Moses on the Mountain with the Lord - Part 2
Exodus 19:6-19
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - June 9, 2010
BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION
*One of the first movies I ever remember seeing as a kid was Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments.” I think it’s one of the best movies of all time. It was amazing to see even a little of what it must have been like for Moses when he met with the Lord.
*This summer we are looking at a much better source than Director Cecil B. DeMille. This summer we will look into the Word of God to see Moses on the mountain with the Lord. Most people think Moses only went up the mountain one or two times. But the Bible tells us that Moses went up seven times to meet with the Lord. (1)
*Each of these meetings has a message for you and me. Last week we looked at the first meeting, and in vs. 4 God confirmed His salvation by saying: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.”
*Then in vs. 5&6, God challenged the Children of Israel to obey Him, and He called them to be His people. And in vs. 6 the Lord commanded Moses (and us) to communicate His Word. With this background in mind, let’s read vs. 6-19.
*Moses’ second trip up the mountain shows us three things all of God’s people need to do.
1. First: rededicate yourself to the Lord.
*In vs. 7, “Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him.” And in vs. 8: “Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.”
*God’s people said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” There’s the standard: The Word of God.
-And the people said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
*This wasn’t the only time the Children of Israel would say those words. For example, in Exodus 24:3, “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the Lord has said we will do.’” In fact, we find this phrase 6 or 7 times in the Old Testament.
*Why the repetition? -- Why did they tell the Lord again and again, “Whatever You say, we will do it.”? -- Because they weren’t doing it.
-They needed to honestly rededicate their lives to obeying the Lord.
*Listen to the Lord’s complaint almost 900 years later in Jeremiah 42:
19. “The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
20. For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’
21. And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which He has sent you by me.
*Every believer needs to dedicate and rededicate their lives to the Lord.
*Paul Powell tells the story of a well-known preacher from years ago. His name was Carter Jones. Carter had a small room in the attic of his home that he used as a place of prayer. When he was especially burdened, he would make his way up the winding staircase to that room to spend some quiet moments with God. The members of his family knew that when he went to the attic room for prayer. They were not to bother him under any circumstances.
*One day, under some heavy burdens, he climbed the stairs, went into the room, and knelt beside the chair to pray. But he had hardly started when the door swung open and there stood his little girl. The moment his eyes met hers, she knew she had done wrong.
*She knew she shouldn’t be there. But she said, “Daddy, you’ve been so busy lately I haven’t seen you much. And I just wanted to tell you that I love you.” And with that she threw her arms around her father’s neck, gave him a big hug, wheeled around, and was gone as quickly as she had come.
*Still on his knees, Carter wiped a tear from his eye and said, “Father, I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had much time for you. I just want to tell you again that I love you.”
*Paul Powell adds: “That’s what Christ wants from all of us. Unless we say it as well as feel it, and show it as well as confess it, we do not love Him as He wants to be loved. He wants us to show our devotion by our commitment, our calluses, and by our confession. . . There is not a believer here whose fellowship with God is exactly what God wants it to be. God wants you to feel it in your heart, and to know it in your mind, and to live it in your life. And He wants you to be right with Him. And you can do it now if you’ll rededicate your life to Him. (2)
*Rededicate yourself to the Lord.
2. And get ready to see the Lord.
*In vs. 8, Moses went back up on the mountain the second time: “Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.”
*Then in vs. 9-11, the Lord told Moses that the people had better get ready, because He was coming down in the sight of all the people:
9. And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.’’ So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
10. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.
11. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”
*God says, “Get ready!” How can we do it?
[1] First, by salvation. Jesus is coming again! And we will never be ready to see the Lord until we are saved.
*In Vacation Bible School the children learn the ABC’s of salvation:
A -- We have to admit to God that we are sinners. We are guilty of sin, and we are lost without Jesus.
B -- We have to believe in the Lord, trusting that God loves us in spite of our sin, believing that Jesus died on the cross for our sin and rose from the dead, believing that He will save us if we will turn to Jesus and receive Him as Savior and Lord
C -- Confess Jesus as Savior and Lord by calling on the Lord.
*God says, “I’m coming. Get ready!”
-How can we do it? -- By salvation.
[2] And by expectation. Twice here the Lord told them that He was coming. God really wanted those people to get ready. He wanted them to expect His return.
*The same thing is true for us. How many times did Jesus say it in the New Testament? -- More than a few. These people got ready down in vs. 14&15, because they expected the Lord to come. We get ready by expectation.
[3] And by consecration. In vs. 10-11:
10. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.
11. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
*“Go to the people and “consecrate them. The KJV says “sanctify them.” The word means to make them clean, holy, dedicated, pure, prepared, sat-aside, sanctified, separate. And part of the ceremonial sanctification in vs. 10 was for the people to “wash their clothes.
*Now these people had on some special clothes. At the end of 40 years in the wilderness, Moses told them, “I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet.” (Deut 29:5) That of course was a miracle from the Lord. And the Lord wanted those clothes to be clean. It was to be an outward sign of inward cleanness.
*We have to be properly dressed to meet the coming Lord. And the only way to be properly dressed is with some other special clothing. It is special clothing that we can only get from the Lord. This truth is one reason why Jesus told the parable of the wedding feast in Matt 22:1-14.
*In vs. 9-10, the King said:
9. ‘Go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’
10. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
*Many accepted the king’s grace-filled invitation, so the hall was filled with guests. But there was someone there who tried to come in another way. We see him starting in vs. 11:
11. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.
12. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
13. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
*This man tried to come dressed in his own clothes, dressed in his own righteousness. But our righteousness can never be good enough for Heaven.
*The people who accepted the king’s invitation didn’t just happen to have the right wedding clothes out there on the highway. They couldn’t have afforded royal robes in the first place. But the people who accepted the king’s invitation were given the right clothes to wear. So Isa 61:10 says: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for HE has clothed me with the garments of salvation, HE has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
*We have to be properly dressed to meet the Lord. The only way is with clothes that only the Lord can give, clean clothes, provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.
*Do you have them? -- Are you ready?
-Get ready to see the Lord.
3. And give reverence to the Lord.
*In vs. 11, the Lord said, Get “ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”
-Then in vs. 12 the Lord said: “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. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.’”
*Jeff Strite explained: “About a year before this incident in Exodus 19, Moses was a shepherd taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep. One area that apparently offered good pasture land was an area that lay in the shadow of Mt. Horeb -- the Mountain of God.
*It was there that Moses saw a strange sight on the side of the mountain. It was a bush that was on fire it did not burn up. This so intrigued Moses that he determined to investigate and when he did, God spoke to him from the bush.
*Does anybody remember what God’s first words were to Moses that day? -- ‘Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’ (Exodus 3:5)
*Now, nearly a year later, God brings Moses and people of Israel back to that same mountain. . . And God wanted them to have a proper sense of His majesty and glory. So the Lord put limits around the mountain. They had to fence it off. And anyone who crossed the line and touched the mountain had to die.” (3)
*God wanted these people and us to have a proper and healthy fear of the Lord. As A.W. Tozer once wrote: “No one can know the true grace of God who has not first known the fear of God.” Timothy Jones adds: “It seems to me that we have lost some of that reverential fear. Sometimes we are overly and inappropriately familiar with the Almighty. Sometimes we relate to God as the great Gift-giver in the sky. And when we do this, we diminish who He is.” (4)
*God wants people to have a healthy fear of the Lord. Jim Wilson says, “Wherever God’s glory is, there is a holy fear. (5)
*Vs. 16-19 give us a good sense of it:
16. 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.
17. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
19. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.
*Thank God, that fear is not the end of the story! It’s just the beginning.
*I have often thought back to the funeral for Ernie Rutherford’s dad. He was 91 years old, and a member of First Presbyterian Church in Monroe. A pastor by the name of Bruce Rux spoke that day. And Bruce reassured the family with a story from his days as a seminary student in Pittsburg. One of his professors asked this question: “Which commandment from God is repeated most often in the Bible?”
*Those eager students tried hard to answer his question. Some thought it must have been love the Lord with all your heart, or one of the 10 Commandments.
*They were all surprised when the professor told them that the most frequent commandment from God in the Bible is simply, “Fear not.” -- “Fear not!”
-I looked it up and that command is found 71 times in the Word of God!
*Thank God, that fear is not the end of the story. It’s just the beginning.
-God’s ultimate goal is to lead us to the place of friendship, love, hope and joy through the cross of Jesus Christ.
*But this meeting on the mountain reminds us of 3 important things to do:
-Rededicate yourself to the Lord.
-Get ready to see the Lord.
-And give reverence to the Lord.
*Let’s do that right now as we go to God in prayer.
1. “Seven Ascents” by Richard Gamble - www.heraldmag.org/2006/06mj_3.htm
2. Adapted from “Jumpstarting Dead Churches” by Paul Powell - Sermon: “The Return of a Backslider” - p. 21-22
3. Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “Setting the Boundaries” by Jeff Strite - Exodus 19:7-15 - Sept 2007
4. SermonCentral sermon “Preparing to Worship God” by Timothy Jones - Exodus19:1-15 - 01/27/03
5. “Fear & Awe” by Dr. James L. Wilson - Luke 2:8-14 - www.freshministry.org
