Almighty Father in heaven, you are indeed good. You are worthy. You are eternal. You are invisible and majestic. We come this morning in prayer because you have spoken and told us that we have access to your wonder and your glory through Jesus Christ, our mediator and our savior. Lord, thank you. Thank you for speaking to us. Thank you for sparing us when you speak to us. May we respond, I pray, in faithfulness this morning as we hear your word. May we know the weight and the glory and the joy of hearing from our God and from our maker. May your word rest upon us this morning with such consequence that we run to Christ, that we might cling to the cross of Christ and find in the sacrifice there mercy and grace and hope and joy for our sin has been atoned for at the cross. Father, we've been delivered and freed. from the bondage and burden of sin, thank you. Thank you for doing this for us while we were yet sinners. May your spirit triumph in our hearts this morning. May your spirit come and cause us to look to Jesus, our founder and perfecter of our faith. We ask these things in the name, this glorious, Name Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh, our Savior and our Deliverer. Amen. Amen. Exodus 20, verses 18 through 26. Could not read this passage without thinking of a volume that many of you have read. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. It's just in chapter 3, so it's just a handful of pages into that particular book. Christian, who is the main character in this book, Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan. Christian is the main character in this book, and he has just finished running, fleeing from the city of destruction, and has been rescued from the swamp of Despond. Chapter 3, he runs into a man by this name. Mr. Worldly Wise Man. This is how it reads. Worldly Wise Man told him, you will find the relief you seek in a nearby village called Morality. In that village resides a gentleman whose name is Legality. a judicious man, a very good reputation. He has the skill to help rid men of burdens like the one you have on your shoulders." So Christian left his path to go to Mr. Legality's house for help. As Christian neared the hill, he was struck by how high and foreboding the hill appeared. One side of the hill hung precariously over the path that would be over him. And Christian then began to fear that the overhanging hill would fall on him. Filled with fear, Christian stopped his journey and stood still, wondering what he should do. His burden also now seemed heavier to him than it was just moments before he had taken his detour off the path that evangelists had instructed him to follow. Flashes of fire came out of the hill and Christian was afraid that he would be burned. Christian began to sweat and to tremble with fear. This is the The story, the fiction that is told by John Bunyan of this man named Christian who is seeking to have relief from his burden, and Mr. Worldly Wise Man tells him to go to this hill that as he approaches becomes an enormous mountain that's hanging over him and doomed to talk to a man by the name of legality. It's a fictitious story. But what we have here this morning in our text is not a fictitious story. It's a true story of God's people who were at that very mountain, Mount Sinai. And they had, as already has been spoken, they had been fearful in chapter 19 at the end. And at the end of chapter 19, we see that they're fearful, they're scared, they're standing at the foot of this mountain. They were told not to approach this mountain. And then in chapter 20, verse 1, God speaks. It says in chapter 20, verse 1, that God spoke these words and spoke to them directly. Speaking these ten commandments into their life. These ten words that are from God. What I want you to note, as we need to remember, and I want to reemphasize and underscore again as we leave these ten commandments this morning, that these Ten Commandments were not given to a people so that they might be delivered. These Ten Commandments weren't, go and do these Ten Commandments and I will deliver you as my people. No, instead what we find in Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 and 2 is that 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 slavery. And He's saying, I have delivered you, therefore these are the commands you're to be living according to because of my deliverance. In other words, their deliverance was not based on doing the Ten Commandments. They were delivered and then given these Ten Commandments. Why? So that they might reflect the character and the attributes of their God who delivered them. So as we went through the Ten Commandments, we noticed, as we went to each one, that these were not for the purpose of making us Christians. They were for the purpose of displaying what God had already done for us in delivering us. That we might reflect who our God is, and that we are His. The question this morning that is before us is this, is that after God spoke these ten words, how did His people respond? How did they appropriately respond to their God who spoke to them from this fearful, terrifying mountain? And what we're going to see this morning is that they were responding in fear, verses 18 through 21, and in worship. Verses 22 through 26. But our points this morning have a little more to them. Because it wasn't just any kind of fear and any kind of worship. What the Lord was doing here, He didn't say, now go in fear and go in worship. No, the Lord was directing them in both of these that they would have a particular kind of fear. So point number one, a particular fear of God. Verses 18 through 21. And then point number two, A particular worship of God, verses 22-26. A particular fear of God, verses 18-21. A particular worship of God, verses 22-26. The Lord was after not any kind of fear, not any kind of worship, but a particular kind. And we're going to see that here this morning as we consider our passage together. The Lord finishes speaking these 10 words in verse 17, and then we find that not only has the Lord been speaking to them, and they heard these 10 demands, these 10 exacting and overwhelming requirements. As we've been going through these 10 commandments, I hope they have done for you what they've done for me, and that is they have leveled us. They have shown us that there is no one righteous, no not one, not even me, not even you. There is none of us that are holy. There is none of us that remotely are able to keep these commandments in the way that God has designed them and called us to. It makes God inaccessible. It makes God fully other, transcendent, perfect in His holiness and purity. When He spoke these ten words, which were ten words of His character, His attributes, They fell on us and the weight of them was overwhelming. Our ears had heard enough. The Word of God laid us bare. If that wasn't enough, it says in verse 18 that not only was it overwhelming what they heard in these 10 words, but in verse 18 it says, now when all the people saw Now there's vision. Now their eyes are seeing something. Now it's something other than what they're hearing, but now what they are seeing is coming together. What they're hearing and what they're seeing and what they're viewing is coming together. And it was truly awesome in the truest sense of that particular word. We use that word in a very trite way today, but this was an awesome experience. They were in awe, in horror. It says in verse 18, And when all the people saw, what did they see? They saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. They were seeing this coming from God. And they had heard these words, these demands that were exacting and overwhelming, requiring them to live in a particular way that was not anything of themselves. They could not see themselves in these commands. What did it cause their hearts to do? It says in verse 18, that after they saw these flashings of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, verse 18, the people were afraid. They were so afraid, it says, that they trembled and they stood far off. Today we are relentlessly devoted to casualness, to being casual. We refuse to think of God as one who is unapproachable or even frightening. We're convinced that what God wants is us to kind of swing in and to enjoy his presence and then swing out whenever we get an opportunity. We are devoted today in our own hearts to casualness. We are far more apt to describe God even in ways that we prefer, in ways that our imagination has fostered, that God is easygoing, laid back, relaxed, and informal. We seldom think of God in the ways that he describes himself in his word. We often assume that God just really thinks we're great and he just is amazed and and so thrilled that we're coming into his presence. Do you see this morning that this is not the picture we have in scripture? That when God's people come into the presence of God, they're terror-strucken. It is, even in our historic confessions, it says this, and these are ways that we can't even speak of God anymore. We don't think of God in this way. That's why I think our historic confessions are so helpful, because they go back to a time when people more thoroughly understood God from Scripture. The Lord our God is one, the only living and true God. He is self-existent and infinite in being and perfection. His essence cannot be understood by anyone but Him. He is a perfectly pure spirit. He is invisible and has no body, parts, or unchangeable or changeable emotions. He alone has immortality, dwelling in light that no one can approach. He is unchangeable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, in every way infinite, absolutely holy, perfectly wise, holy, free, completely absolute. Do we think of God in that way? Is that the God that we approach in prayer? Is that the God that we have come here this morning to worship? This kind of waiting, careful, sober understanding of God is rarely how we will naturally think of God. We are so quick to make him into our image, assuming that he is just as much wanting to just kind of swing in and swing out as we are. This is why we are, I believe, so dangerously trite when we come to call upon the Lord in our prayers and in our worship. We're so dangerously trite when we approach this God. However, we noticed this morning that this is not how God's people understood God in our texts. to the point that they were so devastated that they come and they make a request. So not only did all the people, it says in verse 18, not only did all the people see the thunder, not only were all the people afraid and they trembled and they stood far off, but then they did something about it. It says in verse 19 that what they do is they go to Moses. And they said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. They took action. They knew that they could not handle the magnitude, the weight, the glory of God any longer. If the Lord continued to speak His words directly to them, they could not handle it. We need to note here this morning a very important observation. And it is this. that this fear and trembling that they had before the mountain of God is before they had done actually anything in way of sin against any of the commandments. In other words, they had not yet sinned against these commandments yet. They're still standing at the foot of the mountain, hearing God's word, and when they hear them, they have not yet gone off. It hasn't been two weeks later, they come back and realize, we can't do these, and we're terrified. No, at the very time when the Lord gave them these commandments, they come to Moses and say, you speak to us, we will listen, but we cannot allow God to speak to us, or we will die if he speaks to us directly. This was before any of the Ten Commandments were violated. They understood themselves as undone and opposed to God in their very nature, not just by the things that they were doing. And therefore, they clearly knew that they were not able to hear from God, because if they did, if they heard directly from God, they would die. Moses was called upon then, to be their necessary prophet and their necessary mediator. Do you hear that? I want you to catch those two titles. Moses here is gonna be a prophet in that he's going to speak to God's people on behalf of God. He's gonna be their prophet. And Moses is gonna be their mediator in that he's gonna stand between God and his people and be able to mediate to them what God is saying. They're asking Moses to do this. They're in a bind here, and it's one that we seldom find ourselves. It's one that we don't carefully think through, and it is this. If God does not speak and reveal himself, then they are completely absent of God. They have no ability to know who God is unless God reveals Himself to them. In other words, the reason we know anything about God isn't because of our effort toward God, that we were digging around trying to find who God is and we found this God. No, the reason we know anything about God rightly is because He showed it to us, not because we went looking for it from Him. And so the only way we can know who God is, the only way we can have any idea of this one who is our maker, the one who is our comfort, the one who is our end, the one who can be everything for us, who is everything for us, the only way we can know Him is if He speaks to us. So what they weren't saying is, we don't want to hear from God anymore. That's not what they were saying here. They knew the urgency, the necessity that they had to have somebody speaking to them who God was and how God wanted them to act. and where God wanted them to be, how God wanted them to live, this deliverer of theirs. They needed someone who was a prophet. They absolutely knew the necessity of a prophet for them, one who could speak God's words for them. And they desperately needed a mediator so that they would not die from hearing directly from God. You see how this is very different than our understanding so often. We believe that we can just kind of come right into God's presence. We can kind of just enter in. We can just kind of come right in because he's now so accessible. And we never understand that the reason God is accessible any at all is because we have one who has spoken to us, a prophet, and we have one who is mediating for us. Do you understand that that's still true today? That if we heard directly from God, it would kill us. We would be fearful and die if we heard straight from Him. How then could they know God and not die? That's the question. How can we know God and not die? Moses becomes their necessary prophet, mediator. Brothers and sisters, this morning is hearing God's word cause you to tremble, cause you to fear, cause you to acknowledge that this is one who is other than you. This is one who is transcendent. This is one who is full of glory and awe and wonder. This God is the same God today as he was then. He is one to be honored and in awe of. He's one to be worshiped and prayed to. He's one that we must desperately know. When we come to Him, do we acknowledge that we should be coming to Him with fear and trembling, knowing that He is an awesome God, an amazing God. The only way we have access to Him is through the mediator that we've been provided, the prophet that we've been given in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came as the Word made flesh, speaking clearly of who God was. He's the image of the invisible God. He's the fullness of God. He is speaking to us clearly who God is. He's our prophet, but He's more than that. He's our mediator. He stands between us. He helps us so that we are not in the presence of God and thus die, but instead, He stood in our place so that we might know our God and that we might know Him. So we see here that they were terrified for this mountain. Verse 19. But we know that this terror, this fear that filled them, they asked Moses to be a mediator for them. They call on Moses to do this. Now Moses speaks. Moses is now telling them. Notice in verse 20, we have a transition. It's no longer the people that are talking, but now in verse 20, it's Moses now that is talking and he's speaking to the people. So we have the people talking, verses 18 and 19. And now in verse 20, Moses responds to their request to be their prophet, their mediator. Moses said to the people in verse 20, now listen to this verse, it's interesting. If you listen carefully, you'll find something strange in this verse. If you've read it already this week, maybe you've already seen this, notice what it says. And Moses said, excuse me, and Moses said to the people, verse 20, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin. You see that? What is Moses calling them to do? Well, he's calling them not to fear. Or is he calling them not to fear? Because it says here, do not fear, verse 20, for God has come to test you that the fear of Him may be before you." Is He calling them to fear or is He calling them not to fear? The answer is this, Moses is calling them to a particular kind of fear. You see, brothers and sisters, each and every one of us have fear. All of us are fearing something. Most of us living in what's called what I call self-preserving fear and it's unavoidable. We fear everything that causes us discomfort or displeasure. We're living in fear of others that drive us to constantly be performing and appeasing these people that we're trying to please. We live in fear of displeasing others, friends and family and loved ones. We're constantly doing things, bending over backwards to try to please them. We're living in fear of discomfort or displeasure. We do everything we can to keep from allowing that to take a place in our lives. When we get a bump on our arm, all know it's cancer. All of a sudden, it's horrible. It's going to be horrible. We're going to die from this. No, it's all this fear that's in us. And we're constantly self-preserving fear. And then finally, we all have a fear of death, of losing that which comes by death. We're filled with fear. Fear drives every waking moment of our lives. There's not one in here that isn't affected by this. This is the particular kind of fear that Moses was calling the people away from. This self-preserving, self-interested fear. You see, when they came before God, they said, the Lord cannot speak to us, Moses, you need to speak to us. Why? Because we're gonna die. It's self-preserving. They were saying, we're gonna die if we keep hearing these words from God. It was a self-preserving, self-interested kind of fear. But notice that Moses, what he's calling God's people to is a particular kind of fear. He's saying here in verse 20, do not fear. In other words, do not fear to die. Do not fear self-preserving fear. Do not fear in that way. But he goes on and he says this. He says, for God has come to test you or to prove you. In other words, the Lord is trying to figure out what kind of fear is in you predominantly. The Lord wants to know where your fear really lies. And then he goes on and he says, he says, I've coming to, it says, do not fear for I've come to test you. Why? That the fear of him, of our Lord, may be before you. In other words, before any other fear, your fear of the Lord is first. Your fear to honor and to respect and to adore. This is a godly fear. This is a reverent fear. This is an awe-inspiring fear. A fear that's filled with adoration and love. Now, some would at this point say, well, this has nothing to do with the trembling in the corner kind of fear. This abject terror that just completely consumes you. Well, it seems that there is at least a little bit of that here in way of God's people before this mountain. And God deserves that. What's amazing is that we have access to God through Christ. We are to die if we approach Him without a mediator. So we see here that this fear is a healthy, good thing. We should pray, brothers and sisters, that the Lord would give us this kind of fear. This kind of fear before our Lord, it says here. May the Lord prove us. May the Lord test our hearts this morning and this week. that we'll begin seeing that all of my life is so that I can please this person and I need to be pleasing the Lord first. All of my life is so that I can stay healthy and I need to ultimately honor God with my life and my health and my sickness. All of my life is to keep so that I'm not dying or so that I won't die or placing myself in places where it's safe and comfortable. Maybe the fear we need to have is not that. but a fear to be what God's called us to be. You see, this is the fear that drives husbands and wives with their kids to be missionaries in hard places. Because what they've said is that the fear of the things of this world are passing. They're worthless. It's a fear that God and God alone is to be revered and honored. A godly fear. The fear that has God and His majestic glory as our object. So here's the point here. All of us are going to fear. Here's the question. What's the object of your fear? That's where you will sin. You will sin if your fear has any other object other than God. Then you're sinning. If your object of your fear is God and God alone, then that is righteous, that is godly, that is good, brothers and sisters. The beginning of wisdom is what? The fear of the Lord. You know why the Lord said that? It's because we do so many unwise things. You know why? Because we're so fearful that we're gonna be disapproved of by someone. that we're trying to please someone or somebody or something, we're trying to stay alive, we're trying to stay healthy, we're trying to do all these different things that we're fearful of, and we're acting in ways that are not wise, that are in fact foolish, why? Because we're not first and foremost, before anything else it says here, fearing the Lord. Now this fear of the Lord, when it is present, it's easily identified. When this fear of the Lord, this godly fear of the Lord is present, it is easily identified. And it says this at the end of verse 20, it says that, the fear of him may be before you that you may not sin. You see, this fear promotes and drives us to holiness and obedience. Now, let me say this, and I hope you can put these pieces together. We just got finished with 10 sermons, actually more than 10, because I spent a couple of sermons on the Lord's day. We just got finished with many sermons on the 10 commandments. You and I have become altogether indifferent on those already. The thing that's going to cause us to come before God's word in these 10 commandments over and over again and beg and plead that God would help us to do these so that we can reflect His glory is a healthy, right, appropriate, faithful fear of our God. When we come before His Word and we realize what He has done, He's revealed Himself to us and we as His image bearers are obligated by the very fact that we're image bearers of our God, the fear of the Lord will drive us to do things that the world thinks is absolutely insane. Why? Because we're fearful that we're going to disobey God. In other words, it makes it so that the law isn't some line, and I can get all the way up to that line and live as close to it as I want to, because as long as I don't cross it, then I'm okay. The fear of the Lord says, there's the line, I'm going to stay as far away from it as I can. Why? Because I want to honor the Lord in all that I do and all that I say. You see how absolutely vital this fear is that we might live out these commands. Could it be that Christians today, could it be that the people that are in this room, in this room right here, let's not talk about the people that are out there on Atlantic Boulevard. Let's talk about the people that are in here. Could it be that the reason we are not diligent, careful with pouring over these 10 commandments and asking the Lord to do them in us, It's because we do not have a fear of God, not one that we should have. Pastor Albert Martin, a pastor up in New Jersey, wrote a book called The Forgotten Fear. It's a little paperback, it's worth reading, I would encourage you to read that. In it, he says this, talking about the importance of this fear in a man or woman's life that's seeking to be faithful. He says this, take away the soul from the body, and all you have left in a few days is a stinking carcass. Take away the fear of God from any profession of godliness. Take away the fear of God from any profession of godliness, and all that is left is a stinking carcass of Phariseeism, barren religiosity, and calculated hypocrisy. Take away the fear of God from any profession of godliness, and all that is left is a stinking carcass of pharisaism, barren religiosity, and calculated hypocrisy. It is absolutely vital, brothers and sisters, that we get this right in our hearts and our heads. And the thing is that the issue is not that God's not fearful now. The thing is that we're just simply being disobedient. We have not seen God for who he is. And so therefore we are not coming before him with trembling and saying, you are almighty and I am not. May the Lord more and more weave this into our hearts and into our lives. Let me ask you this question. This was one that pressed upon me as I was just evaluating my own heart as I looked at this text. Listen to this. When you sin, when you sin, are you more concerned More fearful about the consequences of your sin on your life and the influence that it'll have on others and what others will say about you? Or are you more fearful of the breach that you've made between you and your maker? Who are you fearing, brothers and sisters? You see, when we sin, we are far more apt to be self-preserving. to try to remove the consequences of the sin because it's hurting me, and try to remove the influence of what others will think if they see me sinning in this way, then I'm gonna hide it, cover it up. We're more concerned about others. It really is, our fear, listen to this, our fear is an excellent thermometer for what we worship. Our fear tells us what we fear will tell us what we are genuinely, truly worshiping no matter what we say. We are worshiping the things that we fear. Is it the one true God? Is it our Lord and Savior? So we see here this particular fear of God, verses 18 through 21. And then into verse 21. After Moses describes to them the kind of fear that they are to have, one that does not allow them to sin, in other words, violate these 10 commandments, It says in verse 21, the people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. What an amazing, wonderful, glorious gift they have in Moses. God gave them Moses that Moses may come before the face of God and then speak to them. And so here Moses is going into this frightening place, this thick darkness where God was and God's people stood far off waiting to hear from God. What a beautiful picture. Verses 22 through 26 is a particular kind of worship, a particular worship of God. And so after Moses goes into the darkness, then the Lord speaks to Moses. Do you see that in verse 22? The Lord is speaking to Moses and he's telling Moses what they're to be doing. So not only are they to respond, a right response from hearing God's word is to have this reverent godly fear, but Moses draws near, and then the Lord then tells him, not only are you supposed to be fearful, which is a reaction to you seeing and hearing the Word of God, but then the Lord says, what you're not going to understand is how to worship. In other words, think about it. How were they supposed to understand what they were to do to fix this chasm that separated them from God? How are they to understand that? How are they to figure that out? The only way that they can understand how to fix that is if God tells them that. In other words, their worship has to be told to them by God. Our imaginations are not only horrible, but sinful when they come into how should we worship, and we imagine all kinds of wonderful things. Well, it needs to be an expression of who I am, and I need to show God all of my talents. God could care less about you. He gave you your talents. So many times worship becomes this thing where everybody needs to express themselves. That is foolishness. That's a worship of the world. God tells us how to worship. And here he's telling Moses, all right, these people now are at the foot of this mountain. They've heard my ten words. They've seen who I am. This is how they can approach me. And the Lord lays this code, these guidelines down for his worship. We need to understand that God God first is revealing himself in a particular way, and he's always revealed himself in a particular way. The Lord doesn't just reveal himself in any every way, even though you may have friends of yours that are convinced that they talked to Jesus on the way to work this morning, or they saw Jesus in a pancake, or all these other crazy stuff. God reveals himself in particular ways, and he does it to us, he reveals himself through his word. And here what's very clear is, notice with me if you will, the first thing that the Lord tells Moses, the Lord said to Moses, verse 22, don't overlook that, it's the Lord speaking to Moses and saying this, thus you shall say to the people of Israel, what is it that the Lord wants Israel to know? You have seen for yourself that I have talked with you from heaven. You see that? You have seen for yourself that I have talked to you from heaven. The Lord is showing them, telling them, he says, I want you to, I want the people of God, Moses, to understand that even though they've seen this smoke and this mountain and this flashes of lightning, they have not seen me. They've only heard from me. And so the point here is very obvious. The Lord is wanting his people to know that he is invisible and thus should never be worshipped with visual aids and through images. The Lord is revealing himself from, he says he's talking from heaven. Therefore, there is nothing on earth that can represent God in such a way that we can then bow to it and serve it. There's only one way. to worship God, and it is in the way that He has revealed Himself to us, and He does that through His Word. He speaks to His people. He spoke to His people. And He says, I want you to first and foremost let them know that they did not see anything. They just heard from Me. In other words, the Lord is invisible, and thus should never be worshipped with visual aids. Commandment. Number two, verses four and five of chapter 20, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or anything in the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. Jesus, the second person of the triune God, is also one whom we are not to represent through images in worship. First Timothy 1.17 speaks of Jesus. It says, to him, speaking of Jesus, who is the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor, glory forever and ever. Amen. First Timothy 6.15 says, Jesus Christ, who is the blessed and the only sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor, and eternal dominion forever. So when we worship our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who is at his right hand, we must be careful, brothers and sisters. The Lord has revealed himself to us through words, and thus we are to worship him, not by the imaginations or the images that we create, but instead by the very careful attention to his revealed word to us. Worship is by his word, his word being given to us. The more show that is displayed, the more leery we should be of that kind of worship. It's just the way it is. The more it is the display of man's abilities, the more careful we should be thinking through this and saying, you know, none of these things are bad. but they're just not what God has prescribed. God told us to make His Word preeminent, paramount in His worship. So now that we understand that God has revealed Himself through His Word, it says, no images, verse 23, you shall not make gods of silver to be with me, Nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold." In other words, these are precious metals. In other words, we're going to take the best that exists on earth and we're going to shape this and make this and give it to God and show him how wonderful he is. God says, you're demeaning me when you do that. You're saying something far less than you need to be saying when you try to do that. Be careful. Be careful. You see, that's why on Sunday mornings, often, I make the comment, we haven't come here this morning with our hands saying, here God, this is what I did this week, will you please bless it? And you remember me saying this often? I say this almost a lot of times on Sunday morning, I say, we've come here this morning not to bring God anything, but to acknowledge that God has done everything for us in Christ Jesus. We've come here this morning not to work ourself up into an emotion and worship and really have this great experience, that's not why we're here. We're here to acknowledge again today that what we need so desperately, God has done for us in Jesus Christ as he revealed it to us through his word. It's not about our tricks and our ingenuity and our imagination. So how do we approach God? The Lord then gives some guidelines to how they are to approach him. And as I look through these, you can see them as we go, verses 24 through 26, I want you to notice. There's three guidelines that I just kind of pulled out of here as I was observing this. The first observation that I see is in verse 24 where it says that the altar in the worship of God is to be simple. Do you see the contrast between verse 23 where there's silver gods being made and gold gods being made? These precious metals, this wonderful craftsmanship and artistry that God says, I'm not going to appreciate. But then in verse 24 it says, an altar of earth shall be made for me. We're enough in the South for me to explain it this way. It's a barbecue pit. It's a hole dug in the ground. It's a barbecue pit. There's not a lot to it. Nobody looks at that and says, oh, that's amazing. That's wonderful. Look at this incredible creation. Nope, it's a hole in the ground. The altar is to be made of earth. And you're to make it, how? For me. You make it for me. tells us this purpose of this altar. What's the purpose of this altar? It says, it's to be made for me and sacrifice on it, verse 24, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place I call my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. So we see here that the Lord is saying, you build this altar of earth, very simple, You make these sacrifices on it, you see there's no approaching God without sacrifice, without an altar for sacrifice. We must understand that this sacrifice is absolutely necessary, not only during the time of Exodus, but also today. We think sometimes that the sacrifice is something that was in the Old Testament, something that's gone, it's passed by. We no longer need to think about that. No, the only way we can approach God today as they did was by sacrifice. We need to never forget this. Here we notice not only how particular he is by saying that they need to build this altar out of the earth, but also he's very particular about the kind of sacrifices there to have here. The details of the sacrifice are clear. The sacrifice is to be a burnt offering, peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. They're not left, brothers and sisters, to make up this altar of what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. A particular altar of the earth is to be made. A particular sacrifice on it is to be done. And then finally in verse 24 we see that this is not just to keep the people busy. This isn't just some thing that we go to. It's kind of like sometimes people think in worship on Sunday morning where we're going through these motions again. We're just kind of clocking through these things and we're doing this and we're doing this and we're doing that. And it's all to keep us busy and show us our homage to God. No, not at all. We're doing these things because God told us to. He gave us the opportunity and the privilege to do them. The Lord wasn't simply trying to burden his people or keep them busy, though that's how they felt back in the times of the minor prophets. They talk about the people were constantly burdened by all that God had called them to do. That's not what God was trying to do, but instead it was a precious gift and blessing to them. Notice that it says here that in every place, he wants this altar to be done, the sacrifice to be done this way, that in every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you. You see that? That's a blessing. The Lord says, I'm gonna come to you. Not only is he gonna come to be with them, but he's gonna come, and it says here, he's gonna bless them. He's gonna bless them. This is an amazing gift. The Lord says, I want my people to approach me, Moses. And so go back and tell them they're making an altar. And that altar is just supposed to be something simple out of earth. Do these sacrifices. And when you do these sacrifices, these mundane things that nobody will think is important. God says, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna be with you. And I'm gonna bless you. for doing this simple thing. It's not an elaborate thing. Did you notice this? It's not just bells and smells. It's not all kinds of crazy stuff. It's the Lord doing something very ordinary. It says, in every place where I cause my name to be remembered. This need for sacrifice has not gone away simply because we're New Testament Christians. But we just like the people of Exodus time, We need to be reminded over and over again that it required a sacrifice in order for us to approach God. We're prone, we're so apt to forget that in order for us to approach God, it requires a sacrifice. So our Lord and Jesus said, do something simple. Take unleavened bread and take a cup, break the bread, give it to my people. Remind them that this is representing the brokenness of my body and the blood that was spilt. You see, it's not extraordinary, is it? In fact, anybody looking at it would think it's bread, it's juice. The Lord says, when you do this in remembrance of me, that he'll come and be with us and he will bless us. Do you see how the Lord is still acting in the same way? The Lord, in His grace, doesn't make it complicated. He doesn't make it a list of 45 different things we've got to do just in order for us to approach God. No. He gives us a very clear display, even this morning as we come to the Lord's table, that in order for us to come to God, it requires a sacrifice. Let me share this. I usually share it in a new members class, but I'll share it again this morning. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the priest would typically stand on that side of the table during the Lord's Supper. Over there. And the idea was that the priest was the mediator. And the priest would take the bread and take the juice and dip the bread and then give it to the people that were coming by. The priest was standing on that side of the table as their mediator. Martin Luther, shortly after the Reformation, comes into church one morning when they're getting ready to take the Lord's Supper and he gets behind the table and he pushes it forward. And he stands behind it and he says, Christ is your mediator. No man will be your mediator, but the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see the value of what we do and why we do it? I stand on this side of the table, brothers and sisters, because I'm a sinner like you. receiving the sacrifice just like you, acknowledging that in order for us to come before God, we need a mediator, one whom we represent through the breaking of the bread and the taking of the cup. The sacrifice hasn't gone away. Guideline number one, keep it simple. Keep it simple. Don't try to imagine and make it extravagant. Guideline number two that we see in verse 26. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you will your tool on it, you profane it. Hewn stones are simply cut stones. The guideline is this. The guideline is that the worship of God is to be focused on God. It's to be focused on God. They were to be very careful when they came to worship that it wasn't something that they had done that was emphasized. If they had taken this altar and they had cut the stones and they had shaped the stones and they had built this edifice, then it could have very easily become what? An idol. These stones that were shaped so beautifully and crafted so carefully could have been very easily a distraction from their worship, or at worst, it could have been venerated as the very worship itself. I'm glad today that God's people have gotten past this and we don't worship our buildings and our things and our stuff. We worship God, right? You see how easy it is, brothers and sisters? Even here, as far back as Exodus chapter 20, we see that God was wanting to say, you can so easily make worship about so many other things other than me. So don't cut these stones, don't hewn them, don't wield your tool on them, because if you do, it may become something that you would venerate more than me. People will come from miles around to see this wonderful altar that was made by so-and-so who did such a great job. Don't do that. Keep the focus on God. Guideline number three, and finally, verse 26. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness be not exposed on it. Now what in the world is that? Where did that come from? Guideline number three is be careful in our worship to avoid sexual allurements. Can we say that sex is being worshipped today? Can we say that sex is being used to advertise everything today? The Lord knows that our hearts are prone to be allured to these things. We're prone to be lured to these things. The pagan idolatry, you look through history, but even during this time, we find that the pagan worship was mostly sexual in its content. And the Lord says, I don't want that to be even remotely associated with the worship of me. The Lord says that should have nothing to do with worship that is of God, the one true God. So he says here that they're not to have these steps, where if they went up on steps, this is a small platform, but if there was an altar that they could go up on, everybody wore, not pants, but things that could be seen up, right? And how that could be so easily become what? Now all of a sudden worship is no longer about the Lord, it's about something else. It's amazing to me that as early as this, There's a clear verse about how important it is to be modest in worship. Could it be that people are coming here and when they go home on Sunday, they're talking about that girl's dress or that guy's outfit instead of the Lord? Could it be? Could it be that we should dress in such a way that we're not attractive? We don't have people looking and seeing what we're wearing, but instead we're turning that focus to the Lord. So the last guideline was to be careful to avoid sexual allurements. In Pilgrim's Progress, In Pilgrim's Progress, Christian, we left him in terror at this mountain that was getting ready to fall on him, and he's frozen. Remember, he stood still in terror, not knowing what to do. And in the story, as Christian is standing at the foot of Mount Sion, in God's mercy and grace, Evangelist comes walking up. It's a beautiful scene there. Evangelist comes up to Christian and says, why are you here? I gave you the path. I showed you where you needed to go. You're so far off from where you were supposed to be. Evangelist or Christian goes on to say basically that worldly wise man told him that he could relieve his burden quickly by going to the city of morality and talking to legality. And he explains all that to him. And then, then evangelist says, stand still for a while. so that I may show you the words of God. So Christians stood trembling. Then evangelists said, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. So this morning, brothers and sisters, do not refuse this word. this Word that's been preached to you from God's Word, this Word that's being displayed to you through the taking of the Lord's Supper, this Word speaks of Christ, and Christ as the perfect mediator by the sprinkling of His blood that grants us access before the Father Almighty, the God who is holy, who is a God of fear and a God of awe. Hebrews 12, 18. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest in the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them. Do you hear that? It's exactly what was taking place here in Exodus 20. For they could not endure the order that was given. In other words, the Ten Commandments. If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. So even Moses was trembling. But you have, listen, but you have, we have come to the Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, we've come to God, the judge of all, and to the spirit of the righteous made perfect, and we've come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkling of blood, listen, that speaks a better word, a better word, than the blood of Abel. What did the blood of Abel do? It was crying up from the ground and what? Accusing Cain. What does the blood of Jesus do? It cries out and says, forgive them. Forgive them. This is better word from Jesus. Brothers and sisters, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not, back in the day, if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject him who warns us from heaven? Christ is our perfect prophet and mediator. He's better than Moses ever was. Motivated by the particular godly fear given to us by the spirit, we are drawn by God's mercy and kindness to Christ. our deliverer and our savior. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, and the man is Christ Jesus. How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore, he, Christ, is the mediator of the new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.