If you have your Bible this morning,
turn with me to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19. And we're going to start this
morning going to Sinai. If you would, read with me the
very first verse, Exodus chapter 19. In the third month, when
the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt,
the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. The setting of our story this
morning is that the children of Israel are now three months
from having left Egypt. They're in the wilderness and
Moses is leading them in the wilderness. And the Lord has
brought them to a place called Sinai. And here at Sinai, God
is going to come down to meet these people. If we had looked
back just another verse or two, Moses has told these people that
the Lord is going to come and give them a commandment. And
their response to Moses at that time was, whatever the Lord says,
that will we do. So here, and we're not gonna
go through this whole chapter, but I wanna summarize it because
we're gonna go here in just a minute over to the New Testament. But I want to use this setting
this morning for our Bible study. So verse one, they've come out
of Egypt and the Lord is gonna meet with them. Now let's read
verses 10 and 11. And the Lord said unto Moses,
go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let
them wash their clothes and be ready against the third day.
For the third day, the Lord will come down in the sight of all
the people upon Mount Sinai. So the Lord now has instructed
Moses to tell these people to prepare themselves because the
Lord is going to come down. He has told them to wash themselves
because the Lord is going to come down. And then now Verses
16 through 20, let us read it. And it came to pass on the third
day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings
and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of the trumpet
exceedingly 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 either
part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether
on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in the fire. And the smoke thereof ascended
as the smoke of a furnace. and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet
sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and
God answered him by voice. Verse 20, and the Lord came down
upon the mount, on top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses
up to the top of the mount, and Moses What a terrible sight we just
read. God told Moses, I'm going to
meet with the people. And here God descends and comes
down on this mountain. There's thunderings. There's
lightning. And I want you to imagine this
morning being there at that place. God has come down upon this mountain,
and it's a terrible, terrible sight. The voice of a trumpet,
it says, exceedingly loud. So you're there, and there's
smoke, and there's lightning, and the sound is exceedingly
loud, and there's fire. There's fire. and the whole mount,
everything around you is quaking. God has come down. Verse 25, and Moses went down
to the people and spake unto them. Now look at verse 18. And all the people saw the thunderings
and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain
smoking. And when the people saw it, they
removed and stood afar. And they said to Moses, listen
to their words, speak thou with us and we will hear. that let not God speak with us
lest we die. What a terrible sight. Verse
21, and the people stood far off. Do you see the distance
between God and man? Do you see the greatness and
the holiness of God? and the sinfulness and the depravity
of man. Here at Mount Sinai, that is
demonstrated. Now, I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 9. Remember what we just read in
Exodus chapters 19 and 20. Remember the terribleness of
that moment. Remember that God came down and
there were sinners and there was fear and there was trembling. Now read with me Matthew chapter
nine in verse 10. And it came to pass as Jesus,
who is God, sat at meat in the house. Behold, many publicans
and sinners came and sat down with him. How glorious this is. I want us to contrast what we
have just read both here and back in Exodus. In Exodus, they
could not approach the mountain because they were sinners. And right here where we read
in Matthew, they are sitting and eating because they are sinners. How
glorious that is. Eating denotes fellowship. And here we find sinners eating
with God. Eating denotes fellowship. When we had our conference, What
did the ladies do? They prepared meals for downstairs. Why? So that afterward, we could
all go down and fellowship. Eating denotes fellowship. When we have a wedding, there's
a wedding dinner or the wedding supper. When we have old acquaintances,
that we meet on the street, what do we say? We need to get together
for dinner. We need the fellowship. So here in Matthew, when our
Lord is sitting with sinners, it is a seat of fellowship. Now, there's three things this
morning that I want to look at just briefly. As I look at Sinai
and I look here in Matthew as our Lord is sitting here with
sinners, there's three aspects, there's three things about our
Lord Jesus Christ himself that I want to look at. Turn with
me, if you would, to John chapter 1. And the first point that I want
to make when I say that Sinners are sitting with God. I want us to see that from the
scripture. This was God himself who was
eating with sinners. Begin John chapter 1 verse 1
and 2. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Now look at verse 14. And the
word, God, was made flesh and dwelt among us. In Matthew chapter
one, it says, they shall call his name, speaking of our Lord
Jesus Christ, They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God
with us. It is God who is sitting at the
table with these sinners. And then secondly, I want us
to look at this. This is the son of God who is
eating with sinners. Now, oftentimes in our minds
when we think of son, we have a lower opinion or a lower thought
of position of son versus father. Let me give you an example of
that. So back when I was 10 years old,
I was about 10 years old, my daddy, dad was a bread man. He had a bread route that he
went to every day and worked. Well, when I was about 10, dad
determined and decided, I'm gonna start taking my son with me to
work and let him help me in my job. And of course, you can imagine
as a young boy, how excited I was, I was 10 years old. Well, Mom,
the day before, the night before that we went, and I started going
with him, Dad's uniform was yellow and he had a Kearns patch right
here, the bakery, Kearns Bakery. Well, Mom took one of his old
shirts and took one of those red patches and took one of my
shirts, which was yellow, and sewed a Kearns patch on it. And so here you had Dad. who
was the bread man. And he had a yellow shirt, and
had a patch, and had Dwight right here. And here's this little
fella, 10 years old. And here I had my little yellow
shirt, and I had my little patch. And here I went on daddy with
his bread route. Well, his name is Dwight L. I'm Dwight A. I was named after my father.
And so you can imagine on that route, especially the ladies. And it was, I'm sure at that
time, I'm sure it was cute. To me, I was big. So there was
Big Dwight and there was Little Dwight. Big Dwight was this tall. Well, here I am right now saying
this tall. No, he was about this tall, right? Well, Little Dwight
was about that tall. It was Big Dwight and Little
Dwight. Big Dwight had the authority. Little Dwight That's not what we're talking
about here. When we speak of the Son of God, we're not talking
about big God and little God. That's what it says in John chapter
1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God dwelled
among us. He is the image of his father. So this word son, what does it
mean in the scripture as we read this? It means likeness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of God, no doubt. He is the image of God. That's what this is telling us.
When we read that in the scripture, he is the image. John chapter one, verse 34. If
you'll turn over. Verse 34, John bearing record. And I saw and bear record that
this is the Son of God. So we have in our scripture,
in our passage this morning, we have God coming down and fellowshipping
with the sinner. We have the Son of God coming
down and fellowshipping with the sinner. But we also have
in this, this is the son of man who is
aiding with sinners. Turn over to John chapter three,
verse 13. Let's look at this. and the point
of him being the son of man. Verse 13, and no man hath ascended
up to heaven, but that he that hath came down from heaven, even
the son of man, which is in heaven. So here at this table of sinners,
We have sinners and the Son of Man. Now, I don't know if you
are like me in this, but it seems as if I could always in some
way, in some manner, grasp the idea of God being the Son of
Man. I'm not saying grasp it in its
entirety or in its scope, but maybe in its idea. But when I
read oftentimes that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of Man,
I kind of scratched my head, because I really didn't understand
that term. I could see Him as the Son of
God, but what does this mean that He is the Son of Man? Well,
it is really exactly as we described. as he being the son of God. He
is in every way in the likeness and image of man. God, our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is God, is also a man. Now, you have, have
I sat here and brought him down. Have I brought
him down in what I said? No, I have not brought him down. He has brought himself down. He came down. He descended from
glory, from a throne, from majesty, from omnipotence. He himself
descended down and became a man so that he could sit and eat
with sinners. How did he come down? He came
down and was born in a manger. There is, I cannot think of a
lower place to begin this life than being born in a stable. That was not a mistake. That
was not a misfortune of events that brought him to that manger. It was God Almighty himself,
purposing the birth of his beloved son, that he might enter this
world in the lowest state that he could, so that his state would
not be above any other man. God has brought himself down
that we sinners might approach him. His status also in life was that
of a Nazareth, a man from Nazareth. When Matthew heard of this man,
that the Christ had come, and someone said, Jesus of Nazareth,
I think it was Matthew, he said this, can there be any good thing
come out of Nazareth? That would be like here in our
country. Kingsport, somebody coming from
Dale Street, that is known in Kingsport to be of a low status
and of low education and of low accomplishment. If this had been
Los Angeles, it would have been East LA. Could anything come
good out of East LA? If this had been North, if this
had been New York, this would not have been Manhattan. It would
have been the Bronx or some other place. Our Lord came and lived
his life, come up in the lowest state he could so that men could
approach him. He became approachable. Now, in my experience, in my
life, anytime I think upon God, oftentimes it can be in His creation. For example, sitting in a, maybe
a doctor's office or something, and there's a magazine laying
there on the table, and you pick it up and you start reading,
and it's about It's about the universe. And you start reading
the magnitude of this universe, the vastness of it, and your
mind starts trying to grasp it. There's been times that I've
just become completely overwhelmed. It's too much. It's too big. Think about eternity. From everlasting
to everlasting, and I think of that It's too much. It's too big. It causes me to
shrink. It causes me to shrivel. It's
more than my mind can comprehend. It's too big. It's scary. But then I look and I see that
he who created this universe and he who is from everlasting
to everlasting, he has became man. He has descended for me
to approach God. I don't have to approach this
overwhelming, this more. He has brought himself down to
where I, the sinner, can come to him. Isn't that glorious? Isn't that wonderful? Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter
30. Now our story began, or our Bible
lesson began in Exodus chapter 19. There we've seen that terrible
sight of Mount Sinai. And now here in Deuteronomy chapter
30, did I say Deuteronomy chapter 30? I hope I did, okay. So in
Exodus, again, we've seen that terrible scene. They're just
a few months out of Egypt. Now here in Deuteronomy, Let
me give you a little bit of background on it. Moses has led the children
of Israel for 40 years. They failed, they would not believe God, and
he did not let them enter into Canaan. And so they wandered
in this wilderness for 40 years, and now it is at the time of
the end of the ministry of Moses. Now, remember that Moses also
represents the law and the scripture. But these words that we're about
to read, these are the words from Moses to the children of
Israel. And if you could see this scene, Israel has gathered. All of Israel is gathered. They
know that Moses is about to depart. Moses is all they have ever known
since they have left Egypt. And now this man of God, this
great prophet of God, he is standing before the people and he's given
them his last words. Read with me beginning in verse
11. For this commandment, which I
commend thee in this day, And that commandment is that law
that was given at Sinai. This commandment which I command
thee this day is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that thou
should say, who shall go up for us to heaven and to bring it
unto us, that we may hear it and do it. Verse 13, neither
is it beyond the sea that thou mayest say who shall go up over
the sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do
it. Verse 14, but the word is very
nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest
doest it. What Moses is saying here, that
this commandment that he's given, the holy law of God, the pleasing
of God, the satisfying of the law is not hidden from you. The obedience to this law, it's
not far off from you. It's not in heaven. You're not
gonna have to find a way to work yourself up to heaven to accomplish
this law, this holy law that condemns, this holy law that
is terrible. It's not in heaven, it's not
far off, and it's not hidden. And it's not beyond the sea,
it's not some, it's not this journey, this labor that you'll
have to go and get and obtain. He says, this commandment is
in thy mouth. Achieving and accomplishing the
law, this law, it's in your mouth. The Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter
10, that's where this passage come from. The accomplishment
of God's holy law has been accomplished for poor sinners. He came down,
he descended, and he accomplished all the righteousness of the
law. all the righteousness, everything that God required, he supplied
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He accomplished it. And when
in his perfection, in his righteousness, they took him and then they took
the sins of his people. God took the sins of his people
and put it on him and he was crucified. And our sins were
put away. And his righteousness became
ours. Now, now, he who is a sinner
and he who is unrighteous can come down or can come to a table
of fellowship. and fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.