I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 24. This is a very interesting portion of God's Word. It is a portion of God's Word that, of course, still speaks to us today. But, of course, we're going to have to work a little bit at that to see how exactly it speaks. And I'm going to read for you the entire chapter. We're not really going to cover from verse 12 down to the end of the chapter. That's a little bit of prelude to what comes next, other than just to summarize it. But I will read the entire chapter, this portion of God's holy and inspired Word. The title for the message this evening are the very words of God Himself, come up to the Lord. Come up to the Lord. We read, Exodus 24, beginning at verse 1, these words. Then he, that's God, said to Moses, come up to the Lord you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him. Moses came. and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. and he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and wait there that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction. So Moses rose with his assistant, Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, wait here for us until we return to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them. And Moses went up on the mountain. And the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai. And the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. This is the Word of God, and we praise Him for it. Let's pray one more time. You, Heavenly Father, are the God of sufficient grace. You have demonstrated that sufficient grace throughout the course of this day. May you demonstrate it once again in this aspect of our worship service, this element of preaching and hearing your word, be my help, be the help of us all to listen well, and our earnest prayer is that we would see what truly is in the text and draw mighty encouragement from it, this text that displays your great love for your people. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to begin by talking about how weddings roll in our culture, engagements, weddings, tokens, signs. So, I'm going to see if I'm right in this by just posing some questions to you. In most covenants, there is a sign. So, in our culture, in a wedding, what is the sign of the covenant? A ring. A wedding band. In an engagement, what's the token of the covenant to come? An engagement ring. You're right. The token is what we want to focus on tonight. It assures the recipient of the giver's love and commitment to them. It is the promise of greater things to come. And so tonight we're going to talk all about tokens. We're going to talk about assurances of God's love for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, and how those tokens are really promises of greater things to come. And we're going to do it from this Old Testament text, because what we see here is a token. But we need to set the context once again. So what is the book of Exodus, this marvelous book, all about? Well, it relates a story to us. In the first part, it is the story of Israel's redemption from bondage in Egypt. And in the second part, it is the story of this nation's entering into covenant with the triune God. So the first part is the first 18 chapters. The second part, chapters 19 to 40. But it's not just any old story. It is a story that actually prefigures the greatest of all deliverance stories, our exodus from sin and death through the exodus of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead, and the better covenant that we have in Him. So what we find in this true story of the nation of Israel are categories that the Holy Spirit of the living God puts in there whereby we can understand what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is anticipatory. It is always looking forward. We're in part two, all about God's covenant with the people of Israel. A summary seems in order at this point. We have seen that the old covenant by design does not accomplish what we all want, God with His people. Remember that in chapter 19? We've got that scene of the mountain, God descending on the mountain. He's on the top, and we're the people of Israel. They're not at the top of the mountain. They're at the bottom of the mountain by design. Old covenant, never designed to bring about God with His people, but designed to point to a greater covenant that would accomplish that. Chapter 19 is the paradigm through which we are to understand everything that follows We see this particularly when we come to chapter 40, where the tabernacle is actually erected, and Moses, that most humble man of all men on the earth, attempts to go into the tabernacle, and he can't. And so the book itself leaves you hanging, leaves you looking for something so much greater, all by design on the part of God. We've also heard the summary of this covenant in what's literally called, not the Ten Commandments, but the Ten Words, the Ten Words in chapter 20, verses 1 to 21. Then we have heard it expressed in some detail in what I would call a representation of some rules or just decrees on the part of God. That runs from chapter 20, verse 22, to chapter 23, verse 19. And we've heard about this covenant's blessed promise. chapter 23, 20 to 33, all about the promised land. And we looked at five glorious features in that. Again, categories are being provided. Those five features that are related to that blessed promise, we can bring those forward and we can think about what is our blessed hope, seeing the Lord face to face in the new heaven and the new earth. I would encourage you to go back to that sermon if you haven't heard it. In this account here, and that brings us up to this account, we move to what many commentators call the ratification of the covenant. But again, it's a token that God is giving His people here. He's assuring them that His presence will go with them, be with them. And again, what I mean by token is a kind of deposit, God giving to His people something small in a sense to assure them He will give them something big. So this is the second session at Mount Sinai between God and His people. The first came again in chapter 19, and we notice that it begins with an invitation on the part of God. God is initiating here. He always initiates. There's so much of the grace of God here. The token, therefore, is bound up and related to this initiation on the part of God and this invitation that He gives to the people. But look at it closely. Look at it closely and compare it to the glory of the new covenant. It is a glorious thing. Oh, but the new covenant is so much more glorious. God said to Moses, verse 1, come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. And seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar." That's what it says. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, which we see him doing, verses 13, 15, and 18, at the end of the chapter. God says, the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him. So come up, says God. Clearly in that invitation, the Lord is going to give some token of Himself to the people for their encouragement. But notice, in this invitation, though born of grace to come up, though a blessed thing, it's only extended to some. And it only amounts to the worship of God from afar, with only the mediator invited to draw near. So you're looking at that and you're thinking about the glory of the new covenant. You ought to be. How much more blessed is the new covenant in Christ? For the invitation to come up, it's extended to everybody, not just leadership, not just 70 elders, but everybody, and it brings all to worship God in close communion, and it's the mediator that brings us near. There's so much gospel right in those opening two verses, so much glory to see in the new covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now before we look at the token and see what the coming up includes and what that token entails, both for the Israelites of old and for us as New Covenant believers, it's critically important that we first notice the prerequisite, point number one, the prerequisite to God's presence with His people. Look at verses 3 to 8 again. You're going to read those verses. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules, and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." So we're thinking about what is required that God would be in the midst of His people? What is the prerequisite to God's presence with His people? And you might be thinking, well, it's got to be our consent to the covenant terms, and in a sense, that is true, but consent to what? So we'll look at the consent first of all, because it certainly is here in the passage. God extends an invitation to the people of Israel, but consent on the part of the people was required." If they're going to experience God in the measure that God outlines here, they have to accept that invitation. They had already given consent before. Do you remember back in chapter 19, verse 8? All the people answered back at that first session together and said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do. Sign us up. Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. But now, we're a little bit further on, aren't we? The Lord has relayed in some summary and in some detail what was required of the people, and so it's put to the people again. And we're not surprised to read, Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules, and they still said, yes, all the words the Lord has spoken we will do. And then Moses steps aside, and he writes all those words of the Lord down and presents those to the people. And they said again, yes, all the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. And then they add, and we will be obedient in whatever else He commands. They're not ignorant of what God requires. There's detail about the covenant. I love what Matthew Henry says here, very astute observation. God did not lead them blindfolded into the covenant, nor teach them a devotion that was the daughter of ignorance, but laid before them all the precepts, general and particular in the foregoing chapters, and fairly put it to them whether they were willing to submit to these laws or no." So when you're thinking about prerequisite of God's presence with His people, you might first think, well, it requires our consent. But really what I'm looking for here is what we see after this consent or in the midst of this consent. We see Moses, the mediator, mediating. And so the prerequisite for God's presence with His people is mediation. That is a huge category in the Scripture. We need mediation if we are to have access to this God, if we are to enjoy fellowship with this God, if we are to have reconciliation with this God. And we actually see Moses doing some interesting things here. One doesn't surprise us, but maybe the first does. The first thing that Moses does as mediator is he builds some things. He builds an altar in verse 4, and he erects twelve pillars. He rose early in the morning, built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and he built twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. What did the altar represent? The very presence of God. What did it look like? Well, we're not left to guess at all because we saw what God prescribed for His worship in the detail of the covenant back in chapter 20, verses 24 to 26. Altar of earth, you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you profane it, and you shall not go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness be not exposed on it." So remember all that detail, and God is saying, That there is relationship with me. It's all of me. It's all of grace. You don't add anything to this whatsoever. You build an altar of earth, or if it's stone, you don't make marks on it or anything like that, and you certainly don't make steps up to it, I condescend to you. So Moses builds that altar representing God, but then he also builds pillars. representing the people of God. So you have this wonderful picture at the foot of the mountain, God and His people, and there's a mediator going between them. Isn't that amazing? That's a picture of Jesus, isn't it? These, said Matthew, Henry, these pillars were to represent the people, the other party to the covenant. And we may suppose that they were set up against the altar and that Moses as mediator passed to and fro between them. I think he's right. But there's something else here in this mediation. We find that in verse 5. We're not surprised by it at all. The need of sacrifice. If there is to be God's presence with the people of God, there needs to be a death that atones for sin. Of course, the sacrifices of bulls and goats do not atone for sin. They point to something greater that does atone. We read in our text, he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed it, peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. Henry says, the covenant must be made by sacrifice because since man has sinned and forfeited his creature's favor, there can be no fellowship by covenant till there first be friendship and atonement by sacrifice. No less true in the new covenant. And there it avails. We notice here in verse 6 and verse 8 that half of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the altar. Quote, Henry again, that signified God's graciously conferring His favor upon them and all the fruits of that favor and is giving them all the gifts they could expect or desire from a God reconciled to them and in covenant with them by sacrifice. But the other half was sprinkled on the people. Now, some commentators will say, sprinkled on the altar and sprinkled on the pillars, or it may have been actually on the people. We're not exactly sure, although the text does expressly say people, but that could be another thing, that it's sprinkled on the altars. But what a picture of that, covered by blood. It's a picture that we get in the New Testament Scriptures as well. It also signifies, says Henry, the peoples dedicating themselves, their lives, and beings to God and to His honor. So, talking about tokens tonight, tokens of God's favor to His people, His love for His people, the promise of greater things to come, but there's a prerequisite to God's presence with His people, and that prerequisite is mediation. There had to be someone who could go between the people and God with blood. The writer to the Hebrews sums up passages like this and others a little bit later on by writing, therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood, chapter 9 verses 18 to 20, for when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you." And the application here is quite simple, and you all know it, but you need to be reminded of it, that mediation still is required in the new covenant. And we cannot come to God without blood, but oh, how much greater the mediation. The writer of the Hebrews continues Chapter 9, verses 11 to 12 now, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Henry writes, "'Thus our Lord Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant of which Moses was a type, having offered up Himself a sacrifice upon the cross, that His blood might be indeed the blood of the covenant.'" Notice the language that's used in Exodus 24. It's picked up in Hebrews 13.20. He sprinkled it upon the altar in His intercession and sprinkles it upon His church. Look at 1 Peter 1, 2. How does He do that? He does it by His Word, by His order. Thanks. And that mediation having occurred to bring sinners near to God, what then is required? What then is required of us? Consent, of course, is required. Sinners who say, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. We will be obedient. But what is the work that we must do? This is where I love linking scripture. We've been in John. What is the work that we must do to enjoy the presence of God, to get in on this glorious mediation? Jesus said, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent, John 6, 29. Consent to the terms of the new covenant means believing in Jesus Christ and his finished work. So believe. If you haven't believed, believe. And in that believing, be assured that you can come up and have fellowship with God and know life. Point number two. Now the token. Token of God's love. This he gives to the old covenant people. There are tokens that he gives to the new covenant people that we might be assured of his love and all the greater things that are in store for us. We can draw them from this text. So this is in verses 9 to 11. So I don't know if this happened to you when you're reading this passage, but doesn't verse 9 just kind of leap off the page? Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders went up and they saw the God of Israel. What? So, first of all, what was the token God gave to assure them that his presence would be with them? What proof did he give? Well, there are two parts to this. Proof, part number one, is a view of himself. They saw the God of Israel. We read in verse 10, there was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. They saw the God of Israel. It's amazing to contemplate. This is the entire scripture right here. This is what it's all about right here, that we would see God. Theologians call this the beatific vision, the sight that makes those who are seeing happy. Hence, a beatific vision. This is what it's all about. It's what the entire redemption story is driving towards, to see God in the face of Jesus Christ. Of course, we can link this to John. John, in his prologue, right at the very end, verse 18, chapter 1, he says, no one has ever seen God, the only God, that's Jesus, who's at the Father's side. He has made him known. So they're enjoying something here of this glorious sight, something. What is it that they enjoy? What is it that they saw? We will discover a little later on in Exodus that Moses asks for this joy of all joys, and the Lord replies to him in this way in Exodus 33, verses 19 to 20. God says to Moses, Moses wanting to see God, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." Ah. Just a glimpse. Just a glimpse. That's all Moses got. All the glory, again, of the new covenant and what we receive in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In that day, we shall see him face to face. But I'm motoring ahead here. We just need to step back here and look at the text. And we need to answer the question, what did these 70 elders, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu see when it says they saw God? Well, they saw in the sense that Moses would later see him. It was a limited, non-face-to-face sense. And we don't just need Exodus 33 to come to that determination. You can actually see it in the text. Because look at their viewpoint. Where is it? They are looking up. And they see something, something hard to describe. There was, look where they are. Under his feet. There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone like the very heaven for clearness. That's what they're seeing. You can imagine Moses writing this, just having a hard time expressing it, trying to grasp for words. Even this glimpse was glorious. It's in that sense they saw God, but oh, what a sight it was for them. Matthew Henry comments, they saw the God of Israel, that is, they had some glimpse of his glory. Whatever they saw was certainly something of which no image or picture could be made and yet enough to satisfy them that God was with them of a truth. This is the token, a view of God. Now, I can't pass this up, but you read that text If you've read through your Bibles, you're beginning to think about other texts. Maybe you're thinking about Ezekiel 1. Can I read it for you? I want you to hear the words. There's that prophet, Ezekiel, in exile on the Kibar Canal, and he gets a vision. Verse 22, he sees something. Over the heads of the living creatures, there was the likeness, listen to this, of an expanse shining like awe-inspiring crystals spread out above their heads. Wow, this is ringing a little bit familiar if you're reading through your Bible. Skip down to verse 26. And above the expanse over their heads there was like the likeness of a throne and appearance like sapphire and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance and upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal like the appearance of fire enclosed all around and downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him, like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain. So was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking." Of course, it's not the only place where you hear this kind of description. That's why we read Revelation chapter 4. But let me just read a few verses from that text again. And notice the description in Revelation 4, and tie it back to Exodus chapter 24, beginning at verse 2 of Revelation 4. Once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, and with one seated on the throne, and he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal." There it is again. Now there's 24 elders there worshiping. They represent the people of God. I hope you can figure that out from the text. And the question might be asked, how can they actually be there? They can be there because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's very interesting when you get to the end of the book of Revelation, that the word for clearness that describes the expanse underneath the glory of God is used to actually describe the people of God. We will be made fit to be with God. That's the point. Like the very heaven for clearness. That's what they saw. That noun for clearness is used in the Old Testament, especially of the tent of meeting, the temple, the priest's clothing. It appears in the sense of clean, pure. In Exodus, it's applied to the gold used in the ark, the mercy seat, the table, the lampstand, the plate, and the incense altar. But when you get to the New Covenant, it's applied to the people of God. having the glory of God, Revelation 21, verse 11, its radiance like a most rare jewel, speaking of the people of God, like a jasper, clear as crystal. So what's the token? Part one, they get a view of God. This is the assurance that he will be with them. But not only that, they get a fellowship meal. Those two things go together. First of all, we read in verse 11, he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. Then we read, they beheld God and ate and drank. But we've got to spend a little bit of time there. He, the God of Israel, did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. And that should jump off the page at you. What a strange thing. God is the one who said, come on up. He invited them, but we must remember, this is the old covenant, we must remember the unavailing nature of it, the anticipatory nature of it, by design appointed beyond itself to something better. This is included here that we might understand the unavailing nature of it. It points to that better covenant, that new covenant, that eternal covenant that came in Jesus Christ. The New Testament itself describes exactly what's going on here in verse 11 as divine forbearance. God passed over the transgressions of Old Testament people. They were looking forward to the Messiah, but Messiah had not come. They are justified by faith in a future atonement to be made, but in this moment God is passing over their transgressions until the fullness of time came when atonement would be made through Jesus Christ. We read this in Romans 3.25. God put him forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. So Romans 3.25 well describes what's going on at the beginning part of verse 11. Matthew Henry says, though they were sinful men and obnoxious to God's justice, yet he did not lay his punishing, avenging hand upon them as they feared he would. Now to the main point in the second part of the proof, the token of God's assurance of his presence, that it would be with them, we read, they beheld God and they ate and drank. They ate and drank. So we are Baptists, we love something in particular as Baptists. Do you know what it is? Food and fellowship. Food and fellowship. You realize that that is a biblical category, what we're doing on like a Good Friday breakfast. or whenever we get together for a meal. It's a biblical category. And you ought to be thinking about it as a biblical category. You think about a view of God and food and fellowship, and you put those two things together, and you trace that category throughout scripture. I'm not going to do that for you. I just want you to be thinking right now about a view of God and food and fellowship in the mixed. And you're going to start to come up with some things. Are you coming up with them? I'm looking right at you. Starting to come up with those occasions? Because that's going to help you apply well what we find here this evening. So think view of God and a fellowship meal. All right. Point number two, we've got the proof of God's presence with his people. What is it? Something glorious. A view of himself and a fellowship meal. So now we've got to bring this all forward. Do we have a proof? of God's presence with us in the New Covenant? You can think outside of what's being talked about here and outside of a fellowship meal. We have proof that God is going to stay with us all the way until glory? Of course we do. We have the Spirit ultimately as a deposit, but isn't it interesting that one of the ordinances that Jesus Christ put in place for the encouragement of his people was the Lord's table. One writer said, not only do believers have the continued promise of God's presence through the spirit of Jesus, we would immediately think of that, but we continue to participate in a meal that promises Jesus' presence and power through the blood of the new covenant. We too then have encouragement for our continued journey through this wilderness to the city of God. How appropriate that we celebrated the Lord's table this morning. It is a token on the part of God that he is with us and he will be with us to the end. It is a promise of greater things to come. Matthew Henry said, they feasted upon the sacrifice before God in token of their cheerful consent to the covenant now made, their grateful acceptance of the benefits of it, and their communion with God in pursuance of that covenant. Thus, believers eat and drink with Christ at His table. And remember I said, about Bonner this morning. Remember I talked a little bit about that Scottish hymn writer, Horatius Bonner? What a great hymn that is. I wonder if he was thinking about Exodus chapter 24. Listen to what he says. So think about a view of God and a fellowship meal. And Bonner says this, I see thee face to face. Here would I touch and handle things unseen. Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace and all my weariness upon thee lean. Of course, there's an application here. We'll get to that in a moment. But we can't pass up Nadab and Abihu, can we? Cannot pass them up. You know what happens with them, do you not? It goes horribly wrong for them. Leviticus 10 verses 1 to 3, they die. Strange fire incident. They die. They are pulled out of the tabernacle with a rope. And you think about this. You think about the 70. You think about Moses and Aaron. You think about Nadab and Abihu. And you think about Nadab and Abihu's privileges, and yet they are unsaved. There's a warning in that for us. You can be here all the time, you can be in service at Sovereign Grace Community Church, you can partake of that fellowship meal, and you can be lost. The writer of the Hebrews talks about such people, though he is confident a better thing is for the people that he is writing to. But he does give a warning. And it does seem good, thinking about Nadab and Abihu and the privileges that they experienced and how they were ultimately sons of perdition and lost, to read the warning to you. It is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted, in some sense tasted the heavenly gift, and in some sense have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God, and even the power of the ages to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm, and holding him up to contempt. Verse seven in Hebrews chapter six well describes what was going on on Mount Sinai. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned. So there's a warning. There is a warning here. The chapter concludes. Verses 12 to 18, as we've been led to expect by verses one and two, Moses drawing near to God. He's there 40 days and 40 nights. We're introduced to Joshua, that young assistant. We're not to think about him going with Moses to be near to God 40 days and 40 nights. He stays somewhat down the mountain, I think. Moses also puts in place people to basically manage the disputes of the people of Israel in Aaron and Hur. But that entire section of verses 12 to 18 is designed to introduce what follows. What does follow? And I'm going to put it out there. In the coming weeks, I'm going to need volunteers to read. We got some really long passages about and furnishings, and there is so much detail. And I think it would be really, really prudent if you would like to read, and for you to be engaged, to allow you to participate in that. That's what's going to go on in chapters 25 to 31. So what final words? Come up to the Lord. That's where we started. And that call of God goes out to us even now. God says to New Covenant believers, receive a token and be assured that my presence will go with you. And we could limit the application here just to participating in the Lord's Table, and I would encourage you to do that. That is a great token that will assure you. But there are many, many means of grace that are going to assure you that you are His. And my earnest, earnest appeal is that you would take advantage of each and every one. Do it in private. Do it tomorrow. Start off your week right. Come out to prayer meeting on Wednesday night. It is an invitation to joy. I was saying to somebody, I don't get discouraged so much anymore when people don't show up to prayer meeting because I enjoy it. I enjoy God, but I do want other people to enjoy him as well and to be assured of God's presence. So come out to that. God is calling you tonight. Come up. I will assure you of my love for you. Take advantage of all those means of grace. But do this as well as a final application. Pray that God would speed the day, capital D, when the tokens will be subsumed by the vision that makes us happy. When that voice rings from the heavens saying, come up to the Lord. when we will see our blessed Savior Jesus face to face, and we will feast and fellowship with Him. I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words. God. Be praying for God to speed that day spoken of in Revelation 19 verses 6 to 9. I've been quoting a lot from dead guys and dead hymn writers. Francis Rowley wrote this hymn and this stanza and again he's picking up the language of Exodus chapter 24 and in other places. This is what This particular author wrote, and we'll close with this, yes, I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me. I will sing it with the saints in glory gathered by the what? Crystal sea. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the assurances, the tokens that you give us of your presence. We have your spirit dwelling within us, testifying with our spirits that we are your children. We have all these means of grace that you have given, whereby we are assured of your great love. Help us to take advantage of them. Lord, indeed we do pray, make our salvation complete. We want to see you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.