Let's turn tonight to Exodus
chapter 19. I'm thankful for those of you who
are faithful to attend the midweek service. I pray the Lord would
encourage others to join with us. Exodus chapter 19. 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 to the Egyptians, 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 a holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 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. And the Lord said unto Moses,
lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud. that the people may hear
when I speak with thee and believe thee forever.' And Moses told
the words of the people unto the Lord." Now, beginning with
this chapter, the 19th chapter of Exodus, and going through
chapter we have the making of what is called the Sinaitica
Covenant, the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel
at Sinai. Do you see in the verse five
that we read? And keep my covenant. And then
if you just keep your place there, but flip over to chapter 24.
And beginning here in chapter 19 and going through chapter
24, we have the history of God making this covenant with the
nation of Israel, a covenant called the Sinaitica Covenant. And in chapter 24, if you look
in verses 7 and 8, we see the covenant is here ratified. And
he took the book of the covenant, and read it 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. So this covenant, this Sinaitic
covenant is also called the law of Moses. the law of Moses, because
it was given to Israel through Moses. In John chapter one, where
we have the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ stated, in the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the word was God
and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And John says
this in that place, for the law was given by Moses, or given
through Moses. God gave the law through Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Now I want to point a few things
out, three things out to us in this chapter, in the verses that
we just read here. Chapter 19, verses 1 through
9. First of all, God fulfilled his promise. That's the first thing that we
see here. 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. Moses, with the nation of Israel,
came to the place where God had told Moses they would come and
they would worship. They would serve him when God
first called Moses at the bush that burned but was not consumed. If you look back to chapter three,
let me just read this verse, chapter three, verse 12. And he said, certainly I will
be with thee and there shall be a token unto thee that I have
sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain."
That was God's word to Moses when he called him and sent him
to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Now we see his
word is fulfilled. God is faithful to fulfill his
promises. If you just stop and think, of
what all has taken place. From that verse 12 in chapter
3, when God called Moses and sent him into Egypt, and now
they've come, God's word is fulfilled, but think of all that has taken
place. And you can only, I can only
remind us of a few things, but first of all, the reluctance
of Moses had to be overcome. He didn't want to do this. He
had several objections, didn't he? Lord, I can't speak well.
He didn't want to do this, but God had to overcome his reluctance. And then the people of Israel
and Egypt God had to prepare them, make them willing to come
out, and God did that by the oppression of the Egyptians,
how the Egyptians treated the Israelites. They were ready to
leave. And then, of course, the blood
of the Passover lamb had to be spilt, and it had to be applied. And I thought about that today. It had to be spilt, first of
all, but it also had to be applied. You see what I'm saying? The
Lord Jesus Christ died. Yes, he shed his blood, but man,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, he must believe. the sovereignty of God and the
responsibility of man, it runs parallel all through the Word
of God. And sometimes people, they can't
understand how it is a preacher preaches as he does. Well, he
almost sounds like an Armenian. No, he's just preaching the truth
of man's responsibility. Yes, the lamb had to be slain. The blood had to be caught. It
had to be applied. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
died for the sins of his people, but his people must believe. That's the reason we go into
all the world and preach the gospel. Man must hear. How can
they hear without a preacher? And how can they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? Just briefly, what took place
here between God calling Moses at that bush and now here they
are at the mountain where God had told him they would serve
him. And then they get out to the
Red Sea. There's nowhere to go. They're entrapped in the wilderness.
What has to happen? God has to open up a way, Dusty.
And he does, right through the water. The water opened up. And
then when the armies of Pharaoh, they were pursuing to overtake
the children of Israel and destroy them and bring them back into
captivity, God took care of them. They all had to be drowned in
the Red Sea. And then they come into the wilderness
and there's no bread, there's no water. God has to work miracles. I think of the word that later
that God spoke to Moses as they're going through this wilderness,
but later, and it's recorded in chapter 11 of Numbers, but
God asked Moses this, is the Lord's hand waxed short? Is God's
hand short? And then he says, thou shalt
see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.
Moses was doubting the Lord. It had to do over feeding, giving
the nation flesh to eat, and Moses He couldn't see how that
would be possible. And God said, is the Lord's hand
short? Is anything impossible for God? Peter tells believers in the
New Testament that God has given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. And the one thing about a promise
that we all know is a promise is only as good as the person
who makes it. That's it. A promise is only
as good as the person who makes it. And God has given us his
word, first of all, and then he has sworn, he's taken an oath,
that by two infallible, immutable things, we might have a strong
assurance who have fled to Jesus Christ for refuge. The promise
is only as good as the promisor. And we know with God, his promises
are good because he is faithful to his word. You know, in Psalm
2, we see there God speaking to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he says, ask of me. As God's speaking to the Lord
Jesus Christ in prophecy, ask of me and I will give thee the
heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. And God has been fulfilling that
promise over these last 2,000 years so that we know in heaven,
we see this in Revelation chapter five, that the people there are
worshiping praising the Lord for redeeming them by his blood
out of every kindred, every language, every people, and every nation. God's promise to his son, ask,
ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.
And that promise has been being fulfilled and is being fulfilled
tonight. In Deuteronomy chapter 7 and
verse 9, my first point here is God fulfills his promise of
faithfulness of God. Your father, if you're one of
his children tonight, Your father is, as the scripture says, know
therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God,
the faithful God. That's your father, faithful. And I know I've probably said
this many times before, but our Lord said, if you being evil,
speaking of men, If you being evil know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father
give good things to them that ask him? And in a parallel passage
gospel it is, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Ask, and it shall be given
unto thee. What a wonderful, wonderful promise
God's given us. Well, second, I want us to see
how that Moses, in this passage, serves as a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, God here is making a covenant
with the nation of Israel. And Moses serves as a type as
this as this covenant has a mediator. Moses was called by God. If you notice in verse three,
and Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out
of the mountain. The Lord called Moses to be the
mediator of this covenant, this covenant that he made with the
nation of Israel. He would be what Job said, or
what Job rather called a dazeman. And by that, a dazeman is one
who could put his hand on both. And both Israel and God, a go-between. Moses acted as a mediator. But what a contrast between Moses
as a mediator and the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses was one with the
people. He was one with the people. But
he wasn't one with God. No, he wasn't. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is a mediator of the new covenant, the New Testament,
he is both one with man and also one with God. The perfect, perfect
mediator, Jesus Christ. Second, Moses serves as a type
of Christ as a covenant has a messenger, a messenger. Moses was called
of God to be the messenger of this covenant. Again in verse
three, 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. In other words, God
tells Moses what he's to say. He's just the messenger. He doesn't
make the message, he doesn't make up the message, he delivers
the message. He's the messenger of the covenant. And it's interesting here that
God spoke to Moses and said, thus shalt thou say, now notice,
to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel that God
uses both of these names referring to the nation of Israel, the
house of Jacob and the children of Israel. And one of the old
writers, his opinion on this I thought was interesting. Do
you remember when Jacob left his father and mother? when he
was fleeing from his brother Esau. He left, he didn't have
a penny in his pocket. He had a stone for his pillar. And he goes down to his mother's
kin, folks, and his Jacob. But when he comes back, he went
down there without anything. But he comes back, he's got 12
sons, one daughter at least, and flocks and herds, and everything
else, and God wrestles with him. The angel of the Lord wrestled
with him there at the brook and changed his name to Israel, Jacob
and Israel. So think of it. The nation of
Israel, they went down into Egypt as Jacob, Jacob and his sons
and family. There were 70 of them at that
time. That's a big family. One of the
men here in our church told me he attended a family reunion,
I think two, three weeks ago, and there were 70-some people
there. Well, that's a good-sized family reunion. That was the
size of Jacob's family, and they didn't have anything. They went
down there because they were hungry, and there was no food. But when they come out now, they
come out wealthy. They've spoiled the Egyptians.
And it's not just 70 people, it's probably two or three million
people who have come out. You tell the house of Jacob and
the children of Israel these words. And notice, look at the words
Moses delivered in verse number four. This is what God tells
him. He's the messenger of the covenant.
You go and you tell the Israelites, you have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought
you unto myself. The words are, you tell them what I have
done for you. You don't tell them what they've
done for me. You tell them, Moses, what I
have done for them. What has he done? You see how he destroyed the
Egyptians for them, how he bore them on eagles' wings, and he
brought them unto himself. The words of what God had done
for them. He had delivered them and brought
them to himself. It was all the work of God. That's
what he used to tell the Israelites. God gives him the words. The
point is that Moses served as the messenger of the covenant
to be a type of Christ who is a messenger of the everlasting
covenant. I think a few Sunday nights ago,
I brought a message to us on the covenant, and we saw that
Christ is a mediator of the covenant. He's the messenger of the covenant.
He's the surety of the covenant, and He confirms the covenant,
yes. Well, Moses is a type here of
the Lord Jesus Christ as a mediator and as a messenger of the covenant. Moses was faithful. Scripture
tells us that in Hebrews, he was faithful in all his house.
He delivered these words. God gave him the words and he
delivered the words that God had given unto him. in our Lord's
High Priestly Prayer, as recorded in John 17. And in that prayer,
you know, he confesses to the Father, I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. The work that God the Father
gave Christ to do. He said, I finished it. I finished
it. But he goes on in that prayer
also to say this, for I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me. God gave the Lord Jesus Christ
the words and he spoke those words. He was faithful as a messenger
of the covenant. The words that the Lord gives
us are like those that were given to Israel. Look at what I have
done for you. I'm speaking to those who know
the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Look at what God
would have us to look at what he's done for us. I have brought
you to myself. That's the bottom line is I have
brought you to myself. We were strangers in this world
without God, without hope, and God has brought us unto himself. It is through his blood and through
his righteousness that we are brought into this relationship
now, no more as strangers, but as God's children, adopted into
the family of God. And I won't go into this tonight,
but when we read over there in chapter 24, just a little while
ago, Moses ratified the covenant with the blood of animals, but
he's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ a type who ratified the
everlasting covenant, not with the blood of animals. It's not
possible that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sins,
but the Lord Jesus Christ, he ratified the covenant by shedding
his own blood. That's what he said, wasn't it,
when he instituted the Lord's Supper. This is my blood of the
New Testament, the new covenant, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. Well, look at this last thing. The Sinaitica Covenant promised
blessings upon the condition of obedience. Notice that again
here in chapter 19, verses five and six. 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 an holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. This covenant, the
blessings are wonderful that God promised here. Look at them
again. The blessings are wonderful. You shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people. Now, man doesn't add anything
to God. When he speaks to man here that
they would be a treasure, we learn from that how does a man
keep his treasure? He protects it, right? He makes
sure of it. And when a people, you, are God's
treasure, he keeps you. He protects you. You're his treasure. You don't add any wealth to him.
He is everything, has everything. But that was one of the promises
here, a special treasure unto God of all people. All the world
is his, all flesh is his, but his people. Then there would
be a kingdom of priests. They would have that liberty
to approach unto God. And number three, they would
be a holy nation. Now, when Moses came down from
the mountain and gave them the words, he's a messenger of this
covenant, gave them the words that God gave him, you notice
what they said, all, A-L-L, all that the Lord hath spoken, we
will do. So this is a covenant of works,
right? It's a covenant of works. It
resembles a covenant that God made with Adam when he placed
him in the garden and life is promised upon obedience. And the blessings here that we
see are promised upon the nation of Israel's obedience. It was
clearly a covenant of works. And you and I know that immediately,
even though they said all that the Lord has said we will do,
we know that in just a few days they're going to have a calf,
a golden calf that they're going to be worshiping and they break
the covenant. And it was pictured when Moses
comes down from the mountain, isn't it, with the two tables
of stone upon which were written the Ten Commandments, and he
casts the tables of stone down, showing that the covenant was
broken. It was broken. Who broke it?
The Israelites did. I'm so thankful today that the
covenant of grace depended not upon your obedience or my obedience,
but the obedience of Christ. His obedience. His obedience. Yes. He had to come into this
world and fulfill the work which the father gave him to do. And I want you to turn with me
to first Peter two. Now thank these three blessings
that God tells them here. If you will do, this is what
will happen. You will be a peculiar treasure. You will be a nation of priests
and a holy nation. We'll look here in 1 Peter 2. These very things are the things
that we have according to the apostle Peter. 1 Peter 2. And
I'll begin with verse seven. Under you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. Now, sometimes people ask, I
wonder if I truly believe. I would imagine every child of
God has asked that at some time or the other. Let me ask you,
is he precious to you? Is it? That's what Peter says
here, right? Unto you therefore which believe.
He's precious. He's precious, yes. You love
him because he first loved you. You love to hear about him. You
love to read about him. You love to think about him.
You love to talk with him. He's precious to you if you believe. To me, that's one way a child
of God can find some assurance that we really do believe. He's precious. He's precious. But under them which be disobedient,
the stone which is Christ, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. and a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. Now
watch, but you are a chosen generation, a kingdom of priests, a royal
priesthood. And holy nation, a peculiar people. Last week, someone asked me, is there a holy nation? And I
said, yes, there's a holy nation, but it's not one of the nations
of this world. We are blessed, there's no question
about it, to be part of this nation here. There's no doubt
about that. But is this nation a holy nation? No, no. But there is a holy nation. There is a peculiar people. There
is a kingdom of priests. And it is made up of every child
of God. Everyone who knows Christ to
be precious to them, who believes. Yes, there is a holy nation,
but its flag doesn't fly at the United Nations. It doesn't. They've got a lot of flags up
there, a lot of countries around this world, a lot of nations. But this nation, this holy nation,
its flag doesn't fly there. But aren't you thankful tonight
to be a part of this holy nation? And to be a kingdom of priests,
a royal priesthood. That verse in Revelation 1 where
it says, who loved us, speaking of Christ, who loved us and washed
us from our sins, and hath made us kings and priests unto God. A priesthood, we have the liberty
to go into the very presence of God. In the Old Testament
economy, the high priest was the only one who could go into
the very holy of holies, and he could only go there one day
out of the year. And he went there with much fear
and trepidation, too. But you and I, we go into the
most holy place day after day after day through the blood of
Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless His word to
all of us here.