Also, Beulah, what's her name? Lindsey. Beulah Lindsey has been
diagnosed with melanoma. I think she said it might be
in her nerves, which would be bad, that melanoma. So remember
her prayers. Also, her daughter Tammy's there.
That's Tammy's mother. Let's begin our worship service
tonight with hymn number 475. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His suffering
and murders. His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed His child is born in
the right hand Redeemed, that's so happy in Jesus The language
my rapture can tell I know in the light of His presence,
through the heat of a tingling flame, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer,
Redeemer, Redeemer I think of him all the day long I sing for
I cannot be sung His love is the theme of my song Redeem,
redeem Redeem by the blood of a lamb Redeem I know that you see in his spirit,
the king in whose soul I rely. He knows many powers, I'm willing
to listen, and hear with me songs in my mind. Redeem Redeem Redeem the blood
of the lamb Redeem Redeem Wish I forever a human In number 485,
revive us again. Praise ye, O God, O Son of God. For Jesus we've died and risen,
now born of God. Hallelujah, light of glory. Hallelujah, Lord may. Hallelujah, light of glory. Revive us again. We praise thee, O God, for us
hearing of thine. Who has shown us thy Savior,
and scattered our side. Alleluia, light and glory. Alleluia, all hail. Alleluia,
light and glory. Revive us again. I love you. Alleluia, Lamb of God. And all the people saw the thunderings
and lightning, the noise of the trumpet, the mountains smoking.
And when the people saw it, they were moved and stood far off.
And he said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak to us,
lest we die. Moses said unto the people, Fear
not, for God has come to prove to you that his Spirit hath eaten
all your raisins, that you should not. The people stood far off,
and Moses stood nearer to the thick darkness where God was.
The Lord said to Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel, You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
You shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall you
make unto you gods of gold. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
blessed Savior, King of kings, majesty on high, you who rule
and reign, the universe is your footstool. We praise you, Father,
for your might and your glory. You're worthy of all honor and
praise, more than these four lips can utter. We thank you
for salvation through Jesus Christ, who is pure, perfect, and full.
We thank you that you redeemed us by his blood, by the precious
blood of the Lamb, and by the spot of blessing. We praise you, Father. as it
shows us the foundation of the world. There's nothing in us,
about us, that can cause you to lose something. The reason
is found in yourself. We thank you that you loved us,
came down here on this world to die for us, to pay our sin
debt, to fix us so we would never die. Father, we thank you for new
mercies every day, for the grace that is bestowed upon us. Grace
is sufficient always for us. We pray for those who are sick,
who are going through trials, who have been addicted to the
priorities of national and community wisdom. May God give you good
pleasure, we pray, as you turn your eyes to Jesus Christ. There
are many ways we can see this world and it's all its temporary
joys fade quickly. say within us. Fade, fade to
each perfect joy. Jesus is mine. Help us honor
tonight to worship you. As we consider the greatness
of your person. As after you've given your ten
commandments, this passage takes place. Help us honor you. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. In this passage, There's
much to be blamed. The Lord has finished the Decalogue
of Ten Commandments. There are many more commandments
to come concerning rites and ceremonies and various sacrifices
and their applications. The choosing of priests, the
garments they wore, the election, the erection of the tabernacle,
and all the elements therein are just a few of the commandments
that come down the pike here in this study of Exodus. God has hidden himself from the
people behind smoke and darkness and a dark cloud. Those three
things were mentioned. Now he hides himself. This is
indicative of the presence of the Shekinah glory. That glory
that will reside over the mercy seat in the day of atonement,
it must be shrouded from the high priest's eyes by smoke from
the censer. Before the high priest would
go in on the day of atonement, he would take coals from all
the altars. put incense on him and let it start smoking and
he would lift up the curtain, because there was no drawing
of that curtain, it was just a solid four-layered curtain,
and stick that censer underneath and fill that room with smoke.
Because between the wings of the cherubim, upon the mercy
seat, shone the Shekinah glory of God. In Genesis chapter 3,
verse 24, when it talks about the the altar at the east of
Eden where sacrifices were being made to keep the Way of the Tree
of Life. There were two cherubim facing
each other on that altar. And before it was the flaming
sword of God, but the word there is Shekin, the Shekinah glory
of God was there. Man cannot see God and live. He must be shrouded. He must
be shrouded. And even if he is seen in a vision,
his power is hidden from the eyes of all men. In Habakkuk's
vision, he saw God, and he said, His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of His praise, and His brightness was
as the light, and He had horns coming out of His hand, and there
was the hiding of His power. The word says that it's a fearful
thing to call it the hands of the living God. Now the people
saw after the Lord had given the Ten Commandments, they saw
and heard thunder and they saw lightning. These things are often
referred to as the voice and the presence of God. When the
Lord confronted Saul of Tarsus and spoke with him on the road
to Damascus, It says, the people heard thunder, and they were
blinded by the light. When God said to his son, I have
glorified thee and will glorify, speaking of the dead, the people
died. Many who stood by, John 12, heard thunder. Often when
God speaks, you can hear thunder. To the people, this signified
that what had been spoken did not bring calm, but a threat,
a threat of an impending tempest. the fountain was smoking and
quaking and full of darkness. If it had been an actual thundering
light that they experienced, that could be or may have been
the response of the guilty, whose sins have been exposed by the
law being added to their transgression. Their response may have been
to the words of God to them. that was thunder and
lightning. We know the word of God is the
power of God and the salvation of everyone who believes. It's
the two-edged sword, sharper than a two-edged sword, that
pierces through the marrow, dividing up the joints of the marrow and
discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. The account of
Hebrews tends to say that this was what they really heard, but
they heard the voice of God speaking to Moses. To them, it was thunder
and lightning. It was a fearful thing. In Hebrews
12, it says that the sound of trumpet, the voice of words,
which voice they heard entreated that the word should not be spoken
to them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded.
So when they heard the word of God spoken, they were filled
with fear. They were filled with fear. The
response was to back away and move away afar from the face
of the mountain. Secondly, in verse 19, they express
an absolute necessity in the relationship between man and
his maker. Verse 19, if they said unto Moses,
Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with
us, lest we die. Sinful man can have no contact
with the Holy God. And then, my Lord says that many
times throughout the scripture, if you see my face, you're going
to die. He will say that to Moses in
Exodus 33. And Moses said, show me your glory. He says, I'll
show you my glory, but I'm going to put you in the cleft of the
rock before I do. And I'm going to put my hand
over your eyes, because you can't see my face and live. And as
I pass by, you can see my hand departs. You can see what I've
already done, what I've accomplished. But you can't see what I'm doing.
No man can see God and live. But people saw the necessity
of something. They saw the necessity of a mediator.
Someone who could stand in the breach. Someone to bridge the
fixed gulf between God and men. They knew they could see God
and live. They said, you speak to us, and
we'll hear you. And let God speak to you. Let
God speak to you, and you speak to us. Over in Job chapter nine,
in that great chapter that Job sets forth, the fact that man
cannot be just before God. It says in Job chapter 9 verse
30, it says, If I wash myself with snow water, and make my
hands ever so clean, yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch,
and thine own clothes shall be poured before me. For he is not
a man as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come
together in judgment. Neither there be any days but
in twixtus, that my lady is hand on this boat. That basement is
the mediator of the umpire, the one who is able to touch God
and touch man. Who can do that? One who must
be God himself and who also must be man himself. There's only
one person that's ever lived upon the face of the earth that
meets that qualification. That's God in human flesh. And
the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glories.
He only got the Father full of grace and fruit. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of God as God manifests in the flesh. We
cannot imagine what condescension it was for God the Spirit, God
the Creator, to come down here and reduce himself to the seat
of womanhood. and become a human being what
condescension and what lifting up is it for any man even the
Lord Jesus Christ born as a man in this world to be called God
and be God what great lifting up to man this is a wondrous
thing he is the mediator between men and God How should a man
be just with God? He can't be. Job chapter 9 says
that. But if there is a days man, one
who can stand between God and me. They desired Moses to mediate
between them and God. Moses was called the mediator
of the Old Testament. And he's the one who stood in
the breach over in Psalm 106. Psalm 106 verse 23 it says, therefore
he said he would destroy them as God's going to destroy them.
Had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach to turn
away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. He stood as a mediator
between God and the people. When God got on their case, he
was going to destroy them. Several times Moses went before
God and prayed, please don't do this. Remember the covenant
that you've made with your people. Moses, he said, spoke to God
face to face as a friend. And the people heard from God,
how? Through Moses and through Aaron. That's how they heard
to God. Christ is the mediator, called
the mediator of the new covenant. And the only mediator, according
to Scripture, between Ben and Galen. And Moses was a mediator
in the old covenant. covenant of words. That covenant
has been set aside by the Lord Jesus Christ. He put it away
by the sacrifice of himself. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse
5 he says, There is one God and there is man, and there is one
mediator between him and God, the man Christ Jesus. I think
it was old Scott Richardson said, God will not speak to, nor will
he be spoken to by man, except through a mediator, and that
mediator is Jesus Christ. Moses response to the people
was this, he said, fear not, Fear not, for God has given these
commandments to prove you, says that in verse 20. Moses said
unto the people, Fear not, for God has come to prove you, and
that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not. Now what's he telling you about
particulars? He's telling you about the commandments he's just
given. Now they've already broken the commandments since the beginning.
The commandments were given because they were already transgressed. But now these commandments are
given, better not do it again. Don't do it again. Don't do what
you've done before. Start living in a different manner.
Of course they wouldn't do that. We know that. He gave them manner,
it says in Rehoboam chapter 8 to prove the people if they would
walk in his statutes and be satisfied with what he is providing. And
they were indeed proven for in the 21st chapter of Numbers,
it says, Our soul hates this light bread, bovah, this light
bread, our soul hates this man. It was there in Mormon, what
kept them alive for all those years of the wilderness. They
could do a whole lot with it, they could make cakes with it,
make biscuits with it, they could do a whole lot of stuff with
it. They were sick of it. He gave them pigeons to eat. They were sick of those too.
They said, our soul hates this light bread. What's happened?
They've been proved. He gave them that manner to test them.
That's what that word proved means. It means to test or to
try. And every trial proving thus
far that this people were found in the balances and they were
found walking. Every trial they went through.
We've already looked at a great number of them and we haven't
really got out in the desert much yet. We've got to go through
the book of bitterness and the bitterness and get out and get
in numbers before we really get into the wilderness. They will
be proved again and again to be a stiff necked and gang saying
people. This proving was that they would fear God. to prove
that they would fear God. What does that mean? I know that
a lot of people think it means a slavish fear, but when God
is talking to His people, that's not what He's talking about.
The fear of the Lord is reverence for Him. Reverence for His name. Many in the old days would not
even say His name. They would not say Jehovah. They
would not say Yahweh. They just wouldn't say it, because
they had such reverence for holiness that it's part of that way today.
But it means to reverence, to love, and to worship. That's
what it means to fear God. God alone we know. And we know
that the studies of the Old Testament, they would reverence and worship
and love Baal. They loved Baal Peor, they loved
Ashtaroth, the golden cat. They loved the brazen serpent.
They loved the twin cats erected by Jeroboam. They loved every
false god there was, all the pantheon of the people of Canaan. These 10 commandments will, rather
than prevent their sin, will actually entice and reveal their
sin. Once these commandments are given, just like you and
I, the One Revenge, we'll try to find a way around it. We'll
try to find a way to do what we want to do and still honor
God, or at least use His name as important to us. Paul said
in Romans chapter 7, when the law came alive to him, he said
this about the law. Romans chapter 7 and verse 5
it says, For when we were in the flesh, that is without Christ,
not spiritual people, the motions of sin which were by the law
did work in our members to bring forth fruit in the day. Motions
of sin which were by the law. What does that mean? When the
law was set before us, We found, tried to find a way
about it. I remember Bert Ramsey one time asking us. He said,
we hear you read the Bible. He says, I do. I read it every
day. I said, why? He said, I'm looking
for loopholes. I'm looking for some way to get around what this
thing says. And if you look down also in verse nine, he says,
when I was alive without the wall once, but when the law commandment
came, sin revived. a sin revival. So this law was
given to bring them to fear, but actually it enticed them
to sin. It enticed them to sin. And then
the people stood afar off. Moses entered through the thick
darkness where God had hid himself with the eyes of the people.
And he spoke to God face to face. That's what it says about Moses
in Exodus 33 and 11. It says he was a man who spoke
to God face to face and then speaks to his friend. When they saw that, Moses went
up to receive the Ten Commandments. And that mountain began to quake. And the warning came in, don't
touch this mountain or you'll die. And smoke and lightning
and thunder sounded the trumpet. And that trumpet was a shofar. It was a ram's horn. It said, don't make much music.
Well, but it didn't make a noise. That's what they heard. And they
were afraid. Something big is happening here.
But they knew that something was happening. It wasn't something
earthly that was going on. Something was happening in the
sky. Something was happening from the heavens. They were hearing
from God. They heard the words from on
high, from the very throne of the Lord. God is condescending
to speak, and his words are as thunder and lightning to those
who are high. And in verse 22, the Lord reiterates the first
commandment. He says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus shalt
thou say unto 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 shalt ye make unto you gods of gold. That's basically what he said
in verses 3-5 of the same chapter when he said, Thou shalt have
no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any craven image of any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above or that is on earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them. He said that basically this is
a reiteration, but it's a bit different. It's a bit different. He's commanded that they have
no other gods before him, but he, but here he commands that
they have no other gods of silver and gold with him. this truly addresses the bent
of people and their worship and the bent of natural man. The
Israelites never abandoned the name of the true and living God. They haven't today. If you ask
them who they worship, they'll tell you they worship Jeroboam,
Yahweh. They haven't abandoned it. They
never did. All the way through Scripture, even when their sacrifices
were false, They offered blind lambs and moldy bread to God. When they wept upon the altar,
so much so that God did not regard the sacrifice. When he was finished
with them, he said, I'm not speaking again until my son, the messenger
of the covenant, enters into the kingdom suddenly. And he's
talking about the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even
then, when they worshiped, they were calling on the name of Jehovah.
The sacrifices, it was a blind lamb, but it was a lamb. God
said, offer up a lamb. So we're offering up a lamb.
They didn't set it aside for 14 days. They should have watched
the city had no spot of blemish. But they could say, we're worshiping
God. You see the lamb? And the Lord talked about offering
bread, meal sacrifices. They offered it, but it was molded
first. But they could say, listen, we're doing what God said. So
they never abandoned the concept of worshiping the Lord God. They to this day claim to be
His people. They keep His feasts. They keep
His Sabbaths and His holy days. They have no access to God because
what is necessary to truly worship God, a high priest, an altar,
and a mercy seat, And a sacrifice is not important in worship.
They still have the Sabbath on Friday night to Saturday morning.
They still have that. They have the different feasts
every year. But they don't worship God because
what's required in worship is a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice,
a high priest up offer it, They still talk about the Day of Atonement,
but there ain't no high priest, there ain't no sacrifice, and
there ain't no mercy seat to call upon God. So they don't
really worship, but they tell you we're God's people. Now those
things, the sacrifice, the mercy seat, the altar, The high priests
are all filled with Jesus Christ. He is our high priest. He is
our altar, and He is our sacrifice. Now they gladly adhere to the
fact that they were the elect of God. They said it, and I'll
tell you that. We're God's chosen people. And
a lot of Christianity believes that they're the only chosen
people of God, but they were just typically chosen because
of the kind of people they were. to show the kind of people that
God actually elected unto salvation through sanctification of the
spirit, belief, and the truth. They, alongside this worship,
with the worship of God, they worshiped their idols. These
had their gods of silver and gold with the true God. That's why the Lord said ye shall
not make Look at a few examples of what
they did in Scripture. Joshua chapter 24, going to the
latter part of the book of Joshua. Joshua was talking to the people
who were idolaters. The people staying on the other
side of Canaan, on the other side of Jordan, not going into
the Promised Land. he says this in verse 14 of chapter 24 of
joshua now therefore fear the lord there's that word fear worship
love honor reverence and serve him sincere in sincerity and
in truth and put away the gods of your fathers gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in egypt and
serve you the lord then he tells them you ain't gonna do that if it seemed evil unto you Choose
you this day whom you will serve. He doesn't say you can serve
God. He says choose what I will serve.
Whether it be the gods that your father served that were on the
other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, or those
whose land you dwell, or as for me, as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. They finished this journey. They're now in the promised land.
What are they doing? Just as Moses said in Deuteronomy,
what you're going to do is you're going to call yourself God's
people, do the worship and all that, but you immediately embrace
and follow God. In the book of Ezekiel, the prophet,
chapter 20, Verse 39 says this, As for you,
O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, Go ye, serve ye
every one his idols. Hereafter also, if you will not
hearken to me, but do ye my holy name, no more with your gifts
and with your eyes. What is the Lord? What the Lord
has prohibited is what He has prohibited throughout the Old
Testament and the New Testament. Any mixture of the true and the
false, any mixture of the worship of God, any mixture of the worship
of Christ with any rival to Him in any degree, He's prohibiting
any mixture of true and false, and that prohibition still stands
today, over in 2 Corinthians 6. Verse 14, he says, Be not unequally
together, unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with thee? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with the idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and I will
walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore? Why would he say this? Come out among me. Why would
he say that? Because they were that. They
were idolaters. This is a New Testament church. Some 25 years after the Lord
has left this world. Come out among them and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you. There will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Then he says, this is the promises you have. Having, therefore,
received these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, protecting holiness
in the fear of God. If God is a personal merit, if
God works, if God has free will, then we are forgiven in the worship
of God. If you feel like you have righteousness, then God
will accept your arrival in the righteousness that God has accepted. righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. His name, by which he shall be called, is
the Lord. Our righteousness. Our righteousness. What our Lord
is teaching in this last verse, the last verse that we looked
at tonight, is no mixture. It's a letter. What does that
mean? Just what the Gospel said. Salvation is on the Lord alone. Nothing you do or are or think,
never enters into religion. No exceptions allowed. Father
bless his heart and stand in prayer for us.