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Alright, we're in Exodus chapter
19. I titled our message, A Holy God for an Unholy People. Because holiness is not just
a theme of the Bible. Holiness is God's defining trait. In Isaiah 6, the angels surround
the throne room of God, and what do they cry out over and over
and over again? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Fast forward about 1,500, 2,000
years to the final book of your Bible, the book of the Revelation,
and you open it up, and there you see into the throne room
of God and what is happening once again. The angels are still
there, and they're still singing, holy, holy, holy. The whole earth is full of His
glory. God's holiness is not a bug to
the system. It is a primary feature of your
Bible, the Word of God, and your God. So I've titled our message,
A Holy God for an Unholy People. Let's pray. We'll get into the
message. Father, I confess, and you know, and
your dear people know this already, that unless the Holy Spirit of
God grants understanding, gives just a deep conviction of the
heart, then your people, we would walk out having checked a religious
box, but never really encountering the living God of Mount Sinai. God, wake us from our doldrums,
wake us from our lethargy. Spirit of God, we invite you
again to use the sword of the Spirit, to cut where you must
cut, to heal where you must heal, to bring encouragement and hope
where hopelessness resides. And most of all, Lord, in all
of this, show us, Christ, that we may be a changed people this
morning. And we ask this in Jesus' name,
amen. From the opening pages of the
Bible, the divine author picks up his sovereign pen. He dips
it into the inkwell of holiness. And he begins to write with striking
adjectives, stunning verbs, shocking adverbs, like a novelist who
would write with simplicity and complexity, yet always with clarity. The divine author reveals himself
in a story. And not just a story, but a multiplicity
of stories. God could have revealed himself
in axiomatic truth or propositional revelation like perhaps in the
epistles, but he does not begin that way. He begins to reveal
himself through stories. And so in Genesis chapter three,
God expels Adam and Eve from the garden because they ate of
the forbidden fruit. In Genesis chapter 6, he sends
a universal flood because of mankind's wickedness. In Genesis
chapter 11, God confounds the communication of a prideful people
trying to build their way up to God. In Genesis 19, God rains
fire and brimstone on two cities named Sodom and Gomorrah because
of their deviant hospitality or perhaps inhospitality. In
Exodus chapter 3, God reveals himself in a burning bush that
will not be consumed. And in Exodus chapter 7 through
11, with rapid fire, like a machine gun, rapid fire, God judges His
enemies with life-threatening, and in the final case, a life-taking
judgments. In Exodus 14, God drowns his
enemies, condemns his enemies in a watery grave. And in Exodus
19, the passage that we see here this morning, God shakes Mount
Sinai with his presence and the people fear and tremble. Saints, holiness is not just
a theme of the Bible, it is God's defining trait. the words of
one author, she wrote this, that instead of bulletins or visitor
cards with QR codes on them, church ushers instead ought to
be equipped with crash helmets, life preservers, signal flares,
and seat belts for the people of God as we gather to worship
the God of Mount Sinai. And the New Testament states
it this way, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. And that's our problem, isn't
it? that the Holy One of Israel, the Holy God who has picked up
that sovereign pen and dipped it into the inkwell of holiness
and describes himself in a variety of different ways, and we're
supposed to walk away from all of those stories going, oh my,
we're in trouble, there is a holy God on the loose. And no one
is safe from his fiery eyes and the smoke of his judgment. We
are now, in Exodus 19, we have come to the third month since
Israel has exited Egypt. It's been three months. This
is the map again that I've been showing you for the last couple
weeks now. They started up to the top left of the map in Ramses,
and they followed it through Goshen and down to the very tip
top of the left-hand finger of the Red Sea. They crossed there
in Exodus chapter 14. They come over tomorrow where
they take of the water for the first time, and they find out
that the water is bitter. They travel down to Elam, and
I think there were 70-some palm trees, if I remember correctly,
where they found water again. They come to Rephidim, and that's
where we were last week in Exodus 18. And now we stand in Exodus
19 at the base of Mount Sinai. Let me correct that. We don't
stand at the base of Mount Sinai. We take a couple steps back from
Sinai. Because anyone who touches Mount
Sinai in just a few moments will be warned that their life will
be taken from them because of God's holy presence. That is,
before the fire of righteousness and the smoke of holiness are
seen, That in verse 3, Moses is going to trek up Mount Sinai. You can see a picture of what
Mount Sinai looks like today. Remember, Moses is 80 years old. He'll die at 120 years old. And
in this chapter, he's going to climb Mount Sinai three times.
Some of us struggle to go up to the second flight of stairs
a second time, right? Moses is going to climb up Mount
Sinai three different times. The very first time he does so
is in verse three. That is, before the fire of righteousness
and the smoke of holiness are seen, before the thunder of justice
is heard, God says, let me paint for you one more picture. That
is, God's gentleness is painted. Because whenever holiness is
revealed, mercy follows behind quickly. He refers to the nation
of Israel as eaglets. God himself as an eagle. You
may notice that an eaglet can stay in the nest for up to roughly
about 100 days. And then if that eaglet hasn't
taken flight yet, mama eaglet will go into the nest, right? Kind of stir up the nest a little
bit and say, all right, it's time to go. And once that eaglet leaves the nest
and begins to fly, if they struggle, mama eagle will swoop underneath
and catch that baby eaglet on her wings. Look at verse three
of Exodus chapter 19. While Moses went up to God, the
Lord called to him out of the mountain saying, thus you shall
say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, you
yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore
you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore,
if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall
be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth
is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you
shall speak to the people of Israel. He begins by saying,
if you will, obey my voice. The obedience of the voice that
he was anticipating or expecting was this, is the very specific
instructions of not to approach Mount Sinai as he descended on
top of it. When he says, I want you to keep
my covenant, What we'll learn is that the nation of Israel
was actually camped at the base of Mount Sinai for 40 days. That
is from Exodus chapter 19 until chapter 24 or so, they are at
the base of Mount Sinai. And they're going to be, as they're
at the base, the covenant of God is going to be revealed to
them. And the very first part of the covenant that they are
supposed to keep is Exodus chapter 20. You and I know that as the
Ten Commandments, right? So he says, if you obey my voice,
that is, don't approach the mountain and all that goes with it. If
you will keep my covenant, what you will be to me is this, you
will be a treasured people. You will be a possession for
myself that is of all the peoples on the earth, you will be mine.
It's kind of like our kids in the nursery right now, right?
Some of you have children or perhaps you have grandchildren.
They've got like, you know, 71 stuffed animals in their bed,
right? But there's one that's their
treasured possession. And God says, if you will keep
my covenant, yes, all the peoples of the earth are mine, but you
will be my treasured possession. And in addition to that, you
will be a kingdom of priests. Every one of you will have access
to me. You will no longer have a mediator. You won't have to go to Moses
anymore. You'll just be able to come directly
to me. You'll be a kingdom of priests,
each of you having access to God. And the people answer with
one voice in verse eight. And all the people answered together
and said this, all that the Lord has spoken we will do And Moses
reported the words of the people to the Lord, and the Lord said
to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud that
the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe
you forever. And so there are three demands
of God's holiness in this passage, and the very first demand of
God's holiness is this. God's holiness demands obedience
to his word. Question. How did Israel do at
obeying God? Really bad, right? Not good. So you're in Exodus 19. Why don't
you do this? Flip over to Exodus 32, and we're
gonna come right back to it. We won't be there long. Look
at Exodus 32, and let me show you how bad they did, right? So just think for a moment. While
you're turning there to Exodus 32, You got Exodus 19, the holiness
of God, obey my covenant. What do you have in Exodus chapter
20? What's the very first commandment, right? In Exodus chapter 20 verse
one, what's the very first commandment, right? This is how we taught
our kids. No other gods. Commandment one, no other gods.
Right? Now look at Exodus chapter 32
verses 1 through 4. As for this, Moses, the man who
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what
has become of him. So Aaron said to them, take off
the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your
sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the
people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears
and brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their
hand and fashioned it with a graving tool. He made a golden calf.
Why would you do that? And they said this, these are
your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
pass or fail? They fail. Miserably, right? But God's holiness is demanding
that they obey His words. So, all of a sudden now, we are
in a collision between the holiness of God and the unholiness of
His people. Now, Did you pick up, I'm back
in Exodus 19, did you pick up on the last part of verse nine
about why God is gonna come down to Moses? He says, and look at
verse nine again, Exodus 19, I'm coming to you in a thick
cloud that people may hear when I speak with you, and get this,
and may also believe you, and then what's the very last word
there? Forever. I want them to hear that I'm
speaking with you and I want them to believe you for how long?
Forever. Wait a second, Moses is gonna
die. Moses has an expiration date,
right? He's not God. He's gonna die 40 years later
at the age of 120. I would submit to you that this
word forever is a direct reference to Jesus. Now let me tie those
threads together for a moment, right? He says, I want the people
of Israel to believe you forever. So, and I'm saying that's in
reference to Jesus. Let me demonstrate this to you
now, right? In Deuteronomy chapter 18, the verses will be on the
screen behind me. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, who's
writing the book of Deuteronomy, by the way? He writes the first
five books of your Old Testament. Moses does. So Moses is writing
this and he says this, the Lord your God will raise up for you
a prophet like me from among you from your brothers. It is
to him you shall listen. just as you desired of the Lord
your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said,
let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this
great fire anymore lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they
are right in what they have spoken. I will raise, so God says now,
I will raise up for them a prophet like you Moses from among their
brothers and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak
to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to
My words that he shall speak in My name, I'm going to require
it of him." Deuteronomy 18, regardless of
what your Muslim friends may say, because I've had a Muslim
friend of mine say that's in reference to the final prophet
Muhammad in the Quran, Deuteronomy 18 is a direct prediction of the coming final
prophet, not Muhammad, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. How
do you know that? Well, I know that because in
Exodus chapter 7 we see, here's the second reference in that's
going to pull this together. In Acts chapter 7, that's that
long passage where Stephen is about ready to get stoned. You
remember that? It's like this, he just goes through the history
of Israel on and on and on, but in the middle of there, there
are some nuggets that point us back to Deuteronomy 18 and then
in Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 7 verse 37, Stephen
says this, this is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God
will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.
He's quoting Moses. This is the one, Moses, who was
in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him
at Sinai and with our fathers. Moses received living oracles
to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him,
right? But thrust Moses aside and in
their heart turns back to Egypt. Then Stephen flips it and says,
it's not just the fathers who disobeyed Moses. He then looks
at him and says, you stiff-necked Pharisees, uncircumcised in heart
and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers
did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your
fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced
beforehand the coming of the righteous one. And then Stephen
turns on a dime and he says this, whom you have now betrayed and
murdered. Moses says, God is going to raise
up a prophet. I will put all my words into
him to speak. You will listen to him. If you
don't, I will be the judge to that. Stephen then comes alongside
and says, you know, our fathers didn't obey Moses. They didn't
obey the prophets. And oh, by the way, in addition
to killing them, they killed the righteous one, and then flips
it on and says, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. That
is, when God is saying to Moses that I'm going to come down and
speak with you, that they may know that you are speaking to
me, that also they may believe you forever, it is this, I want
them to believe the final prophet, the son of the living God, Jesus
Christ, the righteous one. And so we're confronted with
this idea that the holiness of God demands that we obey his
word completely. And just like the nation of Israel,
We don't fashion gods of goats and things like that made out
of our jewelry, but we fashion other gods. And so we're coming
to this collision course that God's holiness demands that we
keep all the words that come from his prophets, but specifically
Jesus the Christ. In fact, when Peter is at the
Mount of Transfiguration, do you remember this story? You've
got Peter, you've got Moses, and you've got Elijah. Peter's
like, Jesus, let's do this. I will build three tents. Let's
build one for Jesus, let's build one for you, let's build one
for Moses, and let's build one for Elijah. And what comes from
the heavens? Another thundering voice comes
from the heavens and says this, this is my son, hear him. Hear Jesus, the one whom I have
given the living oracles. The first demand that God's holiness
requires is that we obey his word completely. Here's the second
demand, that God's holiness demands holiness from his people. In
verses nine through 15, the text reads that God came down to the
mount. God always has to come down to
us, doesn't He? He always has to come down to
us. And while He will reveal Himself there on the mountain,
He will still conceal Himself. because he comes down in a cloud.
Psalm 97, the psalmist writes it this way, cloud and thick
darkness surround him. The prophet Isaiah, when he walks
into the throne room in Isaiah chapter six, when the angels
are singing, holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of his
glory. In addition to that, as he walks into the throne room,
he says that the throne room of God is filled with smoke. And then also in Matthew 17,
at the Mount of Transfiguration, the story I just spoke about,
at the Transfiguration, what is Jesus surrounded by? He's
surrounded by a bright cloud. That is, while God will reveal
himself, because of his blazing holiness, there is a sense in
which he still must conceal himself. And Moses, Aaron, and the leaders
of Israel are warned, they are warned to make sure that no one
approaches Mount Sinai. So, perhaps in Hebrew they put
up one sign over here that says, warning, no entrance allowed.
Perhaps here they set up another one that said, authorized access
only. Perhaps another sign said, make
sure that all your animals are leashed. No one is going free. Another one, do not enter. Violators,
according to Exodus 19, were to be executed on sight. And
then God says, after they're executed, you're not even allowed
to touch their body because they have touched the mountain of
holiness. This is the sobriety that God
is bringing to His people, that My holiness demands your holiness. Israel was to clean themselves
physically, kind of a ceremonial, symbolic cleaning. Husbands and
wives were to refrain from sex, not because of that somehow marital
intimacy is unholy, but as kind of a form of fasting, if you
will, to meet with God. And at the end of the three days,
once they hear the sound of the trumpet blast, the people could
now approach the holy mountain, Sinai. If God is going to go to such
great pains to reveal himself to his covenant people, why keep
them at a distance? That would be like you, grandma
or grandpa, saying to your grandkids, let me tell you a story, but
stay three rooms away. That doesn't make sense. How
would God do this? These precautions are intended
to show the distinctive nature of God. Saints, you can't dilute
holiness and still have God. If you try to tamper and dilute
holiness so that somehow mankind can enter into his presence,
you no longer have God. He's altogether different with
no beginning and no ending. Not one time has he acted unrighteously. Not one time has he acted selfishly.
Not one time has he acted arrogantly. He's always acting and keeping
with his holy and just nature. If you want a synonym for what
does holy mean? That's such a kind of a religious
word. What does holy mean? Matthew 5, 48, Jesus says it
this way. You must be perfect as your father
in heaven is perfect. That's what holiness means. Holiness
demands I obey God's word completely. I've gotta obey his word completely,
meaning perfectly? Holiness demands that I be holy,
like I've gotta be perfect? You might as well tell me when
pigs fly. Right, there's no way I can do that. The God's holiness
is perfection. So David writes it this way in
Psalm 24, who can ascend to the hill of
our Lord? He who has clean hands and a
pure heart. You know anyone like that? Like
even the most righteous and upstanding moral citizen doesn't have clean
God-like hands or a moral God-like heart. In fact, the prophet Isaiah
will write it this way, that even all our righteous deeds
are like filthy rags. I don't know about you, in our
house we have a part of our closet that has where all the rags are
kept. And it seems like every time I open the door there's
even more of them coming out at me. I don't know what you use
your rags for, we use our rags to clean the bathroom. The sink is dirty, right? It's
got all the toothpaste and all that stuff. But we also use those
rags to clean the toilets. It's gross. It's disgusting. God's not trying to be funny,
but he says, you know all those righteous deeds that you do? It's like rags that have been
used to clean toilets. and yet God's holiness is demanding
my holiness? So Moses comes down the mountain
now a second time, and then he does something, he consecrates
Israel. Look at verse 14. I'm sorry,
Exodus 19, look at verse 14. So Moses went down from the mountain
to the people and consecrated the people. Now, if this were
the only time consecrated was used, I really wouldn't know
what's going on here. But this is not the first time
the word consecrated is used in the book of Exodus. In Exodus
chapter 14, the night of the Passover, what does Moses do
for the people of God? He consecrates them. What does
every Jewish man do for his home. He consecrates their home. They
sacrifice a lamb, they place blood on the doorpost, right,
and on the lintel above, on the frame of the house. They're consecrating,
and by doing so, the death angel passes over them, that they're
free from the judgment that God was going to bring. But that's
not the only time the word consecrated is used. In Exodus chapter 29,
another sacrifice is offered to God, and the priests are now
consecrated. The text doesn't say this, but
I would like to submit to you this morning that when it says
that Moses consecrated the people, I would like to suggest to you
that what he did was he killed a lamb on their behalf so that
they could stand before the holy presence of God. That is, a lamb's blood was shed
as a picture of the covering and the forgiveness of unholiness. Get this, that one day the Lamb,
picturing that one day the Lamb of God, the Lamb, capital L,
would shed his own blood for his unholy people. This is why
the author of Hebrews writes it this way in Hebrews chapter
10. We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of
Jesus Christ once and for all. Or, to use Moses-like language,
we have been consecrated through the sacrifice of the body of
Jesus Christ once and for all. God's holiness demands our holiness. But again, like the people of
Israel, like obey Him completely? Obey Him completely, I have to
have perfect holiness like God has perfect holiness? I'm in
trouble, and so are you. So the final demand from Exodus
19, it even gets worse. The final demand is this, is
that God's holiness demands justice against unholiness. Demands justice. You know what justice is, right?
I just got a summons in my mailbox at the end of March. I have to
go down to the federal or county, I'm not sure I remember which
one right now. I have to go down to the federal courthouse, I
believe, right, to be asked if I'm gonna be on a jury or not.
You're supposed to be impartial. But what happens as you begin
to hear the case and as the facts of the story are laid out before
you? And all of a sudden you see that
this individual actually defrauded or broke the law in some capacity. The law demands that justice
be given to this individual. And so, this is the justice that
God's holiness demands justice against unholiness. Look at verse
16 and let's read it without interruption. Exodus 19 verse
16. On the morning of the third day,
there were thunders and lightning, 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 the trumpet grew louder and louder,
Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came
down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord
called Moses 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. That is, you break through to the Lord, I will break out
against you. Verse 23, and Moses said to the Lord, the people
cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying,
set limits around the mountains 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. What a beautiful but horrific
sight combined together. My mind's eye, I can see like
Mordor, and I'm not trying to be funny, I'm just saying you
see smoke and fire. And only a mediator could go
up there. Twice God says, if you come up,
I will break out against you. Right, if I'm Moses, I'm thinking,
what happened to the eaglet's God? What happened to the God
who provides, what happens to the God who provides quail? And
what happens to the God who, happened to the God who provided
manna and the one who busted open the Red Sea and led us with
a pillar of fire by night and a cloudy pillar by day? Where's
that merciful God? But God is trying to communicate
to his people here and to his people here that God's holiness
demands justice against unholiness. This entire scene displays the
glory of God. Yes, I understand that God's
glory is on display in the heavens, right, with streets of gold and
lakes of crystal and the various kind of bejeweled gates of the
heaven, of heaven itself. But here, God's glory is on display
in a horrific way. The thunder and earthquake are
signs of God's ultimate power. The dark clouds are a sign of
God's mystery. The fire is a sign of God's holiness. The trumpet is a sign of authority. It is announcing the coming of
the king. Moses and Aaron can go up to
God because they are the mediators between God and Israel. But what will happen? Where's
the God of love? Where's the God of grace? Holiness
demands justice. So I have a question. How can
God maintain his holiness satisfy His justice and allow a disobedient, unholy
people into His presence? How can God do that? If God is
loving and gracious and He allows us into His presence, then does
somehow He lose His holiness and His justice because we're
sinners? Because you don't want a God
that's all love and no holiness. You don't want a God that's all
grace and no justice. So how do these ingredients come
together perfectly to describe the glory of God? I'm glad you
asked. You're in Exodus 19. Take your
Bible and turn to Hebrews 12. And if you have a phone or a
tablet, you will find it a lot faster than the rest of us. Hebrews
chapter 12, you're gonna go through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
John. You're gonna go through all those epistles written by
Paul primarily. You know, Romans, Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. When you start hitting the Ts,
Titus, or Timothy, Thessalonians, and then you hit Titus, you got
one more book, the book of Philemon, and then you get Hebrews, all
right? So find Hebrews. Chapter 12, and we'll be there
the rest of the time. Hebrews chapter 12, and look
at verse 18. The author of Hebrews, chapter
12, verse 18. I'll wait just a little bit longer
to make sure everyone gets it. Writes this way, for you Hebrew Christians, for
you have not come to what may be touched a blazing fire, a
blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest. You've not
come to 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 mountains, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying
was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. Look at
that next word in verse 22. The first two words in verse
22, those Those are like dew early in the
morning. That's like taking a drink of
water on a hot Houston, humid day after having mowed the lawn.
Look at those two words, but you, you, grace life, you, Christian,
you, child of God, 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, oh, and by the
way, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the
sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
You see that, he's like, hey, you're coming to Zion, to the
city of the living God, and let me just kind of, almost like
you would a telescope, he's just gonna pull it out a little bit
more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more. You've
come, and you've come here, and you've come here, and this is
to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. And look at verse
25. See this, that you do not refuse him who is speaking. Why? Because your holiness is contingent
on whether or not you refuse it or not. 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, that is Jesus, much less
will we escape if we reject Him who warns from heaven. Drop down
to verse 28. Let us be grateful for receiving
a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God
acceptable worship with reverence and awe." What kind of acceptable
worship? Well, not worship of a golden
calf where it pops out and everyone goes, these are the gods that
brought us out of Egypt. Not worship like that, but acceptable
worship, reverential and awe of the God who saves from Egypt. That is, Mount Sinai is the old
covenant. Mount Zion is the new covenant. Mount Sinai, mediated by Moses. Mount Zion, mediated by Jesus. You have the blood of a lamb,
and you have the blood of the lamb. You have a mountain that
shakes. You have an unshakable kingdom over here. You have a
mountain that is forbidding, and here you have a mountain
that is inviting. You have fear and danger, and
here you have peace and safety. That is, come to Mount Zion. Or maybe a word that you know
a little bit better. Come to Mount Calvary. Like we sang this
morning. Come to that mountain. And that,
the God over, the God over Mount Sinai, is still the God over
Mount Zion according to Hebrews chapter 12. You say, Moshe, what am I supposed
to do with this? Mount Sinai? Mount Zion? I'm like 17 years old, man. I'm
thinking about lunch, I'm thinking about my video game, I'm thinking
about having my day off from school. I'm 17, what am I supposed to
do with this? Or you're a mom, you gotta get up for work tomorrow.
What are you supposed to do with this information? Mount Sinai
and Mount Zion? Or you're a dad just trying to
figure out how you're gonna pay the bills. What exactly are you
supposed to do with this type of information? Folks, let me
be very specific and blunt. The only way that Mount Zion
is possible is because the Holy Son of God was placed on a cross
and there the Father, God the Father, creator of the world,
placed the sins of mankind on Jesus. Jesus bore every unholiness
that you've ever committed. Any time that you've used God's
name to curse someone else, to damn somebody else, every time
that you broke one of God's 10 commandments in Exodus 20 that
we'll learn about next week, God poured out, God the Father
poured out His wrath on His Son. Jesus, the Son of God, absorbed
that wrath. It's called propitiation. He absorbed that wrath in your
place, on your behalf, in your stead, so that you, if you will
place your faith in Jesus and in Jesus alone. What are you
supposed to do with this? Here's what you're supposed to do. You're
supposed to place your faith in the mediator of the new covenant.
You're supposed to trust Jesus and Jesus alone as your only
source of righteousness. And some, some Christians have
the audacity, have the gall, have somehow, I don't know what
other words I can use right now, some Christians have the audacity
to say then that after you become a follower of Jesus, now let
me tell you what holiness looks like. that holiness does this, this,
and this. Let me be very clear that holiness
only comes from God, by God, through His Son, Jesus. And that
if you're wondering, I've been a Christian now for like, I don't
know, 17 years, and it just seems like, it just seems like every
time I come in, it's just like, it's Christianity, following
Jesus is just hard, it's hard. One reason, one possibility amongst
many, one possibility is that what has been laid upon your
shoulders is that your holiness is dependent upon you, and let
me say this clearly, that has the stench of the sulfuric smell
of hell upon it. because our only holiness that
we have is through Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Saints, what
should you do with this? Oh, if you have not trusted Jesus
alone, then place your dependence upon him and receive his holiness. Do you see, Grace Life, do you
understand then that what I just preached about what does it mean
to receive Jesus and the righteousness that comes, that's a whole lot
more than just simply, well, I ask Jesus into my heart. You
see that? That is so much more beautiful
and picturesque, and our understanding of the gospel has grown immensely
when we move from, I didn't just ask Jesus into my heart, that
Jesus, the Son of God, absorbed the wrath of God. I placed my
trust on Jesus, and I received the righteousness of Jesus, and
now I can come to God the Father. That's so much more beautiful. It's so much more meaningful,
and it actually fuels our worship. It fuels our obedience to God. Mount Sinai, Grace Life, reveals
this. It reveals we have a holiness
of God problem. It reveals that we have a sin
disease problem. It reveals we have a separation
from God problem. Mount Calvary, Mount Zion. Mount
Calvary reveals we have a holiness of God's solution, Jesus. Mount Zion reveals that we have
a sin-diseased solution. Not a problem, but a solution.
Mount Zion reveals that we have a separation from God solution,
Jesus the righteous. And this is why Peter concludes
his letter. To the saints in Cappadocia,
he says this, and he's picking up from Moses' words, he says,
you are a chosen race. A people, a holy nation, a people
for God's own possession. Of all the peoples on the earth,
you, saint, are a holy race, a people for God's own possession,
that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of
darkness and into light. This is the good news of the
gospel. Thank God for Sinai because it
shows us our need. But praise God for Mount Zion,
Mount Calvary, that shows us how we can be born again.
A Holy God for an Unholy People
Series Exodus: Rescued to Worship
| Sermon ID | 21625181994676 |
| Duration | 47:32 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Exodus 19 |
| Language | English |
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