INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• We have seen thus far in the Story that since the fall of mankind in the garden, God has been in pursuit of us. He loves us more than we can ever know and He has gone to great lengths to try to bring us back into His family.
• As the Israelites approached their third month of freedom, they approached Mount Sinai. God calls Moses to the mountain in order to share His heart.
• SLIDE #2
• Exodus 19:3–6 (NIV) 3 Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
• After God speaks with Moses, Moses returned from the mountain and explained to the people what God had just shared with him.
• Then the people respond.
• SLIDE #3
• Exodus 19:8 (NIV) The people all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.
• WOW! So God’s chosen people will walk with Him forever! They will never struggle, they will never defy God! WELL, NOT REALLY!
• The sin in the garden kind of summarizes the streak of rebellion we all possess.
• It is like the little girl who was sent to the sit in the corner for misbehaving.
• She is sitting on the chair with arms folded and a pouty look on her face when she proclaims to her mother, I am sitting down on the outside, but I am standing on the inside!
• The spirit many times is willing but the flesh is weak. We tend to want to think we are in control and therefore we do not need God. We are a bit at war with God, yet we think we are winning the fight.
• It is like the two guys at work on day when one guy said to the other, I heard you and the wife had a big argument last night.
• The other man responds, yes we did. Then he is asks how it turned out.
• The man responds proudly, SHE CAME CRAWLING TO ME ON HER HANDS AND KNEES!
• The other man asks what she said. The response, was, she said to GET OUT FROM UNDER THE BED AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!
• The key to this chapter is understanding what God says in verses 5-6 of Exodus19.
• God wants to dwell with His people, but in our message today we will see three things that needed to change for that to happen.
• This thought GIVES us the starting point for today. Let’s begin by first examining…
• SLIDE #5
SERMON
I. God gives guidelines for how we treat God and each other.
The Ten Commandments
• Our desire to get what we want when we want it tends to cause us to treat one another poorly at times.
• For a society to function it needs some laws and guidelines. From our lower story perspective we can look at God’s laws as just being punitive. That God gives them to us so that we cannot have and fun or freedom.
• I remember a few years ago we were at Yellowstone then we drove up the Bear Tooth.
• This 68 mile byway winds its way through southwest Montana and northwest Wyoming and leads into Yellowstone National Park at its Northeast Entrance. It peak elevation is about 12,500 feet.
• The winding mountain road is protected by many guardrails, and if you are in the passenger seat of the vehicle, you can see why they are there.
• As we were climbing to higher and higher elevations, I did not think, those stupid restrictive guardrails, they are keeping me from enjoying a fast track down the mountain.
• I was praising God for their presence. I did not see those guardrails as restrictive, but rather protection!
• God gave us the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-7 to help us to better understand how we can better treat God and one another!
• What God wants and it is for our betterment is a community of love that reflects the relationships of the Trinity!
• The relationship and communion between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the model in which God wants His people to follow and model.
• If you remember verse 6 of Exodus 19, god desires His nation to be a nation of priests. Remember a priest is a bridge builder. In the context the bridge God wants His priest to build is the bridge from man to God.
• His nation and now the Church is to reflect the kind of love for one another that attracts the world around us.
• Listen to me carefully here because I believe doctrine is a central part of the Christian’s relationship with Jesus and walk.
• BUT too many “Christians” forget that the doctrine is supposed to help us to show the love of Jesus to a dying world and to those who are a part of the church.
• The Ten Commandments we to help shape that community of love and also to show us we cannot follow it perfectly therefore making our need for grace apparent.
• The first four commandments deal with how we are to treat God, they deal with our vertical relationship.
• Do not have any God’s before Me. Do not make idols for yourself. Do not misuse the Lord’s name. Finally Keep the Sabbath Holy.
• The way we treat one another is predicated on what we believe about God and how we see and treat God.
• Society by the way was structured on God’s Word. Now that we are systematically dismantling that foundation, society will erupt into chaos one day.
• The other six commandments guide us in how we are to treat other people, our horizontal relationships.
• Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. DO not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony. Do not covet.
• I do not know about you, but do you see anything wrong with these commandments? Why in the world are we taking them out of the public arena and the schools?
• Maybe congress cannot stand them because they break most all of them?
• Our desire for sin and self causes us to resist God’s guidelines.
• As soon as the people say they are going follow God, Moses goes back up the mountain and is gone for 40 days as God is giving him all the details of what is pleasing to Him.
• While Moses is gone, the people go to Aaron so he will make them a god to follow since they surmised that Moses was dead.
• Aaron complies and he makes a calf out of gold. For the Egyptians a calf was a symbol of strength and fertility.
• The people were worshipping the calf. God gets angry and is telling Moses He is going to wipe these stiff-necked people out and start anew with Moses.
• God will not be with rebellious people.
• Moses intercedes and God relents. Moses comes down from the mountain and he is angry. He calla Aaron over and asks what is going on.
• SLIDE #6
• Exodus 32:22–24 (NIV) “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
• Robyn, I turned on the oven and threw some flour, sugar and eggs into the oven and a bunch of cookies came out, what’s a man to do?
• They could not hold it together for 40 days! I am glad we are so evolved now. Look at the 10 Commandments, think about how much better life would be if we would even come close to following them!
• They are for our betterment and protection, not to inhibit our freedom!
• The next issue at hand that need to be dealt with so that God could dwell with His nation was…
• SLIDE #7
II. God desires a place to dwell among us.
The Tabernacle
• While Moses was on the mountain, God gave him the plans for building a place for God to dwell among His people, the tabernacle.
• The word Tabernacle come from a verb in the Hebrew which means to “DWELL”.
• SLIDE #8
• Exodus 25:8–9 (NIV) “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
• God would dwell in the “Most Holy Place” within the Tabernacle.
• SLIDE #9
• The only person who could enter the Most Holy Place was he High Priest who went in one per year on behalf of the people. And the priest had an elaborate ceremony before he could enter.
• The Tabernacle was a portable tent. God was very specific in how it was to be made.
• God would guide His people with a moving cloud during the day and a column of fire by night.
• The Tabernacle represented God’s presence with the people!
• The next issue God needed to deal with was…
• SLIDE #10
III. God requires that sin be atoned for (covered) by shedding of blood.
The Book of Leviticus
• From the time mankind sinned against God, there needed to be a way in which sinful man could be cleansed from their sins.
• The only thing that separates us from God is our sin. Each of us has sinned and will sin. Sin must be dealt with, covered and atoned for.
• The book of Leviticus as a yawner for many folks but within that book, God lays out the sacrificial system that will help us to realize the sins devastating effects.
• The system given was only meant to cover for sins, until Jesus would come to atone for our sins!
• SLIDE #11
• Hebrews 10:4 (NIV) It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
• The animal sacrifices became instituted so that sins could constantly be covered.
• The system was a shadow of things to come!
• SLIDE #12
• Hebrews 10:1 (NIV) The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
• The new nation needed their sins covered so that God could dwell with them. The rebellion of the golden calf, the intercession of Moses, and the gracious forgiveness of God made it possible for God to dwell with His people!
CONCLUSION
• Here are three points of application for us today.
• Jesus is our great High Priest and His blood once and for all removes our sin! With the blood of Jesus is applied on the doorframe of your life through baptism, you are forgiven and given direct access to God!
• SLIDE #13
• Hebrews 9:11–13 (NIV) But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
• We are now the place God dwells! We are the new Tabernacle. The church is not a building, the church is us and we are the place God resides!
• SLIDE #14
• 1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (NIV) Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
• And finally the Great Commission is the guideline Jesus gives to and models for us. The guideline is sacrificial love!
• Are you ready to be reunited with Jesus!
