I want to thank Mike for his act of service to the Lord in composing the last song we sang. May God be praised. What's your role in life? Have you ever wondered, why am I here? Is there something big for me to do? Now some of you, that probably hasn't entered your mind because you're just struggling just to get the next meal, the food on the table, and different things like that. But most of us at some point wonder, is there something big for me to be here for? And even if you haven't thought that, it may be that you are involved in something big that you're here for. We've seen a big God over the last several weeks as we've gone through our first series in the book of Exodus, and our series Liberated to Serve in Exodus 1-18. God drew us into his extraordinary drama of how he had delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt to be his own people. He did it to fulfill His ancient promise to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. He did it to fulfill His promise to them to deliver His people from Egypt and to make them His own people, to make them a great nation which would live as His people in the land that He had promised to them, and that through them He might bring blessing to all the nations. And God did it. He delivered Israel. Redeem them for Himself so that both Israel and the nations might know, as the Lord said over and over again, that they might know that I am the Lord. But what does it mean for Israel to be God's own people and for Him to be their God? And what might that mean for us? We ourselves come from the nations, don't we, that the Lord wanted to reach? And we've come to know Him. It's that trust that you have. Through Christ, we trust in Him. And we've been delivered to serve. Now what does that calling to serve involve? Well, Exodus chapter 19 brings us to that point. In Exodus chapters 19 through 24, at the mountain of God, The Lord confirms and defines Israel's relationship by establishing this covenant with them, a binding legal agreement that God binds himself to Israel in a legal agreement with them. Now this was unheard of in the ancient world. There is no record or claim of any God at any time, at any place, with any covenant, with anything like this, with any group of people in all the ancient Near East. Nothing like it at all. Now the form of the covenant that God makes with them isn't at all unique. It follows patterns of that particular time period. He uses standard features of ancient Near Eastern covenants at that time. Many of the laws that are included are not unique. Similar things can be found elsewhere. But who makes the covenant and the relationship that it establishes is unique, totally unique. You see, this is a brand new thing that God is doing with His people. And there's no other claim for any other God doing this with any group of people. Only our God has done this with any people. And you know, you get to get in on this. Our new series in Exodus chapters 19 and 20, just two chapters, They're going to reveal the core of how God's redeemed people of Israel were to conduct themselves in their covenant relationship with God. Exodus 20 spells out what that is in God's perfect Ten, the Ten Commandments. And we're going to spend several weeks on that after our World Awareness Festival. But Exodus 19, our passage for this morning, sets the stage by defining their calling and service, to a holy God. In Christ, that calling is also ours. Did you know that? The calling that Israel had is also ours today. In Exodus 19, verses 1-3, Israel arrives at the mountain of God from nearby Rephidim where they had been camping. And they reach it at the very beginning of the third month, the text says, the third month after they had left Egypt, and they had left in the middle of the first month. And if you count that up, that makes it that they've arrived just about seven weeks, perhaps exactly seven weeks from the day that the Lord had delivered them from Egypt. There's going to be another feast at that time that the Lord will establish, the Feast of Pentecost, which becomes very significant in the New Testament with the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. But this takes place at that time and the Lord is going to reveal His covenant to them. They set up camp in the wilderness at the base of the mountain of God while Moses goes up to God to talk with God. And there they discover that they've been redeemed to be God's special people for all peoples. to be God's special people for all peoples. Exodus 19, the last part of verse 3 going through verse 8, read along with me as I read. The Lord called to Moses out of the mountains, 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. And 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, Moses, shall speak to the people of Israel." So Moses came down and called the elders of the people together 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 these words of the people to the Lord. The Lord proposes a covenant and the people agree to it. After he summons Moses, the Lord begins by rehearsing the history of their relationship, at least their recent history. God has redeemed his people and brought them to himself, in verse 4. Now, listen to how God describes this. You yourselves have seen. There were eyewitnesses of this. They were in on this thing. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians. and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." What a tremendous image that is. But today, you know what the Lord says to you? Remember that at one time you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And that's exactly what we remembered and looked back on this morning with communion. So God reminds them as he prepares to make his covenant with them. He reminds them that he's redeemed them and he's brought them to himself. And like a mighty eagle, picture it if you will, you know those majestic, their wingspan is seven and a half feet across. They're a huge bird. And they're fast. They fly high. And they die quickly and they destroy their prey. Well, like the mighty eagle that swiftly and powerfully swoops down and destroys its prey, the Lord had destroyed His people's oppressors. And like the mighty eagle caring for its helpless young, with that same speed and power, the Lord had protected them and He carried them to safety. He carried them to Himself now here at the mountain to be with Him. And so then, God redeemed His people And they're to live in faithfulness to His covenant. God's redeemed people are to live in faithfulness to His covenant. Now, obeying what the Lord says so that they keep His covenant stipulations isn't how they become God's people. Obedience doesn't make them His people. If that were the case, they'd never make it. They never make it. In Deuteronomy chapter 9, the Lord tells them flat out that He's not doing these things because of their own righteousness. On the contrary, they're a terribly stiff-necked and rebellious people, and we've seen that the last several weeks. He's doing it not because of their righteousness, but because of His own faithfulness to His sworn promise to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob. It depends on Him, not upon them. No. Being obedient isn't how they become the people of God, and it's not how we become the people of God. As verse 4 reminds them, He's already redeemed them as His people. He's already delivered them. They're already His. Rather, faithful obedience to Him is the way there to live as God's people. Not to be God's people, but as God's people. In fact, faithful obedience to God can only come when their relationship to Him is already operating. That's the only way they can ever be obedient, is if the relationship is already there. Obedience is because they are God's people. And they're to live that way because that's how they fulfill their calling, which is described next in the last part of verse 5 and verse 6. God's redeemed people are called to be His special people for the nations. And this calling is defined by three descriptions here. They're tremendous descriptions, brief descriptions, but man, are they pregnant with meaning here. First, there will be God's special possession among all the peoples and all the earth. The term special possession refers to a valuable acquired personal property, which is set aside or reserved for special use. Pastor Rand talked about holiness, the setting aside of something for sacred use. Well, they are God's personal property here, His precious personal property, and He set them aside and reserved them for special use, like the king would set his personal treasure aside for gold and silver. During this period in the ancient Near East, that word is also used in titles of kings to describe their special relationship to their god that they ruled for. Or, sometimes it's used for the relationship of a faithful king to an overlord, a higher king that ruled over him, to which he had given his allegiance. But this god, this god, who rules over all, he intends to have not kings, but the people he's redeemed for a special possession. Not the high and mighty, but ordinary people like you and me. It's not because they're so great, but because He is. In Deuteronomy 7, the Lord says to them, it's not because they're so great. He didn't choose them out of all the other peoples for His treasured possessions. Not because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers. That's why He's chosen you. Well, all the earth is His, says verse 6 here. And faithfulness to His promise, He will use this lowly people, people who have been slaves, to bring His blessing to all the peoples and all the earth. And so He sets them apart to be a kingdom of priests. Now I want you to think about what is a priest? A priest is someone who is set apart to God from the rest of the people for His service. They're distinguished in that way. And that service also sets them apart to a distinct way of life that expresses that service through the special duties and restrictions that they're given. And they're set apart by these obligations to serve the people. Now this is the way that God will use His redeemed people with Israel for the rest of the nations. This then leads to the character that they called to display before those nations. They're his special treasure, his special possession. And so he's established them, he's set them apart to be a kingdom of priests. And because of that, they're to be a holy, holy nation. In Leviticus 20, verse 26, the Lord says to them, you are to be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. And I've set you apart from the nations to be my own. You shall be holy because I am holy. Holy because God who set them apart as his kingdom of priests is holy. In Genesis 12, God had promised to make Abraham's descendants a great nation. A great nation. And now we see what God means by a great nation. Great. Being great is being holy. A holy nation. From among all the nations. to reflect God's holy character to the nations. Obeying God's law would enable them to be holy, different from the nations. By keeping His law, they would function as His priesthood for the nations, as His teacher, His model, His mediator for them, collectively, together. Obeying wasn't just for themselves as Hesteron was reiterating so well earlier this morning. It's not just for themselves. It is for them, but it's for the blessing of the nations as God promised to Abraham in Genesis 22-18. In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Israel as a whole ended up failing miserably in this as time goes on. Yet the Lord always preserved for Himself a remnant that feared Him, and He made that remnant His treasured possession. Malachi 3.17 says, "...of those who feared the Lord, of whom there is just a few in Israel at that time." He says, "...they shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts." in the day when I make up my treasured possession." And Isaiah 61.6 promised that the Lord's coming servant, one who would be greater than Moses, would restore God's people so that they would be called priests of the Lord and ministers of our God. Now, this calling of treasured possession, of priesthood, of the Holy Nation, is precisely what your calling is in Christ. a calling that's accomplished through Him. Titus 2.13-14 says, Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, and note how it describes Him, who gave Himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself, get this, a people for His own possession, a treasured possession who was zealous for good works. That's what Paul is saying about you as God's people. That's what you are in Christ. 1 Peter 2.9, verses 11-12, passage Pastor Ron read earlier this morning. But you put your name in this, put Cornerstone Community Church in this, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Why? that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light." That's the work of a priest who is a priest to the nations. Peter tells us that as such sojourners, as he's described here, we're to be as strangers to conduct ourselves honorably in the world. Why? That they may see your good deeds and may glorify God on the day of salvation. So live your calling as God's priestly strangers in the world so that the world may no longer be strangers to God. That's the reason for it all here. Live as holy strangers in the world so that they may not be strangers any longer to God. Now this is something worth praying for for each other. It's something that we should pray that that the Lord would make us worthy of that calling. In 2 Thessalonians, verses 11-12, it's our bulletin prayer for this month and the month of September. Have you read it and used it as your prayer for the people listed in there? It says, to this end, we always pray for you. that our God may make you worthy of His calling. Calling for what? To be that special possession of His. To be a kingdom of priests. To be a holy nation. That our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power. So that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and Him. And that's before the world. The world says many ways lead to God, and He's whatever suits you. But as those who are ransomed by Christ to be God's royal priesthood, we say Christ is the one true way to the one true God for all. The makeup of our priesthood from every tribe and language and people and nation, like no other group in history on this planet, that demonstrates that He alone is worthy. No other group like that. No other group that brings the people together like that in disparate things. It's only one. It's God's people. It's a nation of priests. It's a kingdom of priests. And that declares that Christ alone is worthy. The world says freedom is doing what you want. But as those liberated by Christ and set apart for God's service, we say freedom is delighting in what God wants in doing it. Not doing whatever we want, but delighting in what God wants in doing it. That's where freedom is. That's where liberty is. The world says, pursue your own morality. But as those redeemed from all lawlessness, we seek to be people purified as God's precious possession, zealous for His good works. What the world needs is not for us to be stronger, not for us to be richer, not for us to be more intelligent or smarter, as much as we'd like to be. What the world needs is for us to be different. Different as in set apart to God. Different as in God-like difference. Different as in God's perfect ten in Exodus 20. He'll spell that out for us in the weeks ahead. But to learn from Him, we must first learn to fear Him. As God's special people, for all peoples, we're set apart as holy to serve a holy God. And a holy God is to be feared and revered. God is serious about getting this across to us. We really do serve a holy God. And that should knock the flippancy and the casualness out of us when it comes to God. He underscores this in three ways in our passage. First, God's people must be set apart. and prepared to meet with Him. Verses 9-15, 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, Now 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 onto 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." Shot with a bow, not with a shotgun. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. God is holy. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated them. They washed their garments. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day and don't go near a woman. I'm going to explain that in just a moment. Consider what God tells them to do. Moses is to consecrate, or set apart, the people. Consecrate is literally to set apart as holy. Israel is to be a holy nation. It doesn't say how Moses set them apart here, but back in Exodus 13, the first four sons were to be consecrated by sacrifice, and presumably that's the case here. But at the sign of their consecration, the people must also wash their clothes. Moses does the one thing in setting them apart and consecrating them. Their part is to wash their clothes. The clothes were often washed before a great solemn event. I don't know if they didn't wash it other than that, but at least for the solemn event they were to wash their clothes. And you read that. being done time and time again. Here it signaled respect for the one they'd be meeting. It was a reminder that His holiness required inner purity. His holiness also required that Moses set boundaries around the mountain to keep it off limits. God's presence will be there. It will be dwelling there on the mountain. And only Moses can go up to the top of the mountain, and he can do that only when God calls him. Aaron and some others will later be given access to the mountain, but not to the top of the mountain. That's reserved for Moses. And the people are allowed to go no closer than the foot of the mountain, on pain of death, nor can they come just any time they want. You don't crash this party, you see. God is holy. They must not come up to the mountain until the trumpet blast sounds. And finally, they must abstain from sexual relations. That's what it means not to touch a woman here, or stay away from a woman. This is a priest-like preparation for service. They separate themselves from things normally permitted, such as sexual relations with your wife or with your husband, and that are good in themselves. But this is no ordinary event, and to break off your ordinary activities signals that. That's what they're doing here. They must specially prepare to meet their holy God. And meet Him they do. Verse 16, On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trump of glass, so that all the people in the camp trembled from the top of their heads to the sole of their feet. Their whole skeletons were trembling there and everything that was attached to it. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. And they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. I have reservations about going there if I were them, but they were commanded to go there at that point. And now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. And the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, a furnace. And the whole mountain trembled greatly. whole mountain. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. And 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 back down and warn the people lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. And also, let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves. Let the Lord break out against them." Moses said to the Lord, "'Lord, the people can't come up onto Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.' The Lord said to him, "'Go down, Moses, go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you.' But don't let the priest 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. God's fearful descent to meet them displays His holiness. He descends to the mountain in a way that signals His holiness. There's lightning, there's thunder, there's fire, there's smoke filling up. There's a loud comfort blast announcing His descent to the mountain. The people in the mountain are shaking alike, violently shaking. They've got camaraderie with the mountain they do at that point. And that horn blast gets louder, and louder, and louder, and louder, and louder. Moses speaks to the Lord, and the Lord answers him. In the thunder, the Lord calls to him, and he calls him to the top of the mountain. This shaking, fiery, smoke-filled, glass-shattering mountain. Now imagine being Moses at this point. What would he be thinking? What would you be thinking if you were in this mountain? Coming up on that mountain with all that stuff going on? Well, he's been there before, hasn't he? He's talked with God in the fire on this very mountain before, hasn't he? I mean, been there, done that, right? Wrong. Hebrews 12.21 says, Indeed so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. God is a holy God. He's not less than a holy God. And this isn't even God's full shot here. Even here His glory is veiled from being the full thing. But our God is a holy God. Fearfully so. Hebrews 12.29 says, Our God is a consuming fire. A fire of absolutely pure holiness. And we are not. If it were to break out against us, we'd be toast. So Moses and the Israelites, God protected Moses from it by His grace. So God emphasizes His holiness by repeating His instruction three times in this text. Three times God reiterates the instructions here about the mountain and keeping off of it. Verses 20-22, it may seem odd, God calls Moses to the top of the mountain only to repeat what's already been carried out and He sends Moses back. Go down and warn the people, Moses, lest they break through." And I break out against them. Now this is the climax of God's arrival, and that's all God has to say to Moses? Moses, go back down again, after this long climb up, scary climb up, go back down again and warn the people. Well, Moses is taken aback at this. They can't come up. We've already set the limits like you said. But you know, like us, the people have little concept of God's holiness. Repeated warnings are necessary again and again and again. There are three repetitions by God and there are two by Moses in this text. And the repetitions drive home to us, God is holy. God is holy. Finally, God establishes His mediator for His redeemed people. Because God is a holy God, there has to be a mediator between Him and them. When the people had seen God's power, we're back at the Red Sea a couple of months earlier, in Exodus 14, it says they've seared God and believed in Him and in His servant Moses. But these people, as we've seen, are quick forgetters and slow learners, but thus, So verse 9, God tells Moses, He'll speak to him so that they may believe you forever. They may believe that you carry my words. And verses 19 through 20, God makes good on that. As the people hear, God speaks to Moses and the people hear it. The people are terrified. But Moses speaks to God and God to him. Moses and Moses alone is summoned to the top of the mountain. The repeated warnings and the boundary limits set Moses' position with God in stark contrast to the people's. God could hardly be clearer here. His holiness requires a mediator and Moses is it for the people right now. Hebrews 24 tells us that God has provided a greater mediator than Moses. He has mediated a new covenant for us by His own priceless blood that surpasses the covenant that came through Moses as substance to shadow. The covenant that God and Christ brought about is the real full thing. By it, we have God's promises. By it, we confidently enter God's presence with joy. But the holiness of God doesn't diminish with this. No. In the blood of Christ, it burns all the brighter. And the fear of the Lord is still the beginning of wisdom. In 2 Corinthians 5.11, Paul says, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. So don't miss God's message for us, for you, on the mountain. There God instructs us to revere and fear Him. As Calvin put it, our natural minds are partly swollen with pride and partly made stupid with apathy. Do you ever be apathetic for the things of God? Ever be prideful about yourself? We all are. We need to either be humbled or awakened so that we can receive God's teaching with the attention it deserves, no matter what form it comes in. Nor can we be prepared to obey God except we be bowed down and subdued by the fear of the Lord. Now to this end, God shook a whole mountain for His people. He shook it to wake up their sleeping hearts and to correct them by taming their pride. Again, in Hebrews 12, verses 28-29, in Christ we've received a greater revelation, and so let us offer to God, it says, acceptable worship with reverence and with awe, for our God is a consuming fire. You know what consuming means? It burns everything up. God's glory, God's holiness, when it's unveiled, burns it all up. So reverence this holy God you serve with your whole being so that you give the revelation of His will the attention that it deserves. Reverence Him both in the outward stuff and with the inward. There's not a conflict here. We're to honor God with both what's on the outside and with what's on the inside. They're to have one voice. There's not to be a disjunct or a separation between those two. Outside needs to match the inside, and the inside needs to be fearing the Lord and His holiness and reverencing the Lord. In Christ, we have our calling. Treasured people. Treasured possession of God. Mark it on your foreheads. I am God's treasure. But it's not because of your righteousness. It's because of His. Mark it on your hands. Kingdom of priests. But not because you're so great and spiritual and holy. Because He is. He's merciful. He's a Redeemer. You're a holy people, a holy nation. Not in and of yourselves, but because He is holy. And it's only as we bow before Him that we are holy. In Him, in Christ, we are redeemed to be God's special people for all peoples. In Him, we're set apart to serve the Holy God. And it doesn't matter Whether you're looking for work, trying to put bread on the table, struggling in a marriage, trying to raise kids, working hard, the ordinary things of life. It's in that stuff of life, it's called to be different. We're called to be a treasure of possession. We're called to be priests for the sake of God's work in the world and for His glory. Do you ever feel, I want to be part of something big? Well, in Christ you are. You can't get any bigger than this. This is big. This is big. And it's yours in Christ. It's ours together in Christ. So in the weeks ahead when we get to that mountain again and we hear His Word coming down from it, pay attention. Pay attention. It's for our good and the good of the world. That's great. Heavenly Father, You are a merciful God. Your holiness, glory, if it were unveiled in this world to its fullest, or even just partway there, would wipe us out. But in Christ, You have given us access into Your presence, so we come before You boldly, but we also come before You reverently. This is not flippant. We can't be playing games here, Father. And we need your help for this. We really do, Father. In ourselves, we don't have it. But in Christ, you have it for us. We give you thanks. We give you thanks. May we regard you.