Moses on the Mountain with the Lord - Part 3
Exodus 19:14-20:20 & Hebrews 12:18-26
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - June 16, 2010
BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION
*This summer are looking into the Word of God to see Moses on the mountain with the Lord. Most people think Moses only went up the mountain once or twice. 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 second meeting in Exodus 19:6-19. There God told Moses He was coming down to speak to the people. The Lord also told Moses that it was vitally important for the people to get ready. Listen to vs. 9-11:
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.
*Exodus 19:14-19 shows us what happened next:
14. Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.
15. And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.’’
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.
*This background leads us to Moses’ third meeting on the mountain with the Lord. Let’s read about it in vs. 20-25:
20. Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
21. And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the LORD, and many of them perish.
22. Also let the priests who come near the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them."
23. But Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for You warned us, saying, ’Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.’"
24. Then the LORD said to him, "Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them."
25. So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
*Moses’ third meeting on the mountain gives us some very important lessons.
1. And the first lesson tonight is that God sets holy standards for us.
*God set some very holy standards in vs. 20-25. And in the next chapter He gives us His most famous standards of all: The Ten Commandments.
*Now when God sets His standards, He doesn’t fool around.
-Listen to vs. 21-22 again from the New Living Translation:
21. Then the Lord told Moses, "Go back down and warn the people not to cross the boundaries. They must not come up here to see the Lord, for those who do will die.
22. Even the priests who regularly come near to the Lord must purify themselves, or I will destroy them."
*Most of the time, most people take sin lightly. Christian author C.S. Lewis once said we are living in a time when “minimum decency passes for heroic virtue and utter corruption for forgivable imperfection.” (2)
*Most people take sin lightly. God never takes sin lightly. Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” And it is.
*We need to search our hearts daily and see whose standards we are following.
-Make sure you are following the Lord, because He is God.
-God sets holy standards for us.
2. The second lesson from the Lord is that we need Godly support.
*Vs. 24 reminds us of this: “Then the Lord said to (Moses), ‘Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break out against them.’”
*God knew that Moses needed help. And so will we. God’s work in the world is almost never a Lone Ranger job.
*The only exception was when Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
-God’s Word makes this clear in Hebrews 1:1-3, which tells us that:
1. God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.
2. has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
3. who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had BY HIMSELF purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
*Jesus did what He and He alone could do. But for the rest of us, God’s plan has always been for us to work together as a body of believers. God’s plan is for us to work together as a spiritual family.
*Moses had Aaron, and we have each other!
-God wants us to work together.
-We all need Godly support.
3. The third lesson is this: God speaks so that we will believe.
*Remember that in Exodus 20, God spoke from the mountain, not just to Moses but to all of the people. And the Lord verbally gave them the 10 Commandments. God explained this to Moses back in Exodus 19:9, “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.”
*Now in Exodus 20:1-2 God began to speak to all of the people:
1. And God spoke all these words, saying:
2. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
*Here the Lord verbally gave the 10 Commandments to all of the Children of Israel. But we will not cover the Commandments tonight. We will discuss them in detail when Moses makes his fifth trip up to see the Lord. That was the time when God wrote the 10 Commandments on clay tablets with His finger.
*Here in Exodus 20, the Lord spoke His commandments to the people. And it was not a pleasant experience for them. We see this in Exodus 20:18-20:
18. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
19. Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’’
20. And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.’’
*Would you like to hear the Lord speak to you?
-A lot of people in our world wouldn’t want to be bothered.
*Like this woman who left this message on her answering machine: “Hi! -- I’m probably home -- I’m just avoiding someone I don’t like. Leave a message, and if I don’t call back, it’s you.” (3)
*A lot of people don’t want to be bothered. But even people who want to hear from God couldn’t bear to hear Him in all His glory.
-Thank God He speaks through the still, small voice of His Holy Spirit! (1 Kings 19:12)
-And thank God that He speaks through His Word.
*Why did the Lord speak to the Children of Israel from the top of the mountain? -- The same reason He speaks to us: God wanted them to believe.
*The Lord told Moses this back during his second trip up the mountain in Exodus 19:9, “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. . .’”
*In other words: When Moses came down off the mountain with the 10 Commandments and all of God’s other instructions, God didn’t want those people saying, “Wait a minute Moses! How do we know you didn’t come up with all of this stuff by yourself?”
*God wanted those people to believe. And this reminds me of something the Apostle John said near the end of his Gospel:
30. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;
31. but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:30-31)
*God speaks so that we will believe.
4. The forth lesson is that we need a Savior!
*Did you ever wonder, “Why Moses.” -- Why did he get to go up and meet with the Lord?
*Exodus 19:20-22 in the New Living Translation says:
20. The Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain.
21. Then the Lord told Moses, "Go back down and warn the people not to cross the boundaries. They must not come up here to see the Lord, for those who do will die.
22. Even the priests who regularly come near to the Lord must purify themselves, or I will destroy them."
*Why did the Lord treat Moses in such a special way?
-One of the main reasons is that God wanted the people to see that they needed a mediator. Moses was the mediator chosen by God for the people. In this way, Moses was pointing to Jesus Christ.
*The people needed someone to stand in the gap for them.
-They figured that out real quick when they heard the Lord speak in His glory.
*They needed someone to stand in the gap for them. -- And so do we!
-But we have an infinitely greater mediator than Moses.
-We have Jesus Christ! -- He is our perfect mediator.
*Hebrews 12:18-26 makes the comparison and tells believers:
18. You have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,
19. and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
20. (For they could not endure what was commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with an arrow.’’
21. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.’’)
22. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
23. to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24. to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
26. whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’’
*Jesus Christ is the only Mediator who can save our souls, “for there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2:5)
-And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (Heb 9:15)
*The world needs a Savior. And Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world.
*Here is the bottom line of this: Moses on the mountain helped the Children of Israel, and tonight God can use him to help us.
-Let God set holy standards for your life.
-Remember that we need Godly support. -- Try your best to get it and to give it.
-God speaks so that we will believe. -- Believe His Word!
-Finally: We need a Savior! -- And Jesus is the only one.
*Have you put your trust in the Lord?
-You can 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. “CHILDREN OF OBEDIENCE” by David Holwick - 1 Peter 1:13-21 - FBC Ledgewood, NJ - #3519 - 05/11/97
3. Reader’s Digest, September 2007, p.147 - (Source: “In Other words” - April 2010, #2 - produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry - 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 - www.iows.net)
