will
use the law. God may well use the law. But it's still a grace work.
It ain't a law work. Because the law is connected
with blindness. Blindness. Now let's move on.
Gotta move on. Here's number four. God reveals
a primer declaration here, a primer declaration. He will do a sovereign
work. Now listen to me, we'll read
it. He will do a sovereign work,
but Israel is still warned of their evil inclinations. Look,
it started in verse 10. We'll go back to where we left
off a moment ago. Take us for thine inheritance,
Moses says in verse nine. Now verse 10. And he said, that
is God says now, Behold, I make a covenant, and that covenant
is law covenant. That covenant is law covenant.
Behold, I make a covenant, before all thy people will I do marvels,
such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation,
and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of
the Lord. And here's one of the key phrases,
there's two key phrases in understanding all this. For it is a terrible
thing, that I will do with thee. Not a gracious thing I will do
with thee, because this is Sinai law. This is a terrible thing
that I will do with thee. Now let me paraphrase for the
sake of time. I'm going to drive out the inhabitants of the land.
And it doesn't say it this way, but if you compare this with
Joshua chapter 23, write that down if you need to remember
it. Joshua chapter 23. God drove out specific enemies. God drove out specific enemies. He tells us here who they are.
In Joshua 23, we're told Joshua's now old and Israel is at rest
in the land. But God left a few enemies and
said now. You continue, you continue, and
you drive the rest of the inhabitants out. I was always basically told
Israel just failed and didn't drive them all out. That's not
the truth. Go back and read Joshua chapter 23. God had done exactly
what he promised, but now he's gonna manifest this terrible
thing that he's gonna do with them. Now I'm gonna leave it
up to you. Think about it now. I'm gonna
leave it up to you and Joshua Warren damn there are the remainder
of these people You start becoming confederate with them you start
joining in fellowship with them. They'll be thorns to you They'll
be like razor blades. You don't set that they'll be
a problem in your side and they were And they were so we have
it brought on down Let me look first 12 take heed to thyself
lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where
thou goest let lest it be a snare in the midst of thee and But
ye shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut
down their groves. Thou shalt worship no other God,
for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. In other words,
you do not join with their religion in the smallest iota. And then go back and read. Everything
they're supposed to do. And this is but a little foretaste. of everything else we see in
the rest of the books of Moses. Now think about it. God did what
he said. I've given it to you. Joshua
put it this way, there has not failed one good thing of his
promises. Now I want to jump ahead, I will
jump ahead. Do not dispensationalize this. Now let me try to explain it
briefly. Dispensationalism is summed up in this way. Not you
believe in seven different dispensations. Some do believe in seven different
dispensations. But not all dispensationalists
have believed in seven. Some have less, some have more.
That's not the joining factor of dispensationalism. The joining
factor of most dispensationalism, I say most because I can't tell
you I've seen it all, is this. God's got two people. He's got
Israelites, and he's got the church. And he couldn't do with
Israel what he wanted to do with Israel under the law. Now this
is it, this is what they teach. Then he sends Christ, and now
Jew and Gentile both can be saved by Christ. But then one day,
then God's gonna come again in the person of his son and reestablish
for Israel all of these things which he wasn't able to do in
the get-go. They may not say it that way, but that's what
they're talking about. And that's a lie. That's a lie. I used to be one. I've even had,
I've asked them at times. Are you a dispensationist? Well,
I don't even know what one is. Then how do you know if you ain't
one or not? You understand what I'm saying? Be careful because
the same people will usually then come up later on and begin
talking about something and say, well, but. God did exactly what he said
he was gonna do. But he put them in that land
under law. And he wiped out these certain
peoples and says, now, continue with this. And they could not. You hear what I said? And they
could not. Five things. Or fourth. I'm going
to give you the fifth one. Don't dispensationalize this.
Number one. The other four things, although
the law demands the necessity of grace, it demands it. That's
what we're even told here. The first thing he talks about
is what? Mercy, because you're going to need it. Forgiveness
of sins, why? Because you're going to need
it. The pardoning of iniquity, why? Because you're going to
need it. You see it? Although the law demands the
necessity of grace, the law never supplies grace. And I remember
Earl Mentioning that over and over again Although the law demands
the necessity of grace the law never supplies grace the second
thing even though the law has shadows of grace And it does
have shadows of grace The law still has no gracious substance
It's just a shadow If a tree is over here And let's just say,
and I know they say that's not the best place to be in a hurricane,
but just for the sake of argument, for the example, there's a tree
here and there's a mighty wind coming and you need to go over
there and grab a hold of that tree to hang on to that tree or maybe
strap yourself to that tree to guard against the wind. Is it
gonna do you any good to grab a hold of the shadow? Exactly,
that's exactly right. You understand what I'm saying?
Do you see what I'm getting at? even Israel, because they tried
to strap themselves to the shadows. They thought the shadows were
the substance. They did not realize the shadows
were pointing to that angel they were supposed to be obedient
unto. God manifest in the flesh. And God started out with the
get-go as going to be the woman's seed. Now what is a woman's seed? It's gonna be a male child. Yes
or no? The gospel back then was that
simple, that declarative. So again, although the law demands
the necessity of grace, the law never supplies it. Even though
the law has shadows of grace, it never can give the substance
of it. Thirdly, sovereignty does not equal grace only. Did you
know that? Well, y'all believe in sovereign
grace. Oh yes, I do. But I also, I also believe in
sovereign judicial blindness. I also believe in sovereign severity. Paul said, behold the goodness
and the severity of God. I also believe in sovereign hardening
as well. Don't mistake sovereignty as
being always gracious. Have you ever fallen into that
trap? I believe in the sovereignty of God. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to try to make a point
here in a moment. Here's the fourth one, and I'll
give you the fifth one. Do not presume on God's sovereign grace. I'm going to give you an illustration
of this. And I don't mean to embarrass
anybody. I was given the name when Paul and I were up north
at Fairmont. Marvin Stoddicker was talking
to me and Paul. And he spoke of a man he knew,
a grace preacher, wasn't it, Paul? I don't remember the man's
name, but I'm glad because I don't want to say it. I'm not here
to try to embarrass the man. This was a sovereign grace preacher,
and he left his wife, moved in with another woman.
Marvin said, I told him personally, this is wrong. You need to back
away from this. You need to stop this. And you
know what the man's answer was to Marvin? Marvin said, what
about the judgment? He said, well, when the judgment
comes, I'll just go over there and stand with King David. Now one
thing, you ain't going to choose and decide where you're going
to stand. If he puts you on the right hand, bless God, you're
going to be on the right hand. If he puts you on the left hand,
bless God, you're going to be on the left hand. At the great
white throne, if you're one of those standing with him or one
of those standing in front of him, it's going to be at his
sovereign purpose, not yours. You can never excuse the grace,
the sovereign grace that God has showed to one sinful individual
and say, I'll do the same thing and God's got to be gracious
to me. You're in danger. You're in danger. Do you hear what I'm saying?
I am warning us. I'm not pointing my finger just,
I'm warning us. People out there. You do not
use God's sovereignty as an excuse to follow after your fleshly,
lusty, evil desires. You just do not do it. Don't
presume on God's grace. He don't owe it to you and me. He don't owe it to you and me.
Now again, to sum it up, here's the file. Again, this whole chapter
shows the impossibility the impossibility of grace coming by law. It shows the impossibility of
it. When Moses is revealed, a messianic revelation, and it's full of
mercy, and compassion, and forgiveness, and grace, and God says, now
I'm gonna do something with these people. I'm gonna drive out the
enemies. But you got some rules you gotta walk by. Now am I telling
you the truth or not? Now here's 10 of them given in
written form. Now, throughout a period of time,
God, he would go to the congregation, tabernacle of the congregation,
he would write down more, and that's how we come up with the
rest of the books of the Bible. You're gonna have a law you gotta
walk by. This whole chapter screams the
impossibility of receiving grace by law. And it screams the impossibility
of having law with grace. Because again, look at verses
29 through 35. When Moses comes back down with
the 10 commandments in his hands, okay, he's gonna receive more
later, but he's got the 10 that summarize everything else. Everything
else falls under the umbrella of those 10. Those people, the
glory. is such a glory that it physically
changed the countenance of Moses' face, and he had to put a veil
over his face when he spoke with the people. And this is not my
take on this chapter. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
three. All of that was introduction. 2 Corinthians chapter three, I
must move briefly, but oh God help us to hear something here
this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Everybody pretty much there? I'll give you just a moment to
get there. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Here we
go. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves or need we as some others epistles of commendation
to you or letters of commendation from you? Paul did not have men
write about his credentials as a Pharisee or as a gospel preacher.
His credentials was the message that he constantly preached.
Jesus Christ and him crucified. That was the only, and the effects
that that had on people. The effects of that gospel, that
message. Look at it. Ye are our epistle, written in
our hearts, known and read of all men. Folks around you long
enough, if God Almighty really done something for you, they
gonna know something different about this person. They might
not know it's God done something for you, but they gonna know
this person's different. For as much as you are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and
it is, I'm telling you, don't you ever disdain God's means.
God ordained, if you're a believer, if you're one of the elect, and
you will come to believe if you're one of the elect, God's ordained
the very messenger that you heard in the first throes of conversion.
The very person, or maybe persons. God ordained the very ones, ministered
by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living
God. Not in tables of stone, but in
fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust have we through
Christ the Godward. I'm not bragging about us, Paul's
saying here now. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. God's ordained the means, he'll
empower the means to get the job done. That's just the way
it is. Now look, who also hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament. Not of the letter,
but of the Spirit. For the letter does what? Kills! Kills! Kills! That's what it's designed to
do. That's not a flaw in the letter. That's what it's designed
to do. For the letter killeth. Dispensationalist
teaches a flaw And God will rectify that flaw flaw flaw one day There's
even some that claim to be grace people They say one day the Jews
will start worshiping through the idol through the through
all of these sacrifices, but they'll worship They're doing
it to honor Jesus you honor the substance not the shadow But
that can look why look but the Spirit giveth what? Life But
if the ministration of what? Death. And now he tells us there
is no place to argue this. Well, he's just talking about
the sacrifices. The sacrificial law. No, but if the ministration
of death written and engraven in stones. That was the Ten Commandments. Right? All the other commandments
weren't written in stone. Moses was writing them down on
whatever medium he had. And they were joined with those
two tables of stone. For if the ministration of death,
written and graven in stones, was glorious, and it was, it
was, look, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which Now, am I taking a passage out of context here? Are we talking
about the same blessed chapter that is my text for this morning?
Look, which glory was to be fulfilled. That's true, but he goes further
here. Which glory was to be done away. But I'll tell you something,
it wasn't done away for everybody. That's exactly right. Preacher, I don't understand
that. I'm not asking you to understand it. I'm just telling you what
God says. You're right. I'm telling you what God says.
Look, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be what? Rather
glorious. For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, so the law is what? It kills, it's death, it's condemnation. That's its intent, that's its
purpose. For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness,
and this is a different kind of righteousness. Remember Paul
said, and not be found having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law. Now the law is a reflection of
God's holy character, but the law was for men, not for God.
And even our Lord expressed that when he came in human flesh.
He said, I'm Lord of the Sabbath. Isn't that what he said? Yes,
the law is a righteousness, but it's not the righteousness of
God. Now look, for if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much
more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excels. You see it? You see it? And then
look, for if that which is done away was glorious, much more
that which remaineth is glorious. And somebody says, Paul's being
ambiguous here. No, he's not. If you're fighting
against what Paul says here, you're just trying to make, build
a straw man and beat the devil out of him to try to prove your
own point. Paul says, see then that we have
such hope, we use great plainness of speech. The only reason you
don't understand what Paul says here is because you're still
stiff-necked and in rebellion against it. You still think that
you can stay in the land. Now metaphorically speaking,
you think that you can stay in the land because of your efforts
and your righteousness and your fighting the battle. Right? That's what you think. Now look
what he goes on to say. And not as Moses. And not as
Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished. Well, a believer's not under
the ceremonial law, but he's still under the moral law. If
you are, you are still under death. You're still under condemnation.
How are men going to walk right, just like Abraham did, by faith? By faith. Having that spirit
of love for God in the promises of Messiah. Not by the letter
of the law. Because remember, the letter
of the law even goes deeper. There is a spirit that lies behind
that law. So much so that our Lord said,
you don't even have to, and I'm gonna be blunt, you don't even
have to bed down with a woman. You just look at her to lust
after in your heart and you're already guilty. Isn't that what
he said? That's what he said. Let's go
on. But their minds were blinded. This is what he's saying about
it. But their minds were blinded for until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament.
And let me tell you something, because of the persuasion of
anti-Christ religion amongst what is called Christianity today.
Most so-called Christians have that same veil over their face
in the reading of the law and the Old Testament. Now someone
says, that's about Jews. Yes, he was talking mainly about
Jews here, but Christianity's under that same legal influence
today, or what is called Christianity. You talk to most people about
the law, they say, well, boy, I try. Don't they? Well, I wish I could do better.
Well, you better cry out for the mercy of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. What you better cry out for.
Let's go on. But their minds were blinded,
for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. You see that? But even unto this
day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their, here's the
real problem, their heart. Their heart. They don't really
get what the law is. They don't really get what grace
is. Well, God show me mercy, but I just need a little bit.
I'm doing better, Lord, and Lord, you just help me out where I
can't quite get it. It don't work like, we're a what? We are stiffed-necked people. Nevertheless, when it, that is
the heart, shall turn to the Lord, turn where? Don't turn
to the law. Don't turn to the law. Don't
turn to the kin commandments or anything else of it. Nevertheless,
when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Sinner, seek Christ. Well I have. Sinner, keep seeking
Christ. Huh? Huh? Now the Lord is the Spirit. So in other words, to get to
the Lord, the Lord's got to do it for you. You see that? You see how he just brings it
all right back around? It's God's doing here. This is
not like that old covenant. This is a new covenant. This
is a different covenant. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit,
and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Not liberty to self. Liberty
toward Jesus Christ. But we all, now it's we all who've
been liberated. That's what he's talking about.
But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the
Lord. are changed into the same image
from glory to glory. And who gets the credit? Because
who does the work? Even as by the spirit of the Lord. Now turn to Romans 7 and I'll
summarize this whole thing. Now folks, I ain't made any of
this up, have I? Now, I could have went to Exodus
34, talked about the shadows. It would still have been a true
gospel message had I told the truth about Christ. But what
I'm trying to do through this study in Exodus is don't just
do that look at the historical context and the spiritual implications
that are there. They're not just great stories
for us to learn some lessons by. Paul applied Exodus 34 to
his own day. And I ain't no prophet, but I'll
tell you, it's still happening today. Now look at Romans 7. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband.
So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another
man, she shall be called what? An adulteress. That's the definition
by law. You can't escape it, you can't
get around it, you can't side skirt it by law. It's just what
it says. Now if you're guilty of it, just
say, I'm a whore. Do you hear me? I'm talking spiritually. Even spiritually. Confess your
stiff neckness before God. Quit trying to justify it. Quit
trying to make it better. Well, I worship on the first
day of the week now, not the seventh. The seventh day is not
for worship, it's for rest. You ought to worship God every
day. But let's go on. So then if,
while her husband lives, she be married to another man, well,
he divorced me, doesn't matter. The law didn't afford a woman
that. Do you understand that? I don't
like that, but that's the law. If she be married to another,
she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Now this is the structure of
the law on this particular matter. Isn't that what Paul's saying
here? But Paul's saying this to prove
a point, to give us a foundation. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. that ye should
be what? Married to another. Christianity, salvation is not
being married to Jesus and the law. It's being married to Jesus
only. Because a death has occurred.
And a liberty has been enacted. You see it? Isn't that what he's
talking about here? Isn't that what he's talking about? That's
exactly what he's talking about here. But look what it says.
Wherefore, my brethren, you also become dead to the law by the
body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to
him who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. And that's the only way you'll ever bring forth true
fruit unto God, is that through the death and body of Jesus Christ,
you are removed from your bondage under the law and freed to marry
Jesus Christ. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered not
just from sin, but from the law itself. Why? Because it's death. It's condemnation. It's blindness. But now are we delivered from
the law that being dead wherein we're held, that we should serve
how? In newness of spirit. That don't
free you not to serve God. It don't free you to serve yourself.
It don't free you to serve your flesh. It frees you to serve
God. Serve in newness of spirit and
not in oldness of the latter. I will illustrate and close and
we will sing this closing song. You got a woman, she's widowed. She loved her first husband.
They got along well. But God took him. He's gone,
he's dead. That relationship is over with
forever. You hear what I just said? When
it comes to marital status, Even if they both were believers,
when they go to glory, they're not gonna still be husband and
wife and live together in the mansion up above. You understand
what I'm saying? They're not! Now, I know maybe
if some Christians wanna be Muslims and marry five or six if my spouse
has passed, and I can have five or six when I get to glory. It
ain't got nothing to do with that, folks. That's nothing but
fleshly trash. That's all that is. Her husband's
dead. They loved one another. She's
now free to do what? Marry somebody else. And she
marries another man. And they love one another. They
care deeply for one another. She says to the second husband,
you know what? I wish you would maybe drive me down to the cemetery
because I can't do it myself, but I'd like to put some flowers
on my first husband's grave. You know what that second husband
ought to say? That's just fine. Why? Because there's no dishonor
from that first husband. Yes, sir. It ain't about that
first husband being bad. Yeah. Drive her on down there. Better put some flowers on. That's
all right. But what if, what if that woman,
that widowed woman, but she's remarried now again, she sits
down at the dinner table. She says, all right, honey, come
on in. Time to eat dinner. And he comes
in and sits down. She says, all right, I'm going to serve you
now. I'm going to serve you. She goes over to the stove. Dishes
out all the food and brings him over a plate. Sets the plate
in front of him and says, I'll get me some too. You go ahead,
you go ahead and start. She goes over and gets her a plate, has
some food on it. Brings it over and sets it down on her spot.
But she doesn't sit down and start eating. And what does she
do? She walks back over to the stove
and gets a third plate. And puts a third plate of food and puts
that food on that plate and brings it over on a third spot and says,
here, that's for my other husband. Now how do you think that second
husband's gonna feel? You're a nut. Yes or no? Who's that food for? Who's that food for? Me and you. Who's it for? Me and you. That's what the second husband
says. Me and you. Those that are alive. Those that
are now united together. So here's the question. How many
plates you got at your table? How many plates you got at your
table? Let's stand and see in closing,
112. Yeah, it's firing him.