Exodus 19. Exodus 19. I was thinking of that song, How Great Thou Art. We just know in part, don't we? Such a small part of the greatness of God. SUCH A SMALL PART, WE ARE NOT CAPABLE IN THIS FLESH OF BEING ABLE TO COMPREHEND GOD. NOW HE HAS GIVEN US A REVELATION OF HIMSELF IN HIS WORD BY HIS SPIRIT, WE DO KNOW HIM, BUT OH HOW MUCH MORE WE ARE GOING TO KNOW HERE IN A LITTLE WHILE.

THE TITLE OF THIS MESSAGE, STANDING AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNT. STANDING AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNT. IN THE SCRIPTURES WE HAVE THREE PROMINENT MOUNTS. NOW I KNOW THERE'S MOUNT CARMEL AND MOUNT PISCAH, BUT THERE'S THREE REALLY PROMINENT MOUNTS. WE HAVE MOUNT SINAI THAT WE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT THIS MORNING.

We have Mount Calvary and we have Mount Zion. Israel has come to Mount Sinai. God has led them there. Mount Sinai reveals God's holiness. It reveals God's unapproachableness. They were not allowed to come up into the mount. If they even touched it, if a beast even touched it, it would die. It would be put to death. So Mount Sinai reveals God's holiness, it condemns us, it reveals our sinfulness. We'll see this as we go on in further chapters.

We have Mount Calvary saves us, reveals how God can be just and justify the ungodly. Mount Calvary is the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what we see there. We see God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, us, not just Jews only, but us Gentiles. Then we have Mount Zion receives us into God's Family, the Church. God is known in His FULLNESS in Mount Zion. God is not known in His fullness in Mount Sinai, He is known in His HOLINESS But God is known not only in His holiness but in His grace in Mount Zion. We are Mount Zion and we know the Lord in His fullness in Mount Zion. And we will have to deal with all three of these if the Lord is pleased to save us. I'll show you that as we go along.

But also in this chapter we have Moses and he really stands out here in this chapter as the Mediator, which is a type of Christ. And we see in this chapter that our God is a consuming fire, He is a consuming fire. And we see the great holiness of God, no one as I said can touch the mountain, when He descends upon the mountain nobody can touch it. If they do, they have to be put to death.

Now let's look at some of these verses here. See how far the Lord enables us to get. The children of Israel here in verses 1 and 2. They are led by God to this place. He shepherds them. The Lord is our Shepherd. He leads us. He led us to this place, didn't He? He brought us to this place. In the third month, when the children of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness. And there Israel camped before the mount."

You know, when I just read verses like this, thoughts come to me like this. I'm so glad that our camp is at Calvary. Well, that thought just struck me. I thought, I'm glad we camp at Calvary. We camp where grace is found. We camp where the mercy of God and the grace of God can flow to us. And He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad you camp at Calvary and not at Mount Sinai? Don't stop there. Don't stop and stay at Mount Sinai. You don't want to stay there. There's no life there. There's no hope there. There's no salvation there. We'll see this as we go on later chapters.

But here in verse 3 Moses stands out as the Mediator, as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Moses went up unto God. and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Israel, Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. Moses said this in Deuteronomy 5, 5, I stood between the Lord and you at that time to show you the word of the Lord. Who stands between us and God? The Lord Jesus Christ, not Mary. Good night. Nobody can take that place. There's only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And He tells us the words of God. He speaks to us who is the Word of God. Our Lord said this in John 14 10. BELIEVEST THOU NOT THAT I AM IN THE FATHER AND THE FATHER IN ME? THE WORDS THAT I SPEAK UNTO YOU I SPEAK NOT OF MYSELF, BUT THE FATHER THAT DWELLS IN ME, HE DOETH THE WORK."

These are His words. I pray God that what I'm saying this morning are His words. Solomon said the preacher sought acceptable words, words that were of God. I pray this morning that the words I speak this morning are acceptable words, the Word of God. The Lord said in another place, As I hear, I speak. That's what Moses did. You'll notice going through this, Moses went up to God, God told him what to say, he went down, told the people, and then went back to God and told God what the people said. Did God not know what the people said? Yes, He knew what the people said. This is written for us because Christ, our prayers, our Lord presents our prayers before God. That's why they are accepted. He intercedes for us and He makes our prayers accepted. And you'll notice in that verse, verse 3, how God addressed them. He said, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel. Jacob, house of Jacob, the house of deceivers, depraved, sinners, the house of Jacob. And yet Israel, a prince of God. A prince of God. It's a name of grace, a name given by God to Jacob. He said, I'm going to change your name to Israel. Because as a prince, thou hast power with God. When you wrestle with the angel, wrestle with the Lord.

But we are, now listen, we are Jacob and we are Israel. We are sinners. And yet now are we the sons of God. Now are we the sons of God. We never get past being sinners saved by grace, do we? Rahab is always known as what? The harlot. All the way through the scriptures, Rahab the harlot. She's also Rahab the daughter of God. She's also a daughter, a child of the King. You see, we never get past Jacob and Israel. I'm Jacob and I'm Israel.

Now in verses 4 and 6 notice the language of grace. You have seen. You've seen. Israel saw. They saw the great deliverance. They witnessed the great deliverance God gave them. They witnessed it. You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians. You saw them floating at your feet, washed upon the shore. You witnessed that. And how I bear you on eagles' wings. Eagles' wings. I carried you. That's what the Lord's still doing, isn't He? He's burying us up. He's the one who's carrying us. He's carrying us home. I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you.

Now listen, this is powerful. I brought you to myself. I brought you to myself. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing. He's bringing us to God. He's bringing us to God. Listen to Ephesians 5.27, speaking of our Lord, that He might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS BRINGING US TO HIMSELF, HE BEING GOD. HE'S BRINGING US TO HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT OR BLEMISH.

And then he says here in verse 5, Now therefore, if you will obey my voice, indeed, and keep my covenant, THEN SHALL YOU BE A PECULIAR TREASURE UNTO ME ABOVE ALL PEOPLE, FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE." This is His. None of this is ours. I mean, we didn't create it. He says it's Mine. And when we die, guess what? We're going to leave it behind. It's His. We're not taking it with us. He's not taking anything with you from this life. UNLESS YOU'RE LOST, THEN YOU'RE TAKING YOUR SINS WITH YOU. YOU'RE GONNA TAKE THEM WITH YOU. BUT OLD, IF THE LORD HAS SAVED YOU, YOU'RE TAKING THE LORD WITH YOU. HE SAID, I'LL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU. I'LL BE WITH YOU. WHEN YOU GO THROUGH THE WATER, WHEN YOU GO THROUGH DEATH, I'LL BE WITH YOU. I'LL BE WITH YOU. YOU'RE NOT GONNA BEAR THAT ALONE.

AND YOU SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND A HOLY NATION. THESE ARE THE WORDS WHICH THOU SHALT SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL."

Well, did they obey the voice of the Lord? Did they keep His covenant? Absolutely not, but there's one who did. There's one who did in our place. Listen to 1 Peter 2.9, But you are a chosen generation. You see, this is fulfilled in and by Christ. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, purchased people, that's what that means. Now you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. They said, We will do it. They didn't. The Son of God said, I'll do it, and He did. And because of that, This scripture here in 2 Peter and 1 Peter 2 now applies to us because He accomplished it. We are now made kings and priests unto God, the scripture says.

And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And notice their ignorant reply. Here s their ignorant reply. in verse 8 and all the people answered together all of them together with one voice one voice and they said all that the lord has spoken we will do they didn't say by his grace we will do with his help we will do they just said everything he spoke and we vow this is a vow we will do it we'll do it like that rich young ruler all these I've kept from my youth up I've done them we will do it you know Paul exposes their ignorance over in Romans chapter 10 they've been ignorant of God's righteousness THEY BE INIGNORANT OF THE RIGHTEOUS CHARACTER OF GOD, GOING ABOUT TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS. IF YOU AND I ARE IGNORANT OF THE RIGHTEOUS CHARACTER OF GOD, WE WILL GO ABOUT TO ESTABLISH A RIGHTEOUSNESS OF OUR OWN, AND WE WILL HOLD IT UP BEFORE GOD. BUT IF HE REVEALS HIMSELF TO US, MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO US, AND WE REALIZE HE IS RIGHTEOUS, PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS AND HOLY, And we can't come up to that standard. Brethren, we can't come up to that standard. We can't even get out of this room without failing. We can't get through this message without failing. But this is an ignorant reply. All that he said, we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people to the Lord.

It would have been nice, it would have been great if Moses would have went back and said, The people said, they need your help. They need your help. They need your grace to do it. But they didn't. He went back and said, they said they'll do it. And it's like, all right. All right. Now I'm going to tell them what to do. You see, all this time, it's been nothing but grace and mercy on them. But now, from this point on, it's going to be due and live, don't do, and die.

It's evident they did not know God. And it's evident they didn't know themselves. You see, we don't know ourselves. Now I want you to get this. We do not know ourselves until we know God. We don't know ourselves until we know who God is. You see, in thy light, it says, we shall see light. It's only when we see Him and come to know Him that we begin to really understand and know who and what we are.

When we see His light, when we really see His light, we realize we're darkness. When we really begin to see and have some understanding that God is holy, we realize we are unholy. That's why we are called ungodly, unlike God. There's nothing more unlike God than a man, a human being. God's light, we are darkness. God's holy, we are sin. God's life, we are death. That's the way it is.

That's why Paul says to the Galatians, Do you not hear the law? Do you not hear it? If you don't do this strictly, and then our Lord came and He gave the spirituality of the law. If you hate your brother without a cause, that's murder. If you look on a woman's lust after her, that's adultery, you've already committed it before God, before God you're guilty! You're guilty of adultery, you're guilty of murder, you're guilty of a lot of things that you've not yet committed because God kept you from it.

Every person in this room has been mad enough to shoot somebody at one time or another, haven't you? Somebody cuts you off on the road, you get so mad you can run them off the road. That's the TRUTH! Well, God sees THAT, and He knows where that's coming from. He knows the PIT from which it's coming from. God KNOWS! But listen here, the LAW is going to say, DO and LIVE! You know He never spoke like this to Abraham? He said, I will give you, I will give you, I will give you. You see the language of grace is I will and you shall. That's the language of grace. The language of the law is do and live, don't do and die.

Now here's going to come a change. They're going to see God, now they're going to see God in a way that they've never seen before from here on. And the LORD said to Moses in verse 9, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud. That's a thick, dark cloud. You know, they were being led by a cloud, but it wasn't a thick, dark cloud. They had a cloud by day and a fire by night. It's light. It's light. They had light. And I'm coming 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.

Now the appearance of God, the appearance of the cloud is now a thick cloud, a thick dark cloud. And God tells Moses here what He requires in order for the people to deal with Him and for Him to deal with the people. He says, And the LORD said to Moses, Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes prepared IT'S TO PREPARE PEOPLE, GO PREPARE THEM TO MEET GOD! You know, we really ought to prepare our hearts before we come here to the service. We really should. We really ought to prepare our hearts to hear and to listen and to worship and to sing His praise. We ought to prepare our hearts, not just throw the clothes on, jump in the car and get here. God is to be SANCTIFIED! set apart man we don't make him holy but he's holy we need to recognize that we are in the presence of god and god said to him you sanctify the people make them ready make them ready and here it's ceremonially it's speaking but christ now listen i'm gonna get to this christ did sanctify us HE DID MAKE US READY, HE MADE US READY TO MEET GOD. AND GOD MEET US AND DEAL WITH ONE ANOTHER IN PEACE. YOU SEE THIS BELONGS TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. GO UNTO THE PEOPLE AND SANCTIFY THEM. OUR LORD DID THIS.

1 Corinthians 1.30 But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But He has made unto us sanctification. He is our sanctification before God. He is our righteousness. He is our holiness before God. 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.

I said we're going to have to deal with all three of these mounds. When God first comes to us in a saving manner, He comes to us, now listen, as a consuming fire. This is important. Then He comes as the God of all grace and the God of all comfort. This is missing today. This is missing. You'll never, you'll never appreciate Mount Calvary until you've been to Mount Sinai and God's made you to understand the law, His law, the curse of the law. Now listen here to the law in verse 12. The Lord, He said here, And 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 TOUCHES THE MOUNT SHALL BE SURELY PUT TO DEATH.

The LAW SETS BOUNDARIES. What's the gospel say? Come to Me, all you that labor heavy laden, I'll give you rest. We are told to cast all our cares upon Him, for He cares for us. We are told to come to the THRONE OF GRACE. We're told to do that. We are told to come to the THRONE OF GRACE BOLDLY. boldly confidently but the law says it says boundaries don't come any further than this don't touch the mount and it pronounces death the gospel pronounces life it pronounces death the law kills this is not the language of grace it's the language of the law Whoever touches the mouse shall be surely put to death.

The law knows no mercy. It knows no mercy. God's law is absolutely strict. I mean it is strict to the jot and tittle. He says here, even a hand in verse 13, there shall not a hand touch it. You see our hands are what? It's what we work with. That's what we do our work with. And don't you let a hand of your works touch it. If you do, you're going to die. You're going to die. He'll surely be stoned or shot through. That's shot through with an arrow. Whether it be beast or man, the law makes no distinction. Sin has touched everything on this earth. Man and beast. Man's not any better than a beast. David said in the psalm, I'm a beast before you. He said, I'm like a beast before you, ignorant, ignorant, stupid beast. It says here, Whether it be beast or man, it shall not live.

When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and he sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. Symbolically, ceremonially, he made them ready to meet God.

WHAT HE DID SYMBOLICALLY, JESUS CHRIST HAS DONE ACTUALLY. HE HAS DONE ACTUALLY. AND HE SAID TO THE PEOPLE, BE READY AGAINST THE THIRD DAY, AND COME NOT AT YOUR WIVES. THIS HAS REFERENCE TO LEVITICUS 15-18. THE SEED OF MAN IS A SINFUL SEED. IT'S A SINFUL SEED. As David said in Psalm 51, In sin did my mother conceive me. Over in Leviticus, because I wondered about this when I read it, and I'll give you from the Scriptures what this means, and it has a spiritual meaning to it. But over in Leviticus, if a man and a wife were intimate with one another and there was copulation, that's what the Scripture calls it, and there's copulation. He said they were to take a bath, they were to wash, and they were unclean until the evening. You know why? Because the seed of man is sinful. It's just sinful. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ was not born of the seed of Adam. It's a sinful seed. And over Leviticus 15, 18, it gives you a picture of that.

But how different the law is from grace. It came the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mountain and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. But here now, God comes down, and there's lightning, thunder, and there's that thick, dark cloud, and that whole mountain is just quaking like this. I mean, it's just shaking. I don't want to deal with God in that manner. That's not the God I want to deal with. That will be the God I deal with outside of Christ. They had not seen God like this before. But here's a question. Has God changed? God who came down on this mountain and is quaking lightning and thunder and a thick dark cloud and oh this trumpet, this loud trumpet. God hasn't changed. God is still the same God. The danger of much of today's preaching is this, THIS GOD DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE! THIS GOD DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE! It's as if the gospel changed the character of God! The gospel honors the character of God, it doesn't change it, it honors the character of God! God is still a consuming fire outside of Jesus Christ! If you don't deal and I don't deal with God at Calvary, I will deal with God at Mount Sinai. It's one or the other. It'll be one or the other.

And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God, to meet with God. This is what was said over in 1 Peter 3.18, that the Lord is bringing us to meet God. Turn over to 1 Peter 3.18. FOR AS MUCH AS YOU KNOW THAT YOU WERE NOT REDEEMED, FOR CHRIST ALSO HATH ONCE SUFFERED FOR SINS, JUST FOR THE UNJUST, THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD. I told you in the beginning of this message, this is what the Lord is doing, He is bringing us to God. He may bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, but He is bringing us to God. And Moses there, he says, and Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. How do you want to meet God? Now Sinai or Calvary? It is going to be one or the other. I'M TELLING YOU IT'LL BE ONE OF THESE.

And they stood at neither part, they stood at the foot of the mount because they couldn't go no further. You see the law can't take you any further than that. You're not going up, you're going down, you're going down, you're going to die. And here they are in the awful presence of God.

Verse 18, And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

Now, move this scene to Calvary. Remember, what did it do? Did it quake? And there was darkness? and it quaked and you take this scene going on at Mount Sinai and take it to Calvary and you can see what was going on with Jesus Christ, what God was doing to Him. God's law, God's wrath, God's fire, God being a consuming fire fell on Him. It fell on Him.

And this is interesting, I think it's over in the next chapters, but when the fire fell on the sacrifice, it's the first time, I think, where the sacrifice consumed the fire. It's the first time the sacrifice consumed the fire. Remember when the angel, Gideon, that the sacrifice was consumed by the fire? Now the sacrifice is going to consume the fire, it's going to put it out. God's wrath is not against us no more. It's not against us no more.

And when the voice, verse 19, and when the voice of the trumpet sounded long waxed louder and louder, boy that's the law, louder and louder, Moses spake and God answered him by voice. The Lord came down and Moses went up, if you'll see that in verse 20, and the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount and Moses went up.

That's right, God came down on Mount Calvary and the Lord Jesus Christ went up to glory and there He intercedes for us and there He intercedes on our behalf, our prayers, He presents our prayers, the prayers of the saints.

THE LORD SAID TO MOSES, GO DOWN AND CHARGE THE PEOPLE, LEST THEY BREAK THROUGH, UNTIL THE LORD DEGAYS AND MANY OF THEM PERISH.

The Lord knows us, doesn't He? I'm going to show you something here. He said, Go down, lest they break through out of curiosity and gaze upon us. I want to see this. No, you don't. Outside of Christ, you don't want to see God. You can't look upon Him and live. In Christ, you can. You can see the glory of God, it's revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. But apart from Christ, you're dead. You can't see God and live.

But he said, lest they break through unto the Lord and gaze out of curiosity. Not out of love, not out of a need of mercy, but just out of curiosity. Like the men of Bathshemesh. Remember what they did? They opened the Ark. They're just curious, they want to see what's inside that ark. What's so special about that ark? Well, inside that ark, the broken laws kept. The manna and the rod that bought it, inside that ark. But they opened that ark. And you know what God did? He killed 50,070 men. and 70 men. I think there's 50,000 troops here at Fort Bragg, isn't there? I think that's what I read. It's 50,000 troops. That's like killing the whole lot of Fort Braggs. He killed them for opening that ark. They had no business. They had no business. Only Christ can keep that broken law. You and I can't do that. And I'm telling you this, you don't want to deal with God out of curiosity. Apart from Christ, the presence of God is deadly, deadly.

And let the priest also which come near the Lord sanctify themselves, lest the people break forth upon them, lest the Lord break forth upon them. And Moses said, now here s what I m saying, The Lord knows us. He knows the people. These are the ones who just a little later they're going to make a golden calf. These are the ones who said all he said we'll do and just a few days from now they're going to make a golden calf.

Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to the Mount Sinai for thou charged us saying set bounds about the mountain sanctified. They're not going to come up to the mount because you told them not to. you told him not well really you told him not to listen to the Lord's reply and the Lord said away get down go do what I said because he knew they'd do it Moses you know Moses said well they won't do it because you told him not to oh yes they are gonna do it you get down there and do what I said because they're gonna touch them they're gonna touch it if you don't get down there and stop them and I'm gonna have to kill him I'm gonna have to kill him

So Moses went down to the people and spake unto them. Here's where the type fails. Our Lord, as our mediator, does not argue with the Father. He does not argue and say, well, they won't do that. No, He does exactly what the Father says. As I hear I speak.

Standing at the foot of the mount, Brother I want to stand by the grace of God at the foot of Mount Calvary and I want to belong to Mount Zion. Now we have to go to Mount Sinai because if you don't go to Mount Sinai you'll never understand the holiness of God and you'll never understand Calvary. You won't understand Mount Calvary if you never see Mount Sinai, if you never stand there. And you understand, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. You ever read the scriptures and even reading the Old Testament and read the law? And you think, I'm guilty, I've done that. I've done that. Thou shalt not steal. Have you done that? Anybody done that? Everybody bow your heads. You know, there's nothing we're not guilty of. Nothing. One way or another, we're guilty. Oh, then God will help us, enable us to stand at Mount Calvary. And all HE did, all HE did, is what we rely on, not what we do.