Exodus 19 - The LORD descends upon Mount Sinai (Difference between Abrahamic & Mosaic Covenant)

Moore's Corner Church

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All right, well, let's open in prayer, and we will look at Exodus chapter 19.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this evening together around your word to be spent in prayer, and also what a joy it is to be able to sing praises unto thee, praises directly from your word.

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So Father, I just pray that through your Holy Spirit that you would open our hearts, open our minds to the understanding of what you have to say to each one tonight.

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We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Exodus 19. In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai.

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For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness.

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So Israel camped there before the mountain, and Moses went up to God, and the

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Lord called to him from the mountain. Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what

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I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself.

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Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people.

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For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

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These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the

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Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, All that the

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Lord has spoken we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the

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Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when

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I speak with you, and believe you forever. So Moses told the words of the people to the

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Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people, and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and let them be ready for the third day.

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For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

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You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base.

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Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow.

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With a man or beast he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.

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So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

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And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not come near your wives.

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Then it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

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Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

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Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire.

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Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

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And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder,

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Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the

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Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain. And the

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Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

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And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the

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Lord, and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the

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Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for he warned us, saying,

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Set bounds around the mountain, and consecrate it. And the

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Lord said to him, Away, get down, and then come up, you and Aaron with you.

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But do not let the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.

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So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them. Okay, here in Exodus chapter 19, once again, we see a vivid picture of how the

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Lord is completely unapproachable. This is how the

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Lord is depicted in the Old Testament, and it's all quite intentional. God is holy, mankind isn't.

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The relationship we see here between God and man is that God is superior and we are subordinate to him.

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So this idea of God being unapproachable is really driven in all throughout the

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Old Testament scriptures. But at the same time, we see that Moses was permitted to come into God's presence.

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So Moses here is the one standing in the gap between the Lord and the people. He's the go between between the

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Lord and the people. Therefore, Moses, you tell me is he's a mediator.

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He is a type of Christ. And in the New Testament, God, the father becomes approachable only by grace and only through faith in Christ.

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And that's part of the new and better covenant. And we're going to be talking about covenants here tonight, because in the next chapter, what happens in chapter 20?

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Yeah, the 10 commandments are given, which are the covenant of the law.

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So in this chapter, there is preparation for this momentous event in the giving of the law, giving of the 10 commandments.

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But remember, there's already a covenant in effect. So God is going to make a covenant with the children of Israel, but there's already a covenant in effect.

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Which covenant is that? Abrahamic. Okay, look at Exodus 19 verses one and two.

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The third month after the children of Israel had gone out the land of Egypt on the same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai, but they had departed from Rephidim.

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They come out to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel can't bear before the mountain.

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So they can't before Mount Sinai. And you remember what this mountain is called?

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It's also called Mount Horeb, right? We're back in Exodus chapter three.

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Moses encounters the Lord at Mount Horeb. That was the burning bush experience.

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So burning bush, the giving of the 10 commandments, same place, Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai. And what did the

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Lord say to Moses at the burning bush? Exodus chapter three, verse eight.

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The Lord says, so I have come down to deliver them. That is the Israelites out of the hand of the

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Egyptians to bring them up from that land to a good and large land to a land flowing with milk and honey.

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And that that sounds like the Abrahamic covenant, but then God's going to give the covenant of the law.

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Now, there's one thing we need to establish going into this. And this is the great difference between these two covenants.

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So think of this chapter as just preparation for next week. This is preparation for chapter 20.

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So let's get this straight in our minds, the difference between the Abrahamic covenant and the

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Mosaic covenant, because they're not the same thing. Obviously they're made with two different people, right?

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Two different mediators. So if you take notes, write this down. Here are the differences between the two covenants.

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The primary differences. Number one, the Mosaic covenant was conditional.

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The Abrahamic covenant is unconditional. I'll repeat that. The Mosaic covenant is conditional.

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The Abrahamic covenant is unconditional. Number two, because the

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Mosaic covenant was conditional and because the Israelites broke it, that's

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Jeremiah chapter 31, it eventually comes to an end. That is not true of the

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Abrahamic covenant. So again, the Mosaic covenant, because it's conditional, the people broke it.

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Actually, they broke it again and again, and God kind of gives them chance after chance after chance. But that covenant comes to an end.

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The Abrahamic covenant is still, still there. Okay. It's still, it has not been done away with.

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So number three, the Abrahamic covenant is tied in with salvation. The covenant of the law is not.

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So nobody has ever been saved by keeping the commandments of God.

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Why? Because nobody has, and nobody can. It's amazing to me.

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And I think this is the majority viewpoint of people who I'm going, are you going to heaven?

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Oh, I'm going to heaven. Why? Because I'm a, I'm a good person by, yeah, well, that's another thing, but you're a good person.

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Yeah. Compared to this guy over here, you're good guy, but compared to Jesus, sorry, you fall short.

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All right. Look at Exodus 19 verses three through five. And Moses went up to God and the

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Lord called to him from the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what

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I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

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Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine.

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Did you pick up on that? Did you notice if you indeed obey my voice, then you shall be a special treasure to me.

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So there's a condition, right? This, this is a conditional agreement between God and the children of Israel made through Moses.

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So what's the condition built in? God will uphold his end to bless the people.

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If they uphold their end, what's their end. Yeah. They need to obey.

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So their responsibility was to obey God's law. I did a sermon a month ago, six weeks ago, whenever it was righteousness exalts a nation where I pointed out that the 10 commandments were given to a nation.

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I think a lot of times we think of the 10 commandments as given to individuals. And of course, individuals are expected to obey the commandments.

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That's obviously true, but God gave the 10 commandments to the nation. So if the nation of Israel, if they wanted to be blessed, they had to obey the commandments.

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But like anything else, a nation, it rises and falls on leadership, right?

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If you see the leadership going bad, um, everything else goes bad from the top down.

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So Moses was a godly leader. He was not perfect, but he loved

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God. He served God. Joshua was a godly leader, not perfect, but he loved God. He served

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God. Um, but when Israel's leaders stopped serving

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God, when Israel's leaders became godless, that trickled down, uh, amongst the people and things got worse and worse and worse.

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And Oh, by the way, that's what we've been experiencing for, for quite some time now. Um, the

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Lord, because the leadership was bad, it trickled down to the people. The Lord would then bring adversity, you know, in the book of judges, he would, uh, bring the

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Philistines against the children of Israel and they'd have to repent. And then God would send a judge, a deliverer.

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And that cycle just repeated. And that was a cycle that went throughout, uh, Israel's history.

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You remember things started going bad under the leadership of King Solomon. Um, the

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Lord didn't punish Solomon for the sake of his father, David.

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But once Solomon died, what happened? The kingdom of Israel was divided into Israel, the 10 tribes to the north, and then

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Benjamin and Judah, the kingdom of Judah to the south. And because the

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Northern kingdom of Israel had nothing but ungodly leaders, they didn't really endure that long.

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And they were conquered by the Assyrians. The 10 tribes were basically absorbed into the nations, but because the

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Southern kingdom of Judah had some godly leaders, they had some good and some bad, but because there were some godly

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Kings in Judah, um, the Lord allowed them to, uh, endure longer, but eventually things got so bad.

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You can read about that in the book of Jeremiah and lamentations where, what did the Lord do to Judah?

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He, right. He, he allowed the Babylonians to come in, conquer them and take them away, uh, exiled in Babylon for 70 years.

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But then eventually they were allowed to come back into the land. But then what happened in the first century?

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Okay. The Jews were back in the land. God didn't send a prophet like Jeremiah.

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He sent his only begotten son and it was the leadership of the nation who said, this man must die.

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So when Israel crucified the son of God, that was it. That was it.

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So, um, the old covenant at that point was over and then the new covenant was ushered in.

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There was a transition of about 40 years from 30 AD to 70 AD. That was a transitional period.

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You read about in the book of Acts, uh, the old covenant had come to an end certainly by 70

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AD. Jim, I saw a hand up. Yeah. I, uh, I have a question about, he says in verse five, now, therefore, if you obey my voice in D I'm reading from the

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King James and keep my covenant, then he shall be a peculiar treasure.

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All right. Now we know from the history that like you just said, they were off the rail and they just, it became a godless nation.

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Right. They worshiped idols. But God, I think that I'm on the right track here, but God never really gave up on that because in the millennial kingdom, they're going to be a certain remnant that's going to come out and they're going to complete what was promised.

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Right. Okay. You're on the right track, but this is the difference between the two covenants.

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Okay. So hopefully by the end, you'll, you'll see how that all works out. Anything else with anything that's been said so far, do we all agree?

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No one was ever saved through the keeping of the commandments. Cause there is a contingency of evangelicals or maybe independent

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Baptists who actually believe that the Jews were saved by keeping the commandments. So I just want to make sure everyone, if you want to talk about that after you can come to me, but no, we do not believe that that is the case.

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All right. Look at verse six of Exodus chapter 19. That's nothing against independent Baptists.

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I think they're better than most, but Exodus chapter 19, the Lord says, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

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There are, these are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So what does the

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Lord say here? Israel shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

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But after Jesus was rejected by the Jewish leaders, what did

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Jesus say? Who knows what Jesus said? He said in Matthew 21, 43, therefore,

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I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

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So the kingdom was given to Israel. Jesus said, because they rejected him. I'm taking it from you and giving it to someone else.

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So all of that to say this, the old covenant was conditional, right?

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The Mosaic covenant, the covenant of the law, the old covenant, that was conditional. That's number one.

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Number two, because it was conditional and the Israelites did not keep it. The old covenant eventually came to an end.

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There are again, some groups that still think that the old covenant is still in place.

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Rome believes this. Teachers like John Hagee have taught this, that they think the old covenant is still in place for them.

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Yeah, obviously not for us because we're not Jewish. But I think the book of Hebrews is very clear that it, it came to an end.

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Hebrews 8, 13 says that the Mosaic covenant was made obsolete.

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It was growing old and it was ready to what? Vanish away.

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And that those words were written in 68 AD about then. Ready to vanish away in 68

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AD. Do you think it's still in effect in 2021? No, I don't.

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I don't think so. Two years later, after the book of Hebrews was written or about that, the

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Jewish temple was destroyed. All the sacrifices ceased. The old Testament era had officially come to an end.

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The new Testament era was now in effect. So just keep this in mind. The Mosaic covenant, which will be given in the next chapter, chapter 20, endures from Exodus 20 all the way through the end of the book of Hebrews, basically that time period.

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All right. Any further comments or questions? Colby. What was that verse where Jesus said that?

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Yeah. Matthew 21, 43. Matthew. They rejected him in chapter 12, right?

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Yeah. I mean, I think that was. He rejects them. I think the final straw for that was they committed the unpardonable sin.

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And they attributed the working of the Holy Spirit done by Jesus, the miracles to the devil.

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And that was not going to be forgiven. All right.

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Anything else? All right. So just to review these three points, the

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Mosaic covenant was what? Conditional. The Abrahamic covenant, though, is what?

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Unconditional. Good. Number two, because of that, the Mosaic covenant came to an end.

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Why? Because the people broke it.

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The Israelites broke it. And then number three, the Abrahamic covenant is tied in with salvation.

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Mosaic covenant isn't. Okay, good. Now turn to Romans chapter four.

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You say, what do you mean? The Abrahamic covenant is tied in with salvation. I thought that's just about land.

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Making Abraham a great nation and giving him and his descendants the land. Well, yes.

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But there's a spiritual element to it. Romans chapter four.

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As you're turning there, I want to reiterate this point. Salvation is tied in with the covenant of promise that God made to Abraham, not the covenant of the law.

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I said a few weeks ago, Moses is not or he was not a legalist. Yes, Moses gave the law, but that doesn't make

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Moses a legalist. A legalist is what? I think a lot of Christians today, they like to throw that term around.

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Anyone who seems more strict than they are must be a legalist. They see something they don't like.

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That's legalism. Maybe it is, but that's not necessarily the case. What is legalism?

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Salvation through the works of the law. Something could be legalistic if you put an overemphasis on rules instead of faith or create new commandments that God never made.

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But we need to be careful about throwing accusations like that around. So I would go as far as to say that personal salvation at this point in Exodus.

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Personal and feel free to challenge this. Okay, personal salvation has not really at this point been spelled out yet.

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Certainly not as clearly as it is laid out in the New Testament.

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Although it's there, I'm not saying it's not there. At the very least, it's implied.

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I'll give you a moment to think about that. You can look at it this way. This really stood out to me the first time

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I ever read through the Old Testament. It stood out how different it was than the New Testament. It was more focused on the things of this earth.

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Wasn't really much talk about dying and going to heaven. So it's not really spelled out as clearly in the

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Old Testament, but it's there. It is there. Look at it this way. God made an unconditional promise to Abraham in Genesis 15.

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That Abraham would inherit the land. Didn't the Lord promise that? That he would inherit the land.

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However, Abraham died. And the only piece of the promised land that he ever owned was his own burial plot.

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Therefore, in order for the promise of God to come to pass,

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Abraham must be raised from the dead to actually inherit the land.

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That might have been what Jim was getting at. And that does happen. We believe that does happen during the millennium.

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When Christ comes back, what happens? The dead are raised. And the millennial kingdom is ushered in.

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That's when Abraham and his descendants, they possess the whole thing.

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There won't be any fighting with the Palestinians. So, New Testament salvation is connected to God's covenant promise to Abraham.

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Go back to Romans 3, the end, verse 28. Look at it. Romans 3, 28.

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Paul writes, Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

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Could he say it any more clear? I still think people are saved by keeping the Ten Commandments.

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Well, then you don't believe the Bible. I mean, it's one or the other. So, salvation does not come through the

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Mosaic law. Anyone who says that, you just need to dismiss that. That's false.

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Does anyone want to challenge that statement? How personal salvation is not really laid out clearly up until this point in Exodus?

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I could be forgetting something. This is your last chance to prove the teacher wrong.

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I promise I won't hold a grudge. The fruit of the

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Spirit. Okay, so the fruit of the Spirit is in Galatians, right?

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So, I'm talking about from Genesis through Exodus 19. It hasn't been laid out yet.

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Okay. Do you have a more specific? I can answer a question about the fruit of the

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Spirit if you have. Okay, Dennis. Yeah, I can only think of whether it says

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God spoke to Abraham, but it says Abraham believed God. And it was accounted to him for righteousness, right?

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That's exactly what it says. And that's where we're going in Romans chapter four.

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Yeah, that comes from Genesis 15. So, look at Romans four, starting in verse one.

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What then shall we say that Abraham, our father is found according to the flesh. Of course,

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Paul's whole point in Romans is to teach salvation by faith, not works.

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Because the Jews thought it was through keeping God's law, which they didn't get it.

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Like, no, you're failing. That's why you have to offer sacrifices, because you can't do it.

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But he says, what then shall we say that Abraham, our father, is found according to the flesh. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

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So, Abraham was saved. He was declared righteous by God, because he was such a good guy.

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Not by his works, by his faith. Right, by his faith. So, salvation is by faith, not works.

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Now, turn to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31, we'll just finish this subject here, and then we'll go back, touch on a few more things in Exodus 19.

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Because again, Exodus 19 is really just preparation for next week in Exodus 20.

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So, the covenant of the law, God made with Moses, is conditional.

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It came to an end. But because the promise to Abraham and his descendants is unconditional, we still believe that there is a future for Israel as a people.

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If it was all based on the old covenant of the law, they broke it, they're finished. If that were the only covenant that God had with them.

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But God has a covenant with them through Abraham. That was unconditional. Romans chapter 11 speaks about the olive tree.

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If you're not familiar with this, read Romans 11. That's your homework, if you're not familiar with it.

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But Romans 11 speaks of the olive tree, which represents God's covenant blessings. How Israel, they were the natural branches, and some of them were broken off.

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And then the Gentiles, from a wild olive tree, we were grafted in.

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This is the church. But Paul talks about how the natural branches, he seems to indicate they will be grafted in again.

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So we do believe that that happens. It requires they turn to Christ. Alright, look at Jeremiah 31, starting in verse 31.

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Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

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Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

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My covenant which they, what? Broke, though I was the husband to them, says the

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Lord. So in the gospel accounts, Jesus, what does he do? He announces the new covenant.

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It's preached to the Jews throughout the book of Acts. Many Jews do believe.

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So I would put it this way, that the church age is the first phase of this.

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Many of Abraham's descendants are part of the new covenant. And the culmination of this new covenant with Israel is the millennial kingdom.

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And so all Israel will be saved. Alright, turn back to Exodus 19. Yeah, Colby.

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So do Jews believe that you're saved through works? Like, not through Christ, but through works?

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Right. You know, there's no one answer to that. A lot of religious

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Jews today don't believe in an afterlife. So depending, there's

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Hasidic Jews, Reformed Jews, there are Orthodox Jews.

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So some Jews today, they really don't believe in salvation the way we do.

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They think you die and that's it. Then there are Jews who believe that they will be resurrected into the kingdom at some point.

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But no matter which group it is, except the Messianic Jews, that's more akin to Christianity.

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But yeah, the one thing about Judaism, the one rule is you don't accept

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Jesus. Messianic Jews, obviously they accept Jesus as the Messiah, but so they would believe like more like us.

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Any other, I don't want to miss anyone. Alright, so hopefully this starts to give us a firm footing and understanding these two covenants.

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The Mosaic covenant, because it was conditional, came to an end. The covenant with Abraham, because it's, did

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I say conditional? Mosaic covenant is conditional, comes to an end. Abraham, the covenant with him, because it's unconditional, it's still there.

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It's still available and it will be completely fulfilled during the kingdom age, when

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Jesus returns a second time. Alright, so the Israelites now here in this chapter, they are camped out in front of Mount Sinai.

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God speaks to Moses. He announces the covenant. He announces its conditional nature.

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Look at verse 7, Exodus 19, verse 7. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words, which the

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Lord commanded him. Then all the people answered together and said, and sometimes

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I wonder if they shouldn't have said this, but they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

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So they've committed themselves. We're going to, we're going to do whatever you tell us to do.

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Verse 10. Then the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes.

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This seems a little unusual. John MacArthur writes this about verse 10.

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How serious this step was for the nation was emphasized for them by two days of special preparation.

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The inward preparation for meeting with God was mirrored in the outward actions of maintaining bodily cleanliness.

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I would just like to add this because we've all heard people say this. We've probably said it ourselves.

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This statement is actually biblical. We say God does not look on the outward appearance.

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God looks upon the heart. Of course, that's true, but what does that mean?

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Does that mean that the outward appearance doesn't matter at all? No, that's not what that means.

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What that means basically is God doesn't care if you're tall or good looking or, you know,

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God doesn't care about the superficial things like that. But if you believe

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Exodus 19, there's something to be said about cleanliness and how you present yourself.

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Probably not heard a lot of sermons about cleanliness. But if you read through the

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Old Testament, especially, there's a big emphasis put on this. I think that's part of why in not the only reason, but in the tabernacle, there were there's incense.

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You want to make sure there is a smell, a pleasant smell, right? The sacrifices. There was a pleasant aroma coming up.

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So if you have an unpleasant aroma coming out of you. Did I see a hand?

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OK, that goes all through with Aaron. When he before he could put on the the clothing as the high priest, he had to be bathed.

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Yeah. Unclothed. And then he would have to be then he would put on the linen gown,

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I guess, whatever it is, you know, just the linen covering and then the rest of the. So cleanliness, not not as a health reason, but as a as you have to be clean before God.

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And that's the same with us. We have to be clean. We have to confess our sins.

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And at that point, we can go to the Holy of Holies and ask forgiveness for our sins.

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Right. So it's the same with us today. But Aaron, so cleanliness through the Old Testament was.

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Yeah, it's a picture of being clean on the inside. But, you know, that doesn't mean the outside doesn't matter at all. Also present before God without spot or blemish.

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Yeah, right. Good. Marcus. At the Wailing Wall, there are ceremonial labors like pitchers and faucets and so forth where they wash their hands.

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Right. Dennis. No, God doesn't get any credit for stopping the plague back in the

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Middle Ages or whatever. Apparently, it was that some pastors or whoever actually looked at the scriptures and saw that it was a good thing to use running water for the washing of the hands.

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And it literally started bringing it to a stop. Yeah. The word of God. I don't think he's been in the news.

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You get credit for that one. Yeah. You know, we talked about legalism a few moments ago and at the risk of being accused of legalism or being legalistic.

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How we dress and how we present ourselves can, it can reflect what's on the inside.

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Not necessarily. I'm not, don't read too much into what I'm saying, but what we display on the outside can reflect what's on the inside.

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All right. Once again, we see the unapproachable nature of God, how the people were not to approach or even touch the mountain.

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Verse 16 is reminiscent to things that we see in the book of revelation. I don't know quite what to make of this, but look at verse 16.

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Then it came to pass on the third day. Some people have tried to read it. Jesus rose after the third day.

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Maybe there's some significance to the third day here. I couldn't find any says in the morning there were what thunderings lightnings.

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And then verse 18 says the mountain also quaked revelation. 1119 says then the temple of God was opened in heaven and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple.

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And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, and an earthquake. So you just see some similarities that's mentioned like four or five times in revelation.

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Something along those lines. I think it just represents the fear that comes from being in God's presence.

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Thundering, lightning, earthquake. You know, Christians today, like the Jews in this

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Old Testament era, we are to be a God fearing people.

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You can balance that out by talking about God's mercy and his grace, but we can't ignore that part.

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All right. Along these same lines, God's presence is also accompanied oftentimes by fire.

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Look at verse 18. Now, Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the

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Lord descended upon it in fire. It's smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

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This is a fearful sight. Can you imagine? This is why they say

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Moses, you go talk to God. So we don't have to look at verse 20.

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Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called

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Moses to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up. I wonder how he was feeling.

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And the Lord said to Moses, go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the

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Lord. And many of them perish. So do we get the message yet?

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And how men are to fear God. And how unapproachable he is at this point.

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And how he's being depicted. Yet at the same time, Moses is allowed to go up.

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And Aaron is allowed to go up to enter into his presence. So in conclusion, today for us, the only hope we have of entering into God's presence is only by grace.

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And it's only through the mediator. Moses is the mediator of the old covenant. The only way we can approach

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God is through the mediator of the new covenant, Jesus Christ. Because without Jesus, this is how

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God is. Without the shed blood of Christ to forgive us of our sins. This is how