Well, good evening. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to Psalm 100. Psalm 100, I think I've
talked to most of you about it, but I'm very happy to report
I had a great trip to Pennsylvania, great meeting. Came home very,
very encouraged. Psalm 100, make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord,
he is God. It is he that made us and not
we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth Endureth to all generations. All right, Jonathan. Good evening. Let's start with
the chorus together. We'll sing Sweep Over My Soul.
Sweep over my soul, sweep over my soul. Sweet Spirit, sweep
over my soul. My joy is complete. When I sit at his feet, sweet
spirit, sweep o'er my soul. Let's turn now, if you would,
to page 30. Page 30 in your red hymn book. Page 30. Bless the Lord and sing
his praises. Bless the Lord now, O my soul. Join the song all heaven raises. Let the anthem loudly roll. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord for love victorious,
love that conquered on the tree. For his grace so great and glorious,
flowing out from Calvary. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord, He walks beside
me, and He lights the path before. Every need is now supplied me,
from His bounteous heavenly store. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord for truth he's
given, for the word of prophecy. that has drawn the veil from
heaven and revealed my destiny. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. ? Bless the Lord, oh my soul
? And all that is within me ? Bless his holy name Thank you, Jonathan. Okay, let's open our Bibles now
to Exodus chapter 24. Exodus, the 24th chapter. And he said unto Moses, come
up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the
elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone
shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither
shall the people go up with him. And Moses came and told the people
all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the
people answered with one voice and said, all the words which
the Lord has said will we do. And Moses wrote all the words
of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and built an altar
under the hill and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of
Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which
offered burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings of oxen under
the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood
and put it in basins. and half of the blood he sprinkled
on the altar. They took the book of the covenant
and read in the audience of the people. And they said, all that
the Lord has said will we do and be obedient. And Moses took
the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, behold the
blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning
all these words. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow before our Lord together in prayer. our great God, our holy, just
and righteous Heavenly Father. Lord, it is with reverence and
awe and fear that we come into your presence this evening. Yet
so thankful that we can come boldly, confidently in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. because of his perfection, because
of his sacrifice, because of his precious blood that he shed
to put away the sin of his people. We can come confident that we'll
be accepted in the beloved. And Father, we're so thankful.
We know that we could come no other way to your presence and
be accepted. Human language can't even begin
to express our thanksgiving and our awe that you would sacrifice
your son in such an awful manner that sinful men and women like
we are can come before you accepted, be washed of our sin. Father,
we're so thankful. And Father, it is our earnest
plea this evening that you might be pleased to meet with us in
the person of your spirit and enable us to worship. You are
worthy to be worshiped. Father, enable us to worship
from the heart. Give us a spirit of worship.
Father, I pray that you would give me the spirit of preaching,
that I might be able to preach your word and the power of your
spirit, not with human wisdom or human intellect, but the power
of thy spirit with a heart for your glory, a heart for the need
of your people. Let the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ be exalted and magnified. And Father, let us see and worship. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people, wherever they're gathered together tonight
in worship. Father, bless them as we pray that you would bless
us. Get much glory to your name,
we pray. Father, we're thankful for the
many, many blessings of this life. We're thankful that for
our homes and our families, our jobs, everything we have has
come from your hand. And Father, we're thankful. We
pray for the wisdom and the graciousness to use all those things that
you've given us wisely for the good of others. And Father, I
thank you for this people and this place that you've given
us where we can meet together in love and unity. And Father,
we pray your continued blessing. We pray that you would cause
your gospel to go forth in power, call out your people, comfort
your sheep, edify and feed your sheep. And father, we pray a blessing
for those that are away from us, whether they're traveling
or sick or in different circumstances. Father, we pray you'd be with
them and bring them back to us again soon. All these things
we ask in that name, which is above every name, the name of
Christ, our savior. Amen. Now, our text begins in verse
one, Exodus 24, where the Lord said unto Moses, come up unto
the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders
of Israel, and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone shall come
near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither shall
the people go up with him. Now the Lord tells Moses, you
bring these men and you come worship me. but you do it afar
off. Don't you come near. Don't come
near my holy presence. And this is immediately after
the Lord had given the law. And I ask you, what else could
the Lord say but worship me afar off? God gave the law and it
exposed our sin, didn't it? It exposed our rebellion against
God. It exposed our sin nature. that
we're not even able to keep God's law. Not only we're not able,
we don't even want to keep all those commandments. There's just
so many of them, we just don't even want to keep them. The law
doesn't just expose our individual sins, it exposes our sin nature,
doesn't it? And given that we have that sin
nature, sinners like us can't come as we are into the holy
presence of God. This is the message of the whole
law. Stay out of God's presence. How many times do we read it
in the Old Testament? Come not, come not, come not. God even told the high priest,
don't you come into the Holy of Holies, come not. Except once
a year, and then only with the blood. Come not. Worship, but
worship afar off. If you come into my holy presence,
you'll be destroyed. Come not. But thankfully, the
Lord didn't say everyone. has to stay away from me. There's
one. There was one who could come.
God didn't forbid everybody. There's one who could come. The
Lord told Moses, Moses, you come into my presence, but you do
it alone. Now, only you. Don't bring any
of the people with you. And this is given to us as a
picture of Christ, our mediator. He's the one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And if you look over at
Psalm 24, The father appointed his son
to be the mediator because he's the only one, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only one who can go into the presence of the father
accepted in his obedience, in his perfection because he's the
only one who's fit. He's the only one who's got the
nature, a holy righteous nature that the father will accept.
Look here at Psalm 24 verse three. Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul
into vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Now, you know good and well that
doesn't describe any of us, does it? None of us has clean hands
or a pure heart. We've all lifted up our soul
into vanity. We've all sworn deceitfully.
This can only be describing the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only
one fit to come into the presence of the Father like that. He must
come alone. He's the only one who can. But
there's hope for sinners. And this is, we're gonna, we'll
get through this in the message, Lord willing, but look at verse
six. Here's some hope for you and me. This is the generation. This is the description of them
that seek Him that seek thy face, O Jacob, or O God of Jacob. This
description of our Lord Jesus Christ is also the description
of all those who are in him. So it's only Christ who can come
into the presence of the Father accepted, but when he comes,
all of his people come accepted too. That's what the mediator
does. This is what Moses is a picture
of, Christ our mediator, and that's what I've titled the message
this evening. Christ our mediator. And I want
us to see three things that the mediator does. Three things that
Christ our mediator has done for his people that I pray will
thrill your hearts. Now first of all, what's a mediator?
If there's two warring parties, I mean, they have such disagreement,
they're warring, they can't stand to look at each other, they can't
talk to one another as soon as they see each other, a fight
breaks out, A mediator is a go-between who can touch both parties. He
can talk peaceably to both parties. He can go over to this party
and say, now, tell me what you're thinking. Tell me what your problem
is here. Tell me why we're having this
war. And then he can listen to them. He can hear. And then he
can go over to this people and say, here's what your enemy says. Here's the problem. Now, what
are we going to do about this problem? He can talk to both
sides. And his hope is, since he can talk to both sides, he
can get them to come together in an agreement and make peace. That's the job of a mediator.
And that is exactly what Christ has done for his people. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can touch both God and
man. He's the only one. He talks to
both parties. And he is the one. He doesn't
get us to come into agreement to make peace. He's the one that
made peace. He's the one that made peace for his people, peace
between us and God. So let's look at this first thing,
what the mediator does. Christ, our mediator, has come
from the Father. And he came down here to tell
us what the Father says. This is the Father's message.
That's what Moses did at the beginning of verse three. Moses
came and told all the people, or told the people all the words
of the Lord and all the judgments. Now Moses had gone to God, and
now he'd come back down from the mountain. He came to the
people, and he told them all the different commandments of
the law that God had given him. There's do this, do this, do
this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. He told
them the commandments. He told them the judgments. He
says, if you, God says do this. If you don't do it, this is the
punishment. This is the judgment. This is the condemnation. God
says don't do this. Now if you do it, this is the
punishment. He told them all that God had
said. And it was severe, wasn't it?
I mean, it was severe. For every violation of any commandment,
there's punishment. It's a punishment equal to the
breaking of the commandment. It's severe. There wasn't a hint
of mercy. There's no forgiveness. There's
no loophole. There's no considering the circumstances.
There's no considering why I didn't mean to. The law is broken. There must be punishment. And
that's the only thing the law can ever say to you and me. The
only thing it can say is we're guilty. We're guilty. You deserve
God's wrath. There must be punishment. There
must be death because you've broken God's law. That's all
the law can say to us. And that's what Moses told the
people. He came and he heard that from God. He came down and
told it to the people, didn't he? But Moses also gives us here
a hint, a picture that God's provided a remedy for our sin
and guilt. Verse three, Moses came and told
the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And
listen to this. All the people answered with
one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said will
we do. And Moses wrote all the words
of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and built an altar
under the hill. and 12 pillars according to the
12 tribes of Israel. Moses told them the law of God
and the people said, we'll do it. Everything God says, we'll
do it, we'll do it. I mean, have you ever heard a
bigger lie than that? No, we won't. No, we won't. And God knew we wouldn't. Moses
knew that we wouldn't. So Moses, and this has to be
according to the commandment of God, went and built an altar. went and built an altar. This
is how sin is going to be paid for. No, you're not going to
obey God's law. You're not going to be obedient to any of it.
And the way the sin is going to be paid for is by the sacrifice
offered on this altar, the blood of the sacrifice. It's the only
way God can be appeased. And for roughly 2000 years, they
had pictures that those Old Testament animal sacrifices, all which
were pictures pointing us to Christ who would come, who would
offer a sacrifice that would put away sin. Now Moses is a
picture of Christ our mediator, isn't he? And I love the Old
Testament pictures. If I'm just reading, you know,
the scriptures for my own pleasure, I invariably turn first to the
Old Testament. I love the Old Testament pictures.
I told the folks up at Dingus a few weeks ago when I preached
up there, I said, you know, somebody calls me and asks me to come
preach. First thing I think of is what Old Testament picture
can I, I mean, I just love them. I love, but the picture is never
as good as the real thing is that Moses is a great type of
Christ, but that's all he is is a type. Christ is so much
better. The Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator
came from the father. down here to men with a whole
lot better message than Moses had. Moses' message was the law. Do this and live, disobey it
and die. Christ came with a message of
salvation in him. Not by our obedience, but by
his obedience. Christ came bringing us a message
of salvation by grace, a message of the kingdom. Now how many
times do we read he preached the gospel of the kingdom? Who
is the king? What's his kingdom? How do his
people, how do his subjects get in that kingdom? It's the gospel
of God's grace. And he spent three and a half
years preaching that message, the message of salvation by grace,
the message of salvation in him. And then he went and showed it.
He showed that gospel when he went to the cross and suffered
and died to put away the sin of his people. He showed us God's
salvation. It's through the sacrifice of
his son. And the only way you and I could know that is if God
the Son came to this earth as our mediator in the flesh and
told us what God said. Otherwise, we'd be just like
those Old Testament Jews, wouldn't we? We'd still be thinking righteousness
would come by our obedience to the law. We'd still be thinking
righteousness would come by us observing the ceremonies, or
us by being a natural Jew. That's what we'd think. The only
way that we would ever know of God's salvation in Christ, salvation
by grace, is if the mediator came and told us. Now you think
about, I just went through and picked some, and I hope I didn't
pick too many, but you could just talk about this and run
out of time, quit. The things that our mediator, our savior
said, that he brought as a message from his father, a message of
salvation in him. He began his public ministry
with a message of God's electing love. His very first public message,
you remember it? He told us that the only way
a sinner could be saved is if God chooses us first. He said,
now, in the days of Elijah, there were many widows. God sent his
prophet to just one of them, a widow of Sarepta, a Gentile,
and passed every Jewish widow by. He said, there are many lepers
in the days of Elisha, the prophet, and God sent his prophet to just
one of them. Not just a Gentile now, Naaman,
the captain of the army that was oppressing Israel. God sent
his prophet to that enemy and healed him and passed every Jewish
leper by. God's electing love. And I know
the people that heard it, hated it so much that they wanted to
throw him off the cliff, right? But to a sinner, Oh, that message
has got good news for me. That message has got hope for
me that God would choose to save the worst of sinners. I'm a candidate
for that. How about you? This is a message
of God's electing love. But that message, it gives us
hope. I want to point this out. It leaves us to completely dependent
on the Lord, doesn't it? I can't choose him. He's got
to choose me first. Then the Lord told him one day,
he said, you know, it's not what you put in your body that defiles
you. It's not what you do with your body that defiles you. You're
defiled already. You were defiled a long time
ago, way back there in the garden. When Adam sinned, all of us sinned
in him. We were in him. Brother Greg
Elmquist and I were talking about this this past weekend, and we
use the term federal head, right? Adam was our representative.
And Greg said this, and man, I like it. He said, Adam wasn't
just our federal head. He was our seminal head. We were
in him. We were in him. So we did what
he did. When Adam sinned, you and I sinned. That's why we come forth from
the womb speaking lies, because we were made sinners in Adam. And there's nothing you can do
to make yourself righteous or clean. But Christ does. He makes his people righteous.
Not just the outside of the cup, but the inside too. That message
gives hope for sinners, doesn't it? That Christ could cleanse
me. I read the law, I find no hope in that law for me. But
Christ tells me that he cleanses his people, washes them white
as snow. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll wash them white as snow. That gives me hope. But now that
message of hope, In God's grace, where does it leave me? Completely
dependent on Christ, doesn't it? Then the Lord told us, you
must be born again. Now we never would have known
that if the mediator didn't come and tell us. The Lord had to
tell us that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's all
it will ever be is flesh, is dead, sinful, rotten flesh. And
if you could go back into your mother's womb and be born again,
you'd come out the same way you did first time, flesh, dead,
sinful flesh. But that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. It'll never be anything but the
spirit, holy and just and righteous. It just makes it obvious to me
if I'm going to see the kingdom of God, if I'm going to enter
into his kingdom, I've got to be born again. I've got to be
given a new nature, a nature that I don't have and a nature
that I can't get. God's got to give it to me. He's
got to cause me to be born again. It doesn't take very long for
me to read the law and find out I can't make myself righteous
by obeying that law. Actually, it's already too late.
I've broken it all already anyway. But I can be righteous. If God,
the Holy Spirit, births me again and births me with a righteous
nature, I can be righteous that way. That gives me hope, hope
in God's grace, hope in the power, the mysterious power of God causing
me to be born again. But that hope, that hope in God's
grace, that hope in God's power, where does it leave me? It leaves
me totally dependent on the Lord, doesn't it? Then the Lord told
us this, do you know there's just one commandment from my
father? There's just one, that you believe on his son. All the
commandments of the law put together, you know what they show us? I
can't keep any of them. My only hope is somebody else
obeying it for me. All the law points us to Christ,
showing us he's our only hope. Look at 1 John 3. Now this is
the commandment of God. It's the point of the law, it's
the point of the gospels, it's the point of the whole word of
God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 3 verse 23. And this is his commandment.
Now there can't be any doubt, this is so simple, this is so
plain, you can't miss it unless you close your eyes because you
want to miss it. This is his commandment, that we should believe
on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another
as he gave us commandment. That's the commandment of God.
Salvation is as simple as believing on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You believe on Christ, you have
eternal life. Matter of fact, the reason you
believe on Christ in the first place is because God already
gave you life. Life and faith come at the same
time. Now that gives hope to a dead
sinner, doesn't it? There's a way that I can have
life, but I'm totally dependent on God to give it to me. Then
the law says, no matter how much work you've done, do more. More,
more, more, more, more, more, more. The law always demands
more. Christ came to give his people
relief from that burden of the law. The burden that Peter said
neither we nor our fathers could bear. We can't bear it. Christ
came and he so graciously cried, come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest
from the burden of the law. I'll carry it for you. I'll obey
it. Come rest. Come rest in Christ. Come rest in him because you
believe he did everything it takes to save you. Come rest.
The law says work, work. Christ says rest. He had a much
better message than the message of the law, didn't he? You read
the law and you know what the law does? It makes you thirst. for a righteousness that you
cannot produce. I can't produce it. And our Lord
stood on that last day of the feast and cried, if any man thirst,
is anybody here thirsty? Come to me and drink. Out of
your belly shall flow rivers of living water. Come drink.
You drink the water if I give you, you'll never thirst again.
Come drink. What a message of grace. What
a message of to come to Christ and never thirst for righteousness
again, to never feel like I've got to produce something that
I cannot produce, something that's not in me. Christ did it for
me. He is my righteousness. Come
drink, come rest. And then as he suffered and died
on the cross, what did he cry? Now he cried this to you and
me, this cry that has gone down through the ages, It is finished. The law never tells you it's
finished. There's always more to obey.
But Christ, he's offered up the sacrifice. Payment is complete. And he cried, it's finished.
And then he said, father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit.
And he gave up the ghost. They couldn't even kill him.
He gave up the ghost because the price had been paid. Now
again, you can't mistake these three words unless you just willfully
mistake what they mean. It is finished. Righteousness is finished. Christ has obeyed the law. He
even obeyed his last demand that there must be death for sin.
He obeyed it. It's finished. The law is finished. The law's
grip, the law's demand on his people is finished. Christ took
it away. It's finished. All of redemption. It's finished. The price is paid. There's nothing left for you
to pay. You don't have to be a good little
boy and girl in order to get this salvation. It's finished.
Christ paid the redemption price. It's finished. All the purpose
of the father regarding the redemption of his people, it's finished. It's finished. It's all been
paid for. And the only reason this world's kept spinning from
then until now is for this reason. Somebody for whom Christ died
has not been brought to faith in Christ yet. And the moment
that person is brought to faith in Christ, this thing's over. But as far as the purpose of
God in salvation goes, it's finished. It's finished. Now, think about this now. This
is the mediator. He's come from the Father. And
He came here to tell us what the Father said. This is a message
from Almighty God. This message, this message of
the gospel, it's not a message of men's ideas. It's not a message
that, you know, we feel like we've got to defend and build
up. This is a message from God that is to be declared. And you
and I are to listen, and we're to believe it. We're to bow to
it. We're to surrender. from Almighty God, now come to
him and beg him for mercy. He said, come. Why don't you
come? He said, come. He said, he delights
to show mercy to sinners. Can you think of a better reason
to go begging for mercy? He delights in it. This is what
the mediator came to tell us. God help us to hear him. But
now the second thing the mediator does is he goes from us to the
father and he pleads with the father for us. And when our mediator
goes to the father, he doesn't say, father, forgive them. They didn't mean it. Yeah, we
did too mean it. We did too. And I tell you where
that all began. It began back there in the garden.
Adam knew full well what he was doing. He, with his eyes wide
open, took that fruit in open rebellion against God. He meant
to do it. And we have meant to do every
sin we've ever committed ever since. Yeah, we meant it. We meant it. And our mediator
can't tell the father, well, they learned their lesson. They
won't do it again. Yeah, we will. What sin have
you ever committed that you didn't commit again? Every one of them. I mean, we are sinners. That's what we are. So the only
thing that Christ, our mediator, can plead with the father is
the blood of his sacrifice. He can't say, ignore their sin,
but he can plead the blood of his sacrifice. And that's what
we see in verse five in our text. And he sent young men out of
the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed
peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. The people of Israel
said, oh, all that the words, which the Lord has said we will
do. And Moses built this altar and he sent men out offering
sacrifices. There's got to be a sacrifice
for sin because no, we won't obey God's law. No, we won't
do what God said. There's got to be a sacrifice.
Got to be a sacrifice. And those sacrifices, those animal
sacrifices, oxen and sheep and rams and turtle doves and all
these sacrifices, they had to be offered over and over and
over again, didn't they? Because not one of them ever
put away sin. There are pictures of Christ,
weren't they? But they didn't put away sin. But oh, then the
real thing came. The real thing, Christ is always
better than the picture. His blood. put away the sin of
his people. It made it not to exist. It paid
the price that God's justice demanded. So now, when our mediator
sits at his father's right hand and pleads for the forgiveness
of his people, the father always says, they're forgiven. They're forgiven because of the
blood. Ephesians 1 verse 7, in whom we have redemption through
his blood. the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace. By his blood, we're forgiven.
And when our mediator pleads his blood, the father always
says, forgiven. And he doesn't even say it through
gritted teeth, like he doesn't even want to forgive it. Like,
okay, they're forgiven. No, he's happy to forgive because
of the blood of his son. It satisfied his justice. And
I've told you this so many times, Really, the scripture says, Christ
our mediator ever liveth to make intercession for us. But he's
not constantly, oh, Father, forgive that one, forgive that one, forgive
that one, forgive that one. All he's got to do is sit at
his father's right hand. There he sits with the scars
of his sacrifice, evidence in his body. In the book of Revelation,
John said, I saw a lamb as it had been slain. He saw Christ
with those scars in his body. We typically think of the scars
in his hands, in his feet, in his side. I was thinking the
other day, I bet those scars where his back was lacerated,
there's scars there. There's scars in his head where
they thrust that crown of thorns down on his head, there's scars.
The Father sees those scars. Now they're healed up now. They're
not fresh, they're not bleeding, they're not running, but they're
healed up, they're scars. And the father sees those scars. Those scars are the evidence
the sacrifice has already been made. And all our mediator, he
is so powerful. His sacrifice is so powerful.
All he has to do is sit in his father's presence. And all of
the sin of all of his people is always forgiven. Always. See, Christ is such a better
mediator than Moses because Moses, he could only use animal blood,
just a picture of Christ. But Christ, oh, he's a better
mediator. He's got a better obedience.
Obviously, he has a better obedience than us because we don't have
any. His is perfect. He's got a better sacrifice.
The sacrifice of the Son of God is so much better than a lamb,
isn't it? He's got a better sacrifice and
he's got better blood. He's not offering the blood of
a bullock or a goat or a ram. He's offering his own precious
blood. The only sinless blood that's
ever flowed on this earth. Such a better mediator because
he's got all these better things to plead. He's got better to
work with. Now that ought to be a comfort
to our souls. That ought to calm our hearts
to know at this very moment, the mediator is making intercession
for his people. Even as we sit here in this worship
service, really honestly, truly attempting to worship God and
to hear from God and to concentrate on him, there's been enough sin
in us to send the whole world to hell a million times just
in this last hour. But our mediator, sits on the
Father's right hand, making intercession for us. Now I ask you, if the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is making intercession for
you, based upon his sacrifice for you, what do you got to worry
about? It just gives us rest, doesn't
it? So the mediator, he came from
the Father, Told us what the Father said. He went to the Father,
making intercession for us. The third thing our mediator
does is make peace between God and his elect. And peace must
be made. The Father has a purpose of mercy
and grace, doesn't he? But don't forget this. God's
angry with Caesar. David said in Psalm 7 that God's
angry with the wicked every day. And He should be, shouldn't He?
He shouldn't be angry. All of our sins against Him,
God's holy, He should be angry. He should punish every sin with
death. And on the other side, there's man. And man's angry
with God. And you know why man is angry
with God? It's because God makes the rules.
It's the same problem Adam had in the garden. We're mad because
God makes the rules. And you can meet religious people
and they're just, they're fakey, sticky, sweet, you know, just
like saccharine or something, you know. But you tell them that
they're in the hands of God to do with as he pleases and whatever
he does with them is right. That your righteousness is not
good enough. It takes the righteousness of Christ. It takes the blood
of Christ. That Christ died for his elect
and only his elect and those people and only those people
will be saved and you better get busy begging for mercy instead
of bringing your works to God, you're gonna have a fight on
your hands. You know why? They're angry that they have
to submit to God's authority. Man's angry with God. The carnal
mind is enmity. It's not at enmity. By nature,
it is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. I mean, these two warring parties
are dead set in their nature, a nature of holiness and a nature
of sin and rebellion. How can those two warring parties,
polar opposites, ever be brought together in peace? How can they? One way, the blood of Christ. And that's what's pictured here,
verse six. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins.
And half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the
book of the covenant and read it in the audience of the people.
And they said, all the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood and
sprinkled it on the people. And I mean, maybe I shouldn't
think this is kind of humorous, but can you see the picture of
that word sprinkled means he threw it at them. The people
said, oh, the Lord said we will do, we'll be obedient, and Moses
started throwing blood on them. No, you won't. I mean, that's
the biggest lie that's ever been told. We'll be obedient to God,
and Moses started sprinkling blood on them. Your only hope
is the blood. It's the blood of the covenant,
your only hope. And he told them, behold, the
blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning
all these words. That blood of the covenant, it's
a picture of Christ's blood. that ratified, that sealed God's
covenant of grace. God determined to be gracious
to his people and save those people through the obedience
and the sacrifice of his son. And Christ came and shed his
blood and the covenant was ratified. It was sealed so that it cannot
be changed. And that blood ended the warfare
between God and men. Colossians 1 verse 20 says, having
made peace through the blood of his cross, Christ has made
peace. First he made peace with the
Father. The blood of Christ made the
Father be at peace with his people. It's the blood that maketh an
atonement for the soul. And that word atonement means
purged. Christ shed his blood and he
purged the sin of his people away. He made atonement for it.
Sin's gone. Once sin's gone, There's no reason
for God to be angry anymore, is it? The blood of Christ took
away God's reason to be angry with his people, so there's peace. Now that's amazing. When you think that we're the
ones that declared war on God, and the only way peace could
be made is the blood of God's son, and they slaughtered his
son to make peace, even though we're the ones that declared
the war. I mean, try to wrap your head
around that. It's amazing. It's amazing. God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. My wrath will pass over
you. Because where he sees the blood
of Christ applied, there's no reason for him to be angry. Sin's
been paid for. Judgment has been satisfied.
And in peace, the Father will pass over you. It's because of
the blood of Christ. But it's also the blood of Christ
applied to our hearts that makes God's people be at peace with
God. When the blood of Christ is surrendered to our hearts,
we'll finally surrender. And that's the only way we can
have peace in the war that we've created. We've got to surrender. And when the blood of Christ
is applied to our hearts, we'll surrender. Look at Ephesians
chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. When the
blood of Christ is applied to our hearts, that's the new birth. When we're born again and that
heart is at peace with God. We're not angry anymore. We're
not angry that we have to answer to God, that we have to submit
to Him, that we're dependent on Him. We love it that way.
We lovingly believe and submit to Him. Ephesians two, verse
13. Well, look at verse 12. At that
time, you're without Christ. Being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, you had
no hope. And you're without God in the
world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you sometimes were far off. And
that's where we started, when the Lord told Moses, now you
make sure they worship me far off. You sometimes were far off.
You're made nigh. How? By the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, hath made both one, and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God
in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." God's
people, they're not angry anymore. Now they submit, they submit. Look at Hebrews chapter nine,
we'll close with this, Hebrews chapter nine. The way you can tell that God's
people are not angry with him anymore is they quit working
trying to please God. That's one thing that makes the
nature of man So angry with God is we're trying to work to please
him and we can't do it. Someone who's at peace with God
has quit that foolishness. Hebrews 9 verse 14. How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? The blood of Christ
has purged your conscience. Your conscience doesn't tell
you you've got to do these dead works. in order to please God,
because your conscience is clear. Christ has done it for you. Now
you rest in Christ. You rest in Christ. But resting
in Christ doesn't mean you quit working, does it? Now you serve
God out of love. Now you serve his people out
of love, because you want to. Not out of duty, because you
want to. That's so much better than the
law. God's people work. Because they want to. They want
to serve one another. Isn't it a joy? Not to have to
work to serve one another, because you're afraid God will get you.
But to serve one another, just because you love one another,
because you love the Lord, because you want to. Isn't that freedom? When our mediator applies his
blood to our stony, cold, dead hearts, it makes us be at peace. at peace with God and at peace
with his people. I don't exactly know how to close
other than by saying this, what a mediator, what a mediator. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
Christ our mediator, the one who comes and gives us a message
of grace and mercy and redemption and righteousness in Christ our
Savior. And we're thankful for a mediator
who has something to plead, his own precious blood for the forgiveness
of our sins, to make us accepted in him. Father, we're so thankful. And oh, how we thank you for
peace with God. Peace with God. Father, we're
thankful. We just don't know what else
to say. But Father, thank you. Thank you for your mercy and
your grace to your people in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in
his blessed name, for his sake we pray, amen. All right, Jonathan. Turn with me if you would to
page 228. Let's stand together and sing
228. My faith has found a resting
place. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living one. His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. My great physician heals the
sick, the lost he came to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me.