We turn now to our reading of scripture, first from Exodus chapter 19. We'll read through from Exodus 19 verse 1 to chapter 20 verse 2. up to chapter 20 verse 2. This is the inspired word of God. On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain 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 eagles' 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. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, 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. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people. and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people and you shall set limits for the people all around saying take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people. And they washed their garments. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman. On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of 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.' And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him, go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. and then follows the 10 words of the covenant. But we turn ahead to Hebrews chapter 12. And we read the verses 18 through to 29. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them, for they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. that time his voice shook the earth but now he has promised yet once more i will shake not only the earth but also the heavens this phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken that is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain therefore 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 for our God is a consuming fire. So far the reading of God's word. We turn now to Lord's Day 32, which we'll read together as well. Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace alone through Christ, without any merit of our own, why must we yet do good works? Because Christ Having redeemed us by his blood also renews us by his Holy Spirit to be his image so that with our whole life we may show ourselves thankful to God for his benefits and he may be praised by us. Further that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by its fruits and that by our godly walk of life we may win our neighbors for Christ. Can those be saved? who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent walk of life by no means. Scripture says that no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, greedy person, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like, shall inherit the kingdom of God. beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, maybe you've heard that religions can be compared to people standing at the bottom of a mountain and God is at the top. And one kind of religion says that life's purpose is to work your way to the top of the mountain and get to God. But the Christian religion says that God comes down the mountain to meet with us. Lord's Day 32 says, we have been saved by grace alone through Christ. Salvation is not a matter of working our way up the mountain to meet God. Salvation is from the Lord. It's His work, not yours, not mine. The problem though is that it's quite easy to look at our lives like they are just an uphill battle. It's so easy to do our good works as if they are the thing that's keeping the Lord on our side. Our trials, our temptations, they beg us, they nag us, they wear us down until we start to think that God's acceptance It depends on me dealing with this sin, winning this battle, overcoming the temptation. And then once I solve the problem and once I deal with this sin, after that I will be able to stand joyfully before the Lord. But here's the tricky thing. You should never do good works to earn God's favor. And yet, You must put sin to death and lead a godly life. You must do good works. Why is that? Lord say 32 points us to the real reason for doing good works. so I preach to you the Word of God with this theme, delivered by God we do good works with gratitude and we'll see first doing good without legalism and second doing good without license. Scripture teaches us that without any legalism we must do good works. Good works are whatever God's law commands. Any work outside of that law is evil. The reason is, sin is lawlessness. You can find that in 1 John. But any work that we do according to the law is good, because all of God's commands are love and righteousness. And the righteous way is not optional. And that tells us what a good work is. And it's essential to understand why we have to do them. Why must we do good works? Well, the answer in just one word is thankfulness. But first let's make it crystal clear why we should not do good works. We should never do good works to save ourselves. Don't try to climb up the mountain and work your way with piety and holiness as if by doing that you can win God over. That is legalism. That is trying to do enough to put yourself in God's good books. Look at me, bless me, see how much I have tried, Lord. That's legalism. The scripture calls us to do good without any intention of earning God's favor. We do good without legalism, without trying to earn something. God shows favor freely. He saves you and me without any merit of my own. So in Exodus 19, the Lord had already delivered Israel out of Egypt, out of the grip of hard-hearted Pharaoh. Moses led them out. And now at Mount Sinai, he brings them out of the camp to meet God. And he would later tell the Israelites that God saved them purely because of his love and faithfulness. Moses says to them, quote, it was not because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the fewest of all peoples. So you weren't good apples and you didn't have money and you didn't have merit to earn the Lord's love. No, and no, and nothing at all about you. That would be legalism. Instead, says Moses, it's because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers. Salvation never comes from good works. It's the opposite. Good works come after God has already done the saving. The Catechism, it puts all the pieces in the right place for us. Salvation comes before good works. And the primary reason for doing good works is that we are redeemed. We have been delivered, as Lord's Day 32 says. And those words, they refer to earlier sections in the Catechism. First, we saw our sin. And then we saw our salvation. And the order matters because only now, after seeing our sin and salvation, only now do we turn to look at our service to the Lord. He served us first, redeemed us, loved us. And now because He first loved us, we love Him in return. And that's exactly how it went for Israel. First the Lord delivered them, then he met them at Mount Sinai and taught them how to live with the 10 words of the covenant. And then even before giving those 10 covenant words, he chose to remind Israel again, bring to mind the deliverance that he had just worked. When the Lord speaks from the mountain, the first thing that he points to is not Service, but salvation. Exodus 20 verse 2, I am the Lord your God. Those are the first words that the Israelites hear from the Lord in Exodus 20. He tells them his name, the Lord. And in your ESV Bible, that name is in all caps. That's God's covenant name. With that name, God says, I am who I am. That means he exists forever, cannot, will not change. He is most faithful, immutable. And therefore, since he doesn't change, every word he speaks he will keep perfectly, faithfully. And when he says, you're God, He tells the people that this ever faithful, this unchanging God is your God. He is yours. They have him as head, as ruler and sovereign. The Lord is at the helm. He will be guide. He will be safety and security. The Lord calls himself our God. Ours. So he's not going to suddenly disown us. He said earlier in Exodus 19, I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Israel's God, your God, he carried the people on eagle's wings, brought them safely home to dwell with himself and to be his treasured possession. And can't you count on him to do just as much and even more for your faith? for your salvation. And finally, the Lord tells Israel, he is the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And the Lord says, you know me, not only because of my name, but because of what I have done. God reveals himself to us in his acts of salvation. Remember, your God is the one who delivered you, who carried you, who worked miracle upon miracle for the sake of the people whom he loved, despite them giving him nothing but sin. Your God is unchanging and he never forgets the covenant that he has made with you and also signed and sealed this afternoon before us again. When Israel cried out to the Lord. The Lord was not going to leave them to rot forever under oppression and distress. Exodus 2 says, God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant. And now Israel has been redeemed and stands before the Lord at Mount Sinai. He led them through the sea on dry ground. He led them with fire by night. And that whole history of redemption, that all comes before the law. And only after God announces His saving grace in Exodus chapter 20, only then does He give the Ten Commandments. The law is given to a redeemed people. And those Ten Commandments They were not 10 steps for getting out of Egypt. What the Lord says is, now that I've blessed you, now that I have bought you, now that I have redeemed you, now I give you the blessed path of life. The only way to live in covenant with me. The Lord blesses Israel with the privilege And the obligation to show themselves thankful to God for his benefits. As Laws Day 32 says. The good works of God's law. They were simply the way for Israel to say, thank you. Thank you, Lord. You have given me more than I can fathom. And this thankfulness, this service to God, that was actually the purpose that Israel had been saved for. The purpose of the Exodus. And Pharaoh heard that over and over again. Maybe you know how it goes. Let my people go. And the reason, the purpose, that they may serve me. The Lord had a claim on his people. And Pharaoh, he foolishly opposed God and he paid for it in the end. The Lord God, He wanted His people to serve Him and so He saved them. And what do we see there? We see not only that salvation comes before service in Israel's history, But we also see that salvation is for the very purpose of service. Why does God redeem his people? Why are you saved? So that with our whole life we may show ourselves thankful to God for his benefits. that services with our whole life, just as the Ten Commandments cover every aspect of our lives. There's no time of day, no place, no excuse for breaking the law of the Lord. The Lord had been planning to bring Israel to Mount Sinai the whole time. He redeemed them for the very purpose of getting them to walk in thankfulness. In the Catechism, it says that we must do good works. It's necessary, not optional. And I don't suppose that the Israelites thought that keeping God's law was optional after their experience at Mount Sinai. The Lord appeared on the morning of the third day after Israel had consecrated themselves. Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The Lord comes and speaks to Israel. He is the almighty one, sovereign. And he descends in fire and smoke. And whoever touches that mountain shall be put to death. And the trumpet sounds are blaring in their ears. And as they stand at the base of the mountain, The whole mountain trembled greatly. And then the sound of a voice cuts through the thunder and the crumbling rock. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not commit adultery. These are not ten choices. These are ten commandments from a sovereign God. And that's exactly why the next Lord's days in the catechism talk about the things that God requires. The things that God forbids. It's not optional. Those commands, they could never, never split the Red Sea and make a way out of Egypt. But they were the most necessary way for Israel to show thankfulness to the Lord. The Lord redeemed Israel through the leading and through the mediation of Moses. He led the people out of bondage and slavery and suffering. He taught Israel God's covenant name. And then brought the 10 words of God's covenant on tablets of stone. And yet we have a far greater mediator in Jesus Christ. He is the mediator of a new covenant, says Hebrews 12. Your mediator has led you from the night of slavery to sin into fellowship with God Almighty. And He's brought us out, not with the blood of a lamb, but by His sprinkled blood that washes away our sin. And by that blood, He has done away with animal sacrifice. He has confirmed the covenant of grace in His own blood. So that you and I, we can freely approach the Lord on the basis of Him. Anytime. Anywhere. At Mount Sinai, God's people were unclean. They needed three days of consecration and abstinence before they could come to the Lord. but we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ once and for all. And you can always come to your covenant God, the God who has given to you his personal name. You can come to him on the basis of the blood that was spilled for you. And we are not barred from approaching the mountain. Hebrews 12 says, we have come to the city of the living God, to Mount Zion, where we boldly Seek God's face in prayer. Expect great things from Him. And offer our praises in worship. And these are privileges. These are new covenant realities. And so in worship, you have entered into something that is very, very serious. And don't be fooled about that. I pray to God that He would show us the marvelous wonders that take place as we worship Him. Here in this heavenly Jerusalem, this city of the living God that Hebrews says, you have come to. And this place, brothers and sisters, is not like others. Our mediator, Jesus Christ, He takes us far beyond Mount Sinai, now to Mount Zion, to the dwelling place of God. And that is the glorious and the spiritual reality of new covenant worship and what do we render to God for his benefits? Remember, remember your mediator and when sloth sets in, know that Christ is on your side and he has redeemed you and now he calls you to get up and do good. We're not like dreary beasts, worn out under a yoke, rejected if our work is not up to snuff. The Lord is your God. Christ is your mediator. Go on serving, go on doing good because you have made it to Mount Zion. Christ has put an end to sin's oppression so that you may enjoy life on the path of God's law. And this leads us to one of the glorious paradoxes of the Christian life. It's been said that Christians are most free lords of all. And at the same time, most duty bound and obliged servants. of God. Our second point is doing good without license. Christians are most free. That's the one side of the paradox. But that freedom is no license to sin. And we are still, in a way, most duty-bound. Well, you're free because your trip to Mount Zion doesn't cost you a single penny. We have been redeemed from bondage without any merit of my own. That's how the catechism puts it. But it would be a fatal mistake to think that because we are so free, we are not at all bound. Christian freedom is never a license to sin. But in times past, people have thought this way, even taught this way. They reasoned that because salvation is a gift that requires no good works of my own, therefore I'm not going to worry about doing good works. I will live it up. I will spend freely and drink my time away. Some people have even said being a Christian is the best because hey, you can get drunk and you can commit sexual sin and then you just pray for forgiveness and it's all good. Well, that's license. That kind of thinking or theology is properly called antinomianism. An antinomian is a person who totally throws out the law. And it is a poisonous way to think. Can a person who keeps on sinning and never truly repents of their sin, can that person be saved? And there's no chance. By no means, says Lord's Day 32, those who do not turn to God cannot be saved. So if you want to live and rejoice in your sin, then don't bother calling yourself a Christian. Only those who do turn to God and keep His law are saved. Let's be very clear about this. First, saved people repent and keep God's law. Second, saved people add nothing to their salvation by keeping the law. When Israel received God's law at Mount Sinai, the victory, the redemption had already happened some three months ago. The Lord had already passed over the Israelite houses, split the sea, bogged down the Egyptian army, washed them up on the seashore. The deliverance was complete. But now, three months later, the law is given. And there's no license. There's no license in this salvation. The Israelites couldn't say, you know, thank you for the redemption out of Egypt. That was great. But this law, that's all good. We don't need that. They couldn't say that. God only gave them the law after Egypt to show how they should respond to what had already happened. Three months after Israel has left Egypt, then the Lord tells them, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The Lord requires them to be holy, to devote their hearts and their minds to Him. And there's a covenant that God calls the Israelites to keep. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. And so he gives them the 10 covenant words, those 10 jewels that color the path of God's law. Remember what the Lord said to Pharaoh, let them go that they may serve me. And God saved you to make you thankful. And God calls you, you, His treasured possession, He calls you to live holy lives and to keep His covenant. And like in Exodus, so in the New Testament, salvation comes before service. And in our time, the salvation is greater, the service is more weighty, We have been carried by eagle's wings into an unshakable kingdom. And therefore we must be thankful. That's what Hebrews says. 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. You've been given a kingdom. Be thankful. Only the Holy Spirit is going to fill us with such reverence and awe. Our dreary hearts, by nature so dull, they can only be revived by supernatural power. God's Holy Spirit is the one who works this holiness in us. And it's good to pray about that. But at the same time, we are responsible to press toward holiness. We are called to pursue holiness. The Spirit exhorts us again in Hebrews 12, let us be grateful and earlier, strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And that means change of life. That means you must turn toward greater holiness. Christ is renewing. He is renovating the house of your heart, as it were. So, take a look at your life. By the Spirit, tear out the old rotten pieces. put in new floors, fill the house with new and better pictures, repair the shattered windows so that the cold and pollution doesn't drift in, and cast the idols out of the inner rooms, the things that you love but God hates. He's at work in us, as it were, as an iconoclast. He's smashing all of our treasured images and idols. And he's putting himself at the center. And brothers and sisters, pray that God may rework your whole life so that he truly is right at the center. But what if you do not turn to God from your ungrateful and impenitent walk of life? And what if you are living in sin? I don't mean struggling with sin and fighting against it. I mean, what if you are living in sin and loving it? Then there is no way for you to be saved. There is not a single way unless you repent. You remember that they trembled at the smoke and the fire of Mount Sinai. And remember that Hebrews 12 says nothing's changed. Our God is still a consuming fire. The covenant at Sinai still stands, but now it is confirmed with the blood of the Son of God. And God still speaks from the mountain and demands your allegiance. Hebrews 12, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. Are you loving your sin, your unchaste life? Are you content with your idolatrous heart? The pride, the lust, the greed? Do you love just to drink a little too much? Love gossip? Love slander? The slavery in Egypt? It was not as bad as sin slavery because sin shackles your soul. Sinners are bound by the chains and the ropes of their own stubborn desires. If you love your sin, then you love your chains. Call on the Lord to help you hate your sin. and delight in the God of grace who has made you his treasured possession. And don't refuse the warning voice of God that comes not from a mountain, but from heaven above through the inspired word of God. And if you brush off that voice, there is hell to pay. Those who do not turn to God, who refuse to listen, cannot be saved. Clearly then, there is no room for license, no room for continuing in sin. We are saved from sin, not to sin. We're saved in order to serve. And this thankful service has become all the more weighty for us in the new covenant. The law was spoken from a thundering, quaking mountain. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Believe, brothers and sisters, that you have a mediator who has taken you on his wings and brought you to worship, as Hebrew says, alongside innumerable angels in festal gathering. We don't see them, but they worship alongside us, our one sovereign God. you have arrived at the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and we have been sprinkled clean and every single sin sunk gone in the blood of the mediator and that is redemption rich and free totally free think Think about who God is, a consuming fire. And then walk in his most blessed way. He says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt through the blood of my son. And he lays claim to your whole life. And therefore, brothers and sisters, Let us be grateful. Let us be grateful because we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Amen. Let's now lift our voices to the Lord with Psalm 48, stanzas one, three, and four.