[8:00 a.m.] Keeping His Covenant (Exodus 19:1-9a)

Chapter 19 and we are in the narrative about Moses in the

life of Moses with God's people coming out of Egypt in the

wilderness and we're now chapter 19 of Exodus and this is the

story partially of what happened when they reached Mount Sinai.

And so a lot of things happened at the foot of Mount Sinai, both

before and after Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the

ten and that's the law from god. So let's just look at this

portion here in chapter 19. These first nine verses on the

third month, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land

of Egypt. On that day, they came to the

Wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness,

their Israel and camped before the mountain while Moses went up

to God. The Lord called to him out of

the mountain saying, thus, shall you say to the house of Jacob

and tell the people of Israel, you Our sales have seen what I

did to the Egyptians how I bore. You on Engel Eagle's Wings and

brought you out to myself. Now, therefore, if you will

indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant, you shall be my

treasured possession, among all the 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 call the Elders of the people and set

before them all the words, the Lord had commanded him.

All the people answered together and said all that.

The Lord has spoken. We will do and Moses reported

the words of the peat people to the Lord.

And the Lord said to Moses behold, I am coming to you in a

thick Cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you, and

I met all and may also believe you forever.

The word of the Lord, you may be seated.

You'll notice What's Happening Here.

Moses is speaking to the Lord. The Lord is speaking to Moses.

In fact the scriptures tell us that there was a unique

relationship. They had the word is used that

God spoke to Moses face to face. Now we know later on exactly how

that worked out, but what it really means is God spoke

directly to Moses. In other prophets, he'll speak

in dreams and visions and all sorts of symbols and things like

that. And occasionally, he'll speak

audibly to them of speak deep within their consciences.

But in this instance, God spoke to Moses.

And he gave Moses. What he wanted Moses to hear,

that is called special Revelation that is called

self-disclosure God discloses himself, what he's thinking,

what he wants his people to know what he wants his people to do.

He makes it known He is there and he is not silent.

Would be a good title for a book wouldn't it think Francis

Schaeffer wrote that book a few years ago?

God is there. He speaks we live believe it

whether we like it or not Christians we are the recipients

of Oracle Oracle religion. Is our religion.

We actually believe that God speaks on a mountain to a

person. Sometimes it's hard to get

comfortable with that idea, particularly, but that's what we

have. Now, we have authentication all

through the centuries that it was indeed God.

Speaking at these prophets, were faithful in their communication

of what God Said but that is God speaking to the prophet and this

case Moses later on Isaiah, Jeremiah and many others.

And then the prophet speaking to the people, but then we also see

here that the people would speak to Moses and Moses would go back

and tell god what the people had said.

That's called mediation. Moses is a mediator.

He's in the middle between God and the people.

In that instance, in many other instances, Moses is a type, a

very clear type and lesson as to Christ's Ministry Christ is a

mediator, there is one mediator between God and man, and that's

the man Christ Jesus. Des.

Jesus is in fact, the word of God.

He speaks the word of God. He is the word of God to his

people, and in responding. Back to him.

We come to him through that mediator.

What God told the people here is that one day.

And he speaks it and he brings it to pass.

It's the people are going to be priests and Kings.

He's going to make of this little fragile people that he's

brought out of slavery and brought into the desert.

And as we saw last week, he has given them water to drink and

food to eat. He has protected him in the

desert and now he is going to call them his people, all the

Gentile Nations on the face of the Earth.

And the Earth was full of people in those days.

But God selected, this one family, the family of Jacob, the

family of Israel came into Egypt, 70 souls.

And now, his left is a great throng.

He's going to make of this little Nation.

This little little group, a nation, a great nation with a

great name, and a great reputation, and a great king is

going to sit on the throne of this nation.

And they're going to rule and reign with this great king

forever. And the words that Moses uses

and speaks to the people are Eternal words.

Notice, he says that they may also believe you forever.

There's a whole lot more Happening Here than just this

little story of them in the desert.

What we have here is the god of Heaven and Earth.

The Creator is talking to his people and he is enabling his

people to talk to him. He's establishing a mediator

between the two and he's going to see.

Then one day a greater mediator, Moses was faithful in the house

of the Lord, as a servant, the book of Hebrews says, but Jesus

is faithful in the house of the Lord, as a son, hey, where is in

time past, God spoke to the prophet to the father's by the

prophets and all kinds of ways. But now he has spoken to us by

one who is the son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is all over this. This scene at the face of Mount

Sinai, on the floor of the desert, the Wilderness God is

opening up. He's showing himself.

He's telling what kind of relationship he will have with

his people. And here's one of the most

tender things, you'll read anywhere in the Bible is here at

about verse for, I think it is. You yourselves have seen what it

says the Lord speaking. You've seen what I did to the

Egyptians and how I bore You On Eagle's Wings and brought you to

myself. And brought you.

To myself. That's what the Lord does to his

own. Has the Lord brought you to

himself. My sheep hear my voice.

Jesus said, I know them, they follow me.

There's only one way to be brought to God and that's in the

arms of the Good Shepherd, as a lost lamb straying.

All we like sheep. Have gone astray.

We have turned to our own way, but we've been solved.

And we've been bought and we've been brought To the father.

By Jesus Christ in his finished work.

I don't want you to leave here, we only have a few minutes

together, these Sunday mornings, but I don't want anybody to

leave and walk through those doors without knowing Jesus

Christ. That's all I really really care

about. I love the Bible of all this

history. I love to teach, I love

Doctrine. I love all that stuff, but my

heart says, I want everybody in this room to come to know

Christ. And coming to know Christ that

they will love him and serve him and be safe for all eternity.

Not only for this life, but the life to come and that's what the

Lord says. Now, therefore, beginning in

verse 5, the Lord is going to make a covenant with his people.

Now me say a word about covenants in the Bible.

There are several varieties of Covenant.

A covenant is not simply a contract to coveted his more

than that, the most important Covenant anywhere in the Bible.

And as far as getting the Old Testament and everything

foundationally laid out is the Covenant that God made with

Abraham God made the Covenant with Abraham and it was a

promissory Covenant. God says, I will do this this

and this it was kind of on the arrangement of some of the

ancient Covenant, swear a great Susan rain, or a great Sovereign

has performed a great Act of rescue and help as he led

Abraham out of the ER of the Chaldeans up the Euphrates

Valley and across down the Jordan Valley in Toward the Nile

and all the way into Egypt and the great Fertile Crescent.

Took him on that great journey and brought him to where he

wanted him to be. Abraham was given this Covenant

that's back in the Book of Genesis, you read about in

chapter 12 15 and other places their God.

Repeated this to the, to the Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob, he

gave this promissory Covenant that he was going to accomplish

it and my friends, he's accomplished every syllable of

it literally in King Solomon. And greater than that.

In one who's greater than Solomon in a great Eternal

spiritual way in. Jesus Christ, everything God

promised them. He gave them a land, he gave

them a great nation, he gave them a great name, he gave them

a great king, he gave them a great blessing.

And all this was fulfilled in the days of Solomon.

Literally, the Bible says it all came to pass.

If you're looking for a literal fulfillment of the abrahamic,

Covenant, there it is about 1,000 years before Christ.

Literally fulfilled Solomon's Reign was from the Euphrates to

the Nile, the whole Fertile Crescent, the whole, and not

just a little tiny land of Canaan there in the middle of

it. But the whole thing, but in a

greater sense, God gives his people What Abraham really

expected when he was talking to God, according to Paul, in the

Book of Romans, he gave him the whole Earth.

In fact he did more than just give him the Earth is it is he

gives him the Earth as it's a new Heaven and a new Earth.

The great fulfillment of everything.

God promised to Abraham is fulfilled in Israel.

As Israel, brings in the Gentiles is Israel believes in

the Messiah as unbelieving, Israel is punished and cut off

as believing. Israel is given the inheritance

which is Christ. That's what's being set up here.

This these old ancient stories are historical but they're not

they're not merely just the raw history.

I hear sometimes historical Redemptive preaching and it's

very historical and I don't hear the Redemptive element as strong

as it comes through in the scriptures at least my reading

of the scriptures but look at what the Lord says he's going to

require them to do some things because the Mosaic Covenant the

Covenant God makes it Sinai. Is not a promissory Covenant.

It's an obligatory Covenant, you're obligated to do certain

things, and if you do them, I'll do this.

But if you don't do it, I don't want.

In fact, I'll do something else. And that's what you see, spelled

out beginning in chapter 20, all the way through the rest of the

pentateuch. Like, especially through the

book of Deuteronomy, you say, you hear God saying I will do

certain things for you if you will do these things for me and

he lists them out here. He says. he says, if you will

obey my voice, keep my Covenant. So they've got to do some things

as God's redeemed. People notice that they're

redeemed at this point. He's talking to Believers.

Bible's talking to Christians when he talks about obeying the

law, not talking to unbelievers. Unbeliever can't take the law

in. Try to obey it in order to be

saved, you just don't work that way, the laws got nothing but a

curse in it for Sinners. There's a death penalty in the

law for Sinners. But Christ has died taking that

very sentence. That very ordinance that very

prescription into his own body on the tree nailing it to the

Cross, Paul says, in Colossians, and it's been fulfilled every

last bit of that Covenant. Has been fulfilled in Christ.

The law, the Commandments are given to a redeemed.

People a saved people. A rescued people of people that

have already said but they said here all that the Lord has

spoken. We will do.

This is a two-way street. God says do this and they say

we'll do it now later on God's going to spell out in quite a

bit of detail all that they are to do.

And the consequences, the wonderful consequences of

perfect obedience. but the people never give perfect

obedience Jesus Does And that's why he's the only true Covenant

keeper. And that's why in order to be a

covenant keeper, you've got to be in Christ by faith.

To be regarded as a covenant keeper and receive the blessings

of the Covenant. Just making any sense at all.

Because everything I'm saying every statement I'm making in my

head. I'm thinking boy this a heresy

out there. I need to draw upon a little bit

but I don't have time to do that.

There's a misunderstanding out there.

We need to chase down and kill. Don't have time to do that.

He's just try to set it forth positively and affirmatively.

but for Covenant Breakers, those that do not keep the law in the

first place and for any person that claims to be redeemed, When

he comes to keep the law when he fails, he has to recognize that

it's sin. And he needs to be confessed and

forsaken, his be put under the blood of Christ.

He needs to be taken to Christ. And that's the Ten Commandments.

Now, we will see what time will we got a minute or two?

Let me just bring you read them. I mean, Robbie read them, a

moment ago, you contemplated them.

Let me just take for brevity's sake.

The, the second table first table has to do with God first

four Commandments, and then commandment five through 10 has

to do with our relationship, to one another loving each other.

And let me just sort of sketch through with the Lord does for

us in the Commandments. This is for a and people that I

say that, Think I did. This is not how you get saved,

folks. This is what you do when you are

saved. If you're saved.

A lot of people claim to be saved.

They don't keep these Commandments at all and that's

the fruit that's the test. We see people breaking his

Commandments. The question mark can go up over

their head or they really Believers.

Are they really walking in the ways of the Lord?

Are they? Keeping his statutes and his

Commandments. Are they obeying his voice?

Are they in the Covenant? Really are the in there by faith

believing in Jesus, as they should be, let me just sketch

through them. He says, honor your father and

your mother. That establishes for all of the

earth authority, The Authority is in the father in the mother

in the home and that basic unit. Of civilization forms,

everything else. All in the world of family is is

expansion of a mother and father all in the world.

Neighborhood is is expansion of a family.

All in the world of community is an expansion of a neighborhood,

all the world of town at you. Get the point all the way up to

State all the way up to Nation. It's just all the same.

God has an authority that he's established.

He spells it out in unbelievable detail throughout the rest of

scripture, but it establishes it with honor.

Your father and your mother. If you honor your father and

your mother, you are a civilized person.

You are a citizen of the kingdom of God's chosen people.

Then you shall not murder into this commandment the Lord

establishes the principle of Life, the sanctity of Life, the

right to life, to protect life and all about life, the right to

life. He says Thou shalt not commit

adultery in this God sanctifies marriage.

One woman one man for one lifetime establishing, the whole

order of sexuality for every person on the face of the Earth.

And anything else is ADD alt and alter e.

It's to go to something else. Any deviation off that any

perversion of that is breaking of the Covenant with God, he

says you shall not steal. This establishes, the principle

of private property. Private property, you are

entitled to certain things because why?

Because if you obey God will bless you.

Everything you have is a gift of God, it's sacred.

And I don't have a right to it and everything God's given me,

not only that. Let me just say one of the thing

when God comes time to curse you to discipline you, to bring you

in line for whom the Lord. Loveth he chasteneth and

scourges every son. That's is God might take some of

that property away. He may change that property,

leave a turn that property into little bit of an aggravation.

God can do all kinds of things with your property and I'm

talking about that's all you possess in order to discipline

you and to bring you where you need to be and that needs to

apply to you. The soul that Sins Not to the

whole community and I'll just jump straight to the very last

one. Thou shalt not covet for a

community. An ethnic group, a state. or a

government of federal government or any other kind of government

to go after your property is the spirit of envy And they can work

it out through What's called the politics of envy.

Yeah, make the rich pay more taxes.

Yeah, let's give those reparations.

Yeah, I'm going to stop there. Thou shalt not bear false.

Witness that establishes truth and truth is the basis of a

society of a society is not have truth.

It does not have personal relationships, it does not have

business contracts. And it does not have most

importantly, I justice system. Most important thing that

happens in a courthouse is when you put your hand on the Bible

and swear in which you're about to say the truth, the whole

truth and nothing but the truth in this commandment establishes.

It Thou shalt not bear. False witness.

Let me say one more thing about the passage.

If you'll give me a moment, notice that Moses, when he's

talking to the Lord, the Lord says I'm going to be talking to

you from now on in a cloud. You noticed that in the text, a

thick cloud is going to be the partition between God and Moses,

and Moses is going to be in a cloud.

He'll hear the voice of God in a cloud.

This is the Shekinah Glory of God.

This is the glory Cloud. This this Cloud spoken.

Love all through the scriptures. This Cloud was an incredibly

important to Israel in their days because this Cloud hovered

over them, when the burning Sun of the desert was about to fry

them. On the desert floor, This Cloud

gave them shield and comfort and cool, and rest.

That's Christ. Is that cloud?

By the way, it's the glory cloud of God's spirit enshrined upon

his people at night. That cloud turned into a pillar

of fire, when the desert floor got cold.

And when the winds blew there was the warmth of God's presence

in the thick Cloud, that was over them.

I got to stop right here and I'm going to tell you this, you

remember on the Mount of transfiguration.

Who's up there? Moses, Elijah, and Jesus

remember what the wolves are all around them.

A bright Cloud. Why was it a bright cloud and

not a thick dark cloud? Because it had inside of it, the

light of the world. Who's up there?

Moses, Elijah, and Jesus remember what the wolves are all

around them. A bright Cloud.

Why was it a bright cloud and not a thick dark cloud?

Because it had inside of it, the light of the world.