I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the second book of the Bible. I was anticipating starting Mark this morning, but this seems so important and helpful for coming to the table this morning. So next week we'll come back to Mark in the morning, but today we will look at both sermons from Exodus, and really there's only three or four sermons left in the entire book. I'm coaching youth basketball at the YMCA and about halfway through the game yesterday as I was yelling and my voice was going out, I realized that's kind of stupid. I have to preach tomorrow. So I'm feeling it right now. So if I yell today and it goes out on me, don't. I don't know what I'm saying. This is Exodus chapter 34 this morning. Verse 10. This is the word of the Lord. And he said, The inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their ashering. For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, you take of their daughters for your sons. And their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I command you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib. For in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. All that open the womb are mine. All your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep, The firstborn of donkey you shall redeem with the lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty-handed. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the feast of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end. Three times in the year your male shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders. No one shall covet your land. When you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year, you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened or let the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover remain until morning. But the best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. It shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. And the Lord said to Moses, write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. And now down at verse 1 of chapter 35. Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do. Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest. Holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. Well, this morning we have the privilege of coming to the table of our Lord. And I've always been so thankful and moved by the fact that when it's described in the Scriptures, it's described as a feast for us that is meant to be festive, isn't it? It's a festive thing that we do. I don't know about you, but I am very distracted by all the events of this past week. Looking at all that's happening, all that's unfolding, all the energy for all the causes that are going on right now in the world. and particularly in our country, look at the energy for all these causes right now. Causes that are not ultimately lasting. That to hear from the Lord this morning, I've got a feast for you that anticipates something much greater. I've got a feast that anticipates a day where I will come and eat and drink this anew with you in the kingdom. Well, that's one of the greatest gifts for the hour then, isn't it? Because it means that what we're doing and what we're celebrating is something that has real meaning and real purpose and is not tied to this present evil age of causes that are passing away. Remember, 1 John tells us the world and all these things are passing away. It's always been His purpose that His people, in the midst of wilderness life, would come and enjoy Him. Would come and festively enjoy His presence and enjoy His love. That was the Lord's intention in bringing them out of the land of Egypt to be a worshiping people and to come out and to do that. But we've learned in our study of Exodus that this appreciation of such love will mean nothing until you have really understood something about God and something about you. This is why Calvin began his institute, saying there really is nothing more important to know then the knowledge of God and in that knowledge then we are going to learn about a knowledge of us we've been really struck with the holiness of God in exodus haven't we that this God can't tolerate any sin and that he takes very seriously the problem of sin and idolatry particularly that we have been have been studying in the book of of exodus and when having this kind a predicament now that has been before us of a people prone to idolatry and given to idolatry to think about how reconciliation is possible. And to think about what the Lord's answer to us is when we sin should be immensely important to us. We have to understand these things to have that relationship. And I believe that we've come to a very helpful section of Exodus this morning that really does provide a path forward for Israel. It gives them a way forward. We've been challenged the last weeks to see, and it was summarized in Psalm 81 last week, that Israel's problem ultimately was, not that it was unclear that they shouldn't make a golden calf, that they wouldn't listen to the Lord. They just wouldn't listen. And Hebrews comes along and tells us that not only did they not listen to the law, But Hebrews comes along and tells us they refuse to listen to the gospel. So we have a law and gospel repudiation by Israel. It's really something to think about. The gospel was preached to them. Where was the gospel preached to them? I know of no better passage to show you where God preached the gospel to them when it says he proclaimed his name and said, I'm long-suffering and gracious. He's preaching it to them. Well, what is unfolding now is God explaining for them the implications of this. How they can be assured of His favor. How they can be assured of grace. How they can be assured of blessing as they go forward as sinners. If they will listen carefully, if they will listen carefully to what He has put in place to help them and to strengthen them. He puts certain things here to strengthen them and help them. But if they forget these things, if they turn from these things, if they depart from these feasts, if they depart from the grace He's put in place for them to help them, to strengthen them, then we'll notice here, they will, and in their long history proves this, they face the curses of the Sinai covenant. That's the Old Testament. So we see here that certain things are being put in place here that God has always intended to put in place to help what He understands and knows to be sinners. He knows your weakness. He knows your frame. He remembers that you are dust. But we're challenged to ask, are we embracing what God has given to assure us of His forgiveness and His love? It tells where we are. So we're going to see this today by looking at this covenant restated, forgiveness pursued, and the feasts renewed. I hope that helps today. The covenant restated, forgiveness pursued, and the feasts renewed. Last time God was renewing the terms of the Mosaic covenant. I mean, that's what this whole body of law, particularly in the ten words, They had been smashed at the foot of the mountain. Now God is giving them back to Israel. As these two new tablets are being prepared with the ten words, God then announces that gospel sermon that we looked at last time. His attributes, remember those seven attributes that we went through. He's compassionate, he's gracious, he's long-suffering, he's abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and he's just. That was announced right after the two tablets were handed to Israel, were being cut, if you will. So the order that we have it now is important. God rewrote the terms of the covenant, if you will. He re-gave them, he re-established them. Whatever word we use, something was redone here. And he gives them back. And immediately after that, they're cut, he gives a gospel sermon. Now I'm going to come back to that, of how Moses responded. That'll be the second point. But I don't want you to miss the structure here that's going back and forth. In verse 19, you have the terms again restated, with the laws specifically focused on the first two commandments, which they broke. And you'll notice today, which goes into the third and specifically the fourth. So the Sinai covenant is now brought back into the picture. Remember, God only deals with His people in terms of a covenant. So in verse 10, this is what He says. Behold, I make a covenant. That's the first thing that's said there in 34 verse 10. Behold, I am making a covenant. Before your people, all your people, I will do marvel. such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation and all the people among you whom are you shall see the work of the lord for it's an awesome thing that i will do with you no nation on the earth was as blessed as israel no nation all the the nations of the earth at this time worshiped gods of stone and they those people gave all kinds of attention and energy we saw what can happen with the golden calf all the energy of worship and the roar of it all to those gods but the one true god and all heaven and all of earth the one true god the the living god had decided to give his his love which was electing love to choose this people and come down and himself be with this people and that he would drive out all the nations of the land and give them the land that he had promised to abraham it's going to be awesome says the lord you watch what i'm going to do for you you watch what i'm going to put on display for you it was so wonderful that when they began to enter the land, all the inhabitants of Canaan heard about him. This was Rahab saying, when we heard about you and your God, our hearts melted. He alone is with you. We've heard about what he did for you in Egypt. And those kings on the other side of the Jordan, terror fell on us, they said. It must have been an absolute incredible journey to have the Lord himself go with them. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. But you have a big responsibility. I'm going to be your God. You're going to be my people. Now the whole emphasis here falls on the problem of what happened on Mount Sinai. The problem of idolatry. If I'm going to do this, idolatry, then you need to take very seriously the responsibility to keep yourselves from idolatry that's the heart of this what we have in chapter 34 then is the lord setting up the laws uh setting up a laws and instruction to keep them from happening uh from going through and letting happen what happened there on mount sinai again so the first thing that the lord does is impose in sinai upon them again what he requires observe what i command you notice this notice the language here in verse 11 i will drive out the amorites the canaanites the hittites the parasites the hithites and the jebusites but now look at verse 12 take care lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go lest it become a snare in your midst and then he comes the the particulars i want you to tear down their altars i want you to break their sacred pillars i want you to cut down their asherim notice that for you shall worship no other god for the lord whose name is jealous is a jealous god the lord outlines what they were to do i don't want any covenants i don't want any unions with the pagans of the land i don't want you to have those relationships you are not to enter into their religious and their social life so as to join those practices. You are not to do that. What do you think that means in our environment? Take some wisdom if we're going to apply it properly. Don't you think that you could look at certain causes going on right now and say a Christian cannot be a part of that and be separate. Just turn on the news. You have to come up with that. What do you value? What are your causes? What are you living for? What are you fighting for? There are certain things you can't join with. You just can't do it as a Christian. Kind of a foreign message today, isn't it? Hard message for us today. because it's so foreign to even here. There are certain things that belong to the spirit of this age. There are certain practices and certain causes that the God of this age has blinded multitudes of people to be in those causes. I think you saw that to a large degree yesterday. I saw and heard things that no Christian could be a part of. To have any fellowship in the ancient times with foreigners was to make alliances with their gods. God says, no. I'm your God. You feel that yet? I don't want you joining with them in any alliances to be a part of their pagan practices. No alliances. The Lord says further, it's completely forbidden for you to be involved in their places of worship. You'll notice that it meant that God was requiring them to be zealous about His worship. To hold that very sacred. To hold that very holy. No tolerance of false worship. I don't want tolerance. Tolerance is not something I give you the right to. Involvement of those things will pollute you. Christianity, it proves requires a measure of intolerance and a willingness to stand for something. And here we're told what it is, who it is. And then he goes through the consequences of this. Listen, if you don't, if you're not going to take this seriously and you're going to mock it, and I can just hear the fundamentalist charge in our day, you're going to mock this stuff. Watch the snare in your families happen. You don't want to take it seriously? Watch the snare in your own children. Let me tell you what's going to happen. you're going to be really tempted to go worship these other things, these other gods. And you're going to share a loyalty with somebody else. I don't want any other god worshipped in your lives except me. For my name is Jealous. I'm a jealous God. Jealousy means I am fiercely protected. They were His. He was there. I am your God. You are my people. I am your God. It's really a moving thing when you think about it. Imagine if we lived with that kind of zeal to remain pure in holiness because the Lord is our God. The God of heaven and earth chose us. He did. Of all the peoples in the earth, He chose us. It's really a moving section of Scripture of a fierce love for His people, isn't it? All the things that we kind of roll our eyes at. Sad, isn't it? The Lord commanded those whom He loved to be loyal to Him. And that if they betrayed that love, He says, here's what's going to happen. Serious spiritual adultery in your lives. Here's what it looks like, verse 5. you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land 15 excuse me and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you're invited you eat of his sacrifice you take of their daughters for your sons and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal here's the um here's what the not taking seriously of the separation is going to look like in the course of your lives here's how it'll go you're going to have all this spiritual adultery after gods and then what's going to happen is as you join practices you're going to be justifying marriages of believers and unbelievers you're going to give these that you're going to give your children away to this stuff it starts with giving them away to false worship and then the path to that is no kind of understanding or appreciation of their distinct identity that they don't have the right to marry outside the lord that's the path here false worship go right down into their lives and their holiness and their purity then they don't care about who they marry that's the path out that's the path to Canaan. It's really instructive, isn't it? A downward spiral into a compromised existence is the kind of life that is so blurred in conviction, conviction's gone, that it looks no more like anything distinctively of the Lord, but is completely blurred into the world until it is completely aligned and joined with it and justifies it convictions drop and soon you're going to justify things you'd never justify years ago and i've looked at this i've seen this people who were very strong in their convictions and then all of a sudden uh years down the road totally compromised they've dumped them what happened and notice what he says he uses example of the great temptation of marrying outside the lord And I've always been moved that the New Testament authors are really using this and working from this principle. Paul told us that all these things were written about Israel so that we would not do the same things. And then he comes along to the Corinthians and says, listen, be separate. Come out, be separate. You can't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. You can't be in your marriage. You can't be in your life with your friends. That is not your choice, not your prerogative, not if you're going to be a Christian. It means that spiritual adultery is real. That's what he's telling us. So who you join with, what you do, who you devote yourself to, will show itself then in the patterns of your life, right? That's why he goes on and says, The works of the flesh are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries and the like. Listen, I'm going to be really clear here. I've told you before, you practice that you're not inheriting God's kingdom. But those who practice this in the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, there's no law against such things. Now, how do you feel at this moment? First impression is God takes your faith pretty seriously, doesn't He? Sometimes I'm afraid when we have all this talk of gospel and forgiveness that it becomes an excuse to downplay and marginalize how serious God takes idolatry. Gospel used as a cover. We are His people. I'm fiercely protective of you, says the Lord. I am fiercely protective of you. I'm fiercely protective of my glory and the love that I have for my people. you know, I read these things and I'm refreshed in these things and I think that should have in the life of Chris Gordon a real restraint, shouldn't it? It should. But something should trouble you. God just reestablished a covenant and the relationship and did we listen to what just happened? Did we learn anything about the seriousness of the problem of idolatry? Oh, well, sinners will be sinners, right? Our kids just need to sow their wild oats, right? Get around professing faith when it's good for them. I just think it's a tragedy that's been our attitude. I've seen that attitude. Here's the problem. If you look back in chapter 22, and you look at verse 20, if you're inclined, you can turn there, flip back a few pages. Here was the consequence of breaking this law. The Lord had already put it down for them. Chapter 22, verse 20. Here it is. He who sacrifices to any god except the Lord only, he shall utterly be destroyed. Uh-oh. That is a remarkable verse, isn't it? The law just commanded that there was no provision for forgiveness for this sin of idolatry that they just committed. I think that should have been felt. When God came to Moses and said, that's it, I'm wiping them out, he was simply fulfilling what the law required as punishment, death. So he says, I'm done with them all. Now that's an interesting moment because there was no provision for forgiveness. The same was true with David's sin with Bathsheba. Remember David's sin with Bathsheba. He committed adultery with her and the law had commanded death. It so affected David that David then, after he had been confronted by Nathan, gets on his knees and he says, Lord, you are just when you judge and blameless when you condemn. We know what we are. there should be a sense of I don't even deserve to be alive right now. I've been doing this stuff so much in the course of my life. If God punished as His law says it should be punished, it's over. And you all would be in hell. I don't even think about this thing. God in the midst of this, and this is what I want you to see this morning as we come to the table, had already been preparing a path forward. I love this. He restated the law. And what is the first thing that he did last time? Preach something that had already been in place. He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock as he passed by. And he preached the gospel to him. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty. So when that Gospel sermon was preached after a great sin, what was the first thing we saw in Moses that we have not seen in the entire book of Exodus? It was this. Thinking about Abraham, as he has been the whole time, he bowed his head to the earth. and worshiped then he said if now i have found grace in your sight oh lord let my lord go among us even though we are stiff-necked i know what we are i know what we are we're idolaters we're stiff-necked idolaters and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your inheritance. That's not really, a prayer of contrition has not really been introduced in Exodus yet. But there it was. And I couldn't help this week as I was thinking about this to say, wow, the Lord just gave them the way forward. It was to bow their heads. It was in great humility, in great humility, agree with God's assessment of our lives that we're stiff-necked and ask Him to pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as His inheritance. What a prayer. What a prayer. You know the Bible makes a promise to you? That if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you all your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. All. If you confess. If you'll humble. If my people will just humble themselves and stop the stiff-necked hardening. He's leading them by His goodness to repentance. How do you go forward? What would be my answer? What has God given you when you sin? Well, He's given you a Savior and He's given you a cleft in the rock to be hidden in who is Jesus. And what does it look like when I'm hidden in that cleft? It means that I have confessed and godly sorrow has been shown. But notice here that God's not done with helping them that the original intention here for generations to read after this was to see that god wanted to draw out of them broken and contrite hearts to find in him strength that's the million dollar question of course is where am i getting that strength where am i getting grace for the way where am i getting that help because if i know myself I'm into all kinds of wrong causes. Well, what's outlined in the rest of this chapter and the beginning of 35 is something very beautiful. Notice what the Lord does. All of a sudden, He says, I want you to keep three feasts and I want you to Sabbath. Huh. Here's something for you. Here's a way forward. And isn't it something that he's saying feast? He's not saying mourning. I want you to go feast. Here's how you can be kept from idolatry. Here's a path of strengthening for you. Forgiveness and then strength for the journey. Confess your sins, regular pattern, maintain that. Well, what does he put in place? Feasts and worship. You'll notice the three that are mentioned here in verse 18. Keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as I command you at the time appointed in the month of Abib. He rehearses these feasts. You'll remember that this feast of unleavened bread followed seven days after the Passover. You know what that feast was to celebrate? Well, it was to celebrate that they were God's special people. I want you always to remember in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I have broken your past connection with idolatry. Remember they were to gird themselves and put on and have the staff in hand and eat their meal ready to go out of Egypt? And the whole imagery of that was, I want you to know I've called you out of that. You don't belong there anymore. That's not you. Observe the Feast of Weeks. Firstfruits of the wheat harvest and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. three feasts well that's not burdensome is it every time they brought in their first of their harvest they were to present an offering to the lord it kept them from making their works an idol and they would present a gift to the lord to thank him for all of his provision and blessing constantly to be reminded of that and the feast of ingathering same principle the crops would be safely gathered in and they would always be reminded that their lives at the end of the year had been sustained another year by god they were worship feasts important feasts to always refocus their trust in the lord and and through them god was reassuring and he was comforting them that he was caring for them that he would provide for them that he would be their god that they don't have to worry in life gracious feasts he even uh brought back in here we've gone over all this already in excess he even brought back here to the law of the firstborn you know what that taught you i bought you i bought you but i have something else for you verse 21 six days you shall work but the seventh day you shall rest and plowing and harving in chapter 35 listen moses says how many times have we been through this these are the words which the lord has commanded you to do work shall be done six days but the seventh day shall be holy it's holy for you it's a holy day for you i don't want you marching i want you resting i want you receiving whoever does any work on that day i don't want fires in your dwelling i don't want any symbol of work because i want you to remember you're a people made for rest it provides you the opportunity to rest from all your burdens and all your stresses and all of this filth of being in the world and going in the wilderness heading home it's it just messes with your minds do you feel that you know how worldly we become look at how much energy for all of the causes that people are so restless for in the world there always will be tribulation in the world at times it'll rise up and that beast will hit hard. But I want you to know there's somebody who's overcome it for you. All of these feasts celebrated Jesus. Feast of weeks, Pentecost. Harvesting of souls. The feast of firstfruits pointed to the resurrection. The feast of those who have fallen asleep. The rite of the firstborn tells us we've been bought. God's training them in the gospel. This is all gospel stuff. I want to encourage you. I want to help you. You know, sometimes people say to me, I've had to stop and ponder this for a little bit when I hear it. We just don't want to be Sunday Christians. It has some sound of wisdom to it, but I've come to a conclusion. Sunday Christian's a pretty rare thing. Show me a true Sunday Christian who comes to the house of the Lord in joy to worship and bless him. I'll show you a seven-day-a-week Christian. That's what I'll show you. In fact, there's no such thing as a six-day Christian without a Sunday Christian. The answer God is giving to Israel to their problem of idolatry is a beautiful one. Let me put it really simply for you this morning. Keep yourselves from idolatry. If you try to do that in yourselves, I know you can't. But if you lean on me and trust me and believe my gospel promises, which I have foreshadowed for you in these feasts, If you attend to my Sabbath, which anticipates the rest Jesus will give you and honor it with its right intention, I am giving you a weekly opportunity to put down everything and be refreshed in my love. I'm giving you a weekly opportunity to enjoy me. I'm giving you grace to turn from your idols and enjoy my forgiveness when you do fall into it. You know, the same is true for us. We gather on the first day of the week. That's the Lord's Sabbath. That's what Jesus and the disciples did in the resurrection. And for you, you know what this is? I realized how much coming in today I needed after last week. I don't know about you, but it is a festival, a day of praise and worship to rest in the grace of Christ. But, that's not all the Lord has for you today. Huh, you mean there's more? Yeah, announcement of forgiveness, a day of rest, a day of peace, a day of enjoyment, a day to clear your heads, a day to be strengthened, a day to know his love, all that, and then a day to feed your souls. I have a feast for you today. Just one in the new covenant. Hope that doesn't overburden you. How about the supper? Feast, Jesus said, for you. To tell you I'm coming again for you. Maybe the reason we're spiritually starving, looking for spirituality everywhere, never satisfied and constantly struggling with the extent of idolatry that we do is because there's little attention to the one day and the feast that he's appointed for Christians. Come today, feast on what is good and all satisfy your soul with pure delight. Come by faith and you will know you're forgiven and that I love you, says the Lord. Amen. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for these words and thank you for comforting us today. We need this. And I pray that all your people would be blessed today and come with believing hearts and be strengthened in what you put in place. Sure, it doesn't look as glorious as what the world offers, but we know that's empty and passing away. But by faith, what you have put in place is lasting. And thank you, Lord, for all that you've given to us to keep us from idolatry and to announce to us full and free forgiveness of sins in Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.