Law & Order

Law & Order

One time many years ago, the king of Hungary found himself depressed and unhappy. He sent for his brother, a good-natured but rather indifferent prince. The king said to him, "I am a great sinner; I fear to meet God." But the prince only laughed at him. This didn’t help the king’s disposition any. Though he was a believer, the king had gotten a glimpse of his guilt for the way he’d been living lately, and he seriously wanted help. In those days it was customary for the executioner to sound a trumpet before a man’s door at any hour, signaling that he was to be led to his death. The king sent the executioner in the dead of night to sound the fateful blast at his brother’s door. The prince realized with horror what was happening. Quickly dressing, he stepped to the door and was seized by the executioner and dragged pale and trembling into the king’s presence. In an agony of terror, he fell on his knees in front of his brother and begged to know how he had offended him. "My brother," answered the king, "if the sight of a human executioner is so terrible to you, shall not I, having grievously offended God, fear to be brought before the judgment seat of Christ?"

In our scripture this morning, this is right where the Israelite people are. In Exodus 19:5, the Lord says to the Israelites, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The Israelites all responded together: “We will do everything the Lord has said.” Then in chapter 20, the Lord came down to Mt. Sinai and gave them the Ten Commandments which were his law that the people needed to obey to keep the covenant and to be in a right relationship with Him. As they heard the Law, it caused them to be afraid, tremble and distance themselves from the Lord. The Israelites had made a promise to obey the Lord’s commands, but they now realized that they could never keep His law and would be subject to judgment. The King of Hungary and the Israelites realized they were sinners, they felt the weight of their sin and knew they were subject to judgment. As we will see this week, the people were not to be afraid but to “fear the Lord.” The proper response to God’s law is reverence and worship. And God is gracious with His people because he knows they will not be able to keep His law perfectly. And so, he will provide a way for them to be reconciled to him when they sin. He had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, set them apart as his treasured possession and would now show them how they could draw close to Him in a faithful relationship with Himself.

The same is true for us today. We can’t keep the law perfectly either and we are subject to judgment. But Jesus, our perfect mediator, paid the penalty for our sin, and if we have accepted God’s free gift of salvation, we don’t need to fear His judgment. But do we truly understand the weight of our sin as the Israelites and the King of Hungary did? Do we tremble with a “fear of the Lord” because we have sinned against an Almighty and Holy God? The realization of the weight of our sin should not cause us to shrink farther and farther away from the Lord, as it did the Israelites, it should cause us to draw closer to Him and his son, Jesus, because Jesus is the only way that we can be reconciled to God. That brings us to our big idea this morning that God desires His people to draw close to Him. We will look at four ways we can draw close to the Lord: obedience, worshiping God alone, confessing our sins before the Lord and accepting Jesus as our perfect mediator. ​​ 

Let’s pray: Heaven Father, give us eyes to see and ears to hear your Word and your Holy Spirit this morning. May we come humbly, seeking your wisdom and instruction for our daily lives. May we be open to your Spirit’s prompting and conviction this week as we strive to become more like your son, Jesus. In His precious and holy name, Amen.

Our first point is Test found in Exodus 20:18-21. This is what God’s Word says, “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

I want to set the scene again from several weeks ago. Moses has prepared the people to meet with their God by consecrating them and washing their clothes. Then as the Lord came down to meet with them there was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud covering the mountain. There was also a loud trumpet blast. It was a raging storm of the presence of the Lord in their midst. Moses led the people to the foot of the mountain to meet the Lord and the mountain smoked as He descended it in fire. The mountain trembled violently, and the trumpet grew louder and louder. And then they heard the voice of God. They were terrified and trembled just as the mountain trembled. I mentioned back then that all of their senses were assaulted with what was happening around them. As we start to study our scripture this morning, we notice that all of their senses are still being assaulted. They still see the thunder and lightning; they still hear the trumpet and see the mountain covered in smoke and they are still trembling. The Hebrew word used here for “lightning” is not the same as the one used in Exodus 19:16 describing the storm when they met God at the foot of the mountain. The only other time this word is used by Moses in the Bible is in Genesis 15:17 when God made his covenant with Abraham. In Genesis it referred to the “torch” which passed through the animal carcasses that Abraham had cut in half. The “torch” in Genesis and the “lightning” here represented God’s physical presence with his people as he made His covenant with them.

We notice that something has changed with the proximity of the people from God. They started out at the foot of the mountain and now they are at a distance from it. It is possible that as each commandment blasted forth with its accompanying display of awesome splendor, the people probably backed up a little further until they were standing a good distance from the base of the mountain. The haughty, arrogant attitude that they displayed before God gave them the law was quickly replaced with terror, fear, and dread as they began to understand the holiness and awesomeness of God and to realize the weight of their sin. Interestingly, God kept telling Moses to warn the people not to come up the mountain but once He started speaking, they quickly retreated back the way they came. Clarke says, “… probably at the end of each command, there was a peal of thunder, a blast of the trumpet, and a gleam of lightning, to impress their hearts the more deeply with a due sense of the Divine Majesty, of the holiness of the law, which was now delivered, and of the fearful consequences of disobedience.” The Israelites were frightened by the total demand of God’s law and by the threat of His judgment. God was impressing His law and order on His chosen people. Law and order are defined as the safe, civil, and orderly functioning of society, viewed especially as a result of the enactment and strict enforcement of laws. God had given the law to the people so they would know how he wanted them to be connected to Him and to each other. These connections would allow them to function properly in community together and to bless the nations around them. He expected them to obey His Law and He would bring “order” as He instructs them in altars and sacrifice later in our scripture. God is a God of order, and we will see this today and in the following weeks as he also instructs them in enforcing His law.

There were three purposes for God giving them His law. One, the law revealed their sin proving that they couldn’t live up to God’s perfect standard. Two, the law was to keep them from sinning by threatening them with punishment. And three, the law was given so they would know what the Lord expected of them so they could obey it. The Israelites realized that because of God’s holiness and the weight of their sin they needed a mediator between themselves and the Lord. They asked Moses to speak to them himself instead of having God speak to them. This one encounter was too much for them as they realized they couldn’t keep his law and as such couldn’t stand in His presence, or they would die. The other thing they said to Moses was that if he spoke to them, they would listen. The word “to listen” means to obey. They were now accepting Moses as God’s mediator, promising to obey Moses and the Lord. Moses encourages them to not be afraid. They did not need to tremble in fear; instead they needed a “fear of the Lord,” a healthy, reverent awe and respect for Yahweh, the one true and living God. It was not God’s intention to kill them but to test them so that the “fear of God” would be with them to keep them from sinning. The word for “test” can be translated as “experience.” The reason the Lord came with thunder, lightning, a loud trumpet and smoke was because he wanted this experience to literally put the “fear of God” in them in order for them to understand the weight of their sin which was to keep them from sinning. As God’s mediator to His people, one of Moses’ roles was to encourage the people to obey the Lord’s commands. By being obedient to the Lord’s commands, they would be able to draw close to God instead of standing off at a distance (Big Idea) The same is true for us today. An understanding of the holiness and awesomeness of God and the weight of our sin should cause us to obey the Lord’s commands and keep us from punishment. That brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card which is to Draw close to the Lord by being obedient to His laws.

Another one of Moses’ roles, as mediator, was to also approach God for them and we see this is what Moses did next. As the people remained at a distance from God, Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. He did this on behalf of God’s people so they would know how God wanted them to live their lives in obedience to Him, which will be spelled out more specifically starting in the next chapter. Now Moses was not the perfect mediator because he was a sinful human being just as they were. But he was God’s chosen mediator who was the forerunner of the perfect mediator, Jesus Christ. We will come back to Jesus as our perfect mediator at the end of the message.

That brings us to our second point, True Worship, found in Exodus 20:22-26. This is what God’s Word says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold. “‘Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed.’

Moses is now in the presence of the Lord and He tells Moses how the people were to draw close to Him in true worship. Even though they do not want to draw close to God “physically,” they could still draw close to the Lord “spiritually.” True worship involves a combination of things they must do and things that must not be done. They were not to make any gods of silver and gold to be worshiped alongside God. The Lord reiterated a combination of the first two commandments reminding them that they have seen for themselves that he has spoken to them from heaven. This “seeing” God “speak” reinforces that they are not to make any gods to represent Him because they don’t know what he looks like. He had veiled Himself in smoke, so that they could not see His form. In fact, they couldn’t have looked upon Him and lived anyway. Pagan worshipers would make gods or idols so that the worshiper had easy access to the god anytime they wanted. This was idolatry and not the way God was to be worshiped. Mentioning the first two commandments, in this way, probably means that He was reminding them of all ten, but these two were of first importance. By mentioning not to make gods of silver and gold, the Lord was ruling out the making of gods with any substance. True worship starts with worshiping God and God alone and not making gods to represent Him.

This instruction was a warning to the Israelites to remember what they have just seen and heard. They were to remember to have a reverent “fear of the Lord” in order to keep them from sinning, especially the sin of making an idol to represent God and worshiping other gods beside Him. Why did he have to remind them of these commands? Because God knew His people. He knew what was going to take place later when they made and worshiped the golden calf. If they would heed God’s warning, they would draw closer to the Lord in obedience and worship. Have you ever been warned by the Holy Spirit to not sin? Or felt guilty after you have sinned? This is called being “convicted.” When you are drawing close to the Lord in obedience and worship the Holy Spirit is able to function as He should in your life. When we are drawing close to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will convict us to keep us from sin or convict us of our sin which leads us to confession and being put back into a right relationship with our Heavenly Father. Let us be people who draw close to the Lord daily and heed the warnings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That brings us to our second next step which is Heed the warnings of the Holy Spirit, first, to keep me from sin and, second, to convict me of my sin.

After warning the people to remember to keep His commandments, the Lord gave Moses instructions about altars which would lead them into true worship of Himself. The Lord graciously instructed them in how they could be reconciled to Him after sinning against Him. Just think about how loving, gracious and merciful our God is. He wasn’t going to leave them in their sin, knowing that their sin separated them from Himself. Instead, knowing they couldn’t live up to His perfect standard, he instructed them on how they could draw close to Him again. (Big Idea) The way they were to do this was to make sacrifices to Him on an altar. Their altars were to be made of earth or stone and the stones could only be in their natural state; meaning they were to be made out of what God had created, not man. They were not allowed to use dressed stones meaning stones that had been shaped by tools. Dressed stones were used by pagan worshipers that had divine symbols or incantations chiseled in them. Also, they made ornate altars with dressed stones that became the object of worship as well as their gods. If the Israelites made their altars with dressed stones the altar would be defiled. This meant that the altar would be polluted and unfit for sacrifice to the Lord. The Israelites were to be different. Only God was to be worshiped, not any other gods and not the altars that were built to make sacrifices to Him.

The most important thing about the altar was to be what happened on it – the sacrifices offered for their sins. God instructed them in two kinds of sacrifices they were to make to Him and the animals that were to be used to make those sacrifices. They were to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. And they were to sacrifice their unblemished, perfect sheep, goats and cattle to the Lord. The burnt offering was given for the atonement of their sins. This offering was to be completely “burnt” to ash on the altar with its smoke rising to heaven. The fellowship offering was given to deal with their sin, but it also symbolized fellowship with God and being reconciled to Him. It is also called the peace offering because the Hebrew word comes from the word for “shalom” meaning peace. It was eaten in the presence of the Lord showing that the worshiper was put back into a right relationship with God, atonement having been made for their sin. By offering sacrifices on the altar, the worshiper confessed that they had sinned against God. In this way, the worshiper was able to draw close to the Lord in obedience and worship. Confession of sin is so important. When we sin and the Holy Spirit convicts us of that sin, we need to confess it. Today, we don’t sacrifice animals on an altar, but we are to come before the Lord confessing our sin and he forgives us based on what Jesus did for us on the cross. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That is a promise that I have claimed in my own life and is a promise I hope you have claimed as well. That brings us to our third next step which is to Confess my sins allowing me to draw close to the Lord.

The Lord’s instructions for the altar and sacrifices were made in this moment because they were going to need to make atonement for their sins now that the law had been given. It was at these altars of earth and natural stone, that God would cause his name to be honored and where he would draw close to His chosen people and bless them. God's presence and blessings were not confined to a specific location or place of worship. Instead, God promises to be present and to bless his people wherever they seek to honor him and demonstrate their faith and devotion. Again, how gracious was this. The people, because of God’s holiness and the weight of their sin, had distanced themselves from the Lord, but the He would draw close to them, as they worshiped and sacrificed to Him in obedience.

The last verse may seem strange to us but again it speaks to the Israelites not worshiping in the same ways as the pagan peoples around them. First, the altar wasn’t to have steps. The pagan peoples would build altars with steps to show off or with the idea of getting closer to heaven and their gods. Think about the Tower of Babel. They tried to build a tower that would reach heaven so they could be with their god. We are not to reach up and put ourselves on the same plane as God. God is the one who comes down to us in his love, grace and mercy. Second, Canaanite worship was obscene and indecent. They would worship their gods in nakedness and with sexual immorality, but God demanded purity and decency in true worship of Himself. Later on, the Israelite priests were to wear linen undergarments to keep from being exposed in the presence of God.

“In his book “Written In Blood”, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor. "Would you give your blood to Mary?" the doctor asked. Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, "Sure, for my sister." Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room--Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met,

Johnny grinned. As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny's smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube. With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence. "Doctor, when do I die?' Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he'd agreed to donate his blood. He thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he'd made his great decision. Johnny, fortunately, didn't have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary's, and it required Jesus to give not just His blood but His life.”

We are unable to enter into a relationship with God by ourselves because we have been cut off, alienated from God because of our sin, and in need of reconciliation. We are in need of a mediator. Moses was the mediator chosen by God to be the go-between for Him and His people. But Jesus is our perfect mediator because he was fully God and fully man and He did something that Moses couldn’t do which was live in perfect obedience to the law. The other thing Moses and the animal sacrifices couldn’t do was to make atonement for their sin once and for all. Jesus was the only perfect lamb of God who could make atonement for our sin. Jesus, as our perfect mediator, did three things for those who believe in Him. One, he received our death sentence. God’s standard is perfection, and His character is holy and according to His standard of justice, the soul that sins must die. Sin carries the sentence of spiritual death, eternal separation from God. Therefore, the only way that a sinful person can ever come to God is to have the penalty of his sin paid. The innocent one, Jesus, took the place of the guilty, each one of us, and the sentence of death was carried out.

Two, Jesus removed our sin by the shedding of His blood. Forgiveness demands blood. The great amount of blood that we see throughout Scripture is a reminder of the awful penalty of sin—which is death. The purpose of the blood was to bring cleansing from our sin. The only way we can enter into God’s presence is through the atoning death of Jesus Christ, made effective for us when we trust Him as Lord and Savior. Three, Jesus represents the sinner. As our faithful High Priest, He is in heaven now appearing in the presence of God on our behalf. When Jesus appears in the presence of God for us, He presents us in Himself, as He is. Now when we enter into the presence of God, the Father sees Jesus instead of us. He sees Christ’s righteousness, not our unrighteousness, He sees Christ’s sacrifice, not our sin and He sees Christ’s payment for our sin, not the penalty for our sin. That brings us to our last next step this morning which is to Accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, the perfect mediator between God and myself. Again, if you take that step this morning, please mark it on the back of your communication card so I can be in touch with you.

As the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings and Gene and Roxey come to lead us in a final hymn, let’s pray: God, thank you for Your Word and Your son, Jesus. I thank you for making a way for us to be able to draw close to you and to be reconciled to you when we sin. Help us to be obedient to your Word. Help us to heed the warnings of your Spirit to keep us from sin and to convict us of our sin and lead us to confession of our sins before you. And Lord if there are those here who don’t know you as their Lord and Savior may they take that step of faith in accepting Jesus Christ as their perfect mediator between themselves and You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

OPENING: Ajai Prakash (Sermon Central)

CLOSING: “The Mediator (www.brandonware.org)