It's a very great chapter. And
so we look at it for a few minutes this morning. In verse one, in the third month. Now that's not just wasting words
there. That's significant. In the third
month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land
of Egypt. It had been between two and three
months from the time that they left Egypt. God has dealt with
these people in free and sovereign grace. All they've had to do is obey
the voice of God that came to them through Moses,
God's mouthpiece at the time. And while they were still in
Egypt, you know the story, God had instituted the Passover and
told them what to do and slay a lamb of the first year and
all the details about it. There was no bargain made. God
didn't say you do this and I'll do this. No, it was not a law. It was a gospel promise pointing
forward to the Lamb of God who would bleed and die for our
deliverance from sin. So we see the picture for going
on three months now has been grace. By grace, they left Egypt. By grace, they crossed the Red
Sea. By grace, Pharaoh's army was drowned. By grace, they were
given manna from heaven to eat. By grace, they were given water
from the rock to drink. By grace, they had fought and
defeated Amalek in the 17th chapter. And these weren't an army of
people. They weren't a trained army.
But all this by grace. All that's happened in less than
three months. It's been grace all the way.
None of it was a bargain. You do this and I'll do such
and such. None of it was law. None of it was a reward for their
works. It's been grace all the way.
And now here in chapter 19 and verse one, they come to Mount
Sinai. The same day came they into the
wilderness of Sinai. For they departed from Rephidim
and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the
wilderness and there Israel camped before the Mount. Now God says the message to Moses. Moses went up unto God, and the
Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt
thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel,
I've got a message for you to deliver. And he tells them, You have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians. and how I bear you on eagles'
wings and brought you unto myself. You understand it's been all
of grace. All of grace. Now, therefore, meaning on this basis, on this
same basis, we've been operating, we'll continue to operate. Now,
therefore, If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant. What covenant has God made thus
far? There has been no thou shouts
and thou shalt nots up to this point. Keep my covenant. What covenant? What covenant? Turn with me back
to Genesis chapter 17. Hold your place here in Exodus
19. And I'm going to read you in
Genesis 17. And we're going to read a lengthy
portion here in Genesis 17. I'm going to read. 22 verses of God's covenant with Abraham. And before I read, let me tell
you this. We will read in these 22 verses. We'll read the word covenant
13 times. And nine of those 13 will be
preceded by the word, my. God says, my covenant, not our,
but my, my covenant. And three of the verses, the
word everlasting will precede covenant, meaning never ending
grace. So let's read it. And when Abram
was 90 years old in nine, the Lord appeared to Abram. And said unto him, I am the almighty
God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell
on his face and God talked with him saying, as for me, behold,
my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many
nations. Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but
thy name shall be Abraham. For a father of many nations
have I made thee, and I will make thee exceeding fruitful,
and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee,
and I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy
seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant. to be a God unto thee and to
thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and
to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant,
therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generation.
This is my covenant, which he shall keep between me and you
and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall
be circumcised and you shall circumcise the flesh of your
foreskin. And it shall be a token of the
covenant between me and you. And he that is eight days old
shall be circumcised among you. Every man child in your generations. He that is born in thy house
or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed, he
that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money
must need to be circumcised. And my covenant shall be in your
flesh for an everlasting covenant. The uncircumcised man, child
whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, That soul shall
be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant. And God said unto Abraham, as
for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but
Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and give
thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her and she
shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face
and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born
unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah that is
ninety years old bear? And Abraham said unto God, O
that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Sarah thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name
Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with Him for an everlasting
covenant and with His seed after Him. The same covenant I've made
with you, I'm going to pass on to Isaac. And as for Ishmael,
that was the other child of the flesh you know about, I have
heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him and
will make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes
shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. My covenant
will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee
at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking
with him, and God went up from Abraham. Now back to Exodus chapter
19. And we're at verse 5. Now therefore,
if you will obey my voice indeed and keep My covenant. This is before the law is given. This is before the 10 commandments.
That's not till the next chapter in chapter 20. So the covenant here referred
to is God's covenant with Abraham. It's a covenant of grace. It's the only covenant God has
made with these people up to this time. It was given to Abraham, and
now God says, as Abraham's children, we'll just keep operating the
way we've been operating. Grace. You didn't have any part in parting
the Red Sea and destroying Pharaoh's army and getting the manna down from heaven
and the water out of the rock. God said, I did all that. Will
it keep operating that way? Grace. Grace. You look to me
for everything. You honor me in your life. You
obey me. You trust me to handle everything
concerning you. That's grace. Verse five again. Now, therefore,
if you will obey my voice indeed. Has God's voice been heard up
to this point with a bunch of do's and don'ts? No. Has God's
voice been heard with a bunch of thou shalt not know? His voice has been in grace. In grace. His deliverance from
Egypt, in grace. His provision, grace. His protection,
all in grace. His voice had proposed no conditions,
no laws. It had made no demands. It had
put no yoke on their neck. It had laid no burden on their
shoulders. God's word to Abraham was, I
will give, I will give. Obey my voice indeed, I will
give. It's not a hard law, but it's
a reminder of his grace. I will give. and keep my covenant, not do my covenant, nothing to
do, just keep, hold on to, hold dear to your heart, my covenant,
the promises I've made to you. You keep that and I'll handle
everything. Then you shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And
you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and in holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. That's what you tell
them, Moses, nothing else. And I repeat, God has not said
thou shalt and thou shalt not. That'll come later. Law will be given after grace
is rejected. Verse 7. 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 all the people answered
together and said, all that the Lord hath spoken We will do. And Moses returned the words
of the people unto the Lord. God's word and the people's perception
are two different things. What God said and what they thought
he said was two different things. When God said, obey my voice,
that meant believe me, trust me, follow me. He didn't use
the word do, but keep, hold on to my covenant, which is my promises. Keep my promises dear to your
hearts. He never said do, but keep. But now in verse 8, they took
God's words of grace as law and said, we will do. Give us a list of do's and don'ts
and we'll do it. You can count on us. We don't need this to be a one
sided deal. We'll do our part. We can contribute our part. We will do. Moses went and told
the Lord what they said, and it didn't sit well with the Lord. Not at all. Later in the chapter, We read there'll be thunders
and lightnings in this fiery Mount. One old writer said the sweet
fragrance of grace and mercy is exchanged for the thunders
and lightnings in the fiery Mount. Man had presumed to speak of
his miserable doings. in the presence of God's magnificent
grace. God kept saying to Abraham, my
covenant, my covenant. And the people said, no, we want
it to be our covenant. We'll do our part. And so here then the Lord says
to Moses, no more sunshine. for now. Verse 9, the Lord said to Moses,
Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud. You've all seen a thick
cloud. When it was dark and heavy and
thick, you could feel the moisture in the air. No sunshine to be
seen. 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. And the Lord said
unto Moses, go into the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow
and let them wash their clothes, get ready 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. And thou shalt set bounds unto
the people round about saying, Take heed yourselves that you
go not up to the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth
the mount shall surely be put to death. God in His holiness
was there. Thou shalt not in 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. We'll stop reading
there. They've rejected grace and God's
about to add law. Grace did not cease, but because
of transgression, when they rejected grace, the law was added. Commandments were given. And the people contended they
could keep it. And that hadn't changed in our
day. Most religion wants to add grace
to law. God added law to grace. That was the order. All God's blessing to man has
been in grace through the centuries. And for you and I, it is only
in the matter of our acceptance with God that he enforced law. And he didn't enforce it on us.
He enforced it on his only begotten son. in our stead. The judgment we should have suffered
because of what we are, Christ our Lord suffered. So I want to just quickly give
us two brief points here. And I hope, do it clearly, hope
we can get these two things before we go our way. And I've
labeled these the grace of law and the law of grace. I trust
we'll get ahold of these two things. First, the grace of law. The grace of law to God's children
is the God given understanding that law is not our answer. And to have that understanding
is grace. Most people don't. The understanding, as we see
it in this text, that those who choose law or grace never lighten
their load by choosing law over grace. They increase it. Christ increased it. In the New
Testament, he said, you have heard, but I say. Moses said,
but I say. That Old Testament law says not
to commit murder. Christ said, if you just want
somebody dead, you've done it. And that law back there says
not to commit adultery. Christ said, if you even think
of it, you're guilty. The law is a standard of living
for sinless creatures. If we were sinless, we'd live
up to God's standard naturally without any struggle and without
even a law being given. But being sinners, conceived
in sin, and cultivating it quite well since we've been here. With a fallen nature, complying
with the standard of God's law is impossible. So the grace of law, I repeat,
is the blessed realization that law is not our answer. And I say this quite often, The
law was not given as a remedy. It was given as a reminder that
we need a remedy and Christ is that remedy. And sad to say the thrust of
most religion today is law of some sort to some degree, but
it's never enough. It'll never be enough. But the blessed Holy Spirit teaches
God's child that God's grace in Christ is our answer because
law hasn't been and can't be. That's the grace of law. Now,
the law of grace. The law of grace is simple. It's that salvation is all grace. and nothing of law. No mixing
of law and grace. No God doing His part and you
doing your part. You don't have a part. The law of grace is that salvation
is all of grace and nothing of law. Christ summarized the commandments
of the law with this. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.
The sad truth is we don't. And then he said, and thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. The sad truth is we don't. That's where we have to get off
the bus with law. It's not going our way. We can ride no further. It's all right here in this 19th
chapter of Exodus. Grace rejected and choosing law. Oh no. Oh no. You see, we don't even have to
read on to the next chapter all about the thou shalt not cuss
and thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not all that. No,
no. We have a fallen nature that
delights in rules and regulations. I may not keep them perfectly,
but I keep them better than you do. Well, what's that worth?
What's that worth? And I want to say that only fools
trust that God will receive us. Somehow God will receive us for
what we've contributed. Uh-uh. in our feeble efforts. It's just the opposite. God receives
us for what we are not and what Christ our Redeemer
is. The law of grace is that law
and grace don't mix. Romans 11, 6, and if it's by
grace, then is it no more worse. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. If you earn any of it, it's not
grace. God owed it to you. Ephesians 2 and 8, for by grace
are you saved through faith. And that, even that faith and
the grace is not of yourselves. What is it then? It's the gift
of God. It's not of works. lest any man
should boast. And we can read that like this,
lest every man should boast. So it is not me and Jesus. It
is not Jesus and me. It's Jesus. In Christ alone, my hope is found. The law of grace, grace that
teaches me that law is not my answer. Romans 8, 3, for what
the law could not do in that it was, the scripture
says weak, but I paraphrase that like this, what the law could
not do in that it was rendered incapable of helping the likes
of me. Not because of it, but because
of me. But God sending his own son in the likeness of my sinful
flesh and for my sin, condemned my sin by his own sinlessness
in a body of flesh. Thank God for the grace of the
Lord. teaching me that law is not my
answer. And thank God for the law of grace, teaching me that
grace cannot mix with law. Grace alone is sufficient. Now, a message like this this
morning is often blasted with a charge of what men call antinomianism. And those of you who don't know
what that means, it means no law. Means religion with no law. Saying it don't matter how we
live. And I've known a few like that. But I want to say, here's our
only law. God's children do live by law,
but here's the law. It's a law of love. And we don't keep it. It keeps
us. This law of love, we don't possess
it. It possesses us. We love him. We live to honor
him because he first loved us. So I'll close with this when
you're listening to any preacher. Before you swallow anybody's
notion, hold on to these two things.
The grace of law, the understanding that law is not your answer.
They'll tell you every day of the week, if you'll do this,
if you'll do that, and if you'll do it long enough, and if you'll
try hard enough, it'll be enough. It never will be. And then the law of grace, the
understanding that grace and law don't mix. All of grace is
my story, all the way from earth to glory. And apart from grace, there'll
never be any glory for sinners like us. And that's why we're
saying it's amazing grace. How sweet the sound. that saved
a wretch like me. It's not me and grace. It's not
grace and me. It's grace. The grace of God. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. Was blind, but now I see. Amen.