Exodus chapter 24. This chapter begins with a strong
expression of the law's strictness, and the law's severity, and the
law's justice. In verse 1 we read, and he said
unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, and 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. Now Aaron and
Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders and all the children of Israel
were to worship afar off. God says they shall not come
nigh. You know, all throughout the
Old Testament scriptures under the covenant of works, God's
people were never allowed to draw nigh. The law says stay
away, the law says keep back. Why if anyone or anything, beast
included, even so much as touched the mount of God, where God resided,
where God was, they would have died instantly. You can read
that in Exodus 19. We studied that back when we
were in that chapter. And God made it clear here in
verse 2 that Moses alone was allowed to come near unto the
Lord. Now why is that? Well, he's God's
mediator and he is most definitely a type of Christ in this chapter. Why? was an exception made for
Moses to come nigh unto the Lord because God has to deal with
sinners through a mediator. There's no other way that God
can. No fallen sinner can stand before
God and live. You remember what he told Moses?
Moses said, Lord, let me see your glory. He said, you can't
see my face. You can't see my glory and live.
By God not allowing these others to draw nigh, we have the declaration
that no sinner, not even those that God elected, not even those
that God chose, can approach God in their guilty, fallen,
sinful, and defiled state. And the gospel is this, the only
way to draw nigh to God is for Christ to draw nigh to you. And
that's what the teaching throughout scripture is. Unless God come
to you, unless Christ come to you, he came to seek and to save
that which was lost. You see yourself as lost and
you see that that's who Christ came to save. It's then that
Christ draws you to himself. Only Moses was allowed to draw
an eye. And Moses here typifies Christ
and how God saves us. It's in, and it's by, and it's
through a mediator. We can't approach God and live.
Only one that is perfectly holy and one that is just and righteous
can approach God on our behalf. And that mediator is the man
Christ Jesus. There's one mediator between
God and man. And he tells us who it is, the
man Christ Jesus. You know, almost 45 years ago,
I guess, I learned something about a mediator. And then not
so long ago, well, about 20 years ago, I did, too, learn something
about an advocate. First of all, at the age of about
probably 18, I was driving home from Owensboro to Henderson one
evening after a big snowstorm and I was in my dad's old international
truck and he had a big old gas tank that he had built and welded
on the back of it. You couldn't see out the back
window. And that old international truck was made like an army tank. I'm telling you. Plus you had
all this snow compounded down upon it and you couldn't hear
anything. It was like a sound proof room, I guess you could
say. Couldn't see out the back window.
And as I was driving along down the parkway there, I saw cars
kept pulling off in front of me. And I thought, well, that's
awful nice for them to get out of my way and let me get home.
Until I got to the toll booth. And then two state policemen
pulled in and blocked me in and jumped out of their cars and
undid their guns. And I'm thinking, what in the
world is going on? Well, it turns out that he had
been following me for several miles just to tell me to slow
down. And I didn't see him, and I didn't
hear him. Everybody in front of me did, but I didn't. And
that resulted, instead of a friendly warning, I got a ticket for reckless
driving and eluding a police officer. That's pretty serious
charges for traffic anyway. So long story short, I went to
court, traffic court, PAC, and it was going to be a long night,
and the judge was not happy, not at all. And they called a
couple people before me, and each represented themselves before
the judge. And he'd say, how do you plead? And boy, he was throwing it down. He wasn't showing any mercy.
He was not in a good mood. Guilty. Pay the full fine. Court costs. Blemish on record. Points taken off the whole nine-year.
Then I noticed a well-known attorney in town walk in and he walked
straight up to the judge and they both smiled and exchanged
greetings. And surprisingly enough, the
next name they called was mine. But it wasn't an accident. It
turns out that the attorney was the husband of one of my high
school teachers that just happened to like me. And she knew what
had happened, and she, as his wife, strongly urged him to help
me. Wives do have some influence
over their husbands. So he was there for me, and I
didn't even know him. And as I said, reckless driving
and eluding a police officer, pretty serious traffic charges.
But within seconds, the charges were reduced to improper equipment. And I've never figured that one
out. Like I had a loud muffler or something. But it had nothing
to do with the original charges. But anyway, I left a free man
with only a warning. I was not found guilty of my
charges. But I know this, I know for certain
that if I had not had an advocate, if I had tried to represent myself,
I would have been like those before me, guilty as charged.
And if I can't have an advocate, one who knew the law and one
who knew the judge, I would have been found guilty, there's no
doubt about it. The child of God, your advocate, is none other
than God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's not only your
representative, and He not only plead your innocence before God,
He is your innocence. He, in His own body, fulfilled
the law and satisfied God's holy justice. And the one who represents
you, And the courtroom of divine justice has shown up to court
and he's pleaded guilty and been found guilty himself of your
crimes. Now isn't that something? And
as surprised as I was that night, my, we have no reason to be surprised
because Christ is our mediator before God. He's accepted the
penalty of your offense. He's agreed to suffer the penalty
which was death. And He did all this as though
it was His sin. He didn't commit the sin, His
elect people did. Some people say, well, you're
charging Christ with being a sinner. No, He knew no sin. But He was
made to be sinned. God made Him to be sinned. And
He satisfied the justice of the one who was offended. The wages
of our sin is death, and Christ died for the ungodly, Romans
5, 6. He died the just for who? The unjust, that's you and I.
That we might be made the righteousness of God and Him, that He might
bring us to God, the scripture says in 1 Peter 3, 18. And you've
heard it all before. Christ made to be sin, though
He knew no sin. You and I made the righteousness
of God in Christ. It's the most incredible thing
I've ever heard. Never get tired of hearing it.
I want to hear it more. And we were. We were made the
righteousness of God in Him, and it was God that made us to
be that. It was Christ that enabled God's
justice to be carried out, and at the same time allow him to
still justify the chosen sinner. Now look at verse three, and
Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and
all the judgments, and all the people answered with one voice
and said, all the words which the Lord hath said we will do. Now the words of the Lord here
refer to the ten commandments that were recorded in Exodus
chapter 20, and it speaks of the judgments that refer to chapters
21 through 23 that we looked at over the last several weeks. And the amazing thing here is
seen in how the children of Israel just presumptuously and ignorantly,
I might add, in unison said, all the words which the Lord
has said will do. This old covenant was a conditional
covenant. It was a covenant of works. Look
back at Exodus chapter 19, if you would. chapter 19 verse 5 Says now therefore if ye will
obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then See, it's conditional
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for
all the earth is mine and ye shall be meaning if you obey
and unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are
the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."
You see, God's blessings were conditional. And they were conditional
on the children of Israel obeying God and keeping His commandments. If you will, then I shall. Covenant
of works. If you will, then I shall. We've
talked about this so many times, and as I said, sadly and ignorantly,
the children of Israel did what unregenerate men and women do.
They arrogantly and ignorantly say, no problem. All the Lord
has said, that will do. And if you read Deuteronomy chapter
five sometime in your leisure, verses 28 and 29, if you want
to write it down, you'll find out what the Lord thought about
their answer, thought about their statement. He said, I've heard
the voice of the words of this people, which they've spoken
unto me, and they have well said all that they have spoken. Oh,
that there were such a heart in them. Do you know what that
means? They didn't have the heart, they
didn't have the will to do what they had promised, and they didn't
have the ability. We've said this many times too,
but it doesn't change the truth of the fact. People, by nature,
don't know that they're dead spiritually. It all results from
that. We're dead, but we have no will,
we have no ability. And only God can give us that
heart, that life, that ability, that willingness. Only He can
make us willing in the day of His power. No sinner has ever
obeyed the law of God by the works of his or her hands. If
they've kept the law, they haven't kept it perfectly. And if you
don't keep the whole law and don't keep the whole law perfectly,
then you're guilty of the whole law. So, we can't be saved by
keeping the law. And that is why only a real sinner,
only a true sinner will ever appreciate Christ as their mediator. The law was only to give the
knowledge of sin. Now turn with me again to Romans
chapter 3. Hold your place here in Exodus
24. I think I've got you in chapter
19. Anyway, put your marker there somewhere close and turn with
me to Romans chapter 3 again. I don't think we can ever be
too repetitious in looking at these things. Faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Verse 19 of Romans chapter
3. We know these verses well, but
look at it. Verse 19, now we know that 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. That tells us right there that
Everybody is guilty. Everybody's mouth should be stopped.
Everybody is under the law of God. Every son and daughter of
Adam is born under the law. Now verse 20, therefore by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is what the knowledge of sin. The law
was not given to justify us, it was given to show us that
only Christ could. It was our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ. Paul said in Romans 7, he said,
I had not known sin, but by the law. For had I not known lust,
except for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou
shalt not covet. And what Paul is saying there,
very simple if I may paraphrase, he said, I wouldn't know that
to lust after something that belonged to someone else was
wrong unless God's law had shown me that it was wrong to covet. I would have not known sin but
by the law. That's why God gave the law,
not for us to keep in order to be saved, but to show us that
we couldn't keep it and to drive us. You can say bring us or drive
us to Christ our Lord. If I had
never known what sin was and how God viewed it, and seen how
that all my sin is against Him, I would have never seen my need
of a substitute, a sacrifice, and a saver. Okay, verse 21 here
in Romans chapter 3. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. That's what the Old Testament's
about. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ, and again I point out that it's His faith, not mine,
not yours. unto all and upon all them that
believe. We have faith, actually in Christ's
faith, we could say it that way. I have faith in his faith that
brought about our righteousness. Paul says, for there is no difference.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all in the same boat. Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation. Now we've talked about this a
lot of times, but the definition of propitiation here means an
atoning victim. That's what God set forth Christ
to be, an atoning victim, not guilty in and of himself, but
a voluntary Victim that atoned for the sin of the guilty whom
God chose before the foundation of the world So how did God set
forth Christ to be a perpetuation? Well read on verse 25. It says
through faith in his blood That's how Faith in His blood. Trust
in His blood to cover you, to cleanse you. Trusting that when
God sees the blood, He'll pass over you. Do you believe that?
That's what faith in His blood is. Through faith in His blood
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness. that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. It's all about his
righteousness. It's all about substitution.
It's all about being made the perfect righteousness of God
in him. That's what we preach. We preach
the faith of Christ, not our faith, but Christ's faith. We
preach the righteousness of God in him, not the filthy rags righteousness
in us. For a man to stand up and say,
we've done this and we've done that, is worthless. It's worthless to God and worthless
to him. It's filthy rags in the eyes
of God. The gospel is all about who Christ
is. The gospel is all about what
Christ has done. And since God's elect cannot
keep this covenant, since they cannot keep this law, have you
figured out that we can't? God sent forth his son to keep
it for him. And in eternity, God the Father
and God the Son entered into a covenant. And none of God's
elect were given a part to do. Aren't you glad? God sent Christ
to be the high priest for His people. And as the surety for
His people, Christ has promised His Father this, all the words
which the Lord has said will I do. Verse three. He's doing for me what I can't
do for myself. So we see how the new covenant
differs from the old. The old covenant was conditioned
on the sinner's obedience and his obedience to the law and
word and in thought and in deed. The Lord Jesus said, you've heard
it of old that it's wrong to commit adultery. But I say if
you look at a woman in lust, you've committed adultery. It's
a matter of the heart. This new covenant is what Christ has done for us.
Everything that Moses did in these verses are a picture of
Christ's work. We see the new and the living
way and Moses performing the old in a ceremonial way. So back
in Exodus chapter 24, I'm not gonna keep you long, but I want
you to see here how Moses pictures the Lord Jesus in this chapter,
Exodus 24, look at verse four. And what a picture of, picture
Moses is of the Lord Jesus. Verse four, and Moses wrote all
the words of the Lord. If you'll notice down in verse
seven, it's called the book of the covenant. Moses wrote the
words of the covenant in a book. It's called the Book of the Covenant.
The law that he wrote down, the children of Israel agreed to
keep in a covenant of words. Remember what they said? All
that the Lord said, we will do. But when Christ came to represent
his people, he didn't write the law in a book. He said, I delight
to do thy will, my God. Yea, the law is within my heart. This is a hard thing. Psalms
40 verse 8, from the womb to the tomb, Christ kept the whole
law, all the law, and he kept it perfectly to make his people
perfectly righteous. Now I'm not trying to show you
something new tonight. I guess you figured that out
by now. I'm not trying to show you anything new any time we
meet together. I'm trying to show you again
the story of redemption. I'm trying to show you again
how Christ does for us what we can't do for ourselves. And again
in verse four, Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose
up early in the morning, and Moses built an altar under the
hill. This was the altar on which the
sacrifice would be laid. And Christ is our altar. And
in the incarnation, God prepared a body for his son that was made
like unto his brethren, yet without sin. And that body was the altar
of Christ's sacrifice. As Moses built this altar under
the hill, it pictures how Christ was our altar. He was made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. Our Lord said, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body thou hast prepared for me. Hebrews 10 5, Christ
appeared and he came into the world to put away sin, how? By the sacrifice of himself. We also see in verse 4 that Moses
also built 12 pillars. according to the 12 tribes. This
shows us that everything that Moses did was on behalf of the
12 tribes of Israel. Moses didn't do this for the
surrounding nations. He did it only for the children
and the nation of Israel. And everything that Christ did
on this earth was for and on the behalf of his elect, his
people. I'm telling you, this side of
glory will never see all the things that Christ has done for
us. It's just His spiritual Israel. Verse 5,
and He sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered
burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto
the Lord. How well these young men represent
God's priests, since there was no priesthood at this time, yet
given. Yet Christ is the high priest
of his people, friends. And these burnt offerings and
these peace offerings that the children of Israel offered made
covenant with God. And we see that in Psalms, God
says, gather my saints together unto me, those that have made
a covenant with me by sacrifice. That's what Christ did for his
people. Christ fulfilled the new covenant with God on our
half, how? By fulfilling the law, by keeping
it perfectly in our room instead. And it was not by the blood of
bulls and goats, but by Christ's own blood. And the sacrificing
of himself under the justice of God's offended law in the
place of his people. That's what the wine represents
when we take the Lord's table. It represents His blood poured
out to fulfill the covenant with God and His people. And that's
why Christ said, this is the New Testament in my blood. Now
verse 6, Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and
half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And no doubt, that
the blood that Moses sprinkled upon the altar was to ceremonially
satisfy God for the sins of the people. That's what they did
each year. The ceremonial sacrifice, it
was only a temporary sacrifice. It had to be done year after
year. The blood of bulls and goats could not make the sinner,
the comer, there unto perfect. Wouldn't do the job. Christ satisfied
God. That's the gospel message for
His people. He satisfied God by His one offering
for sin. He offered one offering for sin. That was enough. It was the blood
of God that was shed. He satisfied God's justice and
He justified God's people, making them the righteousness of God
in Him. We see what Moses did with the
rest of the blood. In verse 7, and he took the book
of the covenant and he read in the audience of the people and
they said, all that the Lord had said we will do and be obedient. And when Moses took the book
of the covenant and he read it to the people, those who heard
it revealed to us here a whole lot about ourselves and about
our nature. We're so vain that we've imagined
God to be such a one like us. And we think that we can, by
work of our own righteousness, perfectly obey the commandments
of God? We can. That's what Israel did
here. They said, all that the Lord
has said, we'll do. We'll be obedient. They agreed
to keep the law, the covenant, but no man or woman can. So they
convince themselves that they can. That's what folks today
are doing. They're convincing themselves
that they can somehow appease God by something they do. But
in the covenant of grace, Christ writes the gospel on our hearts. And we understand that Christ
has kept the law perfectly for us. Then we see what Moses did
with the rest of the blood. As I said, look at verse 8, and
Moses took the blood, And 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. And He's speaking
there of all the things that we've looked at in the previous
chapters, 20-23. And Moses sprinkled. And let
me just add here that that word sprinkled in the Hebrew means
scattered. It's not just a drop here or
there. It's not like he took an eye
drop and just dropped a few drops. No, he's throwing the blood. He's scattering it on them. And
He's scattering this blood. As He is, He utters these words,
much like John the Baptist did on that day that the Lord came
to Jordan's banks. Remember what John said? Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. But here
Moses cried, Behold the blood of the covenant. Now listen,
it's the same thing. It's the same blood. It's the
same substitute. It's the same sacrifice. God
said, this blood shall be to you a token. That token is Christ. God says, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Christ is the Passover lamb.
This is all about him. It must be the blood of Christ
that God sees. That's what God's looking for.
The blood was Israel's security. It was their safety. It was their
assurance. And it's ours. It's still security
and all those things, assurance and safety for the people of
God. It was the covenant blood that Israel was to behold. Such
is the blood of Christ from and on the cross. We have to be reconciled
to God by the death of his son, the scripture says. What does
the blood signify? It declares that sin has come
in. It declares that the law's been broken. It declares that
the holiness of God has been violated. But in the old covenant
of works, the blood of innocent victims had to be shed. And doesn't
that suggest substitution? And it only foreshadowed good
things to come. The good thing has come, and
that's Christ. The Lord told Martha, he said,
Mary's chosen the good part. Christ is the good part. And
in the new covenant of grace, the removal of sin is accomplished
by a divinely appointed and divinely accepted substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It took God to do for us what
we couldn't do for ourselves. Only He could keep His law and
keep it perfectly. That substitute, friends, is
Jesus Christ, God the Son. who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. That we being dead to sins, did
you hear that? We didn't just stump our toes.
No, we're dead to sin, should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes ye were healed. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, that
sacrifice is Jesus Christ who's redeemed us from the curse of
the law. How? Being made a curse for it. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. Do you love this Christ? My,
when you see what he's done for you, how can we not? Yet the
type in the picture doesn't stop there. The chapter began with
the people unable to come near to God. We read that in verse
one, but what about now? What about after being sprinkled
with the blood? Look at verse nine, Exodus 24. Then went up Moses, and Aaron,
and Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel,
and there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a
sapphire stone. And as it were the body of heaven
in his clearness and upon the nobles of the children of Israel,
he being God laid not his hand and also they saw God and did
eat and drink. Isn't that amazing? Do you know
what that means? That means that believers can
draw nigh to God by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon them. God has made with us an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, David said, and sure, it's a
sure thing. We live in a day of things that
aren't sure, but that's a sure thing. an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things ensured. And this is all, all our salvation. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10 and I'll close. But I want you to see these verses. Hebrews chapter 10. We'll begin
reading in verse 15. Hebrews 10 verse 15. Hebrews 10 verse 15, whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them. Now that's referring
to the gospel, the teaching of the grace and the mercy of God
in Christ. The word law here, I looked it
up in the concordance, and it means, first of all, it means
food. It refers to doctrine, it refers
to instruction, even the gospel. That's what God writes on His
people's minds and on their hearts, the gospel truth about the Lord
Jesus Christ, who He is, what He's done, where He is now, where
we'll be soon with Him in glory. And verse 17, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest, how? By the blood
of Jesus, 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 and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So let's say it one more time.
There's only one way to approach a thrice holy God and come boldly
into His throne of grace to find mercy and help in time of need.
And that's through Jesus Christ, our one mediator, in whom Moses
here well pictures. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Christ. And it's through the veil, which
is His flesh. We have a high priest over the
house of God. But what are we to do? Draw near. Let us draw near with the true
heart and full assurance of faith. How in the world can sinners,
the sinners we are, do that? Well, we've had our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience. with the blood of Christ and
our bodies washed with pure water by the grace of the Holy Spirit. In verse 23 it says, let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering. We can do that,
friends, because He is faithful that promised. If you're in Christ,
God will not lay His hand against you. If you're in Christ, God
be for you, who can be against you. The hand that no man can
stay is the hand that keeps you in the covenant of grace. And
that is in Christ. May God enable us to continue
to trust in Him.