The text that we're going to study today is one of the most fascinating texts in all of Scripture, certainly all of the Old Testament. And it is fascinating because of its utter uniqueness. Here we see the God who is not seen, said to be seen by the elders of God's people. Not only Moses, but Joshua, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, priests and the 70 elders that were with him. And then for the first time we see an interesting thing as God invites these men to eat a meal in God's presence. That's an interesting thing for God to invite folks to do. And if nothing else should motivate us to study this portion of Scripture, just sheer unadulterated curiosity. should cause us to delve into those mysteries. It is the 24th chapter of the book of Exodus. I'm going to give some introductory remarks before we read it, but in that 24th chapter, it is noteworthy because one of the most significant and solemn events of the Old Testament takes place. The nation of Israel has been camped now at the base of Mount Sinai for quite some time. And they will continue there for a considerable longer period of time, getting themselves in all heaps of trouble. It is at Mount Sinai in the 24th chapter of Exodus that the Mosaic covenant is ratified. Centuries before, God had promised to Abraham in the form of a covenant that he would make him a great nation and through his offspring would produce a seed, a son who would become a great nation. We know that Son ultimately to be our Lord Jesus Christ, promised Him land, the land of Canaan, and promised Him that His nation would be blessed and would be a blessing to all of the nations of the earth. The promises which God made were ratified as a covenant between God and Abraham in the 15th chapter of Genesis. That covenant is reiterated. to Abraham's offspring, Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Jacob. But in our chapter, the Mosaic covenant now is imposed upon Israel by God, who has just delivered her out of Egypt. And the stipulations are spelled out in summary form in what we know as the Ten Commandments, the first few verses of the 20th chapter of Exodus. and then elaborated on in exactly what those Ten Commandments, principles, fundamental expressions of the moral attributes of God, what they mean and how they're to be worked out in practical ways in this thing called the Book of the Covenant, which picks up where the Ten Commandments leaves off in chapter 20 and runs through the end of chapter 23. Now, none of us have ever experienced a covenant quite like this covenant. Now, we have seen treaties made that have ended two world wars. And similarly, we've seen the marriage covenant take place and be appealed to to end personal wars within our lives. But even the marriage covenant, as important as that is to us personally, fails to overshadow the covenant that God now is making with Israel. The events of this chapter are critical if we're going to understand the history of God's people. And it is critical for our history in three ways. Your personal redemptive history. The ratification of the Mosaic Covenant in the 24th chapter of Exodus is the absolute key to understanding the rest of the book of Exodus. If you don't understand this transitional position in the book of Exodus, you cannot understand Exodus. We're given this track to Sinai, then God gives His moral law and the book of the covenant, then the covenant is ratified, and then for the rest of the book, we get the architecture and the furnishings of the tabernacle, which is God's presence among us, or among them at that time. The 24th chapter of Exodus is a transition point. where once the covenant is ratified, then the tabernacle, God's presence among us, becomes the prominent subject. But we cannot possibly understand the message or the meaning of the entire Old Testament apart from understanding the Old Covenant as it is ratified in the book of Exodus. And if you don't understand the ramifications of the Old Testament, You will never understand the full meaning of the New Covenant in the New Testament, apart from an understanding of that older covenant, of which the Mosaic Covenant is the key. Even a casual reading of the book of Hebrews underscores the need to understand the Old Covenant, its perversion, and to grasp what Jesus came to bring in a New Covenant. So in understanding the covenants is to understand the fundamentals of biblical Christianity because Bible Christianity is covenantal Christianity. The concept of covenant then must be understood since the gospel is to proclaim the new covenant in Jesus' blood, which was instituted and ratified personally by our Lord Jesus Christ in the night in which he was betrayed. Now, the making of covenants in the Old Testament should not come as any surprise to us, even at this point, following along the development of Revelation. By the time we come to the 24th chapter of Exodus, Moses has already provided us with a considerable amount of information in the book of Genesis that is preceding. The first covenant that God made was with Noah, promising never to wipe out the earth again. And that covenant was followed by a sign, this rainbow that God has promised to give a memorial, a remembrance to these covenant promises that God had made. The next covenant that God made was with Abraham, and it also had promises of land, seed, blessings. And it was formalized also with this covenant sign of circumcision. And then a little later was confirmed in the 17th chapter with Abraham. God then goes on to reiterate the covenant with Isaac and to demonstrate the idea of covenants. Isaac made a covenant with Abimelech, agreeing to live in peace with him. And finally, in Genesis, Jacob makes a covenant with Laban, agreeing not to do each other any harm. This covenant has many similarities to the covenant ratification that we see in Exodus 24. So I want to spend a little time reading, before we get started here, in Genesis 31. It's just a little bit of background to the 24th chapter of Exodus. Genesis 31, beginning in 43, this is the covenant that Laban and Jacob make with one another. I want you to notice all of the elements that make up this covenant. Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, the daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these, my daughters, and to their children, whom they have borne? So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.' Then Jacob took a stone, and he set it as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, Gather stones, so that they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there. by the heath. Now Laban called it Jegar-shah-ham-duth, but Jacob called it Gelid. And Laban said, This heath is a witness between you and me this day. Therefore, it was named Gelid and Mitzpah. For he said, May the Lord watch between you and me while we are absent from one another. If you mistreat my daughters, Or if you take wives from besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me. And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness. that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me for harm. And the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judged between us. So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. And Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinmen to the meal. And they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. And you see many of the features now that make up a covenant already presented before we even get to Exodus 24. Covenants, as are illustrated in the book of Genesis, as well as many other secular sources, have several common elements. And the reason I'm going through this is because I want you to be able to spot those elements as we are going to read our text for today. They were usually promises or commitments that were going to be made, to which both parties bound themselves. There was often a sacrifice made, followed by a meal, which partook of some of the sacrifice, in which both parties partook of some of the sacrifice. There was also some memorial, in these cases stone pillars or heaps, some kind of physical token of the oath. which served to remind the parties of their commitment. There was also a curse attached to the one who broke the covenant. If you do this, such and such will happen. There was always a sense of serenity in the making of a covenant, for it was a very serious commitment. Now, the structures of our passage in Exodus chapter 24 fall into two beautiful sections, literarily. The first section is a divine call to worship and the ratification of the covenant in verses 1 through 11. The second half, which we will not be able to get to because I'm so long-winded, is the divine call for Moses to come up the actual recording of this covenant in tablets of stone. We will concentrate our attention, though we will read the entire chapter this morning before our worship, we're going to concentrate our exposition on the first 11 verses. Let us stand together, open your Bibles, Exodus 24, and let us hear the Word of God, the ratification of the Mosaic covenant. hear the word of God. Then he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord. But you shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him. Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord. and all the ordinances. And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the sons of Israel And they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and he put it in basins. And the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be Obedient. So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And under his feet there appeared to be as a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet he did not stretch out his hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel, and they beheld God, and they ate and they drank. Now the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablet, which the law and the commandments which I have written for you, their instruction. So Moses arose with Joshua, his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. But to the elders he said, Wait for us here until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them. And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord rested on the Mount Sinai. And the cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eye of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. And Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain, And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights." That ends the reading of God's word, you may be seated. A divine call to worship and the ratification of the covenant Verses 1 and 2 state to us that, Then he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, the seventy elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. And Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord. They shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him. It seems apparent here a number of items that we need to be aware of if we're going to understand the teachings of the Scriptures here. These 75 leaders whom God has made a personal invitation to come to worship are also representatives of the whole people of Israel. When God makes a covenant, He does it through a representative leadership. And that covenant is just as binding upon all of the people as if they had made that covenant themselves. This federal headship, we like to think of it, is critical to our understanding of the nature of the covenant. You children, you were presented to your parents and were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it was because of faith. It was believer's baptism, if you will. It was the believing federal covenant head of your home that brought you and presented you there and you were baptized on the basis of his or her faith. So I believe in believers' baptism. Believers' baptism in the covenant because just as God here recognizes the leadership of these 75 men as being representative of the whole people and allowed them to see Him and sprinkled them with the blood of the covenant. He has also sprinkled the entire nation of Israel, for they acted on behalf of the nation. These were the leaders of the nation who would teach, interpret, and apply the law of God that he was giving to Israel." Now, this is an interesting thing because just in the 19th chapter, a few chapters earlier, just before he gives the Ten Commandments, In chapter 19 verses 12 through 13, God goes to a great deal of trouble to make doggone sure that these people know that they are not to come up to the mountain, not even to the foot of it. And He has them erect barriers all around this mountain of which He had designated and warned them twice. Don't touch the mountain. Not even your sheep should graze there. If they do, they'll die. And if any man crosses the barrier, he shall be put to death. And yet here now, He has invited the very nation of Israel represented in these 75 covenantal heads to come and have fellowship with Him. But to have fellowship with Him only in His terms. What were those terms? at a distance, at a distance, at the foot of the mountain. Now, this shouldn't surprise us because what is fixing to follow here is a presentation of the tabernacle and the structure and the architecture of the tabernacle. And as you probably know, there was an outer courtyard. within the tabernacle that was surrounded by a fence, by a white, linen fence in the tabernacle in an outer courtyard of the temple that followed. And then within the structure of principle, there was a place called the Holy Place. And then beyond this beautiful embroidered veil was a place where rested the Ark of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments, the pot of manna, e'er and draw that budded, covered by the mercy seat, and that was known as the Holy of Holies. And we see here that the nation of Israel was permitted to enter only at certain times into that courtyard under strict guidelines for sacrifices to be made. And then once the sacrifices were made, only the priesthood could enter the holy place to present the blood, to keep the candle, the lampstand burning, the altar of incense, which is the prayers of the saints burning, and the showbread replenished with fresh unleavened bread for the needs and the care of God's people and His priesthood. But even then, Only once a year. The high priest alone was permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies. And that with a rope tied around his leg and pomegranates and bells sewn around the hem of his garment so they could listen for him tinkling within the room there. And if it got silent for any extended period of time, The instructions were to drag his dead carcass out from under the veil. For God wants to communicate something to us, that He is a holy God. God is in heaven. That means He is high and lifted up. He is totally other than we are. We are of a created reality and our God, the God we worship, is uncreated. Can you figure that out? No, because you're created. He is totally other than we are. We have more in common with a mouse than we do with the triune, uncreated God of heaven and earth. He's different than we are, and unapproachable, except on His terms alone. This is a message that is missing in our culture today. And it is why we have the rampant immorality that exists in our culture today, because we have lost sight of what holiness is all about. And we have created a God in our own image that's way too much like we are. If you find my illustration offensive, I'm sorry, there is no other God revealed in the pages of Scripture. The application also for us in this event, these first two verses, is it is anti-egalitarian. God discriminates amongst men. He chooses His high priest. He chooses His elders. And He chooses not to choose everyone the same way. We see here that God sovereignly administers His covenant. He lays down the guidelines. We do not, nor are we ever permitted to worship God any way we choose. The only legitimate way to worship God is as God has revealed. And thirdly, the whole concept of representative headship, which we see over and over and over. In fact, headship lies at the very basis of the gospel. We are condemned at birth, being conceived in iniquity because of the sin of our representative head, Adam, even though we weren't there. He is our representative. As far as God's concerned, we were there. But we were also there if we are one of Christ's children. Within the tablets of His heart, upon His breastplate, as He makes atonement for our sins, as our representative, we are also there. In His death, in His burial, in His resurrection, in His ascension, in His glorification, we are united to Christ, our representative. Verse 3 talks about the people covenant of God. Verse 3, Then Moses came and recounted to the people all these words of the Lord, and all the ordinances which the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do. Now, if anything, Israel is probably guilty here of tremendous overconfidence. The way they seem so easily to say, yes, sure, we'll do that, not a problem, we'll keep your law, seems to lack an appreciation, unwarranted I might add, for just how complete and how searching God's law really is. Because it's not just simply those ten commandments on the external level, even as the book of the covenant goes on to show, It addresses the most intimate details in the private aspects of our personal lives. How we live with our spouses, how we raise our children, how we treat our property. And so it is a very awesome thing, this law, that they have so casually said, oh yeah, we will keep your law. However, a nation that has been terrified by God in the way that God has terrified them in the presence of Sinai was in no particular state of mind to do anything else but agree with God, which I'm sure was calculated on God's part to be part of His redemptive plan. Then we see the heart of this ratification in the sacrifices. We were titled the sermon, I guess we called it, The Blood of the Covenant. And this is the neatest. Now, you know, I've been a Christian since I was 11 years old. I've sat in churches and heard the gospel preached. And I've heard wonderful sermons and the exposition of the book of Exodus. And I must be dumb or something, because when I sat maybe three or four weeks ago and heard a brother connect this 24th chapter of Exodus with the Lord's suffering, He raised some things that I had simply never... I know I must have heard this somewhere, but I just never... It was just like my eyes were open. So, I'm hoping I can share something with you today that will bring a new appreciation to what we're fixing to do as we commemorate the ratification of the new covenant. And some of that is found in these offerings. Now, it is interesting. Moses wrote down, verse 4, Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord And then he arose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bull as peace offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood, put it in a basin, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar." Now, Israel has verbally agreed to this covenantal relationship, but that simply doesn't seem to be good enough. The first word of God must be inscripturated. So Moses writes down these ten commandments in the book of the covenant. The words of the Lord. God's word was important enough that it was not to be left up to human recollection and the creative nature of memory. It had to be written down. Since the Israelites have verbally ratified the covenant, Moses now carries out the ratification process, which we have seen previously in the book of Genesis, by the use of symbols and representatives. Symbolically, Moses offers covenant sacrifices, making an altar with 12 pillars that represent the entire nation, the 12 tribes of Israel. And he offers two kinds of sacrifices. First, a whole burnt offering, and secondly, a peace offering. Now, the explanation of whole burnt and peace offering occurs later in the book of Leviticus. But for the sake of these people, apparently God had given Moses some particular information here about the nature of these two sacrifices. The whole burnt offering was made in which the entire animal was utterly consumed to a crisp. Nothing was left. All of it was charred. Completely burned with fire. But a peace offering was an interesting sacrifice in which the animal was not just consumed but roasted. Grilled, if you will. And portions of this delicious animal was shared by the attending priest, or in this case, it wasn't a priest because they hadn't had the ordination of the priesthood yet, but just young men who were physically strong enough to carry out this laborious butcher shop grilling work of grilling oxen. I can't imagine grilling an oxen, but that's what we're looking at. That was part of the peace offering. And then they would consume it, and the rest was shared with the other 70 elders representing the whole 12 tribes of Israel. The importance of these two offerings cannot be underestimated. They represent the two great pillars of atonement, propitiation and expiation. Propitiation and expiation. Now, Bob, why are you using all those technical theological terms? Well, because those exact words are found in the Bible. Get your concordium, look it up, propitiation is a Bible word, and so is expiation. So let me explain. Two pillars of atonement. First is propitiation. Now, if I was angry at someone, and they are really making me angry, and you know, I'm just going to pop them one. And some fella kind of standing beside, on a sideline here, is totally not involved in what this fella has done to make me angry. Just watching what's going on here and he sees, you know, this fella's going to get popped. And he knows it. And for reasons that the guy who's fixing to get hit cannot possibly understand. This guy has compassion on the offending party. And just as I come down to smacking, this fellow steps in the way and takes the full brunt of my wrath. Well, I'm not angry anymore. You know, I've vented my wrath. And a substitute has absorbed the expression of that anger. Well, that's a pretty starry illustration, but it kind of gives you an idea of what propitiation does. God is angry with us because we have violated His covenant. He has done nothing but good to us, but we have sinned. We have fallen short of His glory. And we do so in the wake of Plenteous mercy and grace. And because we are sinners, and because God is a just God, He cannot turn His eyes away from sin. Sin must be dealt with, or He ceases to be God. He ceases to be just. And so in the councils of eternity, they covenant, the persons of the Trinity covenant together. to propitiate their just, righteous anger that sin deserves. And Jesus takes upon Himself the full brunt of God's righteous indignation because of our sin. And as a result of that, as Isaiah 53 says, and God sees the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. His wrath, his anger has been turned away. He now is no longer angry with us. But that's not enough to save us and to bring us into right relationship. That just propitiates his anger. That just turns his anger away from us. There is a second thing that God does, and that is expiation. And that is where the blood spilt by this righteous sacrifice, because of its innocence and its redemptive power, is imputed to the offending party in such a way as that God now looks upon him, not only is he not angry with him, but he looks upon him as though he had never sinned, as though he was in a state of innocence, as though he was Adam in the garden before the fall. He looks at him clean, every whit clean, and as the old hymns say, washed in the blood. And that's what expiation is. Now, these two sacrifices represent these two pillars of redemption and atonement. Propitiation and expiation. The blood of these sacrifices was combined and then sprinkled first upon the altar. And as we learn in Hebrews 9, was also sprinkled on the book, the book of the covenant that Moses had written. And here we see the ends of propitiation and turning away the wrath of God. The remaining blood was set aside in a basin. And so here the very altar of God, the place where judgment takes place, now the blood is splashed on that altar. And God's righteous indignation has been satisfied. Now there is nothing magical about blood. It is simply a representation of what life is all about. Life, as Leviticus 17 says, is in the blood. So, blood represents the outpouring of a life, of one life being given in the place of another. A vicarious, substitutionary atonement. Sprinkling blood on the altar was done to purify it and to sanctify it for the purpose of making sacrifices and offerings to God. Which tells us that not only must our sacrifice be unblemished, but the method of the sacrifice must also be purified as well. In other words, we must worship God alone, God's way alone, the way He desires us to worship Him. Verses 7 and 8 give us the blood of the covenant that expiates sin. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. So Moses took the blood, that which was left over in the basin, and sprinkled it on the people and said, behold, the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." God's covenant is sovereignly administered here. Just as much as God would not negotiate His covenant with Israel, neither will He force it upon them, but they must freely respond to His grace. formally twice in these verses, and actually a third time if you count what they said in chapter 19 where they agreed to do whatever God said that they would do, Israelites have made a verbal commitment themselves to keep this covenant. If this is not enough, there had been great care by God to communicate the covenant clearly. Over a period of time, This was a verbal commitment that was based on a clear understanding of the conditions of the covenant. God spoke verbally in the hearing of the Israelites. Several times He spoke through Moses. Moses conveyed the contents of the book of the covenant to the Israelites, which the people committed to keep. Then Moses put the book of the covenant into writing. which he later read to the Israelites, and they again committed themselves to keep the covenant. Finally, God will Himself write the covenant in stone and have it placed in the Ark of the Covenant so that the Israelites will never forget it. The commitment which the nation of Israel makes here in chapter 24 is one that is based upon a clear understanding of the covenant which is put before them. In response to their commitment, the blood set aside in the vases is sprinkled upon the people, thus linking the people with the covenant sacrifice. This was a dynamic and dramatic symbol of how sin is atoned for. The perfect and innocent sacrifice gave up its life and its blood was used to atone for the sins of those who were neither perfect nor innocent. This is a striking parallel to what Jesus did for us on the cross. And when we sing of the blood of the Lamb or the blood of Jesus, make sure that this is the picture that comes to mind. And yes, it is a grisly scene. But that is how God sees our sin. Sin creates a debt that must be paid, and the only acceptable price is a perfect life to be substituted for a sinful life. The covenant broken cannot be satisfied without the shedding of blood. By this sacrifice, the law was magnified and made honorable. I mean, look what God had done in order to show forth the holiness and the purity of His law. And so, divine justice receives its due. What is it to break God's law? What is it to steal or to commit adultery or to not love the Lord with all your heart? It is to ravage an innocent human sacrifice. And those who believe are justified from all guilt and sanctified from all sin, so they receive all that they need. God's law is vindicated, His justice is honored, and the sin of His people is covered and atoned for. Thus, God is well pleased and believers eternally saved. This is a glorious economy that God has wrought upon us, highly worthy of God its author. It is not enough just to go to church and read or hear the word of God. One must also agree with it and to be obedient to it. Living out a godly life is much more difficult than simply acknowledging that that is what should be done. In verse 9-11, they see God. Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet there appeared to be pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet he did not stretch out his hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel, and they saw God, and they ate and drank. As God has summoned them in verses 1 and 2, now Moses, attended by Joshua, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, went up to the holy mountain. Here we are told that they saw the God of Israel, and yet He did not strike them dead. that there was no visible form or representation ontologically of the divine nature, we must affirm, based on Deuteronomy 4, John 1, 18, John 6, 48, no man had seen God at any time. We don't believe that they were actually seeing the Father, who is invisible and not to be looked upon because He's different than we are. This is more accurately an emblem of his glory, distinct and yet at his distance, displayed before those chosen witnesses, as perfectly as their infirmities could behold such majesty. The seventy elders who were representatives of the whole congregation were chosen to witness the manifestation of God. that they might be satisfied of the truth of the revelation which he had made of himself and of his will. And on this occasion was necessary that the people also should be favored with a sight of the glory of God. Thus the certainty of the revelation was established by many witnesses and by those especially of the most competent kind, judges, nobles, leaders. It was generally understood that God never showed His glory in this manner, but for the purpose of manifesting His justice, His wrath. And therefore, it appeared to be a strange thing that these would have seen God as it were face to face and survive. This idea of sapphire. is an interesting concept. Sapphire is a precious stone. I believe it is of next in hardness to the diamond itself. Gemologists put the sapphire, the ruby, and the topaz in the same genus, I understand, so that we cannot say that the sapphire is merely blue, but could also be red and green and yellow in some cases. some of them blue or green, according to the light in which they are held, and some white. The ancient oriental sapphire is supposed to have been the same with the lapsus lazuli spoken of in the Garden of Eden and other places in the scriptures. Supposing that these different kinds of sapphires are here intended, how glorious must be that pavement. constituted as polished stones of this sort, perfectly transparent, which filled the heavenly spirit poured out upon them. The red, the blue, the green, and the yellow arranged by the wisdom of God into the most beautiful emblematic representation, and the whole body of heaven in its clearness shining upon them, must have been a most glorious appearance indeed. Now, what is neat is the parallel of this passage with Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, and Revelation 4, 6, where a lot of the same elements are recounted. In neither of these appearances, though, is there a similitude like of the likeness of anything in heaven or earth or sea. Thus God took care to preserve them from all incentives to idolatry while he gave them the fullest proof of his being. You want to know what I call this kind of revelation? This is baby talk. This is God who is incomprehensible, that no man can look upon and live condescending to give some sort of an image, some sort of a vision, some sort of an appearance to confirm and bring faith to the eyes of these leaders of Israel. Now, I won't take the time to read Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4. I really should. So, write it down and read it tonight. But I want to move on. The similarities of these descriptions are striking to me. The cloud and the lightning of Ezekiel and Revelation. Take us back to the description of the revelation of God on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. In both Ezekiel and Revelation, there were crystal-like floors on which the throne of God stands, very much like the crystal-clear sapphire pavement of verse 10. In Ezekiel's description, this crystal floor is above the heads of the four living creatures. In both Ezekiel and Revelation, as well as in Exodus, the one who is enthroned appears with human characteristics. The difference between these passages is a question of perspective. I understand this revelation of God in each of these passages to be similar, but that God is progressively made more clear and intimately revealed to the sight from different perspectives. I believe that the elders of Israel saw God enthroned high above them, from under a crystal-tight floor, if you will, looking through it, because what was visible to them was His feet of God enthroned, since the throne would be obscured the rest of Him. Since the floor was crystal clear, they could have seen God above them through the floor with the throne sitting on the floor and God on the throne. Ezekiel's vision described God enthroned on a crystal expanse above the heads of the four living creatures, but more of him is seen. Thus, Ezekiel must have been closer and perhaps elevated and looking at the throne of God from a different angle. John, on the other hand, sees God enthroned from heaven, so that his view of God is not restricted. Appropriately, those who behold God in later times see more of Him, just like we do on this side of Calvin. This distant view of God may explain why we don't read of any fear on the part of the elders, but perhaps just awe and wonder. This also helps us to explain why Moses could later ask to see God as though he had not seen Him earlier in Exodus 33. I have heard it said that people saw the President of the United States in Washington. Now this could be true in any number of cases. We may see him, see the back of the President through a pair of binoculars as he sits at his desk in the Oval Office from outside the walkway. Or we may see Him across the desk in His overlords. But in both cases, we have seen the present. Although in the latter instance, we have seen Him in a much more intimate setting. I believe that the elders of Israel did not see God as intimately as Ezekiel and John did. But they did indeed see Him. Ezekiel and John helped to fill in some of those missing details. And Moses. who is the mediator of the covenant, is alone permitted to draw near to God. None of the people are allowed to come up to see the divine glory, not even Aaron or his sons, nor the nobles. Moses was a type of Christ who, as a mediator of the new covenant, he alone has access to God on behalf of the human race, as Moses did on behalf of his people Israel. Well, then the last part of the ratification of this covenant was this covenantal meal that we see and doesn't surprise us that meals were eaten at the face of covenants. And it is eaten by the 75 leaders of Israel in the presence of God as a final act of ratification. In the light of the way covenants were made, it is not unusual to find the leaders of the nations of Israel eating this covenantal meal in the presence of God. For both parties were present. at the covenant meal. So, in conclusion, the ratification of the Mosaic covenant is relevant to the New Testament church, to us as well. And let me leave four areas of application of our text, all of them implications of the same principle that the newer covenant, like the older covenant, is just as much a covenant. The new covenant was ratified by Christ's Passover, in that meal where he instituted the Lord's Supper. Take your Bibles with me and look at Matthew chapter 26. similarities of this language with Moses are striking. Matthew 26, verse 28. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. Moses, behold the blood of the covenant. And what does he do with it? He pours it out upon the altar. He pours it out upon the people. Jesus, during the Passover meal, takes the cup and he says, this is my blood of the covenant. which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. In the words of institution in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 25. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." And just as there were curses associated with the first, the older covenant, the Mosaic covenant, we read in Hebrews that those curses are still in force. Hebrews 10, 29. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who tramples underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace? I believe Jesus ratified the new covenant in that Passover meal. The New Covenant was ratified. The New Covenant requires a commitment, just like the Older Covenant did. The ratification of this covenant is a solemn event and one which requires a definite decision. Paul spells out this decision towards the ratified covenant of Jesus Christ in Romans chapter 10. I know these portions of Scriptures may be familiar to you. I ask God to give you new eyes, new ears, to let their words sink to your heart. Romans chapter 10, verse 8. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. And that is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if You confess with your mouths Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. There are many who think that they are Christians because they know that Christ died for sinners. There are some who believe that they believed in Him. But I fear that they are also some who have heard of this covenant, but they have never made the commitment of faith and repentance which God requires of those who would enter into His covenant. The new covenant has been ratified. It's binding upon your conscience. It will either be a blessing or a curse to those raised under its canopy. There are some who will say, well, my relationship with God is a very private matter, something between just me and God. Well, of course, one's relationship with God is a very personal thing. But it is a relationship based upon clear terms of the covenant. which God has offered to us. We cannot come to God on our own terms, but only on His terms and those of the New Covenant. The consequences of our choices are all too frequently things that we do not want to consider. In regard to sin, we either ignore the consequences and take our chances, or we simply go on denial that the consonants won't have to be dealt with. This reveals quite a lack of faith and a great immaturity. Kids, like us, do this all the time. Children, the immature, don't often think about what will happen if they do certain things. They just do it. They act or react. thinking their parents are old folkies because they say, no, you can't do that. And they might ask, well, why not? And we give them the end all answer, well, because. Which, in fact, you can't do because I'm the parent and that's good enough. And that should be good enough. But kids do not always consider their parents' wisdom, honed by years of their own failures and mistakes, to be that valuable. When they are 16 years old, they do not consider what they are doing might affect them when they are 55 and 60. They just are passionate. Passionate about everything they do, but rarely stop to think about consequences. When we do not stop to consider spiritual consequences of things that we do, it indicates that we are spiritually immature. God just is not real to us, or we would be taking His fatherly care and commandment more seriously. So, the New Covenant must be ratified. It requires a commitment. It also must be clearly communicated. A new covenant, like the old, must be communicated clearly so that men can make a choice based upon an adequate understanding of the commitment required. If we are impressed with the decisive way in which Israel ratified the covenant, we should also be impressed with the clarity and frequency with which the covenant is communicated from God to men and from man to man. And so here is a call for us to preach the gospel, to evangelize your neighbor. It must be communicated. And the new covenant must also be faithfully commemorated. The new covenant requires not only commitment, communication, but commemoration. And when the Lord was about to go on the cross, He shared a covenant meal with His disciples and instituted a commemoration of the New Covenant, which the church was commanded to keep as a memorial. Failure to commemorate the New Covenant, or doing so in an inappropriate way, will bring a curse, serious consequences. The Scriptures tell us that due to misconduct at the commemoration of the New Covenant, some were sick and some died. Those who willfully and persistently sin eventually are not invited to the table. So let us then commit ourselves to this covenant in personal salvation, personal commitment, in communicating this gospel to others and in the way we approach our Lord's table. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we give Thee thanks for the ratification of the Mosaic covenant and how it informs us of what Jesus did on that night in which He was betrayed. We ask Thee, Father, now as we come to this meal and rehearse the ratification of the new covenant, bind us to You. Be our God. May we be Thy people. Feed us on Jesus Christ, for we ask it in Jesus' name.