When I first began this series
of messages in the book of Exodus, I began with a fear. A fear of
getting to chapters 19 and 20. And when I went home last night,
I still had the same fear. Not that I didn't understand
factually what's written in chapters 19 and 20. But the message is something
else. I have known for a long time
now that God gave his law at Sinai to point us to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He gave his law at Sinai not
as a code of conduct by which men are to live. Indeed, the
law was never given to anyone but Jews. The law of the Sabbath
and all the other laws given by God to Israel were given only
to the Jews. But the law was given to Israel
in the Old Testament to show us the need for Christ and to
shut us up to Christ. But I couldn't figure out how
Exodus 19 and 20, this display of the giving of the law, shows
us our need of Christ. and showed the children of Israel
their need of Christ and pointed Moses and the children of Israel
to our Lord Jesus Christ and redemption by him. And it wasn't
for lack of study. I spent the day yesterday studying
as I have a good many days prior to this. And then last night
when I went to bed, God gave me the passage and I've got it
for you. You turn with me to Exodus chapter
19 and just follow along with me through these two chapters. My subject tonight is grace at
Sinai. Now obviously I'm not going to
cover everything in these two chapters in one message. We'll
come back to it. But let me call your attention
to nine or ten things clearly set before us in these two chapters. When the children of Israel left
Rephidim, the place of murmuring, they came to the Mount of God
at Sinai. And God's very first word to
them here at Mount Sinai is a word of promise, a promise of pure,
free grace, declaring to them what He would do for them. This very first word that God
gives at Sinai is a word of grace. It was a word of grace to a specific
people. The Lord told Moses, and now
you speak to the children of Jacob and to the house of Israel. He calls his people both by their
name of depravity and their name of mercy, the name which identifies
them in their corruption as the tricky, deceitful sons of Jacob. and the name that identifies
them in God's grace upon them as Israel, a people who are made
princes with God. He says, Thus shalt thou say
to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. And in
verse 4, this is what he's told to tell them. Ye have seen what
I did to the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings,
and brought you unto myself. With those words, the Lord God
reminds His people what He had done for them already, how He
had delivered them in His great mercy already, how He had brought
them out of Egypt already, and bear them on eagles' wings these
now fifty-some days that they had been in the wilderness. He
says, you remember these things, don't forget what I've done for
you. And then He makes a promise,
now therefore, If ye 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 an holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. The Lord God says,
I'm going to make you a peculiar treasure unto me, my peculiar
people. Christ came into the world and
gave his life at Calvary to redeem to himself a peculiar people. That doesn't mean an odd people.
Sometimes folks refer to believers and they think because some folks
who are very religious act real strange, God's people are to
be an odd people. We often go down to Amish country,
pick up some groceries, But I don't recommend that you follow their
religion. Just follow the farming practices. They're good farmers.
They're the peculiar people. No, God's people are peculiar
people. They're just odd. They're just
strange. They've got strange habits and
strange ways. God's people are peculiar. The
word peculiar doesn't mean odd at all. It means special. It
means his choice people, precious people. people who are the objects
of his distinct care. And he says of these people,
I will make you a kingdom of priests. We don't have any priest. We are a priesthood. Our only
priest is Jesus Christ the Lord. There are no priests in the church
of God that are distinct from others. All God's people are
a kingdom of priests, all of them doing business in the holy
place directly with God through Jesus Christ the Lord. and an
holy nation, an holy nation. I hope I'm not misunderstood.
I cherish our political nation, the United States. It is our
responsibility as believers to be the best and the most responsible
of citizens in this country. I am prepared to make whatever
sacrifice is needed from myself and my family and the nation
to protect the nation as a whole. But this is not my choice nation. God's people are a holy nation. A holy nation. God's people everywhere. A spiritual nation. the only
nation that will last forever, a holy nation, holy unto the
Lord. Now these promises clearly are
given with a condition that must be met. Look at verse 5, the
Lord says, if, if you obey my voice indeed, if you keep my
covenant indeed. But remember, now be sure you
remember this, when God speaks to his people, And he uses this
word if. The word may speak of a condition,
a qualification, but it is not a condition or a qualification
that we must meet in ourselves. Rather, it is a condition, a
qualification, which God himself promises he will meet for us. He says, if you keep my covenant,
if you obey my word, indeed, then this shall be done to you.
And I'm going to show you from the scriptures that this is exactly
what this must mean before the message is done. All right, here's
the second thing. Moses went down and told the
children of Israel, the house of Jacob, what God said. And
they responded with an arrogant presumption of goodness and ability. Look at verse 7. 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. I read this. I can't tell you
how many times I read this and went over my mind the last several
days. They all answered at one time together. I mean, they didn't,
nobody seems to have consulted about it, just all at one time.
Well, we'll do that. We'll do that. Well, that's a
lead pipe cinch. We'll do that. Look what God
promised us. We'll do that. Why, sure, He's
going to make us His peculiar people. He's going to make us
a holy priesthood and a royal holy nation, a kingdom of priests
peculiar to Himself. Well, whatever He requires, we'll
do it. Mark it down. Read on. All the people answered
together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses returned the words
of the people to the Lord. And the rest of the chapter is
different. I mean it is different. It is different. It is a revelation
like God had never made anywhere before. The whole chapter changes
course when Moses returns this word to the people, or the word
of the people to the Lord. You remember when our Lord Jesus
spoke to the rich young ruler in Mark's gospel, chapter 10,
the Lord had this young man come to him and said, good master,
tell me what I have to do to inherit eternal life. And it's
done. It's done. Tell me what it is.
I know you're a good man, and I know you've come teaching the
ways of God, and I know you're a master in Israel. Now you tell
me what I have to do to inherit this eternal life you've come
talking about, and I'll do it. And the Lord said to him, keep
the commandments. And that fella, he said, well,
I've always done that. I've always done that. He didn't
have to think about it. I've always kept the commandments.
I've always loved Jesus. I've always loved God. I've always
been an obedient son. I've always done right. I've
always done right by my neighbor. I've always kept the commandments.
And the Lord says, let's see. Let's see. Go sell everything
you've got and give it to the poor. Now, did you say you love
your neighbor like you do yourself? The Lord stuck his finger right
in his heart and exposed to sin. And that's what the rest of Exodus
19 and 20 is about. In verse 9, the Lord God provided
a mediator for his poor, sinful, ignorant people, though they
did not yet know they needed one. The Lord said to Moses,
lo, I come unto thee, not to them, to you, in a thick cloud,
that they, the people, may hear when I speak with thee. and believe
thee forever. And Moses told the words of the
people to the Lord. Throughout these two chapters,
Moses clearly is typical of our Lord Jesus Christ as our great
mediator. The Apostle Paul tells us in
Galatians 3.19, the law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. And here is the mediator that
Paul spoke of, Moses himself, representing Christ, the one
mediator between God and man. That one and only one by whom
God comes down to man and man ascends up to God. By whom God
speaks to man and man speaks to God. by whom God works for
and in and with man, and by whom man works for and with God Almighty. In this chapter, chapters 19
and 20, no less than ten times we're told Moses went up to the
mount and came down again. He went up to God for the people,
and he came down for the people from God. He came down to speak
the words of God to the people, and he carried the words of the
people to God, speaking continually as their mediator. Now look at
God's requirement in verses 10 and 11. The Lord said unto Moses,
Go unto the people and sanctify them. The word means set them
apart. The very root of the word holy
is this word sanctify. It means set apart. Set them
aside from everyone else. Pull them apart from everything
else. Sanctify them. Sanctify them
today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes 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.
God says, you set this people apart. And this act by which
they had to be sanctified tells us that they had to be prepared,
being set apart. They must be made ready or readied
to meet the Holy Lord God, being made pure, holy, and clean before
Him. Turn to Titus chapter 3. Let
me show you. This purity and holiness. was symbolized by the
ceremonial washing of their clothes. If you and I would be ready to
meet God, ready to meet God in judgment, or ready to meet God
today, we must be readied both by blood atonement, that by the
precious blood of Christ shed for us as our substitute, and
by the sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit, called here
the washing of regeneration. Titus 3 verse 4. after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
All right, back here in Exodus 19. There is something remarkable
about the use of the third day in Scripture. Three times here
in chapter 19, verses 11, 15, and 16, God said, now you sanctify
the people on the third day I'm going to meet you. On the third
day I'm going to come down, on the third day, on the third day
I'm going to come down from the mount to the people. It was on
the third day that God raised the earth from chaos and caused
it to bud forth with life in Genesis chapter 1. It was on
the third day that the Lord God commanded Abraham to take his
son Isaac up to Mount Moriah and there offer him as a sacrifice
where the Lord revealed himself to Abraham as Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord who will provide. It was on the third day that
our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. The flesh of the sacrifice
was burned on the third day according to the law given in Leviticus.
Throughout the scriptures then, the third day is used in connection
throughout the scriptures. with victory and conquest, deliverance
and salvation, life and liberty. Throughout the scriptures, the
third day speaks of life and liberty, victory, deliverance,
conquest by God's grace. Now, look at verses 12 through
15. Watch this next thing revealed at Sinai. God said, I'll come
down to my people on the third day. And in the third day of
time, he did just that. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
my God, our Savior said, as he came into the world on the third
day. But in verses 12 through 15, the Lord says, you can't
come up to me. You cannot come up to me. I'm
coming down to Jacob. I'm coming down to Israel. Moses,
you tell them I'm coming down to them, but they cannot come
up to me. Verse 12. Thou shalt set bounds
unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves,
that you go not up to the mount, or touch the border of it. Don't
you put your hand on it. Whosoever of you toucheth the
mount shall be surely put to death. Wow! A man put to death
for touching a piece of dirt? Mount Sinai? It was called Sinai
because it was a mountain covered over with thorn bushes. A mountain
just covered over with the curse. Covered over with briars. And
if a man just touches that mountain covered over with the curse,
if he just puts his head on that mountain covered over with the
curse, he's dead. He's dead. What on earth is he
talking about? Remember what the people said?
God, whatever you require, we'll do it. You require obedience? Well, we can do that. You require
that we comply with your covenant? Why, that's a piece of cake.
We can handle that. God says you put your hand on this thing,
you're dead. You're dead. Read on. Verse 13. There shall not a hand touch
it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through. Whether it be
a beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth
long, they shall come up to the mountain. Not up on it, up to
it. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and
sanctified the people. And they washed their clothes.
And he said to the people, Be ready against the third day.
Come not at your wives. Moses says to these people, as
God spoke by him to them, Don't touch this mountain with your
polluted hands. You remember what Uzzah did when
David is bringing the ark of God up to Jerusalem from the
house of Obed-Edom? And the oxen stumbled, the cart
began to topple, or it looked like it was fixing to. Looked
like it was fixing to fall into the ditch. And Uzzah just put
his hand to the ark. Darwin, God killed him for that.
Why? Because that ark symbolized God's
salvation by Christ his son. And you think that's got to have
your hand on it? You blaspheme God. I'll kill
you for it. I'll send you to hell for it.
You try to save yourself? I'll send you to hell for it.
In verse 21, the Lord gives this warning. He says, the Lord said
to Moses, go down and charge the people. lest they break through
unto the Lord to gaze. And many perish. Gaze upon it. Just idle curiosity, speculating about
the mysteries of God. Never have I been so struck with
the serious fault that men and women commit when they take the
things of God and treat them so contemptibly that they just
gaze on them and investigate and study as you would some theory
of science with no reverence whatever. Gaze on it. You remember over in 1 Samuel
chapter 6 the men of Beth-shemesh had the ark of God? They had
the ark of God and they They decided to take a peek. They
decided to take a peek. And they looked in the ark and
50,000 of them dropped dead. 50,000. Because they died, pry into things
wondrous and mysterious without reverence and faith. They just
pried. Just looked in things because
they were curious. They came to the Mount of God
to gaze, not to worship, not to believe, not to hear, but
to gaze with curiosity. And so the Lord killed them.
Now look at verses 16 through 25. And behold, God's magnificent
display of his unapproachable holiness. It came to pass on the third
day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings
and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet
exceeding loud, so that the people that was in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God.
And they stood at the nether part of the mount. They came
to the mount, but not upon it, just came to it. And Mount Sinai
was altogether on a smoke. Because the Lord descended on
it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace,
and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet
sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and
God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount
Sinai on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up
to the top of the mount. And Moses went up, and the Lord
said to Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through
unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests
also which come near to the Lord sanctify themselves, lest the
Lord break forth upon them. And Moses said unto the Lord,
The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, For thou chargest
us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. And
the Lord said to him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come
up, thou and Aaron with thee. But let not the priest and the
people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break
forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people
and spoke to them. Here the Lord appeared in a sevenfold
That is in a perfect expression of his terrible majesty as the
unapproachable holy God. Thunder, lightning, cloud, fire,
smoke quaking in a trumpet. There was nothing here to encourage
hope, nothing to attract the guilty, nothing to pacify an
accusing conscience. Such is the character of God
that he who is the judge of all the earth and must do right cannot
accept sinful man. He cannot receive a sinful man. He cannot be approached by a
sinful man. And so he comes down on Sinai
and the whole place is covered with smoke and fire and quaking
and thunder. Our God, we're told, is a consuming
fire because there's no mention made here of blood atonement.
No approach is given. There's no hope for man coming
this way. We might well, like those men
of Beshemesh who remained after seeing folks peek into the ark,
cry, who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? Now, look
at chapter 20. With the giving of the Ten Commandments, the Lord exposed The sin and
guilt of this people, this people who had boasted all that the
Lord has spoken, we will do. And here the Lord speaks. He
gives them these commandments. Thou shalt have no other God
before me, verse 3. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, verse 7. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain, verse 8. Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy. And then he speaks of the commandments
concerning a man's relationship with man. Honor your father and
your mother, that your days may be long upon the earth. Thou
shalt not kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or
covet. And with all these things, the
Lord God shows to the children of Israel, the sons of Jacob,
that which he requires, and they cannot possibly perform. What
is it he requires? He requires that you love God
with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. He requires that you love God
with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Now that
covers nine of the commandments. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. That's got nothing to do with
loving God or your neighbor. Now you tell me how it does.
You tell me how it does. Got nothing to do with loving
God or your neighbor. To not take God's name in vain, that's
reverence. To not make any graven image, that's to reverence God
as God alone. Not to bow down before any idol.
It's to reverence God as God alone. To have no other God before
Him. To recognize that He alone is
God. But remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? By not working
on Saturdays? What's that got to do with loving
God? Well, that's the Sabbath was made for man, not man for
the Sabbath. Yeah, but still, that's not talking
about loving my neighbor. Me not working on Saturday is
not going to profit my neighbor one thing on this earth. Well,
what's he talking about? In this one commandment of the
ten, the Lord God sets before us a picture of faith by which
the others are fully satisfied. We come to Christ in faith and
rest. God requires that I love him
with all my heart and I can't do it. And there Chris, either
I want to or I am deceived. One of the two. Oh my God, I want to love him
perfectly. And I can't. And I want to love
you that way too. I really do. And I can't. Just can't. Doesn't lie within
the realm of possibility. But I have a blessed surety.
who has and does, and I have and do in Him. Love God with
all my heart, and my neighbor as myself, and I rest in Him. He is Christ by Sabbath. And that's what the whole of
the Ten Commandments is all about. It is about God's requirement
and God's provision. It is intended by God to show
us our need of a substitute, a mediator, a surety. Now the
purpose of God's law then is to identify and condemn sin and
the sinner. And when the people heard this,
they heard what God required, they understood that these commandments
reach beyond the realm of man's ability and they were utterly
appalled Appalled by what God required, that was all holy and
good. And that's beyond their reach.
Verse 18, the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings
and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And
when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. Oh, let me out of here. Let me
out of here. All right. Verses 19, 21. The
purpose of God in giving His law at Sinai was to show the
need of a mediator. Here we see them desiring a mediator. They drew far off. They stepped
back a step or two. These same people who said, whatever
it is the Lord requires, we'll do it. Now they step back and
they say, Moses, You go talk to God for us. You speak to God for us, and
we will hear. But let not God speak with us,
lest we die. Oh, Moses, be mediator between
us and God. We got to have somebody to represent
us to God. And we've got to have somebody
to represent God to us. And that's what Christ is. The
only mediator between God and man. And then in the last part
of chapter 20, verses 22 through 26, let me read it to you. The way is revealed. How can
a man come to God? How can we, sinful, wretched,
fallen, depraved, corrupt human beings, Come to God in His unapproachable,
ineffable, glorious holiness. Him not be compromised in any
way whatsoever. Verse 22, The Lord said to Moses,
Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, Ye have seen that
I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with me gods
of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. an altar
of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon
thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings." Those burnt offerings
and peace offerings, that's Christ our substitute. Thy sheep and
thine oxen, that's our blessed Savior who died in our stead,
sacrificed for us. In all places where I record
my name, I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And if
you just have to make an altar of stone, if thou wilt make an
altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone. Because
if you put your hand to this thing, I'll kill you. If you lift up your tool on it,
Bob, you're dead man. You polluted it. You polluted
it. Verse 26, neither shalt thou
go up by steps unto mine altar. that thy nakedness be not discovered. Alright, here's the way you can
come to me. You can come to me by a sacrifice
on an altar that I provide. And that's Christ Jesus the Lord.
That's how you come to me. Now I promised you I would show
you from God's Word how that the promises given in chapter
19 verse 5 And the condition, the qualification God required
is not a condition at all, but a promise. Turn to 1 Peter chapter
2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Remember what God promised him.
He said, I'll make you a kingdom of priests, I'll make you a peculiar
treasure unto me, and I'll make you a holy nation. First Peter
chapter 2 verse 5. He also, as lively stones, built
up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That's what
priests do. Wherefore also it is contained
in Scripture, behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect,
precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them
which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed
the same is made the head of the corner and the stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word
being disobedient whereunto they were appointed but you you who
look to Christ in faith you being chosen of God and redeemed by
the precious blood of Jesus Christ, believing on His Son, you are
a chosen generation, a royal, a kingly priesthood, and holy
nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises
of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light. And that is grace at Sinai. God promises, I'll make you,
I'll make you a peculiar treasure to me. I'll make you a kingdom
of priests to me. I'll make you a holy nation to
me. Amen. All right.