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Smoky Mountain
Exodus 19
I believe it’s very likely that Mt. Sinai is in Arabia at Jabal al Lawz, pictured here, rather than the traditional belief of the Sinai Peninsula location where St. Catherine’s Monastery sits today. If you disagree, we can still be friends and I can respect your position. These pictures are at the least, fascinating, and it’s been determined that the black top of this mountain is not volcanic rock, but actual granite which has been scorched. Many other factors lead me to believe this is the place, not that it matters too much.
God gave Moses the moral law on this mountain, wherever it is, and I’d like to address the reason why before we look at the commandments one by one over the next few weeks.
1. The giving of the law established the fact
that God wants a relationship with mankind. (Exodus 19:3-6)
I want to give you a principle that will help you in many different areas of
your life. It will help you in your relationship with God, your relationship
with your kids, and even your relationships at work. Here’s the principle:
RULES without RELATIONSHIP leads to REBELLION. If you lay down rules for
your kids to follow, but you spend no time getting to know them, involving
yourself in their lives and allowing them to get to know you, then chances
are that they will rebel against you. If in your work relationship, the only
time that you ever have contact with your boss is when he is laying down the
requirements of the job and telling you how far short you fall of those
requirements, the chances are that you will resent that boss. You may not
rebel outwardly for fear of losing your job, but there will probably be
rebellion in your heart.
The same is true in your relationship with
God. Part of the reason that you have a real problem with some of the laws
that He has laid down for your life is because you have not ever established
a personal relationship with Him or you have never worked very hard to make
that relationship strong and special. Do you know that before God ever laid
down the first of the Ten Commandments, He made it very clear that He wanted
a special relationship with these people?
God demonstrates His power, His provisions and His protection to draw you
to Himself (vs. 4)
God demonstrated His power when He rescued the Israelites out of slavery in
Egypt. He sent 10 awe-inspiring plagues on the Egyptians to convince both
the Egyptians and the Israelites that He truly was almighty God. He caused
the water to turn to blood, and the sky to rain down hail, and the darkness
to cover the face of the land in the middle of the day. And then when Israel
was trapped at the Red Sea, God demonstrated His power by parting the waters
so that the Israelites could cross over on dry ground. God demonstrated His
provisions by providing them a fountain of water that flowed out of a rock
and bread that materialized on the ground every morning. When Israel’s
enemies threatened to destroy them, whether it was the Egyptians at the Red
Sea or the Amalekites out in the wilderness, God demonstrated His protection
by wiping them out. Why did God do all these things for Israel? Look at vs.
4. [read it]. God did all these things in order that He might bring them
into a relationship with Himself.
The Bible records in James 1:17 that every
good and perfect gift comes down from God the Father. That means that
everything good that has ever happened in your life didn’t just happen. It
was sent down by God. Every time that there was food on your table, it was
because God provided it for you. Every time that you have received healing
from a disease or sickness was because God demonstrated His power in your
life. Every accident that you have ever avoided and every storm that you
have made it through were because of God’s hands of protection surrounding
you. Why does He do these things in your life? Is it because you are good
person? No. It is because He wants you to recognize His love for you and He
wants to draw you into a relationship with Him.
God communicates His desire to make you His
special treasure above all other things (vs. 5)
God told Moses to tell the Israelites that if they would choose to enter
into this relationship, that He would make them specifically His most prized
possession of all that He had in the entire universe.
Ill.—2 couples have recently had babies, and everyone oooh’s and aaah’s over them. They are a prized possession that they guard closely.
That’s the same attitude that God has toward us when we make Him our Father. Think about the other options that God has to make into His prized possession. He could have chosen the angels. They are not scarred with sin. They do exactly what he tells them to do without question or hesitation. They are in a constant chorus of worship toward Him. But God didn’t choose them as His treasured possession. He could have chosen the stars as His treasured possession. They put off great amounts of light and energy. They are beautiful. But God didn’t choose the stars. He chose us. He chose [begin to point at people and name their names] as His treasured possession. You are more important to Him; He would rather have you than any other creature in the whole universe.
God communicates His goal to change you (vs. 6)
ill.—In a wedding, the bride was unusually nervous. She just wasn’t sure if
she was going to be able to make it through the wedding ceremony without
passing out. The pastor who was to perform the ceremony gave her a piece of
advice. He said, “Instead of concentrating on everything that you have to
do, just concentrate on one piece at a time. When the ceremony begins, just
concentrating on making it down the aisle. As you make your way down, focus
on the altar. Once you get near the front, turn your focus toward your groom
and focus all your attention on him.“ The bride thought that was good
advice, so she did just that. Only she was the type that had to voice her
thoughts especially since she was so nervous. As she made her way to the
front, everyone in the church could hear her saying, “I’ll alter him; I’ll
alter him” [aisle, altar, him].
Many husbands and wives have entered into the
marriage relationship thinking that they will be able to change whatever it
is that they do not like about their spouse. The groom thinks that he will
be able to change his disorganized, sloppy bride into someone who runs the
house well. The bride thinks that she will be able to change her selfish,
run around with the boys, don’t expect me to spend two minutes in the
kitchen groom into someone who can cook and clean and take all his free time
to spend with her. For one, it almost never happens that way. And two, the
desired change is not for the benefit of the person changing but for the
benefit of the partner.
The change that God wanted to happen in the Israelites and what He wants to
happen in us is for our benefit, our growth. He wants us to be changed in
such a way that we can be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You know
what a priest is? A priest is an ambassador between God and man. God wants
us to His ambassadors, His representatives. That is an honor which we could
never deserve but that God gives to us out of His love for us. God desires
that we change because He knows that the direction we are headed right now
is only going to create suffering and destruction in our lives.
The reason that God puts rules into our lives is because He knows that the
things that fall outside those rules will damage us and will hurt our
potential enjoyment of the relationship that He wants to have with us and
the relationship that we can have with other men and women.
“The Ten Commands may seem very narrow, but
so does every runway on airports around the world. Yet no passenger wants
his pilot to miss the narrow runway and land a few yards off the mark in
some field or waterway or row of houses. The narrow ribbon of pavement is
really the broad way that leads to a safe, comfortable landing. So the
seemingly rigid laws guide to a happy, fulfilled living.” [Leslie Flynn, Now
a word from our Creator]
2. The giving of the law established the fact
that the relationship must be on God’s terms. (Exodus 19:10-14)
God requires that you must be clean (vs. 10)
In preparation for God’s coming down to the people, He told them that they
had to wash their clothes. That might seem kind of an odd demand from a God
who identifies Himself later on as being One who is far more concerned with
what is in the heart than what is on the outside. What message was God
trying to communicate to the people by making sure that they washed their
clothes? I think He was doing two things. He was telling the people that if
they wanted to enjoy a relationship with Him with all the rewards that meant
they had to be willing to get clean. The same is true of us. If we are going
to be in relationship with God, then we have to be clean. Second, I think
that He was illustrating the fact that the law He was getting ready to hand
down to them could only clean them on the outside. It had no ability to
clean them on the inside. Even if by some miracle they were able to keep the
whole law from that day on, all that would have been affected was their
outward actions. They were going to need something else beyond the law to
clean them on the inside. (Rev 1:5) . . . Jesus Christ . . . loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Rev 7:14) . . . These are they
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb.
God requires that you must be totally
dedicated to Him “consecrated” (vs. 10); “abstain from sexual relations”
(vs. 14-15)
God told Moses that He was to go to the people and consecrate them. To
“consecrate” something means to dedicate it completely for one specific
person or purpose. When you got married, you were consecrated to your spouse
– you were dedicated to that one person for the rest of your life. If you
have ever tried to call my home and continued to get a busy signal for a
lengthy period of time over several attempts to get through, you have
probably experienced the fact that we do not have a consecrated phone line
in our house. Our phone line serves multiple masters. The reason you might
get a busy signal at our home is because our one phone line is used to
access the internet from our computer and to make phone calls. My daughter,
one of these days is going to be wanting a phone line that is consecrated
solely to her use in her room. Something that is consecrated is focused on
one use or one person.
God wanted the Israelites to be totally consecrated to Him. He wanted their
100% unfaltering, unwavering devotion to Him. If He was going to make them
His treasured possession, He wanted to make sure that they were going to
devote themselves to Him to the same extent that He was willing to devote
Himself to them. And this is where the part about abstaining from sexual
relations comes in too. Abstaining from sex was not an issue of cleanliness
or holiness; it was an issue of devotion, an issue of focus. The reason He
prohibited it in this instance was not because it was wrong, but because He
wanted the people’s full attention on Him and on what He was getting ready
to tell them. There would be time later on for them to focus attention on
their spouses in the days ahead. Now was the time for them to take their
minds off their personal pleasure and give 100% of their energy and
concentration to the matter before them.
God expects our 100% devotion and attention too. If you are like me,
sometimes when I go to God in prayer, that is when 101 different things that
I have to do that day pop into my head. All of those things will wait. My
focus at that moment is supposed to be on the Creator of the universe. I am
aware that there are probably scores of different things that are going on
in your life right now – responsibilities, plans, dinner, pains, heartaches,
fears. Can I ask you to do something? Put all that aside for this time, and
concentrate 100% on God and what He expects from you right now. Give Him all
of who you are, and He will take care of all those things in His time and in
His way. Just think about and act on what God is telling you right now.
Don’t let the fears and worries of tomorrow stop you from doing what you
know you need to do today in your relationship with God.
God requires that you observe His limits &
His timetable (vs. 12, 13)
When God came down on Mt. Sinai to deliver His law to the people, He
demonstrated His power and His glory. It was a like a huge thunderstorm
descended on the mountain. There were bolts of lightning and frightening
thunderclaps. The temptation was for curious people to venture up to the
mountain so they could get a closer look at God. Wouldn’t the announcement
that God was in town peak your curiosity? But God knew that if the people
got too close without being prepared, it would cause their death. So He told
them to stay back. He didn’t tell them to stay back because He didn’t want
them to know Him; He placed that limitation on them because He knew the
result that experiencing something they were not prepared for would have on
them. It would be like venturing into a nuclear reactor without having been
properly prepared with adequate safeguards. It would be disastrous and
destructive.
Beginning here with the Ten Commandments and
continuing on throughout the rest of the Bible, God puts scores of
limitations on mankind as far as what He can and cannot do. Some of those
limitations are permanent. They will never change in my life. But there are
some limitations that are temporary or are for just a particular period of
our lives. Now that I am adult, I no longer have to obey my parents. I still
have to honor them though. Before I was married, I was limited on the ways
that I could express my love to a woman. But now, I have the freedom to
express my love to my wife in ways that I could not before. All these
limitations that God places on us though are not to hurt us or prevent us
from enjoying all that life has to offer. They are gifts from a loving God
who wants to protect us from things that He knows will destroy us and ruin
His best for us. They are a test to see if we really trust Him with the
reins of our life. He’s asking, “Do you really believe that my way is the
best way, and that if you follow my way, your life will turn out far better
than if you had gone off in your own direction?” God puts lots of limits on
us, but they are limits for our protection, not because He is stingy or
old-fashioned.
3. The giving of the law established the fact
that the law can never be the foundation for a personal relationship with
God. (Deut. 5:23-27)
The law cannot relieve our fear
Look at how the people reacted to the presence of God there on the mountain.
They were afraid.
What is your gut reaction when you see a police car in the median of the
road or in your rear view mirror? Are you happy that they are there making
the roads safe for everyone to travel, or does your heart start to beat a
little bit faster because you are afraid that they are going to catch you
doing something that you should not?
One day, each of us is going to have to stand before God as our Judge. Does
that thought place fear within you or does it place joy? The very idea of
facing judgment one day places fear within us if we are relying solely on
our obedience to the law to get us into heaven. How can we ever be sure if
we’ve obeyed the law completely? There is a better way. Rom 8:1 says “There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” When we
have Jesus as our Savior, we don’t have to fear the judgment day. Our
standing then will not be based on how well we kept the law. It will be
based on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that provides for
us.
Do you want to continue living in fear? Then just keep on trying to be good
enough. Keep on trying to live up to the standard of the law. And be very
careful that you never break the smallest portion of the law, because
breaking even that smallest portion will make you guilty before God and will
bring about your eternal sentencing.
The law cannot erase our guilt or shame
Romans 3:20
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Romans 7:7
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not
known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had
said, Thou shalt not covet.
It is not the law’s purpose to remove our guilt. It is the law’s purpose to expose our guilt so that we will seek forgiveness.
James 2:10 says whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
The law cannot provide forgiveness or love
The sacrificial system was provided to cover over the sin, but it could
never erase it and provide forgiveness. Constant offerings had to be
provided because sin continued on and because the offering of animals could
not pay the price that was necessary. Jesus was the final offering. Because
of his sacrifice, we can have forgiveness and love.
The law cannot change us
All that it can change is our actions. It cannot change our heart, our
motivation, our thoughts, or our destiny. (Gal 5:22-23, fruits of the
Spirit) The things listed in those verses; are they internal or external?
They are internal. Only God by His Spirit can change us from the inside out.
God doesn’t just want us to be conformed to His system; He wants us to be
transformed by His Spirit.
Ill.—A father had a rather strong-willed son. On the way to the store he kept telling the child, ‘Sit down and buckle the seat belt.’ But the little kid just kept standing in the seat. Again he said, ‘Sit down and buckle your seat belt.’ And after a time or two more the boy was convinced he had better sit down or disaster would strike. So he slipped down into the seat, snapped the seat belt closed and said, ‘Daddy, I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m still standing up on the inside.
That’s all that the law can do. It can make us sit down out of fear, guilt or shame, but it can’t provide forgiveness, and it can’t change our heart.
[from great message by Chris Talton]
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