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Thanks for watching! Thanks for watching! Thanks for watching! Thanks for watching! Thanks for watching! Thanks for watching! Sing it out loud! Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Amen. Great singing. At this time, we're going to have our ushers come forward to receive the offering for us. Brother Ramon, can you bless the offering, please? I want to thank you for this great church. Another great day in the church today. We bless all of our churches as well today. Lord, bless the service today. We pray Jesus to the pastor of your spirit. And bless this offering. Amen. Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise God from whom all blessings flow Okay, turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus 19, the second book in the Bible. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand. One of the ushers will bring you one. The Bible reads, In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were deported from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched into wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and deed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up unto the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever touches the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through, whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day, come not at your wives. And it came to pass, on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood together at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in a fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the whole smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to the Mount Sinai, for thou chargest with us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee. But let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them. Brother Sean, will you pray for us? Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for this church, Lord. I pray that you would fill Pastor Thompson now with your Holy Spirit, Lord. I pray that you would give us ears to hear the message, help us to pay attention, open our eyes to distractions, Lord, and pray that you will... All right, we're in Exodus 19. It's been a couple of weeks since we've been here. And in chapter 18, we had where Moses needed to learn how to delegate to other people because he was taking too much upon himself. And then, of course, in 17, you had the surprise attack from Amalek. And right before that was the Red Sea crossing. So they've only been in the area of Sinai for three months now. And so already a lot's gone on, but now we're... Even in the last chapter, all that stuff took place at the base of Mount Sinai. And so Mount Sinai, of course, is also called Mount Horeb in the Bible. I think I've explained that before. But Mount Sinai is where they're at still. So verse number one, we're going to start, and it says, In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai, for they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you an eagle's wings, and brought you unto Myself. So he's saying, so where's God out right now? He's calling to Moses from out of the mountain. Now, of course, God can be anywhere and all places at once. And He is the invisible God. God is a spirit, and so if the people actually saw God, they would die. And so this chapter makes it very clear that that's the case. And what you have here is right before the covenant, the Old Testament covenant is being put into place. And so, of course, the next chapter is one of the most famous chapters in the whole Bible, which is the giving of the Ten Commandments. And so here God is telling Moses what to say to the children of Israel. And then the children of Israel are supposed to answer back. So this is how a covenant works. Two people get into an agreement, or maybe two sides get into an agreement, and it could be more than that. But when it comes to this covenant, God is saying this is what the terms of the covenant are. And then the people are supposed to say whether they agree with it, or whether they're going to do it or not. And that's kind of what's going on in this chapter, is the back and forth. You know, God is telling them the way it's going to be. And if they want to enter in, they have to enter into it willingly. But you also have, you know, so obviously the second covenant is where Jesus Christ is the one that God kind of puts his wrath upon for all of mankind. He puts his wrath upon an innocent person that's never done any crimes, never done anything wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ becomes sin for us. But you'll see these are two vastly different covenants. God is bringing forth the law of God. And when people break the law of God, God gets very angry. And so you'll see the wrath of God poured out on people and things when he gets upset about things. And look, this is the same God from the New Testament. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, forever. Jesus Christ feels the same way about sin. Okay? But you have, you know, the law came in because of transgressions. And so God wasn't just going to allow, you know, mankind to just have no laws, no rules. And he puts these special rules upon the people. And obviously the whole world should obey these rules. But God's calling out a nation for his own namesake. And the children of Israel are supposed to be that light to the world that God works through. So, now, you know, God says, you have seen what I did unto the Egyptians in verse 4. How I bare you on eagles wings and brought you forth unto myself. So they've seen miracles, haven't they? Now, it kind of reminds me, because I'm going through the book of John also. And in the book of John, in chapter 4, you know, one of the guys, this guy, this soldier comes up and is begging for the life of his son who's sick and about to die. And he said, Jesus says to him, except you see signs you will not believe. And this is kind of a true thing about the Jews, about the Jewish people, as you want to call them, whatever the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know, these, they always seem to require some kind of a sign. Even Gideon, as much of a great man of God as he was, he was putting God to the test and saying, hey, you know, if I wake up and this fleece is full of water. And then, you know, he just like kept testing them. And he wanted to see signs in order to do these things. And the Bible talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. Go ahead and turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. And the apostle Paul kind of makes this abundantly clear for us. But the fact that, you know, even when Jesus Christ was talking to the Pharisees at one point and they say, you know, show us a sign that we believe. And Jesus said, I'm not going to show you a sign except for that of the prophet Jonas. As Jonas was three days and three nights in the well's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So the only sign he said I'm going to show you, you know, Jesus isn't just some circus animal trained to do tricks for us. You know, people just say, well, unless I see some miracle, I'm not going to believe it. Well, you know, that's not how God operates in the New Testament. The New Testament, he specifically even says to John, I mean, excuse me, Thomas. You know, Thomas is like, unless I see the nail prints in his hands and be able to thrust my hand in his side, I won't believe. But then when he sees Jesus, he just, you know, immediately crumbles to the ground and says, my Lord, my God. But Jesus said, blessed are those that have not seen. You know, it's a blessing that he saw God. You know, he saw the risen Savior. But Jesus said blessed are those that have not seen yet believe. And so the blessing of faith is upon us, but that's how God wants us to operate. He's not going to do something where he comes down on Mount Sinai and makes it smoke for us. You know, obviously, God still does miracles in the world today. There's a lot of things that happen in our life that we might not count as miracles, but God still does miracles. He's still in the miracle business today. But if you think that he's just going to jump through all your tricks to, you know, your gauntlet of what you think you need to put God through, I mean, God's God. We're just human beings, and we should just, you know, be in awe of his presence. But anyway, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 22 says, For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. So, and that's, there's people that require a sign and will only believe things if there's a sign, but the Greeks, it says seek wisdom. So what kind of wisdom? Well, they want to see, you know, science and math and, you know, poetry and all this stuff, and the Greeks were always kind of trying to find some new thing that they could study. There's some people that they won't believe unless they can put it in a math equation, or they can put it in some kind of, you know, some kind of scientific experiment, and I've heard people say that lots of times when I was out soloing. Well, if God would just come down and jump in this test tube so we could test him, or if he would just come down and appear to me only, look, that's not going to happen. So, but it says, Christ the, so let's see, verse 23 here in the text I had you turn to is, but we preach Christ crucified. See, that's what we're supposed to preach. Unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. So you could preach to Jews. It's a stumbling block unless you want to show them some kind of a miracle, and unto the Greeks is foolishness. Well, you believe that's stupid, foolish stuff, but it says in verse 24, but unto them which are called. Those are the people that God's called, and, you know, he calls everybody, but few are chosen, right? Both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So unless people are willing to accept Christ, you know, what God wants for them, the wisdom of God, the power of God, Jesus Christ, then that's just too bad. He's not going to show some great miracles like people are wanting to see in order to believe in God, because you know what, what do we find? These same people here have seen all kinds of miracles and yet a lot of them don't believe. A lot of them are haters of the Lord. So let's look back at our text in verse number 5. The Bible says in Exodus 19, 5, it says, Now therefore, if you obey my voice and deed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. So he's, so what's the covenant he's offering them? He's offering them to, you know, obey his voice, to keep the covenant. Now does that mean that they're sinless and perfect? No, it doesn't mean they're sinless and perfect. They have to follow the law that God's about to put forth. And what happens if you're sin, if you sin? There's a sacrifice that you can give in order to make things right between you and God. Now those things didn't, the Bible says it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to, you know, wipe out that sin, but it's something that God asks you to do. So are you willing to do what he asks you to do? This is how the covenant was fulfilled. You know, and there was people that were called perfect in the Bible, but that just means that they're really good Christians. I mean, it doesn't mean that they did everything perfect, they kept every law. Obviously there's things that they could do if they didn't keep the law in some way, shape, or form. And it says, So he says if you do these things, here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to make you a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, so their name and their nation would be the smallest nation, but yet the one that God blesses the most because of the fact that they're going forth and supposed to be doing what God asked them to do, right? And it says, So that's kind of what we are today, too. He says that we are kings and priests, and it says, So today, though, that holy nation is a spiritual nation. It's made up of all nations of the earth, and basically the kingdom of Israel on this earth is a spiritual kingdom, and this is what was always meant to be in the first place. Now, they are going to be an earthly and spiritual kingdom, but they're not going to be made perfect until Christ comes, and obviously when Christ came, they rejected him. So here's what God's offering so far. He's saying, So where does this seem familiar from? Well, in the New Testament, Peter also talks about New Testament believers. He gives these promises to New Testament believers. If you turn to 1 Peter 2, verse number 5, 1 Peter 2, verse number 5, the Lord, through Peter, makes it very clear that there's a new type of spiritual house in the New Testament, and these things are offered unto us also, the spiritual Israel. Look at 1 Peter 2, verse 5, it says, So is it a physical house? No, it's a spiritual house. And holy nation. So what's the holy nation? The holy nation is a spiritual house. You're not going to find the capital of spiritual Israel in Washington, D.C., or any other place. You're going to find it in the people. The lively stones are the people, the spiritual house is the believers, and it's in holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices. So we're no longer under the Old Testament carnal ordinances, diverse washings. We're doing spiritual sacrifices, and I've preached about this just recently, how just the praise of his name alone is like a spiritual sacrifice that is well pleasing to God. So God still wants us to live and keep his commandments and live right before him, but the covenant is different. So it says spiritual sacrifice is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So when we offer our spiritual sacrifices, when we are obeying God, when we're doing the work that he put towards us, we are a priesthood. Every single person in here, we believe in the priesthood of the believer at this church. So God has made us spiritual priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices. And you know why it's acceptable to God? Because it's by Christ Jesus. See, Moses is the go-between between the children of Israel and God in this chapter, right? So he says, Moses, this is what I want you to tell them. He goes back to the people and tells them, and then they say, yes, we're going to do this. And then he goes back to God. It's like God already knows what they said, I'm sure, because he's God. But this is a picture of Moses being the go-between, Moses being that person that goes between us, and that's what Christ is. He's a high priest for us forever after the order of Melchizedek. And so Christ is who we offer our spiritual sacrifices through. He is the mediator, the only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, the Bible says. And so we don't have some priesthood anymore in that way. We're priests, and we go through Jesus Christ, our high priest, to go to God the Father. Look at what it says. Skip down to verse number 9. It says, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. So what does that mean? What is royal? Well, it has to do with royalty, right? Kings, queens, kings and priests, right? So we're a royal priesthood in holy nation, a peculiar people. Now, a lot of people say peculiar, that's like weird. Well, that's not true. We're peculiar, we're different, is what it's saying. We're different, we're supposed to be different from other people. As Christians, God's called us to be different. We're called out of the world like the children of Israel. We're called out of Egypt, which pictures the world, and God wants them to be different. He wants to set them apart. He's called them unto him, unto this mountain, to make this covenant. And God does the same thing with us through Jesus Christ. We're called out of the world, we're saved by faith, and then we're set apart to do the work of God as spiritual, royal priesthood unto God, giving spiritual sacrifices instead. Aren't you glad we don't have to cut bulls up? Aren't you glad we don't have to cut goats up? I mean, the barbecue would be good at the end, but it's a lot of dirty work, isn't it? To cut up an animal, to flay them, to skin them, to gut them, and all the things you'd have to do, it's hard work. Being a butcher is not an easy job. So we get to be spiritual butchers, I guess, or offering these spiritual sacrifices, which don't have anything to do with animals at all. Jesus already paid for the blood once and for all, so we don't have any part in having to do that kind of stuff. But the Bible says we're supposed to be a peculiar people. So this is New Testament believers it's talking about. So isn't he attributing the same things to us today that he wanted to attribute to them back then? They had a priesthood. They had all these same things that God offers us now, but obviously in the framework of the old covenant. So it says that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So he wants us to do what? Show forth the praises of him. And so it says in verse 10, which in time past were not a people. Who's he talking about here? He's talking about people, the Gentiles, right? Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God. So anybody says that there is no replacement theology? The church replaces the Old Testament Israel. What's it say right there? But are now the people of God. Who are the people of God in the Old Testament? The nation of Israel. The peculiar people that he called out from Egypt and made that covenant in Sinai with. And if people were Gentiles, they had to come in and be part of the nation of Israel, which was in a particular place, in a particular geography, it was a physical nation, which obviously had spiritual things about it and spiritual blessings also. But now everything is spiritual. Now obviously a lot of the work we do is physical, but it's not like it was back then. The priesthood's different, the priesthood's changed, all that stuff. So it says, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. It's talking about us, it's talking about the people in this room, and what's that mean? Well, the nation of Israel has been replaced. Let's turn over to Matthew chapter 21 verse 42. And this might be, well I already know all this stuff, well it's good to re-go over this stuff. Because people will say, well you're just saying that Israel has no place, and people just always want to jam Israel into everything. And it's just like, we are Israel. Just embrace it. It's a fact. It's true. Look what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 21 verse 42. Jesus saith unto them, did you never read the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you. So who's it being taken from? The Jews, right? And given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. So what's God want? He wants his precious fruit. He has made us the husbandmen of the field which is the earth, with all the unsaved people, and he says the fields are white unto harvest. And we are to go and bring forth fruit unto him, because they weren't doing it. They weren't producing fruit. Why did he curse the fig tree? He said, bring no fruit henceforth forever. And he cursed the fig tree. Why? Because it represents the fact that Israel was not bringing forth fruit. It wasn't bringing forth in a season. When he went there to pick something to eat, that should have been filled with figs apparently. And so the picture is that Israel stopped bringing forth fruit, and he's going to take that kingdom of God, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, the physical nation, and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And what nation is that? The chosen generation, the holy nation, the peculiar people, the holy priesthood of the New Testament. And it says, Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard this parable, they perceived that he spake of them. So they're right about that. He was talking about them. He's taking it from them and giving it to us. But then they sought to lay hands on him. They feared the multitude because they took him for a profit. So they wanted to just kill him right there on the spot, but of course they waited until night like the sneak thieves that they were. They paid someone to betray him and all that stuff. So let's go back to Exodus chapter 19 verse 7. So here we have, there's a lot of differences between the New Testament and the Old Testament. But the one big major thing is we're talking about a physical nation of people. And then obviously, again, they had spiritual attributes to them, but the picture is that later on it's going to be a spiritual nation of all saved believers. So look at Exodus 19 verse 7. It says, And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, notice this part is really important, and all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. So are they agreeing to the covenant or not? I'm offering you this. If you keep my commandments, if you keep my covenant, I'm going to give you all this. And then they said, We will do it. Right? That's the agreement. So Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. So again, he's being this go-between, right? And he's playing this mediator and picturing Jesus Christ here, and God lays out that covenant to him, and the people answer back. So let's turn over to Matthew chapter 27 verse 24. So here's what's different about the New Covenant as compared to the Old Covenant. Because there's a lot of different things that happen, but what we have here is this Old Testament covenant being formed, and then in the New Testament, the people have a different answer, don't they? They have a different answer for God when they say, Well, who are you going to choose? Are you going to choose Jesus, your king? Or are you going to choose Barabbas, this murderer, whose name means son of the father, by the way, but they chose the wrong son of the father, didn't they? Now it says in Matthew 27 verse 24, it says, When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. So this is the famous part where Pilate washes his hands of everything, but it's just not that simple. You don't just get to wash your hands and walk away and then allow him to be crucified. He's still guilty. Look at verse 25, and remember verse 8 in our text that we were in, all the people answered together. Now look at them answering together again in Matthew 27 verse 25. Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us and on our children. It's a different response, isn't it? And it's funny how the Old Testament was, keep these commandments, do these things, and they're willing to do that, but when it comes to just accepting Jesus Christ as their only atonement, believing on Him, loving Him, what is their answer? His blood be upon us and on our children. And so why did God blind Israel? Well, because this is their answer to God. Different, different testaments here. This is the New Testament's about to happen here. It's kind of like on the threshold where we're at right now in Exodus chapter 19 is where the people are here, right here, on the threshold of the new covenant. And what do they do? We don't want it. We don't want Him, we want Barabbas. Look what it says, Then released He Barabbas unto them, and when He had scourged Jesus, He delivered Him to be crucified. So they did not want the offer of the New Testament from Jesus Christ, they wanted Barabbas. So, here's where the children of Israel horrifically break the covenant, what I believe is probably for the last time, and put a curse on their own children, and choose Rome, and being afraid of Caesar, and their own version of religion, and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, that's what they choose instead of choosing what's right. They ultimately just want to work their way to heaven. Isn't this what people do out when we're trying to offer them the kingdom of God through the Lord Jesus Christ? No, you know, that just sounds too easy to me, I'd just rather work for it. Well, that's what their attitude was too. But were they able to do it? They were never able to do it. And look, we could never work our way to heaven because we're just sinful people. We're wicked. Down to the core. So, let's look back at our text in Exodus chapter 19 verse 9. The Bible says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. So, also different appearances here. God manifested the flesh, the Son, Jesus Christ. He appears to them and they can see him. But how does God do it in the Old Testament? See, things were not as clear to them, were they? So much to the fact that he came in a thick cloud so they couldn't see him. Right? And there's going in between. God doesn't speak directly to the people. He speaks to Moses only. Now, we can speak to God through the Lord Jesus Christ also. So, I mean, there's the picture of the mediator, right? Look at verse 10. It says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day. And, you know, I mean, obviously, how long was Jesus buried in the heart of the earth and in hell for? For three days, right? So, I just think it's interesting. It's be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. But they don't really see him, but when Jesus resurrects from the dead, who sees him? Well, the people that believed in him. It never really says that he appears to unbelievers when he rises from the dead. I've always thought that was really just interesting because he doesn't want miracles to be what makes someone believe, necessarily, even though he did use the apostles to do certain miracles, but when he resurrected he always appeared to people that seemed like they believed in him already, that already knew who he was. So, anyway, look at verse 12. It says, And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever touches the mount shall be surely put to death. So, he's placing a temporary death penalty on anybody that would even touch the mount. And it says, There shall not in hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through, whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. So, what is the picture here? Well, the picture is, you're not going to come up and touch it. You're not going to touch that which is holy until the trumpet soundeth long. Then they're allowed to come up, right? And what did Jesus say when he resurrected from the dead? He said, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. Right, so there was a certain time when the disciples weren't allowed to touch Jesus either. And then he went and put his blood on the mercy seat. Obviously, it's just kind of interesting, right? But it says, And Moses went down to the mount to the people, and sanctified the people, and washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day, come not at your wives. So, then it says, And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning. So, it's being real specific here, isn't it? In the third day, in the morning, what happened on the third day? Jesus Christ rose when? In the morning on the third day, right? That there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount. But see, when Jesus rose from the dead, that wasn't the case, was it? The thunders and lightnings and the wrath came when he was crucified on the cross. It was thick darkness then. And so, there's kind of a little bit of opposite things going on here between the Old Testament and the New Testament. So, but here, God's showing, like, this is how I feel. This is me being wrathful. And it says, A thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was at the camp trembled. What's he trying to do here? Well, to me, it sounds like he's trying to strike fear into their hearts, isn't he? Because what's the covenant? Don't break my covenant. Don't break my commandments. Do what's right, and otherwise, I'm going to cloud up and rain. I'm going to show you some thunderbolts. And he's, you know, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom, right? God wants us to fear him. But, you know, and it was funny, I saw this video. I kind of shared it in the men's group or whatever, but it was this church in Massachusetts that had a thunderbolt strike it. But just hours before, they were having a pride celebration in that church, and, you know, you can't blame this one on us. It wasn't the new IFB hurt my feelings, and, you know, a bolt of lightning hit that steeple of that church, and the whole church burned to the ground. And let that be a lesson to anybody that thinks that all that's okay. Do you think that's an accident? That God just burned that place to the ground? That's how he feels about that stuff. And so when people want to just break God's commandments and act like it's no big deal, especially that one, then God might cloud up and rain. He might just destroy your church with a thunderbolt, right? So, but remember that they were not supposed to even touch with their hand these things. So that place was made holy because the presence of God was there. And, you know, is the mountain holy that they couldn't touch it forever? No, it's just because the presence of God was there at that time. But here's the funny thing about us is that we're the type of people, and especially, you know, I was talking about kids this morning, when you tell kids not to touch something, what do they like to do? They like to touch it, don't they? And that's kind of how we are too if we'd really be honest with ourselves. You know, don't look at that. Oh, really, don't look at it? You know, and this is just, you know, when it comes to traffic, this is how a lot of traffic jams start, that everybody has to look at the train wreck, everybody has to look at the car wreck, everybody has to look at the cop that pulled somebody over on the side of the road and you're like, what is going on? Like, there's nothing happening. It's like, and then you do it too, just like everybody else, you pull up and you see the lights, you're like, ooh, ooh, ooh. That's why the traffic is bad. Stop doing that. That's why it makes me so mad when I see a cop that's pulled somebody over during rush hour, it's like, just let people drive, man. If they didn't kill anybody, then, you know, let's let the traffic flow, right? But that just drives me nuts. And they call them what? Looky-loos. People always want to look at that stuff and I used to work for this guy named Charlie and we were doing demos for Sherry's restaurants and stuff like that and he would get really mad when people would just come up and just kind of check out what we're doing. He's like, get these looky-loos out of here. He would just probably get mad about it. But it is kind of annoying, you know? So just mind your business. But when God tells you not to do something, don't do it. When God tells you not to touch something, don't touch it. When God tells you not to look at something, don't look at it. It's really that simple, but, again, we're sinful, we have a lot of issues, and, you know, we just, we seem to put ourselves into more trouble than we ought to. Look at verse 17, it says, And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. So, again, the picture's wrath. The picture's fire. And when God touches things, they smoke. When God lands on top of a mountain, it smokes. And to me, it seems like it's kind of like a volcano that he's caused to erupt here. Because it's altogether on a smoke. He descended on it in fire. The smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. So, I mean, if you just step back and just think of this scene, you're told, don't do this or you're gonna get killed. Don't touch that. You know, so you're probably like, they're probably worried about, you know, kids, don't touch this. I told you, don't touch it, you know. And then there are animals, you know, they gotta keep their animals away from it. Or else they're gonna be killed, they're gonna be thrust through with a dart. And then the mountain is just trembling. It's on a smoke because God descended upon it on fire. You got these big trumpet blasts, and trumpets are really loud. I wish I had a trumpet here so you could just hear how loud one really is. Do we have a trumpet here anywhere? Somebody, no, I don't know. No trumpets here? All right, well, maybe we'll do it some other time. But trumpet blasts are really loud, and it said it kept sounding louder and louder, and it was sounding longer and longer. And so it's probably freaking people out pretty good here. And the apostle Paul talks about how Moses trembled exceedingly when he saw these things. Now the Bible doesn't necessarily say that Moses did, but it said all the people did. It says, and the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, verse 20, on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up, and the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. So even though all this stuff's going on, God still wants to protect the people. So he says, go down and tell them not to break through and not to look, because apparently if they looked through and tried to gaze at the Lord, to try to look at him, that they would perish, they would die. So again, here's the looky-loo concept that when God tells us not to do something, we should just obey and listen to him. Look at verse 22, Let the priests also which come near to the Lord sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. So, I mean, if we're priests in the New Testament, that should also help us to understand that God wants us to live a sanctified life. See how it says, The priests also which come near to the Lord sanctify themselves. Be right with God. Be holy. And, you know, how do we get right with God? We can't throw an animal on the barbecue, we can't have some kind of sacrifice like that, but what does God expect from us? He expects us to come to in a humble way and confess our sins before him. And we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, how do we sanctify ourselves? Well, they wash themselves with water. That's a picture of making yourself clean, making yourself pure. And obviously God sanctifies us. When he saves us, he sets us apart. But the sanctification process is kind of like, you know, you have to want to clean up. You have to want to do these things and why do you want to do them? Because God says to do it. That's why. So why do we want to clean up our act? Not to be saved. You know, that's not part of salvation, is that we clean up our life first. But what is it that God wants us to live a sanctified and holy life? That's what it is. Lest the Lord break forth upon them. So we don't want the Lord to break forth upon us. I don't know exactly what he means by that, but if he already broke forth upon this mountain, and covered it with hot lava or whatever it is, fire, then we don't want him to break forth on us when he's upset with us either. So how do we live a sanctified life? Well, some of the things, the principles of the Old Testament kind of apply to us here. God still wants us to be holy. He still wants us to be set apart. He still wants us to live a right life. You know, people will go, well, you just make salvation just too easy. You just think you can do whatever you want. And theoretically, yes, you could do whatever you want after you're saved. That's why it's called grace. However, if you do that, then God's going to break forth upon you. He's going to punish you on this earth. He'll never send you to hell, but he might break forth upon you. And breaking forth upon you can hurt. And it sounds rough, and I think it's supposed to sound rough, because we can't just do whatever we want and get away with it. We can do whatever we want, but you just can't get away with it. So what's better, to live a life where God's not breaking forth upon you all the time, or to sanctify yourself and make sure you're right with God? Because back then, yes, they could offer this beast or whatever, but their heart had to also be right with it as well. Because at a certain point, God's like, I'm sick of your sacrifices. I'm not going to accept them at your hand, because if you're just doing it because you want to do it, that's one thing, and you're supposed to do it. That's good. But to sacrifice those animals was just like you're paying a penance or something in the Catholic Church or something. That's not what it was intended for. It was a temporary thing that God put in place because of transgressions, because Christ has not come and died on the cross yet. But look what it says in verse 23. It says, and Moses said unto the people, unto the Lord, excuse me, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for thou charged us, saying, set bounds about the mount and sanctify it. So he's kind of saying, hey, remember you said this, God, we're not supposed to go up there. And here's what the Lord says. And the Lord said unto him, get away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee, but let not the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people and spake to them. So the chapter kind of ends in a strange way a little bit here, but obviously the next thing is God speaking to Moses and Aaron and giving them the Ten Commandments and what God expects from his people. In this covenant that he's going to set forth. Because, but I mean, if you think about the two different covenants, they're very different of how they came forth, right? God's coming forth, he's angry, he's showing him their wrath, telling them you need to be sanctified, telling them to obey, obey the covenant. But what was the point of giving them all these laws? It's basically to show us that we can't keep them. And the law, the Bible says the law is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. Because if you get all these rules and laws, even at work, I'm sure there's, you probably have a handbook at work, right? Or, you know, most people probably, unless you own your own business or whatever, but maybe you've worked in a place where they have an employee handbook. And you probably break things in that employee handbook, don't you? You probably have broken rules in that, you've probably broken rules on the road, laws out in what mankind puts up. We break rules, but you know what? We're going to break even more rules when it comes to God's law, because there's a lot of them, aren't there? There's a lot of things he expects from us, and we just have to realize that we can't keep them. And so that's why we need the mercy of God, we need the longsuffering of God. And if you're already saved, and you're in sin of some sort, then just ask God to forgive you and confess those things. Yeah, that's when you want to repent of sins that you commit, because your life is going to be a lot easier on this planet when you're pleasing God and not being perfect to the letter of the law all the time, but when you do screw up, that you go to God humbly and ask Him to forgive you and sanctify yourself in the sight of the Lord. So Moses went down and spake to all the people, and the difference in the two, there's a lot of differences between the two covenants, but John chapter 1 verse 17 says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So the grace of God was brought forth by Jesus Christ. I mean, did God have grace in the Old Testament? He did, but it's talking about the two different covenants here, right? For the law was given by Moses. This is what you have to do. This is the rules. This is the commandments, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So, you know, Jesus Christ came as the mediator for the new covenant, and the way He came in was different. The way the people responded to Him was different. You know, people hated Jesus for no reason. They loved Moses, and Moses would get mad and, you know, make him drink water with idols mixed into it, and he killed some of the other people. He, you know, he got mad, threw the Ten Commandments down, broke them. You know, I'm not saying anything bad about Moses. Moses was a great guy, but Jesus was different. He was, and Jesus didn't get mad about, you know, things that he shouldn't have got mad about, but he offered himself for the grace and truth that comes through Jesus Christ himself, and his sacrifice was different. His covenant was different, and so I'm really happy that I live at the time of the New Testament. We're spiritual Israel. We don't have to slaughter animals. We don't, you know, we don't have big volcano smoking telling us, you know, be prepared to, you know, God's going to break forth on you if you touch something that you're not supposed to. Touch not, taste not, you know, handle not. All that kind of stuff. I'm happy that I live in the time that I do, and even though there's a lot of messed up things in this world, I know one thing that's not messed up. Salvation is real easy, right? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this great chapter in the Bible. I pray that you just bless each and every single person that came today. I pray you'd help us to think about the things of God, and, Lord, there's just a lot of, there's just so much in it. I pray you'd help us to understand it. I pray you'd help us to live it. I pray that you'd help us to sanctify ourself in your sight, Lord, that we would be pleasing in your sight and set apart, and, Lord, that we'd care about the things of God, we'd care about this church, we'd care about other people, we'd love other people, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. On this evening, page 220 in your green hymnals, Jesus is All the World to Me, page 220. Jesus is All the World to Me. Page 220. Sing it out loud on the first. Jesus is all the world to me My life, my joy, my all He is my strength from day to day Without Him I would fall When I am sad to Him I go No other one can cheer me so When I am sad He makes me glad He's my friend On the second. Jesus is all the world to me My friend in trials soar I go to Him for blessings And He gives them o'er and o'er He sends the sunshine and the rain He sends the harvest, gold and grain Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain He's my friend Jesus is all the world to me And true to Him I'll be Oh, how could I this friend deny When He's so true to me Following Him I know I'm right He watches over me day and night Following Him by day and night He's my friend On the last. Jesus is all the world to me I want no better friend I trust Him now I'll trust Him when Life's leading day shall end Beautiful life with such a friend Beautiful life that has no end Eternal life, eternal joy He's my friend And great singing. Thank you for coming out to our church today. We'd love to see you this week coming up and out zoning as well. Brother Oteno, do you want to dismiss us with a word of prayer? Amen.