Written with the Finger of God

Well, the Ten Commandments have had, down through the centuries, a tremendous impact throughout the world.

The Ten Commandments are accepted by Muslims, by Jews, by Christians as coming from God. In the Hebrew Bible, they are sometimes referred to as the Ten Words. For example, in Exodus 34, verse 28, unfortunately in English translations, they're generally translated the Ten Commandments with a footnote that in the original text, they are referred to as the Ten Words. We could say the ten most important words in the history of this world and the impact of these ten words continue today.

In English, they're sometimes called the Decalogue. Deca, the Greek for ten, Logos, the Greek for word, the ten words, the Decalogue. So when we refer to the Decalogue, we're referring to the Ten Commandments, the ten most famous words in the world. And so in the series on the law, on the life of Moses, we come tonight to the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses on two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written, listen to this, written with the finger of God. Now we believe that all of the Bible is inspired by God, it's all written by God. That is very clear, that's our strong conviction at Calvary Church that this book, the Bible, is not just the writings of men, it comes from God, it's written by God. But this is uniquely said of the Ten Words, uniquely said of the Ten Commandments that they are written with the finger of God.

What do you think of the Ten Commandments? Now most of us don't like laws. We prefer to do our own thing. Sabu was very, very careful to say that although he had been suspended from college, he really was in the right.

Now whether he was or not, we don't know. But one thing I know about Sabu and one thing I know about myself, we prefer to do our own thing rather than follow laws. And that is true of all of us.

Think of some of the advertising slogans, just do it. Sometimes you've got to break the rules, we hear. Some advertisements have said, living without boundaries. And so we don't like laws, we reject the laws, we rebel against the laws, we try to look for the loopholes. But if you reject the law of God, who decides what is right and wrong? And what do you base your values, your own ideas, your personal preferences, your own philosophy based on your prejudices and desires?

I will do what I like. And so the individual becomes the ultimate reference point. Is that really what you want in a society where all of us do our own thing? George Barna has said, America is suffering moral and spiritual anarchy. Just think how easily law and order has broken down over the last few nights in our major cities of America.

How fragile it is that given the opportunity, many of us would take advantage of a situation when law and order breaks down. But God our Creator has done a very wise thing. He has spoken to us. He's given us these ten words which are not up for debate and which really have formed the foundation of legal codes throughout the history of our world. We must understand, certainly those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, that we're all living under the Lordship and the direction of our God. Now if you've got our Bible there, I ask you to open it to Exodus chapter 19. And I want to read a few words of introduction about the Ten Commandments, and then I'm actually going to read the Ten Commandments. Here at Calvary with our Child Development Center, our four-year-olds are taught the Ten Commandments.

I'm not sure how many of us as adults could go right through the Ten Commandments, but I'm going to read them. But first of all, in Exodus 19 verse 11. Exodus, the second book of the Bible, we read, and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, notice this, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Think of that. Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth is going to come down to a mountain, Mount Sinai. And you shall set limits for the people all around saying, take care. Do not go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. So in his testimony, he said that his brother gave him very, very good advice and told him that because he was sinful, how could he stand before the Holy God?

This is what we're learning. God Almighty comes down to Mount Sinai and they're told, you mustn't even go near the mountain. You certainly mustn't touch it or you will die. Verse 18, now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai. Notice the repetition of God coming down. He came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. Can you imagine the fear of Moses as he went up to meet the Lord? Exodus 20 verse 23, and Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you yourself warned us saying set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.

You get the background? Exodus 20 verse 1, and God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Here's the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a card image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I am the Lord your God. I'm a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. First two commandments, there's only one God. He is supreme. He has no rivals. Secondly, it is very, very important how you approach Him, how you worship Him.

In particular, you will not make for yourself card images. Here is the third commandment, verse 7. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will hold Him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Are you listening? Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Do not say, oh my God. Do not take the name of Jesus Christ in vain. This is one of the ten words.

This is important. Of all the things that God could have said in the ten words, this is one of them. Here's the other one, verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock. Under the Mosaic law, the animals got the day off on the Sabbath. Or the sojourner, the immigrant, was also not to work on the Sabbath who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Now in the New Testament with our Lord being raised from the dead on the first day of the week, we who follow Jesus celebrate that and it is called, and rightly so, the Lord's day. Verse 12, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Another of the ten words, you are to honor your father and your mother. In the New Testament it says children obey your parents.

But even those of us who are older we're still to honor our father and our mother. Verse 13, you shall not murder whoever you are. Even as we've been learning over the last few days, even a police officer going around his duty, if he takes someone's life unlawfully, even though he's a police officer, he is still guilty of murder. The taking of innocent life is murder. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.

Here is the importance of the sanctity of the family. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.

No looting. Don't take what doesn't belong to you. You shall not steal. Don't steal from your employer.

Don't steal his time. You shall not steal. Verse 16, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Don't make a false accusation. Don't tell lies. Don't say something against your neighbor, your friend, your kid, your colleague that you know not to be true. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Here is the final one. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. This goes to the heart, isn't it? You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is in your neighbor's.

Well, very few of us have neighbors who have oxes or donkeys but they have cars, they have other gadgets. We are not to covet anything that belongs to someone else. Now when all the people saw the thunder, try and picture this in 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 and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear for God has come to test you. That the fear of Him that may be before you that you may not sin. The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

What an amazing situation. The Ten Commandments written with the finger of God. Now, I want us first to understand that the Ten Commandments were given by God to Israel. We saw that in chapter 19 verse 11. We see that in chapter 20 where God spoke all of His words. He's speaking to Moses to give the words to Israel.

Three months after crossing the Red Sea, the children of Israel arrive at Sinai. This was the fulfillment of God's promises to Moses at the burning bush at Exodus 3. And Moses now goes up, can you picture it, this mighty man Moses, going up Mount Sinai to receive the law.

Exodus 31 verse 18, he, the Lord, gave to Moses when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. So here is Moses with these two tablets with the ten words, with the Ten Commandments and to emphasize the importance that they're coming not from Moses, this is not Moses' idea of the law, this is the law of God, written with the finger of God. And in fact, to demonstrate the importance of the Ten Commandments, you remember where they were placed? Yes, the Ten Commandments are going to be placed in the Ark of the Covenant.

You remember the tabernacle? There is the outer court, then there's the holy place, then there's the Holy of Holies, the sanctum sanctorum, and right in the Holy of Holies, there is the Ark of the Covenant, the very symbol of the presence of God, the place where the high priest goes in one day a year on the great day of atonement, and in the Ark of the Covenant, which is in the Holy of Holies, there is placed the Ten Commandments. You can read about it in Deuteronomy chapter 10. So the Ten Commandments are at the very heart of Israel, for the law of God revealed to Israel. This, in a sense, is Israel's constitution. And then there is followed in Exodus, in the Numbers, in Leviticus, in Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, there is followed for their details which in a sense are the expansion and the working out of the basic law of the Ten Commandments, of the ten words, written with the finger of God.

And when you're reading in the Old Testament, the minor prophets and the major prophets, much of what they're saying, in fact, is an exposition of the law. They are calling the people back to the law. They're telling them, for example, that they're idolaters, that they're in breach of the first and the second commandments. They draw them back in terms of their immorality, or they have broken the Sabbath. They are calling the people to repentance and giving them and reminding them of the importance of these ten words.

Now, the Ten Commandments are given by God in love to His chosen people to enjoy life, to be fulfilled, to be wise, and to be free. True freedom is not doing what you want. As we watch these riots, we say, people are doing what they want. They're really free.

No, they're not free. True freedom is not doing what you want, that's license. True freedom is doing what is right and having the ability to do that which is right. And that begins, of course, and continues with a living relationship with a living God. Now, I want you to understand that the Ten Commandments were given to a redeemed people. Deuteronomy Exodus 19, verse 3, it says, thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel. The Ten Commandments are given by God to Israel, and notice the timing of them.

They're given to Israel after the exodus from Egypt. That's why they're reminded in the preamble to the ten words in Exodus 20, verse 2, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. In our series on the life of Moses, we've been learning that the great theme of Exodus is redemption. And so the Decalogue, the ten words, is given by God to his chosen redeemed people, a people he dearly loved. Now this great God who's redeemed his people, this great God who's leading them to the promised land in terms of the great Abrahamic Covenant, now God is telling his people how they are to live, how they're to worship him, how they're to approach him as the Ten Commandments are enfolded with all of the Mosaic law. So the Ten Commandments are given, this is so important, they were given to a redeemed people, they are not given to redeemed people. If we put it theologically we'd say the Mosaic law was given for Israel's sanctification, not their justification. What is justification? Justification is the declaration by holy God to sinful people that they're in a right standing with him. These people have been redeemed.

We can say they have been saved. Why give them the law then? The law is going to tell them how they're going to live. They're going into a land where there's pagans, they're going into a land where there are many, many idolaters but they're to be different. They're to live in terms of God's law. Here is what God wants. And if you're going to live a holy life as God wants you to live, what does that mean? What does it mean that I live a holy life? Here is the Mosaic law. Read it.

Meditate on it. Read it day and night, it'll be on your heart. And so you live a life which glorifies God and blesses others. So what's the purpose of the Ten Commandments? Well, I've already said that they're to help people to lead them to live a holy life. And the Ten Commandments also reveal our need for salvation. So the common idea that the Ten Commandments are a way of salvation, that if I try to keep the Ten Commandments, if I obey most of them most of the time, that ultimately I'll get into heaven. That people, some people see then the Ten Commandments as a ladder that I must climb in order to be saved, in order to approach God. No, the Ten Commandments are not a ladder that you must climb to approach God. The Ten Commandments are given by a holy God.

Here are His standards. Here is an expression of His holiness. Here are the moral requirements that God has given. The Ten Commandments then, the ten words written with the finger of God, were a gracious provision by God to His people so that they would live a well-ordered life under the sovereignty of God, bringing glory to God and enjoying the blessings of God. For example, the Fifth Commandment, honor your father and mother. Now why should I honor my father and mother? Well, many reasons, but here's an important one, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You're going into the Promised Land, you want it to be well with you.

Here are your parents, I want you to honor them because as you honor your parents and as the family is stable, that it will be well with you and you'll live long in the land that I'm giving to you. And that command with promise is repeated by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6. In other words, if Israel humbles themselves, if the Israelites conduct their life in accordance with these ten words, the Ten Commandments, God is going to bless them. Now, the Ten Commandments are part of what we would call the Mosaic Covenant. So let me ask you to look back again to Exodus 19, where God has instituted this covenant, we call it the Mosaic Covenant, and there is a three-fold promise which I'm going to read in Exodus 19 verses 3 through 6, which is a very, very important section of the book of Exodus.

So we're going to read it. Exodus 19 verse 3. The Lord called to him out of the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, verse 4, listen to this, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians. What did he do to the Egyptians? He overthrew them. They were drowned by the Red Sea and it was all because of God. It wasn't because Israel was a superpower, far from it. You saw what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself.

How beautiful. I'm watching over you, Israel. You saw what I did to your enemy, the Egyptians. They're at the bottom of the ocean, but furthermore I bore you, I carried you, I provided for you on eagle's wings, what a beautiful picture, and brought you to Myself. Yes, they are the people of God. God loves them, God cares for them. He's delivered them, He saved them, He's carried them, He's watched over them, and He's brought them to Himself.

Now therefore, here it is. That's all of the grace of God. We've heard our brother, Sabu, say how he was saved, how God redeemed him, but his testimony didn't end with his conversion.

No, he testified of how God has provided for him, how God has carried him through difficulties and bore him on eagle's wings and brought him to Himself. Now therefore, if you'll indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, the Mosaic covenant, you shall be, here's a threefold promise. First, my treasured possession.

What a beautiful expression. Israel is going to have a unique relationship with the living God. Of all of the nations, God chose them, they are His treasured possession. This is of course a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, when God said to Abraham, I will make you a great nation, Exodus at Genesis 12, verse 2. And through the nation of Israel, the nations of the world are going to be blessed, but at the center of that blessing is this treasured possession. Israel in Scripture is called the apple of His eye, a special nation called by God, sovereignly chosen by God.

And the Mosaic covenant did not nullify, does not abrogate the Abrahamic covenant. Our brother Rodney Navey spoke this morning on Ezekiel chapter 37, the valley of great, of dry bones. And there in that wonderful chapter, the dry bones of Israel, God is promising that He's going to gather His scattered people. I will bring them to their own land, is the promise of Ezekiel 37. That Israel is God's treasured possession, then and now, so that there awaits for Israel a magnificent future. As they, the valley of dry bones will be gathered up and as they're scattered and brought to their own land, and have their King, King David, our Lord Jesus Christ. And says Ezekiel will have the sanctuary, the temple right in the midst of them, but right here, way back at the beginning of the Mosaic covenant, there is this wonderful term, Israel is my treasured possession. Secondly, verse 6, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests.

Magnificent. Israel's going from slavery of Egypt to royalty. A kingdom, yes, but a kingdom of priests. Every one of them was to worship God, was to serve God. Their whole lives are to be lived as an act of worship before God. Israel then is going to mediate the blessings and purposes of God to other nations and peoples.

They are God's treasured possession. Secondly, they are a kingdom of priests. Third, they are a holy nation. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Yes, Israel is to be different. Separated, the very meaning of holiness, separated from the sinful, pagan nations around them, living consecrated, holy lives to God, so that the other nations would see that God is blessing this unique nation of Israel, and so come to saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if the treasured possession, the kingdom of priests and the holy nation sounds familiar, it should if you know your Bibles.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, to those of us who are followers of Jesus, this magnificent description. He says, you're a chosen race, chosen by God. You are a royal priesthood. Every single believer in Jesus Christ is part of this priesthood to serve God and to worship God. A holy nation, a people, here it is, for His own possession we belong to God. Yes, we are also God's treasured possession. I belong to God. I've been purchased by God.

I'm not my own. He's brought me to Himself through our Lord Jesus Christ. For what purpose? That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. That's the Gospel, isn't it? Treasured possession, kingdom of priests, a holy nation. So the 10 commandments, the Decalogue, the 10 words sets the standard of moral conduct. They reveal the holiness of God. They reveal the sheer magnificence of God, the glory of God, His holiness. What is this God like?

Who comes down from heaven to Mount Sinai? He's an awesome God. He transcends time and space. And in the giving of Allah, there is a symbolic difference.

Did you notice that? A symbolic distance between God and the people. He is on the top of Mount Sinai as the transcendent God. The unapproachable God, as it were, and He's calling His people to live holy lives. Here is God's revelation on Mount Sinai as we read in Exodus 19. He is majestic, He's awesome, He's brilliantly holy, and He is unapproachable.

For a person or even an innocent animal just touches the mountain is going to be killed. A demonstration of the holiness of this great God. And as we are faced with this, as we're faced with the standard of God and who God is, He is holy, holy, holy. So holy that even the seraphim can't look at Him, but with veiled faith say holy, holy, holy. He's transcendent. The very mountain is trembling.

The people are trembling. Moses is in fear. This is God. And as He gives His ten words, and as we read them, as I read them, every single one of us realizes that we have sinned. That all of us have broken God's law, and without the law we would deceive ourselves. John the Apostle describes sin is lawlessness in 1 John 3 verse 4. The Ten Commandments then reveal our own sinfulness, but they also reveal our need for God's grace.

Now Israel had seen God's grace firsthand in many ways, in the remarkable deliverance from slavery, the time of the Passover, through the Red Sea, through the provision of manna and water and so on. And now God is giving them His ten words, written with His very finger, a gracious provision to them, and a reminder to them, and a reminder to you and me that all of us stand daily in need of the grace of God and the forgiveness of God. You see the law requires perfect obedience. James writes, James 2 verse 10, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point is guilty of all of it. So as I read the Ten Commandments and some of them you feel, well it's not too bad, I haven't killed anyone, I haven't committed adultery but never stolen. What about false witness? What about that gossip?

What about that false accusation? What about coveting? What about worshipping the one true God and having no idols in my life?

No. All of us come short. And the law then points us, as it reveals our own sinlessness, it points us to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only one who perfectly obeyed the law. Your brother Sabu was very, very good at what he said to you. He got it absolutely right. He could have summarized what I'm saying in two minutes.

That's it. Here is an unapproachable God. Here am I, and how can I possibly have a relationship with this great God? How can I know this God?

How can I be in a right relationship with Him? The answer is our magnificent Lord Jesus Christ. You see the law tells me what to do but it doesn't give me the power to do it. It reveals our need of a Savior, a perfect Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ who comes and perfectly fulfills the law and then takes my sin on Himself on the cross. So these are, these Ten Commandments, God's commandments are to be obeyed. They're to be obeyed. They're commandments. They're not options or suggestions.

They're clear commands. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not bear false witness. You see, I don't know if I like them all.

Remember whose finger wrote them? And could you imagine a society where everyone made their own rules? Imagine if we had no rules in driving here, a red light, you could disobey if you want to.

You're in a hurry. Imagine if there's no laws. Imagine if you know police officers. Imagine if there's no law enforcement. Is that really the kind of society that you want?

You say, well, these laws are restrictive. I want to live a free life. God wants you to live a free life. You see, when you're truly free, instead of fulfilling your own sinful desires and going your own way, you'll understand something very, very important, that when I humbly submit to my Lord Jesus Christ, He's going to lead me in the paths of righteousness.

He's going to lead me in a path of holiness, a path of wisdom, a path of fulfillment. You say, but the Ten Commandments are negative. I don't like negativity.

But the negatives are the logical consequences of positive statements. If Israel is to be God's treasured possession, if they're to be a kingdom of priests, if they're to be a holy nation, it is essential that they refrain from certain evil conduct. And if you, my dear brother or sister, are going to live a holy life to please God, to give glory to God, you must refrain from all impurity. Now Israel quickly broke the Ten Commandments. They initially, in Exodus 19, said rather glibly, oh, we'll obey them.

Whatever they say, we'll do them. But that wasn't the case. Even before Moses came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments, they'd already broken them by their worship of the golden calf. What was God's reaction? God told Moses to cut out two new stone tablets and to come up to Mount Sinai again. You can read it in Exodus 34. And there the Lord reveals His compassion and His grace. You see, we have a God, yes, who's holy, but a God who's compassionate, a God who is gracious. And in the fullness of time into this dark world, God sends His Son.

He sends His Son, God incarnate, because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And our Lord Jesus Christ comes. And when He's asked in the Gospels, Lord, what's the greatest commandments? How would you summarize the law? Jesus responds with two positive statements. Two positive statements of love.

This is it. This is how you summarize all of the law and the prophets. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your might.

That's the first command. Secondly, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's the 10 commandments, some of them dealing with our relationship with God, others dealing with our relationship with our neighbor. If I love my neighbor as myself, I don't steal from him.

If I love my neighbor as myself, I don't covet his car. And the Lord Jesus perfectly fulfills the law and interprets the law. He is the end, the culmination of the law, Paul says in Romans 10, verse 4. And listen to what Paul says in Galatians 3, verse 24. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. And now that faith has come, we're no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you're all sons of God through faith. How wonderful that I stand before God, a sinful person. I've broken the law, but the law is a guardian.

It's a tutor. It's pointing me to Christ, and it is in Christ and Christ alone that I receive forgiveness. Because he took my sin on, in his body, on the cross, dying, being buried, and being raised from the dead. And now if I call upon him, if you call upon him, you will be saved. And now as followers of Jesus, and we're learning this on Sunday mornings as we go through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We are no longer under the Mosaic law as an external code of law. You say, well, we're free from the law.

Just be careful. We're no longer under the Mosaic law as a code of law, but we are under the law of Christ who is the fulfillment of the law and the interpreter of the law. That's what we're learning in the Sermon on the Mount. And so we're under God's law, not the Mosaic law, and we're under the law of Christ. So Paul can say in Galatians 6, verse 2, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. See, if I bear your burdens, I'm loving you as myself, and that way I'm fulfilling the law, the law of Christ. Every single one of you listening has broken the law, has broken the Ten Commandments. Don't look on them as a ladder to get you to God.

No, they are a mirror. And as you look at the Ten Commandments and as you think of the holiness of God, the Spirit of God will reveal to you your own sin, your own defilement. No, you can't use the mirror to get rid of your sin. The law is not soap that you put on you to get rid of the sin.

No. The law says do this, don't do that. Grace comes, and it's not a matter of do, it's a matter of done. It's a matter of pointing to our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ who fulfills the law and takes our sin in His body on the tree. And if you're listening without Jesus Christ, I can ask you to call out now to Christ to come and save you. You're condemned.

I don't know what sins you've committed, but I know you've sinned. And I point you to Christ, the wonderful Savior, the only mediator between a holy God and sinful people like you and me. And this evening, then as I finish, I bring you not to Mount Sinai. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says about Mount Sinai as he summarizes in Hebrews 12, verse 18.

He's talking to Hebrew Christians, some true believers, perhaps others professing. He says, you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and a gloom and a tempest. He's talking about you haven't come to Mount Sinai. Verse 20, for they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.

Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. No, I don't bring you to Mount Sinai. I bring you to Mount Zion. Mount Zion. Verse 22, for you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

See when I place my trust in Jesus Christ, I enter into tremendous spiritual blessings. I come and look forward to that great reality in the future when I will be part of that heavenly Jerusalem, that Jerusalem which will come down from heaven. Verse 24, and you've come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, not a Mosaic covenant, a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Mount Sinai, what does it present?

Terror. God is unapproachable, the holiness of God. Mount Zion, as we come through the mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ symbolizes the new covenant, grace, freedom, joys. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, may you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

May you love your neighbor as yourself. Because Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. We tend to forget this in this casual society of cultural Christianity.

No, Jesus says if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Mount Sinai was shaken so much that the people trembled, but we have come, listen to this, we've come to a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Hebrews 12, verse 28, therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. That's the kingdom of God, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Yes, as I worship God, I'm to do with reverence and awe, not casually, not in a matter of fact way. This is a holy God.

Yes, He's holy, but now through my Lord Jesus Christ He's approachable God. My Savior is the mediator and has brought me to the living God, that He is the way, the truth, and the life, that no one comes to the Father but by me. And now I'm part of a kingdom, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. A kingdom that is forever, and this world may shake, whether it's with COVID-19 or whether it's with riots, or whether it's ill health or unemployment or whatever it is. The world around us may shake, but we who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are part of a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

A kingdom, as Daniel says, that will last forever and ever, and through the grace of God, praise God, I am part of that kingdom. And my prayer for you is that you will as well. John Donne wrote this, no man ever saw God and lived. Moses learned that.

People said don't, don't, don't even let God speak to us. Remember when Moses wants to see the glory of God, God says to him, you know, no man can see God and live. No man ever saw God and lived.

That's true. And yet I shall not live till I see God. My life, my eternal life begins as I see God as I come to Jesus Christ. And yet I shall not live till I see God and when I have seen Him, I shall never die.

What do you mean? No, I'm part of that kingdom, the kingdom of God, saved by the grace of God. But my Lord Jesus Christ assures me of that, that He gives to me eternal life. Therefore, what am I to do?

What are you to do? You're to receive Him as your Savior, you're to trust Him, you're to serve Him, and you're to love Him with all of your heart. Eternal God, we thank You for Your law. We stand condemned in the cell as it were, condemned. The wages of sin is death. We thank You that into this dark world of our sin has come our beautiful, our lovely Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless Christ who is the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. I pray for each person listening, Father, that they will have that living relationship with You through Christ and that we who know Christ will love Him and will obey Him and tell others about Him. In His name, amen.