We are in Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34 and here's your summary statement for today. Okay. Exodus chapter 34. The summary statement is that the old covenant came with glory. The old covenant came with glory. But it was only a shadow of the new covenant revealed in Jesus Christ. It was only a shadow of the new covenant revealed in Jesus Christ. Last night and the night before, the moon was very large and bright, and it was delightful. I love moonlight. But it can't compare with the sun at noon. It's a reflection of something else that is greater. And the Old Testament, the covenant that God made with his people, was a foreshadowing. It was something that pointed to the real thing. And the real thing is what we find in Jesus Christ. So as we look at this passage, there's going to be a whole bunch of restatement of things that have gone before. Because God is restating the law for Moses. But it is all pointing to Jesus. Exodus 34, this is the reading of God's Word. The Lord said to Moses, chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountains. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had commanded him. And he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. as he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. Oh Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes, he said, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin and take us as your inheritance. Then the Lord said, I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people, I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land, For when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons, and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, They will lead your sons to do the same. Do not make cast idols. Celebrate the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from the herd or flock. Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest. Even during the plowing season and harvest, you must rest. Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year, all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel. I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord, your God. Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. And do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover feast remain until morning. Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.' Then the Lord said to Moses, Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them. So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him. And he spoke to them. Afterwards, all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he told the Israelites what he had been commanded. They saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. Well, first of all, I want us to look at a few of the pieces of what is said in the first and longest part of the chapter, verses 1 through 28. Just a few highlights there. First of all, Moses, you'll recall when he came down and they had They were dancing around the golden calf. Moses, in anger, had broken the tablets. He threw them down and broke the tablets that God had given him, on which God had written the Ten Commandments. something for which Moses might have been punished and yet God did not punish him for that. He simply assigns him to chisel out two tablets like the ones that I'd given you and then bring them up to me and I'll put my law on them. The first tablets God provided the tablets and the writing, the second tablets, Moses had to provide the tablets. And I think in a very gentle way, as a father might do with his child, that was a rebuke without being a severe punishment. But Moses now not only has to carve out these tablets, but is told, you're to be up on top of the mountain with the tablets tomorrow. and you can't get any help. You do it and you carry the tablets up there. These are stone tablets. I remember when I was building a treehouse or helping build a treehouse, there were several of us working on it. We were building a treehouse over in the mountains of Western Carolina. One thing I did not want to get stuck carrying was the bags of concrete. because they're heavy. It's like, I can bring a canteen. But picture Moses. He's an old man. He's 80 years old. He's having to climb a mountain with these stone tablets that he had just carved out. But God not only tells him to do that, God tells him it's absolutely essential that not even an animal is to approach the mountain. Moses is acting as an intermediary, and that is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Moses, who was an imperfect mediator, was representative, a foreshadowing, of Jesus, who would be the perfect mediator. God, who is holy, cannot simply welcome sinful people into his presence. There has to be a mediator. And the Bible tells us there is one God and one mediator between God and man. And that is the man Christ Jesus, who gave his life as a ransom. He died so that we could draw near to God. He is the one who makes it possible for us to come, not on the basis of our performance, but on the basis of His righteousness. And so Moses is allowed, not only allowed, commanded to come into God's presence, but everybody else, including even the animals, are commanded to stay at a distance, and the penalty is death. So, you and I need to realize the importance of Jesus' sinless life and perfect sacrifice. I can't keep track of statistics very well anymore, but A number of studies have been done asking young people in evangelical churches, supposedly evangelical churches, and ministries, whether or not they believe Jesus ever sinned. Did Jesus ever sin? Did Jesus ever sin? Absolutely not. No way. Not ever. If Jesus had sinned, he couldn't be the substitute for us. He couldn't take our place. He couldn't pay the penalty. But many young people, it's not that they've heard that and rejected it, it's that they haven't heard it. They've not been taught the essentials of the Gospel. The sinlessness of Jesus Christ is essential. Because the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is essential. And if people don't understand that, they are not trusting in Christ as their Savior. They might admire Jesus as a great man and think He's a real inspiration, but they don't know Jesus. Because you cannot come to God except through Jesus, and the means by which we come through Jesus is His atoning sacrifice for us. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, that the gospel is about Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins according to the scriptures, being buried and rising again on the third day according to the scriptures. That's the only way we can be saved. That is the good news. It's not part of the good news or one of the important aspects. That's the good news. And we have churches that call themselves evangelical that are failing to communicate the good news to their young people. I don't want to do that here. I don't want to fail to tell you what is the most important thing that you'll ever hear in your whole life. And that is that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins according to the Scriptures, according to the plan of God. He was buried and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. That was exactly what God had promised would happen, and it happened. That's the most important thing. If you believe that and really trust in Him as your Savior and Lord, you're saved. If you don't, you're not. Well, what about people of other faiths and people, you know, who have another way to God? It's not a way to God. I have a GPS in my car. And whenever I put in a place I want to go, it offers me three choices. The fast route. The scenic route. and the ecological route. This does not work that way. There's not the fundamentalist route to God through Jesus Christ and him alone. And then there's the more open-minded route, which is do what feels right to you. And then there's the save the planet route, which is as long as you recycle, you can go to heaven. There's only one way. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And he says, no one comes to the Father except through me. That's what Jesus said. So if you don't agree with what Jesus said, you're wrong. And furthermore, you don't really know him. Some people say that Jesus is their way, but that doesn't mean he's the way for everybody else. Well, let's see what God says about such things. Verse 12. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their Asherah poles." Well, that doesn't seem very respectful. I mean, even if we don't worship that way, I think we need to recognize that these are important cultural artifacts. No, actually, they are a snare. and God said they were to be destroyed. There are hideously evil radical Muslim fundamentalists killing people with whom they disagree, killing Christians especially, but also killing Muslims with whom they disagree. But one of the things that has really got some people upset is they've been destroying ancient Buddhas in some parts of the world. They've gone in and destroyed these statues of Buddha that have been around for thousands of years. How can they? We must do something. I'm thinking, you know. I don't have a lot in common with a Muslim terrorist. I really don't. But I find it hard to be upset that they're destroying a stone Buddha. I'm not hoping they'll do it more. But folks, it's a stone statue. We ought to be a lot more concerned about human life, shouldn't we? And what God says here to His people is human life is at stake if you worship false gods. So for the sake of human life, destroy the false worship. That is not a very tolerant view. In fact, God says, My name tolerance did I I'm sorry I haven't found the verse yet it's I think it's verse 14 do not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is tolerance is a tolerant God is that did I is that not right no it says for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land. God says you are not to have anything to do with these false religions. Well, I think really it's all kind of the same thing. I mean, all the religions of the world pretty much, I mean, they pretty much teach the same thing, don't they? No! No, they don't. No, they do not. The various religions of the world do not teach the same thing. Let's just for a moment look at Islam versus Hinduism. One says there are thousands of gods, Hinduism. Islam says there is only one God. Now would you say that's pretty much the same thing? The only people who believe that all religions teach pretty much the same thing are people who are completely ignorant about the religions of the world. Those are the only folks who believe that. Their introduction to religion was an introduction to religion course somewhere at a college taught by a professor who didn't know ding from dat. Okay? I'm just telling you The idea that it's all the same and all the roads lead to the same place eventually. No! Not true. Utterly false. Don't believe it. You're going to be told that. You leave this place. You go out there. You will be told by people who seem reasonable and educated and articulate that it's all the same thing. I mean, I know you come from a conservative background, but you need to know it's all the same thing. All the religions are pretty much saying the same thing. Love your neighbor. That's really what it's all about. No, it's not what it's all about. Pastor, what, don't you think we're supposed to love our neighbor? Yes, I do believe we're supposed to love our neighbor. God says so. But that is not what Islam or Hinduism teach. Well, you can find some stuff about about love in those religions. You will not find love your neighbor as you love yourself in the other religions. But people want to graph that in and say, yeah, that's there. What you'll find in Islam is conquer your neighbor And if your neighbor will not convert, then you may subjugate him and force him to pay outrageous taxes for the privilege of living as your neighbor, or you can kill him. Either one is fine. That's not really best translated as love your neighbor. Got it? In Hinduism, Well, that's a whole other animal, and there's more than one approach. But suffice it to say, love your neighbor is not core teaching in Hinduism. So people who try and tell you it's all the same, know it's not. This last week, those of us on the DC trip had the opportunity to visit with a guy who's in the process of deciding what he believes about these things. And he was wondering about other religions. And so I quoted a fellow by the name of Bill Hybels, who I think said it very well when he was asked, what is the difference between Christianity and other religions? And he said, every other religion is spelled D-O. Christianity is spelled D-O-N-E. Every other religion says, in order to achieve this goal, this is what you need to do. Christianity says, in order to save us, God sent his son. And when Jesus hung on that cross, He cried out, it is finished, because He paid our debt in full. We are not saved by what we do, we're saved by what He did. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, not in our performance, not in our doctrine. Our hope is in Jesus. Now, folks, God said to his people, when you go into this new land that I'm giving you, I'm going to deal with your enemies. I'll take care of that. But he said, you're to have nothing to do with their false religion. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. But be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Do not worship any other god for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same. One of the things you need to understand is that everybody is religious. The most anti-religious atheist is religious. Religious about his atheism, religious about his academic pursuits, his reputation, his retirement account. We are all devoted to certain things. And we live in a world where we tend to accept as okay the stuff we're used to. I mean, that's just the way we do it. I was talking with someone recently who was puzzled as to why people would think that they had an accent. I don't have an accent. Yes, you do. The reason you don't think you have an accent is because that's the way you and your family talk. You think everybody else has an accent. You have an accent. You are religious. Everybody's religious. You say, well, no, I don't. Yes. So the question is, folks, what do you worship? I'm just not a very religious person. Yes, you are. We need to worship God and Him alone. It's vital that we worship the Lord. And you need to understand people who don't worship the Lord worship other things. They are devoted to other pursuits. They are trying to find their meaning and significance in other stuff. Every other religion is false. So I like the statement, I'm not religious, it's about relationship. I understand what you mean. But the fact of the matter is, you're being religious about not being religious. Okay? It's like when Baptists try to say, we have no creed but Scripture. You've just made a creedal statement. You can't get away from it, okay? Everybody has core beliefs. Everybody has things that they are passionate about, that they devote themselves to. That's your religion. If somebody described what you are religious about, what would it be? What would it be? God says, those people, in that land, if you're not careful, are going to seduce you by getting you to participate with them in the worship of demons. Now, there are a number of statements in the verses that follow that are not a complete recap of all the law that has gone before. But these statements serve as a reminder of all the things that have gone before. God essentially gives a review and highlights certain things that represent whole categories. The redemption of the firstborn. The end of verse 20 is definitely something to keep in mind when you come to worship. No one is to appear before me empty handed. Wow. Now, you know, at our church on Sundays, I don't put anything in the offering box because we have bank draft that sends it in there. OK? My tithe is taken care of so that I don't forget. And if I die, it'll probably keep going in. But the fact of the matter is, God is saying that an essential aspect of His people's worship is the idea of returning to Him something that represents the recognition that everything we have came from Him. In other words, this is a way that I remind myself of my utter dependence on God, who is the ruler of the universe, the creator of all things. And it's not that God needs what I've got. It's that part of my acknowledging who He is and worshiping Him as the God who is God, is bringing that which represents what He's done for me. You understand that? So God commands his people, no one is to appear before me empty-handed, and that's a repeat of chapter 23, verse 15. It's the same thing, exact same thing God said back there. God's repeating it again, and it represents much. Following that, verse 21, six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest. Even during the plowing season and harvest, you must rest. Isn't it interesting that most of the Ten Commandments don't get repeated in this chapter, but that one gets highlighted. God put emphasis on the Sabbath and on our need for rest. I have underlined in my Bible, you must rest. Because sometimes we get to thinking that we are so indispensable that, you know, things just cannot go on without us. I must be there at all times. Putting ourselves basically in the place of God, as if it all rests on us. It doesn't. When I was working for the Children's Home in Mississippi early in our marriage, I developed problems with my lower back and stupidly thought I had some sort of serious problem. The pain was not in my back, it was in my hip and leg. It was pinched sciatic nerve. And so I began to think, oh, I've got some kind of degenerative arthritis or perhaps cancer. I'm a hypochondriac, I admit it. But I finally, after a few weeks of this crippling pain, I called my brother, who's a doctor, and he said, oh, you've got a pinched sciatic nerve. And I said, what do I do? He said, well, you need to go to lie down on the floor with your knees bent, lie on your back with your knees bent, and just stay there. And I said, well, what about work? And he said, well, what will they do if you die? I said, well, this isn't that serious, is it? He said, no. But what will they do if you die? And I said, I guess they'll just go right on without me. And he said, precisely. Now go lie down. You know, we act as if I have to carry on. I remember one time I had a horrible, horrible chest and head cold. I was really sick, but I had a meeting that was very important. And I thought, well, I'll just take medicine and go to the meeting. And then it occurred to me, would you appreciate it if someone as sick as you showed up and sat down next to you in a meeting? And I thought, no, I would not. Okay, so don't go to the meeting. I could have healed you. I could have made it, but I'm making it so you won't go to the meeting. Don't go to the meeting. Okay, okay, I got it. You know what God says here? Rest. You must rest. Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest, even during the plowing season and harvest. But we've got to get this plowed. Not today you don't. We've got to bring in the harvest. Not today you don't. Take a day off. Six days you shall labor, on the seventh day you shall rest. And three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel. I love this. God commands three gatherings of all the men in the nation. Everybody. Well, I have to stay behind because we're having some company. No, everybody goes. Everybody gets together. There are some times when everybody needs to come together to worship God. And God said so. And once again, I mean, again, it's surprising to me some of the things that get emphasized. But in verse 26, do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk. That is a repeat of 2319. And we talked back in chapter 23 about why God would say that and protecting his people from a cruel mentality. But do you understand that's one of the things that God reemphasized? So, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, his face was radiant. I mean, it was shining. It was shining. It wasn't like, wow, your complexion really looks good. It was shining like a light. It was shining so much so that the people closest to him, like his brother Aaron, ran away from him. He had to call them back to him. But I want you to see something else. He was not aware of it. He was not aware that his face was shining. He didn't come down the mountain saying, hey, get a load of this. He came down the mountain having spent 40 days not eating, not drinking, just in the presence of God. And if you think everything that was said is recorded for us, you're missing it. Chapter 34 is representative of what God said. That's why you just have this piece and this piece and this piece. But having spent that time with God, Moses was transformed. We see this reflected in the New Testament. In Acts 4, verse 13, when Peter and John spoke and the learned men of their day and the powerful religious people of their day were astonished that these were unschooled ordinary men but clearly they had been with Jesus. It was the time they spent with Jesus that transformed them and other people could recognize the presence and power of Jesus as Peter and John spoke. In 2 Corinthians 3, verse 7, all the way through chapter 4, I encourage you to read it on your own. The Apostle Paul talks about this very passage from the book of Exodus, and how Moses' face shone, and how for us, we have that on a fuller, grander scale in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the exact representation of the Father's glory. and that because of Jesus living in us, even though we are earthen vessels, God's light is shining out into this world through us, that other people might know the glory of God and the love of God, the grace of God, the holiness of God, as it's reflected in God's people. Folks, this old covenant came with glory, but it was only a shadow of the new covenant revealed in Jesus Christ. That is what we now have the privilege of walking in. And what Moses experienced, as amazing as it was, is not as wonderful as what we get to experience when we know Jesus Christ in a personal way. So let us rejoice and let us obey. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for loving us and for inviting us to know you through Jesus Christ. We pray that you would help us this day to believe your promises and to rest in you. And we'll give You the praise in Jesus' name, Amen.