In our Scripture reading tonight, we turn in God's Word to Exodus 19. We'll read tonight the whole of Exodus 19. And then a few verses out of the middle of Exodus chapter 20, verses 18 through 21. The whole of that section is the text for our sermon tonight. Word of God in Exodus chapter 19. In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. They were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and in holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses, lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with thee and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. The Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes and be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not in hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through. Whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day, come not at your wives. It came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at another part of the mount. Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. The smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. When the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up. The Lord said unto Moses, go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord, to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. Moses said unto the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for thou chargest us, saying, set bounds about the Mount, and sanctify it. The Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee, but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people and spake unto them. And Exodus chapter 20 begins with God speaking from Mount Sinai, His voice thundering from the Mount, speaking the words of the Ten Commandments to the people. Then we read in verse 18 of Exodus 20, And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. They said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. The people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. We read the word of God that far tonight. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, three months after he baptized Israel in the Red Sea, God leads his people to Mount Sinai on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. God brings Israel there, and they will remain there for about a year or more, during which time God will reveal his law to them and reveal to them the plans for the tabernacle. God's bringing of Israel to Mount Sinai is a fulfillment of his promise earlier to Moses. Moses was still in the wilderness caring for his father-in-law's sheep. God appeared to him in the burning bush and promised Moses would lead the people out and they would worship God here at Mount Sinai. God fulfills that promise, now bringing the people to the foot of the mount. God brings his people there to reveal to them his covenant with them. It's plain from our text, but it's also evident from a passage like Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy 5, verses 2-4, The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire. God is revealing to Israel at Mount Sinai His one covenant of grace. When we speak of God's covenant, as He reveals that in the Old Testament, we can distinguish what we sometimes call different administrations of that covenant. It is not that there are different covenants. There is one covenant of grace between God and His elect in Christ, but in the Old Testament we can distinguish different administrations, different revelations of that to His people. God revealed his covenant to Adam after the fall, emphasizing that the basis of that was alone in the seed of the woman and revealing that God meets our greatest need in saving us from sin. God revealed his covenant to Noah, emphasizing that that covenant includes even the brute creation. God revealed His covenant to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, emphasizing that He establishes that covenant with believers and their spiritual seed after them in the line of continued generations. God will reveal that covenant to David, showing that we live the covenant life as those under King Jesus. God here at Mount Sinai reveals his covenant to Israel, and especially showing that Israel was under the law. He gave them the law as a schoolmaster to drive them to Christ, and also to point them to their life of thankful obedience in the covenant. It means that tonight we have the privilege of considering the wonderful, precious truth of God's covenant with us. The doctrine of the covenant is especially precious to us as Protestant Reformed believers. The doctrine of the covenant is so precious to us because it's played such an important part in our own history The truth of the covenant was at issue in the split that ripped our churches apart back in the 1950s. And through that controversy, God led us to a deeper and a better understanding of the covenant and a greater appreciation for that truth. Doctrine of the covenant is precious to us, not only on account of our history, That's a truth that's precious to us personally. It's important that we know the truth of the covenant, that we defend that truth over against all of the errors and the false doctrines and heresies that prevailed today. It's important that we know that covenant life personally. We live the covenant life. We know God as our Father and our Friend. We speak with Him. We hear Him speak to us. We know the worth of His fellowship and His love with us in Christ. It's knowing that that makes us eager to come to the Lord's table next Sunday. In the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, there's pictured for us the covenant fellowship and communion that we have with God and Jesus Christ, our Savior. Call your attention to this text tonight under the theme, God's Covenant Revealed at Sinai. First of all, notice the unconditional covenant. Secondly, the majestic God. And then thirdly, the holy nation. God brings people of Israel to Mount Sinai. Before he speaks one word of his law to them, God reveals to them the covenant that he's established with them. When Israel comes to Mount Sinai, God calls Moses to come up to the Mount. So that shortly after they've arrived, Moses goes up to speak with God. And God says to Moses, Moses, this is the message that you are to bring to the people. The very first thing that you must say to them. It's not a list of laws, but the first thing that you speak to them is the truth of the covenant. God describes that covenant here in beautiful language. Verse 4. God says, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians. God is saying to the people of Israel that one of the many blessings of God's covenant with them is his salvation and his care of them, his destruction of their enemies, his leading them out of bondage, and his rescue of them. God goes on to say in verse 4, And how I bear you on eagles' wings. The idea of God caring for his people as an eagle Something that Moses refers to later in speaking to the people of Israel as well. Deuteronomy 32 verses 11 and 12. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him. Apparently there are certain kinds of eagles that When their eaglets get older, the parents nudge them out of the nest in order to teach them how to fly. And at times, those little eaglets, having been pushed out of the nest, are unable to fly. They haven't matured. They're not strong enough. So they fall and they'll crash and be smashed upon the rocks underneath the nest. The adult eagle comes and swoops underneath them, catches them, bears them on wings, and lifts them again to the safety of the nest. God uses that illustration to teach His people about His care for them. They're a helpless eaglet as they're wandering through the wilderness. They'd be utterly destroyed if left to themselves. God cares for them as a mother for her hens. God lifts them up, bears them on eagles' wings, preserves them and cares for them in the wilderness. At the end of verse 4, God says, "...and brought you unto Myself." And there is exposed the essence and the heart of God's covenant with His people. God says to His covenant people, I take you to Myself. I brought you to Myself here at Mount Sinai to enjoy fellowship and communion. The language that's used there is that of a parent with a child, a parent that takes the child and draws the child into a warm embrace. Or it's the language of a husband with his wife, the husband that takes the wife of his youth whom he loves so dearly and circles her in his arms of love and care. Revealing his covenant to Israel, God reveals that the heart of it is the warmth of fellowship and intimacy and love. God continues and goes on, verse 5. At the end of the verse it says, Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. God says, I'm sovereign over all. I've created the heavens and the earth. I rule over all the nations. But I've chosen you as my peculiar treasure. You're chosen. You're precious. You're unique. You're set apart from all of the other nations. and you're a treasure to me. I value you, I view you as delightful and precious. Then in verse 6, you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests. God is establishing Israel as a nation here, but says you are a nation, a kingdom of priests. You're all priests who have the privilege of coming into the Holy of Holies to stand before the very throne of God Himself. To hear God speak. To speak to God in fellowship and communion. And then verse 6 as well. God says, you shall be to Me a holy nation. The idea of being holy as we spoke of this morning, is being set apart, being drawn out of, separated from the world and every other nation and consecrated and devoted to God as his chosen people. God reveals to Israel here the essence and heart of his covenant with them as his fellowship and communion with them in love. What God teaches Israel of old here is what He teaches His church of all ages. This is the heart and the essence of God's covenant with us. God's covenant with us is His relationship of fellowship and communion with His chosen people in Jesus Christ. God's covenant with us. It means that we enjoy all of the blessings of the covenant. All of the blessings earned for us by Christ on the cross, which includes the victory over our enemies. The victory that Christ won by His death and His resurrection is our victory over sin and death and over Satan. It means for us that we're drawn out of the bondage to sin and cruel slavery to the devil. We've been rescued by the grace of God in His covenant. The truth of God's covenant means for us that God bears us on eagle's wings. We are helpless in the midst of the wilderness of this life. would be lost and destroyed if left to ourselves. But God bears us up on eagles' wings. God lifts us up. God preserves us. He tenderly cares for us. We find safety. We find shelter under His everlasting arms. The truth of God's covenant with us means He brings us to Himself. He draws us to Himself as our Father and our Friend into the circle of His holy family. He wraps us. in His fatherly arms as His precious sons and daughters. As the bridegroom, He takes us, His bride, and He encircles us in His arms of love and care for us. Perhaps to drive that point home, to our children. Go home after church tonight. Husbands, wrap our wives in our arms in a warm embrace. Fathers, take the little children in our arms and wrap them in our arms of love and care and teach to our children. This is a picture of God's covenant with us. His warm embrace of us. His drawing of us into fellowship and communion. The intimacy His love and His care for us. Being God's covenant people, we are a peculiar treasure to Him. He's chosen us in Jesus Christ from amongst all of the nations of the world. We're peculiar. We're set apart. We're unique. We're different. And we are His treasure. dear and precious, delightful and beautiful to Him. We're a kingdom of priests. In Old Testament Israel, that Word of God was spoken as a foreshadowing of what was to come. Because Israel of old was not all priests. They couldn't all go into the Holy of Holies. Only a few could. The reality for us is that we are a kingdom of priests. We have the privilege of coming into the Holy of Holies, standing before the very throne of God Himself. To hear God speak to us, to speak to God, to praise Him, to bring our cares and our needs before Him. That's covenant life with God. We're a holy nation. Drawn out of the world, separated from her, consecrated and devoted to God as His chosen, precious, covenant people. How wonderful. How delightful. How precious. is the truth of God's covenant to us. Yes, it's an important theological truth that we have to understand properly. Yes, it's something that we have to defend against all of the errors that militate against it. Absolutely. First of all, the covenant is precious to us personally in our own souls because this is what God has drawn us into. This is the life that we live. This is the fellowship and the communion that we enjoy with the great God of heaven. We live with Him. We hear Him speak to us. We speak to Him were encircled and embraced in His arms of love, care, and protection of us, so that we know Him as our Father and our Friend. From the point of view of our own life and experiences, God's covenant people, how dear, how warm, how rich, how precious truth of God's covenant with us. We honor God of that covenant. Honor the God of the covenant, teaching as the word of God teaches that this covenant is unconditional It's not conditioned upon, it's not based upon us and something that we do to earn it or any blessing of covenant life. Now, there's conditional language that's used here in Exodus 19. God willing, tonight we'll come to that again later in the sermon. But, though there's conditional language, a conditional covenant that does not make Now there are many who interpreting this word of God will teach this is a conditional covenant. In recent years, there's been an error that's been promoted called the republication theory. What that teaches is that here at Mount Sinai, God is republishing, He's reestablishing a covenant of works They say that God established a covenant of works with Adam in paradise. Adam and God came together. They hammered out an agreement as it were. There were stipulations, conditions for Adam to fulfill. If Adam fulfilled the conditions, he'd merit the higher life of heavenly glory. But since Adam failed to fulfill those conditions and he fell into sin, So they say God now at Mount Sinai is republishing, he's reestablishing that covenant of works. God's laying out the conditions that Israel must fulfill and if Israel does, if she fulfills those conditions, meets those prerequisites, then Israel will have merited the enjoyment of covenant life with God. That idea is contrary to the teaching of the Word of God. God's covenant with Adam was no covenant of works. This covenant that's revealed here is no covenant of works. God's one covenant that He's established with His elect throughout all of history is no covenant of works. It's an unconditional covenant. And that comes out here in the text. One indication of that is in verse 5. God refers to the covenant as my covenant. Not our covenant, my and your covenant, God says with Israel, so that it's both of ours together and we both do certain things to establish and to maintain that covenant. No, God says this is my covenant. And he emphasizes that fact throughout the revelation of himself here in Exodus 19. The God who is revealed in Exodus 19 is no weak, impotent, powerless God. God reveals himself in all of his glory and his majesty and his power. God reveals Himself on a mountain to show that He's high, exalted above His people. God reveals Himself in the thunder, and the lightning, the smoke, and the fire, and the earthquake, and the trumpet. To show how great, how majestic, how powerful He is. This is not a God who's dependent upon weak, powerless men. establishing and the maintaining of His covenant. And that's playing as well from the whole context of the book of Exodus. Israel isn't in Egypt here. It's not that God, while Israel is still in bondage, says, I'll establish my covenant with you on the condition that you do all of these things and you meet these prerequisites and then I'll save you God has already revealed His covenant to them. This is the same covenant of which He spoke to their forefathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. God revealed Himself as covenant God by delivering them powerfully out of Egypt, baptizing them in the Red Sea, preserving them, caring for them throughout all of the wilderness. It's only then after God shows himself as covenant God that he reveals his law to them, not as a condition that must be fulfilled, pointing them to the life of thankful obedience as God's covenant people. And what do we see in the history that follows? Very shortly after this, Israel reveals herself to be a sinful people. Moses himself reveals his own sinful nature. If the covenant was dependent on Israel doing something, the covenant would be immediately destroyed and fall apart. God sovereignly, graciously establishes and maintains His covenant. The covenant of God is an unconditional covenant. The covenant of God is unconditional in its establishment. It's not dependent upon you and me to meet some condition or perform some prerequisite in order first to be drawn into covenant fellowship with God. God sovereignly establishes His covenant and the covenant is unconditional with respect to its maintenance, its continuation. It's not as if God sovereignly brings us into the covenant and then it's up to us that we remain in there. That's the teaching of so many. And the idea then is that if we don't fulfill the conditions, though we once have known life with God, we can lose it all. Continuation of God's covenant does not depend upon us in some condition that we fulfill or something to merit with God. God sovereignly, graciously establishes that covenant, sovereignly and graciously maintains and preserves it so that we can never lose covenant life with God. The fact that God's covenant is unbreakable and the heart of that covenant being fellowship and communion with God is something that we must know and be assured of. That was the will of God for Israel of old. God says to Moses in verse 3, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, Moses, come up to Mount Sinai. I have something to say to you, to relay to the people. And it's not a whole list of laws. It's the covenant. Moses, go tell my people that they're my covenant people. They're precious to me. I've drawn them to myself in a warm, fatherly embrace. I love them. Moses, don't hide that from them. Go and tell the people. Such is the will of God for His covenant people today. God says to ministers of the Gospel, bring this Word to My precious covenant people. Tell them that I've established My covenant with them. Tell them that that covenant is unbreakable. Tell them that it's something I sovereignly maintain. Tell My people I love them. They're precious to me. They're a peculiar treasure. As my children, I draw them to myself in the warmth of fellowship and love. Don't hide this from the people. Tell this to them so that they know that. They're assured of that. Beloved people of God, that's God's word to you tonight. God speaks from the mount. His voice speaks to us. We are His covenant people. He's established that covenant with us. We're a peculiar treasure to us. He loves us in Jesus Christ. That's what God reveals to us as we come to partake of the Lord's Supper. When we come to partake of the sacrament, God in the sacrament is assuring us of His covenant of grace with us and His love for us in Jesus Christ. And we look forward then to coming to the sacrament, to partaking, to have our faith and our assurance strengthened. We are God's precious covenant people. loves with an unbreakable love. After God speaks to Israel the truth of his covenant with them, God then reveals himself and who he is as the covenant God in a powerful display of his greatness and his majesty. History is briefly this. Israel comes to Mount Sinai. Moses is called up to the top of the Mount. Tell the people, they're my covenant people. Moses goes down from the Mount. Tells the people, the people respond. All that God has said, we will do. Moses goes back up to the top of the mount to speak those words to God. And God tells Moses then, prepare the people. On the third day, I'm going to show myself to them from the mount. Sanctify them. Prepare them. That preparation involved the washing of their clothes. as the outward symbol of being sanctified and prepared to stand before God. The preparation included setting boundaries around the mount, a fence as it were, so that no person or no animal even could come near and could touch the mount. If they did, they would immediately die. And their preparation involved abstaining, as husband and wife, from sexual relations in marriage. Verse 15, be ready against the third day, come not at your wives. And the reference there is to sexual relation in marriage. Even their holiest and purest of acts were sinful and unholy on account of sin, their sinful nature. Moses then, having heard that word of God, comes down from the mount, he prepares the people, and then on the third day, he leads them out of the camp to the foot of Mount Sinai. It's then that God reveals himself in a terrifying and powerful way. The description that we have of Mount Sinai really escapes full comprehension and understanding. It's like standing at the base of an exploding volcano. Or to use a different figure, it's like a thunderstorm and a forest fire and an earthquake, all of those things wrapped up together in one. God revealed Himself on Mount Sinai. There was thunder and lightning that crashed down upon the mountain. There was a fire upon the mountain, and not just a small little fire, but a fire like a furnace as if the whole mountain was on fire. And the fire then producing this enormous cloud of black smoke And this thick cloud that covered the mountain. There was an earthquake so that the ground underneath their feet quaked and trembled. And then added to it all was the noise of a trumpet. And that trumpet went on and on and on. It went louder and louder and louder. So that the people could hardly stand to hear and listen this great sound that was coming forth from the mountain. Then God calls Moses back up to the mount once again. Again, he warns Moses, don't let the people come anywhere near the mount to touch it or they'll die. Moses comes back down again. God then speaks the words of the Ten Commandments to the people from the mount. Imagine, try to imagine, picture in your mind what it would be like to be Israelites standing before this mountain. and the thunder, and the lightning, and the smoke, and fire, and the earthquake, and the loud trumpet. We're not surprised to read then that the people of Israel were terrified. Moses says to them, fear not, and he says that because they were terrified. They were trembling in their terror. Verse 16, so that all the people that were in the camp trembled. So terrified and trembling were the people that they couldn't stand to draw close to the mountain. They had to remove and step back and put some distance between themselves and the mountain. We read of that in verse 18 of Exodus 20, and when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. God was revealing himself to the people as a holy God. In this revelation of himself in the thunder and the lightning and the fire and the smoke and the earthquake, God was impressing upon Israel the fact that he is a holy God. A God with eyes too pure to behold. Iniquity. A God that hates sin and will punish sin. His just judgment in wrath. The trembling of the people was a trembling on account of the knowledge of their sin. Here is the holy God. The God who hates sin and the people of Israel know without a shadow of a doubt they are sinners. They are unholy before this holy God. By removing from the Mount, they show that in themselves there is no way that in themselves they can merit, they can earn fellowship and communion with God. On account of their sins, they'd forfeited any right to God's covenant and his fellowship. In their terror, they turn to a mediator. They turn to Moses. Now, just prior to this, and on a number of other occasions already, they had showed that they didn't care for Moses. They complained about his leadership. They chided with him. They roughed him right before this. Rebelling. Even taking up stones to kill him. But now as they stand before this powerful revelation of the majestic God, they turn to Moses. They need Moses. They say to Moses, we can't bear to hear the voice of God Himself as He thunders from the mount. Moses, you go, and you hear God speak to you, and you bring us God's Word, and you bring our words to God. You be the mediator. You go between us and God. Moses does so. On behalf of a miserable, selfish, complaining, rebellious people, Moses acts as a mediator. Exodus 20 verse 21, the people stood afar off and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. You can learn important truths about God's covenant and who God is from this revelation of himself. Now there's a sense in which this word of God does not apply to the church in the New Testament. We read in Hebrews chapter 12 that we are not come to Mount Sinai That was all of a smoke and thundering. We've been brought to Mount Zion. The church of the living God and the blood of the mediator Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 12 is contrasting the old covenant with the new covenant. Sinai is the old covenant. Now that's not that this is a totally different covenant, that there's different covenants of God. There's one covenant of God, united in its essence. But there was a different form in the Old Testament than the form of the covenant in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God's people were under law. God revealed Himself as a holy God. And Jesus Christ had not yet come as the mediator of the covenant. They could only look ahead and hope. but they were pressed down under the law. Now for us in the New Testament, Christ has come. He's the mediator of the new covenant. We draw near to God, not as a terrifying, consuming God. We draw near to Him in Christ in boldness as our Father and our friend. So there's a sense in which what is revealed here at Mount Sinai does not apply to the church in the New Testament and yet we do learn something here about God. God who revealed himself at Mount Sinai is the same yesterday and today and forever. And even in Hebrews 12, after it's said that we've come to Mount Zion and not to Mount Sinai, it still says, Hebrews 12, verse 29, for our God is a consuming fire. God is a holy God. God is a God who hates sin. A God who will punish sin in His just judgment and wrath. It ought to humble us in response to this revelation of the majestic God is humility in the knowledge of our own sin. Seeing how great God is. majestic and holy. It ought to be impressed upon our souls how unholy we are. We who by nature are totally depraved, unable to do any good and inclined to all evil, but all we do is sin against God. And even as we who are God's covenant people born again by the Spirit, we still have that old man of sin in us and we sin against God daily. This is our greatest trouble and our greatest need is deliverance from sin. The greatest trouble in our life is not other people, it's not the circumstances of our lives. The greatest trouble is our own sin against God. So that with the knowledge of sin we tremble before the holy God as an unholy people In part, it's the purpose of our examining ourselves in this coming week as we prepare to come to the Lord's table. We prepare by examining self, by examining our lives and seeing the sins that we commit against God, having impressed upon us what we deserve on account of our sin. And the knowledge of our sin and our unholiness drives us, faith, to the mediator. The purpose of God exposing our sin is not to leave us in sin. and the knowledge of our sin to drive us in faith and dependence to Christ as our righteousness and our salvation. That was God's purpose with Israel. It wasn't ultimately to point them to Moses. Moses was just a type. We read in Hebrews 12 that he himself trembled before the mount in God's revelation. Moses couldn't save them. Israel was being directed by God to Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and His people. That's God's purpose in this revelation for us as well. To point us to Christ, who is our mediator. what we deserve. Christ took upon Himself on account of our sins. We deserve the wrath and the judgment of God. We deserve to stand at Mount Sinai to have God rain down upon us thunder and lightning, fire and smoke and earthquake and a trumpet proclaiming the judgment. We deserve Christ endured that in our place. He endured the darkness and the fire of God's wrath. He endured that to make full atonement for our sins. By His suffering and by the shedding of His blood, We've laid the foundation and the basis for our joy and covenant fellowship with God. Apart from Christ, we cannot enjoy the fellowship and the love of God in His covenant. We enjoy that fellowship and we know that love solely on the basis of what Christ has done for us. And that too, It's an important part of our self-examination. It's not just that we examine our lives and we see all the sin that we commit, but seeing our sin, we're directed in faith to Jesus Christ as our mediator. The sprinkling of His blood in whom we have fellowship and communion with God. In the history here, God is especially driving his people to Christ. But God is also calling the people of Israel to a life of thankful obedience in the keeping of his law. That's playing from the sanctification process that the people are to undergo as they prepare to meet God at the Mount. But that's also God teaches in verse 5 in the conditional language that is used there. Verse 5 says, Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me. It was a few weeks ago that we considered a similar passage that uses that language, explain that at more length. I'm not going to do that in as much length tonight. It is helpful for us to be reminded of that truth. This conditional language can make us nervous. We know God's covenant is unconditional, and yet when we read the conditional language, it can make us nervous and we can wonder, how do we understand that? How do we interpret that properly? Again, it is not teaching a conditional covenant. Though there is conditional language, that is not to say that God's covenant is conditional in nature. God's covenant is unconditional. Our good works of keeping God's law, obeying His voice, are not the condition to, a prerequisite of, the basis for, or even the means or the instrument unto, covenant fellowship with God and the blessings of covenant fellowship. How do we understand the language? Three things that we can say. The same three things that we said a few weeks ago. First and foremost, this language drives us to Christ. Because we cannot keep the if of that statement. If we keep God's covenant, and if we obey His voice, in which one of us can say, having rightly examined ourselves, I do that. I do that perfectly. I keep God's covenant. I obey His voice in all of my life. The truth is we don't. And that drives us to Christ. From alone there is forgiveness, life with God. Secondly, this language exposes the reprobate ungodly in Israel. Not all Israel was true Israel. There were reprobate hypocrites among the nation of Israel. This Word of God exposes them in their rebellion, in their hatred of God. God sets before them the way of life and death. And the fact that they continue in their sin and their rebellion against God exposes that. leaves them further without excuse in the judgment day. God will judge them righteously and justly for their sins against him. And thirdly, this language sets before us true elect Israel justified by faith in Jesus Christ. The life of thankful obedience that we live in God's covenant. We've been drawn into God's covenant by faith in Jesus Christ. We experience and we enjoy the covenant fellowship of our God. In the enjoyment of that fellowship. We live thankful lives of obedience to God and the keeping of His commandments and the obeying of His voice. Not to earn anything. Not to merit some blessing with God. Motivated by thanksgiving for the covenant fellowship we enjoy with God. That's our part in God's covenant as our baptism form puts it. Our part in God's covenant is the life of thankfulness. Trusting in God. Loving God who's first loved us. keeping His commandments out of gratitude. What motivation we have to live holy lives before God. We've been redeemed from bondage. We know the protective care of the everlasting arms of Jehovah were wrapped up in His arms of love and the embrace of intimate fellowship. We're God's covenant people. We know fellowship with God. As His covenant people, we know the forgiveness of sins. We're righteous in the righteousness of Christ out of thanksgiving for all that we enjoy as God's covenant people. Keep His covenant. Keep His commandments. The way of life in His house. Obey His voice. And in confidence, come to the table of the Lord. Having examined ourselves, seeing our sin, our unholiness, our unworthiness, looking in faith to Christ as our mediator and our righteousness. desire us to live a thankful life before God. Come and partake. Have your faith strengthened and your assurance and confidence strengthened. For Christ's sake, you belong to God's precious covenant of grace. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word to us. We're thankful for revelation of Thy precious covenant of grace with us in Christ. We confess our unholiness, our sins against Thee, our unworthiness to stand before Thee. We look, Father, in faith to Christ. For Christ's sake, Hear us, for Christ's sake, forgive us, for Christ's sake, draw us into a warmth of fellowship and communion with Thee. We pray, Father, that Thou wilt make us a thankful people whose hearts are so filled with gratitude for Thy grace to us, that Thanksgiving shows itself in holy, sanctified lives lived before Thy face. Strengthen us, Father, as we examine ourselves in this coming week and receive us, for Christ's sake, as worthy partakers of supper of our Lord. We pray in His name alone. Amen.