Distinctives of the Old and New Covenants

If you have your bibles with you, please open them to Exodus nineteen. Exodus nineteen, as we come rapidly to the end of the second section of Exodus, this second movement, if you will, in Exodus. The first movement was Exodus one through twelve. And in Exodus one through twelve, we went on a journey from the people's prayer and desire for deliverance all the way to the passover and to the death Angel coming and God delivering his people through wrath. And then after that we took a break and looked at the Lord's Supper and implications for how we as followers of Christ apply the truths that we find in that first movement of the text. Now, in this second movement of the text, we're looking at verses thirteen, chapters thirteen through nineteen, and we're watching the people of Israel become just that, the people of Israel, and we see the trials and tribulations in the desert, and we see the continued wrestling with unbelief coming now to a close of this section. And as we close this section, the people are being prepared to enter into a covenant with God, to enter into the Mosaic covenant by far the most famous of all of the Old Testament covenants, this covenant with Moses. And as they prepare for this covenant here in Chapter nineteen, Moses is going to prepare them to meet with God, and it is going to be a meeting unlike any other. And as they prepare to meet with God, they have to consecrate themselves. And it is to this that we turn our attention in Chapter nineteen, beginning at verse nine. Remember, God is about to come down on the mountain and deliver to them the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. He's going to deliver this covenantal document, if you will, and we are just prior to that. Look at verse nine, and the Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them walk their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of the people, and you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. And just as a footnote here in a way, a lot of young people here. And I know that the young people hear anything like the young people in my house. When you read that verse, the young people in my house kind of look up and go. They had guns. Know that would have been with arrows. So just for the young people to put your minds at ease, so you can continue to listen to me and not be stuck right there for the rest of the morning. Okay, whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments, and he said to the people be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman. Now. The danger in today's text lies in the low hanging fruit. It would be easy to read this text and its emphasis on consecration prior to coming into God's presence and run full speed to the obvious application to the way many Americans come to church, from board shorts and flipflops to blue jeans and graphic te's, one could have a field day pointing a righteous finger of indignation calling people to repent. However, doing so would miss the mark on several fronts. First, it would ignore the ample evidence in both the Old and New Testament that makes it clear that God is after much more than just the way we dress. Second, it would fall into the trap of viewing righteousness as an outward reality, as if somehow there is something that you can put on yourself that will make you righteous, that there is something that you can possess and place on your person that would make you righteous. This would not only fall into a trap, but it would also put us in the category of other religions that basically identify their holy people by something special that they wear. Thirdly, it would fail to grasp and communicate the significance of the continuity and discontinuity between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant and what those things teach us about true holiness. And Finally, if we did that, there would be no good news none whatsoever. You see, we could do that without the Gospel. We could do that, and there would be no need for Christ. We could do that, and basically what we would communicate is Jesus didn't need to come and die, because all you have to do to be righteous is just put on the right clothes just where, the right thing outwardly, and you have conquered righteousness. That is not good news. I believe the way that we dress when we come to church matters, not because I believe there's a particular type or quality of clothing that makes us acceptable to God, but because of the connection between what we put on and what we believe. Walking into church looking like a street walker, a surfer, or a homeless person not necessar necessarily sinful if you indeed are a street walker, A sorry for a homeless person. But the issue is that we have been commanded to approach the Lord robed in righteousness, and righteousness is not an outward garment. Amen. So if those things are true, then how do we look at this text? And God obviously calling Israel to consecrate themselves, and obviously calling them to consecrate themselves specifically in an outward sense, he doesn't tell them get your heart right. He tells them, wash your clothes and then don't go near a woman. So obviously there's a message here of some thing outward. So if there is this message of something outward and of consecrating ourselves and preparing ourselves has something to do with this message of outwardness, how do we then apply that to who we are today in the New Covenant and not under the Mosaic Covenant without just going straight to that issue of clothing. We we do it by understanding the continuity and the discontinuity between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant. And if you look at these things in light of that continuity and discontinuity, there are truths here that apply to us all. The other thing we have to understand is that what we are looking at if you look through the arc of redemptive history, is we are looking at the church in infancy. Redemptive history is just beginning. We've just come out of Genesis and we're just now in Exodus. God is revealing himself to his people, and he is doing so progressively. Think about it in terms of the way we raise our children. There are truths that we desire to communicate to our children that are deep theological truths. But when our children are small, before we can get to the deep theological truth, we have to sometimes deal with these outward issues in hopes of later making the connection between that outward issue and the inward one. And as they grow in their maturity and their understanding, we can be clearer and clearer about the connection between these things. But oftentimes we just begin with the most simple. And if you understand that this is part of redemptive history unfolding, you understand that God is here dealing with his people in infancy. First, let's look at the continuity between the Mosaic and the New Covenants as it relates to this issue of consecration. The first thing that we see here in terms of continuity, and when I say continuity, I mean the things that are the same, things that haven't changed between then and now. And later we'll look at the things that have changed between then and now and their significance in the way that we apply this truth. First of all, the sanctity and centrality of the Word has not changed between then and now, and verse nine, the Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also leave you forever. There's two purposes in God coming in the thick cloud, One so that the people can hear the word of God, and two so that the people can know that Moses is God's prophet and can trust Moses as God's prophet. The whole idea here is that the people of God would have a relationship with God based on the word of God. This was true then and this is true now. The people of God have a relationship with God based on the word of God. The word of God is the foundation of our relationship with God. It is the fount from which flows God's truth that changes our lives. It is the way we know who God is. And so there are two things here. First, the source of the revelation God himself. God is revealing his presence prior to revealing his laws law. God is revealing to the people of Israel that he is the source of the revelation. Because if God is not the source of the revelation, then the revelation is not binding. If Moses comes with a law and the law didn't come from God, it is not binding on the people. The only thing that can bind the conscience of God's people is the word of God. Amen. By the way, this is one of the hallmarks of Baptist theology, the liberty of conscience. That no one can bind the conscience of a believer save God himself in his word. No one can say to a believer, taste not, touch not where God has not given such instructions. No one can bind the conscience believe of a believer and force a believer to add to rules and regulations that are anything other than the rules and regulations of God. No one can do this in a theological sense. Again, we're not talking about whether or not people can establish speed limits. Amen. So don't run out here saying, oh, they're trying to bind my conscience, because God has made it very clear how you are to show respect for things like that. But it's the word of God that makes that clear. When I talk about our conscience being bound, I'm talking about people who make rules for how it is that you approach God, rules for how it is that you know God, rules for how it is that you obey and serve God rightly. That's what I mean by binding the conscience. Moses did not have the right to do that, even though God had singled him out. It's his prophet. Moses did not have the right to chew on his own what things he would communicate to the people in terms of what is righteous and what is not. Moses did not have that right, And if he had exercised that right, he would have been in sin. And anyone who allowed their conscience to be bound by Moses and not by the word of God would be in sin. What does this look like? We see it all around us, do we not? We see the binding of consciences. And I'm not just talking about outside of people who call them themselves Christian. I mean within people who call themselves Christian. Don't we see people whose consciences are bound? People who, for example, won't eat meat on Fridays. Amen, I went to high school and San Antonio, to a largely Roman Catholic era area, and I remember being in high school in San Antonio and they wouldn't serve meat in the cafeteria on Fridays. What's that about. That's the first time I learned that there were people who, because of their brand of Christianity, believed that it was more pious for them not to eat meat on Fridays. That, my friends, is binding the conscience amen somebody. When there are rules for righteousness that come from someone or somewhere other than the scriptures, the conscience has been bound. But not only is God revealing himself to be the source of revelation, but he's revealing Moses, his prophet, as the steward of the revelation. Look at what the text says. That the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you Forever. Moses has been communicating to the people as God's spokesman, and the people have doubted Moses again and again and again. God says, there are a couple of things that I desire to accomplish by coming down on the mountain in the thick cloud. One, I want the people to hear from me. I want them to know that what they're dealing with is the word of God. And two, I want the people to know that I have chosen you as my prophet, so that as they listen to you, they are listening to me. John Calvin, commenting on this text, writes, for if the mightiest prophets Moses obtained the Mighty's prophets. Rather, Moses obtained credit in the church on no other grounds than because he bore the commands of God and only taught what he had heard. How foolish and impudent will it be in teachers who sink down far beneath him to endeavor to attain a higher point in fine, this passage shows that we must believe in God alone, but that at the same time we must listen to the prophets who spoke out of his mouth. Besides this, it appears that God did not wish to obtain credit for his servant Moses during a short period of time, but that posterity should pay him the same reverence even after his death. In other words, we listen to Moses just like they listened to Moses, because God made it clear that Moses was proclaiming the word of God. So Moses was being validated as God's spokesman. The Decalogue is being validated as God's law, and the Bible was being validated as God's word. This is why we adhere to the scriptures. This is why we believe what we have in the Bible, because God has validated the Bible. Hebrews one one and two we read it earlier, long ago. At many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, But in these last days He has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. So there is continuity between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant in that God's word is final, that our obedience is to God and his word. But there's also continuity in our understanding of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. This was communicated in our text, and it's still true today. Look at ten to twelve, second part of nine through twelve, when Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. Don't you just love that as though God as though he's informing God of something. Moses, I'm coming down. I'm we'll meet with the people. Okay, you should probably know some of the things they've been saying. The Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day, For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people, and you shall set limits for the people all around, saying take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Several things here that point out the distance between God and the people in terms of his holiness being set apart being other First, their need for washing, wash your clothes. I'm getting ready to visit you in a significant way, and you need to wash your clothes. The text doesn't say how they were to wash their clothes, but what a powerful statement it would be if after just coming off of instances a couple of chapters earlier where they come into a place where there's no water and God gives them water after they're grumbling and complaining, because if there's anything you can't do without in a desert, it's water. And now a couple of chapters, let God says I'm going to visit you, consecrate yourselves, wash your clothes. It would be amazing if that included using the precious resource of water to wash those clothes, because in the desert, when water is scarce, you don't use it to wash your clothes. Amen, somebody, if you're in the desert and water is scarce, you drink it. Period. Because if you don't drink it, you die. God says, to wash your clothes. In other words, Moses, the people need to know that what is about to happen is significant. It's out of the ordinary. It's not normal. This is something different than they've ever experienced before. My presence is about to descend upon these people. Tell them to get ready. What does that say? What it says is you're not ready in and of yourself to meet with God. Amen. Secondly, the unapproachable mountain makes it clear that there is a distance between God and his holiness and man and his sinfulness. First of all, don't come dirty. Secondly, don't come close. I'll make sure that the cloud can be seen and heard. You make sure that you don't get too close. Thirdly, the ominous cloud God comes in this cloud. They've experienced this cloud before. This cloud has protected them. This cloud has been a barrier between them and their aes. And now God comes down, he says, in a thick cloud. But that's just old Testament stuff, that's just mosaic Covenant stuff, right one Timothy chapter six, verses thirteen to sixteen. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things. And of Christ Jesus, who, in his testimony before Pontius Pilot, made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light when no one has ever seen or can see to him, be honor and eternal dominion. Amen, Christ dwells in unapproachable light. God has always dwelled in unapproachable light. And this light is the radiance of God's glory and his holiness and his righteousness. And you and I cannot comprehend that it was true then and it's true now. God is still holy, Saints, God is still righteous, and he still dwells in unapproachable light. Thirdly, we see continuity in the wrath of God against sin. The next verse, whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. You don't get simpler than that. Don't come close to the mountain. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him. In fact, not only do you not touch the mountain, you don't touch someone who touched the mountain. You don't even get to have third person contact with God. If someone touches the mountain, they die, and the way that they die must include or must not include you touching them. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. God's wrath against sin. And notice that God's wrath against sin is not about deeds, It's about being. This is extremely important. You see God's wrath against sin. We think we're safe from God's wrath, and you talk to people who are outside of relationship with Christ, and oftentimes those people will talk to you about things that they haven't done. I'm okay because I haven't done ABC or XYZ. God's wrath against sin has to do with his complete and utter holiness and righteousness, and the fact that this holiness and righteousness by definition, consumes and destroys that which is not holy and that which is not righteous. Your problem is not what you've done. Your problem is who you are. You are not holy, You are not righteous. You were born in sin and shaped in iniquity, and you have no business in the presence of God, who dwells in unapproachable light, and your mere nearness to that is grounds for your execution. Until you get that, you don't get holiness. You don't get righteousness. You don't understand that the difference between you and God is an ontological difference. It is a difference of being. This was true then, and this is true now. So whichever side of the coin we find ourselves on, these things have not changed. But what has changed. When we understand what has changed now, we begin to see how this applies to us. There is discontinentnuity between the Mosaic and the New Covenants as well. First, in the New Covenant, God himself is our mediator. In the Mosaic Covenant, Moses is the mediator, a mere man is the mediator. But in the New Covenant we have a better covenant and a better mediator Hebrews Chapter eight, verses six and seven. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old. As the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second Hebrews three to three. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. Christ is our mediator, God himself is our mediator. This is discontinuity between the governants. We do have a man that stands between us and God's unapproachable light. But the man that stands between us and God's unapproachable light is the God Man. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is Christ, Jesus himself, who took on flesh, who wrapped that righteousness and holiness in flesh so that he could reconcile us to God in his unapproachable light. In the New Covenant. Our cleansing is not merely external he Brews, Chapter ten, verses nineteen to twenty two. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Yeah, there's a washing, but it's not the same. This is a washing from the inside out. This is not just clean up your garments on the outside and observe a few rules before you come into the presence of Almighty God. This is be changed from the inside out. Not so that you can come before the presence of God, but so that you can be in dwelled by the very presence of God, who dwells in unapproachable light. Oh, this is superior, friends, this is greater. Beyond that, we find that God was never satisfied with mere outward washing. Turn to the right and look at the book of Isaiah. You'll find something very interesting. Remember we talked about progressive revelation, about God revealing himself to his people progressively over history and through time, and here what we've got so far is clean your garments before you come in the presence of God. Isaiah chapter one. Go down to verse number ten. Hear the word of the Lord, your rulers of Sodom, give ear to the teaching of our God. You people of Gomora. By the way, Sodom and Gomorrah are toast, They're gone. He's not writing to Sodom and Gomorrah. He's writing to Israel, and he's referring to them as Sodomon Gomorro. He's making a point here. Verse eleven. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings incenses an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure inequity and solemn assembly, your new moons and your appointed feast. My soul hates they have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers. I will not listen. Your hands are of blood. Well, what's wrong? What do you need to do? Next? Verse wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, Seek justice, correct oppression, Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like woe. We're not even at the New Covenant yet, and already God is communicating to his people Outward washing is not enough. This is what the Pharisees didn't understand. Matthew twenty three, twenty five, and twenty six. Woe do you scrib and pharisees hypocrites? For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. You blind, Pharisees, First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside may also be clean. Jesus didn't say the outside doesn't matter. He said the inside has priority, and that if you clean the inside, the outside becomes clean. Can a streetwalker walking to a church looking like a streetwalker, Yes she can. But if God, who dwells in unapproachable light, redeems her and transforms her. Will she still continue to walk into church looking like a streetwalker? You better believe she won't. She won't because what she will be communicating is a reality that is no longer consistent with that which she communicated before. We see washing connected with our very regeneration and Titus three four to seven. We have the washing of regeneration. We have washing connected with our justification one Grinthians, chapter six, that famous passage, and such were some of you, but you were washed. Washing, of course, is also equated with our sanctification. Husbands are to love their wives like Christ love the church, and he gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. So in our justification and our sanctification and our regeneration we see this idea of washing. We are washed, and we are made clean. And it is because of this washing that we are consecrated and made ready to come before the presence of God, and to even be in dwelt by the presence of God. Thirdly, in the New Covenant, God comes to us, not the mountain. It's amazing that in the Mosaic Covenant ere God says, I'm going to come to the mountain, and the people are going to see me come to the mountain, but they can't come too close. In the New Covenant, God's dwelling place is with men again one Corinthians six, nineteen to twenty. 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, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Again the connection between the inward and the outward, but it begins on the inside, not on the outside. Finally, in the New Covenant, another has taken our penalty. You and I are not worthy to approach God, who dwells in unapproachable light, and coming as close to God as you and I have come requires death. And that's exactly what was paid on our behalf, so that we might approach God, so that we might know God, and so that God might in dwell us. Christ died for sin, once for all the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. All we, like sheep, had gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way. But God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. It is because of the death of Christ that you and I have the privilege of approaching this holy and righteous God. It is because of that that we have the privilege of coming boldly before the throne of Grace, instead of cowering and fear like Israel of old, who didn't want to get too close lest they be put to death. You and I come boldly, and we cry out Abbah, Father, and we are dwelt by God himself. Do you understand this? Can you comprehend it? This is why it is so wrong for us to look at a text like this and come away with we need to do a better job of getting ready outwardly to come to church. Lord help us. That's why we've missed the boat. If that's the way we approach things like this, and unfortunately this is often the way we approach things like this. But when you understand this reality, you don't come to a place where you say, ah, the outside doesn't matter. No, We've seen through several texts in the New Testament that the outside does matter, and when the inside is cleaned. Up, it manifests itself on the outside, not so that we can somehow come to a place where we. Believe we've made ourselves ready and righteous by what we've done. But we come to a place where we understand that Christ has made us ready and righteous by what he has done, and we enter as children of the King. When we come, there is still consecration. But what this consecration looks like is being reminded of the sin that is in our lives, being reminded that Christ has purchased our ransom and has forgiven us, being reminded of the gratitude that we owe to Him because he has made us right with God and given us the privilege of approaching God, coming before God in an attitude of humility, because we do not approach God, who dwells in unapproachable light, because of our own merit, but because of the alien righteousness that has been imputed to us by Christ himself, having earned this right through his death on the cross. When we understand that, we can no longer be flippant about approaching God. When we were in Israel, one of the places that I found fascinating. Two places that I found fascinating were, of course the Temple mount, but also Kumaran, where we found the Kumaran scrolls there the temple mount. Outside the temple, outside the steps, there are these pools, these pools everywhere. They used to wonder how they baptized thousands of people in a day. These pools are called mikvas, and they are, you know, like small swimming pools with stairs going down and then coming out. And before coming into the temple, the people of God would come and disrobe and go down into these mikvahs and immerse themselves in the water, and then come back out and put on new clothes and go in the group at Kumaran was a group called the Essenes, and the Aessines had these massive libraries and scrolls that were incredibly important to them. But before they would touch any of these scrolls, they had mikvahs all around where they would immerse themselves to become clean before they would come out and handle the word of God. And it was amazing to contum plate the number of times that these individuals would go into this water and out of this water, and into this water and out of this water before they would eat, before they would do this, before they would do that, this baptism of sorts, that they would experience all of this outward ROSSI washing, being reminded constantly that I am filthy, that I am not worthy. Interestingly enough, we still, when we come to faith in Christ, experience that same washing where we go down into the waters of baptism and come out of them. And the picture that we are painting is a picture of Christ being buried in his death and then coming out of the grave in and his resurrection to walk in newness of life. And listen, just like Christ does not have to be buried again, you and I don't have to be baptized again to come before the presence of God. Because we are baptized into Christ, we are immersed into Christ. And because of that, His righteousness is our righteousness. His holiness is our holiness. It is not something that we earn. It is something that has been freely given. Listen to me. If you are here today and you are trying to be good enough for God outwardly, let me tell you two things. Number One, you can't get there from here. It won't work, it'll never happen. You can't do it. And number two, you don't have to. Christ has accomplished that on behalf of all of those who will come to Him in repentance and faith. Stop striving, stop seeking that which is already found in Christ. Cease your efforts at self righteousness, look to the cross, and right now recognize that Christ has accomplished that which you never could. And right now recognize that what is required is for you to come to Him and repentance and faith, and turn from your sin and turn to Christ, so that He might wash you, He might make you hope, so that He might justify you and sanctify you, and that God, by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit, God who dwells an unapproachable light, might endwell you and consecrate you fully. What a tragedy it would be to walk away from a text like this saying to ourselves, we need to do a better job of cleaning up the outside of the cup. What a tragedy it would be to miss what we've learned through progressive revelation. As God has made this picture clearer and clearer and clearer, until through the person and work of Christ we see fully what it means to be consecrated in the presence of the One True and Living God. Oh, I would ask you to be consecrated today. I would ask you to be clean today, not because of what you do to the outside, but because of what Christ does to the inside when you come to Him in repentance and faith, pleading for and finding his forgiveness, and as a result, walking in His righteousness. Did you pray with me, God, our Heavenly Father. We bow before you, acknowledging your holiness and your righteousness, acknowledging your majesty, and acknowledging our sinfulness and our desperate need for forgiveness. And as we acknowledge these things, we also come in humble thanksgiving for Christ, who has become our righteousness, for all of those who have placed their faith in Him, Thanking you for the consecration that is ours because we are found in Christ. Grant by your grace that we might walk in this truth. Father, I pray for the one under the sound of my voice who has not yet come to faith in Christ. Grant by your grace that they might turn from sin and flee to Christ, being found in Him and in Him alone. Father, we thank you for the privilege of coming before you consecrated. We thank you for the privilege of coming before you clean. We thank you for the privilege of coming before you, clothed in the righteousness of Christ himself. Grant by your grace that this might impact every aspect of who we are from the inside out. We pray these things in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen, assass