Reverence and Godly Fear — Exodus 19

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. I had struggled a little bit in preparing my message. Think I changed my total message, changed it about four four or five different times and and spent two or three hours on each one of them. Then just wasn't clear, so I went to something else.

0:21 And so made another major change last night and changed it. So you're gonna have to endure something here. So I had, as I was meditating on on what to speak on, I I was convicted personally about a time a couple of weeks ago where I felt like I had made, I wanna call it an irreverent statement. It had been a statement that where where I sort of spoke lightly of something to do with the righteousness of god and and the lord was convicting me of it and so, the the conviction I think led into the theme, I think you'll see as we as we as we proceed how perhaps conviction can lead a person to a deeper sense of God. So I'd like to start off in Hebrews 12 and I'm going to review a little of what our brother Ray spoke to us a couple of weeks ago.

1:30 And my objective is for us to get a sense of the holiness of God. So we're gonna start with Hebrews 12 and verse 18, and I'll just read four verses. For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched, that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, the sound of a trumpet, the voice of words so that those that heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore for they could not endure what was commanded and if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot through with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. And that was Moses said that.

2:20 So what I wanna do is I wanna I wanna go over and just review in the book of Exodus a little bit about this this scene, Exodus chapter 19. I I know Ray went over this, but it has to do with the theme of what I wanna speak on today, and so we'll go back over some of it again. Hebrew... Or excuse me, Exodus chapter 19, and I'm going to start by reading the ninth verse. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I come to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever.

3:06 So understand that we're about to read about an extremely awesome incident in the scriptures in which God appeared to the people and he did it in such a majestic way that, and then he explained to Moses, even before he did it, he explained, I'm gonna come to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. The issue was faith, wasn't he? He wanted to bring them to faith. Then the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes, Let them be ready for the third day and on the third day, the lord will come down upon Mount Sinai and the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people around saying, take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain nor touch its base.

4:12 Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. We have a sense here of of a holy, holy, holy God and sinful man and God is saying, don't come near, don't you come near. So 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. Whether man or beast, he shall not live. When then continues, when the trumpet sounds long, long, they shall come near the mountain.

4:51 So Moses went down the mountain and sanctified the people and they washed their clothes and he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not come near your wives. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, we're about to experience something through faith that was so awesome, it would change the very course of history in this world because this is where the 10 commandments were brought. Came to pass on the third day in the morning, there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that the people who were in the camp trembled and Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with god and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now, Mount Sinai was completely unsmoked because the lord descended upon it in a fire.

6:18 You're already trembling in front of this mountain and maybe said, I don't know. Do I want to stand before god or do I not want to stand before god? So, they were they were they were brought up to this border. They weren't allowed to step across the border. No, no.

6:32 He was too holy a god for that and they were to stand back there and they were to view this and god was going to speak to them and as they stand there, the the trumpet gets louder and louder and and and they're they're trembling and and and somehow they're in sensory overload. Okay And so so Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet god. They stood at the foot of the mountain and Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the lord descended upon it in the fire and as smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain greatly quaked and when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke and god answered him by a voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called to Moses from the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

7:29 So Moses goes up on the mountain, gets up on the mountain, and God says, now I want you to go back down. I want you to make sure they don't come across that boundary as though God would say, you don't understand Moses. I'm holy, holy, holy God, and if these people get close, they're gonna be destroyed by my very holiness. So Moses comes back down and he keeps the people away and and he he goes down to the people, the last verse of the chapter, and so Moses went down to the people and spoke to them and then the awesome thing hurt occurs. Then the the god of Israel from that mountain spoke in a god voice.

8:18 I think it... Think in your minds perhaps you're you're in a stadium and and the loud speaker's going and just in your in your this huge god voice speaking off of the mountain and god spoke all these words and said, I am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself carved image, any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I, the lord your god, am a jealous god.

9:00 Visiting iniquity on the fathers from the children to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work.

9:33 You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates. For in six days, the lord made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which your lord god has given you. You shall not murder.

10:04 You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not cover your covet your neighbor's house. You shall not cover your neighbor's wife nor his male servant nor his servant nor his ox nor his donkey nor anything that is your is your neighbors and so And so God went through, it was a sobering and a solemn moment and they stand before God and God speaks to them and He gives them the 10 commandments.

10:38 And if it says in the beginning, behold, I come to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak to you and believe you forever. So here's God appearing in the Old Testament. Then, now, nice place to be, right? Well, that's not the way it was. It was a fearful place to be because they were sinful men.

11:45 And they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak to us, lest we die. Moses' answer was interesting to them. This was his answer to them. Moses said to the people, do not fear for God has come to test you that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin. So this is interesting, isn't it?

12:12 It says, Do not fear because God's doing this so you will fear. Interesting, isn't it? My only conclusion that I could draw from that is that there's two kinds of fear. There's one kind of fear that we shouldn't have, but there's another kind of fear that we should have. And so Moses is saying to them, don't fear with that terrible agonizing fear that that you're exhibiting right now where you don't even want god to talk to you.

12:42 Don't fear with that fear but there is an appropriate fear of god. It's what we sometimes call the reverential fear of god where we look upon god and we say, wow, what a god. I sure want to do what he wants me to do. He's my god and it's a reverential kind of fear. Now what I want us to do, oh, the other point I wanted to make from that verse, it says, do not fear for God has come to test you.

13:14 God has come to test you. And what I wanna say, brother and friends that that life is a moral test and and and the very the very content of the 10 commandments would would perhaps highlight the fact that life is a moral test that god puts before us his moral righteousness and then he expects us to do what he says to follow it. Now, having said that, let's go back to our Hebrews 12 portion here. I think that that's awesome. I think that's awesome, that story of Mount Sinai, awesome way.

13:59 So in the eighteenth verse it said, you have not come to a mountain that may be touched. Now what it's saying here is you haven't, we're going to take you somewhere else. You've not come to a mountain that may be touched, jump down to the twenty second verse, but you have come to Mount Zion implying that Mount Zion is a mountain that cannot be touched, okay? And what would we lay upon that? Well, Mount Sinai was a physical mountain.

14:33 You could see it, you could observe it, but this Mount Zion is a different kind of a mountain. And what God is saying to you, you know what? In the Old Testament, God revealed himself in all of his holiness, but Jesus hadn't died on the cross yet. And the grace of God was not revealed yet in the way that God was about to reveal it. And so he says, we're not bringing you, I just did, didn't I?

15:03 I brought you to Mount Sinai. But he says, we're not bringing you to Mount Sinai, We're going to bring you to something that's better than Mount Sinai. And this place that we're going to bring you is called Mount Zion. And the interesting thing about Mount Zion is you can't see Mount Zion. Oh yes, I know it's a playoff of a part of Jerusalem, a hill in Jerusalem called Zion, but that isn't the point of this portion.

15:30 If you read through this portion, it's not talking about a physical mountain. It's talking about a place where God is and a place from which God issues his grace to you and me. And this is the place. And now the interesting thing about Mount Zion is that there's like seven different, shall we say blessings, maybe promises that are given in connection with the Mount Zion, but not one of those seven can be actually observed with your physical eyes. They have to be seen through faith.

16:09 And so let's go through these. I'm just gonna try to go through them quickly, to dwell long on them. You've come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Well, we're talking about heaven, right? If you were to read that, is it, I think it's the twenty first chapter of of Revelation that talks about the new Jerusalem which comes down from heaven and it describes it in glowing terms and it's the classical description of heaven.

16:39 It's the place with the pearly gates and the golden streets. You may say, I've never seen a place like that. Well, what God is saying to you is you can only see it by faith. It's something that God says, I'm putting before you a heavenly city, a place where where a destination where I'm taking you. I'm putting that in front of you and and you can only grasp that place by faith.

17:12 You're not going to be able to see it by sight but it's real. It doesn't make it any less real. It's real and I would just say my wife's father passed away about a month ago and he fell down the steps and was killed. 93 years old. But the wonderful thing about it is when we came to the funeral and we were all gathered at the funeral, there was an aura of confidence at that funeral.

17:45 And those that were there thought, well, we know where Dwight is. We would know where... But they hadn't seen this place, had they? They hadn't seen this place, but by faith, they knew it existed and they knew that the scripture makes this promise to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The heavenly Jerusalem is a real place, but you can only see it by faith.

18:11 Two, it says the next one is to an innumerable company of angels. Have you ever seen an angel? Well, I haven't, to my knowledge, seen an angel. I'd say I haven't actually, to my knowledge, seen an angel. And yet, in this portion it says, this is what you've come to, an innumerable company of angels?

18:33 Did you know that God has assigned a multitude of angels for the church. It's described in Hebrews chapter two. I just have to prove it. Hebrews chapter one, I'm sorry. Hebrews chapter one, it says this, excuse me, okay, seventh verse, I was looking too far down.

19:05 Hebrews chapter one seven, of the angels he says, who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. And then if you go on down just a little bit further, it says it says, the last verse, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation? Now, I doubt if there's a single person in this whole room that's consciously seen an angel, I doubt that. But God says that they're there. God says that, that they're there and they're doing work, suppose, part of the work is the conviction of people here and there, whatever it is that God assigns them.

20:02 In one place it talks about children having angels assigned to them, think that's a neat idea to think that my children have protecting angels over them. I like that. But God has said that this is real. Have we seen it? No.

21:06 The wonderful thing about Mount Zion is every everything in it can only be observed by faith. The next one, oh, the other thing that's kind of neat about that one is this, it's the firstborn who are registered in heaven. Did you know that God keeps a book of life up in heaven? A registry of believers? Did you know that?

21:28 Well, I've never seen it. Yeah, but god says he does and and he says, on only those the the only ones that escape that final judgment are the ones whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I wanna make sure my name is there. I hope that you feel the same way, that you would want your name to be registered in that registry. To God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect.

21:56 Now this is interesting. It seemed to me like pretty much everything under Mount Zion is positive as compared, say, to some of Mount Sinai, which was not altogether positive, but everything in Mount Zion. And yet here it speaks of God the judge of all and that is not generally a comforting thought. God the judge of all is not generally a comforting thought. There isn't one of us that hasn't done like I confessed doing to you, made an irreverent statement that I was stricken in my conscience afterwards.

22:29 There's not many of us that can't look back in our lives and see some sin that we've done and be convicted and wish that we hadn't done that and come to God and confess it before God. Here's the judge of all, the righteous holy God before whom man stands to be judged. I think it's neat here that God has combined this statement that says, you've come to the judge of all with the statement that says, to the spirit of just men made perfect. How could I have confidence before God? How can I have confidence before God?

23:12 It's because I've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sins and my confidence is that my sins have been forgiven. And so it combines those two together. I thought that was kind of neat. Okay, the next one is we've come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. Now, in chapter seven, it talks about Jesus as being the great high priest after the order of Melchizedek, but it makes this statement, it says He lives ever, He's our great high priest and it says, he lives ever to make intercession for us.

23:52 Did you know that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of god and he's he's acting as priest there and he's actually interceding with god. Did you know that? That's a neat thought. That is a wonderful thought that I have someone that's up there that's interceding for me in heaven. One who works for my restoration whenever I sin.

24:18 He is the mediator of the new covenant and then it says, to the blood of the sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Now, we've all heard of Jesus Christ. We understand that there was a historical man who lived about two thousand years ago, who was taken out to a cross and was nailed to the cross and suffered agony. But this is talking this is talking about god's view of the death of Jesus Christ. It's not talking about just a historical man which he was but it's talking about the way God looks at it, that God looks at the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and because the blood of Jesus Christ was shed on the cross for my sins, my sins are forgiven.

25:17 There's that word justification. It's a neat word. I enjoyed the definition that says, The words are slipping my mind from it. It says, again? Just as I never sinned.

25:37 Well, that's a good one, but I was thinking of the one declared righteous before God, which that would be just as if I never sinned, which is kind of a neat way to look. But justification is declared righteous before God. So here I am, I still sin, I still sin. I may afterwards say, Shoot, why did I do that? But we still sin, but we have a holy God who looks at the blood of Jesus Christ and my sins are expunged, they're washed away.

26:19 So in the first epistle of John, it says that the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. And then there's this neat verse that's just two verses afterwards. It says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Okay, so that's what we have in Mount Zion. It's 100% access by faith.

26:51 Those wonderful promises, wonderful blessings for us, they're 100% access by faith. They seem so drastically different from Mount Sinai and yet this is the logic that the Lord uses in the next couple of verses. He says, If they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, he's talking about at Mount Sinai, If they didn't escape, if they refused to listen to him, then what about us? Would we escape if we refuse to listen to our God? Would we escape?

28:32 That's the same God, a righteous holy God and God has given us a revelation of His holiness in Mount Sinai that while we stand in the little position, different position than they stood as they stood there by Mount Sinai but the god who is there is not any different. He's still holy, holy, holy god. So, what makes the difference? What makes the difference between us who stand at Mount Zion with the with the grace of god and and the people who stood at Mount Sinai and trembled and wept. What makes the difference?

29:12 Well, friend, what really makes the difference is the grace of God and that grace is completely dependent on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross when he shed his blood for our sins. And God looks at that blood as that which cleanses us from all sin. Sometimes we speak about the finished work of Christ. He did a work that was efficacious. It means it could...

29:36 It it did the job completely and effectively, efficacious. It's the finished work of Christ. It doesn't have to be done again. It was done perfectly. And so that's what we have.

29:49 That's what makes the difference between Mount Zion and Mount Sinai. Now here we are and we're we're at Mount Zion. We're in the church. I I trust if you if you if you've not saved, hopefully, we hope before you leave this room today, you'll be saved, you'll trust in Jesus. But you but let me address those of us that are believers and say, okay, therefore, we in Mount Zion, we've received a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

30:23 Jesus has established His Lordship before us. He's the one to whom we look. And so we're there, we're in Mount Zion. So now, what are we gonna do? So it says, Let us have grace that we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

30:50 Let us have grace. How do we have grace? How's this happen? And how can I have grace? Okay, so turn with me to Romans chapter five.

31:07 First of all, let me say that grace is free gift of provision for the believer. Great... The grace of God. It's that which which... It's like God offering to come in and just help us and do it for us.

31:32 It's the grace of God, it's his free gift, okay? Romans chapter five, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's being justified by great faith, that's talking about salvation. We've trusted in Jesus Christ. We have peace with God through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

32:08 So what does this say? We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. So if we were to go back to our verse in Hebrews 12, it says, let us have grace that we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Here it says, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. So he's saying, you know what, if you don't believe God, you got a problem, but if you believe God, God will provide what you need to be able to go on in your life and live it acceptably before him in reverence and in godly fear.

32:56 We thank the Lord for that. Now, I'm running out of time so I'm going to turn us to a verse in Galatians two twenty to try to understand what this grace, this pathway of faith is. Galatians two twenty says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

34:06 And so he persecutes the Christians in Jerusalem and he stands before their trials of witnesses against them and and some of them are taken some of them are taken out and killed. That's the apostle Paul that got saved. That's the apostle Paul that wrote to us. And so he became so zealous that he said he was gonna go to Damascus and he was gonna get the Christians there. And so he's marching with a group of other men.

34:43 He's on this trip up to Damascus marching, walking along the road and suddenly, this brilliant light shines out of heaven. Now, take it, when I read the story, I took it that the others didn't see the light. It says they didn't see anybody, but they heard a voice. It's more like they see the Apostle Paul fall there and then they hear this voice from heaven talking to him. What is going on?

35:14 So here's the Apostle Paul and the light is so bright that he completely loses his balance, his perceptions, he falls right down on the ground and then he hears this voice from heaven that says, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? And Paul, guess he, in my mind, he looks this way in that and says, Who are you, Lord? And the voice answered, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Now, think of the response to the apostle Paul. Immediate response.

36:01 No, no, no hesitating, he says. Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? And he said, go into Damascus and I'll be showing you what to do. So he goes on into Damascus.

36:15 They have to lead him by the hand. He's blinded by the light. They have to lead him by the hand all the way into Damascus and sits there at the house. I think it says he was there for three days without food and water. Just just in a daze.

36:29 And God appears in a vision to a man named Ananias. He says, I want you to go to a street called Straight. I think it was in the house of someone named Judas and and I want you to go to a man named Saul of Tarsus and I want you to lay your hands on him that you may receive his sight. Lord, wait a minute. I've heard of that man.

36:52 He's the one that persecutes the Jews, I mean the Christians. The Lord says, go your way. I've given you the job to do. Go your way. He's a chosen vessel for me.

37:03 Ananias makes his way down to the street called Straight. There's the Apostle Paul huddled there and he comes into Paul and says, brother Paul, God has sent me to lay your hand... I I don't remember the exact words. To lay your hands upon me that that I might receive my sight. And and we're told that scales, literal physical scales fell from his eyes.

37:36 Interesting, isn't it? And and and he got up. He took some food and water, and it seemed to me like it was the very next day that he was out in the synagogue preaching. Couldn't keep that man down. Apostle Paul.

37:51 Now, here's the man said, I'm crucified with Christ. He had he had been going on in a way of life that was against Jesus Christ and says, end of that. I'm done with that old life that I was living. I hope we would all be willing to say that. I'm done with that old life I've been living.

38:14 I wanna live for Jesus and so so he says to them, he says to us, I have been crucified with Christ. I'm done with that. It's gone. I'm crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who lived.

38:29 That old whatever I was, I don't want anything to do with that. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in this flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Brethren, may that be that which grabs us. The faith of the son of god that in my life, I might live for the lord Jesus Christ.

39:02 From now on forever. Lord Jesus said, have faith in God. And Peter put it like this, your faith and hope are in God. And Paul put it like this, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. I'm gonna make a couple more points and then close.

40:02 The idea of the witness is that it's a witness to my soul, it's something that grabs me, it's a witness to my soul, it brings conviction in my life. And those are the two main aspects of faith. One is assurance. God has said it. And I believe it.

40:23 And the other is conviction. Because God has said it. I'm gonna live my life for him. One last verse, it's found in John chapter three. John chapter three, and I just have enjoyed this verse a lot.

40:42 John chapter three, this is John the Baptist talking about Jesus, the thirty first verse. He who comes from above is above all, that's the Lord Jesus. He who is of the earth is earthy and speaks of the earth but he who comes from heaven is above all. That's Jesus and what he has seen and heard that he testifies and no one receives his testimony but he who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. And perhaps if we could close with this sense that if we believe God, it's like us and our souls saying, God is true.

41:31 I certify He's true. He speaks the truth and I am going to follow Him. Assurance and conviction. Brethren, let's live our lives for this precious savior who came down here and died on the cross for our sins. And though god is holy, holy, holy god because Christ died for my sins, they're gone.

42:31 Blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. We're We're thankful for that and lord, if as we sometimes in our lives do those things which are displeasing to you, we pray that we might turn from them quickly and confess them as it says, if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive your sins and turn to him that we might live our lives in an acceptable way to god and and reverence and godliness. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.