If you're visiting this morning, we are working through the book of Exodus, and we are in the second part of Exodus chapter 19. So I invite you to turn to Exodus chapter 19. I also want to put together a section, a few verses out of the book of Hebrews. So if you have your Bibles, you can also prepare for turning over to Hebrews chapter 12 at verse 18. This is Exodus chapter 19. We're going to read the chapter. This is the word of the Lord. On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God the Lord called to him out of the mountains saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded them. And the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people and you shall set limits for the people all around saying, take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people. And they washed their garments. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up and the Lord said to Moses go down and warn the people lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them and Moses said to the Lord the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you yourself warned us saying set limits around the mountain and consecrate it the Lord said to him go down and come up bringing Aaron with you but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them. And now turning over to the book of Hebrews at verse 18, chapter 12, chapter 12 verse 18. A few verses here to put in context to help this morning. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, moses i tremble with fear but you have come to mount zion and to the city of the living god the heavenly jerusalem and to innumerable angels and festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to god the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word this morning. I was really curious this week what modern Jews understand and think is happening on Mount Sinai. I wonder, do they make any distinction between what happened at Mount Sinai with what happened with Abraham when God made these covenants? So I called a rabbi this week. I thought, why not? We spent some time. I talked to a very well-known rabbi off in L.A. who teaches. He's been very well-known. Teaches there, has a synagogue there. And we spent some time talking. And I said, I'm really curious. Do you view the covenant made with Abraham in Genesis 15 and the covenant made with Moses as different or the same? and without any hesitation, without any concern, he says, oh, no, no, no, they're absolutely one and the same. He then tried to explain to me how Abraham kept everything that Moses commanded. So I pressed him a little further. This didn't turn into an argument. I was very nice to him, by the way. And we had a good conversation. I said, well, tell me, how then do you believe anyone can achieve a righteousness that can make it before the holy God of Israel? You know what he said? Well, it's not about creed. It's not about your theological formulations. It's all about deed. I said, what kind of deeds? He says, the deeds of the Torah. the deeds of the law. That's how you establish your righteousness before God. Now, I didn't expect him to say anything different. But that should help you a little bit to understand they see no distinction here and that would make sense, doesn't it? Why? Because this is where Christianity takes a big turn away from them. What is the issue that separates us? Well, Paul explained that in 2 Corinthians, the issue that separates us. from the Jews in Judaism. The issue is that there remains, when they read the Old Testament to this day, a veil over their hearts. What veil? What is it blocking? It's a block. And he says in 2 Corinthians, so that when they read the Old Testament, they can't see Jesus. That veil is taken away when you come to Jesus and you see the Bible's all about him. So they read, Paul said, the Old Testament as a way of trying to establish their own righteousness before God. They thought when they read the law that it was about their covenant fidelity and their covenantal faithfulness before God. And they missed, Paul says, the primary intention of the law. The New Testament writers are explaining for us the intention of the Old Testament and combating exactly what I heard from this Jewish rabbi. that it's about our righteousness from the Torah, the law. And that's the great divide, Paul said in Romans 10, that the issue to this day is they just won't submit to the righteousness of God. They want to establish their own. That's it, Romans 10. That's the great issue that separates us. And what makes us distinctively Christian is that we depend upon the righteousness of the Messiah, their messiah that they've rejected the old testament bears that out we don't have a righteousness upon which we stand in ourselves and so if we have ever adopted anything and this is why paul said who's influencing you who's if we've ever adopted anything that sounds like the jewish view we might want to rethink where we're heading one of the challenges of studying the old testament is to understand the complete story as the New Testament has explained it. That's so important. That's a basic principle of Christian interpretation of Scripture. And I made a distinction last time that when we're looking at the book of Exodus chapter 19, that the Apostle, and we should often, when I say the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul, I probably should just say the Holy Spirit. So we understand the authority behind this. Under the direct inspiration of the Spirit, he looked back at this event at Exodus 19 and wanted people to understand a very crucial contrast and a very crucial thing was happening so that he could say to new covenant believers over and over and over, making a distinction that we talked about last time that I counted over 11 times, about 11 times, you are not under the law, you're under grace. And he kept making this case so many times. By the law, no flesh will be justified, for by the law comes the knowledge of sin. Our basic problem is not that I have to convince people today, as a pastor, that they're good, hardworking people. That's not the basic problem we're dealing with, is it? We're all Americans, we're all elitist to some degree. We've all been enclosed in our little box, and we've all had a very good life here. I don't have to convince that, especially in ours. A lot of us came, we worked hard, we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps, we had the overalls on, and we did it. I don't have to convince people of that. It's not the basic problem. The basic problem in Christian ministry today is to have people actually bow the knee with the one sacrifice that he loves with a broken and a contrite heart and come with humility to the Christ. God wanted us to study Israel as a teaching tool. God wanted us to look at Israel. This is what Paul said, that when we look at Israel, every mouth should be stopped in its own righteousness. It's a teaching tool. What we call, and a big word I use pedagogically, it's a teaching tool for us to study. When Israel was handed the oracles of God, and they tried to make their way to God, how did it go? How did it go? This is basic Christian witness we looked at last time when you're talking to your pagan neighbor who wants to tell you that they're good, and you could say, let me tell you about Israel. They tried it with law in hand. and what that means is when they were put under the law it meant that the law had the power to judge and condemn them in the terms that were set and jesus was so concerned in his ministry to make sure you christians understand that he has come to declare the truth to you and that you should know that truth and be set free i wonder if we appreciate that as we should i wonder if we marvel over Romans 8.1 as we should. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Jesus. For what the law could not do, God did in His Son. The writers of Scripture were so happy to communicate to us this gospel truth when it says even in the gospel of John, right out of the gates, the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Contrast is everywhere. and so here we come back to where we left off last time uh and what has been missing in israel in our whole study of israel what we studied was there was no brokenness there was no contriteness of heart this has been a mess out in the wilderness ever since he got them out there had pulled them out there's been no gratitude they have grumbled and complained the entire time and we say what in the world do they have any sense of what had happened and what the lord had done for them they have not said thank you once and so that's where we left off god is testing them and he's teaching the world now israel's camped at sinai and in verse 8 we read that a covenant is made we looked at this last time a great transaction occurs here and the terms of the covenant were strikingly different than had with what happened with abraham uh you remember in verse five uh there's conditions that are set here if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine you could go in the direction and just say god just wants some covenant fidelity here but the text itself doesn't bear that out in full god's doing something a little bit different this was a covenantal arrangement if you obey not if you do your best i'll do the rest if you obey you will be my special nation in the earth to me it doesn't seem very hard to ask how did this go for israel in history how does the old testament bear out what happened but here are the terms the terms are set a contract is given and then the people swear in verse 8 all of it we will do had i seen some brokenness and contrition of heart along the way i might accept that a little bit better, that comes off as extremely arrogant to me. By the way, when that Jewish rabbi and I were talking, and I asked him about Genesis 15, he says, I absolutely don't, nobody understands that. Well, yeah, if you don't have a cross in your theology, you won't. If you want to be under the law, here it is. Do it, and you'll live. We'll do it. We'll do it. So here we come today. Where we should be on the edge of our seats is how is this going to go? That's the basic sort of sense we should have in question we should have. God has stated the terms. The people have pledged full obedience. The contract is brought back to the Lord. Moses reports, Lord, they said they would do it all. So God says, okay, I'm coming down. Now, how exciting, right? God is coming down. This was the thesis of the book of Exodus. God is going to come down. God is going to dwell with His people. And in verse 17, it says that, that Moses brings them out of the camp to meet God. How close would they get? How is this going to go? They just pledged full obedience. We're on the edge of our seats. God says, Behold, I'm coming in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak to you and believe you forever. This is a big moment. Big, big, big moment. And what we have all of a sudden as we study this is that we notice things are a little bit rigorous here. Verse 10, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. I'm coming in three days. Get ready. now some things are required i want you moses to command them to go wash their clothes i want them in their sabbath best i mean it i want them clean and i want them dressed in the best clothes they have our eyebrows are kind of raised right now aren't they that's the last thing we hear today i mean that's the last thing we ever hear today i was on a church website just this past week and it said in what you can expect when you come to this church there's no official dress code at our church dress comfortably which could mean different things to different folks your comfort may be in traditional church attire your comfort may be in jeans and sneakers we don't judge people based on how they dress we're just glad you're here i can almost hear the amalekites whispering in the back when this command was given to the Hey, that's too legalistic, man. Come over here. You can wear Hawaiian shirts at our service. That's not what God said. My dress code's real strict. I don't want any dirt on you at all. I put on my finest suit today to make a point here. Is the pastor going to make it? You're out in the desert. Two million people. There's no washing machines, no Kenmores. how in the world are two million people going to scrub their garments and get those things really clean no dirt this is a you read this you started this is a little bit scary maybe it'll get better maybe it'll get better then you notice verse 15 and he says to the people get ready for the third day don't come near your wives when you come into my presence i want such undivided attention. I don't want the least distraction. I don't want the least lust going on in your hearts. I'm coming. Totally pure, undivided attention, totally focused. No one better yawn. No one better sleep. You think lusting ever happens at church? I know sleeping does. I can see sometimes. I guarantee that the women of Israel were a lot more modest than 2016 Southern California women coming to church. So here we are, totally, totally pure in your garments. You are totally focused. Keeps going. And then I want you to set limits for the people all around, saying, take care, verse 12, not to go up to the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. You've seen police lines. Rolls of red tape out, or yellow tape. Authorized access only, persons only. This is an electrical circuit. You do not want to go in there. Israel has just had their first spirit-filled, powerful worship service. I want bounds everywhere, Moses. I want archers ready. I want archers ready. And here's the thing, I want stones in their hands. I want this communicated. You put your warriors out. You put them all around them. If anyone so much as puts a finger to the mountain, if they touch it where it begins to break and head up, you want that you immediately have your archer shoot them dead with an arrow or stone them and if anyone else touches the one who touched the mountain he gets it too not a finger better touch the mountain it reminds me of when we were kids and and we did our first test with the petri dishes of the touching a doorknob? I was overwhelmed at what happens when you touch a doorknob. I read an article at CBS, one germy doorknob can infect half your office within hours. Did you know on your hands right now, 5,000 germs reside on your hands at any given time? And about 200 of you are going to come shake mine right after church. Death germs. If there is one death germ that gets on from touching the mountain, the guy who touched the mountain that gets on the next guy, this is the sense of this. You shoot arrows. In our context, we're all in an AR-15 craze, right? You get the ARs out. God tells Moses, you make really clear They need to come with great caution so that they only should, when they hear the trumpet, it's going to get louder and louder and louder after a long time. Then they slowly should make their way up. I wonder how much preparation you all gave today to coming to worship. It doesn't really work to roll out of bed casually with a nonchalant attitude, Thinking that God's just going to be pleased if I come here. It just doesn't work, does it? That would be sort of evidence of an approach to God that has no sense of transcendence or glory or His otherness from the creation. Here's my question. Are you hearing the standard? The whole scene we get is that this is a danger zone. Worship. Because worship is the time we come closest to God. I think of Psalm 50, which talks about this, and it gives a warning at the very end of the psalm. It says something that we can't even imagine hearing. Consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be none to deliver. You believe that God is that terrifying in His holiness? Scary stuff! Now that's just all preparation for worship. on the third day He comes. Verse 16, On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now, Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, And the whole mountain trembled greatly. I don't know how to get close to describing the horror of this. The Lord descends upon it as in fire. It's a fire theophany, we call it. In other words, the whole mountain is engulfed. If you looked at the giant mountain in front of you, a dark black ominous cloud just appeared. It came down. A fire column rose right to heaven. And the cloud is wrapped around the entire mountain so that you can't see. You see the fire and lightning show going on everywhere. And all of a sudden, it says, it is just awesome. It's like the smoke of a furnace. The whole mountain is on fire. It's a giant coal. The only light is this fire column. And Moses says, then all of a sudden, the trumpet begins to sound, and it gets louder, and it gets louder, and it gets louder, so that they can no longer bear the strength of it. you hear thunder like you've never heard before. Arizona monsoons don't hold a candle to this. The ground starts shaking bigger than anything that has ever hit the Richter scale. Cosmic upheaval so that the text says Sinai itself is trembling. Thundering in his holiness, undisputed in his power. Everything is shaking, everything's quaking. thundering the dark cloud louder and louder and it is announced the trumpet has announced the king of glory has just entered his holy hill holy holy holy is the lord god almighty daniel described this when he said i watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated his garment was as white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool his throne was a fiery flame its wheels a burning fire a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him we think of isaiah in the temple seeing that train just of his robe and dropping and covering john said when he saw the glory that this hair was as wide as wool's eyes like a flame of fire his feet like on burning uh what it said uh burning bronze, I think it was. Fire in its highest intensity is pure white. What do you think Israel did? Well, it tells you. Verse 16 says, then they tremble. Have you ever been so afraid that you're thrown into a complete panic? My guess is that many of you have never had this kind of panic where you're shaking involuntarily. It's at this point God tells Moses, come up. And you would think that maybe this is going to go from bad to better. But it goes from bad to worse. And the Lord said to Moses, verse 21, go down, come up, go down. Warn the people lest they break through to the Lord and look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, the people can't come up to Mount Sinai. You warned us and we did what you told us to do. The archers are out. You told us set limits around the mountain and consecrate. The Lord says, go down and come up bringing Aaron but don't let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them. It has the effect of this. Come up, get down. Lord, wait, you told us what to do. We're going to get out of here right now. Get down. I'm going to break out. And the sense of this text is something has gone horribly wrong. We're not told what it was. Maybe there was an Achan in the camp who was stealing. Maybe someone was lusting. Maybe someone didn't take very seriously the statement of the Lord, wash your garments. Maybe dust, as they were approaching up to the mountain, flew up and got on their clothes. Whatever the case, God's ready to strike. Down! Down! Why? the law had already been broken before it was given. We tend to look at the golden calf and think that's the big thing. There's a lot more going on. Now you've read the law all these years. I wonder if it's had the effect on us like it should. It's interesting that the Holy Spirit through Moses puts the law and interjects the law right here. right here. God is ready to strike. The whole narrative stops. We don't know why. We're all left in what is going on? What's going on? And all of a sudden you read, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. Right there. Do you feel the effect of that? They just promised they're going to keep the whole thing. It's gone bad. Something's gone bad. And the text has intentionally left a question mark. How can this relationship go on if they relate to God on the basis of their own righteousness by keeping the Torah? And dear Christians, this is why Paul said to you who want to be under the law, Do you hear the law? Israel couldn't endure Hebrews 12. What was commanded of them right here he's looking at. Now the point is, why does the Holy Spirit, who interprets the whole Bible, what is he teaching us here? What does he want the world to study here when looking at Israel? Remember what Paul said? I was once alive without the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Explain that. I thought I was doing well. I thought I was a good Torah law-keeping guy. I thought I was good and moral. And then one day the law came home to me and in its full force it struck and it hit hard and one day that commandment came so home to my heart I felt for the first time in my life the condemning terror of the law and I knew I was in deep trouble and it killed me it brought this is why the new testament speaks of the law this way it brought wrath it kills and after the commandment came what is the first thing they're saying after the tenth commandment is given don't let him speak anymore to us and there's a little ominous phrase there that you really should highlight because hebrews is picking up on it and they stood way back afar off this was worship from afar it was that dangerous now i'm not theologizing today This is why the Holy Spirit said you don't want to be under that. Look at what happened to Israel. Do you hear it? The history bears itself out in the Old Testament. And at this point, if I've done my job, nobody should be talking now about covenantal faithfulness. You need a better mediator. This is the point. Nobody should be saying this is about me. I need a better high priest. I need, and this is the basis upon which John said, the law came through Moses. The law is not evil. The commandment's not bad, but I am. And so the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So Moses was a faithful mediator. Moses was a good mediator, but he was insufficient. He was temporary, and Moses couldn't keep the law for the people. Notice that because Moses is telling them to go wash their garments. You see, God's teaching us something very basic here this morning. You can't come into his presence in your own righteousness. And you see God teaching this. Do you think, here's where I'm going to help you a little bit with the clothes issue that we've had such a big issue with in our day. Do you think he is merely satisfied with external nice suits? Do you think God is satisfied with clean suits? The rabbi said Abraham was already performing ritual cleansings as most. Do you think he was satisfied with that? Do you think keeping the death germs off your body will please God? Of course not. Do you think you've loved God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Even if our clothes today met God's standard, What are you ever going to do with impure hearts? There's another scene in the Old Testament of somebody standing before God in dirty clothes. Remember that? His name was Joshua the high priest. And there was Satan standing right there at his right hand to accuse him. Lord, he's filthy, he's filthy. I know your standard, I know your standard. And all of a sudden, somebody standing there rebukes him and says, Angel of the Lord, who we know is Christ, rebukes him, forgives him, and then says, put on him rich robes. It's not a suit. Give him my righteousness. I love that passage. The great issue that's being shown to us here this morning, in light of how we look at Scripture, Psalm 24, Psalm 15, Who may ascend that hill of the Lord? Here it is. They're trying to ascend it. They're trying to ascend it. They're at the foot. That's the hill of the Lord. Who may ascend? The hill of the Lord. Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Who's not lifted up his soul to an idol. That's the whole trajectory of how Israel broke the law. And Jesus is saying to you today, as he did in Luke 24, all of that is about me. Come, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet. No, no, no, not just faded like scarlet. They shall be as white as snow. He's the righteousness to which we have to submit. And that's why the New Testament says he's a mediator of a better covenant. Listen to this. Who in offering up his own life is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him. since he always lives to make intercession and pray for you. You know he does that right now when you are lusting? And this is why the New Testament says perfect love casts out all fear so that you can have boldness even on the coming day of judgment, beloved. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can, book of Hebrews, Enter boldly into heaven's most holy place because of the blood of Jesus. You come today, here's the beauty of this, no matter how you're dressed outwardly, you come today, cleansed. If by faith in Christ, cleansed, wearing His spotless garments before the eyes of God. And the law has no more power to condemn you. You've not come to the mountain today that may be touched, Hebrews, that burned with fire and the blackness and tempest and darkness and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so those who hear it beg that the word should be spoken to them no more. That would be a scary worship service. For they could not endure what was commanded and so much as if a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. So terrifying was the sight. Moses said, I'm exceedingly afraid and trembling. He's taken away your fear. But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. Right now, if you could see, like Elisha's servant, when they said, open up the eyes, Lord, right now you would see a worship service all around you. Of the angels on the holy mountain praising God and in spirit and in truth, you are there. Right now, in the most holy place. That's how the New Testament presents our worship. This is the freedom He wants you to have, dear Christians. This is the peace and joy that He wants you to have. This is Romans 8, which I hope begins to marvel our hearts. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. For what the law could not do, God did by sending His Son to fulfill it. And therefore, Romans 6, you're not under it, you're under grace. You're wrapped in His righteousness. Anyone clinging to their own righteousness would have a hard time with this. I understand that. But if the law has done its work as it should, you're going to say instead, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus is going to come and say, I've given you a new and living way into the most holy place. Anyone believing me, I'll never cast out of my presence. When Paul understood this, he said, now we establish the law in our lives. Now we establish it. Now we're actually doing it in sincerity of heart and gratitude, wrapped in the robes of Christ's righteousness. And that's why it says at the end of the book of Jude that Jesus, being the mediator of the better covenant, says to you today who believe, I am able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with great joy. Well, you've been given the greatest news anyone could ever give you on the face of the earth today. Cling to the righteousness of Jesus. You have everything you need in Him. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, we do confess that we have taken You too casually. And because of our day of cheap grace where no one really does appreciate what had to be done for us even to have access today into the most holy place. People have trampled your courts and disregarded you and your holiness and we've been guilty of the same. Forgive us our sins, Lord. And we realize that we need far greater than an external righteousness. We need what the Scriptures describe as pure hands and a pure heart. And we are so thankful that in Jesus Christ, the mediator of the better covenant, you've given us these things. And today we come to a different mountain and before the face of God can worship you in peace and in joy of the Holy Spirit. May Christ be exalted in our hearts today as we receive all these benefits with thanksgiving. And in confidence we pray in Jesus' name, amen.