If you could open up your Bibles to Exodus chapter 19. The Pew Bible I'm using, I don't know if there are many Pew Bibles here, but it's on page 60. Before we read that, let's think a little bit about the context here. You remember that centuries before the Exodus, there's the 70 men that compromised the people of Israel, and they went down to Egypt for safety, and they prospered while they were there. They did well. They had many more children. They lived in this land of Goshen, and they had great cattle. And they did well in the land of Egypt until this pharaoh came around that did not know Joseph. And God allowed testing for the people for a time. And it was hard for them. It's a challenging time for God's people and yet God showed that he will bring salvation to them even in these times. And so he prepared a man, Moses, and Moses was called to lead these Israelites out of Pharaoh's land. And just before they passed over, the Israelites, the firstborn sons, were killed in Egypt. And so they celebrated this Passover right before they left. Then they left they wandered just for a short time is actually sort of a direct shot Working towards Mount Sinai and so right around here in Exodus 19. We're probably about 47 days Since they left and celebrated that Passover So let's read Exodus chapter 19 verse 9 And we'll read from there and I'll redirect us to a different verse partway through let's start at verse 9 This is God's Word 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 a 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'm the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And then skip to verse 18 of chapter 20. Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you that you may not sin. The people stood far off while Moses drew to the thick darkness where God was. Let's pray. Lord God, we are thankful again to be here with your people, to be listening and studying your word, and we ask that as we dive into your word, that you would impress it upon our hearts, that you would apply it to our lives, and that your Holy Spirit would be active here. May your word be taught faithfully, and may you be known even more as we continue to hear the truths that you've set before us. It's in the name of Christ we come to you, amen. So in the first verse that we read here, verse nine of chapter 19, we find the issue presented in the passage, belief. God wanted to prove to these grumbling Israelites after he saved them from Egypt that they had a leader that really mediated between them and God. Moses was a prophet of God. He was one who actually spoke the words of God to his people, words that God put into his mouth. He spoke the words of God, but God wanted to make sure that his people believed that they were hearing his word. It was important. It was important to know that they were getting directions from him. And so God Moses God told Moses to tell the people, to tell them that he's coming. He is coming. He's gonna show up in this thick cloud and they had better be ready for it. They better be ready to attend to the hearing of this word. And now, attending to the hearing of the word is still a requirement for you today. And you'll see that you have the Catechism question number 90 here. And it asks, how is the word to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation? And this answer here, it says, that the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer. Receive it with faith and love. lay it up on our hearts and practice it in our lives. So there, if you look closely at this, there's three aspects to it. There's the before, and the during, and the after. And tonight we're particularly gonna be looking at the before aspect of hearing God's word. And so, the main point of this text today that we'll be looking at, it calls you to prepare to attend to the hearing of the word. Prepare to attend to the hearing of the word. And I don't have a, I actually didn't write that in the title, but perhaps you can add that. We're looking at preparing to attend to the hearing of the Word. But first, as we work our way towards this conclusion, let's consider the Word itself. So, if you look at the first point that you have here, it's remember the importance of the Word. First, remember the importance of the Word. And if you look at chapter 19, verse 9 again, it says, And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. God visited his people. And what did he want? He wanted them to hear. He wanted to hear. So he told them to prepare for this event where he would be speaking to them. He wanted them to hear the word that he was bringing. And from this pulpit of Mount Sinai, we see this very same centrality and primacy of God's word as you see in the pulpits on Sunday here. The sermon's the longest part of worship. It receives the greatest honor. It's important. It's what we're looking forward to is hearing God's word. And why? Well, the Word is the most clear path that God uses to communicate to His people the blessings of redemption. The blessings of redemption. And many of you may have heard of the means of grace, which are discussed in this catechism that our denomination in your church holds to. These means of grace are the Word, sacraments, and prayer. These are the way that God continues to bestow His grace to His people. And the Word comes first. And it's true. If you had never heard the word, then you never would have received the blessings of redemption. Because faith comes through hearing, and hearing the word of Christ. And after Adam and Eve cut themselves off from God, God didn't have to speak to them again. And yet, he did. Graciously, he continued to reveal himself to his people, and we were able to hear. He revealed just enough about himself to give hope to mankind that there is grace to come. There is grace to come. They'd heard just enough that man could have faith in the word of God. But now, God's people have experienced this powerful grace, and after being rescued from slavery, as all of you have, and as these Israelites have been rescued from slavery, we still have every reason to listen to God. We still need to. This grace has already been given, and He continues to bestow grace to us as we continue to listen to Him. And so, this is actually how God starts His sermon. And it's helpful for understanding these 10 commandments, which we skipped over, but the 10 commandments aren't just all law and duty. God actually says, I am the Lord your God who already brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. This is grace first. The gospel has already been shown here. There is grace. This God is powerful and he's gracious in that he's brought his people out of death, out of slavery. And if you really believe that, you who are coming here for the second service on your Sunday, your free day from work, if you really believe that, it's easy. for you to understand that you have this desire to hear God's word, this God who brought you out of this way of death that you once lived, who brought you out of sin and slavery and into this land of hope that we look forward to. And so, we can understand why we'd wanna hear on every word from the God who gave us life. And so, as you go to worship next Lord's Day, remember this importance of the word. Remember the importance of the word. But now after considering the word, let's second discuss the reverence of the Lord in worship. And so you'll see the second point here, revere the Lord in worship. You must revere the Lord in worship. If you look at chapter 19, Verses 18 to 19. It says, 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 trumpets grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. And again, like we saw this morning, that's scary. It really is scary that God would speak with thunder in there. There was a lot of noise. It was a frightening experience for God's people, and this mountain could not contain the power of God. No, it was like, it was just a stool or a pulpit for Him to stand on, and to us, we see these great mountains outside. Unfortunately, we can't see them today with the rain, but they're huge, and for God, As he used this pulpit or stool, it trembled beneath him. It trembled beneath him, similar to a volcano. Fire rested on the top. Smoke hung all around the mount. This great rock shook and trembled. Loud thunder split the air as God spoke. If this God came to speak to you, you would give him your attention. We would give him his attention. And look how Israel reacted back to chapter 20, verses 18 and 19. It says, now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and they said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. They were filled with fear, and they did not want that to continue. And so, think of a kid at school who has just been sent to the principal's office. And as he's walking, he's thinking, he's thinking, I don't want to go there. This hard, frightening principal that he's just expecting to see his face. And he's just thinking, please let me go back to my teacher's room, and I'll listen to her now. God had made his point clear here. Israel should believe and trust in Moses because that was his word, just like a teacher has this authority from the principal. And now this reverence of God should stay with you in worship today, even in the New Testament. And we read that earlier in the verse for our call to worship, Hebrews 12, 28, and 29, where it says you still need to give focus to God. He's still a consuming fire. And yet he's also this graceful God who's brought us out of this land of Egypt. So God was and still is this consuming fire. And today in worship, God still commands the reverence and awe that he displayed to Israel on that pulpit of Mount Sinai. But you might be thinking, my pastor isn't that scary. That's true. You know, should we really be that afraid when we come to worship every Sunday and we hear the word preached? Well, yes and no. If you aren't shaking in your boots every Sunday, that's okay. Maybe sometimes you should be when it's God's word poking at your heart. But that's not the goal at all. It's not the goal for you to be shaking in your boots every time you hear God's word preached from the pulpit. In fact, if you look at chapter 20 verse 20 again, Moses said to the people. Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin. Moses tells them, you don't have to be afraid. You don't need to live in fear. But then he also said that God was testing them by putting the fear of God before them. When I first looked at that, it kind of seems paradoxical. God says, or Moses says, you don't have to be afraid, but God is putting the fear of Him before you. And it seems there's a difference between these two types of fears. This first one was a slavish fear. It was a fear where it says that the people drew back. They were afraid. They didn't want to come near to God because they were so afraid of Him. But it says here in verse 21, it says the people stood far off while Moses drew near. And this fear, this fear of God, this reverence and awe that God calls us to is a fear that calls us to draw near to him, to draw near to him. And knowing that he's a consuming fire, perhaps he's the safest place to be in his presence with his people. Because he's the one who is watching and sees you. He's the one you'd want to hear from and be in his presence. And so this is a fear that should not drive you away from God, but should bring you back again and again to His word. So you should draw near to Him with reverence. Imagine that kid at the principal's office again, but now as he's sitting in this office, he sees what was seemingly a hard and frightening man to be a man that carries himself in love and grace. And he gently treats this kid, and he does so in truth, but it's not only his presence, but his demeanor now calls for respect. It's this era of truth and hardness, and yet with love and grace, he gently treats his people. He doesn't want to scare this kid away from his office, but he does want the kid to listen to his teacher. And that's how God teaches us, how he tests his people. He calls them to listen to vessels, people who preach his word and teach his word. And yet one day we will be in his presence. He teaches God's people to trust and obey his word, even if he's not directly speaking to them. So when you hear the word of God, it should be received in fear and reverence of God who is speaking to you. In this day and age, it can be very easy to drift off and to lose focus from what's being spoken from the pulpit. And it's easy to become distracted. It's easy to sit and critique the preaching style, the person behind the pulpit, the clothes they're wearing, whatever it may be. But you must fear the Lord and his word in worship. He's watching and he is present when we gather together to hear him speak. So revere him as you hear the word. So we look first at the importance of the word, and second, at revering the Lord in worship. But third, let's take a look at how the fear of the Lord leads us to belief. So third, you must believe the word. You must believe the word. Now do you remember the goal of God speaking with Israel? We'll look back at 19.9 and 20.20. 19.9 says, the goal partway through, he says, that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. And then chapter 20 verse 20 says, do not fear for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you that you may not sin. So God's goal was first, as we saw in chapter 19, that the people would believe Moses, and second, to test them that they would not fall into sin. And both of these reasons ultimately are pointing and calling them to believe in God. It's calling them to believe in God. He spoke His word that they might believe. And you see, Moses was the vessel that God had chosen to speak through. And so, disbelief in the word of Moses meant disbelief in the word of God. If Moses wasn't trusted, then the people would also not trust God. And this lack of faith in God always leads to living for another God. Which, you guys remember the story of Aaron and the golden calf. They were looking for another God because they weren't hearing or trusting or believing and the Word that came from Moses. And for us too, God's people in His church, when we lack faith in God's Word, when you lack faith in God's Word, you'll find that portrayed in your sin. It will be clear when you sin that you're lacking faith in His Word. So whether you're turning to an earthly comfort in trying times, or your own power or work ethic for your security in this world, perhaps a person for your self-fulfillment. These all will become sins when you lack faith in the truth and a righteousness of God's Word. So God tested his people that they would not sin, that they would live a life of faith. And as the catechism question 90 says, you must receive the hearing of the word in faith, receive it in faith. And this points to this greater picture of that question in the catechism, how is the word to be read? And you'll see that it starts, it says right here, that the word may become effectual to salvation, that the word may become effectual to salvation. I would think that we all probably know doctrinally from Ephesians chapter two, we're saved by grace. Saved by grace through faith. The thing of these Israelites, they had already been saved by grace out of the land of Egypt, out of this house of slavery. Grace had already been bestowed on them. But just because they already had salvation doesn't mean that they can just forget faith. Doesn't mean they can stop listening to God. And that's the same with you here today. You already know that you've been saved by the grace of God. That doesn't mean you don't still need God. Doesn't mean you don't still need Him. So yeah, we do believe in the perseverance of the saints. That this perseverance still rests in the grace of God. It still rests in the grace of God. And so, He still bestows grace through these means of grace. The Word, sacraments, and prayer. And He still uses this instrument called faith. He still uses faith in our lives. You are still called to believe Jesus' word to you when he says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. And that's a joy for us to hear, that we have eternal life in him. And we're still called to believe it. So when you hear the word preached to you today, you're still called to believe that it may become effectual to salvation. This Israel in the Old Testament that we're looking at here and the Israel of this New Testament that we are a part of today has already received the grace of God. But we must still hear and believe. I said that a lot of times already. Believe the Word. It's so important. Even if I had to say it 20 times, it's such an important truth. But now, although we've already been saved by grace and through belief in his word, we're still called to a duty. And so forth, you see here, fulfill your duty. And for Israel here, God had already done what was seemingly impossible. He had taken them from out under the arm of the most powerful man on the earth at that time. He had freedom and it was this wonderful thing. He took a whole nation and moved them from one land to another land with great acts and miracles of power. God gave grace to his people. By grace, he saved Israel. But then he required a duty of them. And this duty, this specific duty is in our focus today. We skipped over the Ten Commandments here. But it's so important to notice that these Ten Commandments follow after God's declaration of the Gospel. After the fact that grace had already come. And so this is, God's expecting a response from them. And it's possible to even translate it. We often translate it, you shall or you shall not. But sometimes it can be translated, you will. You will do this, you will not do that. It's sort of a, this is your reasonable response to me being your Lord. God says, this is your reasonable response or your duty now that you are my people and I have saved you. They'd already been saved and now they shall or they will do this or not do that Is there a reasonable response to the grace of God? and of course for us Becoming more like God is our reasonable response to be more and more like Christ That's that's what will naturally happen to us as we are as people if you here who have been saved by Christ. If you have been saved by Christ, you will become more like Him. It is inevitable. It's inevitable that will happen. That's a beautiful thing to see. And so God, God here helps us in that pathway by providing a roadmap of becoming more and more like Him to live out this life of faith. And so again, the focus of our text today is on this specific duty that we shall fulfill in our response to the gospel's effect on our hearts. And that is the duty to prepare to hear God's word. This duty to prepare to hear God's word. And so this catechism question tonight that you have before you, when you first read it, it might seem suggestive. that your works can bring about salvation. And if you look at it right here, there's four verbs in it. It says that the word may become effectual salvation, verb, verb, verb, verb. Do this, do this, do this, do this. So do our actions bring about salvation? No, we we know that's not how it works. And if you look back in the catechism questions, it's it already has asked How do you find regeneration or how how do you find salvation? It's already been made clear That there's that salvation comes by grace through faith in christ But then it talks about these means of grace that we've discussed and so we get to the word And it says that God can continue to use this in your life. This is your duty to fulfill. This is your duty to continue to receive this grace that God gives you. So this is for you people. This is for us who have already been saved and continue and desire to grow in this relationship with God. So this catechism is written for us to help guide us in our faith. Now as God gave Israel this law to help them in this life of faith, you too have a response to God's grace by attending to the hearing of this word. And as you continue to enjoy the means of grace that God has given you, and that specific duty that we're talking about is mentioned here in this text. Remember what Moses says in chapter 19 verse 10. He says, the Lord says to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments. And so he calls them to prepare. And there is an outward sign to this preparation and a physical sign. They were called to be clean, to put on nice clothes, to wash themselves. And if you think about consecration, consecration means to set yourself apart for sacred use or set something apart for sacred use or to be made holy. And so the people were called, if they're going to be in the presence of a holy God, they needed to prepare to be holy before Him. And particularly to attend to the hearing of the Word. Again, attend to the hearing of the Word. And so, You can imagine that if you were invited to a place like Buckingham Palace or someone's home here, you would want, actually we were just talking at the Pinson's house about a governor visiting, the governor from their province in East Asia visiting their home. And everyone's saying, you need to clean up. You need to be prepared, because it's an important person coming to your home. You'd want to be prepared. You would. And this is really worth thinking about as we come into God's presence here on Sunday. There's a reason that we want to dress up, that we want to be prepared, because it's not about us, as we talked about this morning. It's this desire to be ready for the Word of God in whatever way we can. It looks different for every household, but it's important to ask these questions. What are you doing to prepare your heart, to prepare yourself or your family for the hearing of the Word each week? Is making it to worship a priority? I assume it is for all of us here. Is your family prepped for hearing the sermon each week? Are your kids practicing and paying attention in family devotions? What are you doing the morning of or even the night before worship? It's important to think about those things. How are you preparing yourself to hear the Word of God even as you walk into this sanctuary here? And you can think traditionally with the Israelites and the Jews and even up to the days of the Jews around the time of Jesus, they had this day of preparation before the Sabbath. This is the day to clean the house, get the dishes done, cook the food, wash your clothes, get the clothes set out, because you want to rest on the Sabbath day. You want to be ready to worship God. You want to be prepared for this special day. Today, preparing for the hearing of the word might look different in everyone's home here, and that's okay. Sometimes we're tempted to judge others, but you do need to ask yourself, how are you preparing your own heart to prepare to attend to the hearing of the word? But all of this, all this sounds good. It's good that as we remember the importance of the word, we revere the Lord in worship. We believe the word and we have this duty. But as we read earlier this morning in Hosea, God desires steadfast love and mercy more than sacrifice. And we know that the Pharisees were quite capable of showing up on the Sabbath. They were quite capable of doing all the works of preparation that God called them to do. But fifth, we need to discuss this desire to attend to the hearing of the word. And you'll see the fifth point, desire to attend to the hearing of the word. There needs to be a heart aspect. And so, it makes me think of, You know, every once in a while, a big movie comes out. And you get, you're waiting for this weekend. You finally get to Friday night. You finish work. You get home. You cook your food. You eat it. Maybe you clean up, or you leave the dishes for the next day. And you go to the living room, and you set up the TV, and you move the couch out. You set the pillows up. You get the right blankets. You maybe get the controller out. Turn the TV on. Check for subtitles. Get some snacks. Maybe pop some popcorn. Get a nice drink. Why do you do all that? Because you want to be there to see it, to view the film, to soak everything in that you can. You want to soak everything in. You want to attend to the hearing of this film. No distractions. Nothing else to worry about. You're ready. And this anticipation you have as you've been looking forward to this film is finally realized. And that's, that anticipation and preparation really should be where our heart is every week as we come to God's word. And so ask yourself, does your heart have that desire for the hearing of God's word? Do you live with this anticipation every week or even every morning as you do your devotions to hear what God has to say to you? How great is your desire to fully attend? And so it might not be movies. Maybe it's sports or books or even helping people or loving on people. Those are good things. But are there things in your life that are taking precedence in your heart to attending to the hearing of the word? Perhaps, perhaps your mind is already zoned off in the last 15-20 minutes, and for sure the vessel up here is not the most interesting or fun or understanding or capable, but do you still see that desire in your heart to hear God's Word even when it comes through a weak vessel? Because that's what God's given us. And if not, if your heart's not there, some preparation is due. for that anticipation and desire. As this catechism says, diligent preparation of the heart and prayer are your duty, that the word may become effectual to salvation in your life. So here's a question again that we've sort of already discussed. Who works out salvation? We know this. It's the Holy Spirit. It's not you. It's not you who works out your sanctification. And yet you still have this duty to petition and plead the Holy Spirit and work towards, work towards God's work in your life. You still need to ask God for help. And so ask the Holy Spirit for growth and earnestly desiring to drink from these wells of salvation that God has given to us in his word. Such a blessing. And so it's really neat. It was likely 50 days after these Israelites had left Egypt that God spoke to them and gave them the sermon from the pulpit of Mount Sinai. And it was about probably 50 days right after the death of Christ that the Holy Spirit came and His people began to preach, His apostles began to preach. And so God has brought His Word to us and now in this age of the New Testament, we have the Holy Spirit working in us and giving us this desire to grow in sanctification and hear the Word of God and revere Him in worship and believe His Word and live out these duties and to really desire Him. Now you, God's people, have the Holy Spirit and you have the preaching of the Word and you have these Bibles that so many people in this world don't have. You've already been given it. It's how, it's, after seeing different parts of the world, it's hard, it's hard to not think about how fortunate you are to have these things. We're a fortunate people who have been given a gracious gift from God. And so we need to desire it. That's what God calls us to do. So, as we've noted here, In this text, we're called to remember the importance of the word. It's so easy to forget that. And as you come here each week, you're called to revere the Lord in worship, and to believe in that word, and to live out this duty of growing in these means of grace as you want to become closer to God. And most of all, this desire. And this desire is what should fuel you this next week to get up in the morning and study God's word, or in the evenings before bed. and every weekend when you come to this New Testament Sabbath day to prepare to attend to the hearing of the word. Let's pray. Lord God, you are a God who sits above the heavens. You're enthroned and this earth is like a footstool for you. You've chosen to come down and you preached a sermon from a big rock. And a big rock that to us seems like such work to climb or to hike up or to drive up. And yet, as you sat there and spoke, it trembled and the earth shook and the air was split with the sound. And so Lord you've chosen to graciously give us your word in different ways. We have your word written in the scriptures and you've given us so many men who can faithfully preach your word that we can come each week to the same place just some minutes from our house and sit down and hear truth spoken. So Lord continue please to send your Holy Spirit and work on our hearts and minds and give us a soft heart so that when we come we would grow, that we'd receive those benefits of these means of grace. Build us up, Lord. Build up this congregation here in Colorado Springs. May they live in brotherly love. May they be unified as they're unified by your word. Because we have Christ. We have Christ, the one who has died after living a perfect life and who has risen and given us life. And so Lord, we thank you for that great grace that you've bestowed on us, and we ask that you would continue to build us up as we desire to prepare to hear your word. It's in the name of Christ that we come to you and pray. Amen.