Exodus chapter 19 we've come
all the way from Genesis into Exodus and up to chapter 19 thus
far Exodus chapter 19 verses 1 through 25 Exodus should not
be too hard to find I have to I feel ashamed to have to say
this but when Paul said turn to Ruth chapter 1 I never could
find it and I had to just put my Bible down and listen I I
thought I knew where it was at when I turned to that spot. It
wasn't there, so maybe somebody needs to get me a Bible with
the tabs on it now. Exodus 19, one through 25 is the main context. I will read just one verse from
Exodus chapter 19. I will read verse 24. Hopefully
we'll see this congeal and come together as I go along. Exodus 19, verse 24. And the Lord said unto him, that
is to Moses, Moses, one of the very few men that God was allowed
to approach and come up into the mount. Let me hold my spot a minute.
The Lord said unto him, that's Moses, now I hope you realize
that most of what we were taught, maybe not all of us, but most
of what some of us were taught when we were younger is actually
dead wrong. I was taught when I was younger,
Moses went into the mount twice. He went up into the mountain
once, received the tables. Whenever Moses came back, they
were having that big party. Moses crushed the tables, and
then he goes back up in to get the second. Moses went up into
the mountain back, up into the mountain back, up into the mountain
back. And if you've actually read more
than what I've asked you to read, you will see, wait a minute,
Moses is bouncing back and forth on that mountain. Maybe not,
if you really read it, you'll see that. Most of us were taught,
not all of us, but most of us were taught the first time Israel
ever heard the Ten Commandments is when Moses brought down the
tablets. But that's not so. First of all,
he broke the first set and went back and got a second set. But
the Ten Commandments were sounded forth by God in verbal form from
the mount when the people were at the bottom of the mount. I've
been preaching for 34, 35 years now, trying to preach the gospel,
and didn't even know that. Didn't even know that. Here it
is. And the Lord said unto him, this
is Moses, away, get thee down. And thou shalt come up, thou
and Aaron with thee, but let not the priests and the people
See it, but let not the priests and the people break through
to come up unto the Lord Lest he break forth upon them Do not be deceived by modern
day so-called Christianity. God cannot be approached in whatever
way you want to approach him. That's one of the first things
I begin to see when I read this. And this is just the prelude
to the actual giving of the law. The law's not actually given
until we read it in chapter 20, verse 4, and God spake all these
words. Not he wrote them down on tables
of stone. He did that later. It was actually written with
the finger of God. Imagine that. Now why do we not
have those tables today? You know why? Because we as fallen
sons and daughters of Adam, yet religious people, we'd be worshiping
those tables. just like our brothers and sisters
of Israel worship Nehushtan, that brass serpent on a pole. Let me read you this verse. I,
of course, I think maybe some of you maybe realize why I chose
314 from our song book this morning. And I want to read you just one
verse, and I want this to be on the tape. This is one of the
verses of a song called Hell Sovereign Love. and i would guarantee
i'll be willing to bet a hundred dollars in it that in and i'm
not that big of a batman a harley by scratch off tickets be willing
to bet you a hundred dollars in the most so-called churches
this all is not even known but here's one verse of that song
indignant justice stood in view to sad eyes fiery mount i flew
But justice cried with frowning face, this mountain is no hiding
place. And yet, so-called Christianity
tells everybody, run to the law. Keep the law. They even have
bumper stickers, and some of them with the little tablet with
the Ten Commandments wrote on it, and they'll say, keep the
law. God said don't even come near the mount. God, through his representative,
brought the commandments down. Do we dare approach Sinai? Even more than that, do we dare
approach God at Sinai? Dare we approach God by the law. Dare we approach God by our merits. Dare we approach God by our cleanliness. You remember reading that in
this short prelude to the actual giving of the law? Cleanliness,
our cleanliness. The answer resounds forth from
scripture, no! Do not approach this mountain
trying to get to God. False religion, that which is
under the influence of anti-Christ. False religion says, well maybe
we don't need the law for salvation, but we need the law for sanctification. No. But people need a law to
live by, or they won't live right. Noah did not have this. Sounded
forth from Sinai, nor on two tables of stone, did he? Yet
he walked before God. One of his predecessors, Enoch,
did not have this law. Yet it says he walked with God. Does it not? Abraham never had
the law written in tables of stone, but yet Abraham believed
God. You see, before even one commandment
issues forth, we read here in our text that God pits his mercies
against our merits. Did you see that there? I said,
even before one commandment issues forth, God pits His mercies against
our merits. And you'll see that in chapter
19, verses 1 through 6. But the main verses are 4, 5,
and 6. And let's read them together. Ye have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, look at
it, and brought you unto myself Now therefore and this is not
just a okay because I've said that but this is a in light of
me saying that Okay in light of me now therefore if you will
obey my voice indeed And keep my covenant. Then ye shall be
a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth
is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel." There he's talking
about their merits. What they are going to be commanded
to do. Now which one do you want? Which one do you want? I'll give
men to pick. Choose. Go ahead. Make a choice,
because you will one way or the other. Free will so-called notwithstanding,
you're going to make a choice one way or the other. You're
either going to say, God Almighty's got to conquer my enemies and
bring me unto Himself. Or He says, here, do it by yourself. You see what he just said there?
I'm saying again, before even one commandment issued forth,
God pits his mercies against our merits. When I read that, I thought,
wow. Let me give you seven thoughts from Exodus chapter 19 mainly. Number one, see what God has
done. Now look at the law and see what
man must do. Do you want to be given God's
mercy? Or do you want to try to merit
God's favor? You heard what I said? You can't
merit his mercy. Those two things don't fit together. Mercy by
default means you're at odds against God and he has to be
merciful to you. See what God has done, see what
we must do if we are to merit making it to God. In light of that, think about
this. Here's the second thing. Do we remember even the past
three months? So what are you talking about? Verse one, 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, for they were departed from Rephidim
and were come to the desert of Sinai, and it pitched in the
wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. Now think about it, then he says,
I brought you out with a strong hand. That's basically what he's
saying. I brought you to myself. Now I've got a covenant. And
you got to keep it indeed. Now though he doesn't say so,
he is saying to the people of Israel and saying to every one
of us, which one do you want? Now, if Israel were smart, but
none of us are spiritually by nature. If Israel were smart,
if we were smart, we'd just remember the past three months of our
lives. How well have I kept God's law
in the past three months? And I know it now. I've had it
given to me. I have a Bible that has it wrote
down in it with all kinds of things said about it and explaining
it. Telling me what it really means and what it says. Think
of Israel. Keep my covenant indeed. My words, indeed. They belly ached when God sent
Moses to deliver them from Egypt. They belly ached when they came
to the Red Sea. Did they not? They belly ached
when they came to the bitter waters. They belly ached when
they couldn't find water later at all. And then they misused
the manna when God even gave them the manna. Did they not? And you want to keep this covenant
God's about to announce from Sinai? Come on now. Oh God help us all
to be honest before Him. Oh wretched man that I am. And I can say that any day. Way
back yonder before God saved me and right now today after
God saved me and I've been saved for 34, 35 years. God, I'm still
a wretched man. Because I know how much I murmur
and complain and bellyache. That's number two. We're fallen
sinners. Our rebellion issues forth from
our real problem down in here. Down in here. Here's number three. Should this not rather drive
me to God's mercies and not my own merit? Now we all know this
law, don't we? They hadn't heard it yet. Now
they're about to hear it. And God says, there's two options. My free sovereign mercies or
your merit, one or the other. You see that there? I read this
and I thought, wow. Should this not drive me to God's
mercies and not to my own merit? Yet, for some, it never does. For some, it has not yet. Sadly,
most people hear the law and say, well, I'll give that a stand.
Right? I'll give that a stand. One young
man, a rich young man, a sincere young man, a very respectful
young man. Go back and look at the context
of it. Came and bowed down to Christ worshiping him and said,
good master, what good thing might I do? He already started
off wrong. He showed great respect for Christ. But two things were wrong. He
didn't know who Christ really was. He called him good, but he didn't
even know what real goodness was, because Christ said, there's
none good but God. Why callest thou me good? Do
you recognize I'm God? He did not. And secondly, he
thought he could actually do good before God. And Christ told
him to do what? Somebody said, well, this is
insincere from God, if that's really a choice between two.
Oh, no. What did Christ tell that rich
young ruler? Keep the commandments. Is that not what he told him?
Keep the commandments. And what did he say? Oh, God,
I can't. Master, I can't. Now he said, well, I've done
this since I was a young fella. Did he not? That's what he said.
Yes, sir. And long story short is that
he went away sorrowful. Yes, sir. Because Christ then
hit him, it's still under law, right where it really hurts,
in his pocketbook. Exactly. You give everything
you've got and you sell it to the poor and you take up your
cross and follow me And he went away sorrowful for he had great
possessions Christ proved to him his possessions meant more
to him than God's holy law Hmm, although we still have every
reason to think he was a probably a very moral young man Number four In light of number three Should
this not drive me to God's mercies and not my merit? It will never
do that to me as I am by nature. And this is not going to be some
new doctrine. Joe, there is but one doctrine. Turn to Romans
chapter 3 and we'll see why. Romans chapter 3. We'll begin at verse nine. What
then? Are we better than they? Is the Jew really better than
the Gentile? The Jew had advantage over Gentile. But here's the
question now. Are they better? What then? Are we better than they? No.
It's like a double thing. No ought to be enough. But it's
never for us, is it? No and no wise, for we have before
proved. So I ain't here to debate this.
I ain't here to debate this. It's already been proven. I'm
just declaring what's been proven already. No one know wise for
he have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all
under sin. As it is written and he refers
back to what not his philosophy. Not his upbringing, which was
under the law, was it not? This man who wrote this epistle?
A great legalist. Mason, to say the least. He said
of himself, would it come to my equals? I stood head and shoulders
above everybody. You know what he basically said?
No, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one
single one. There is none that they don't
even understand. And folks, when most people read
the law, it's clear they don't understand. They don't get what
the law is saying to them. They're at best like that rich
young ruler. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. You can't even find one profitable
thing if you loop this all together. That's pretty strong language,
isn't it? But that's God's language, as it is written. This is what
God says about us. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. When you give to the Shriners
Crippled Children's Hospital, if you do, And I'm not telling
you not to, even though it's a bunch of Shriners that do a
lot of decent things for a lot of needy children, do they not?
But if you give to that for any other reason than the glory of
Jesus Christ and His gospel, it's sin. How many times do you
do something like that, but then you just wish somebody else knew
you did it? Huh? Now come on. Or it just burns
inside you that, boy, I'd like to tell somebody I gave them
50 bucks. Even if you don't, that's still
sin. It's pride. You watch some of
these commercials asking you to give
to really decent causes. And what do they say? Oh, they
plead. It's so psychological and emotional. And then they'll
say something like this, it'll make you feel real good about
yourself. That's why we do most of it. Now I'm glad God's got a lot
of people out there that do it, even for their own reasons. He's
still taking care of little children sick with cancer. In spite of
the evil and the wicked and the pride and everybody else. Aren't
you glad our God's sovereign? Aren't you glad our God's sovereign? I'm not here preaching for the
Shriner's Crippled Children Hospital either. Look at it. Their throat is an open sepulcher. I've never done it, but you ever
walked up to an open grave where the body of the corpse is laying
there rotten? That's what he's talking about.
Take a big smell. I know you've been going down
the road and a beast be lying there dead on the road in the
hot sun. You ever just do a thing and say, I like that. And if you do, you're sick. But God is saying that's what
we're like by nature to him. With their tongues they have
used deceit. Oh, an unruly evil. Did not James say we've tamed
big ships and animals? The small bridle, big old ship
with a small helm. Little small, that big old ship.
But we cannot tame what? Why? Because that tongue is connected
to me inside. And out of the abundance of the
heart, the tongue yaps. Their throats are an open sepulcher
with their tongues they've used to see. The poison of a snake
is under their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing
and bitters. Well, I never said a curse word. We ain't talking
about curse words. We're talking about you cursing
God. You bragging on yourself as you cursing God, because He's
the only one that's good in all that there is. Their feet are
swift to shed blood. Remember the last guy that cut
you off in traffic? If you thought you could have got away with
it, you'd have bashed his brains in. Huh? Now maybe all of you
ain't like that. Some of us are. Feet are swift to shed, but destruction
and misery are in their ways. And that ain't talking about,
my paychecks are hard to come by. That ain't what that's talking
about. Destruction and misery. Everything we touch we defile. The way of peace, have they not
known? There is no fear of God. Even
an animalistic base fear or reverence either one. A lot of people fear
hell but they don't fear God. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now we know, we know, some people
know, some people don't. Oh God give them that knowledge.
Now we know that what thing so ever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, why? God's law tells you shut
up. Don't brag about yourself. Don't brag about your merits. Don't brag about you meriting
God's favor. Say it to them that are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty, guilty before God. You see, there are folks I see
and deal with and sometimes I say, well, those are pretty decent
folk. And they may be compared to other folk. But God does not
compare us to one another. He compares us to himself and
his holy law. And we don't cut the muster,
folks. We don't cut the muster. This
ought to drive me to God's mercies. To God's mercies. But by nature,
it does not. Does it? It does not. Here's
number five. By nature, we will not and cannot
plead this coming statement. I said, by nature, we will not
and cannot. And somebody says, well, which
comes first? It don't matter. They're like this. Scott Richardson,
the late pastor from Katie Baptist Church in Fairmont, West Virginia,
used to say, if you will, you can. If you can, you will. Because
will not and cannot are like this. They're just two sides
of the same coin, you might say. By nature, we will not and cannot
plead. God, help me. God, be merciful
to me. I can't keep your words indeed. I cannot obey your voice indeed. I cannot keep your covenant. I cannot merit being a particular
treasure before you. I know the earth is all yours
and I am too. And like the one old gal said,
Lord, I'm just a dog. but I want to be your dog. Isn't
that what she said, that Syro-Phoenician woman? Lord, I'm just a dog. He called her a dog, and she
said, truth, Lord. That's a whole lot different
than that rich young ruler, is it not? She said, truth, Lord,
but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's
table. I am your dog. By nature we will not cannot
plead God help me. I cannot obey and keep And what does God do when we
so boast when we don't have that ability to plead God's mercy
To cry out for God's mercy. What does God do when we sova
so boast? I Look at it, is there boasting?
Oh, we often do. Look at it, verse eight. The
people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken,
we will do. Oh, what dangerous ground for
you and I to stand on. Remember the past three months?
I mean, how soon we forget what we really are. We're like the
man before, holding his face in the mirror. And we see it
for a little while, but as soon as we turn away, we forget what
it looks like. We forget. Now look at verse nine, well,
verse eight. And Moses returned the words
of the people unto the Lord. Now the Lord already knew what
they said. He knew what they were going to say before they
even said it. But that's not the point here. Moses went to
God and said, here's what they said, God. And the Lord said
unto Moses, lo, here's the choice, they've chosen their own merits,
have they not? They've chosen to hear and obey
his voice indeed and to keep his covenant. That's what they
just said. And the Lord said unto Moses, lo, I come unto thee
in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with thee
and believe thee forever. And he really means that. But
look, and Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord.
Now let's just stop there for a moment. Here's number six. God then demands even elementary
perfection. You hear what I just said? I'm
sure there's probably better words, but my limited intellect,
that's the best I can come up with. God then demands even elementary
perfection, but he clearly shows that he demands full separation
by law. He said, what are you talking
about? Well, let's read what it says,
verse 10. We'll go all the way down through
verse 15. The Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people. Remember? All that you said, God will do
it. Oh God help us when we say that. The Lord said unto Moses, go
unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let
them wash their clothes. What's that got to do with anything?
When you read that did you think, what's this matter? Could you
not come to God if you got dirty clothes on? Do you gotta take
a bath physically first? Well, some, I guess, believe
you have to be dunked in the water, you Campbellites. 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. Well, that don't sound too bad
so far, right? We can do that, right? Right? I can wash my clothes. I can
start going to church. I can sing in the choir. I can
go witness to people. I can give to good philanthropic
causes. I can give to the church. Go
on. I can do that. But we're not done yet. God's
not done yet. Thou shalt set bounds unto the
people round about saying take heed to yourself now Even when
you've cleansed your clothes You smell good now. Yeah You
see Thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about saying
take heed to yourselves That you go not up into the mount. Why ain't we supposed to come
to God? Not just any old way you're not or touch the border of it, whosoever
touches the mouth shall surely be put to death. There shall not a hand, a clean
hand, right? There shall not a hand touch
it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through, whether it be
beast, Or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long,
they shall come up to the mount. Huh? Wait a minute, God can't
say things like that. He just did. Now you approach
me, but I will set limits. And what he just said, I'm gonna
put up the red caution tape. Now I know I'm being metaphorical
here. The red caution, and you, Touch
it. Bash your brains in. Is that
what it says? If you touch it, like my dog.
My dog! He puts his paw on it. Is that
what God's just said? That's the Sinai Covenant, folks. And Moses went down from the
mount unto the people and sanctified the people and they washed their
clothes. They're still ready to roll, ain't they? Huh? Look,
and he said unto the people, uh-oh, what's that? And he said
unto the people, be ready against the third day. Come not as your
wives. Now we're not going into what,
you know what that means, right? Listen to me now. Consider here, one,
we are filthy. We are filthy. That's what God's
telling them here. You're filthy. And even if you
clean yourselves up, if you just do one normal natural thing,
come at your wife. You've defiled yourself already. You see what he's saying here?
He's giving Mason just a natural thing. A couple natural things. Do the cleanse. Clean up. Don't you touch your wives. We are filthy, even our clothes
and our most intimate deeds are what? Filthy! Filthy! Filthy! Filthy rags in God's
sight. Filthy rags in God's sight. Sinai. God demands even elementary perfection,
but He demands full separation by law. But here's the second
thing under this number six sign out that is the law screams stay
away from God Yeah, you know what it screams. It says come
near But stay away That's what buzzes what says then you approach,
but don't you touch? You see why because there's a
lesson here to be learned by the law It's not about how you
get to God It's how you're in absolute need of someone else
to bring you there. And God's already reminded them,
I got to be the one to do it. Hasn't he? Somebody said, boy,
you people just find the gospel everywhere. That's exactly right,
I do. Bless God, I find the gospel
everywhere. Think about that. Here's another
thing. Here's a third point on the number six. And I want to try
to keep the Ten Commandments? Huh? And I want to try to keep
the Ten Commandments? Look at what it says. Let's go
on, verse 16. Okay, I want to keep the ten. Now, as we will
see, there are far more than ten. The ten basically just summarizes
all the others. They say 600 and some, whatever
it is. I'm not even going to start to try to count it. I'm
not able to do that because some one commandment may have two
or three different parts to it. Be that as it may, look at what
it said, verse 16. And it came to pass on the third day in the
morning. Remember, this is the day when
what? They're supposed to come up to the mountain. Right? And
it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there
were thunders and lightnings. The other day I was coming home
from Lowe's and I had to buy an air conditioner. I had the
air conditioner in the back of the truck and I was just hoping
God don't let it pour the rain before I get home to ruin my
brand new air conditioner. It's even still in the box. And
I'm heading down Oakville Mountain and I look over toward Kellysville
and here's this big bolt of lightning and I see rain just dancing down. That made me uneasy. Why? Because I'm so selfish, I knew
I had to drive into that thunderstorm with my daggone air conditioner
in the back of the truck. That was just one little storm,
Joe, and one bolt of lightning. Think about this. Thunders and
lightnings. And a thick cloud upon the mount
and the voice of the trumpet. This is not God playing a good
jazz on the trombone, or with the saxophone. No, this is a
loud trumpet issuing forth from God on this fiery mount. Exceeding loud, I can only imagine
it. So that all the people that was
in the camp trembled. But I'm telling you folks, they
still didn't get it. Because as a natural man or woman, you
ain't gonna get it unless God Almighty regenerates you first. Moses brought forth the people
out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the nether
part. I just like that. They stood
at the nether. Did they rush forward? I wasn't
rushing forward toward that one bolt of lightning and that one
little downpour. They stood at the nether part
of the mount, 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. There was a major earthquake
taking place. I've only been in one, and it
was a little bitty one. And I was in a daggone free will Baptist
church. What happened? I thought the
world was coming to an end. Big old tall building with tall
walls so tall. They didn't have trusses back
then, so they had big cables that held one wall to the other.
And I seen those cables bow and them walls give. I was just a
little fella. I thought judgment was come. This don't even touch
that. I mean, what I went through in
that church, but don't even touch this. And when the voice of the
trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake,
and God answered him by voice. The Lord came down upon Mount
Sinai, the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up
to the top of the mount, and Moses went up. and the Lord said
unto Moses, go down, charge the people lest they break through
unto the Lord to gaze. No, just to gaze. We are very religiously inquisitive
people and we will rush headlong into the death of God Almighty. Do you know that? Apart from
his grace, apart from his restraint, said, lest they break through
unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. Let the priests
also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest
the Lord break forth upon them. And you want to keep the Ten
Commandments. Because the Ten Commandments came from that mount. And all of that trouble and trumpet
and lightnings and thunders still are carried right along with
those Ten Commandments. You understand that? Somebody, was God trying
to keep them away? According to law, yes. But you
touch this mount, you're a dead man. You touch this mount, you're
a dead woman. Here's the last part of number
six. Here's a thought just to consider. The law never allows
for mere emotional sincerity. Did you hear what I said? You
say, where'd that come from? Well, turn to Hebrews, if you
wish, follow along. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. The law never allows for emotional
sincerity. The law's not there for you and
I even to be inquisitive about. Well, let me figure out a way
to do this. You can't do it. But look at
it. Look at it. Hebrews 12. Verse
14, just for a little context. Follow peace with all and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. And that's true. That's
true. Looking diligently, lest any
man fail of the grace of God. That is, unless somebody thinks
they got it, really don't. That's what he's talking about. Lest,
looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God,
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator
or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. For ye know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
For he found no place of change. He couldn't change how he really
felt. More than that, he couldn't change
who he really was. He found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears. I thought everybody just cries
before God. Everybody just cries. You just feel really bad about
this. Everything will be okay. That's not so. Exactly. And you say, that ain't nothing
to do with law. The writer of Hebrew says it
does. Yes. Even though the law hadn't even
been given yet. That's right. Now I didn't pick this out of
my hat. It was here. Yeah. Now look at what it says. 4,
yeah, 4 verse 18. for you're not come unto the
mount that might be touched. You see that? Now, when I first
read this, that's an odd place to put that. But the writer is
showing us here, I don't care how sincere you are. You either
get to God, God's way, or you don't get to God at all. See
Esau. You see it? For you're not come
unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with
fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, the sound
of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that
heard and treated, that that word should not be spoken unto
them anymore. Everybody wants to hear the Ten Commandments
and just put a good stab at trying to do them. They don't really see Sinai,
folks. They don't really see Sinai. Look, for they could not
endure that which was commanded, and neither can you and I. Neither
can you up there, either listening to me on TV. They could not endure
that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it was stoned or thrust through with a dart. Now,
am I drawing something? Is this talking exactly about
our context? It is, ain't it? And so terrible
was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. You ain't come that way. And
let me just tell you, I'm not adding to it, you can't come
that way. Exodus 19 tells us clearly, the red caution, or
the yellow caution takes up, don't come this way. God'll kill
you. God'll kill you. But, aren't you glad there's some
buts in there? But ye are come unto Mount Zion. Now before I even read it, I
thought, why did he start there? Because he's not starting at
the most important part, he's working his way to the most important
part. I thought, why start there? Because
he's working his way to the most important part. But notice he
puts all these parts. I come to Jesus, but I don't
go to church. I mean, what's this gonna say?
Well, I come to Jesus, but I don't have to get with God's people.
That ain't what this gonna say. Well, I believe in all the doctrines
of grace and I'm a believer in God. Well, I never pray, never
read my Bible. I never give to the gospel ministry, but you
know, I come to Jesus. Now, is that what this says?
Look at it. Now, I hope you see where I'm coming from. But ye
are come unto Mount Zion. under the city of the living
god the heavenly there is another jerusalem folks jerusalem which
is below is under bondage and will remain that way yes heavenly
jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn in other words those who do come
to christ they also come to god's people Is that not what this
is saying? Yes, sir. Yes or no? That's what
it's saying. To the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to the God, the
Judge of all, they will come to Him who's sovereign over all
things. And to the spirits of just men,
made perfect. We do love the saints. Now, we
don't worship them, but we love those who are already gone on.
And we are waiting to meet them one day. Yes, sir. Aren't we
not? Are we not? Yeah. Now it ain't about going
home to see mama. But bless God, I hope to see
mama there. But look, and to Jesus. Now he's been right back to the
source. Here's the foundation. Because you could have all these
other things in your thoughts. You might think you've come to
all these other places and things and people, but if you don't
come to Him, You've missed it all. You know what I'm saying?
And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel,
but don't take it for granted. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. There is a voice to hear, but
it's not Sinai's voice. It's Christ's voice. And I'll
tell you where you will find that voice. Right here. We have
his actual words recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
don't we? I want to hear Christ speak.
Read this book. Read this book. For if they escape not who refused
him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then
shook the earth. But now he is promising, yet
once more, I will shake not the earth only, but I'm gonna shake
heaven also. But also heaven. And this word,
yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that
are shaken as of things that are made. And that those things
which cannot be shaken may remain. I want to be one of those things.
Thank you. Want to be one of those things
why because and I it's not about merit because I've come to Jesus
I've come to him as the mediator of the new covenant I've come
and said God unless the blood of your son has covered me Unless
that's made me clean what blood making clean in God's sight.
Yes a Filthy creature like us must be cleansed by blood Not
by water Jimmy Yet once more some of the removing and things
that are remain wherefore we? Receiving a kingdom which cannot
be moved if you're still waiting to get into the kingdom Then
you'll never going to see any kingdom to come Because you either
gonna receive the kingdom that is right now And what's the important
part of that kingdom? What's the most important part
of any kingdom? Anybody want to answer that? the king If you
ain't got a king, bless God, you ain't got nothing but desert
and sand and people and ignorance and everything else. The king!
Amen. Wherefore, we receive in a kingdom
which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably. There is some action here, folk. Yes, sir. It ain't just I believe
in sovereign grace and I'm just waiting for the book to be opened
and my name to be found in the Lamb's Book of Life. It don't
work that way. whereby we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. Why? Because Sinai tells us a
little bit about who God is. We read it, almost all of it.
Exodus chapter 19, for our God is a Consuming fire now he either
consumed our sins in the personal work of his son or he'll consent
can he'll condemn our sins And he'll consume them eternally
in ourselves in the lake of fire Now I say what's your choice?
I don't mind to say it To what will you come? To what will you
look to whom will you look will you look to yourself or will
you look to Jesus Christ? You know Joe. It's that simple
But it's that impossible apart from the free reigning sovereign
grace of God. Is it not?