We invite you to take your Bibles now and turn to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19, we'll start at verse 26. And if we remember for three days, Israel has been preparing to meet the Holy One of Israel. And just as I read this, I want you to notice just all the movement. Movement will help us keep track of where we are. There's traveling, there's arrival, there's coming down, going up and coming back down. So just kind of, if you could note those things as we go. So Israel has been preparing to meet with the Lord. Exodus chapter 19 verse 16 through 25. Hear the word of God. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. And they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of a trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish. Also, let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him, go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them, Now please turn in the New Testament to Hebrews chapter 12. And in Hebrews chapter 12, this passage we're going to read refers to Exodus 19. And what it does is show us a greater and the more privileged position that we have as New Testament believers when it comes to our access and worship of God. So Hebrews chapter 12. verses 18 through 24. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. But you have come to 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, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Well, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray and ask the Lord to bless our time in his word. Our living God, help us to hear your holy word with open hearts so that we may truly understand and understanding that we may believe, and believing that we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking Your honor and glory in all that we do, through Christ our Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Now, I'm sure you remember, it was just a couple weeks ago, but we pointed out that Exodus is not just a history book. It's not just the history of salvation, but we should also view it as a book of sermons, a book of sermons for Israel and for all of God's people until Jesus comes. And in Exodus 19, God is still helping Israel get to know Him. He's still revealing Himself and His character to them. Theologically, we would say that there's a lot of doctrine of God here, as the Lord teaches us about His attributes. And the Lord continues to teach us about his attributes, and we need these same lessons all these years later. In fact, this is one of the things that the world desperately needs to learn. They need to learn about who God is, because if they learn about who God is, then they learn who they are, and they see their need for a savior. We need the doctrine of God and a good doctrine of God now just as much as any age has needed it. And the proof and evidence for that, we only need to survey a few contemporary ideas about what people think of God to show that this is true. There is a culture we don't know who God is and that we need to know. In our culture, God is either too distant and too unknowable and not personal. or he's too close and too informal and too much like we are. And that comes out in all kinds of songs, just a couple here. The popular 90s song, Ponders, what if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us. Yeah, yeah. All right, so on. Don't worry, there's another earworm coming, okay, as Pastor Crum calls those. There's also a resurgent song from the early 80s that God says he's really easy to approach and he can be influenced and talked into things. The tune is really catchy, but the lyrics are completely off. As Kate Bush sings something like, ♪ Runner up that hill, I'd make a deal with God. ♪ I know what you're thinking, that if this doesn't work out for me, I have a career in pop music. But that's not what I was thinking. What I was thinking is, I sure hope the hill that she's singing about going up is not Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. For to run up that hill is to come into direct contact with the Holy God. And there would be no deal to be made. There would just be death and judgment. In the ancient world, the gods were thought of as moody and fickle. And if you just did the right thing or begged enough and tried to make them happy, they might just do what you wanted them to do. Well, that idea did not stay in the ancient world. We are guilty. Lord, if you would just do this one thing for me that I will never fill in the blank. Lord, if you could just do this one thing for me, I will, making deals with God. Or we get this God. Some people might call him the teddy bear God. I would call him the big happy puppy dog God. Just wants to jump on you and lick your face and cuddle with you and make you feel better, right? We're a mess when it comes to our doctrine of God. And even as Christians, even though we have the word of God, we hear it all the time, these thoughts sneak into our brains and our hearts, and we continue to have to battle against them and to be corrected and to understand who God is. And not just corrected about who God is, as we'll see in this passage, but we'll also see that to meet with a holy God, We must be brought into his presence through a mediator, through Christ. So that's what we're going to see this morning in our passage. We're gonna see that God is holy and that the only way into his presence is by being brought into his presence through a mediator, through Jesus Christ. That's what we're going to focus on this morning. As I mentioned, there's a lot of movement going on here. We're just going to kind of go through the passage and use these movements as our guides. And then afterwards, we'll reflect on what it teaches us about God and our relationship to Him. So no points. You just get point one, explain. Point two, apply. That's all you get today. So first, take a few moments, just remember what's happening. Jumping back into the middle of chapter 19 here, the Lord continues to reveal himself as the promise-making and promise-keeping God, as he brought Israel out of Egypt, and as he promised, he's brought them to himself at Mount Sinai. And then the Lord goes about formally establishing his relationship or his covenant with his people. He called Moses up to the mountain and entrusted him with the message of the gospel. And the gospel is in verse four, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. And then as mediator and messenger, Moses takes this gospel message back to the elders of Israel, and by extension, all of Israel, and he preached the gospel of grace to them. And when he did that, he also essentially asked them, do you believe this? Will you serve the Lord? Will he be your God? And will you be his people? And in verse eight, the people respond, yes. They say, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And then in verse nine, we see that Moses takes their response back to the Lord. And the Lord says to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. But before this could happen, there was a big problem. The problem is that God is holy and righteous and Israel is full of sin. So how can a holy God meet with a sinful people and not destroy them? Well, we discovered that. We talked about that and we said the only way a sinful people can meet with a holy God and not be destroyed is by being made holy through the work of a mediator. Moses is that mediator. He came down with instructions on how Israel was to be consecrated and to be at least ceremonially clean and to get themselves ready to meet with God. And they were to take three days to prepare to do that. So Moses delivered that message. Israel, it seems, actually followed these instructions. And then right on time, three days later, verse 16, here's what we read. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. So when they woke up on this day, It wasn't to the gentle desert sunrise with a cup of coffee over some nice sweet manna. It was to the sound of continuous thunder and lightning. And when they looked toward where that sound was coming from, where they were camped, they looked to Mount Sinai and they saw a thick cloud. They saw the glory cloud of the Lord descended upon the mountain. And they heard the sound of a loud trumpet. These trumpets, we should think of them as a shofar probably, those really long trumpets that are used to announce the arrival of a king or the beginning of a battle. And so they hear these things, they look up, they see, they look toward Mount Sinai, they see this thick cloud, the glory cloud is descended on top of the mountain, they hear the horns, everything's very loud, it's scary looking, and they must have thought, wait a second, isn't that where we're supposed to go to meet with God, over there? It's hard to visualize what it must have, or possibly could have been like. Have you ever been in a terrible, terrible thunderstorm or a tornado or some other situation or perhaps even in combat where the sound is deafening and you're feeling things shake inside of you? You can feel the thunder in your chest and the sky is continually lit up, thunderstorm, lightning all over the place and seeing and hearing it strike in the distance and fearing for your life. at least in a thunderstorm or perhaps a tornado, many of us have had that kind of experience. But you probably had that kind of experience from inside your house, probably, or maybe inside a car. Well, now imagine if the only protection you have is your tent as you camp outside. That would increase the fear. And then you notice that God's glory cloud you've been following by day has descended upon the mountain, and there's this trumpet blowing. And you know what trumpets are for. You know they do one of two things usually. they announce that the king is arriving, or they announce that a battle is beginning. Well, what kind of trumpets are these? Are these announcing trumpets or are they battle trumpets? The fear was real and Israel was shaking where they stood. They were terrified. They trembled. They quaked. And we know that not only were the people terrified, but so was Moses. In Hebrews 12, 21, we read, indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. We haven't left the camp yet. We're still there. Here's Moses, Israel in the camp, terrified of God revealing himself in his might, power, and holiness. Here's what happens next, verse 17. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Essentially, Moses said, all right, kids, Israel, time to get up, get dressed, get ready, eat breakfast, get in the car, We're going to that mountain over there for church this morning to hear the Lord God Almighty speak to us. Israelites must have been thinking, I'm sorry, that mountain over there? The one with continuous thunder, lightning, trumpet blasts, and the glory cloud of God's presence, that mountain? Again, it'd be hard for us to imagine and to feel the amount of fear in the air. The fear must've been oppressive. The closest thing we could think of to oppression is in Yuma or especially on the East Coast on the hottest of summer days when it's humid. And then the thunderstorm rolls in and pours rain everywhere. And then the sun comes back out. The air is stifling. You can hardly breathe. That's the feeling that we get here mixed with fear and trembling. And yet Moses is God's faithful mediator, and he brings the people of God to meet with God himself. This is the gospel here in verse 17. It's only through the mediator that sinners can be brought to meet in peace with a holy God. You see already the Lord's training up His young church, training up His people to understand that when Christ comes, to understand His work as mediator between God and man, and the one who brings His people to meet with God the Father. Now Israel's traveling, they're on their way to the mountain. And as they get closer or perhaps right after they got there, we can imagine that it would take a long time for Israel being a million plus to settle in here. We read this on verse 18. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. I didn't think about this, but a kiln, some might not know what a kiln is, but it fires pottery or other things. And the fire has to get really, really hot. And it's always smoking. So continuously smoking with a lot of smoke. So now we have more smoke, and also we have fire. So it's kind of like approaching a mountain that has a thunderstorm without rain, an earthquake, an erupting volcano, and a wildfire all at once. That's kind of what you have here as a picture. And then it gets more intense. Verse 19, as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. Again, the trumpets are blowing. Israel knows who they are. They know they're sinners. Are these announcements of the coming of the king? Or are these a battle plan and they're about to be destroyed? And it's getting louder and louder and louder. The tension is building and building and building. And then the moment comes when all of Israel actually hears the voice of God as He speaks to Moses. And it sounds like thunder. Now again, it's near impossible for us to understand what this might have sounded like or felt like. When trying to imagine it, the closest thing that I could think of was experiencing a sonic boom. If you've ever been in an area where there's a jet that breaks the sound barrier, there's an insanely loud crack. And if you're inside your house, the whole house shakes and you can actually feel it in your body. I don't know, but perhaps maybe that's what it's like to hear the thunderous voice of the Lord. It's hard for us to imagine, But what we have here is a description of what happens when our holy God comes down to meet with his people. He brings his might and his holiness with him. And it's an intense and scary scene that's before us. And then in verses 20 through 25, there's a lot more movement that continues here. The Lord comes down. He calls Moses up. He sends Moses down and tells him to come back up. And then finally Moses goes down. The Lord comes down. We don't want to miss that. God comes down from the heavenly places to meet with His people. He comes down to meet with His people. God comes to them. And yet we're reminded that there's still some separation there, because God's at the top of the mountain. They're at the bottom of the mountain. And we're reminded that only through the work of a go-between, a mediator, can we meet with God or share any blessedness of God. So God calls Moses to go up into the thick smoke, fiery cloud, out of the view of the people. And then when he gets there, God tells him, go back down. Verse 21. And the Lord said to Moses, go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord and look and many of them perish. And also let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. Now, just to note here, the priests are mentioned, but the priesthood hasn't been established yet. So these are likely the firstborn sons of families that are taking on priestly duties for their families. And I think that these are also probably the same people that are referred to as the elders of Israel that we've been encountering. I don't know 100%, that's a good educated guess who he's talking about here. So here's these instructions, Moses responds. The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. Essentially Moses is saying, Lord, you've already given me these instructions. We already know, we've already followed them. We've already done this for three days. The people can't come up here. We get that, right? The barriers are set up, but you want me to go all the way back down the mountain after I just got up the mountain already and repeat the same instructions again and then add a little bit? I just, I'm not quite getting it here. Well, the Lord is always gracious, continues to be patient with Moses. He responds in verse 24 saying, go down and bring up Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So the Lord God repeats himself again and has him re-deliver these instructions to Israel to teach Moses and Israel a lesson. God is holy. This must be understood by the people and he wants them to hear it again. The God of Israel is here to meet with his people, but he's holy. He's holy in majesty and holy in moral excellence. And there's a real danger in sinners getting too close to a holy God. They're going to need a mediator and they're going to need a priest. Moses obeys the Lord, he goes back down the mountain and delivers the message. And then what happens next is incredible and amazing as the Lord delivers, no doubt, a thunderous sermon in Exodus 20. That's the content of the 10 commandments. So far, all of this is essentially just the gathering hymn, so to speak. So we'll get to Exodus 20 over the next few weeks, but having gone through this passage here, as they come to meet with God, we want to take our remaining time to reflect on what the Lord wants us to learn about his attributes, about Christ, our mediator, and about our worship here this morning. This passage teaches us a lot about God and who he is. He's certainly not a God, as we see, who makes deals or is a cute, cuddly teddy bear. Commentator Philip Riken does a good job summarizing what we learn about God's character. He writes, the mountain revealed God's glory. The thunder and the earthquake were signs of his power. The dark cloud was a sign of his mystery. showing that there are aspects of his being that we cannot penetrate. The fire was a sign of God's holiness, his bright and burning purity. The trumpet signified his sovereignty, for a trumpet signals the coming of a king. Together, these spectacular signs displayed the glory of God, the sum of his divine, total sum of his divine attributes. So again, it's a picture, a picture of God's majestic and moral holiness. He's holy other, he's unapproachable, he's a perfect God. Unapproachable, holy other, and yet what does he do? This God comes down to meet with his people. We call this God's gracious condescension. He doesn't expect us to find a way up to Him because there is no way. He doesn't expect us to learn all we can and somehow reach some state of enlightenment so we discover spiritual truth. He doesn't expect us to try to make a ladder out of our good works to get to Him. No, we can't get to Him. But in covenant love for us, He comes down to us where we are. The God of the universe comes down to us. He stoops down to be in the muck and the mud of sin and misery with us. Why does he do that? Because he loves his people. He's still holy and he doesn't overlook sin. And he comes down to meet with his people and to draw them near to himself. But they must be brought by a mediator. Moses is God's mediator who brings the people to meet with God. And then we see also the appearance of Aaron, who would be the first high priest. The Lord's giving us a preview here. He's teaching us about the work of Christ, who is our mediator and our great high priest. This is how God comes down to us. This is how a holy God dwells with the holy people. We read of this in our call to worship, John 1 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Father has come down to our level to meet us through Christ the Son becoming flesh, through the incarnation. He comes down to live with us as true God and true man. And not only does God come down to us in Christ, Christ is also our high priest, and he's cleansed us from his sins by his own blood. He's consecrated us, he's set us apart, and specially set us aside under God, making us holy. So here's what Jesus has done to make this possible. He's made a way for us, not just to stand at the foot of God's holy mountain, but to ascend it, as we are united to him, and can be in the very presence of God himself in Christ. This is the amazing, beautiful work of the Gospel. This reconciling work. This peace with God. Paul speaks of this in Romans 5. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into His grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Hear this, in Christ, we have access, we can stand as beloved children, we have peace with God, we rejoice in His very presence, and we behold His glory in Christ. If Jesus is your Savior and your Lord, then this peace and access described here are yours. If you have repented of your sins and trusted in Christ, then you can go past the boundary at the bottom of the mountain, because for you, there's no longer any boundary there. It's been removed. In Christ, you can be in the presence of your Holy God and Father, because you are holy in Him. Praise God for that coming down grace in Jesus Christ that lifts us up to Him to be with Him in glory. There's also a warning here in this passage. A warning to Israel and probably a warning to some who are sitting here this morning. If Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, You don't have a mediator. You don't have a go-between. And if you just think that somehow you're gonna be able to just make a deal with God and that he's going to hear you, then you haven't been listening to anything that's been said here this morning. Look again. at God's holiness, the smoke, the thunder, the lightning, the fire, the trumpets, and the fear. You need someone else to bring you up that mountain, or you will be consumed. You will be destroyed and put to death for your sins. There is only one name under heaven by which you may be saved. There is only one mediator between God and man, and that is the God-man, Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord opens your eyes and that you see the only way to meet with God is to meet with Him as you're covered in the blood of Christ and wearing His robe of righteousness. Both of these are gifts to all who repent and believe. Now one more point of application this morning. Our final one is we want to think about how this applies to our worship here and now. Right here. We got a picture of what's happening right here in worship from our New Testament reading in Hebrews 12. In worship, as we are united to Christ here this morning, this is what the author of Hebrews says to us. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. That's not what you've come to here this morning. Verse 22, But you have come to 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, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. through Jesus Christ himself. You have not only come this morning to 598 South 7th Avenue, that's our address, to worship this morning. You haven't just come here. You've come to the heavenly Jerusalem. You've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to worship God with all his saints that have gone before him and all his angels. Our worship is heavenly each and every Lord's day. And it's through Christ, our mediator and high priest, that we get lifted up to glory to get a preview and a taste of what is to come. And we get that preview and taste 52 times a year. each and every Lord's Day, each week as we come here to gather for worship. That's what happens here. That's why we can't just stay home and watch online or do our own thing at church. It's here in the presence of God's people that we're lifted up to the heavenly Jerusalem. So when we come here, let us remember where we are. Let us remember how we got here. Let us remember what we are to do here, and let us praise the One who we worship in spirit and in truth, face to face, every Lord's Day. Our holy God has come down to us. He meets with us as we have been brought into His presence through Christ. We do not need to fear or tremble. All we need to do is come and find rest and refreshment for our weary souls in this very place. Praise God for the gift of public worship. And lastly, there will come a day where we do see these signs again. where we do see the Lord of glory coming visible on the clouds with thunders and lightnings and earthquakes and loud trumpets. We will see, we will hear that again. but we will not need to be afraid for these are trumpets that are announcing the coming of King Jesus. It will be music and joy to our ears, but fear and trembling to all who have rejected him. In a moment, we're gonna sing on this comfort that we'll have at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when that last trumpet sounds by singing it as well with my soul. I especially want to draw your attention to one stanza and we're gonna end our sermon this morning with this. and Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend even so it is well with my soul. Let's pray. our glorious and holy God. All we can say is holy, holy, holy, and thank you, thank you, thank you for Jesus Christ. For in Him we have access to you through His blood and through His righteousness. Lord, we pray that you would make that real to us each and every Lord's Day and that we Our praise would certainly bless you, but that we would be blessed remembering what it is that we're doing here and what you've done for us. Thank you for bringing us to the heavenly Jerusalem in Christ our Savior. In his name we pray. Amen.