Very glad to be with you tonight. And pray the Lord be pleased
to meet with us. Bless His word to our hearts.
I want you to turn with me now to Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter
3. Now let's begin reading in verse
1. It says, Now Moses kept the flock
of Jephthah, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he
led the flock to the back side of the desert and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And behold,
the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And
Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight while
the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of
the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he
said, draw not nigh hither. but off thy shoes from off thy
feet to the place whereon thy standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. Moses hid his face. He turned his face from God. He turned his face to the dust. He turned his eyes away from
God. He hid his face from God. He bowed in submission and worship
to God. And it says, for he was afraid
to look upon God. He was His heart was filled with
true godly reverence. This was not a fear as in a fright
and a terrifying legal fear. He was filled with reverence.
He reverenced God. Now the root problem, this is
the root problem with fallen, depraved sinners. The root problem
with why sinners speak so flippantly and so carelessly of God. The root problem with why sinners
transgress against God in the way that they speak of God, in
the way that they treat one another, in the various things that they
do that's against the Word of God. The reason that sinners
transgress in the way that they speak lies about God and tell
sinners they could be saved by their works. The root problem,
the root problem with sinners transgressing is that there is
no fear of God in the heart. The psalmist said this in Psalm
36.1, the transgression of the wicked saith. What does the transgression
of the wicked say? What is he saying by his transgression? The transgression of the wicked
saith within his heart that there is no fear of God before his
eyes. When will a sinner have a new
heart? When will a sinner have a reverence for God so that he
bows to God and bows to what God says and comes to God in
the one way God says he must be approached? When will a sinner
bow to God in reverence to God? Only when God reveals Himself
to that sinner, giving him a godly fear in the heart. We don't have
it by nature. God has got to give it to us.
And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now, at
this point, Moses is a believer. He left Egypt. We know that.
The Hebrew writer says he left Egypt by faith. He's a believer. He reverences God. He has a fear
of God. God's given that to him. But
this is something that God continues to do in his people throughout
from the first hour he gives us this fear until the rest of
our lives. He continues to teach us this
godly fear and strengthen this reverence in our hearts. And
that's what we behold here with Moses. Now, this is a pre-incarnate
appearance. of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is a pre-incarnate appearance of Him in this bush that burned
and yet did not burn. And the work that He's being
separated for, that Moses is being separated for, is the work
of being Christ's minister. Going forth into the children
of Israel as His minister, as Christ's minister. And so to
do that, to be a minister, He's going to have to have this reverence
to be able to submit to God, trust God's word, wait on God
to work His people and not look to Himself. And that's what you
and I gotta have if we're gonna worship God and serve God. We
gotta have the same fear. So I wanna see in this passage
a few of the things that God has to reveal to His child to
give us this godly reverence, this true fear of God for Him,
for God. All right, here's the first thing.
Reverence for God is given by Christ revealing that it's He
that seeks us and not us that seeks Him. Look at verse 2. We're told there, first of all,
verse 1, we're told He's on the backside of the desert. He's
out in the middle of nowhere. And it says, And the angel of
the Lord appeared to Him. Now this is the angel of the
Lord. It's not a angel, the angel.
Malachi tells us the word angel means messenger. And Christ is
the messenger of the covenant. This is the angel of the Lord,
a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Now Moses wrote this.
He wrote what we're reading here. And he's writing this and showing
us how he was brought to hide his face and have this godly
reference for God. He's showing us how this came
about. And he doesn't say here that he sought the Lord. He doesn't
say here that he was looking for the Lord. He says here the
Lord appeared to him. The Lord appeared to him. Now
vain religion, this world's religion, is preaching a a helpless Jesus that is lost
that requires the sinner to find Him. That's what sinners are
being told, to seek the Lord and to find the Lord. You hear
sinners say, when I found the Lord. Well, the Lord's not lost. It's you and me that's lost by
nature. We're the ones that have to be found. And the true Lord
Jesus is the one who finds His sheep. He's the one who finds
His people. He's the one that appears to
His people even when we weren't seeking Him, when we had no heart
for Him and no desire for Him whatsoever. Turn to Isaiah chapter
34. I'm sorry, Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel
34, verse 11. Ezekiel 34, 11. Thus saith the Lord God. And when you read the Lord God,
who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Who is He? He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's God. And when you read here
the Lord God, this is speaking of Christ. This is what Christ
does for his sheep. Thus saith the Lord God, behold,
I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out. As a
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he's among his
sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and
will deliver them out of all places where they've been scattered
in the cloudy and dark day. Christ said, I am the good shepherd.
I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep. He knows his
sheep. He said, as the father knows
me, I know the father, and I know the father. That's how he knows
his sheep. He knows everything about his
sheep, including where his sheep are. So will I seek out my sheep. They will deliver them out of
all places where they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark
day. Verse 13. And I will bring them out from
among, from the people. And I will gather them from the
country and will bring them to their own land and feed them
upon the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, in all the inhabited
places of the country, in his congregation, in his churches,
in the places where he sets up his gospel to be free. I'll lead
them to their land and feed them. I'll feed them in a good pasture.
Upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There shall
they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed
upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will
cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that
which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and
will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which
was sick. But I will destroy the fat and
the strong. The self-righteous, self-sanctifying,
will worker that doesn't think he needs God, I will destroy
the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment. Our Lord
Jesus told his disciples when he gathered them together, you
didn't choose me, I chose you. And I ordained you to go forth
and that you would bring forth much fruit. He said, I chose
you, I sought you, I've called you, I've given your heart to
worship me, I've given you the message to preach, and I'm sending
you forth, and I'm going to bless the Word and create fruit. I'm
going to call out my other sheep and bring them into this fold.
And there's going to be one fold and one shepherd. This is the
Lord, the sovereign Savior. Why do we need to know about
the sovereign Savior? Why do we need to know that Jesus
Christ the Lord is the one that must appear to us rather than
us seeking Him first? Because we've got to be brought
down. We've got to be brought down
to see salvation is of the Lord. He's the alpha. He's the beginning. And He's the omega. He's the
end. Beginning to end, salvation is
of the Lord. So this is one of the first things
Christ is going to have to sanctify Himself as holy, high, separate
from sinners, separate from all other common false gods that
we've ever heard about. And make us behold, He is the
Savior, the true Shepherd of His people that does not fail. He calls out, He seeks, and He
saves His people. That's what's going to cause
us to be humbled and brought down to know it's not of him
that willeth and it's not of him that runneth, but it's of
God that shows mercy. That's going to bring a sinner
down. With boasting of his will and his seeking and what he did
for his little Jesus, he's going to make us come down and see
God as God, the true God that saves his people. Now secondly,
Christ is going to create this godly fear in the heart by revealing
his person and his worth. Not only that he's sovereign,
but he's going to reveal that he is righteousness, the God-man. Look here now, verse 2, Exodus
3, 2. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Now get
that picture. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he
looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. That's a mystery, isn't it? Look
at that sight and think about that. A bush is, there's a flame
of fire. The angel of the Lord is a flame
of fire, and he's in a bush, and this bush is burning with
this flame, but the bush is not consumed. It's not being burned
up. It's not fueling that fire. And
you look at that and you say, that is a mystery. And without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest
in human flesh. And that's what we see pictured
here. We see God in human flesh illustrated here in this fire
dwelling in the bush. We see Christ, God in human flesh. In the flame, we see Christ as
God. Our God is a consuming fire. He's holy. He's too of pure eyes
to look upon iniquity. He's holy. He's unbending in
His justice and His righteousness. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He's holy. And anybody who comes in His
presence is going to have to be as holy as God is holy. He's
going to have to be perfect to be accepted of God. And then
in this thorny bramble bush, we see Christ in the likeness
of our human nature, in the likeness of our sinful flesh. Now, think
about this. Moses is out here on the back
side of the desert. That's not the only bush like
that. They're all over the place out
there where he's at. This is an old bramble bush,
an old thorny bush. What is it that made that bush
appear as holy and separate, as something separate and not
common from all the rest of the bushes? it was that there was
a flame of fire, the glory of God in that bush. That's what made that bush stand
out from all the rest of those bushes around there. Brethren,
we're given reverence for the Lord Jesus and made to see Him
as totally uncommon from all other men, totally uncommon from
all other false gods, when we're made to see that that man who
walked this earth in human flesh is God in human flesh. God Almighty came down and dwelt
in a human body prepared for Him. He's that Holy One who walked
that nobody else ever was born of a woman and was holy. that
had a pure heart, but Him. Because He wasn't born of Adam's
corrupt seed. He was created. I mean, His body
was formed and He came down as God and took that human flesh
and came forth as the God-man. And we've got to be made to see
He is the God-man. God and man in one person. Remember what the Apostle Paul
said? Go with me to 2 Corinthians 4.
When's a man going to quit corrupting the Word of God and preach the
Word of God in truth? 2 Corinthians 4. Look there. Paul said there at
the first chapter, I mean the first verse, 2 Corinthians 4. Seeing we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we faint not. We've renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God." What gave him a holy heart and a godly reverence to
do that? To not corrupt the Word of God,
but to preach God's Word in truth. What made him do that? Look down
at verse 6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. When God makes you to look into
Christ's face and see by faith that that one is God, the triune
God in human flesh, That's when He'll create that reverence in
the heart. That's when you'll have that reverence in the heart.
When you make and behold His glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. When you make and
behold He's the fullness of the Godhead in the body. Then, brethren,
we'll stop talking about Him as Jesus this and Jesus that
and Jesus the other. Then He'll become the Lord Jesus.
Then he'll become God in human flesh. He won't be baby Jesus,
he'll be the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus, God in human
flesh. And not only this, but also we
have to be made to see his work and what he accomplished. He's
looking here now and he sees this flame of fire in this bush. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
to where we are for a reason. God gave Him a people. God gave
Him a people to come forth to perfect, a people to make righteous. And all this people that He gave
to Christ, that the Father gave to Christ, had sinned against
God in Adam. We broke the law in Adam, so
we're guilty, absolutely guilty. And God sends His Son forth not
simply to save His people, but to manifest the righteousness
of God as He saves His people. What is the righteousness of
God? The righteousness of God is how God can be just. How He
can be just and the justifier of those He brings to believe
on the Lord Jesus. You see, It's not that he can
just take the law and just ignore the law that we broke in. He
says he will by no means clear the guilty. He can't ignore that
law. Every soul that sinneth has got
to die. Everybody he saves has got to
bear the just anger of God and the wrath of God in divine justice. Every single one he saves. How
can I bear that wrath? and be saved. How can I bear
that wrath and at the same time Him justify it? The only way
is for God to send forth His only begotten Son to stand in
my room in my stead. And so He came forth and went
to that cross and our Lord Jesus Christ went to that cross and
Scripture says this One who knew no sin, this One who proved Himself
to be the Holy Spotless Lamb of God, He came to the Garden
of Gethsemane and presented Himself to the Father to be made sin
for His people. And the fire of sin is what He
was made to bear for His people. The Hebrew writer spoke of Him
bearing shame and despising the shame. And he cried out Psalm
69, and he owned those sins as his sin. He said, My sins, O
God, are not hid from me. This was the shame, bearing the
sins and bearing the sin before the Father he loved. And then
justly God the Father made him to bear the fire of divine justice
for his people, pouring out upon him the wrath and justice that
all these people deserve. And our Lord Jesus, you see this
fire here and it's burning in this bush, but this bush is not
being consumed because the fire wasn't depending on the bush
for fuel. The fire sustained itself. And
our Lord Jesus Christ went to that cross and he wasn't depending
on his humanity for life. He is life. He is God. And so
he was able to, through his deity, he was able to bear that suffering
on Calvary's cross until God was fully, thoroughly satisfied. Divine justice was satisfied. And then he didn't die. No man took his life. When God
was satisfied, he yielded up the spirit to the Father. He
was in complete control while He was of His life until He satisfied
divine justice and then He yielded the Spirit to the Father. And
when He did that, brethren, He satisfied divine justice for
His people. You know, later, whenever the
Lord is going to deliver Israel out of Egypt, He's going to show
them a picture of this through that Passover lamb. And when
He said, I'm going to pass through Egypt tonight and all the firstborn
in Egypt are going to die. Well, all the firstborn in Egypt
died, including the firstborn in the houses of Israel. And
yet not a blood, not a drop of blood came out of those children
of Israel. Why not? A lamb died in their
place. And that's what Calvary's cross
is. It's the Lamb of God bearing sin and justice for His people
so that His people now are totally, thoroughly justified for what
Christ accomplished. And God is just. His law has
been honored and magnified and upheld. This don't happen when
you believe. This is not when it doesn't happen
when we believe. It happened when Christ said
it is finished. He finished the work. Read Hebrews. When He had by Himself purged
our sins. What does ED? We got any school
teachers in here? What does the past tense ED mean? Purged. Means they're gone. Past tense. And when He had by
Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the
Father. Hebrews 9 says, He entered in once into the holy place with
His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. Because He's God, everything
He did was eternal. He obtained eternal redemption. Now He did that for somebody.
He did it for His people. He did it for His people. And
every one of those now, He's come to you and me now and He's
taught us this gospel and He's made us to see that this work
is finished. It's eternal. There's no more
offering for us to make. Go to Hebrews 10 with me. Hebrews
10. Verse 11. Every priest stands daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sin. And before we jump on the Jewish
priests, or before we jump on the Roman priests, or before
we get on them too hard, just remember this. There's a whole
bunch of Protestant preachers, priests, called Baptist preachers,
and Methodist preachers, and Presbyterian preachers, that
are still telling sinners to offer sacrifices to God and they'll
never take away sin. Never. But this man, verse 12,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. Why? Because by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He did it,
and he finished it. Now we're going to have to be
brought and behold, brethren, that our life is seated at God's
right hand. Our righteousness is at God's
right hand. He is the God-man who has perfected
his people forever. When you behold him, I guarantee
you what will happen. He'll make you turn from all
your works and all your vain sacrifices, and He'll make your
heart be set on Him alone. Do you know how I know that?
Look at Colossians 2. This is how I know it. I know
it by experience, and I know it right here by the Word of
God. Colossians chapter 2. Look at verse 20. Colossians
2 and verse 20. If you be dead with Christ from
the rudiments of this world, from the... He's going to tell
you what it is. From the rudiments of this world,
why as though? Why as though your life is in
this world? Why act as though you're living
in the world? Why act as though you're going
to get life by something you do in this world? Why then are
you subject to ordinances? Touch not, and taste not, and
handle not, which all are going to perish when the person that
does it perishes. All those works are going to
perish with them, and they're after the commandments and doctrines
of men. That's what men are teaching
everywhere in churches, to make those sacrifices. Christ has
done all He can do, but now you've got to go back to the law, and
you've got to do X, Y, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. And Paul says,
if you're dead with Christ, if you died to the law, as in Romans
7, and so that the law regards you as dead, and you're dead
to the law, You're dead to the law, the law's dead to you. If
you're really dead with Christ, crucified with Christ, why do
you act like your life is in touch-not, taste-not, handle-not
in this world? Yes, he says, that's got a show
of wisdom in will-works religion, in will-worship. When it does
nothing to mortify the deeds of the flesh, that's actually
pouring gasoline on the fire. That's pumping up the flesh.
You're making a man think he's something when he's nothing.
So if I'm dead with Christ and my life is, I'm really not, my
life's not in this world, my life's not in what I do, my life's
not in me keeping, keep adding to God's works in any way, where's
my life then? Look at chapter three, verse
one. If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God, set
your affection That reverence, that reverential heart, that
new godly fear, that new heart, set it on things above, not on
things of the earth. For you are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.
Do you know what that said? That's saying, Brethren, there's
nothing else for me to do. Let me ask you this. Christ is
seated at God's right hand. Is there anything else for Christ
to do to be accepted of God? Anything else for Him to do?
Why is He seated? The works are done. They're finished.
God's received Him. God's accepted Him. God's well-pleased. And He said, this is My Son and
whom I'm well-pleased. Hear Him. And He's saying to
us right there, don't ever think that your life is in this world
by your doing, by your touching and not touching, and tasting
and not tasting. That's not your life. If you're
His and you really died at Calvary with Him, and you arose the third
day with Him, then really and truly, before God, you are dead. That old man is dead. All my
sin is gone. It's all dead, and my life, right
now, really is seated at God's right hand. Christ Jesus is my
life. There's nothing else to be done. They'll say, you can't tell sinners
that. That'll make them want, no, I
beg differ. It won't make them want to sin.
It'll make them do what Moses did. It'll make them get their
faith in Godly reference and fear, and want to honor Him in
everything they do. It sure will. It sure will. But we're going to have to be
made to see His person. We're going to have to be made
to see that His work is all finished and our lives fit within the
God's right hand. That's the only time we're going to have
this reference in our heart. And going back to the law and teaching
sinners to do this and that and the other thing and tell them
there's something they've got to add to righteousness or add
to sanctification, brethren. I'm going to tell you what that
is. That's blatant irreverence to the Lord of glory. That's
what that is. It'd be no different than one of your children walking
in to you and saying, I don't believe you're going to provide
a roof over my head. I don't believe you're providing
clothes on my back. I don't believe you're going
to put food on my table. I don't trust you. I'm going
to do it myself. What would you think about that,
child? We don't want to say that against
our God and against our Savior. But those that he's given this
heart, they bow to him and say, Lord, thank you. I thank you
that you've done it. This is what makes you live unto
Him. This is why Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. He said, I'm crucified with Christ,
I might live unto God. Not to the law, not to Moses,
not to men, to God. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live in the life I now live. I live because Christ dwells
in me and keeps me looking at Him away from myself. And I don't
frustrate the grace of God because if righteousness comes by my
doing, then I'm saying Christ died in vain. You get why Christ
came? Christ came to fulfill the law,
to make His people righteous. And He is the righteousness of
His people. And in fact, He's the holiness of His people. We
don't have this reverence until of God is Christ made unto us
righteousness and sanctification. Made all. Now let's move on.
Thirdly, we're given this godly fear to honor Christ as the only
mediator when God revealed that we can only come to God through
faith in Christ. The only way. The only way. Verse 3. Moses said, I'll now
turn aside and see this great sight while the bush is burnt.
Now listen. While the bush is not burnt. Now get the picture.
Moses is going along with his father-in-law's sheep, and he
looks up and he sees this bush. And he sees this flame of fire,
and the bush is not turned. And what would we do if we just
would walk along and saw something like that? Moses literally did
this right here. I'm going to go over here and
see what this is about. And he just went over there that flippantly,
that carelessly, without a thought, just decided I'm going to walk
up and see what this is like. And what happened? Verse 4. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, tried to come to
him that flippantly, that carelessly, God called unto him out of the
midst of the bush. This is God in that bush, the
Lord Jesus. And he said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he
said, draw not hither. Don't you come near me. Don't
you come here. You put off your shoes from off
your feet for the place whereon thou standest. is holy ground. When God begins to draw his people
and he begins to make you come to him and have a desire to come
to him, one of the first things God is going to tell you is,
don't you come near me. That sounds strange to you? That's
what he's going to do. When we think we can just turn
and come to God any old way, God's going to say, don't you
draw near me. God's holy. God's a consuming fire. We cannot
draw God near to God in any old way. And he said this to him. He said, put off thy shoes from
off thy feet. Why'd he tell him that? Did y'all
ever see that movie, Black Hawk Down? Anybody see that movie? It's a true story. It's about
the U.S. troops went into Somalia and
we had a helicopter, a Black Hawk helicopter shot down in
Somalia. And we were going in trying to
rescue those troops that were shot down in Somalia. And the
whole time our U.S. helicopters were flying over
Somalia, all the Somalians were taking their shoes off and holding
their shoes up to the U.S. helicopters. You know why? That's
a symbol of irreverence. That's a symbol of saying, I
think you're nothing. That's what that is, a symbol
of irreverence. So no shoe of man's own making can be used
and worn to approach unto God. You can't come in a shoe of your
own making. And I can't come in a shoe of
my own making. And look over Hebrews 10. As
long as we think we can approach God that way, I'll show you exactly
what sinners will do. Hebrews 10, verse 29. Hebrews
10, 29. Here's what they do, "...and
how much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy
who are shredding underfoot the Son of God?" That's why God told
him to take his shoes off. You're not shredding underfoot,
my son. They're shredding underfoot the Son of God and they're counting
His blood, the blood of the covenant, He was sanctified. He sanctifies His people and
makes His people holy to be able to approach unto God. They count
their blood an unholy thing and do despite the Spirit of grace. And God's not going to let His
child do that. God's not going to let His child
do that. God's going to make His child take off the shoe of
our making. He's going to make us repent
from our works and our self-worth and not come in anything that
is of us whatsoever. That's got to be the new heart
that he gives. That just can't be your doctrine.
That can't just be your creed. That's got to be your heart,
that I can't come to God in anything I've done. And then he says here,
for the place whereon you stand is holy ground. The Lord Jesus
Christ shods our feet with the preparation of the gospel of
peace. That is, with His person and His work, He makes us righteous
and holy so that we can approach God through Him and Him alone. And we have to be taught this,
that that's the only way you're going to be able to come to God.
Notice here, Moses didn't make the ground holy by taking his
shoe off. And you and I aren't making anything holy by something
we do or don't do. God makes holy. Christ makes
holy, and He gets the glory for making holy, and we don't get
anything. He gets it all. He's the one that makes holy.
So He has to sanctify Christ before us to teach us the only
way to God is to come through my Son through faith in Him.
So He's shown us now that He's the one that appears to us. He's
softened. He shows us His glorious person,
His glorious Word. And then He makes us to know
you can't approach Him in anything in you. You've got to approach
Him through faith in Christ. Now here's the fourth thing.
We're given this reference for Christ by God revealing He's
our covenant by whom we now have life. Now hear what I said. Christ is the covenant by whom
we have life. Look at verse 6. Moreover, He
said, am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, the God of Jacob. He's saying, I am the covenant
God. I'm the God who made the covenant
with your father, Abraham. I'm the God who made covenant
with your father, Isaac, and I'm the God who made covenant
with your father, Jacob. Now, do you know what God said
in Isaiah 42, 6? of the Lord Jesus Christ, He said, I the
Lord will give thee, talking to Christ, I the Lord will give
thee a covenant for the people. Men want to argue and they get
to splitting hairs and debating over the old covenant, the new
covenant, and the covenant theology and all this. You can have your
doctrine of a covenant I want Christ in my covenant. He's the
covenant. He's the covenant. He said, this
is the New Testament in my blood. This is the everlasting covenant
of redemption written in my own blood. Written in my own blood. And by that, it means all the
promises of God. Every promise God made to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and Judah, and John and James
and Paul and me and you who know Him. Every word, every promise
He ever made to us is in Christ, yes and amen, because Christ
fulfilled it all. He's the cover. He's the cover. You look to Christ and there's
how you know everything God's promised me is so. One promise failed right there.
He's the one David met when he said, The Lord's made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, ensured this is
all my salvation, Christ, Him. It's all yes and amen in Him. And it not only means that, but
whenever it means this, He's my life. He's my life. Whenever,
if He's the covenant, He's fulfilled all the covenant promises for
God, He is my life. He's my life. And I know that
because in Luke 20, 37, I'm running out of time, so I'm just going
to give this to you. You can look it up when you get
on. In Luke 20, 37, whenever the
Sadducees came to Christ, tempting Him and denying the resurrection,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, Moses showed at the bush. Come out,
I'll tell you. Moses showed at the bush when
he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob, that He's not the God of the dead, He's the
God of the living. And all whom He saves live unto
Him. They all live unto Him. Everybody
He saves live unto Him. That's what Paul meant when he
said, I live unto God. I'm dead to the law now that
I might live unto God. He's taken every hindrance out
of the way. He's taken my sin out of the
way. He's taken the curse of the law out of the way. He's
made me righteous. He's made me holy. He's done
everything needed so that now I can approach God and live unto
God and worship God. And Christ said, Whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. His saints and His earth live
unto Him right now. And when we put off this body
of death, the only thing that will have changed is the fact
that we've laid down this old flesh and this old sinful nature
so that now we have absolutely nothing impeding us from worshiping
Him face to face in glory. But those that believe Him, it's
not that you're going to have life. It's not that you're going
to be raised in the resurrection. He told Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. And he that believes on me lives
right now and will never die. You have eternal life if He's
your Lord. You have eternal life. That's
what He's saying there. Godly fear makes us live not
to ourselves. Not to ourselves. The person
who's living in sin and rebellion and I'm going to do what I want
to. I'm my own man, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He is living
to himself. He's the servant of sin. We don't
live unto ourselves. We don't live unto Moses. We're
not like the Pharisees in dead-letter religion going around rejecting
Christ and rejecting that He's our rest and our Sabbath and
our rest and our righteousness in whom we're complete and say,
but now Moses said, Moses said, that's what they did. We don't
do that. We live under Christ. We live under Christ. And we
don't live unto man-made commandments and man-made doctrines anymore.
If you read that, what Christ said, I'm gonna bring my people
out from among that. I'm gonna take them out of that.
And I'm gonna put them in a fat pasture where they'll be fed
by me through my spirit, through my gospel. And that's what Christ
does. And we live under him. Now, this
is the effectual fruit that Christ produces in the heart. This is
true self-denial right here. This is that new character called
holiness that He gives when He puts a new heart in His people. Right here, verse 6. And Moses
hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. He bowed, and
he referenced God. That will be the end that Christ
brings His people to when He works His work in our heart,
revealing Himself right there. Isaiah said this, Say not a confederacy
to all them to whom this people say a confederacy. I say with
Isaiah, just what he said in his day, looking around at all
those in Jerusalem and in Israel, They were going after other gods
and going after, looking for people to help them fight off
all their enemies. And Isaiah stood up, one man
in the midst of them, God's man in the midst of them, and he
said, don't say a confederacy with the people that these ungodly
religious folks say a confederacy with. And he said, don't fear
who they fear and don't dread who they dread. He said, sanctify
the Lord of hosts alone. See Him as holy and high and
separate from sinners. See the Lord Jesus Christ as
ruling and reigning. See Him as your all. Let Him
be your fear. Let Him be your dread. And He
shall be a sanctuary for you. That's where He brings you. To
that sanctuary to rest in Him. It's not a spirit of bondage.
You haven't received the spirit of bondage again to fear. It's
not that kind of fear. We've received the spirit whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. This is a reverence. This is
like you reverence your father who you love. What this is. Wherefore,
receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace. Let us have grace that we may
serve God acceptably. How do you serve God acceptably?
With reverence and godly fear. That's how. It's a heart thing.
It's not an outward thing, it's a heart thing. It will show itself
outward, but it's a heart thing. God looks on the heart. God looks
on the heart. A man, I was talking to Levi
about this earlier. The difference between God's
child and a man that hadn't been sanctified is just a religious
man. A religious man, like a Pharisee, He may dot all his I's across
all his T's and outwardly appear to you as being so perfect and
so holy and so righteous that you think there can't be anybody
measure up to that man. And yet in his heart he's doing
it because he wants to indebt God and make God owe him for
all his works. And that's a corrupt black heart
full of dead men's bones. And then you got another sinner
who's chipping and falling and stumbling, and you look at him
and he looks like that publican there, the center by that Pharisee,
and you look at him and you think, could this man be one of God's
children? Yet in his heart, he has a reverence
for God and sees Christ as his all, as everything he needs to
come into God's presence. And his eyes are to the earth,
and his heart is to the earth, and he's submitting himself before
God. And all he can say is, God, have
mercy on me, the sinner. And God says, that's the justified
man right there. I'm looking on his heart. That's
what matters. That's the justified man. I pray God, give me that
heart, don't you? I want that heart. I want to
bow to him and serve him and and look nowhere but to him,
my holy, righteous redeemer. Amen. Thank you.