Let's go to Exodus 34. Verse 28 says, Moses was there with the
Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He's in the Mount Sinai. He did
neither eat bread nor drink water, and he wrote upon the tables
the words of the covenant, 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 didn't know that the skin of his face shone
while he talked with him. 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 him. 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 that 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, he
took the veil off until he came out. And he came out and he spake
unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. 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 him. Now Moses here
is a type of Christ our mediator. He's a type of Christ. Like Moses,
Christ fasted 40 days and 40 nights. Like Moses, he was there
with the Lord those 40 days and 40 nights. When he walked this
earth, He didn't eat, when he fasted, he neither did eat bread
nor drink water. He was sustained by every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The word of God's our
life. It's our bread. Temporary things
are temporary. Temporal things are temporary.
We live by the word of God. Moses came down with the old
covenant. He came down with the 10 commandments
written on stone. Now be sure to note that God
says those 10 commandments were the covenant. That was the covenant. He wrote upon the tables the
words of the covenant, the 10 commandments. Now all the rest
of the laws included under the old covenant, but this right
here is what he came down with written on stones. Those stone
tablets had been broken previously. They'd been broken previously.
We broke the 10 commandments in Adam. We broke the whole law
of God. and born with a corrupt nature that breaks it constantly.
Only God in Christ restored the law. He honored and magnified
his law. Only God does that. That means
Christ is the only one that ever kept the law. You and I never have. Christ came down with the law
in his heart. Just like Moses, when he came
down, he put those tablets in the ark under the mercy seat.
God said, that's where I'll meet you. He didn't put them in their
hands. He put them in the ark under
the mercy seat. Christ is our ark. He's the one whose blood
has made propitiation, and he's that propitiation. He's that
seat of mercy where God will meet with you, where his blood
covers the whole law. He said, I'll meet with you there.
Now the glory in Moses' face, what do we see here? It says
verse 29, it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the two tables of testimony in his hand, he came down from
the mount and Moses wished not that the skin of his face shone
while he talked with him. What was, who was Moses talking
to in the mount? Well there's only one mediator,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't have any doubt that's
who Moses was speaking with in the mount. He beheld the glory
of God in the face of Christ Jesus. That's where we behold
it. And that's where all light comes from. The countenance of
our Lord Jesus. Look upon us with your countenance,
Lord, and we shall live. Look upon us with your countenance
and we will live and follow Thee. And it's through the glory of
Christ's face, all His glory, that He gives us light in every
way. in every way, and he teaches
us that he obeyed, he teaches us what the law says to us, and
he teaches us by that that we're dead in sins, incapable of keeping
his law, and he teaches us his commandment to believe on him,
through whom we've fulfilled the law. He teaches us to love
one another, he teaches us the law of liberty, setting us free
from the yoke of bondage, never again to be entangled therewith.
He teaches us the law of Christ, the law of love, which is to
bear one another's burdens and restore one another to Christ.
Christ teaches us this. He teaches us this. The law says
don't kill. Well, then how come Abraham went
up that mountain and was going to kill Isaac? If you're just
looking at the letter of the law, that's gonna leave you very
confused. You're not gonna understand why Abraham, in God's eye, killed
his son. In his heart, he killed his son,
and God said it was a work of faith that he declared, showed
that he had faith in Christ. We won't understand that until
we have newness of spirit from Christ by his glory, teaching
us that everything we do, we do it looking to Christ. That's
why Moses, I mean Abraham, was accepted. He was looking to Christ. How come if your letter of the
law says to you, don't bear false witness, well, you're gonna be
confused when you go to James and he says, look at Rahab, how
she lied to those spies and how that's a beautiful work of faith. You gotta be seeing Christ. You
gotta be looking to Christ to understand that what she did,
she did for the glory of Christ. And God said it was evidence
of faith in her heart. The shining on his face also
declares that the old covenant, the Ten Commandments, was glorious. They were glorious. Go to 2 Corinthians
3, and you'll want to mark 2 Corinthians 3. We'll come back and forth.
But that old covenant, that law was glorious. 2 Corinthians 3,
verse 6, Paul says, God has made us able ministers of the New
Testament, the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. That's what I was just speaking
about, the Spirit. We have to know the Spirit. If
we just know the letter, we're not going to understand a thing.
We have to know the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit
giveth life. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, we just saw that was the Ten
Commandments, right? It was glorious, so that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of
Moses for the glory of his countenance. That's the first thing We see
there, it shows us something of the glory of the old covenant.
It was glorious. How was the Ten Commandments
glorious? Because they were a killing letter. Glorious as a killing letter.
That's what he said, glorious as the ministration of death,
given to administer death to those God makes to hear it. It
was glorious as a ministration of condemnation. That was the
purpose. Paul asked, why then? What serves
the law? He was given because of transgression.
He was given to teach you and me our sin. That's what it's
for. It only speaks to those who are
under it. It's the only ones it speaks
to. But to everybody that's under it, it says, you're dead. You're
condemned. You're a liar. You've never kept
me. Paul said, I thought it was ordained
to life. I thought God ordained it to
life. I thought I was supposed to keep that law to live. I thought
it was a rule of life. He said, but then Christ made
the commandment, came and I found out he ordained it to death.
And my self-righteous self died. And all my works died when I
heard the law speak, really speak to me. Well, I keep the law. You let somebody honk at you
at a traffic light, see if you keep the law. You let somebody
cut you off in traffic, see if you keep the law. When that anger
swells up, you just killed somebody. And God says, you never kept
it. You never kept it. And here's something else. That
law, that purpose, the Ten Commandments, not only administration of death,
not a rule of life, administration of death. Here's something else. The glory on Moses' face foreshadowed
that if that old covenant of Ten Commandments was glorious,
his new covenant is far more glorious. Now look here. Look,
that new covenant excels. It excels. Look there in 2 Corinthians
3. He says it excels. He said, if the ministration
of death was glorious, so that the children of Israel couldn't
behold Moses' face for the glory of his countenance, which glory
was to be done away, that covenant, those commandments were to be
done away. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be
rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
was glorious, much more does the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect. He said it didn't even
have glory in this respect, but reason of the glory that exceleth.
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that
which remaineth is glorious. The New Covenant excels because
the covenant, it excels the covenant of the law because Christ through
it gives spiritual life. The letter gave death, Christ
gives us life, eternal life, never to die. You know, the only
way you can have eternal life is if you have no sin. The only
way you can have eternal life, it means it's equal with righteousness. That means, the law says that
to me, law says you're righteous. The law says you have no sin.
You've never had any in the past, you don't have any in the present,
you won't have any in the future, ever. That's how God says. That's the glory of this life
and this righteousness. It ministers to us. The Ten Commandments
cease being precepts to us and they become promises that we've
already kept in Christ. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart. You've done it perfectly. in
Christ. You shall love your neighbor
as you should. You've already done it perfectly in Christ.
You can't not do it. That's the promise. It's the
promise of God. You worship God only. If a man's
righteous by Christ, that means he's fulfilled the law. If a
man has life, he has a perfect standing before the law in Christ
our righteousness. And the law wasn't made for a
righteous man. Listen to 1 Timothy 1 and verse
5. Listen. This is what I've been
saying. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart. That's that new heart we saw
this morning. And there's the law of love. That's the statute
Christ said I'm going to write on their heart and they're going
to keep my law. And here's the other. In a good conscience and
faith unfeigned, he writes the law of faith on our heart, and
you believe Christ. That's the end of my law keeping.
I got Christ. I got a perfect righteousness.
I got a perfect righteousness. From which some, having swerved,
have turned aside to vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the
law. understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.
But we know the law is good if a man uses it lawfully. If you
use the law to declare all men sinners and guilty before God,
you're using it for the reason it was given. That's the lawful
use of it. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man. Are you righteous in Christ?
If you're righteous in Christ, you're not under the law. not
as a covenant, not as a condemnation, and not as a commandment. You're
not under it. You need to learn what it is
to be under the commandment of Christ. We're under a different
commandment. We're under the commandment of
Christ. We're not under those commandments. We're under the
commandment of Christ. Who's the law made for? You say, I'm
under the law. I'm keeping the law. Here's what
you are. You're lawless. You're disobedient. You're ungodly.
You're a sinner. You're unholy. You're profane.
You're a murderer of fathers, a murderer of mothers. You're
a manslayer. You're a whoremonger. You're defiling yourselves with
mankind. You're a menstealer. You're a liar. You're a perjurer
of person. And anything else is contrary to sound doctrine.
The law doesn't speak to anybody. that's righteous. It only speaks
to them that are under the law, that are guilty. It's only once. Only once. The old covenant,
including the Ten Commandments written on stone, was glorious,
but it was a glory to be done away. The everlasting covenant excels
because it's everlasting. Paul says it was a glory which
was to be done away. He said it had no glory in comparison
to the new covenant. He said it was to be done away
and that new covenant is the covenant that remains. Look at
Hebrews 7.15, I want you to see this. I've said to you several
times lately, the Ten Commandments, they're spiritual in the sense
they reach to your heart and they declare you guilty within,
but the Ten Commandments are carnal. That was a carnal covenant. It was just speaking to carnal
men, that's all. It was to declare us guilty in
our sinful flesh. That's all it was for. And it
promised, the cold covenant promised earthly promises in an earthly
Canaan. That's all God promised by it,
if they could keep it. And they didn't keep it. God
fulfilled every promise he made to Israel. They didn't fulfill
one of them. But here's what God says about, look at Hebrews
7.15. is made a high priest after the
similitude of Melchizedek. After his similitude, there arises
another priest who's made not after the law of a carnal commandment. He's not made under that old
covenant, the Ten Commandments. He wasn't made after that covenant.
That's a carnal commandment. But after the power of an endless
life For he testifieth thou to priests forever after the order
of Melchizedek. There's verily a disannulling,
you know what disannulling means, don't you? It means you don't
have any power. It's done away with. There's
a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness
and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect,
never has. Life can't be obtained by it.
But the bringing of a better hope did, by the which we draw
nigh to God." That's this new covenant. Perfection has been
accomplished by this new covenant. Now don't misunderstand me. Moses
came down, he had those two tables of testimony, he had the old
covenant, he had those Ten Commandments in his hand. The preachers say,
well now the believer's under the law in Christ's hand. He's
under the Ten Commandments in Christ's hand. Well Christ did
come down with the Ten Commandments in his hand the first time he
came down. He sure did. And in his heart. Sinless. Absolutely perfect. That means he's righteous. He
had no sin from the womb. That's why he's the only one
that ever kept it. He's the only one that ever kept the ceremonial
law of being the first to break the matrix. Because he's the
only one that was born of a virgin. Nobody's ever kept the law. Not
me and you. That's Christ's glory. Stop trying
to steal Christ's glory. That belongs to him, not you
and me. But it came down and he had it in his hand and in
his heart and he fulfilled it. He didn't just abolish it, he
fulfilled it. He said, not one jot or tittle
will pass away to all be fulfilled. And he fulfilled it all, every
bit of it. Not this, oh, I'm keeping the
law and just what you see outwardly, but in your heart, you're a devil.
No, he kept it. He kept it in his heart and outwardly. And he magnified it. We see the
magnification of the holy law in his holiness, who from a holy
heart obeyed the whole commandment. We see the justice of the law
in that when sin was found on his son, God spared not his own
son. You think he's gonna spare you?
You think God's gonna look at you and say, well, you did a
pretty good job of keeping it? If you say you keep the law,
you know what you're saying? You're saying you're righteous because
that's the only thing that keeping the law is. You're saying you're
just. That's the only thing keeping
the law is. He's the only just one. And he justified all his
people from our sin by going under the penalty of it. You
wanna see the goodness of the law? You wanna see the love of
the law? Here's what it takes to fulfill it. You got to be
made a curse for God to declare him just, and you got to lay
down your life under that curse to justify your brethren. That's
the righteousness, the righteous love that fulfilled the law.
And some little puny maggot of a man's gonna boast that he's
kept the law? God forbid. God forbid. He writes the law
of faith on our heart, and we believe Him by His Spirit. He sheds His love abroad in our
heart, and we love Him and our brethren by His Spirit. And that's
the light and easy yoke we're under. You're saying that a man
can commit adultery. They always list outward sins,
don't they? No, I'm not saying a man can't,
but I'm saying you do it every day. But in Christ, we've never
done it once. It's Christ's glory that He alone
is the righteous fulfillment of the law. Moses' face shined
without Moses knowing it. Christ didn't have to do anything
to be the glory of God. Everything He did was glorious,
and everything He did, we see the glory of God in His fulfillment.
But it's what I'm saying, He is the righteousness we gotta
have. Christ is righteousness. A person
is righteousness. They are ignorant of God's righteousness
because Christ is that righteousness. It's not just a doctrine. It's
not just a legal requirement. It's not just trying to understand
how we're under the law or not under the law. You gotta have
Christ your righteousness. When you have him, you will understand
it. Well, look what happened. They
were fearful of that light, though. Verse 30, when Aaron and all
the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face
shone, and they were afraid to come near him. That's me and
you by nature. We're afraid of Christ getting
all the glory. We want some of it. Our Lord
said, everyone that does evil hates the light. He's talking
about Christ, the glory of Christ. He won't come to the light. Why? Because his law keeping is going
to be reproved as disobedience. And he won't let it go. He's
not going to let it go. He's not going to say, that's
my only righteousness is Christ. He ain't going to do it. To speak
of Christ being the end of the law to the believer makes a will
worker afraid because it tears down his false refuge. But Christ
calls his redeemed to himself. Verse 31, 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 that the Lord had spoken with him in the mount." That's
what Christ did. Our mediator, our prophet, he
called his apostles and his preachers and his ministers first, just
like he called the rulers, and then he called all his children
to him through their gospel. And Moses' face shined now, remember,
because he'd been there in God's presence. He heard the gospel.
Christ said, he spoke of me. And he saw Christ, he understood
this thing. And Moses came down, and here's
what Christ's preacher's gonna preach. He's gonna say, this
law says you're guilty. These 10 commandments say you're
guilty. And here's what this ceremonial law said. It says
Christ is the high priest. He's got to represent you to
God. He's the lamb, it's only his blood that put away our sin.
He's the mercy seeker, he's the only place God'll have communion
with you. He is the fulfillment. But he had that treasure in earthen
vessels. He couldn't make them believe
that. And I can't make a sinner believe this. That's the glory
that belongs to Christ. The excellence of powers of him,
not of us. What about the veil on and off?
Here's what we see, verse 33. For Moses had done speaking with
them, he put a veil on his face. What does that mean? The veil
on the face typifies the blindness of a natural man. Now that doesn't
mean he's not religious. That doesn't mean he's not zealous
for the law, but he's blind. It's the veil on the heart of
the carnal sinner. Go to 2 Corinthians 3 and I'll show you that. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 12. Paul
says, seeing then we have such hope. We have this glorious new
covenant. We use great plainness of speech.
We try to make sure everybody understands what we're saying.
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 law which
is abolished. What's at the end of that law?
Paul said Christ is the end. They couldn't see Christ. They
couldn't see Christ. They couldn't see to the end
of the law. They couldn't see what the law was saying. Listen, but their
minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil
untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. That's so
of every natural man. Which veil's done away in Christ,
that's the only way the veil's gonna be done away. But even
to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
When we preach Christ and we preach he's the end of the law,
the end of that which is abolished, We say He delivered us from the
ordinances that were against us, nailing them to His cross.
And when we preach that, men that can't hear and won't bow
to Christ and won't look to Christ alone, here's why. 2 Corinthians
4.3 says, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them
which believe not. Here's the only way they're gonna
be saved, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who
is the image of God, should shine unto them. That's what we see
in Moses' faith. But when Moses went before the
Lord, he took that veil off. Why? Why did he take the veil
off when he went before the Lord? Here's what it pictured. Back
in 2 Corinthians 3.14. He said, which veil is done away
in Christ. Look at verse 16. Nevertheless,
when it, the heart, shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be
taken away. When Moses went in before the
Lord and saw Christ, the veil was gone. And he said, when your
heart's turned to Christ, this veil will be gone. You're going
to understand that law, what it says. Now the Lord is that
spirit. We can't do this. Where the spirit
of the Lord is, there's liberty. If the Son sets you free, you'll
be free indeed. But we all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord. Now see what he says there? We're not talking about just
the glory of a covenant, the glory of a new covenant. The
glory we're talking about is Christ's glory. We gotta be turned
to Christ's glory. The veil won't be removed till
we behold Christ is the glory of God. He's the one that's gonna
get all the glory. But when we behold him, were
changed into the same image from the glory of that old covenant
law to glory of Christ our righteousness himself. And that's by the spirit
of the Lord. Only Christ can do that. Look
down at 2 Corinthians 4.6. For God commanded the light to
shine out of darkness to shine in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus is that spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. He said, if the Son shall make
you free, what's He making us free from? The law. You'll be
free indeed. You'll be under the law of liberty.
You'll be under the gospel of God's grace. Then you're free
indeed. Then you're under a light and easy rule of faith and love.
Then you're not under law, you're under grace. What does that mean? You ever get fearful that you're
not keeping the law? Does a preacher ever make you
fearful you're not keeping the law? And by that he constrained
you and you go back to doing what you ought to do. That's
a lie of hell is what that is and you're in bondage. That's
not the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God doesn't bring
us into bondage again. The Spirit of God frees us from
bondage. He purges your conscience from
dead works so that now you serve the living God from a heart that
wants to. Wants to be in His presence.
Wants to be among His people. Wants to hear His gospel. Wants
to forgive. Wants to be merciful. Doesn't
want to take somebody to the law. Why? Because He don't do
that to me! He's freed me and I want to treat
my brother, I want to do to them like I want to be done. It's freedom, it's peace, it's
rest, it's joy. You couldn't pay me a million
dollars to go into a reformed church and sit for not even two
days. I'm serious, you couldn't. For
one, I'm not going to hear the glory of my Redeemer shared with
a man. But I wouldn't do it. I would not do it. We don't worship
different doctrines, we worship different gods. We speak plainly,
we speak boldly, and that's so. We're not worshiping different
doctrines, we're worshiping different gods. The God we worship succeeded
in what he did, and he don't need your help. And when he works
in the heart of his people, he makes his people obedient from
the heart. Not just this pharisaical, I'm
doing what I'm doing because I don't want the preacher to
see me. Well, guess what? Paul said, he ain't keeping the
law either. He ain't. Your preacher ain't keeping the
law. He ain't never kept the law. He's doing what he does
so you see him, so you keep paying him, so he can have his nice
house and his nice car. He ain't keeping the law. And
he won't preach this message because if he does, you'll take
that away from him. It's called the offense of the
cross, and a man won't preach it until God gives him boldness
to stand on his hind legs and tell the truth about God. The
veil on Moses' face reminds us of one more thing, brethren.
Even as believers right now, we see through a glass darkly.
But this change is coming, and it's coming in perfection. The
day we behold Christ, we're going to behold Him face to face. Right
now, just beholding His glory through faith makes a miraculous
change. But just imagine when we see
Him face to face. We now see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. Brethren, now are we the
sons of God. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when we shall appear, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Brethren, enjoy the worship of
God. Enjoy it. If it's a burden to
you, if it's a chore to you, if it's something you gotta do,
you're not doing it. Not before God. You're not doing
it. But if you enjoy worshiping God,
if you really enjoy hearing Christ get all the glory and man get
none, if you really enjoy resting in Christ, if you really enjoy
Him, and you like to read His Word, and you enjoy hearing of
Him, rejoice in Him. Walk in Him. And He will make
you walk in Him. He will... Paul called it being married
to a new husband. And you know when you're married
to a husband, it's from that husband that you're going to
produce fruit if you're a woman. You're going to produce fruit
from that husband. And that's the only way we produce fruit.
It's from Christ. It's from Christ. Well, like
Paul said, I delight in the law of God. I delight in the Ten
Commandments from the inward man. But I'm not going to lie
and tell folks I've kept the law. because I see another law
in my members warring against that law of the inward man. And
in my flesh is nothing good but sin. That's mixed with everything. There's only one that kept the
law, that's Christ. He's the only one. Oh boy, Paul,
you go through the scriptures, you see how many places Paul
said people's observing days and times and seasons, whatever.
And Paul said, I'm fearful of you, you scare me. You want to
go back and dig up that old husband? He's dead. You're dead to him. But you want to go back and you
want to engage in necrophilia? And your religion be a religion
of the dead? Of digging up the dead husband
and worshiping him and putting fliers on his grave? No, we follow
Christ. It's called walking after the
Spirit. It's called being led of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit works in His people through this message. And He makes you
follow Him. He mortifies your flesh. He strengthens
your inner man. He makes you follow Christ. It's
Him. And so brethren, this is the
children's bread. And I pray Christ doesn't come
down from Mount Sinai. He comes down from Mount Zion
through this message. And he comes down, not to his
child with the law of 10 commandments in his hand, he comes down with
the covenant of grace in his hand and says, I fulfilled that
for you. There's forgiveness with God
that he may be feared. That's the only way you're going
to be made to hate your sin and love him and follow him. I could
sit up here and whip you with the law, whip you with the law
and make you so angry that all you'd want to do is just get
out of here as fast as you can so you could go break it. but
I could preach Christ as the end of the law and how that he's
the fulfillment of it and he'll melt that heart. He'll melt that
heart and he'll mortify that flesh and he'll make you want
to follow him and make you hate your sin from the heart. He gets all the glory. What does
scripture say? Of God are you in Christ, who
of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. So that he that glories, let
him glory in the Lord. He's everything. Amen.