Alright brethren, let's go back
to Exodus chapter 24. Now our text shows us the most important
event. Our text shows us the most important
event in the history of Israel as a nation. This surpassed everything
right here. God entered into a covenant with
Israel. as a political nation, separating
them, sanctifying them as His nation. This was important to
Israel because by this, Israel was formally set apart as God's
holy nation. And this was important to Israel
because by this, by God making this covenant with them, after this came worship of God
and fellowship with God. And this is a picture, it's a
type of the greatest event in the life of a believer. When
God comes and makes His everlasting covenant of grace with us. And
it's by that covenant that He separates us and makes us His
holy people. It's by this covenant that He
brings us to worship Christ and worship God in spirit and in
truth. It's by this covenant that we actually enter into fellowship
with our God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what
I want you to see here is as God, through Moses, made the
old covenant with the temporal nation of Israel. In type, we
behold God through Christ making the new covenant with each of
His spiritual elect Israel. And get what I'm saying now?
We're going to behold God through Moses make the old covenant with
temporal Israel. And in type, that shows us God
through Christ making the new covenant with His elect spiritual
Israel. So I've titled this Beholding
the New in the Old. Beholding the New in the Old.
Let's begin here in verse 1. The first thing we behold the
new mediator in the old mediator. It says here in verse 1, God
said to Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and
Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye afar
off. and Moses alone shall come near
the Lord. But they shall not come nigh,
neither shall the people go up with him. And Moses came and
told the people all the words of the Lord. Only Moses was allowed
to draw near to God. Why were the other people not
allowed? Why were they not allowed to draw near? Every person that
God shall save is a sinner by nature. Every person God shall
save is a sinner by nature. By not allowing these other children
of Israel to draw near, God declares that no sinner, not even those
God elected unto salvation, can draw near unto Him while we're
guilty before God and while we have a defiled nature. That's
what we got from Adam in the garden. In the garden we sinned,
we broke God's law and became guilty before the law. And being
born of Adam's corrupt seed, we have a defiled nature. So
God has to do something for us to bring us into a relationship
with Him. We have to be justified before
the law and we have to be sanctified inwardly. A new man has got to
be created and we have to be separated under God. God provided
this way in the mediator. Christ Jesus. And that's who
we see here in Moses. The mediator is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Moses alone went up to God and
then Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord.
He was a go-between between God and the people. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the mediator between God and His people. That's who
Christ is. Hebrews 9.15 says He, speaking
of Christ Jesus, He is the mediator of the New Testament. See, we
see Moses as the mediator of the old covenant, Christ is the
mediator of the new. The only way, the only way to
draw near to God is through Christ Jesus the Lord. He said, I am
the way, no man comes to the Father but by me. There is one
mediator, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I have told you this story before,
But I had a friend back in Franklin, had to go to court. And he went
to court and he was sitting there and he didn't see his lawyer.
And all these people kept getting up and going up to the judge
trying to represent themselves. And that judge was letting them
have it. He was telling them, you don't
speak the law, you don't understand the law, you've broken the law,
you can't represent yourself to me. And he was letting them
have it. And so Jay was getting worried. He was getting concerned because
he didn't see his lawyer. And pretty soon the judge called
his name. And he didn't know, but his lawyer
had slipped in a side door and was sitting over here. And his
lawyer, before Jay could speak up, his lawyer spoke up and said,
I represent him. And the judge didn't call Jay,
he called his lawyer to the bench. And he went up and talked to
the judge, and the judge said, you're free to go. All sinners,
one day, are going to stand before God, the judge, in His holy courtroom. We're all going to stand there.
You don't want to come to God under the covenant of law, trusting
your works, without having an advocate. Jesus Christ is the
only way to draw near to God and be accepted. He is the one
mediator between God and His people. I pray God teach us that
because we can't come any other way. Now secondly, behold the
new living way in which we draw near to God by looking at this
old ceremonial way. In this old ceremonial way we
see the new and living way. This was an old dead way, this
was an old ceremonial way, but in it we see a type of the new
and living way. He says here in verse 3, Moses
came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all
the judgments. Now God is making with Israel
a covenant and this is a covenant He's making with them. It's a
covenant of works. All the words of the Lord, when
it says all the words of the Lord, that's the Ten Commandments
we saw in Exodus 20. And when it says and all the
judgments, that's the statutes we saw from Exodus 21 up to Exodus
23. Now, this was a conditional covenant. This was a covenant of works.
Back in Exodus 20, In verse 5, God said, If you will obey my
voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people. You see, this was a covenant
of works. There was a condition. God said, If you will, then I
will. They had to fulfill their end
of the covenant before God would fulfill His end of the covenant.
Sadly, Ignorantly, the children of Israel did what all unregenerate
sinners do. All the people, verse 3 says,
all the people answered with one voice and said all the words
which the Lord had said will we do. God heard that. You know what God said about
it? You can read it over in Deuteronomy
5, verse 29. God said, Oh, that there were
such a heart in them that they would fear me. and keep all my
commandments always, that it might be well with them and with
their children forever. Oh, that they were, that they
did have a heart in them. You see, this is what unregenerate
sinners do not know. No sinner has ever kept the law
of God by our own hands. Not one. I'll let that sink in because
this is fundamental. This is 101. This is where we
got to be brought to understand you and I can't keep the law. God didn't give it for us to
keep it though. Get this now, the law was given
only to give the knowledge of sin. That's why it was given.
This is God's Word. This is God Himself speaking.
He said, there is none righteous, no, not one. That means there
is not one that has ever kept the law. Not one. He said, what
thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. God gave the law to teach us
our sin. He said, Whatsoever the law saith. That means whatever the law saith,
it's speaking to those who are under the law to shut our mouths
in guilt by revealing to us our sin. That's what it was given
for. That's why it's called the ministration
of death. It's not the ministration of
life. It's the ministration of death. That's what it was given
for, to kill God's people. And as Paul said, when the commandment
revived, I died. All my righteousness became filthy
rags to me. That's the purpose. That's the
purpose. Since God's elect can't keep
our end of the covenant, since we can't keep that law, God sent
forth His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep our end of the
covenant for us. That's the good news. You get
that? We couldn't keep the law, so
God sent His Son to keep our end of that covenant. to keep
the law for us. In eternity, God the Father and
God the Son entered into covenant. None of God's elect have a part
in this covenant. You don't have a part in this
covenant. You don't have a work to do in this covenant and I
don't either. This is a covenant between God the Father and God
the Son. God the Father entered covenant
to send Christ to be the high priest of His people, to be the
sacrifice for His people, to live and die as the representative
of His people. And God said to him, if you will
obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be
a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. That was the covenant
God made to Christ. And you know what Christ said
to the Father? All the words which the Lord hath said will
I do. That's right. This covenant was
between them. It wasn't between us. It was
between God and His Son. So that's how the new covenant
differs from the old covenant. The old covenant was conditioned
on the sinner's obedience to the law and that obedience had
to be in thought, word and deed. You and I have broken the law
since you've been sitting here. You haven't thought perfect righteousness
since you've been sitting here, neither have I. God says that
clearly in His Word. We're sinners. We're sinners. We drink iniquity like water.
How then are we going to be made righteous? Christ made His people
righteous. And therefore, this covenant,
this everlasting covenant, is a covenant of free grace. It's
not of works, it's of grace. Christ came and kept our end
of the covenant. So, everything Moses did here, after he comes
down and tells them all the words of the law, everything Moses
did here is a picture of what Christ did for His people to
bring us near to God. Everything Moses did here is
a picture of the new and living way, Christ Jesus. Let me show
you. Alright, verse 4. Moses, it says, Exodus 24, 4,
Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. In verse 7, it says
he wrote them in the book of the covenant. The book of the
covenant. He comes down, He tells them
the Ten Commandments, He tells them all these judgments, and
the people said, we will do this, and so He writes it all down
in a book, and says, alright, here it is. Here it is in a book,
it's written down. It's a witness, right here, written
down. Well brethren, when Christ came
to represent His people, Christ didn't write the law down in
a book. He didn't write it in a book. He said, I delight to
do thy will, O God, yea, thy law is within my heart. See,
Christ came forth not like us. Christ came forth holy and without
sin. So the law of God was in His
heart to do perfectly. He lived perfectly for God. He lived perfectly under the
law for God and for His people with perfect faith and fidelity
to God. And He kept the whole law in
perfect righteousness. And it says, verse 4, Moses rose
up early in the morning. Christ said, I must be about
my father's business. Verse 4 says, Moses built an
altar under the hill. Now that altar was the altar
on which the sacrifice would be laid. Now Christ is our altar. Go to Hebrews 13, and you'll
want to hold your place in Hebrews. We're going to come back there
a little later. But Hebrews 13, verse 10, Christ
is our altar. Look here. Hebrews 13, 10, we
have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. Them who are still trying to
come to God under the law, they can't partake of this altar.
For the body, see the word body, the bodies of those beasts whose
blood, there's the body, there's the blood, that's brought into
the sanctuary, that body of those beasts whose blood is brought
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, they're burned
without the count. Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate. That's what we're having pictured
here in our text. how God's people are sanctified
by Christ Jesus. In the incarnation, God prepared
a body for Christ. And that body, it says here,
talking about the bodies of those beasts whose blood was brought
in, Christ's body was the altar on which He made His sacrifice.
He's the altar. He's the altar. And this is how
He redeemed them that were under the law. You notice Moses built
that altar under the hill. That is under the law. Christ
was made of a woman, made under the law. that he might redeem
his people from under the law. And then it says here in verse
4, it says Moses built twelve pillars. Now, that shows us that
everything Moses did here, he's doing representing the twelve
tribes of Israel. He's not representing any of
those nations around Israel. He's only representing the twelve
tribes of Israel. Christ Jesus came forth and He
did not represent everybody in the world without exception.
He represented God's chosen, elect Israel. That's who He represented. That's who Christ represented.
Now, verse 5. He says, He sent young men of
the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed
peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. Now these young men
represent priests because at this time God had not instituted
a priesthood yet. And they are a picture of Christ
our High Priest. Some people say these were the
firstborn of the twelve tribes of Israel. In each tribe there
was the firstborn. Christ is the firstborn among
many brethren. That's who He is. Now, by this
sacrifice, they made a covenant with God. Listen to this, from
Psalm 50 verse 5, God said, Gather my saints together unto me, those
that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. So that's what they were doing
there. By these sacrifices, they were entering into this covenant
with God. But you see, in the new covenant,
That's what Christ did for His people. Christ came forth and
He fulfilled the new covenant with God on our behalf, not by
the blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood. He sacrificed
His body on the altar. He sacrificed Himself and it's
His blood that was spilled out to redeem His people, not the
blood of bulls and goats. And by sacrificing himself under
the justice of God's offended law, he gave the law everything
it demanded for his people. The law cannot ask another thing
of one of God's elect people. Not another thing. We have completely,
totally fulfilled the law in every jot and tittle in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't you see what good news
that is? If you're ever brought to find out that you can't keep
it, then that'll be good news. But not until then. Not until
then. As long as we're walking around
with our chest poked out, some little haughty, arrogant sinner
before God, boasting about how we can keep the law, we're rejecting
Christ. Because God is pleased with His
Son. And God said, hear Him. Hear
Him. Believe on Him. And you'll find
rest. That's the law of the New Covenant.
Faith which worketh by love. Faith in Christ. That's the new
law of the New Covenant. Now, that's what Christ meant
when He instituted the Lord's Table. You remember the wine
represents His blood poured out to fulfill the covenant with
God for His people. And so Christ said when He gave
them the wine, He said this is the new testament, the new covenant
in my blood. That's what we have pictured
here by these sacrifices and peace offerings. Christ made
that sacrifice Himself on the cross for His people. And so
the covenant was fully made by Christ on behalf of His people.
And then with the blood from those sacrifices, we're told
in verse 6, Moses took half of the blood, put it in basins,
and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. There's a work
here that had to be done for God and for His people. First of all, we had to be justified
before God. That's what's pictured by Him
sprinkling the blood on the altar. Christ justified His people from
our sins, laying down His life for us under the justice of God.
That's what's pictured by the blood on the altar. And then
the other part of this work to bring us into communion with
God and fellowship with God is we have to be sanctified. We
have to be set apart, made holy by our Lord Jesus through His
blood so that we can have communion with God. Verse 24, 7. That's what we see here. He took
the book of the covenant. He sprinkled that book with blood
too. We'll see that in a moment. And he read in the audience of
the people and they said all that the Lord had said will we
do and be obedient. Now Moses read the words of that
covenant. He read all the words of it.
And that brought forth a confession from the children of Israel.
And they said, we'll keep all the words of this law and be
obedient. Well, what does Christ write on our hearts? When the
scripture says the Holy Spirit writes His law on our hearts,
what does He write on our hearts? We already had the law written
on our hearts. If you read Romans 2, it says
the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts. We already had
that written on our hearts. What is it He writes on our hearts?
He writes the law of faith, the law of righteousness. the law
of liberty. He writes the gospel on our heart
revealing to us that Christ already fulfilled the law for us and
redeemed us from the curse and that has entered into God's right
hand and we're seated with Him there in heaven. He's our life. He's our righteousness. He's
our holiness. By one offering He hath perfected
rejected forever them that are sanctified. This is the good
news that the Spirit of God reveals to us. And when He does, brethren,
we're not brought to say, I'll keep all the law. We're brought
to confess our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how
we keep the law of God, through faith in Christ. That's exactly
what Paul meant at the end of Romans 3. He showed, he developed
that point so well showing we can't keep the law. And then
he said, but God sent His Son to be the propitiation through
faith in His blood. And he said then at the end,
do we then make void the law by believing on Christ? No. By
believing on Christ, we establish the law. And then he said, look
at Abraham. He's an example. Abraham lived
430 years before the law at Sinai was ever given. He didn't even
have the law. And how did he fulfill it? Through
faith in Christ. That's how. So we don't make
void the law through faith. We preach this gospel and people
say, oh, you're an antinomian. You make void the law. No, we
don't. This is the only way to establish
the law. Christ established it. and we're
brought to believe on Him and trust Him for our righteousness.
Do you get that? That's the Gospel. That's the
Gospel. And so Moses here, he brought
them to confess and then he took the blood and he sprinkled it
on the people. Verse 8, he sprinkled it on the
people and he said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the
Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. Now that ceremonially,
In type, it sanctified the children of Israel so God could receive
them. But God did all this to give you and me a picture. That's
all it was. And it pictured that by sprinkling
the blood of Christ on us, He purges our conscience from all
those dead works so that we can actually now, the law is taken
out of the way, So we can actually serve the true and living God.
We can have fellowship with God through faith in Christ. And
that's what He shows us here. All of this typifies Christ's
blood by which we're brought now to God. Preacher, can you
support that? Can you show me that from Scripture?
Hebrews 9. Turn there with me. Hebrews 9. Look at verse 14. He said there, ìIf the blood
of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh,î verse 14, ìhow much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?î Remember Paul said,
He said, I'm crucified with Christ now that I might live unto God. We're not living unto Moses.
We're not living unto the law. Christ has fulfilled it. He did
this justly. He established it. So He took
it out of the way, nailing it to His cross, so that now we
can serve the true and living God. And let's look at this. And for this cause, He, Christ,
is the mediator of the New Testament. Now here's the cause, that by
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the first testament, we all sinned in Adam, that was
the first testament, we all became guilty in Adam, all the way up
to the time Christ came, all those transgressions, Christ
died for His elect, so that they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. Now I want you to get this right
here. This is important. This is where a lot of people,
they misunderstand this and so they don't understand God's relationship
to that temporal carnal Israel. That first covenant that He made
with Israel was not spiritual. It was not eternal. It was a
temporal covenant of works. That's what it was. It was promising
an earthly temporal blessing in that temporal land of Canaan. That's all it offered. And God
fulfilled it. You can go read Joshua and through
Joshua He said, What is there that I have not fulfilled? Which
of My promises have I not fulfilled to you? He fulfilled everything
He promised to Israel in that covenant. Everything. So that's
done now. That's over. But it pictured,
brethren, the new covenant, and that covenant is spiritual. It
is eternal. It promises spiritual blessings
in our heavenly inheritance, which is heavenly Canaan. This
is the everlasting covenant of grace. Now watch. So it was through
death, for where a testament is, where a covenant is, there
must also, of necessity, be the death of the testator. For a
testament is only a force after men are dead. Otherwise, it is
of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Do you understand
that? Whereupon, neither the first
testament was dedicated without blood. This is our text we've
been looking at. Neither that first covenant was
dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every
precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood
of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop,
and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This
is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto
you. Now what did it picture? I said
it pictured the blood of Christ by which we're sanctified. Moreover,
he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels
of the ministry, and almost all things are by the law purged
with blood. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Here's the point. It was therefore
necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should
be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are, they were figures
and types of the true, but He's entered into heaven itself now
to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that He should
offer Himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy
place every year with the blood of others. For then must He have
suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in
the end of the world has He appeared, and here's what He came to do,
and this is what He did. to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. God said the law wasn't made
for a righteous man. If Christ put away your sin,
the law has nothing to say to you because you're a righteous
man. You can drive from here to San Diego, California, and
if you do the speed limit, the law won't say a word to you.
Nothing. It's only when you break it that
the law is going to say something to you. Well, Christ fulfilled
it so the law will not say anything to His people, not ever. He were
righteous in Christ. Look, And as it appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the
sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall they appear
a second time without sin unto salvation. All of that we're
looking at in our text pictures of Christ. So sinner, don't attempt
to come to God under that legal covenant of works. Don't attempt
that. Come to God trusting Christ. It's by this new covenant that
God makes with us Ordered in all things insure, David said.
That means there's nothing for you and I to do. It's ordered
in all things insure. It's by this covenant that God
makes us His. It's by this covenant that He
separates us through the blood of Christ and joins us to Him
and we become His. Listen to this from Ezekiel 16.8.
When I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
the time of love. and I spread my skirt over thee,
the righteousness of Christ, and I covered thy nakedness.
Yea, I swear unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith
the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. That's how He separates
us unto Himself. That's sanctification. We're
His and made holy by Him. Now lastly, because Christ did
this, I want you to behold our new relationship to God in their
old relationship. Because Christ accomplished all
this for us, we see a type of our new relationship looking
at their new old relationship. Look here. The chapter began
with the people unable to come near to God. That's how it began. They couldn't come near to God.
What about now? Look at verse 9. Then went up
Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders
of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. That was a pre-incarnate
sight of Christ, because Scripture says no man has yet seen God
and lived. They saw Christ. He's the mediator.
And there was under His feet, as it were, a paved work of a
sapphire stone, just like you read in Revelation. and as it
were the body of heaven in His clearness. And upon the nobles
of the children of Israel, upon all these that went there with
Moses, God laid not His hand. He received them. He didn't condemn
them. He received them. Also, they
saw God and did eat and drink in God's presence. Today, we
can draw near to God because Christ has made with us and everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all our
salvation. Now we can draw near. Go back
to Hebrews 10. Let me show you. Hebrews 10.
Look at verse 15. Well, verse 14 says, by one offering
He's perfected forever them that are sanctified. He made us perfectly
holy, perfectly set apart by His one offering. That one sacrifice
in our text, those one sacrifice peace offerings, the blood justified
them and the same blood sanctified them, didn't it? So by one offering
He justified us and He sanctified us. whereof the Holy Ghost also
is a witness to us. This is what the Holy Spirit
teaches us when we're born of God. For after that He had said
before, this is the covenant I'll make with them after those
days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts.
There it is. The law of faith, the law of
love. That's what He writes on our
heart. And in their minds will I write them. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. That's what He writes
on our heart. He teaches us there's nothing to be done. Where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. And here is
what He teaches us. Now therefore brethren, having
therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus. We can draw near by a new and
living way. which He hath consecrated for
us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. And having
a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with
a true heart, in full assurance of faith. Why? Having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. By the blood of Christ we've
been made holy so we can draw near to God like they did in
ceremony and tithe. So then, When they got there,
they saw God, and God fed them, they ate in God's presence. So
now that we have this, and that pictured acceptance, that pictured
fellowship with God, that they could eat and drink in His presence.
So now brethren, because of what Christ has done for us, we're
going to come to the Lord's table today. All His saints here, that's
been sanctified by His blood, who trust Him alone, we're coming
to His table. And we're going to eat and drink
in His presence. We're going to drink of this
unleavened bread, pitch and this broken body which was broken
for us. We're going to drink of this shed blood which He said
is the New Testament in my blood. And we're going to do it because
He said do this remembering Me. Because He gave us this nearness. We can come to His table now
without fear. We have fellowship with God.
And as they did that, there was also a picture of us. We're going
to eat this table looking for the day Christ returns. And then
we're going to see Him. They saw God. We're going to
see Christ face to face and be changed into His image. And in
that day, we're going to go to the marriage supper of the Lamb
and feast with Christ in His kingdom. Isn't that a beautiful
picture of how this new covenant is all our standing with God.
That's what David said. He's made with me a new covenant
ordered in all things insure and this is all my salvation.
I'm not looking anywhere else but to Christ. He's not at all.
I'm not looking to my hand for anything. He did it all. Can
you say that believer? If so, you're welcome at His
table because His blood has sanctified us and we have fellowship with
God. Amen. Alright, Brother Rob, you and
Kevin, I want you to pass out the elements.