Law Law Law

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, as we open up your word, we ask that you open our hearts and our minds to understand it so that we may believe the truth and understand rightly how to understand your law and your gospel.

All of this we ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, give me a second here, I'm gonna do that. Good, there we go. Okay, today we are in Exodus 19, Exodus 19. We're going to note a few things along the way as we head towards, race towards the 10 Commandments.

And when we get to the 10 Commandments, we're gonna slow down and work our way through them a little bit. And we're gonna note here that, you know, kind of building off the theme that I already began in my sermon, the 10 Commandments were never given as a means by which we are saved, declared righteous, justified before God.

That's not the purpose of the 10 Commandments. 10 Commandments have a purpose. Number one is to show our sinfulness, but number two, it shows us what a good work is, what it means to do the will of God so we don't have to go about thinking of, well, how do I do something that is pleasing to God?

No, God's word teaches you what that is so you don't have to invent something. And unfortunately, because of our sinful nature, our human hearts are factories that produce little idols and make all kinds of stuff up.

So we'll address that today, too. We are in Exodus chapter 19, verse one. On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

So you'll note the timeframe here. The timeframe is three months. The Jewish calendar, Jewish calendar, by the way, is a lunar calendar. So it's from new moon to new moon, and which means it's like on a 28-day cycle.

And so months within the Jewish calendar move around a little bit because the lunar calendar is not, how do we put it, in sync exactly with a solar year. Kind of an interesting thing to keep in mind. So children of Israel, they have gone out of Egypt, mighty 10 plagues, the death of the Passover lambs, the bringing in of the destroyer, the firstborn dying, them marching out defiantly, crossing the Red Sea, the armies of Pharaoh being destroyed.

Who's done all the saving?

God.

God has done it all. Now you notice they're already saved. They're already set free from slavery. God is the one who's done all of this. And so when we last looked at what was going on, God is now feeding them heavenly manna.

Manna means what is it? And so they're being cared for and taken care of by Christ. And his presence is with them. He's the rock that's following them. He was the split rock at Horeb that we noted last week.

That's who Christ is, the rock that was struck and the water comes out. And so God has done all of these things, and so they spend three months, three lunar months, from new moon to new moon, new moon, new moon, three of them, there at Horeb kind of just resting.

No more labor, no more brick making. And they're on their way to Sinai. So let's take a look real quick at our Google Earth again so we kind of get an idea of, you know, this is where we're going. This is Mount Sinai itself.

But if I zoom out real quick, you kind of see where we're at in Saudi Arabia. Horeb, where they parked it for three months, where the split rock is, it's over here. So Mount Sinai's here. Where they spent three months is over here.

And so they ended up wandering basically from this area. They will end up going, they can't get Sinai directly this way. The terrain is way too rugged. So they'll end up going around and coming into the wilderness of Sinai, which is over in this direction.

And then they're ultimately going to get to Mount Sinai itself and literally camp at the base of the mountain. So let me see if I can kind of sort this out.

A little bit here. There we go.

So where they're gonna end up camping is down in here. That's where they're gonna be. And you'll notice that Mount Sinai itself totally blackened and charred on the top at the same elevation all the way around, which is kind of weird because it's not volcanic.

And there's like no vegetation on this thing, in case you haven't figured it out. Saudi Arabia is kind of a toasty place to be. And so the whole top of the mountain is just utterly blackened. And we're gonna find out why in a bit.

The people who've been there and have taken photographs of the rocks there have demonstrated that the rocks themselves have just a very light char layer all around them, and that when you break into the rocks, it's a nice pink granite on the inside.

Fascinating.

This is in Saudi Arabia?

Yes, ma 'am.

Okay.

Who owns that?

Saudi Arabia.

Okay, yeah.

Will they let people go there?

Okay, if you are legally in the country, let's say you work for one of the oil companies, Aramco or something like that, and you were there on a visa which permits you to work, on your days off, if you want to, you can travel here, no problem.

Getting permission to get into Saudi Arabia, really hard. If you're not working for an oil company, it's very difficult for just the average American citizen to get the ability to go there. And then if you go there on a visa, because you're Muslim and you're going to Mecca for your pilgrimage, that doesn't give you unlimited freedom to travel the country.

It's pretty tough, pretty tough for Americans to get the visas necessary to go there, but there are plenty of Americans who have had the visas and do have the visas who go to this place and send photos back and stuff like that, because it's a very fascinating spot.

I'm thinking that in the future, on one of those Sundays, if I have to be gone, it would be fun for Sunday School to actually play that DVD about the crossing and where Mount Sinai is. So, okay, coming back to our text then.

So on the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim, came into the wilderness of Sinai.

They encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God. The Lord God called to him out of the mountain, saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all of the people, for all of the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.

Now, a little bit of a note here. I'm gonna give you a Latin phrase, which I think will be helpful in this next part. Okay, there's the Latin phrase. Opinio legis. It literally means the opinion of the law, and it's a technical term that talks about the fact that Romans, the book of Romans reveals that we all have the law written on our heart.

When we see the law, we get it. Do this, obey.

If you were to take a look at the Bible, of some of the Bibles I had when I was in high school, and look at the highlights, all of the highlights are on the do passages. None of the highlights are on the done passages, what Christ has done for us.

Do, do, do, do, do, law, law, law, law, law.

We get the law.

So we see the law and we immediately go, I get that. We hear the gospel and it sounds to us, if we're not trained to learn how to hear it, we hear the gospel and it sounds to us the way Charlie Brown's teacher sounds to Charlie Brown.

Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.

So, when I just read this out, see if you can see what I'm saying. Listen again, verse four. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptian, how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples. And all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Do you see the gospel in there? Do you see the law?

Uh-huh.

So, the gospel's in there. Clear as a bell. Clear as crystal. And I just read it twice and you're all going,.

Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Yeah.

I have a translation Bible.

What's the translation Bible say?

You saw what I, the Lord, did to the Egyptians, and now I carry you as an eagle carries her young on her wings, and I brought you here to me. Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people.

The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people, a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as a priest.

Okay.

Good translation, I like it. Okay, which part is the gospel part? What's it say? I bore you. Okay, I'm gonna note this. You're gonna see this in this chapter and in the next, right before the Ten Commandments are given.

There is a proclamation of what God did. I bore you. I brought you out as on eagles' wings. So you're gonna note here, when it talks about the law, the law is followed by what God did. God sets them free.

God rescues. God saves. God does for them. Then the law is given. It shows them how to live. It is not, God is not saying, and you need to hear this, God is not saying, if you obey my commandments, then I will bear you up on eagles' wings and save you.

He's saying, I have borne you on eagles' wings. I have delivered you. I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And then he gives us the law. The law is given to show us what it looks like, no joke, to live in freedom.

Sin in scripture, we read it in the sermon in Romans 6,.

Sin is slavery, period.

It is not freedom. It is slavery. Sin is that thing that when we commit it, we feel terrible inside. It brings with it guilt and shame and literally destroys our life. There's nothing freeing about sin at all.

And the society would tell you, you just need to be you. Whatever is on the inside of you, whatever God has put into your heart, it's the theology of the Barbie movie. I haven't seen the Barbie movie, I'm just saying.

I've heard. Steven.

It's quite interesting when you talk to them, they think it's the greatest achievement, but when you get the people alone just talking about that person, they're like, oh, they're just drinking their lives away.

Oh, they're doing this and they're destroying themselves. And it's like they know that it's wrong, what they're doing, but because they're trying to just deal with their lives and the sin that has just completely crept up on them and they've experienced and just died straight into, but they try to push it away as if it's not a big deal at all.

And that's the thing though, note this. Even the pagans know that what they're doing is wrong.

Why?

Well, coming back to our theological word, the opiniolages, they have the law written on their hearts, which is a good thing, it helps us a lot.

Helps us a lot.

But because we have the law written on our hearts, our default position, if you would, is if I clean myself up, then God will accept me and save me. That's not how this works. God has saved you, bled and died for you.

The gospel says that in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins. Christ dies for the ungodly. Those are his, who are his enemies. And he sets them free and then begins the process of the mortification of our sinful natures.

We're all heading to the grave. And in the bringing forth of the new man that we are in Christ, given to us by God. And so the idea then is the law teaches us what a good work is, so that when our sinful nature goes,.

But I really wanna do that, he said,.

No, I do not have to obey that. That's slavery, I'm going to live in freedom. You see the context? So when we just read this text, first read, you guys didn't see the gospel. Second read, you didn't see it.

So think of it this way. Gospel is the proclamation of what Christ does for us. It's not anything you have to do, it's what's done for you. That's gospel. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, was buried and raised again on the third day in accordance with the scripture, gospel.

There's nothing you do for gospel, it's an announcement of good news. Law tells you what you ought to do. And because we have a sinful nature still clinging to us, even after our baptism, the law is always gonna be doing two things to us.

One, convicting us of where we fall short. Because when you look at God's law, you sit there and go, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing as I should. Come back to the gospel. Christ has bled and died for this.

So we bear fruit in keeping with repentance. You kind of think of it this way. Repentance is not a one-time thing, it's not a flu shot. Repentance is a daily exercise for the Christian. This is why we pray daily, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And so when you wake up in the morning, you say your prayers, you read your scriptures, go and serve your neighbor in your vocation. And we can then strive in our good works to shoot for doing well, doing right, doing it perfectly.

And then when we come up short, which we will. Because remember, sin is in thought, word, and deed. Next Sunday, we're going to get into the thought part of sin. Many people think that, well, if I haven't actually done the deed, well, then I'm okay with God, really.

So have you ever been angry with your brother?

Well, yeah, you're a murderer.

No, I'm not, I'm not a murderer. Oh, yeah, you are, all right.

Well, at least I'm not an adulterer.

Have you ever, well, had lustful thoughts towards someone? Well, yeah, you're an adulterer.

No, I haven't done the deed.

No, really, you have, in your heart. You see, sin is such a completely debilitating and deep sickness. There isn't a part of us that's sound. For Christians, though, and I'm talking about our flesh, for Christians, though, we have a new person.

We've been regenerated, and we are new in Christ. And that new man desires to do the right thing. So being a Christian feels like being schizophrenic, being at war with yourself. You have the new nature and the old nature just doing this all the time.

Like the Hatfields and the Coors.

That's right, and it's right inside of you, right? All right, so coming back here. So notice, verse four, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings, and I brought you to myself.

Gospel, that's not law, it's gospel. They didn't earn it, it was given to them. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Now, oh boy, the cross-reference does this, it's just fantastic. Now, let me show you the cross-reference. We're in 1 Peter chapter two.

One Peter, two. Let me make that a little bit bigger, have mercy on people's eyeballs. Okay, notice the language here. God is saying, you will be my treasured possession, you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

Watch what Peter does with these words, and I'll start in verse nine. Peter says to the Christians whom he is writing to, you are a chosen race, you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So notice, what God is saying to the people of Israel in the wilderness as they're approaching Sinai, that he wants them to be a holy nation, a treasured possession. In the New Testament, Peter is saying to us that we are a chosen royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, and that he has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

You see that this is almost perfectly lifted from Exodus 19. And it's not an accident because this is describing the very reality that we have in Christ. Once, you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. See, God is the one who made us holy, chose us, made us for his own possession. We have received mercy, been called out of darkness into light, and watched the flow then.

So beloved, I urge you as sojourners in exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh. So notice, gospel, now comes the admonitions to doing the will of God because of the reality that we have been set free.

We're no longer slaves, we're free. Here's what freedom looks like.

You see it? Okay, just wanna make sure.

Sometimes I can, you know, you get way too up here and that's not a good thing. Now, so you can see then, this language is spoken about us. And the typology is really fun, it really is. Okay, coming back then, let's review that verse six.

You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. And so you can see, we've been grafted into Israel. We're part of this holy nation, this kingdom of priests.

So Moses came and he called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that Yahweh had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

Probably not. Moses reported the words of the people to Yahweh and Yahweh said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever.

Now, a little bit of a note here. We're going to get to Mount Sinai. Important things happen on mountains in the Bible. There's this kind of high place theology. So the Lord gives the law on Mount Sinai.

Christ is crucified on Mount Moriah. Abraham is to offer Isaac on Mount Moriah and on that mountain the Lord will provide. Jesus, when he gives the Lord's Supper, is in the upper room. You see this kind of a theme going on here.

Now, in a few weeks we're going to have Transfiguration Sunday and Transfiguration Sunday we see again high mountain and this cloud here that God talks about. The Lord said to Moses, behold, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud so that people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever.

Now, let's take a look at Matthew 17 real quick. Matt 17, the account of the Transfiguration and you're going to see this same cloud on a mountain appearing and speaking. After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

Important things happen on mountains in the Bible. I'm just saying. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun. His clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him.

Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it's good that we're here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.

And a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. The disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and they were terrified. Now we'll save the rest of the story for a few Sundays from now.

As we get close to the end, the final Sunday of Epiphany is on this text. But you see on a mountain, cloud appears, the voice speaks. The disciples, children of Israel at Mount Sinai, the Lord descends in a cloud.

The voice speaks. And what do the children of Israel do?

Ah!

When God gives the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, and they can hear the voice of the Lord, you will have no other gods before me. At the tail end of Exodus 20, the children of Israel are like, we don't want to hear that voice anymore.

Totally rattles them to their bones. So note here, coming back. So the Lord says, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud so the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. Moses told the words of the people to Yahweh.

Yahweh said to Moses, go to the people, consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day.

Hmm.

I always say, pay attention to that third day stuff. So on the third day, do your laundry?

Really?

On the third day, wash your garments. Do your laundry. No, that's not what it's saying. On the day that the Lord is going to appear on Mount Sinai in a thick cloud, they're going to hear God's voice and he wants everybody to be wearing clean clothes.

Okay, now you're talking. Okay, see, you're starting to see the connection here. Now I'm gonna make this note. Robin's starting to get it. You can't understand the book of Revelation until you understand your Old Testament.

You really can't. Let me give you a cross-reference. Let's take a look at Revelation chapter seven, verse nine. Revelation seven, verse nine. After this, I looked, and behold, a great number that no one could number, from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and they worshiped God, saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen.

Great picture, right?

So then one of the elders addressed me, this is John saying, who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? And so John does this. Watch the evasive answer. Sir, you know. So he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.

They have washed the robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

You see it?

So here at Mount Sinai, God's people who have been set free from slavery washed in the waters of the Red Sea, fed the heavenly manna, drank from the rock who is Christ. They are brought to Mount Sinai and God's going to appear to them in a thick cloud and they're gonna hear his voice and to appear before him, he wants their clothes washed.

See all of this, there's a pattern to it. There's a logic to it when you start to see. You see, it was not just throw away details. So you want the children of Israel to come to the base of the mountain, but you want their laundry done.

That's kind of missing the whole point. This is a picture of something. And this picture then is of what we see in the book of Revelation, even in the other parts of the end of the book. And this idea of washing our garments, our robes in the blood of the Lamb and making them white.

That is the detergent that washes our robes, right? Now, if you're thinking, well, this is talking about those coming out of the Great Tribulation. That's still coming. I want you to look at Revelation 1, verse 9.

Revelation 1, verse 9. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom, the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the Isle of Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Does John the Apostle believe he's in the tribulation or not?

Yeah, he does.

And it's not a tribulation, it's the tribulation. So here's the idea. Scripture actually reveals. And you have to let it define these terms for you. The tribulation is not limited to a short period of time just before the return of Christ.

The tribulation begins with the ascension of Christ and ends with His coming. And right before He comes, all hell breaks loose. There's a season within the tribulation itself where it's just like hell on earth.

But the tribulation itself begins with the ascension of Christ. The Apostle John already considers himself in it. And so that multitude from every tribe, nation, language, peoples, these are those coming out of the great tribulation.

These are the saints who've been brought to faith in Christ through evangelism beginning with the day of Pentecost and going all the way through until the tribulation concludes with Christ's return. Does that make sense?

So the tribulation is not limited to a tiny period. It's actually the whole time. We're in it. John was in it. Does that make sense? He had to let the Scripture define terms in these ways. Oftentimes people think the tribulation is referring only to that hell breaking loose at the end part of what we're already in.

And that's not it. Tribulation itself, we're already in it. A little bit of a side note. So coming back then to our text. Exodus 19.

Yes?

The links that were posted for a leak out.

Are on our Facebook page.

Oh good, they're on the Kongsvinger. Facebook?

Yeah.

Commentary and a link to the book.

Excellent, all right. On the Kongsvinger Facebook page, two links. One is to a commentary, I apologize it's expensive, written by Louis Brighton, the late Louis Brighton who taught at Concordia Theological Seminary at St. Louis.

And his commentary on the book of Revelation, it's worth its weight in gold. But there's also a link to a series of seminary lectures that he gave on the book of Revelation and those are all free on iTunes.

So click the link and you can literally be walked through the book of Revelation and understand it from a proper distinction of law and gospel and not caught up in kind of like the best way I can put it, some of the really crazy end time schemes that people have concocted in the last 50 and 100 years.

I mean, if you kind of want to get the idea here, y 'all remember the book, The Late Great Planet Earth? I know some of you are too young for that. Yeah, Hal Lindsey, okay. So when I was growing up in the 70s, it was the late great planet Earth.

Jesus is just around the corner, the rapture's gonna happen any moment now. And Jesus didn't show up.

So he wrote another book, 1980s Countdown to Armageddon.

Now people talk about the 80s the way we talked about the 50s when I was growing up. It's very disconcerting, okay. Like you know, in high schools, you know when they have dress up days, dress up in 80s clothes.

Now it's like, really? That was like every day for me in high school, you know.

Before you know it, it's gonna be 90s.

Yeah, yeah. We feel for you, I get it, I get it. So, but the idea here is that, were the 1980s the Countdown to Armageddon?

No.

The four blood moons, the Shmita, no. Y2K, I still have 5 ,000 pounds of spam from Y2K. I don't know what I'm gonna do with it. Oh yeah, the Mayan apocalypse. Yeah, so you remember all these things?

Okay.

Mayans survived.

And then there was a comet of some kind.

Oh, I know. So the thing is, if you go with, and I hate to say this, kind of the popularized guys who claim that they've cracked the code for the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation is not a code that needs to be cracked, all right.

You have to understand what's revealed in it. And if you understand the Old Testament well, you're going to begin to get what's going on in the Book of Revelation itself. And you can't understand it apart from type and shadow.

And the Book of Revelation is not written as a historical narrative. It's an apocalyptic book, which means it's writing in word pictures. The end of the world is like this 10-headed dragon where one of the heads has been wounded, and it has these blasphemous names on its horns.

And then there's this whore riding the beast, and they're causing people to worship the dragon. That's what the end of the world is like.

You sit there and go, sounds awful.

What does it mean? You have to know the Old Testament to figure out what it means. So already you're seeing here, wash your clothes. This is pointing to the great multitude before the throne who've washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb.

The crossover, you can't get it unless you know your Old Testament. Does that make sense? So those links then are on the Kongsvinger Facebook page. Well worth grabbing them and reading them. All right, one of these days we'll have to do an in-depth study on Revelation.

I think it'd be fun. Okay, back to halfway through verse nine. So Moses told the words of the people to Yahweh. The Lord said to Moses, "'Go to the people, consecrate them today and tomorrow. "'Let them wash their garments.

"'Be ready for the third day. "'On the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai "'in the sight of all the people, "'and shall set limits for the people all around, "'saying, take care not to go up into the mountain "'or touch the edge of it.

"'Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. "'No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. "'Whether beast or man, he shall not live. "'When the trumpet sounds a long blast, "'they shall come up to the mountain.'.

So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, "'Be ready for the third day. "'Do not go near a woman.'".

What? What?

A little bit of a historical note here. Back in the fourth and fifth centuries, if you wanted to have the Lord's Supper, you were not permitted sexual relations with your spouse prior to having the Lord's Supper.

That caused participation at the Lord's Supper to plummet. Yeah, you coming to Lord's Supper?

No.

And more important things to do, but.

Anyway.

So what's going on here? Why this not going near women stuff? This is another motif in scripture. Let me show it to you in 2 Corinthians 11, and then I'll give you another Book of Revelation context thing here.

2 Corinthians 11, I want to show you this. Verse one, and we'll come back to this text in just a little bit, but I want to show you this. Paul writing about the super apostles, and you have to put the word super apostles in quotes, because these were guys who are literally the devil's instruments.

He says, "'I wish you would bear with me a little foolishness. "'Do bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you "'since I betrothed you to one husband "'to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

"'But I am afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve "'by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray "'from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.'". So we see this theme in scripture where fidelity to God, true worship of God, is likened to being a virgin.

Remember in the Olivet Discourse, you have those parables, the parable of the 10 virgins, the parable of the talents, and so the virgins fall asleep. So there's another kind of picture of this motif. In the Old Testament, when Israel engages in idolatry, what does the Lord use as the physical way of describing idolatry?