I invite you to turn tonight to the second book of the Bible, the second book of the Bible as we also continue our study in the book of Exodus and we come to chapter 24, chapter 24. I'll try to, as this is a bit of a challenging chapter, I'll try to keep the, and hope that you're able to keep the big picture in front of you tonight as here we have this covenant confirmed here in exodus chapter 24 this is the word of the lord then he said to moses come up to the lord you and aaron nadab and abihu and 70 of the elders of israel and worship from afar moses alone shall come near to the lord but the others shall not come near and the people shall not come up with him moses came and told the people all the words of the lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he threw against the altar then he took the blood of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said all that the lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient and moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said behold the blood of the covenant that the lord has made with you in accordance with all these words then moses and aaron nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone like the very heaven for clearness, and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction so moses rose with his assistant joshua and moses went up into the mountain of god and he said to the elders wait here for us until we return to you and behold aaron and her are with you whoever has a dispute let him go to them then moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain the glory of the lord dwelt on mount sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called to moses out of the midst of the cloud now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. In order to make some kind of tie to this morning's message that it's not about us, I thought about reading here in Exodus chapter 24 that part of the denial of ourselves will take a serious into account a serious consideration of how we restrain ourselves and our behavior before the holy god of israel there really is no place more important to emphasize that than in the act itself of of worship and you'll see that that's what this is all about tonight you'll notice in verse one that he said to Moses, come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel, and you shall worship. This is a worship service. In fact, this is the first worship service with any amount of detail and instruction on what true worship looks like in the Bible. i find that very fascinating that if we're going to talk about worship we should go back and look at what worship was originally meant to be what it looked like what was included in it those sort of things and i'm curious what that that that service looked like aren't you what did they do in worship i want to know what elements they had in it are we doing something today that just needs more variety what is there any continuity what what do we do with Old Testament worship and how does that apply to New Testament worship? These are important questions. I want to know the kind of worship, of course, that pleases God because the issue in Exodus is the Israelites have yet to have their hearts dealt with. In other words, they have not understood a lot about themselves. And most certainly worship should come from a sincere and a changed heart but if the heart is simultaneously an idol factory then the heart has to be cleansed doesn't it to become proper worshipers it's a big issue in the old testament the issue of the heart circumcise your heart all circumcise your heart the heart has to be dealt with to be a true worship to be a true worshiper and this is really important when considering why god was protecting his worship less people try to invent a way to get to him apart from the cleansing that they need in order to come into his presence and i believe going back to the old testament again is vital today because we can't even understand what worship is this is one of the greatest things that has to be in some ways go back to square one and ask what is worship what did they do in worship what did worship look like and what makes worship even possible and that's what the book of exodus particularly is teaching us what did the lord what done in worship that reverenced him in holiness and i hope uh by the time we're done tonight in this short time we have uh we've answered what makes worship possible and what worship should be like for us in the new covenant who live in the fulfillment of what is foreshadowed here, which is very important. Exodus 24, here they are. You'll notice I've come to the mountain of the Lord. And as this happens, the Lord calls the leaders of Israel up into the mountain for a worship service. You'll notice this here in verse one. Now he said to Moses, come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Now, if you break this down, which I think is kind of interesting to do, I think you'll be surprised that the worship of the old covenant is not so different in many of the elements from the worship of the new. The first thing you'll notice here is you have a sort of call to worship, don't you? You're going to see that what we are doing here in Exodus 24 and what we are doing tonight in worship and as people who come before the throne of grace, as we say, and worship the Lord, what the difference is understanding now what it is and what it means to be in this present in fulfillment now that Jesus Christ has, as we considered in the Heidelberg, fulfilled all righteousness. But this helps us to have some kind of appreciation for what we do, why we do it. And you'll notice here that the Lord himself calls them and summons them to worship. Come up to the Lord. Notice what he instructed, though. There should be something that stood out to you. Come up to worship. No, not entirely. Come up to worship, but stay really far away. Now, there's a tension that's being presented to you in the book of Exodus, a really important one. Stay far away. So the worship of the Old Testament, you'll notice here, is intentionally having the effect as we read it and study it to say, wow, they really had to stay far away from God. Why couldn't they get to God? Why is there worship at such a distance? Worship from afar, which I've picked up in the title tonight. And that's a tension, and that really is the sort of struggle that is presented to us in the book of Exodus. Moses and the Lord, remember, had this dialogue and discussion back in chapter 3. And at the golden calf event, there was the threat that the Lord would no longer be among them. How could the holy God of Israel dwell among his people and not consume them? I mean, that's the big question. How could the holy God of Israel come down and do this? And so we have this problem here that we're noticing here. God had said his intention in the Exodus, remember when Moses went to Pharaoh, let us out that we may go three days into the wilderness and worship. This is what the Lord wants us to do. This is the goal of him redeeming us. The goal here is that we would be a worshiping people. But the tension of Exodus is, and notice how scary this is, they start to fulfill the very purpose and all of a sudden it's as if bounds go up and the yellow tape and the markers are put up and it says, stay far away. Don't get too close. Don't even touch the mountain. Remember that? I think we forget what this first worship service in the Bible was like. Remember 19. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace. The whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long, it became louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down on Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. You correlate that with the book of Hebrews. Remember, it says Moses was deathly afraid of this whole experience. this was one wow worship experience let me tell you they were absolutely terrified so understand what's going on right now the whole thing is black that the whole mountain is on fire the lord himself is on fire that's why the mountain is lit up um that the smoke has provided a sort of canopy around the mountain so that no one can see god lest his glory breaks out and consumes all of him that's always the emphasis um even when isaiah saw a glimpse of the glory of god the first thing he did was drop and say woe is me for uh calling down prophetic curses on himself i am unclean and i dwell amidst those who are unclean the holiness of god was the first great thing people realized in worship there was no asking what we go get to do you ducked and you covered i'm going to come back to this about new covenant worship in a minute you'll notice here uh that as this goes on uh this terrifying sight the lord calls them to worship but he only lets one go up in really verse 2 and moses alone shall come near the lord but they shall not come near nor shall the people go up with him all of us should be realizing for instance in the call to worship tonight i said therefore since you have boldness to come uh that in the old covenant they had no boldness to come and they did not have direct access to god they didn't that's the clear thing that verse two is telling us but that the only pathway to god would be through a mediator now you'll see the heidelberg ties into this and how important what we believe as a go-between and a mediator who that must be and why the bible is teaching us throughout this important need for us to come into the presence of a holy God. No one barged into the presence. No one said, I just want to see God. Everyone saw the sign, come but stay away. Now, I think it's important to remember that there were a few moments of enthusiasm in Israel's history where they forgot this. It's interesting that two names are mentioned here that get to go part way there you'll notice to come up but were kept still far away and those names are nadab and abihu you know who they are they were the sons of aaron you know what happened to them this was leviticus 10 the nadab and abihu the sons of aaron each took his censer and put fire in it this was a worship service later on put incense on it and offered a profane fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them so fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord and listen to this and Moses said to Aaron now this is dad at this point this is what the Lord spoke you didn't listen we didn't take this seriously this is what the Lord spoke by saying by those who come near me I must be regarded as holy And before all the people, I must be glorified. Don't you even cry, Aaron, said Moses, for your sons. They weren't having worship debates. This didn't go on, I promise you. This was scary stuff to mess with the God of Israel. You didn't mess with Him. He'll consume you in a moment. And it happened. It happened. Uzzah, remember, touched the ark because God told him not to. It happened. I'm going to deal with this lingering thought that in the New Testament we get to do what we want. But let me get there. Here's where the old is different. What is Moses mediating? It's an important question. And the answer's not that hard. The law. Remember the book of Galatians says it was appointed through the angels by the hands of a mediator this is why worship was far away so there was this call to worship that happened and then the next thing after the call to worship is moses begins to now now does this sound familiar read the law verse 3 so moses came and told the people all the words of the lord and all the judgments second element of worship you'll notice the emphasis here on the word these were the 10 words and then it says all the judgment so it was kind of it was really two parts to this the first was understood to be the 10 words that he read the 10 words of the lord and the second the judgments from exodus 19 to 24 in this law covenant these civil codes that were unpacked for israel and how they were to live and to be as god's special people in the earth so moses is now standing up in front of the people reading the terms of the covenant to them. And you'll notice in verse 7 that he takes the name of the book of the covenant to make clear that this was the whole series of commandments from 19 to 24 when God descended on Sinai in smoke. It was a law covenant. Verse 4 tells us Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. This is how covenants were made. The words were written down. They couldn't be changed and each party would agree to live by them and they were to honor the conditions of the covenant. So what did God want them to do? Well, notice what the Lord told Moses to do. You call them to worship and then you read my terms. Here are my terms. And you'll notice here that they were actually read twice. They had two law readings. But I want you to notice what happened. So Moses came, verse 3, in chapter 24, and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules and all the people answered with one voice and said all the words that the lord has spoken we will do and moses wrote all the words of the lord something was just ratified something just happened the covenant was made ratified oaths were being sworn who's swearing the oath israel now listen to this all the words of the lord we will do and then moses for emphasis not only says that twice but then he says that they say and we will be obedient now a good test for the boys and girls do we do that at this point in worship when the law is read, what do we do? Something quite different, but I'll come back to that too. New Testament writers would look at this particular phenomenon that was going on in Exodus chapter 24, and they would describe this as the administration of the giving of the law. But Galatians would capture this in a very specific way when they looked at this entire phenomenon, and they would say, listen, for as many as are of the works of the law are under its curse, for it's written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law to do them. They just said, we'll do them all. Galatians says, you're cursed if you don't do it all. This is a problem. Man, this is a big problem. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Paul understood the objection to this that when he said, well, what then is the purpose of the law? If the law was unable to bring about our righteousness, what good was it? And Paul says, well, what purpose did the law serve? It was added for transgressions. It was added to make something very clear. It was supposed to awaken a sense of people's guilt, awaken a sense of people's need. Have you seen that with Israel? Nope. Not at all. no sense of sin, no sense of who they were coming before. And I'm going to show you what that lack of reverence of God did to their worship in a little bit. They held up a calf and they had the best music and the best idolatry you could ever make. And it got downright nasty at the mountain. This is why Paul would say the law kills and the law brings wrath. So important. And what Israel had not learned yet was the severity of their problem of their own hearts. And that's the key to all true worship beginning right here, first of all. It is the great problem of our hearts. We will do it all? You know, in two sermons from now, we come to the rich young ruler. What happened with that? Man comes up, doesn't ask for salvation, by the way. He asks for eternal life. Big distinction. When you ask for salvation in the New Testament and in the Gospels and in Acts, you always got the message, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. But when you ask for eternal life, Romans 2, Mark 10, you got the law. Here's the standard. Do this and live. And remember what the rich young ruler said? Someone walked up to me this morning. I can't wait to get to the rich young ruler. Do you know what he said to Jesus? Jesus, I've done it all. Now that's a lingering problem in the church, isn't it? I've done it. I've done it. This is Israel's great problem. It's the problem of the human heart. We can do this. We'll step up to this, man. So here we are. Worship. The law has been read. A pledge of obedience has been made. The next morning Moses gets up, builds an altar at the foot of the mountain. 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. He sends the young men of children of Israel who offered up burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And you'll notice here, remember what the Heidelberg said tonight, that in the ceremonies of the law that the gospel was being proclaimed, you'll remember these offerings from chapter 20. There was the burnt offering, was the sacrifice of atonement. It spoke of atonement made by blood for sin. So an animal was placed on the altar by the hands of the mediator the smoke would rise up to god and the worshipers would place their hands later on on the head of the animal showing they identified with what was happening and the animal was taking being offered up in their place they would sprinkle the blood then on the altar teaching them that atonement needed to be made so so alongside all of this atonement needed to be made. And then you'll notice here he emphasizes the fellowship offering, which was called the peace offering, and reminded the people they needed to be reconciled to God. Now big picture in worship. Call to worship, reading of the law, and then two offerings right after the reading of the law, which was a really a kind of declaration of a way of pardon, wasn't it? Making a provision for the fact already that they couldn't keep the law, that there would be a provision so that the whole sacrificial system would announce to them in the gospel that you needed a perfect lamb without spot. We know this. We know it was proclaimed to them from Exodus 12 at the Passover. Hebrews tells us the gospel was preached to them over and over in the wilderness. They had Jesus preached to them. So a call to faith was really being given here. But if they trusted in their own righteousness, the curses of the covenant would fall. So in verse 6, it's a big moment in verse 6 that he takes half the blood, he puts it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkles on the altar. He takes the book of the covenant, round two for the reading of the law. He reads it again. And they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do and be obedient. then Moses took the blood and I want you to notice what it says right all over the people a bloody mess blood was just splattered all over them now I want you to think about what just happened the blood of the covenant is a matter of life and death in the ancient world When covenants were ratified, blood would be splattered by a sacrifice on the parties. And that meant if the party did not fulfill its part of the covenant, their blood would be required of them. So the blood of the covenant held the threat of divine judgment for anyone who broke the covenant. The penalty, of course, you'll notice that, is death. I think it's important, even though this is somewhat complex to remember, that when the covenant was cut with Abraham and the row was made and the blood was cut with those animals and two rows were made, it was the Lord who walked through that, but Abraham was asleep and there was no blood put on Abraham. So it's a really interesting moment because they had just swore to keep the covenant. They took the oath. Well, Israel just went under the law. This is what the New Testament makes the distinction. They just went under the law. Now everyone stops and gets confused in this discussion. So are you saying that God presented a way for Israel to be saved by their works? The answer is really simple to that. It's a really simple answer that Paul gives in the New Testament. The commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. In other words, Israel didn't have the ability to do it. So why was God putting them under it? It's simple. he was teaching the entire world the big picture. You don't want to try to ascend and come before the hill of the Lord in your own righteousness. That's as simple as I can make it tonight. Israel tried it. You don't want to try it. And the long history of Israel's problem was they sought, Romans 9, to establish their own righteousness by the law. and look at their history. Look at them. Do you know when Jesus is going to the cross, what they said? His blood be on us and our children. Scary. His blood be thrown on us. Meaning, and it's not hard to figure out what they're saying. We are murdering Him and we'll take it. And in all of their worship, they never got to God. They were kept far because they wouldn't come by faith as Father Abraham did. Now, there were always a remnant who believed by faith in the gospel. That's not denied. But all of this underlining here was the covenant of grace that Jesus was preached to them that if they turned from themselves, if they believed the gospel, he would come in the fullness of time. And what would he do for them? He would place himself under the law. And he would have his own blood of the covenant shed for the remission of sin. You see this? If I've gone too deep tonight, stay with me here. You'll get it. This is why Jesus said in the administration of the supper, this is my blood of the new covenant, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. I'm taking it upon myself to shed blood. I'm doing that for you. So what the people could not do in swearing to keep the law, the blood was put on them. Christ came to step in our place foreshadowing that He would come and shed His own blood to cover us. And that's why Hebrews says, therefore, even the first covenant, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you. Then likewise, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. And without shedding of blood, there is no remission. That's Genesis, when God shed an animal's blood to cover Adam. He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Jesus. And it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. So Christ was offered to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. All of this said one thing. You need a divine mediator who is fulfilling the law for you and mediating gospel to you, not the law. So the scene ends. Israel's kept away. I love what happens. Verse 9, Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel. And listen to this. They saw the God of Israel. Everyone tries to explain that away. they saw the God of Israel. And it keeps emphasizing it. You say, well, no man can see God and live. How did they see God? It says it. It says it right there. Just a powerful moment here where it says they saw, they beheld God. Verse 10, and they saw the God of Israel. Verse 11, they beheld God. How is that possible? Moses is shocked because he says in verse 11, and God didn't strike him. The nobles. You know what just happened? The first communion service in the Bible. Who was up there? Jesus. The mediator of the better covenant. Breaking bread. Meals together. What a beautiful thing here. They're sharing bread and wine on the mountain. They communed with Christ that day. The true mediator. And you see how special it was when He would ordain the supper and declare that in eating and drinking, the blood of the new covenant covers you. By Him, we have access. Now, I come back to the big question. What does that do for worship? I want you to notice what happened to Israel because they didn't have faith in the mediator. and wouldn't wait you read in verse 13 so moses arose with his assistant joshua moses went up to the mountain of god and he said to the elders wait here for us until we come back to you indeed aaron and her with you if any man has a difficulty let him go to him i read that and i'm sad you know why i'm sad because the next time moses comes down he is looking at a riotous revelrous worship service of impatient people refusing to live by faith, wanting to see the God of Israel and live by sight, holding up a golden calf. The music was so powerful, they came down the mountain and they said, we've never heard anything like this. This sounds like war. As they danced and got nude around the calf and did all sorts of sexual and oral things. That's how quickly your heart can do this stuff that's how quickly i just am so moved to think that that is exactly what happened to their worship scene ends in verse 16 now the glory of the lord rested on mount sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called moses out of the midst of the cloud the sight of the glory of the lord was like a listen to this language a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of israel so moses went in the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain and moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights now what does this mean for us tonight the ministry jesus has received says hebrews is superior to there since the new covenant is established on better promises amen it is in jesus that we have direct access jesus the mediator of the new covenant we come to jesus to the sprinkled blood of jesus that is better even than the blood of abel you'll remember that and that that was talked about in hebrews this means that when i read at the beginning of this worship service and jesus was saying that what i'm after in worship are worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth. I want you to think about that. Total truth and in spirit. It's not according to the tangibility and the kind of things that, as we live by sight, belong to the pagan nations of the world. It's no longer that in the New Covenant. It's not that way. So then, when I say in worship, therefore, since we have boldness to enter where? Where? The most holy place by the blood of Jesus. If anyone is taking that seriously, you don't come in and do whatever you want. There's all the more restraint now. You're there, man. You're in the presence of God right now in spirit and in truth. You're not kept out. This is why I get so troubled when we treat and use and pit the testaments against each other to say, well, that's the old, but we're in the new as if we get a license to do whatever we want to do and it's all about our personal preference. You're before the face of God. And this is why Hebrews says this about worship in the New Covenant. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may worship God acceptably with what? Reverence and godly fear. You can't do that using the world. That's what Israel tried. Reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. New Testament. Did you see how it said in Exodus 24 he's a consuming fire and Hebrews 12 says he's a consuming fire? He hasn't changed. He radiates as a furnace and we as sinners can't fulfill the terms. Only Jesus can. And that gives us sprinkled hearts by His blood. That's what we need. Sprinkled hearts. To reverence Him. To honor Him. To rest satisfied and living by faith and not by sight. So every Sunday, He calls you to worship. He does the same thing. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. He is our God. We didn't make this stuff up. He calls you. He summons you. He blesses you. He reads to you His law. And do you then say, all the words of the covenant will do? You confess your sins. And then He assures you of pardon, forgiveness. I love you. And then He preaches His holy gospel to you. And then He communes with you. He gives you a table. These are the elements. This is what we should be satisfied with. And then we ask Him for grace to go out into the week and to lead lives that please Him. We worship by intently listening to His Word. Glorying in His Word. Giving in tithes and offerings, being thankful. Our song is an expression of thanks. There's no power in our thanks. The power's in the Word. We sing His glory. And the New Testament reminds us that our God does not change. But being before His face, we should all bow in humility and joy that we're not kept far now, but that we've been washed and brought near by the very blood of Jesus. A blood that has sprinkled clean your hearts. This is the new birth. He's washed you. He's cleansed you. And He's made you free to be worshipers now in spirit and in truth. That's what the covenant of grace promised to Abraham has brought to you. Let's be thankful together tonight. Gracious Heavenly Father, we confess, Lord, that we've looked at these testaments and done things that we should never have done. We're reminded of Nadab and Abihu who profaned your holiness. Two sons didn't take it seriously. All these examples that were written for us so that we would not do the same things and become idolaters as some of them were. And now in the New Covenant that having access into the most holy place, we can be here in the joy of the Holy Spirit reverencing You, being satisfied in Your word of gospel and grace and the sacrament of the supper, bread and wine, whereby You commune with us and strengthen us and love us. May we rest confident in what worship is to be, as You have defined it, being so thankful for the mediator of the new and better covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, who taking and fulfilling the law for us mediates and gives us grace and gospel so that we can be here tonight in full assurance of the washing that we need and that everything has been fulfilled and that we will be before You forever in glory because of Him. Apply these things by Your Spirit. Change our hearts and give us hearts to believe and as we go out, lead lives that are worthy of the calling with which You have called us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.