LOVING GOD AND LOVING OTHERS

REFLECTION: Hebrews 12:28-29

SERMON: Exodus 20:22-26

BENEDICTION: 1 Timothy 1:17

INTRO

DID GOD REALLY SPEAK HIS WORD TO THE ISRAELITES Himself?

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory Chapter 60: The Altar of God

Today many scholars deny that this is the case. They argue that the story of the exodus is not fact but fiction—a story the Israelites made up to explain where they came from. In the words of one popular rabbi, “The story of the Exodus did not happen the way the Bible depicts it, if it happened at all.… Archaeology and biblical history have demonstrated that the Bible is not intended to be taken as literal history. It is a spiritual history, and that is the way modern [people] ought to relate to the biblical text.”

But if we could visit with the Israelites at Sinai that day…they would tell us in great detail their memories - the sights, sounds, and probably the smells of that day near the mountain.

The LORD said what HE meant to say.

He means it to govern his people’s actual life,

and he means obedience to be the baseline of their conduct

In Deuteronomy 5:1, Moses gives us 4 verbs to sum the situation up , ‘Hear … learn … keep … do’.

Without the word, there is nothing to hear, learn, keep, or do!

God spoke.

He speaks to us today by His Spirit through His Word.

TRANSITION

DID THEY KNOW?

I wonder if Israel knew at Sinai…if they stopped to consider all that they were committing themselves to?

Exodus 19:8 ESV

8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

They leapt to promise obedience, but shortly after God begin speaking, their hearts were filled with dread.

It may serve us well to recap where we left off last week. LOOK WITH ME AT EXODUS 20:18-21.

Exodus 20:18–21 ESV

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

We call it biting off more than you can chew. Or (one my favorites growing up), “your eyes are bigger than your stomach!” - this was frequently uttered to me at many of buffet by my grandpa.

BUT THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT SURRENDERING TO THE LORD LOOKS LIKE IN A WAY.

We do count the cost, but the answer is “YES, LORD” - because He is God and we are not.

Want to know what God’s will is for your life?

It’s exactly what you would choose for yourself if you could see what God sees…if you knew what God knows.

I’ll say yes, Lord, yes

To Your Will and to Your way

I’ll say yes, Lord, yes

I will trust You and obey

When Your Spirit speaks to me

With my whole heart I’ll agree

And my answer will be yes, Lord, yes.

Moses is now acting as Mediator.

From this point on, everything Moses said was based on this great fact, that God had spoken to his people. The law did not come from earth; it came from Heaven, and for this reason the Israelites were obligated to obey.

I’m asking you this morning to take God at His Word…to accept the 10 Commandments as the law of God.

We are not taking Moses’ word for it - we see God himself testify to the truth of His own Word.

He says to us today, what He said on the mountain...

Exodus 20:22 ESV

22 And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

Let the church say Amen.

God has spoken!

This morning, we see Him speaking about matters of Worship.

We’re going to employ our inductive Bible Study methods when we read much of the Old Testament Law.

Exodus reminds us that God formed a people to display His glory.

He taught them how to live in community with one another.

We are tempted when we come to many of these OT ordinances to write them off as irrelevant. But we need to think about how important this section was for Israel.

They needed some guidelines for living.

We’re about to enter a section of Scripture that will mention some hot-button issues of our present-day. But we will navigate them with care as they reveal the character of God to us.

One of the most important things we ask when we read the Bible is, What does this text teach me about God?

1. First and Foremost

Exodus 20:22–23 ESV

22 And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.

I am God.

I spoke with you.

I’m not of this world.

Don’t take matters into your own hands…it matters.

Don’t innovate outside the bounds of my Word.

DON’T BE LIKE OTHER NATIONS, You are mine!

I’m not trying to get other influences into your worship of me. I want your worship of me ot influence others!

THIS IS MORE THAN “DON’T WORSHIP OTHER GODS - PAGAN GODS!”

It’s also, “DON’T WORSHIP ME LIKE THE PAGANS WORSHIP THEIR GODS!”

We see the first four commandments covered here as the preamble the ordinances coming soon - the practical day-to-day matters that the Israelites were dealing with. But it’s not JUST a rehash...

The “silver and gold” mentioned here are something new.

Exodus—Saved for God's Glory No Other Gods

Ancient idols were made in the form of things up in the heavens, down on the earth, and under the sea. They represented various celestial objects, as well as birds, animals, and fish. But here the emphasis falls not on what idols represent but on how they are made. In those days most idols were made of silver and gold. Some were cast entirely of some precious metal; for others, a thin overlay of metal was pressed down over a wooden figure. Either way, the precious metal was part of the attraction. Idols were something to look at; they had a visual appeal.

We’re still that way! Many of us are such visually-driven people. We are attracted to glamour, glitz, celebrity, shiny things. We’re like DUG - the dog from the animated movie UP…we can be watching something and…SQUIRREL!

We set ourselves us to be dazzled by this world and what it defines as important with our constant scrolling. The images, the flicker of the screen.

Before we laugh too hard at these ancient pagans and wonder how anyone could bow down and worship an image…is it any less ridiculous than what we put in front of our eyes for SO MUCH OF OUR DAYS?

We’re losing our edge…our focus.

Those shiny distractions dull our senses for the divine.

Our spiritual life suffers.

It gets harder to unplug and devote ourselves to basic spiritual disciplines (Christianity 101) of prayer and STUDYING God’s Word.

---

FIRST & FOREMOST - It’s God and His way. He then points us toward...

2. Simple Worship

Exodus 20:24a, 25b

English Standard Version Chapter 20

An altar of earth you shall make for me

English Standard Version Chapter 20

you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

It’s a principle that we take seriously here at Grace Covenant Church.

We don’t ignore modern conveniences or tools that help UNLOCK ministry in this modern age…but we push back on overcomplicating schedules and service elements and ministry opportunities - WE WORK VERY HARD TO KEEP IT SIMPLE.

The temptation is, we worship the creation instead of our Creator. We can protect buildings and monuments more than we should.

These are tools for our dominion…things that shouldn’t get in the way of worship…and yet how many of us know of churches that have become so paralyzed by squabbles over man-made creations that have become idols…that the glory of God left the people!

The LORD is giving this direction to help HIS people LOOK DIFFERENTLY than others.

The Pagan nations constructed pyramids, high altars of finished stone for show.

God here is calling His people to use what He created for worship.

He does the same with us today!

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

They were not allowed to build any old altar; they had to build it according to God’s instructions.

We must remember that we are to worship God the way he wants, not the way we want.

Often this means that what we do in church is different from what everyone else does…even what other churches do.

Our thinking about engaging the world around us is so easily warped…namely that we should try to fit in with our culture as well as we can.

But just like God told the Israelites not to worship like Pagans, he tells us not to pattern our worship after the values of the surrounding culture.

God should be FIRST AND FOREMOST t in our worship - Not a building, not a leader, not a gimmick.

God delights in the SIMPLE PRAISE and Worship of His people as they gather in simple modest buildings or in the mud of a third world country.

God desires...

3. Pure Worship

Exodus 20:26 ESV

26 And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’

Here we go again. It’s probably not just the middle-schoolers wondering about the nakedness mentioned here.

Worshiping naked? Well, actually it was common in Mesopotamia. When the Canaanites worshiped idols, in addition to being done on architectural spectacles that were meant to dazzle - it was obscene. They combined idolatry with ritual prostitution and other forms of indecent exposure.

God wanted his people modest - He still does.

You are not the center of attention when we gather to worship, nor should you be a sideshow.

Pagan worship was flashy - in every sense of the word.

The God of this Bible was calling His people to a Pure worship - one that would REVEAL Him to the onlooker…not draw attention away from Him.

4. Sacrificial Worship

Exodus 20:24 ESV

24 An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

The most important thing ABOUT the altar was what happened ON THE ALTAR.

It was the place for making sacrifice for sin.

Notice that God mentions these sacrifices almost immediately after giving his law.

God gave his people Ten Commandments to obey.

But He knew that they would disobey him.

So he provided a way for them to atone for their sins and come back into fellowship with him.

Both the burnt offering and the fellowship offering were for sinners in need of salvation.

The LORD has always provided his people with atonement for their sin.

Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve had sinned, God clothed them with the skins of animals—a sacrifice was made for their sin.

An altar was made after the Great Flood. The world had been judged for its wickedness, but Noah was saved, and when he set foot on dry land he made a sacrifice to God.

The patriarchs all built altars, as did Moses, and then David. There was always an altar where God’s people could make atonement for sin.

But the Old Testament’s Sacrificial system was not complete.

Hebrews 10:1–4 ESV

1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Even though it was incomplete, it was preparing the way for Jesus to make atonement once and for all.

The Bible says that “God presented him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (Rom. 3:25a).

When Jesus was crucified, he made an atoning sacrifice on the altar of God. In fact, the Bible goes so far as to refer to Jesus as our “altar” (Heb. 13:10).

He is the burnt offering that made atonement for our sins, as well as the fellowship offering that reconciled us to God.

Hebrews 9:11–14 ESV

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Conclusion

- Remember, living under God’s law does not only satisfy his people; it also displays God to those who are not his people

- Right after God delivered His law, He called the people to worship, to get into His presence.

He’s doing that today through the proclamation of the Gospel...

Calling us into His presence by His Spirit

by way of repentence

by way of confession

by faith and trust

and so shall we EVER BE WITH THE LORD!

Did God really say this?

Did God really want Israel to be set apart?

YES. AND HE HAS SET US APART TODAY AS A PECULIAR TREASURE FOR HIS DIVINE PLEASURE.

In this world…not of it.

Following Jesus so we might LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS in a way that’s simple, pure, and sacrificial!

LET’S PRAY