Let’s begin with a word of prayer.
Gracious Father in Heaven, we humbly bow
before you,
grateful for the day that you’ve blessed
us with,
grateful for the opportunity that we have
in this life to serve you,
to worship you, to praise your name,
to glorify you, and we are grateful for
your plan
of redemption that has been brought down
through the ages from
the beginning of creation.
All the way forward so that we might have
the hope of eternal life.
And we are grateful for your son who came
and died on the cross for our sins,
that we might have that redemption,
that paid the purchase price that we could
not pay.
We pray that you are dealing or you be
with those who are dealing with sickness,
those who are facing upcoming procedures,
Lord, we pray that you will give them the
strength to go through
the hardships that they feach and every
day.
And Lord, we pray that you forgive us when
we sin and are willing to repent
of those things. And all this we ask in
Jesus’ name.
Amen.
In Exodus 19, if we as we’ve been studying
worship,
I wanted to jump forward a little bit in
the Old Testament history
to the time when Israel is coming out of
Egypt.
They have come to Mount Sinai.
They’ve been delivered through a series of
plagues that have been brought
on the Egyptian nation. They have been
delivered through the Red Sea on dry
ground.
And they arrived now at Mount Sinai.
Does anybody know why they came to Mount
Sinai?
Say again? All right. Because Mount Sinai
is where Moses
saw the burning bush. And it is God’s
instruction when
Moses is at the burning bush, that he is
to return with
the people back to this place.
Okay? So if you go back and read Exodus
chapter three and Exodus chapter four,
you’re gonna be like,
That’s why they’re at Mount Sinai.
And ~ that’s where the burning bush is.
The burning bush was at Sinai.
The location was the location God told
Moses
you go into Egypt, you get the people,
and you bring them back here. Okay.
Now there’s some rabbit trails that could
be discussed as to where Sinai is.
often we r hear of the the triangle shape
that that’s there between
the two red seas as the ~ sinai peninsula
and
we have often heard it called that because
historically for many years that’s
generally where people assume sinai is
they believe it’s down there in the base
of ~ of that peninsula
There’s not great evidence for that,
but there’s not really great evidence for
exactly where it is.
~ other than to say it’s on the other side
of the Red Sea.
There you go. It’s on the other side of
the Red Sea.
also bear in mind that the Red Sea,
even at that point, was considered to be
both of those fingers.
If you look on the map, ~ you’ve got one,
~ the Gulf of Aqaba and
And I’ve lost the name of the other one.
Suez. ~ yeah, Suez Canal. Yeah.
that some little place that some people
have been talking about recently
on the news. so you’ve got the Gulf of
Era,
you’ve got the Gulf of Suez, and and
depending upon whose opinion you accept,
~ depends on which one of those Moses and
the Israelites crossed on dry ground.
~ because
Some believe that they went down into
Egypt and then crossed
the the westward finger, and others
believe they went into the Sinai
put what we call the Sinai Peninsula and
crossed the eastern finger over into
~ the land that would have been known as
Arabia.
I’m more of the second camp.
~ I I think that the Sinai Peninsula is
actually in Arabia.
~ I believe that because that’s where Paul
says it is.
~ in the book of Galatians, but also
because if you are a shepherd
of sheep over the flock of someone who
lives in Midian,
which is where Moses’ father-in-law lived,
it would be very unreasonable to take
those sheep all the way down into
the horn of the Sinai Peninsula just to
water them and feed them.
That’s a very long trip
To take sheep on for the sake of food and
an unlikely place
to take them because of food. And when
you’re introduced to the Sinai Peninsula
or to Mount Sinai at the burning bush,
why is Moses at the foot of the place
where he sees the burning bush?
Because he’s tending his father-in-law’s
flock.
So there’s a lot of things that don’t make
sense about.
Sinai being down in the middle of the two
fingers,
the two gulfs. ~ just my opinion.
you can spend some time studying it on
your own.
But in the text, we’re at Mount Sinai.
We’re at the place where the children of
Israel having come out of Egypt will
remain
for almost a year, but they’ve just
arrived.
And as they arrive.
We find this in the third month after the
children of Israel had gone
out of the land of Egypt, on the same day
they came to the wilderness of Sinai,
for they had departed from Rephidim,
had come to the wilderness of Sinai,
and camped in the wilderness, so Israel
camped there before the mountain.
And Moses went up to God,
and the Lord called to him from the
mountain,
saying, Thus you shall say to the house of
Jacob,
and tell the children of Israel.
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians
and how I bore you on eagle’s wings
and brought you to myself. Notice there
is a directional declaration here.
God had sent Moses to get them,
and God had told Moses to bring them back
to where he was.
And so he declares I brought you to my
Self. Okay? Now he says,
Now therefore, verse five,
if you will indeed 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. And you shall
be to me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation. These are the words
which you shall speak to
the children of Israel.
Now you’ll notice
as God speaks to the nation,
that he’s going to use language that
interestingly,
over in Peter’s epistle, Peter’s going to
use similar language
to describe Christians. Turn over.
To the New Testament.
In first Peter
Sorry, second Peter chapter two.
I always know I’m saying the right one in
the other Bible that I
use because it’s always on the same column
on say page has been on for 20 years.
But when you use a new one,
~ sometimes you’re like, ~ it’s not where
it used to be.
Second Peter chapter 2. Notice what Peter
says as he describes Christians.
He says, Coming to him.
As to a living stone, rejected indeed by
men,
but chosen by God and precious.
Who’s he talking about?
He’s talking about Jesus, all right,
coming to him as to a living stone
rejected by men.
All right. Who’s the him that was rejected
by men?
It’s Christ. Okay? So he’s saying,
coming to Christ as to a living stone,
rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God
and precious.
You also as living stones are being built
up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood. And I just realized I
am in first Peter chapter two.
I apologize. I mean everybody’s got weird
looks because they’re doing what
I say and not what I do.
All right. First Peter chapter two,
beginning in verse four. Get it right.
He says, coming to him as to a living
stone,
rejected indeed by men,
but chosen by God and precious.
You also as living stones. So the first
for verse four is talking about Christ
coming to Christ. Verse five is talking
about Christians.
He says, You also as living stones are
being built up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood.
To offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ.
Peter says you Christians
are a priesthood. Okay?
He says you are a holy,
consecrated, set apart is what that word
means.
You are a separated from the world
priesthood.
Therefore it is also contained in the
scripture,
behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he who believes on
him will by no means be put to shame.
Now again, that’s talking about Christ.
He’s making an analogy and making a
comparison between Christ and us,
Christ and us. So he describes this
passage that speaks concerning
in Zion God is going to lay a chief
cornerstone.
And he who believes on him will by no
means be put to shame.
Therefore, to you who believe,
he is precious, but to those who are
disobedient,
the stone which the builder rejected has
become the chief cornerstone,
and a stone of stumbling and a rock of
offense.
Po Peter’s going to make it clear that not
only did God lay a chief cornerstone,
he also laid a d a stone that would
destroy those who refused to believe.
He says they stumble, being disobedient to
the word,
to which they also were appointed.
But you, now notice this terminology,
verse 5 and verse 9. But you are a chosen
generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
his own special people,
that you may proclaim the praises of him
who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light.
Who were once not a people, but now are
the people of God,
who had not obtained mercy, but now have
obtained mercy.
Now, when Israel went into Egypt,
were they a nation? No,
they were a family. Seventy five people.
They came out a nation.
God says you weren’t a people when you
went in.
You are now. To the Christians,
Peter says, You weren’t a people before.
As a matter of fact, they were a group
pulled out of every nation under heaven.
Day one, you’ve got seventeen different
nations represented at the day of
Pentecost.
And seventeen different languages
represented at the day of Pentecost.
And moving beyond the day of Pentecost,
you have more and more and more and more
until you have Gentiles included.
He says, You’re not a people. God didn’t
call a nation.
Like he did in the Old Testament.
Rather, he selected out of all the nations
his people who were willing
to be obedient to him.
But I want us to see the comparison
between what Moses is told
by God to declare to Israel about who they
are and what they would be
to God and what Peter says. Peter says,
You’re a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
his own special people. Now,
why did God make Christians
A chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, his own special people.
He says that you may do what?
Proclaim the praises of him. What is that?
We were to just put a one-word answer or
description on it?
Worship. You remember what Jesus said
there
at the well outside Samaria? Where he said
that
God would seek those to worship him
who would worship him in spirit and in
truth.
So God was looking for a people.
He was looking for a people out of every
nation,
separated to become a chosen people.
For the purpose of worship.
Go back to Exodus.
And think about those terms. A royal
priesthood,
a holy nation, his own special people,
a chosen generation. And look once again
at verses five and six.
Now, therefore, if you will indeed 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.
And you shall be to me a kingdom of
priests
and a holy nation. These are the words
which you shall speak to
the children of Israel. God is declaring
to Israel in
the days of Moses a very similar message
that
God through Peter declares to the church.
You are
God’s people for the purpose of worshiping
him.
You’re set apart so you can. It’s
interesting we often think about
the idea of worshiping God, and we don’t
necessarily always connect to that,
that we cannot worship God appropriately,
correctly, and pleasing to Him unless He
has already made us holy.
Now we discussed a few weeks back that God
desires all men to worship him.
God commands Israel to allow the strangers
to worship him,
the foreigners to worship him,
to join in on some of the feasts.
As a matter of fact, David will describe
how that it was part of his goal
and his purpose in the Psalms to declare
God’s name to those
who were not Israelites.
So it is important that we use our worship
to influence those who are lost,
those who are not right with God,
and it is appropriate for those who are
not yet right with God,
but recognize who He is to still honor His
name.
But in order to worship as God desires his
people to do,
they have to first be his people.
So God is going to speak to Moses in what
he is going to declare
to Israel here at Mount Sinai.
And notice, so Moses, verse 7,
came and called for the elders of the
people and laid before them
all these words which the Lord commanded
him.
Then all the people answered together and
said,
All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.
So Moses brought back the words of the
people to the Lord.
You might remember that over in Joshua
chapter 23,
a very similar description is made by
Joshua
to the next generation. And when they
said,
We’re going to do everything the Lord
says,
Joshua says, You should beware.
Because the prior generation had said they
were going to do everything that
the Lord said too.
And how many of them made it into the
promised land?
The answer is the children and two.
So the people say we’re going to do
everything that the Lord says.
So the Moses brought back the words of the
people to the Lord.
The Lord said to Moses, Behold,
I come to you in a thick cloud,
that the people may hear when I speak with
you and believe you forever.
Moses is going to be spoken to by God.
But who’s going to hear the message as
well?
All people.
So he says, Go to the people,
verse ten, and consecrate them today and
tomorrow,
and let them wash their clothes,
and let them be ready for the third day,
for on the third day the Lord will come
down upon Mount Sinai in the sight
of all the people. You shall set bounds
for the people all around,
saying, Take heed to yourselves that you
do not go up to the mountain
or touch its base for
Whoever touches the mountain shall surely
be put to death.
God is going to tell Israel, I’m going to
speak with Moses.
And I’m going to speak to him from the
mountain,
and you’re going to listen to me speak to
him from the mountain,
and you’re never gonna doubt Moses’
relationship to the Lord ever again.
Now will that be true? In the sense of
will they ever doubt it?
~ sure they will. You get all the way to
the edge of the promised land
and they’re gonna say, you know what,
let’s kill Moses and go back to Egypt.
But it wasn’t for a lack of evidence.
It wasn’t because it hadn’t been proven.
Step all the way forward to the time of
Jesus.
And did Israel need any more signs than
the ones they had already received
to confirm that Jesus was the Christ,
the Son of God? No. Did they still refuse
to believe it?
Yes.
So they’re at Mount Sinai, they’re told to
consecrate themselves,
the third day God is going to come down,
God is going to speak from the mountain,
and God says if any of you come up on the
mountain or touch the mountain,
you’re dead.
How you want to show up for worship with
that qualification?
How how would you like the scenario where,
you know what, if you cross that pew,
you’re a goner.
That’s not really the way we in this
country at least act in any scenario.
I mean, we occasionally might be somewhere
where there’s very important people
or leaders or whatever, and you know,
hey, don’t you don’t cross that line
because you’re gonna be considered
a threat if you do. But turn over to
Exodus chapter,
sorry, Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter twelve
Beginning in verse 18. Hebrews 12,
verse 18, we read, For you have not come.
Now, this is the Hebrew writer writing to
Christians.
And as he’s writing these Christians,
he says, Let me tell you what situation
you’re not in.
He says, For you have not come to the
mountain that may be touched,
and that burned with fire, and to
blackness and darkness and tempest.
And the sound of a trumpet and the voice
of words,
so that those who heard it begged that the
word should not be spoken
to them anymore. For they could not endure
what was commanded,
and if so much as a beast touches the
mountain,
it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.
What event is the Hebrew writer writing
about?
He’s writing about Exodus chapter 19.
The Hebrew writer is saying, You are.
Christians have not showed up at a
mountain where you were warned if even
an animal touched the mountain,
they were to be killed. If you touch the
mountain,
you were to be killed. That’s not what
you’ve shown up at.
He says, and so terrifying was the sight
that Moses said,
I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the
city of the living God.
The heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable
company of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn who were registered in heaven,
to God, the judge of all, to the spirits
of just men made perfect,
to Jesus the mediator mediator of the new
covenant,
and to the blood of the sprinkling that
speaks better things than that of Abel.
As you’re reading Exodus nineteen,
you should be thinking
That must have been amazing to see,
but I’m very glad I don’t have to witness
it.
Because the Hebrew writer says,
You you’ve come to someplace so much
better.
He goes on to say, See that you did not
refuse him who speaks.
For if they did not escape, who refused
him who spoke on earth,
much more shall we not escape if we turn
away from him who speaks from heaven,
whose voice then shook the earth,
but now he has promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not only the earth,
but also heaven.
Now this yet once more indicates the
removal of those things that are being
shaken,
as of things that are made, and not of the
things which cannot be shaken,
~ excuse me, that the things which cannot
be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a
kingdom which cannot be shaken,
let us have grace by which we may serve
God acceptably with reverence
and godly fear, for our God is a consuming
fire.
The Hebrew writer says, You go look back
and you go read Exodus
and you go understand what they showed up
at.
And then you consider the grace that
you’ve been given.
You put in your mind an understanding of
the grace that God has granted to you,
and then you remember this.
Still the same guy.
So if you reject the grace.
All you’re left with is the God who
judges.
Eddie, did you have a thought I saw a
hand?
Absolutely. We’re gonna go into that just
a little bit deeper.
You know, that idea of when we show up at
worship,
we should be we should be realizing who
we’re showing up in front of.
So go back to Exodus nineteen.
I want to read a little bit more into
Exodus nineteen.
And then we’re gonna get into chapter
twenty and see a little bit more there.
And we’re gonna come back to Hebrews.
So you might just keep a finger over in
Hebrews.
God says, beginning in verse fourteen.
So Moses went down from the mountain to
the people and sanctified the people,
and they washed their clothes.
And he said to the people, Be ready for
the third day,
do not come near your wives. Then it came
to pass on the third day
in the morning that there were thunderings
and lightnings,
and a thick cloud on the mountain.
And the sound of the trumpet was very
loud,
so that all the people who were in the
camp trembled.
What did the Hebrew writer write about?
He wrote about this.
He’s telling you what happened.
And Moses brought the people out of the
camp to meet with God,
and they stood at the foot of the
mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke,
because the Lord descended upon it in
fire.
Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a
furnace,
and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
Why don’t you think about something?
The last time that Moses was here,
there was a bush on fire.
And when Moses approached it, and when the
Lord spoke
to Moses from the bush, and when Moses
observed that the bush was on fire,
but the bush was not consumed.
The text tells us that Moses fell down as
dead.
And God tells Moses, Take your sandals off
your feet,
for the place you stand is holy ground.
Now they’re back. And as they are encamped
at the base of Mount Sinai,
and as they have consecrated themselves
and prepared themselves and arrived
now at the base of Mount Sinai,
they are observing
not a bush on fire.
But the whole mountain on fire.
But is the mountain consumed?
There’s some in the,
I don’t know if I’d really call them the
archaeological world,
but at least the ~ profitable
archaeological world,
i.e., they always have something to sell,
that believe they have found Mount Sinai
because
it is a mountain that is just charred,
~ darkened. And so their their belief is
that.
This is Mount Sinai because of its
appearance.
My only disagreement with that is i if you
think about what’s going
to transpire from here, where’s Moses
about to go?
Moses is about to go right up that
mountain and talk to the Lord.
And Moses is going to be on that mountain
for 40 days.
So in the same way that the bush was on
fire and wasn’t consumed,
I suggest to you that the mountain was on
fire and wasn’t consumed.
Not explicitly stated, but certainly worth
considering.
Not saying it was at all n certainly not
saying it was their imagination.
No, the fire was real.
Just like the fire of the burning bush was
real,
but it didn’t consume the bush.
It was God manifesting himself in a
way that the people could comprehend there
is no one else like me.
Because that’s been God’s message from
plague number one all
the way to plague number ten. There is no
one like the Lord.
So they arrive at the mountain,
they gather around the mountain,
they’re told to consecrate themselves,
they consecrate themselves, they arrive at
the mountain on the third day,
and they witness the mountain surrounded
by thunderings,
lightnings, a thick cloud, the sound of a
trumpet was very loud,
so that the people who were in the camp
trembled,
and the Mount Sinai was completely
engulfed in smoke.
Descended upon the Lord descended upon it
in fire,
its smoke ascended like the smoke of a
furnace,
and the whole mountain quaked greatly,
and when the blast of the trumpet sounded
long and became louder and louder,
Moses spoke, and God answered him by
voice.
So imagine you’re standing there and you
begin to hear the sound of a trumpet.
And it just keeps going.
And then it gets louder and louder and
louder.
To the point of being unbearable.
And then God speaks normally.
Moses hears him. I the idea is not God’s
having a shout up no no.
God is heard directly.
Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai
and on the top of the mountain.
And the Lord called Moses to the top of
the mountain,
and Moses went up. So now God is going to
manifest Himself on the
top of Mount Sinai. God is going to call
Moses up onto the mount.
Moses is going to go up on the mount.
And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and
warn the people lest they break through
to gaze at the Lord, and many of them
perish.
And let the priests who come near the Lord
consecrate themselves,
lest the Lord break out against them.
First message Moses,
come up the mountain. Moses gets up the
mountain.
Moses, go back down the mountain.
Why? You go tell the people I’m dead
serious.
Literally. Don’t don’t touch the mountain.
And the priests, by the way,
at the time, how many priests are there in
Israel?
None, actually.
Aaron and his sons aren’t consecrated yet.
God has just called them a nation of
priests.
But he does give you a little nugget
that’s gonna help when you
get over to Leviticus chapter ten.
And when the priests are consecrated and
when the very first occasion
of worship is consecrated and the events
transpire on that day,
and God is going to send fire from heaven
and consume two of the five priests.
The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu,
and God is going to reiterate the message
which he had already spoken,
not very much earlier than that,
but somewhat earlier than that.
God spoke from the mountain and told
Moses,
Your priesthood show up in front of me,
and they better be holy.
Now watch the connection. Do you remember
what Peter called Christian?
A holy nation, a royal priesthood.
If God was serious enough about you and me
showing up,
or let’s go back to the Old Testament.
God was serious enough about the
priesthood of Aaron showing up before
God in holiness, so much so that he sent
fire from heaven down
to consume two of the ones who didn’t.
What should we be considering as we show
up at worship?
You remember that Paul is going to write
to the church and tell them
as they’re observing the Lord’s Supper
that they are to examine themselves
whether
they are in the faith.
As we as we look at this passage,
we’re supposed to be looking at ourselves
and going,
what am I supposed to be when I show up
before God to worship him?
Humble for sure.
Holy Humble
But notice then Moses said to the Lord,
The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai,
for you warned us, saying, Set bounds
around the mountain and consecrate it.
Then the Lord said to him, Away,
get down and then come up, you and Aaron
with you,
but do not let the priest 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 spoke
to them.
So here envision.
Moses goes up the mountain. God tells him
to go down the mountain.
Moses basically says, Well, the Lord,
you told us to build a barrier around the
mountain,
so the people aren’t going to come up.
God says, I said go down. And when you go
down,
you bring Aaron back.
So Moses goes down.
And the way I understand it is as Moses
reaches the bottom,
God begins speaking.
And God spoke all these words,
saying, And he gives what we know as the
Ten Commandments.
Now we’re not going to go through all of
them for the sake of time,
because I want to get to this at the end
of the chapter before we get there.
Verse 18. So God gives the Ten
Commandments,
He speaks the word as Moses has been
commanded to go back down,
get Aaron, and remind the people,
don’t touch the mountain.
Now all the people witnessed the
thunderings,
the lightning, the flashes, the sound of
the trumpet,
and the mountain smoking, and when the
people saw it,
they trembled and stood afar off.
Then they said to Moses, You speak with
us,
and we will hear. But let not God speak
with us lest we die.
They have witnessed God’s plagues,
they have witnessed God’s miracles,
they have witnessed God delivering them
through the Red Sea,
and now they are so afraid because of what
they’re witnessing at Mount Sinai that
they tell Moses, listen, you go up the
mountain and you find out what
the Lord has to say, because we cannot
bear hearing the voice of
the Lord any longer. We are afraid for our
lives.
Verse twenty, and Moses said to the
people,
Do not fear, for God has come to test you,
and that his fear may be before you,
so that you may not sin. So the people
stood afar off,
but Moses drew near the thick darkness
where God was.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Thus you
shall say to the children of Israel,
You have seen that I have talked with you
from heaven,
you shall not make anything to be with me,
gods of silver or gods of gold.
You shall not make for yourselves,
an altar of earth you shall make for me,
and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt
offerings and your peace offerings,
your sheep and your oxen in every place
where I record my name,
I will come to you and I will bless you.
And if you will make me an altar of stone,
you shall not build it of hewn stone,
for it for if you use your tool on it,
you have profaned it.
Nor shall you go up by steps to my altar
that your nakedness may not
be exposed on it.
So God says to Moses, here are the
instructions for altars.
Moses, you tell the people,
when they build an altar, they do it my
way.
When they show up before me,
they show up in holiness. When they show
up before me,
they take care to maintain their holiness.
Go back over to Hebrews.
In Hebrews chapter four, verse fourteen.
The Hebrew writer will say, seeing then
that we have a great high priest
who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who
cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but was in all points tempted as we are
yet without sin.
Let us therefore come.
boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need.
Multiple times in the book of Hebrews,
the Hebrew writer is going to tell the
people of God.
Israel came before God in fear.
Israel came before God with a priesthood
that could never
be truly holy in and of themselves.
Israel came before God with sacrifices
that could never make them truly holy
before
God. And Israel came before God in fear.
But through Christ we come in boldness.
Now, the Hebrew writer is not implying by
that we come nonchalantly with
a lack of care. No, still the same God.
Still the consuming fire the Hebrew writer
writes about.
But rather that we approach God not with
our merit,
not with our holiness, not with our
righteousness,
not with the blood of bulls and goats,
but with the blood of Jesus Christ his
son.
So when John writes in 1 John chapter 1,
he says that the blood of Jesus Christ
continually cleanses us from all sin.
And that as a result of that,
we have fellowship with the Father and
with
the Son and with other Christians.
We need, as we worship,
to use worship as an opportunity.
to examine ourselves whether or not we are
holy,
whether or not we are right before God,
whether or not
we
are His special people.
Okay? Thank you.
