Exodus (Lesson 45)

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delaney, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you once again in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Thank the Lord for that.

And I welcome you once again to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

Hope you can stay with us.

We're going to spend about a half an hour today studying God's Word together.

We are in the 24th chapter of the second book of the Bible.

That's the book of Exodus.

And Exodus 24 and verse 1 will be our starting place.

When we began preaching over the radio waves back in 1981, we purposed in our heart that we would never spend one minute of radio time asking anybody for money.

We have never broken that promise that we made to ourselves.

Those men that were with me at that time, many of them are in heaven now.

Many of them are still serving the Lord.

Many of them have turned aside out of the way.

But after all these years, God's word is still going forth, and we still have not taken one minute's time to beg you for money.

All the people through the years who have given so much to make it possible for these programs to be heard across the nation and around the world have all done so because God touched their hearts in answer to our prayers.

How we thank the Lord, how we thank his people, and what a joy it is to be preaching God's word to you today on this radio station.

Exodus 24, verse number one says this.

And he said unto Moses, this is God speaking to Moses, come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off.

Now it's a curious term because, first of all, as God is in heaven and man is on earth, we are afar off.

Whenever we worship God.

Now God is going to come down on Mount Sinai and meet with these men, and you would think that God being on the mountain and these men at the base of the mountain, or even coming up part way into the mountain, that uh God would not in no way could he be considered afar off compared to where he was before.

But the idea here is that you never want to get overly familiar and lose your respect.

Remember, this is the same God that said to Moses, take off your shoes.

You're on holy ground.

Well, how could it possibly make any difference?

Whether or not you have your shoes on, take your shoes off.

It's not that.

It's a matter of showing God the proper reverence and the proper respect.

Now, I made that mistake a couple of times as a boy with my father, and he reminded me very quickly that we were not on an equal footing, and I was not to overstep my bounds.

And so that's the idea that you have here.

And what's the Lord want?

He wants them to worship him, to worship him.

Verse 2 and Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him.

Now, before God, before God, everyone is equal in that all have sinned.

Before God, everyone is equal in that he loves them and gave his son to die for them and offers to forgive them on the basis of the shed blood of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the eyes of God, all men receive the rain and the sunshine.

He makes his son to shine on the just from the unjust, his rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

Beyond that, beyond that, people aren't the same.

And God has special relationships with people who especially love him.

And God has special agreements with people who are especially devoted to him.

And so God is going to give the law to all people, to all the Israelite people, and it's going to apply equally to all the Israelite people.

And the blessings in the law are available equally to all the Israelite people, but they can't all go up there and meet with God on the mountain, because not all of them are devoted to God, heart, soul, strength, and mind, as Moses has proven himself to be.

And so even Nadab and Abihu and Aaron, even the 70 elders of Israel, they can come part way, but not all the way.

Not all the way.

Moses, Moses alone is going to meet with God face to face, friend with friend.

Verse 3, and Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments.

Now that's what we've read from chapter 20 through 23.

And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord had said we will do.

Doesn't that sound great?

I mean, isn't that what you're supposed to say?

And no doubt, no doubt, that was exactly what motivated the people with one voice to say what they believed they were supposed to say.

Remember now, that mountain has been smoking.

Remember now, lightning has been crashing and bursting and thunder sounding all about that mountain.

Remember now, God has come down a thick cloud with fire, fire, and darkness upon that mountain.

And now Moses says, This is what God told you to do.

Well, remember, if they set so much as set foot on that mountain, he'd drop them.

So who's gonna go against anything that the Lord has said under those circumstances?

Who's gonna dare set himself against the Almighty under those conditions?

And and yet, and yet, you and I both know, not one of those people, not one of those people could be trusted to keep all God's commandments every day of his life.

Not one of those people could be dependent upon to obey the Lord with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind every morning, every afternoon, every night.

You know that.

You say, well, what should they have said?

Uh look, I don't want to be presumptuous, because I wasn't there.

And I most likely, as you most likely, I would most likely have rem responded the very same way under those circumstances.

But if cooler heads had prevailed, if a little thought, a little meditation, a little prayer had gone into the thing, perhaps someone could have boldly approached Moses and said, Could you tell God we love and appreciate his laws and his commandments, and we believe and see them to be perfect in every way.

But would you please tell God that owing to our sinful condition, owing to our unfaithful hearts, we just want God to know that we would really like Him to emphasize grace and mercy rather than law because we're almost certain.

In fact, we are certain that somewhere along the way we're going to violate his holy commandments.

Wouldn't that be the thing to say?

You know, in the New Testament book of James says, don't say, tomorrow I'm gonna do this or tomorrow I'm gonna do that.

Say, if the Lord will, I'll do this or I'll do that.

Now it it is very impressive, and it shows a good heart to say, whatever God commands, we'll do it.

But quite honestly, it's it's not a very realistic response based upon the history of man in regard to God's commandments.

Anyway, that's what they said with one voice.

They're all in agreement.

We're gonna do it.

We give our word.

And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord.

No scribal errors, no mistakes, no blunders, no contradictions.

God said it.

Moses wrote it down, every word just right.

It was the word of God, given by the mouth of God, recorded by the hand of Moses.

That that's that's our view of Scripture.

It's not oral tradition, it's not hand-made-down fairy tales, it's the word of God.

It's not the best men could do under the circumstances, it's the word of God.

And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Those beast stones stacked one on top of another.

And he sent young men of the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord.

Now that'd be the thing to do.

In anticipation of failure, in gratitude for favors past, present, and future, in acknowledgement of the majesty and honor of God, the first thing we ought to do, once we have written, scripted words of God in our possession, the first thing we ought to do is worship the Lord and sacrifice unto him.

How about you?

How about you, brother?

Do you have God's words?

Do they cause you to see some need to worship God, to sacrifice to God your time, your strength, your energy, your labors, your money?

How about it?

Look, Moses says, here's what God said, here's God's commandments, and he gave them to you.

Here's God's laws, and he gave them to you.

And overwhelmed by the incredible fact that they were now in possession of God's words.

They offer sacrifice and worship the Lord.

The Bible says in verse 6, and Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

And he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people.

And they said, All that the Lord has said, will we do, and be obedient.

Now look at that.

In verse 3, all the words which the Lord has said, will we do?

In verse number seven, and they add, and they add, and be obedient, we are going to obey these words.

Now, look, look, not one of them, not one of them stepped forward and said, uh, excuse me, excuse me, I believe that God may have verbally spoken at one time, and I believe that God may have spoken to man or spoken to Moses.

But I just, I don't see how we could believe that once man has written it down in a book, that there aren't some errors in there and there aren't some things there that have been added or taken away.

And I just, I don't know why we should obey the words in the book.

I think we should commit ourselves to uh follow the general message and the overall theme of what we think God might have said, but surely uh no, no, no.

Thank the Lord, there were no there were no college professors or seminary infidels there to cast doubt upon the written words of God, the words that God spoke, but Moses recorded with his hand.

They pledged themselves to obey the words in the book, recognizing them to be the word of the Lord.

How is it at the church you go to?

Does the minister constantly or even once a year, that'd be too much, suggest that the scriptures you have aren't translated correctly?

Does he suggest that perhaps scribes and copyists or translators couldn't get it just quite right?

Well, why are you why are you listening to the voice of a man that doesn't believe that the God who gave his word could preserve his word?

Just asking, I'm just asking.

Verse 8, and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

That's a serious matter.

A covenant, a covenant marked by blood, the blood of an innocent victim that died that died, so the sinner might live.

And that blood now being sprinkled upon those who have not yet broken the commandments, but who surely will, who have not yet violated the laws and the words of God, but who are all but certain to do so.

The blood, the blood.

From the first day that man fell, you see him there in that garden, and what did it take?

Blood had to be shed to cover that man.

All the way to Calvary's cross, what do we see?

Blood has to be shed to cover that sin.

What do we see on that old rugged cross?

We see the Lamb of God shedding God's blood.

That's Acts 20, 28.

Look it up.

Shedding the only innocent blood, Matthew 27, 4.

Look it up.

Only in the King James Bible.

You can't look it up in the modern perversions.

You won't find it there.

It's gone.

That precious blood was shed to cover sin, and the very last sinner that is saved before time shall be no more.

The Bible says the blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin.

The Bible says, in whom we have redemption through his blood.

Even the forgiveness of sins, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.

We are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold from our vain conversation received by tradition of our fathers, but with the precious blood, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Does your church still sing about the blood?

Why not?

Has your Bible removed references to the blood?

Why do you have that?

Does your pastor downplay the blood of Jesus Christ?

I tell it's the most precious thing in this universe.

It's the only thing that'll wash anybody's sins away.

Verse 9.

Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Amihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel.

It's happened before.

Ezekiel 126, Revelation 4.3.

You'll see him one day.

You'll see your Savior, your Redeemer, or you'll see your judge, the one who condemned you.

You'll see him.

They saw him.

And there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone.

Fascinating.

And as it were, the body of heaven in his clearness.

So God comes down, he's transported Ezekiel, saw him, his throne being transported by that wheel within the wheel within the wheel.

Those eyes round about it.

We talked about that when we studied the book of Ezekiel.

And here he's coming down and standing upon this gorgeous and beautiful, this uh this transparent platform.

And upon the nobles of the children of Israel, he laid not his hand.

And they saw God and did eat and drink.

You know, the Lord just it just you can tell it all the way through the Bible, he wants to fellowship with man.

He's hindered in that desire by man's lack of holiness.

He's frustrated in those attempts.

By man's lack of purity.

But whenever God gets an opportunity to have a meal with men, he does so.

Whenever he can break bread, broil fish, and hand out the honeycomb.

Whenever he can sit in an upper room at a table with his disciples, when he can spread that feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb, look, God desires fellowship with man.

You think it'd be the other way around.

You'd think it'd be man longing to get God's attention, longing for a moment in the presence of God, and God refusing, but it's just the opposite.

It's just the opposite.

God longing and desiring the fellowship, the companionship of man and man, putting God off, man refusing.

Sounds incredible, but it's true.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount and be there.

I like that.

I like that.

Don't do anything, don't say anything, don't try anything, don't give me any ideas or suggestions.

I just want you to come be there.

When's the last time you went into the presence of the Lord just to be there?

When's the last time you communed with God just just to be there?

And I will give thee tables of stone and a law and commandments, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them.

Do you have God's words?

Are you teaching them?

Are you just telling stories?

Are you just preaching your standards and your convictions?

Are you using the pulpit to promote promote politics?

Maybe to to uh enhance your personal finances, maybe to defend your person or your agenda.

What an amazing thing.

God.

God himself.

This isn't Moses this time writing in a book.

This is God writing and delivering.

13 and Moses rose up and his minister Joshua.

And Moses went up into the mount of God.

What a trip, what a trip that had to have been every time Moses climbed that mountain.

What an amazing thing.

How he must have been humbled, how he must have been thrilled.

How his heart must have beat so rapidly with anticipation.

How his hands must have trembled, how his eyes must have strained and in longing anticipation of what he might see with the next step.

And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us until we come again unto you.

And behold, Aaron and her are with you.

If any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.

So he's anticipating being gone for a time.

He's trusting these two men.

If the congregation needs anything while I'm away, I'm counting on you men to lead as I would lead.

And Moses, and happy is the man, blessed is the man that has a minister like Joshua, and assistance from men like Aaron and her.

We're going to have some Aaron trouble before we're through.

Verse 15, and Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount, and the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.

And seventy called into Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.

Could I watch with him one hour?

The disciples couldn't in Gethsemane.

I wonder, could I wait a day?

God said, I'm going to speak to you.

And a day goes by, and he does not.

I wonder, I wonder.

Could I wait a second day?

I'm sure the Lord called me up here.

I'm sure God's going to speak to me in the mountain, but three days have gone by now.

I wonder how many of us could have tarried there for six long days.

Six twenty four-hour sessions of nothing.

No word, no voice, no visitation, no appearance.

Trusting.

God called me up here.

God said he was going to meet me here.

I'll wait.

I'll wait.

Has God given you a command, a promise?

A hope?

Can you wait?

Can you trust him?

The seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

And Moses went in the midst of the cloud and got him up into the mount.

And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

A terrifying sight to the natural eye.

A fascinating wonder to the natural eye.

And yet think with me, my friend.

A mountain, a mountain rising up in its power and majesty in a desert place.

That's quite a sight to behold.

A cloud filled with radiant glory descending upon that mountain.

What a thing that must be to gaze upon.

Then thunderings and lightnings flashing and crashing through that cloud upon that mountain.

Oh, it's a sightseer's glory, it's a photographer's dream.

It's a sight to marvel at.

But Moses, he walks right past all of it.

Oh, yes, a mountain is beautiful, but I'm gonna keep going.

A cloud like this is marvelous, but I'm going to keep going.

This uh firework show is spectacular, but I'm I'm moving on.

I'm gonna go meet with God.

I'm going to meet with God.

My friends, the heavens declare the glory of God, but they are not God.

The creation shows his handiwork, but it is not God.

I don't know that there's anyone living that more that appreciates the beauty of nature more than I do.

I'm fascinated by God's creation.

I love to look upon it, but it's not God.

It's not God.

As wonderful as we own the things God has made to be, let's not stop with them.

Let's get past the creation and worship the Creator, shall we?

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Until then, I'm Brother James.

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