Smoke on the Mountain

According to prevalent mindset, what is right or wrong has to be decided in each given situation.

Truth is relative. According to the current worldview, there is no absolute

standard of right and wrong when it comes to personal ethics.

Each person must decide in a given situation what he or she should do rather

than to seek an outside moral standard.

And the result is absolute chaos i

began reading you know i like to read and

i i read a lot of books but i began reading

a book that i read in high school again

and how many of you have ever read 1984 1984 by george orwell and in it it talks

about the big brother government big brothers watching you and one of the things

they have one of the four institutes they have in this government one of the

four ministries they called them,

which is kind of a bad word for what they're using, but they call it the ministry of truth.

And the ministry of truth, those who are in this ministry decide what is truth,

and they imprison or execute anybody that in their mind dishes out disinformation.

So truth is only relative to those that are in the say-so of what truth really is.

William Bennett, in his 1999 version of the Index of Leading Cultural Indicates,

concludes this, quote, during the last half of this 20th century,

this was in 1999, we have made extraordinary progress in medicine,

science, and technology.

We have achieved unprecedented levels of wealth and and affluence.

But we have lost something in the process.

The nation that we live in today is more violent and vulgar,

coarse and cynical, rude and remorseless, defiant and depressed than the one we once inhabited.

A popular culture that is often brutal, gruesome, and enamored with death robs

many children of their innocence.

People kill other people and themselves more easily.

Men and women abandon each other

and their children more readily marriage and the american

family is weaker and more unstable in quote

in also in that book 1990 or

1984 the author talks about days where people would go to the center of town

and they would watch as people were executed the children would be up front

as people were executed and they would cheer as as people were executed. Hmm.

If we look at the day and age that we're living in and the riots that we've

had and the mayhem all over the earth, aren't we looking at days like that where

people cheer someone else's death?

We are like the culture lost in an unfamiliar territory without a map.

What we need are some landmarks, some fixed points of reference to figure out

where we are and where we're going.

That's where the Ten Commandments come in. And last week, you'll remember I

preached a sermon titled of the Statutes of Liberty about the Ten Commandments.

This morning, I want us to back up on the stage set prior to the giving of the

Ten Commandments to take a look at the need for these laws.

Why were these laws instituted? And the title of this message this morning is Smoke on the Mountain.

By the way, I have out on the table, if you really want it, I have written lyrics.

Okay, how many of you are old enough to know Deep Purple and Smoke on the Water?

Okay, I've written lyrics to Smoke on the Water titled Smoke on the Mountain.

And if you are interested in taking a copy of those, they're on the table out

there, and then you can sing that all week long. Just a thought.

So as we catch up with Moses and the children of Israel, in Exodus chapter 19,

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

the people have been in the desert for about three months.

Now they have arrived at the mountain. mountain. They have arrived at the same

place where Moses had first been called by God to go and bring the people out of Egypt.

That's where he went when he was shepherding flock for his father-in-law,

Jethro, and that's where God told him he was going to send him back to Egypt to get his people out.

There it is at Mount Sinai, or Mount Horeb, by the way, that's not Mount Horeb in Wisconsin.

Mount Horeb in the Middle East, two different names for the same place.

It was here that God had promised Moses in Exodus 3, verse 12.

Exodus 3:12

He said, I will certainly be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt, he's saying this to Moses when

he was on Mount Sinai at the burning bush being called by God.

He said, this will be a assigned to you that I've sent to you,

when you brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this very mountain.

In Exodus chapter 19, verse 3, we find that Moses indeed makes his first of

Exodus 19:3

many trips up to the mountain.

Now, we have this false impression from the movies that, you know,

when Charlton Heston made only one trip up the mountain to receive the law,

but Scripture Scripture tells us that Moses went up numerous times.

It was on the mountain God tells Moses what he is to tell the children of Israel.

It says in verse 4, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore

you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

So first thing he does is he reminds the children of Israel what he has done for them.

How could they forget? at? How could they have forgotten what God had done for them?

It was so miraculous in what he had done, taking them through the Red Sea and all of that.

He says he defeated the Egyptians and carried them, as it were,

on eagles' wings. He says, let me make it personal.

Do you remember when you were trapped in Egypt?

You were in bondage to sin, and there was no place for you to go.

Do you remember how you groaned and cried in your captivity?

In fact, that's the one phrase that I I love out of all the scripture talking

about God coming to bat for the people of Israel.

It said, he heard their cries for help, and he came and rescued them.

It goes on, do you remember when you looked at your life and saw only the agony

and hopelessness of your situation? I heard your cries, I saw your tears,

and I came down to buy you back out of slavery. That's the word redemption.

Do you remember? Do you remember the time when you stood with enemies on either

side and the Red Sea lapping at your feet with nowhere to go?

When you couldn't go forward and you could not go back, do you remember how

I rescued you, how I made a way for you where there was no way?

God reminded them of where they were and what he had done for them.

Now, if you look at the the geography of the area,

if you go to the Red Sea, you will find that normally the Red Sea is about 3,000

feet deep, but about, I don't remember exactly where it is, but there's a land bridge,

under the Sea of the Red Sea that is only 900 feet deep.

So from the shores down to the land bridge it's

only 950 that's not very much is it

three football fields deep and

is there that they have found chariot wheels and and

all of that from the time of pharaoh that they

believe to be from that so they believe that is where the israelites crossed

on on dry ground when the waters were backed up on either side and there was

an opening for them to walk through two million plus people walking through 900 feet down.

You know, I don't know if I were there at that time and I saw those walls of

water on either side and that deep chasm to walk down into, I think I'd say, Terry, you go first.

But they had the faith to follow God, and God is reminding them of what he has

done for them, not just in the Red Sea, but all of the things.

Secondly, he tells them that he has set them aside for a special purpose.

Exodus 19, verses 5 and 6 says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant,

Exodus 19:5

then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people,

for all of the earth is mine, and you are 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,

he says, that they are to be a holy nation.

Now the word holy means to be set apart for a special purpose.

They were to be a nation of people who are to show the difference that living

in relationship with God makes.

They were to be a holy nation, a royal royal priesthood, a people belonging

to God, a special purpose set aside for God, and they were to make a difference in living.

Their living and relationship, God, was to make such a difference that they

would have an impact on those around them.

Now, I know I've told you this before, but one of the reasons God put the Israelites in the Canaan land,

in the promised land, is because at that time, and this is where the Israelites

were going after they came out of Egypt, at that time, Israel,

the land of Israel, guess what?

Everything's focusing on Israel again. Just thought. The land of Israel was

in the very center of all commerce from the north and the south.

You couldn't go to the east because it was desert land, so they would travel

from the north to the south, and they would go right through Israel.

And so what God had wanted the Israelites to do, they wanted the Hebrews to do,

is to be right in the middle of everything to influence the world around them

by the difference that God was making in their lives. What did he say to Abraham?

I will bless you and make you a blessing to all nations.

And so God is coming here and he is setting them apart for a holy purpose.

He's wanting to form a bridge between God and the nations of the world.

This was not meant to be a condemnation of those around. It was meant to be

a way that other nations would be shown the truth.

And by the lives that the Israelites lived, God's ideal for the nations in that

life was to be so attractive that other nations would want to come and join them.

Interesting, isn't that what we're supposed to be doing?

We're supposed to be living so much in the relationship with God that people

will see our lives and the way we live and what we say and what we do and how

we react to different things, and they will want to come and be a part of what it is that we have.

People will ask us, what makes you do the things you do?

Well, it's not a what, it's a who, and that's how we live.

So they were shown to be different. they were to

be do so by showing the other nations what it meant to be

in relationship with the living god only three

days later according to verse 16 they assembled

at the base of the mountain and suddenly the

mountain is surrounded by cloud there's thunder and lightning and deafening

blast of trumpets and everyone trebles it calls says that fire was on the mountain

smoke on the mountain fire on the mountains well if you go to that area now

there There is a mountain that they believe to be Mount Sinai.

They don't really have a for sure location, but the top of the mountain is blackened.

Now, if you look at the blackened, it's because it's a rock called basalt,

and it's akin to volcanic rock.

Rock and so it is believed that very possibly

there were volcanoes going on at that time and

this basalt rock pushed up through the younger rock and

came out on top maybe that was the smoking maybe that was the fire but either

case it got their attention didn't it it got their attention that there was

fire on this mountain and if if i were there which i wasn't if i were were there

and I saw this lightning and thunder,

if I were Moses and I saw this lightning and thunder and fire and smoke on the top of the mountain,

I would say, Terry, you go first.

But anyway, I'm picking on Terry. Calling Moses up to the mountain,

God gave him the law, and it included in the law were the Ten Commandments,

sometimes were called the Law of Moses.

When we looked at the Ten Commandments last week, you should have noticed that

the Ten Commandments are divided into two parts.

The first four commandments regard man's relationship with God,

and then we get to the relationship, the six later commandments,

those five through ten, govern man's relationship with man.

We discovered how people are supposed to act and relate to one another and to their God.

What was the greatest commandment according to Jesus? Love the Lord your God

with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

That's the summation of the law and the commandments, as Jesus said.

So from this morning's text, which sets the stage for the giving law,

we see the serious nature in which God led them up to it. He established foundation

for the relationship with his people and gave them his governance for all time.

Perhaps no single portion of scripture is more misunderstood or the target of more criticism.

The way of today's worldview, it seems that people are asking,

who does God think he is to make these rules?

He seems pretty intolerant to me. Have you heard that word a lot?

Well, Ted Turner, a few years back, the outspoken chairman of Turner Broadcasting

System and creator of CNN, declared that the Ten Commandments were outmoded.

He said they weren't relevant to current global problems such as overpopulation and the arms race.

He told his audience, I bet nobody here even pays much attention to them because they are too old.

The Ten Commandments are passe. assay.

To replace them, Turner offered his own 10 voluntary incentives,

or initiatives, excuse me.

They included to help the downtrodden, to love and respect planet Earth,

and to limit families to two children.

He concluded by calling Christianity a religion of losers.

One of the pastors in Ottumwa, Iowa, when we lived there, he's no longer there,

but one of the pastors came to to our Evangelical Ministers Association meeting,

and he was from, well, another denomination, a more liberal denomination.

And he told us he wanted to join our group, but we couldn't exclude him.

And we said, well, we have five basic tenets that you have to agree to.

One, the Bible is the written and infallible word of God.

Two, is Jesus the only way to salvation?

And it goes on. Three, we are led by the Holy Spirit to act like people of God and stuff.

And he couldn't do that. And one of them was to be born again by the Spirit of God.

And he said, what is this being born again? I've never heard of it.

And my Baptist friend said, well, I can lead you to Jesus right now.

You can be born again right now. He'd never heard of it, never read it in the

Bible, never seen anything about being born of the Spirit and the truth.

And we asked him, what do you think of the Bible? And he said,

well, the Bible is passe. essay, Do You Not Believe It's the Word of God?

No, I do not believe it's the Word of God. He went on to say this.

He said that the Bible and its rules and laws are outdated for today's modern society,

and we need to rewrite the Bible by sharper minds than God to tell what we believe

is right for this modern age.

He proceeded to tell us he was going to drive each of us out of our churches,

and by his will, all of our churches were going to be closed.

Well, about a month later, he left town.

It was interesting. God kind of moved him out. But regardless of what this pastor or Mr.

Turner's thoughts are, the Ten Commandments continue to stand as moral standards

that have not been repealed, nor do they need updating to meet the thinking of our modern society.

What God's rules were then were a way to govern how we can live with God and

with each other in harmony.

ABC Nightline's Ted Koppel one night made the following comment.

He said this, quote, We have actually convinced ourselves that slogans will save us.

Shoot up if you must, but use a clean needle. Or enjoy sex whenever and with

whomever you wish, but protect yourself.

Then he went on to say, no, the answer is no.

Not because it isn't cool or smart or because you might end up in jail or dying

in AIDS ward, but because it's wrong. This is Ted Koppel.

He goes on to say what Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were not the 10 suggestions,

they were the 10 commandments.

So do the 10 commandments have any significance for us as believers today?

Well, Jesus said this about the law in Matthew 5, verses 17 and 18.

Matthew 5:17

He says, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away,

not one jot or tittle will by any means pass from the law until it is fulfilled.

And he went on to say, I have not come to break the law or do away with it. I've come to fulfill it.

And the word fulfill literally means to give full meaning to it,

to make it real or make it active, make it alive. that Jesus not only adhered

to the Ten Commandments, he was the living exposition of them.

Jesus lived by them. What Jesus did was to show that it was good enough to,

not good enough to have a nice little set of rules to regulate our lives.

What he said is to believe we behave in such a way that we are evidence of what God has done in us.

And that's what we said last week is the Ten Commandments are not given to us

as rules to live by so we can earn our salvation into heaven.

The Ten Commandments are given us as evidence of what a saved life really is.

So today, I would like for us to ask and answer the question,

what are we to do with the Ten Commandments, besides putting them on your wall at home, you know?

A lot of people do that. I saw one Facebook thing where somebody,

they had a picture of one of the old little makeup dressers,

you know, where you've got the little round mirror on the back and all this.

And has anybody seen one of these? And I thought, in the image on the mirror,

you could see in the background, one of those plaques of the Ten Commandments hanging on the wall.

And I said, yeah, I remember those plaques on the Ten Commandments hanging on

the wall in our houses, but a lot of us had those.

But what do we do with the Ten Commandments other than hang them on the wall?

We're to use them as a mirror.

The law was not given to us so that by keeping it, we might make ourselves acceptable to God.

Standing in a right relationship with God can only be obtained through faith.

Instead, the law functioned to reveal to the Israelites their sinfulness by

striking contrast to the standards of a holy God.

When you stand in front of a mirror, the mirror doesn't have the pimple on it. Your face does.

And you are simply seeing an image of the blemish that is in you.

And that's what the Ten Commandments is. it's it's

a mirror that reflects and shows the blemishes

that are in our lives the the failures that

we have we need to remember the law was given to a redeemed people these were

people that had already been freed from slavery it was not given in order that

for them to get out of bondage it was faith in it was faith and applying the

blood of the lamb that was the remembrance of of their escaping the judgment.

Second, we are to use the 10 commandments as a compass to give us direction.

God has given us his law to let man know what's right and wrong.

Stealing is wrong because God says it's wrong.

Lying is wrong because God says it's wrong.

Adultery is wrong because God says it's wrong.

No, those things are wrong. That's true that God says they're wrong.

But why did God say that they're wrong?

It's because when we steal, we are stealing from another one of our brothers.

When we lie, we are bearing false witness against one of our brothers. others.

When we commit adultery, we are coveting another man's wife.

We are violating others that are around us. God didn't lean out of heaven one

day and says, it appears to me that these people are way too happy.

I think I should write some Ten Commandments to make their lives miserable.

God didn't do that. He saw what was going on, and he saw that they were beginning

to follow the gods of that area that they were in, and he said, listen,

I'm going to give you some rules so that you can live with me and live with each other in harmony.

And so he gave those laws to Moses on top of Mount Sinai.

The third thing we are to allow the Ten Commandments to lead us to Christ.

They're a guide to Christ. They don't cause our relationship,

and they aren't our relationship with God that comes through faith.

But they're like a tutor.

The laws are a tutor that kind of leads us to the real teaching of what God has for us.

It was when a child was born into a home in the Roman Empire,

he was put into the custody of a servant or slave who actually raised him and tutored him.

When the little one grew to a certain age and was to be schooled,

this servant was the one who taught the little one,

took them by the hand, led them to school, and turned them over to the school's

teacher, staying with them during the whole day and taking them home. home.

This tutor, this servant, this nanny, so to speak, was the one to be with them all of the time.

Ten Commandments won't take you to heaven, but they will point you in the right direction.

When you finally come to a place that you see your own hopeless and helpless

condition, the law doesn't save you, but it takes you by the hand and leads

you to the master because it shows you where the blemishes are in our lives.

So as we close this morning and prepare for the Lord I want us to see that the

Ten Commandments are not outdated, that they're very present guides to keep

us from two very real dangers.

The Ten Commandments keep us

from rationalization. It keeps us from fuzzy thinking about what truth is.

What does the word is mean?

We've heard that before. When we determine sinfulness based on comparison with

the behavior of others, we don't look so bad.

God doesn't grade on a curve. We can't rationalize by saying everybody else

is doing it. It must be okay.

Now, I know I'm old enough.

How many of you heard this when you were growing up? If your friends went and

jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?

Right? Yeah. Heard it. Yeah. So others are doing it. Why is it not okay?

Or my behavior is not near as bad as so-and-so. Ten Commandments keep us from

compartmentalization.

The objective of the Ten Commandments is to change our hearts and to point us toward Christ.

So the question is, we're a modern world.

Who on earth needs the Ten Commandments?

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we continue in this time, and as we worship

you through the sharing of the bread and the cup,

we thank you, Father, for the forgiveness that has come through grace,

by faith, through grace,

not of works, and yet we know that that grace that has transformed us also causes

us to live lives of good works, because we want to exemplify the Father.

Father, we pray that we will will be such a changed and different and abnormal

people that those around us will want to know what gives.

And we can share with them the life of Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.