Exodus chapter 19, we'll just
look at the first six verses tonight. 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 had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before
the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and
the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus
shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children
of Israel, You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and
how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant,
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 holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. I want you to notice
particularly the language of verses five and six and see if
it reminds you of another passage of scripture. You'll be my peculiar
treasure above all people. You shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests and an holy nation. Turn to first Peter chapter two. Verse four. As newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious to whom
coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but
chosen of God and precious. You also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Remember the language in Exodus.
If you will obey my voice, if you will hearken, you'll be blessed,
you'll be accepted, you'll be protected, you'll be my peculiar
people, you'll have my favor, you'll have my reward. Peter
says here, you'll be accepted by Jesus Christ. You'll be in
holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. what you do before God will be
acceptable, God will receive it and approve it and reward
you for it. But it'll be by Jesus Christ.
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. shall not be confounded
unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them
which be disobedient." Who's that? Everybody under that
old covenant. Everybody. The scripture has
concluded all under sin. The law was given not so that
they would obey it and God would reward them. That comes by Jesus
Christ. Disobedience comes by the law.
by the law is the knowledge of your sin, of your disobedience.
Everybody that's under that old covenant are these who were disobedient. Unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, verse 8, in a stone of stumbling, in
a rock of offense. But, verse 8, even to them which
stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.
But, You are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. In Exodus
there, he said a kingdom of priests. Royal kingdom, priesthood, and
holy nation. That's word for word. A peculiar
people. Same word used there in Exodus.
that you should show forth the praises of him who has called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. What God defines
in Exodus 19 is the old covenant. We've seen it before in our study
in Exodus. We've seen it in our study in
Hebrews. Paul compared the old with the new and showed how that
in Christ, Christ is better. And in Christ, everything is
better. And in Exodus 19 here, he defines this old covenant
again, and what it boils down to is this, if you will, I will. It's that simple. It's not any
more complicated than that. If you will obey my voice, if
you will hearken to my commandments, if you will do what I say, I
will bless you. You'll be my peculiar people.
You'll be my treasure. You'll have my favor, you'll
have my reward. There is requirement, and there
is reward. There's a requirement to be met,
and if that requirement is met, the reward is given. This is
not the first time that God has established a covenant with these
same people. In Exodus 15, 26, He said, If thou wilt diligently
hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God. That word hearken and
the word obey are the same word. That's what our Lord was saying.
That's what God was saying when He said, this is my beloved son.
Hear Him. The word hear and obey in the Old Testament many times
are the same word. He's not just saying hear Him
and then go on your way. He's saying obey Him. Do what
He said. Hearken to the voice and we'll
do that which is right in God's sight, not your sight. Your ways
are not my ways, saith the Lord. Here's what you're going to do.
What I say, not what you think. and will give ear to his commandments
and keep all his statutes, all of them, then I'll bless you. There's a requirement and a reward.
I'll put none of the diseases upon you, which I brought upon
the Egyptians. I'm not going to deal with you the way I dealt
with them. If, if, if you're rebellious and you want to be
God like Pharaoh, like every man does by nature, it's not
going to end well for you. This is the old covenant, for
I am the Lord that healeth thee, he said. If you will, I will. At Sinai, God more clearly and
in more detail reveals his law, as we'll see as we go through
this study. His law is the condition of the covenant. It's a conditional
covenant. Obey my law, and here it is.
And as I said, he gives it in great detail in this book. The blessing of the covenant
There's the condition of the covenant and the blessing of
the covenant. It's God's favor, God's protection. I'll go with
you. Nothing will harm you. There'll be no diseases. A thousand
will fall at your right hand or left hand and 10,000 at your
right. You'll have my presence, my protection, my blessing, and
my reward. The condition is obedience to
the law. And there's no compromise. There's no leniency. And it's
important that we understand this. Because we know what law
is. We know what it is to have a
blessing, a reward, and favor be conditioned upon obedience. That's true in every home. I
hope it's true with your children. You don't just have favor upon
them and are just as happy with them when they're disobedient
as you are when they're obedient. But you see, Our favor toward
our children is conditioned upon their obedience. Not that we,
not that our love is conditioned upon their obedience, but our
favor toward them is conditioned upon their obedience. But for
us, close is usually good enough. Usually, not on all bad day,
it's not. But close is never enough with
God. Turn to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3.10. For as many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse. If you're under
that old covenant, you're cursed. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. All. All things. And it's not that you do your
best at all things, it's that you do them. Period. You do them. Exactly as they're
commanded, all of them. Which brings us to verse 11,
that no man is justified by the law and the sight of God is evident. If you read verse 10 and understood
it, it's evident you're not going to heaven that way. You're not
going to be with God. You're not going to be just before
God on that basis. And the law, for the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. The man that doeth
them. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. We didn't obey. We can't be justified on that
basis, but he did. And he redeemed us from the curse
of the law. He obeyed the law that we couldn't
keep, and he paid for what we did. Our disobedience, our sin,
our iniquity, he redeemed us from the curse, from the penalty.
There's reward when the conditions are met and there's penalty when
they're not. And they weren't, they aren't,
they never will be by any man other than the man, Christ Jesus.
And he redeemed us, his people, from the curse of the law by
hanging on that tree, cursed is everyone. He was made a curse
for us in our place, in our stead. That, verse 14, the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith,
not by keeping the law, but by believing on him that did keep
the law and that redeemed us from our sins with his blood.
The blessing of Abraham, what's the blessing of Abraham? The
blessing promised to Abraham was unconditional. It wasn't
if you will, I will. It was God said to Abraham, I'm
going to go around blessing people and you're going to be one of
them. And then what he said in blessing, I'm going to bless
you. No condition, no ifs, no requirement,
just reward because the requirement has already been met eternally. Eternal blood was shed in the
everlasting covenant of grace. So there's no condition for us
to meet. We're in on this new covenant by grace through faith
in Christ, who has satisfied the conditions of the covenant. The blessing promised to Abraham
was unconditional and was promised in the seed. In thy seed, God
said, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, which seed
is Christ. And in 1 Peter 2, where we read
a little while ago, we see this same truth set forth as in Galatians
3, as we do in all of the gospel. Look at it again. Look at 1 Peter
2 again. Particularly verses 5 and verse
10. Look at verse 5. Ye also, as
lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. In God's law, He's going to institute
this Levitical law of offering sacrifices, and do it in a certain
way, and certain sacrifices under certain situations. There's going
to be the Day of Atonement, and there's going to be daily sacrifice,
there's going to be morning sacrifice, there's going to be evening sacrifice,
but Paul said none of those sacrifices can take away sin. But under
this covenant, under the blessing of God, The law had to do with
the offering up of sacrifices, but those sacrifices, that animal
blood couldn't take away sin, just like the obedience or lack
thereof of the people to the law could never satisfy God. Their conformance to the law,
the sacrifices themselves couldn't take away sin, and the obedience
by which those sacrifices were offered could never please God.
But what we offer, what we do, our obedience, as believers in
Christ by faith. Peter says here is acceptable
by Jesus Christ. We're accepted in the beloved. Not in ourselves, not before
the law. In verse 10, which in time past were not a people,
but now are the people of God, which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained Mercy they had not obtained mercy because
there is no mercy under the old covenant Jew nor Gentile has
obtained any mercy until now until life and immortality have
been brought to light through the gospel Because in the law
and under the old covenant there is no mercy the way of mercy
was revealed in the establishment of the mercy seed and the sacrifices
that were to be offered for And in the priesthood which God established,
which all set forth Christ, but in the old covenant itself, if
you will, I will, there's no mercy there. If the condition
is not met, then the blessing is forfeited and the curse is
in effect. And the condition has never been
met. Never. That's what Paul deals
with in Romans chapter two, three, four. by the deeds of the law, by what
God said in Exodus 19, we can't be justified. We can't
have the blessing that he promised there. We just can't have it.
But now, through the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
God's people have obtained mercy. That's what we need now. You
and I don't need a deal. We don't need an offer. We don't
need, if you will, I will. We need mercy. Turn to Acts 15 verse 5. But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. They still said, yes, it's by
grace. We believe on Christ, but you've
got to keep the law. If you don't keep the law, then
that means you're not saved. All right, look what they said,
and the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this
matter. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. The first time was there at Cornelius's
house, I believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith." You'll be a holy nation if you do what
I say. But we didn't, we haven't, we
can't, we won't. You know what that word holy
means there? Pure. How are we going to be pure then?
God purify your heart by faith. Faith embraces Christ, connects
us with Christ, unites us to Christ, who is our righteousness.
We're pure because he's pure and we're in him. Now, therefore,
why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Nobody yet has measured up to
what God said in Exodus 19 verses 1 through 6. Nobody. So why would
you require the Gentiles to do it? But we believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved just like them. If any of us are going to be
saved, Jew or Gentile, whether you grew up reciting the law
and memorizing the law and having the law on your wall, Or you
were an outcast from the Commonwealth of Israel. Either way, if you're
going to be saved, it's going to be by grace. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Is that clear? Old covenant,
new covenant, old covenant gospel. Now in religion what passes for
a gospel is the same old covenant that for the believer to use
Paul's language in Hebrews has vanished away. The old covenant
has vanished away. We don't do those things. We
don't offer blood sacrifices. We don't do any of the things
written in the Levitical law or in the Mosaic law. Under the same old covenant,
religion still puts that yoke of bondage upon people. They're
preaching, if you will, God will. I've heard them say those exact
words. If you will, God will. That's what God said in Exodus
19. But He's already revealed that they didn't. And that no
one ever has. It's let's make a deal. It's
salvation contingent upon the obedience of the sinner. Walk
it out. Make a decision. Repeat this
prayer. Accept Jesus as your personal Savior. Live the Christian
life. It doesn't matter what the condition
is. It's conditional salvation. If
salvation is conditioned upon you in any way, you're a goner.
That was the message of the apostles. That was the message of our Lord
Jesus. May it be our message forever. No flesh justified under that
old covenant. None. Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ is the
goal of the law, not personal obedience on your part. That
was never the goal of the law. That's not why God gave His law.
Christ is the goal, the end, the purpose of the law for righteousness. You want to be righteous before
God? Christ. Everyone that believeth in Christ
is righteous before God. The righteousness without the
law is made manifest unto all them that believe by the redemption
that's in Him. By grace, or you say, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Oh,
well, there you see, you have to believe. No, you can't do
that either. You can't do that. You can't believe. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Except
you're born from above, you can't see God's kingdom and you can't
enter into God's kingdom. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Faith is not a condition of God's
grace. Faith is a blessing of God's
grace. Our text tells us what it is to be saved. The old covenant
and the new are the same in this. The blessing is the same. It
is salvation. If you obey me, he said, I'll
save you. You'll be a peculiar people in
the name. You'll be my chosen people. God's
favor is God's favor. That's the same under both covenants.
The difference is how to obtain it. How to obtain it. Paul said in Romans 11, I believe,
Israel hath not obtained what it seeketh for, because they
sought it not by faith, but by the works of the law. We're wanting
to obtain God's blessing, God's favor, to be His people, to be
under His protection, to have His reward, to please Him. But how are you going to obtain
it? in yourself or in Christ, works
in grace, it's always been the same. Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, Sinai and Calvary, you are Christ. It's always been
the same message. Here's the benefit of the covenant.
If you can obtain it, You're a chosen generation. These exact words don't appear
in the text in Exodus 19, but we find them in Peter's use of
the text from Exodus 19 in 1 Peter 2, 9. He starts that way. You're a chosen generation unto
me. Why? Well, the truth of it is in the
text in Exodus where the Lord said this, remember now, we won't
turn back and forth because I'm going to have to hurry now, but
he said, remember, what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore
you on eagles' wings. To where? To myself. Why did God do that? Why did
he do that? Remember what he said to Moses
in Exodus 3, 7? I have seen the affliction of my people. How'd they get to be God's people?
Deuteronomy 7.6, I was going to have you turn there, but listen
carefully. He said, You are in holy people unto the Lord your
God. That's familiar language. The
Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself
above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord
did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were
more in number than any people. For you were the fewest of all
people, but because the Lord loved you. Because He loved you. You're a chosen generation. Because He loved you, and because
He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers,
He's a covenant God. And His promises are yes, and
so be it in Christ. That the Lord brought you out
with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen,
from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, because he loved you.
He said, I bore you on eagles' wings out of Egypt. Why did he do that? Because they
were chosen, because he had chosen them. You're mine. Why did he
choose them? Because he loved them. You're
a chosen generation. Let me impress upon you again
the truth, which I pray you'll take with you the rest of your
days, and that I will too. and rejoice in forever. God's election is not a cold
and arbitrary thing. He didn't pull our names out
of a hat. God's choosing of us is election. The word elect in
the New Testament means picked out, chosen. That's what we're
talking about. You're a chosen generation. Where
is the actual choosing of God seen in the Bible? He says, I
chose you, I chose you. Do we see Him actually doing
that anywhere? We have a specific example of
God's choosing one sinner and not another in God's Word in
Romans 9-11. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election, choosing, your chosen generation
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved. There's God's election right
there. Not eeny, meeny, miny, moe. I love Jacob and I hate
Esau. Ephesians 1, 4, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
chosen that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. Secondly, we're a royal priesthood. The way he worded it in Exodus
19 is we're a kingdom of priests. A royal priesthood. John said
in Revelation 1.5 unto him that loved us and washed us from our
sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto
God and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and
ever. Amen. Religion ordains priests
who take upon themselves the imagined authority to absolve
sins and things that belong to God only. This is an abomination. According to the Bible, all those
in Christ are priests unto God. Priests under the old covenant
were the only ones who could actually come into the presence
of God. They came in on behalf of the
people and communed with God. Now in
Christ Jesus under the new covenant, Paul said this, having therefore
brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's how he made us a priest.
by his precious blood because he's our great high priest. By
a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through
the veil that is to say his flesh. Nobody entered into the veil
before but the priest. We enter in through the veil
that is to say his flesh and having a high priest over the
house of God let us draw near. with a true heart and full assurance
of faith. Hebrews 10, 19 through 22. Number
three, we're a holy nation. A holy nation. Pure, chaste,
undefiled, clear. Clear. The condition of the covenant
is what? Holiness. That's what obedience,
perfect obedience to God's law is. The condition of the covenant
is a reward of the new covenant. Think about that now. Think about
that. What does God require in order
that he might bless us? Holiness. What does God give
when he blesses us? Holiness. How can this be? Because, though we are not holy,
we are not obedient, we are all sinners and come short of God's
glory, the promises of the covenant, nevertheless, are yea and amen in Christ. In
Him, we're a peculiar, holy nation. What God requires of us, He provides
us in Christ. We are holy. We are obedient. We are perfect. We got this without
that holiness. Paul said, you're not going to
see God. You're not going to see God. We're a holy people
in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the covenant of God's grace
in Christ, God gives as a reward the very thing that he requires.
Holiness. Christ has met the requirement
of the covenant holiness. And so we reap the reward of
the covenant holiness. We read in Revelation 1 there,
we read it a while ago, that he washed us from our sins in
his precious blood. That's how we're pure. That word
holy means pure. As it relates to us in this context. Number four, we're a peculiar
people. Bunch of weirdos. Now, that may
be true. But it means purchased. one's own property. We're bought with a price. Is
that alright with you? Well, I don't belong to you. It's a blessing to belong to
the right person. Isn't it? People say, oh, my husband
doesn't own me. That's not necessarily a good
thing to say. If he's a good husband, you'd want him to. You're
his. You belong to him. But in Christ this is so surpassingly
true. I want to be his, don't you? His forever, only his. Who the
Lord in me shall part. A purchased possession, that's
what it means. The same word is used in Ephesians
1.13. Listen to this. Same word. Now
a peculiar people. Same word used here. In whom
you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And you know
the context of this verse here that I'm reading concerning God
choosing us chosen in Christ, predestinated us in Christ, redeemed
us through whom we have redemption, through His blood. And then here
in verse 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance, He sealed
us with His Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of our inheritance,
until the redemption of the purchased possession. Same word, peculiar
people. Unto the praise of His glory.
And in our text in 1 Peter there, what did he say? That you might
show forth the praises of him that called you out of darkness.
Darkness into his marvelous light. All of this redounds to his praise. If you're under the old covenant,
who gets the glory for that? But Paul said under the gospel,
where is boasting? It's excluded. All the praise
goes to him. Christ purchased us with his
precious blood. When you buy something, It's
yours. There's no other condition to
be met. You've paid the price. You own it. That's how simple
and clear this is. He redeemed us with His precious
blood. He didn't put us on layaway.
It's not possible. He didn't make it possible to
own us. He bought us. There's no other condition to
be met. If I pay the price and adopt
a child, for example, that child is mine. Not if it
wants to be mine, it's mine. You see, the truth is everyone
whom the Lord Jesus Christ bought with his precious blood, they're
willing in the day of his power. When he opens your eyes by the
power of his almighty grace, you're not going to want anything
else but to go home with him and be his forever. It's not
conditioned on that. He purchased us. What makes a
thing yours is your payment for it. Christ paid our sin debt
in full by himself. Moses said to the people of Israel,
from God to them through Moses, he said, if you obey me, you'll
be my peculiar treasure. Well, as we know, they didn't
obey God. He said, flat out, which covenant they break and
continue not in the things that I commanded them. They didn't.
That old covenant was not the means of obtaining God's reward,
God's blessing. It was not, and it never will
be. Well, the blessing is forfeit. We're not God's peculiar treasure.
Yes, we are. Not the earthly nation of Israel,
but God's spiritual Israel are because there is another covenant.
Well, if we're not God's peculiar treasure as a result of our obedience
to God, then how? He said in that covenant, if
you will, I will. If you obey, you'll be my peculiar
treasure. Under that covenant. How are
we going to be? How are we going to measure?
How are we going to be God's peculiar treasure? Under the new covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ, I keep
coming back to this when I'm talking about the new covenant
because it's such a beautiful, clear, simple picture of what
the new covenant is. The Lord Jesus Christ, when they
ate that last supper together, he gave them the cup and he said,
this cup is the new covenant. Same blessing as the old covenant.
You're gonna be my peculiar treasure. You're gonna be an holy nation,
a royal priesthood, a chosen people. This cup is the new covenant
in my blood. We don't receive those blessings,
that reward, by the obedience of the law, but by the blood
of Jesus Christ. That's why that's such a simple,
beautiful truth. This cup is the new covenant. I have the reward, I have the
blessing, I have the favor of God. I have all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ because of that precious blood
that he shed for me on Calvary. We're called God's purchased
possession. What purchased us? That blood. This cup is the new cup. by which we are God's purchased
possession. My very soul is his purchased
possession. His blood didn't make the reward
possible. If you will do something, that's
the old. Here's the new. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. This cup is
the new covenant in my blood. Peter, after describing us as
God did in Exodus 19, there said this, this is all true. You are
these things, not because you obeyed his law under the old
covenant, not because they did not because you did not because
anybody has. But by your acceptable, your
sacrifices are acceptable. Your obedience is acceptable.
You are acceptable by Jesus Christ. And he said that you should show
forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness. Into
his marvelous light. That's why he saved you. For
his eternal glory. He did it to show forth, Paul
said there in Romans 9, the riches of his glory. Those who are still
laboring under the old covenant glorify the flesh, even though
there's no basis upon which to do so, but they glory in the
flesh. I did this, I did that, and God
saved me. But those who are not under the
law, but under grace, glorify Christ. We show forth the praises
of Him that called us out of darkness. That darkness is our
disobedience to the Old Covenant. That darkness is the darkness
of our sin against the God that promised His blessing to us if
we would obey. Darkness. He called us out of
it into His marvelous light. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
did what the law could not do because of the weakness of my
flesh. He lived for me as my representative
and died for me as my substitute. He lived in obedience to the
law. He said, I do always those things. What did God say to those
people of Israel in Exodus 19? Obey, keep all my commandments,
always do everything that I say. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
do always those things that please my Father. There's the reward. It's His and it's ours in Him.
We are that peculiar people, that purchased possession, purchased
by His precious blood. He lived in obedience to the
law and died under the penalty of the law against my sin, that
God might be just and the justifier of him which believes in Christ.
We're blessed because of obedience, but not ours, Christ's. God said obey me and all these
blessings are yours. I did not, could not, but Paul
said Christ my substitute was obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. The obedience was His, and the
reward is mine in Him. Let's bow in prayer.