Alright brethren, let's go to
Exodus 19. Exodus 19. Moses went up to God, verse 3. And the Lord called unto him
out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house
of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what
I did unto the Egyptians. how I bear you on eagles' wings
and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey
my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye
shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These
are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. There's only one way that God
brings us to obey His voice and to keep His law. That's what
He says there when He says, you obey my voice and keep my covenant.
There's only one way. God uses the law as our schoolmaster
to teach us we're guilty. To teach us we can do nothing
of ourselves to make ourselves righteous and holy and accepted
of God. And using the law, our Lord forces
us to Christ so that we cry out for a mediator. And then He reveals
Christ to us and brings us to believe on Christ. I've titled
this message, From the Schoolmaster to Christ. That's what we see
happen here. From the schoolmaster, the law,
bringing these folks in type and picture to Christ. First
of all, we see the pride that's in you and me by nature. This
is the pride of fallen man. This is in every man by nature. Verse 7, Moses came and called
for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all
these words which the Lord commanded. And all the people answered together
and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will That's how all unregenerate,
spiritually ignorant men approach God's Word. That's how they hear
God's Law. They heard God say, if you'll
obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you'll be a peculiar treasure
unto me, you'll be a holy priesthood unto me. And immediately they
said, all together, Altogether, they said, all that the Lord
has commanded, we will do it. We will do it. Unregenerate man,
a man lost in sin, a man dead in sin, picks up this Bible and
he reads it and he thinks he can do whatever God commands
him to do in the law of Sinai. When I was lost, I went to this
book for one reason, to find out something that I could do.
What did God say needed to be done and I want to do it. Men time and time again came
to our Lord. Lord, good master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? Just tell me, I'll do it. Whatever
you say, I'll do it. Every man born of Adam presumes
he's good inwardly. He presumes that he's good inwardly.
But the truth is he's deceitful and corrupt inwardly. Spiritually ignorant inwardly. Every child of Adam presumes
he has power within himself to do anything God commands, when
the truth is we're totally incapable of doing anything. Scripture
says, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God because they're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them because they're spiritually discerned. There's a host of
parents living in this day and time that don't want their children
to become religious in any way whatsoever. Because they don't
want to have to deal with their conscience being pricked by the
Word of God. So they don't tell their children
anything about God. They don't want their children
to know anything about God. And the reason is, everything
about this book is foolishness unto them. This is foolishness
unto them. When God says there is a worse
problem than that, they can't know it. They can't know it. Now that's the pride of man.
He thinks that any time he gets ready, he'll come to God's Word
and he'll just do what it says and he'll be alright. That's
what the devil has most deceived and their flesh has them deceived
that, you know, I'm going to wait till years down the road
and then I'll get religion and I'll turn over a new leaf and
I'll do whatever God says to do and I'll be alright. But till
then I'm going to kick up my heels and have a good time. He
can't do it. He can't do it. Secondly, we
see Christ our mediator typified once again. We've seen this before
in the earlier part of the chapter. We see it again. We see it over
and over through these chapters. Verse 8, second part says, Moses
returned the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people
may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. And
Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. Our text is at
Mount Sinai where God's given the law to the children of Israel
and Galatians 3.19 says the law was given in the hand of a mediator. Moses here pictured Christ. Ten
times God spoke with Moses alone and the children of Israel spoke
to Moses alone and Moses took the words of God to the children
of Israel and he took the words of the children of Israel to
God. Ten times right here in this passage that happens. That's
a mediator. going between the two. But in
Galatians 3 he tells us, but a mediator is not a mediator
of one. See, God was one party in this
and Moses was one with the children of Israel in this. So, though
he's a picture of a mediator, he's not the true mediator. But
you know who really gave that law to Moses? Who it was speaking
to Moses in the mount? Anytime God speaks to a man,
Christ the mediator speaking to him. Because you can't come
to God any other way. And you can't be spoken to any
other way than through a mediator. And that's Christ. He's God and
man. So He can mediate both. You understand
that? And we have to have a mediator.
Now thirdly, God declares that due to our sins, we must be sanctified
before we can approach God. We're sinners, corrupt, unrighteous,
we have to be sanctified before we can approach God. Look at
verse 10. The Lord said unto Moses, He said this to Moses,
He said, Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow
and let them wash their clothes and be ready the third day. Three days. He said you are going
to sanctify them in three days. Today, tomorrow, and then be
ready the third day. The Lord will come down in the
sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. He said they have
to be sanctified. That means set apart, made pure,
made clean, made holy. Made whole. Pure like God is pure. By Adam's
disobedience, we were made just the opposite. By Adam's disobedience,
we were made unrighteous, guilty before the law of God and also
because we were born of Adam, it means that we were born of
corrupt seed, his corruption so that our nature is defiled.
By conception, I was conceived in sin. I was conceived of Adam
and my nature is sinful, it's defiled, it's unclean, it's common,
it's unholy. That's why we don't have any
right thoughts of God. That's why we are so proud thinking
we can do what anything God says do, because we are defiled inwardly,
corrupt. So before we can approach God,
we have to be washed in regeneration by the Holy Spirit. A new, holy,
sanctified, clean, pure man has got to be created within us. So that we can believe and repent
and see our sin and come to Christ and all of these things. A new,
holy, pure, clean man has got to be created in you and me.
It's called the washing of regeneration. And this work is performed in
us because it's a must. It's a must in all God's people
by the sin atoning blood of Christ. It's a must because Christ justified
His people. He sanctified His people by His
one offering in Calvary. And because He did so, we must
be sanctified in time. Go over to Titus 3. Let me show
you this. Titus 3 verse 3. It says we were sinners, we were
impure, we were foolish and disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts,
pleasures, living in malice, envy, hateful, hating one another.
That's our nature right there. That's why we got to be sanctified.
And look at verse 4. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us. How? by the washing of regeneration. and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
that is by Christ's finished work, we should or we must be
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. He's saying
all who Christ justified must be sanctified in regeneration
and made heirs of God in our experience of His grace and that's
why He shed abundantly on us this washing of regeneration
through the Holy Spirit. Because Christ justified us.
He sanctified us. And now we must be made anew. We must be made anew. You know,
Christ's work was not simply just for Christ to declare us,
God to declare us righteous. It was to actually make us, create
us entirely new. And He begins that work by making
a new spirit, a new man within us that is holy and righteous
after the image of God. And He is going to end it or
complete it when He brings us into glory and He raises a glorified
body so that we are in and out completely holy and righteous
and without sin. That will be the end product,
a new creation entirely of the Lord. So that's why Christ went
to the cross. And that's what he says he's
showing here had to be done. But the emphasis here, I believe,
is on Christ. On Christ doing the sanctifying
work. And the reason I say that is because he told Moses to go
to the people, the mediator to go to the people to sanctify
the children of Israel. And God told him to do it in
two days and on the third day be finished. because God is coming
to meet him. And brethren, in three days on
the cross Christ performed the will of God. Hebrews 10.9 Go
there, I read it to you this morning. Let me show you what
I was showing. I read that Psalm because of this. Hebrews 10.9 Hebrews 10 and verse 9, look
at this. He says there, Then said he,
Lo, I come to do thy will. He takes away the first that
He may establish the second. He takes away that covenant of
works to establish the second covenant of grace. See, He said,
I come to do thy will, O God, by the witch will, by Christ's
will. We are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ one time. Verse 14, For
by one offering Christ has perfected forever them that are sanctified. So on the third day, the work
was done. God told Moses, be ready on the
third day. The work was finished on the
third day. Christ arose from the grave on the third day. And
all His people arose justified and sanctified in Him. God typified
this several times in Scripture. It was the third day that the
earth had fallen into chaos and was without form and void and
on the third day it arose to life and budded forth with life. Abraham offered up Isaac on the
third day. The flesh of the sacrifice was
burned on the third day. This all pictured the work of
Christ completed, finished, so that His people on the third
day arose righteous and holy in Him. But this whole work of
sanctification, it's not of us. It is of God. God the Father
set us apart, made us holy when He chose His people in Christ.
Christ, we just read, sanctified us when He justified us at Calvary. And we just read the Holy Spirit
sanctifies us when we're washed in regeneration. When that's
taken place, the man's brought to faith in Christ. That's what
Paul meant in Colossians when he said, we thank the Father
who's made us meet. He's made us fit to be partakers
in heaven right now with the saints and light. Everything
is done that needs to be done. We are complete in Him. Complete
in Him. Now, fourthly, I want you to
look at this. Since all men are sinners and since God is holy,
God declares that we can't do this ourselves. We can't use
the law and put our hands to the law and sanctify ourselves
or justify ourselves. We cannot do this by our own
works. And that's what God shows us
here in Titus. Look here, Exodus 19 verse 12. Thou shalt set bounds
unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves
that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever
toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not
a hand touch it. But he shall surely be stoned
or shot through. Whether it be beast or man, it
shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long,
they shall come up to the mount. Look at verse 21. The Lord said
unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through
unto the Lord, to gaze, and many of them perish. And many of them
perish. Mount Sinai here represents the
holy, just, good law of God. That's what it represents here.
That's what God's giving here is the law. And by not allowing
man to touch that mountain or even look upon it, look upon
God, gaze, He's saying here that you and I cannot justify ourselves
by the deeds of the law. He's saying what Paul said, by
the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His
sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. If we attempt to justify
ourselves or sanctify ourselves by putting our hand to the work,
by our works under the law, God will slay us in eternal death. That's a certainty. We can't
do it. The only way we can come to God
is in Christ our High Priest who mediates on behalf of His
people. Look at verse 24. And the Lord
said unto Moses, Thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee,
but let not the priests and the people break through to come
up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went
down and spoke to the people. You see Moses here and Aaron.
Moses is a picture of Christ our mediator. Aaron is a picture
of Christ our high priest. God said, you can come up, but
the people can't come up. Not on their own. Not on their
own. We can only go up in Christ Jesus
the way. He is the way. That's why whenever
those Galatians came in there, those Judaizers came to Galatia.
They were seducing the Galatian believers. Men who already believed
on Christ. They were trying to turn those
men away from Christ and turn them back to the law. And Paul
said, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever you
are, or justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. Imagine
if after hearing that, hearing what Moses spoke, imagine if
one of those men said, I don't need Moses to go up and speak
to God, I'm going myself. And he took off and went. That's
what Paul is saying. The mediator has become of no
effect to you. Christ has become of no effect unto you. You're
falling. You're falling. You're going
to perish. You're going to die. It's not by works of righteousness
we've done. It's according to His mercy.
The reason that we can only come to God through Christ, there's
a reason why. And that reason is because God's
holy. He's holy. We have problems He's trying
to define what the word holiness means because we're so unlike
it by nature. God is holy. Now, I want to read this to you
and I want to show you these seven things here. And you know
in Scripture, seven is the number of perfection. So, Arthur Pink
suggests that this is the perfect, these seven things represent
the perfect display of God's holiness. Look at Exodus 19.16. It came to pass on the third
day in the morning that there were thunders, there's one, and
lightnings, there's two. This is how God manifest Himself
to them in the law. And there was a thick cloud,
there's three, upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet,
there's the fourth thing, exceeding loud, so that all the people
that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people
out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether
part of the mount, and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke. There's the fifth thing. Because
the Lord descended upon it in fire. There's the sixth thing.
The smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the
whole mount quaked. There's the seventh thing. Quaked
greatly. Seven things. Seven terrifying
things here. God manifests Himself through
the law this way. And if you come to God without
a mediator, come to God without Christ to substitute, that's
how God's holy character is going to meet you. With thundering
and lightning and a thick cloud and the voice of the trumpet
and smoke and fire and quaking. All these seven things. Holiness. In Leviticus 22.21, God commanded
Moses and he said, Whosoever offers a sacrifice to God, it
shall be perfect to be accepted. It has to be perfect. That's
what we're talking about holiness here. It has to be perfect for
God will accept it. There shall be no blemish therein. And God gave the reason in Leviticus
22.2. He said here's why. That they
profane not my Holy Name. In those things which they hallow
unto me, I am the Lord. We can't offer to God our works. Our polemished, polluted, defiled
works. We can't present that to God. Because to do so, if God received
us in those things, that would profane God's Holy Name. By showing us that He will only
receive a sinner in Christ, God is manifesting He's holy. If
He accepted us in any old sacrifice that was blemished and defiled,
that would profane His holy name. So by only coming in Christ,
He's showing us He's holy. You meet God without Christ and
it's going to be in this terrifying way that He meets you. Because
God's holy. It has to be perfect to be accepted
of God. Now here's the last thing I want
you to see. The law was given to show His people our sins and
drive us to Christ. Now the law itself won't ever
do that. Just you and the law, it won't happen. God's going
to have to come and speak to you and teach you what the law
means. Commandments are going to have to come, sins are going
to have to revive and you're going to have to die as Paul
said it. That's what's going to have to
happen. And we heard the people say, they said all that God commands,
we're going to do it. Several times if we read through
this, we've seen that when Moses went to sanctify them, it says
they washed themselves. And that was to show us something
here. They were washing themselves. They were trying to get themselves
ready to be presentable to God by washing themselves. And that
picture is a sinner attempting to come to God by the works of
the law, washing himself by his own works and by his own deeds
and thinking he sanctified himself and made himself more holy and
more holy so now God's got to receive me. That's good. That's
what's pictured there. But then in chapter 20, God gave
the law through Moses. Now, a sinner is going to have
to have Christ declare this law to us and declare us that everything
that's written here, we're guilty of it. In thought, word, and
deed, we are guilty of it. It's not enough just not to commit
the act. Christ taught us on the Mount
Sinai, on the Sermon on the Mount, that we are guilty of it if we
just thought it. It reaches to the heart. Now
read here with me, verse 1, Exodus 20 verse 1, God spake all these
words saying, I am the Lord thy God which brought you out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven
above or that's in the earth beneath or that's in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them
that love me and keep my commandments. Verse 7, Thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. OMG! Golly,
gosh, geez, Jesus, saying G-O-D, all these things that men are
constantly saying everyday. That's what He is saying right
there. You do one thing like that, you are guilty of the whole
law. Guilty of the whole law. Look
at this. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and
do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it. And so He gave us this Sabbath
day to rest in. And it's interesting that it
comes right here in the middle of the two tables of the law.
Almost like a hinge. Because that Sabbath rest is
Christ. The first table of the law and
the second table of the law are fulfilled in Christ so that through
faith in Christ we rest in Him and don't do any work to try
to justify or sanctify ourselves. Now look at this. Verse 12, here
is the second table of the law. Honor thy father and thy mother
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee. Honor thy father and thy mother.
Don't speak ill to them. Don't think ill of them. Never
ever one thought. Look at this. Thou shalt not
kill. Christ said not even get angry.
If you are angry without a just cause, you have killed them.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Christ said not even in a look,
not even just looking with the eye. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor, saying gossiping, saying something that's
not true or lying on them. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox,
nor his ass, nor anything that is there at thy neighbor's. That
means you can't drive by a big pretty house and go, man, just
look how pretty that house is. Wouldn't you like to have that?
Guilty. Guilty. When the Spirit uses
the Law, He's going to reveal to us what the Law says that
we're guilty. We've broken the whole Law. And
you go on reading, there's a whole lot more Law than just those
Ten Commandments. That's just a summation. There's a lot more
law. And God never separates the law.
It's one law. One law. God says you can't grow
your corn and grow your running beans in between them and run
your beans up your corn. You can't even do that. God says
it in the law. You can't do it. You can't put
them together like that. That's common in the South. Men
that got ten commandments Posted in their front yard, got their
beans and their corn running together at the back back there.
That's breaking the whole law of God. But when the Spirit reveals
this to us, He shows us we're guilty. Guilty of everything
in this law. And He shows us that holiness,
that mountain, that quaking appearance of God that He's holy. He won't
receive anything less than perfection. And when He does that, brethren,
we see then how truly sinful we are. Look at verse 18. All
the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise
of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. When the people saw
it, they were moved and stood afar off. Here they were washed
up. I bet you they were spit-polished
from one end to the other and was ready to meet God and thinking
God was going to be delighted with them. And when God appeared
to them this way, Showing in type and picture that we are
guilty. And they were guilty. They ran away from God as far
as they could get. Instead of far off. And then,
when God has got you there, by His grace then, He makes you
flee to Christ for mercy. Makes you flee to Christ to mediate
for you with God. Look at verse 19. They said unto
Moses, picture of the mediator, Speak thou with us, and we will
hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said
to the people, Fear not, for God has come to prove you, to
test you, that His fear may be before your faces, that you sin
not. What did God say was going to
be sin? He said if they come and try
to put their hand to this mountain, they are going to die. He's saying
God's coming to prove you and to test you that you don't sin
by trying to come to God by your own obedience to the law. That's
sin against God. If you try to do that, you're
rejecting Christ. Look at this, and the people
stood afar off and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness
where God was. Now that's why the law was given.
It was given to reveal our sin, to reveal our guilt that we might
flee to Christ. Go to Galatians 3.24. I'll show
you this. We'll start winding this up.
Galatians 3.24. Let's begin in verse 21. Is the
law then against the promises of God? God forbid. If there
had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ, by Him fulfilling the law, might be freely given to
them that believe. That's what we looked at this
morning. Christ faithfully fulfilling the law, being made sin for us,
putting away our sin, making us the righteousness of God,
that's freely given to them that believe. Look, but before faith
came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now, hold your place right there,
and I don't want you to mark it. Now, a schoolmaster, we don't
have teachers like this in our day. I think everything that
we have in our day is the devil's way of trying to make the scriptures
not make any sense to them. Teachers today, they wouldn't
dare discipline a child if their life depended on it. They wouldn't
dare do it. But when I was growing up, if
you did something wrong, The schoolmaster let you know about
it. I mean they let you know about it. You were sent home
and you didn't want to go home because you'd get it again if
you went home. But this schoolmaster was a rich
person who would take their child and they would hire this schoolmaster
and the schoolmaster's job was to teach them everything they
were to know. And that schoolmaster was usually harsh and mean and
would slap their hands. And you kids think Christine
was bad for slapping y'all's hands with that thing. This schoolmaster
right here, she'd wear you out. And drive you away from that
schoolmaster. It was a picture of the law driving
us to Christ. And that's what we saw pictured
there. They saw that mountain quaking and they saw their sin
and they withdrew and they realized we could wash ourselves with
snow water and it won't avail. We're sinners. We're guilty.
I can't clean a dirty floor with a dirty mop. I can't take an
oily rag and try to wash it with that same oily rag and expect
it to be clean. It ain't going to happen. And
that's you and me, brethren. We can't wash ourselves and cleanse
ourselves. So we come to Christ, begging
Christ, You go and mediate for us. You go and present us to
God. And then, by God's grace, He
makes the sinner see this. Now, look here. Makes us see
Christ the way. Look at verse 22. Exodus 20,
22. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, You have seen that
I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make with me gods
of silver, neither shall you make in you gods of gold. He
is teaching us here what he teaches us. You know you weren't redeemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without splat and without blemish. Look
at verse 24. This is what he is telling them.
in place of everything He just told them on the law. This is
the picture here. When you've been made to hear
the law and it declares you guilty, then Christ gives you His light
and He's a yoke. Don't you worship any idols.
You weren't redeemed with anything like that. You were redeemed
with Christ the Lamb. Look here. An altar of earth shalt thou
make unto me. Hebrew writers said we have an
altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the law. Jesus,
that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
without the gate, so let us go forth therefore to Him without
the camp bearing His reproach. Christ is our altar. The altar
is what sanctified the gift. Christ is our sanctification.
He is our altar. He suffered without the gate
that He might sanctify us. And He says here, and on that
altar you are going to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings
and sheep and oxen and all of that typifies Christ our Lamb.
Every bit of it. Our substitute who gave himself
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.
He took the place of his people. He took the sin of his people.
He took the justice that his people deserved. And he put the
sin of his people away and he made us righteous now. So God's
telling us, don't come by all the silver and gold that's in
the law and all the ceremonies that's in the law and all those
things where you come trying to come by the work of your hand.
You come in Christ, my sanctifying altar. You come in Christ, my
lamb. Christ, my ox. Christ, my bullock. You come in Christ Jesus, the
Lord, in His righteousness alone. He offered to me a sweet-smelling
savor. Come in Him alone. And that's
what the Lord reveals to us. Look, He says, and you do this
in all places where I record My name, and I will come unto
thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make Me an altar
of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. You're not
going to take a hammer and chisel away at this stone, for if you
lift up your tool upon it, you have polluted it. Neither shalt
thou go up by steps unto My altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered
thereon. There is no stairway to heaven.
You're not taking stair steps to get to heaven. Christ is the
way. He takes us there. Because He
obeyed the law in every jot and tittle. So this is how He brings
us to see He is the way. He established the law. He is
our righteousness. We come in Him alone. And when
you've been brought there to believe on Him, what happens
to the schoolmaster? What about that schoolmaster
now? Go back. Go back over there to Galatians.
And look at verse 25. Galatians 3.25. After that faith
has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. You are no longer
under the law. You are under grace. For you
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Go to Hebrews 12. I will close
with this. Hebrews 12. Look here. Here is what He is telling us.
You that believe, Here's what he's telling us. Hebrews 12,
18. You're not come unto the mount
that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness,
and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the
voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the
word should not be spoken to them any more, for they could
not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. When you've come to Christ, you
haven't come to that mountain. That's the law. You haven't come
there. God said, I'll meet with you and I'll bless you. That's
what He said to them. You don't go after these gold
and silver. You come in my altar with my
offering and I'll meet you. There won't be any thundering
and lightning now. because you're coming in Christ.
Watch this, verse 22. But you come to Mount Zion, that's
the church, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
the innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, to God, the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, to the blood of sprinkling
that speaks better things than that of April. See that you refuse
not Him that speaketh. Don't refuse Christ that speaks.
Watch this now. I said to you that was Christ
speaking, that was Christ giving that law. Watch this. If they
escape not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall
not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.
This is Christ, He says, "...see that you refuse not Him that
speaketh, whose voice then shook the earth." But now He's promising,
"...yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven."
And this Word, "...yet once more signifyeth the removing of those
things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain." He's going to shake
everything that can be shaken and it's going to fall away.
But watch this, verse 28. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, this is the foundation, Christ the solid
rock. This kingdom can't be moved.
So let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear for our gods are consuming fire.
If we are going to serve God acceptably with reverence and
godly fear, now listen carefully, never attempt to serve God by
the constraint of law. Never. Did God receive them? Was that acceptable to them,
to God, when they tried to come by the law, by their washing?
No. If you want to serve God reverently
and acceptably with godly fear, Serve God through faith in Christ,
constrained by Christ's love for us and what He did for us.
That's how you serve God. You reverence God, you serve
Him acceptably, and you serve Him with fear. Because you believe
Him. You trust His Son. And I pray
God will give us grace now to do that. Alright, we're going
to observe the Lord's table.