God's Treasured People

Good morning, we are continuing our study in Exodus. We're in Exodus 19. This is arguably the most important section of Scripture in the Old Testament. Someone actually argued that it's the most important chapter in the Bible. I'm pretty sure that has to go to a chapter that has Jesus in it and risen. But I appreciate his wanting to emphasize the importance of Exodus 19. Exodus 19 is important because it defines Israel as a nation. But it's important for us because it tells us the two most important things we need to know. Who God is and who he has said we are. That's what we always need to hear. Who God is and what he has declared about us. Who he is making us. Who has he declared us to be. Our new identity because of God. Exodus 19, we've been looking forward to it. And let me give you some background as to where we are and how we got here. God called out a specific man, Abraham. He said, I will make you a nation to bless all other nations. And then he he rose that nation up or the people up and they grew and they they went to Egypt and they multiplied and they multiplied. And then God said, I'm going to deliver you from their slavery. And God brought 10 plagues that finally caused Pharaoh to push them out of the nation. And then when they were there, the Red Sea facing death, God part of the Red Sea. And that was the great act of deliverance. And then he trained them through the wilderness for three months. As he provided, he provided food and water and protection. And here we are at Sinai where God is going to declare they are his nation, his holy nation, his kingdom of priests. Now, this is really the beginning of a section. This goes from chapter 19 through 24. That's the contained unit. So if you want to read that together, chapter 19 through chapter 24 is really a unit. And this unit is what Moses himself calls the Book of the Covenant. We also have to realize that the Sinai event, it lasts 11 months and it takes us all the way up to Numbers 11. So we're just looking at the very beginning of this. Well, a very important piece of the Sinai event, the most important declarations in the Sinai event. But it's a big, long period. So getting back to if this is the most important chapter of the Bible, I don't think you can say that. But I think it is the most important event in the Old Testament. I think chapters 19 and 20 together must be considered together, and they are the most important two chapters in the Old Testament. Just to kind of give some framework, Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 is the most important verse in the Old Testament. That's the Shema, Israel, the Lord, your God, the Lord is one. Exodus 12 and 14, the redemption of the Red Sea, that is the most important redemption in the Old Testament. But I think this is the most important event. This is not the first time we've been to this mountain. This is where God originally called Moses. And now he's brought him back here to worship. As we turn to Exodus 19, this event, this first chapter in preparation for the Ten Commandments, it's broken up into three tracts, three different tracts up and down the mountain. In verse 3, Moses goes up to the mountain. In verse 7, he comes down to tell the people. In verse 8, halfway through the verse where we're going to stop, he goes back up and reports to the Lord, which is implying he's gone back up the mountain. So the first track is verses 3 to 7, that's going up and back down, verses 8 to 14 are going up and back down, and then verses 20 he goes up, and verses 24 and 25 he comes down. That can really help us organize this chapter in our minds. Our particular passage has three sections. Verses 1 through half of 3, the verse breaks are unfortunate throughout Exodus 19. So, the first section is the setting. The second, which is what we're going to spend most of our time on, three through six, is God's word to Israel. And then seven and eight is Israel's response to God's word. This is one of the richest passages in scripture because it has some of the greatest and the most powerful declarations of who God says his people will be. Listen, as God tells Israel who they are to be as his people, beginning in verse one of Exodus 19. On the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came to the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There, Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountains, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession. Among all peoples for the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all the words of the Lord had commanded them and the Lord answered and the people answered together and said, all of the Lord has spoken, we will do. First, let's look at our setting, verses 1 through 3. Notice the repetition. They continue to repeat this in the wilderness of Sinai. It's there out of Rephidim in the wilderness of Sinai. This place is where God meets Israel with the law. And so the repetition of where God has met them is to help them remember what God has done for them there. It's a concrete reminder of what God did and where He did it. I really want to focus on that very first part of verse 3, while Moses went up to God. God calls Moses up the mountain. Israel has to stay back. Next week we're going to focus on Israel fearfully staying back while Moses ascends up into the cloud and the thunder and the lightning. Here we see God is to be worshipped. He calls him up to God. The mountain is used to make a strong distinction. God is holy and righteous. We worship and the people who are sinners, they have to stay back. God keeps and calls one man up. This really reminds us of the Tower of Babel. When men in their sin were trying to build themselves up to God and God has to come down to look at their tower. Great irony there. Here, God calls his man up and he comes down to meet him. God orders and designs how we worship Him. He chooses how we worship Him. The point isn't that God meets Moses halfway. No, the point is that God calls Moses up to meet Him in the way He has prescribed. Secondly, Israel needs a mediator. They're sinners. They have to stay away from the presence of God. They cannot go up. They're afraid to go up. And God makes sure they cannot go up. But he brings Moses up as a special mediator. And friends, what we have to remember is our mediator is so much greater than Moses. Moses has to hear the law and then come back down and tell it. He has to go up to hear it and then back down and tell it. God sent his own son, who is the perfect revelation, and he declared who God is perfectly. No one ever saw God face to face until Jesus took on flesh and revealed God perfectly. There is no indirect revelation with Jesus. He is God. When we look at him, we see God, as he told Philip, when you see me, you see the father. We don't have a mediator who's just telling us what he heard. We have a mediator who knows the father and declares the true word of God as he is the word of God. Let's move on to our second section, God's word. to Israel. Let me read this passage again, because it is we're going to read a couple of times. It's so full of just rich declarations of what God has done and who he has declared us to be. The Lord called him out of the mountains saying. Thus, you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples. For all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." Now, this section has two parts. You have verses, well, the second half of verse three and four, where God is declaring what he has done for them already. And then you have verses five and six. Or he's giving a new commandment and a new identity. A key issue is how those two parts relate to one another. That's one of the most important things as Christians that we can understand is how verse four relates to verse five, because that's the issue of how grace works with works, how grace relates to our works. But first, let's look at verse four. Say to the house of Jacob, tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen. There's already an implicit declare, remember. Over and over again, Israel needs to remember who God is and what he did for them. You yourself, it's emphatic. You have seen what I have done. Do not forget it. Israel needs to remember that God is their God. There is one God. He is for them. He is with them. He has destroyed the greatest empire the world knew for their well-being. Let's focus on these two declarations. You have seen what I have done. Well, what has he done? He bore them on eagle's wings and brought them to himself. The metaphor, the wings of an eagle, this is repeated in Deuteronomy 32, 9 through 11. You can hear it. You don't have to turn there. He found him in a desert land and in the howling wastes of the wilderness, he encircled him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on his pinions. And the Lord alone guided them. No foreign God was with them. So what is this? I mean, is it to bear them on eagles' wings? Well, there's two things you think of when you think of the eagle. First, the protective power of the wings. The eagle will cover its young with its wings to protect it from the elements, to protect it from other prey. The eagle has powerful wings that encircle and bring a refuge to its young. And God has encircled his people. He has separated them. He has made them his own. This reminds us of Jesus. like a hen brings in its young to him. It's a protective power. So, it's not only protective, an eagle is powerful over its prey. An eagle acts swiftly and powerfully to dominate whatever it is seeking to conquer. You see, the eagle, it swoops down and just boldly and powerfully takes up its prey, just like God acted swiftly and dominantly judging Egypt. So, the eagle, there's a protection, but the power of the eagle is, I believe, what he's speaking of here. Let's look at the second action, because these two need to be understood together. He brought them to himself. The eagle represents the power. This is the personal presence. The eagle represents the strong, mighty right arm that brings judgment. This is such a sweet and merciful action of God. He brought them to himself. This is a tender, merciful God. They did not come to him. Remember when God sends Moses, Israel refuses his help. They've cried out to God, but when God actually comes to help, they refuse him. And even in the desert, they say, I told you, leave us alone, God. God goes in and he seeks them out. It's important to remember that God has declared Israel to be his firstborn son. That's in Exodus 4, verses 22 and 23. Like a father, he goes to bring his son near. We can think of the prodigal son, but I don't think that actually is exactly what it looks like. The father, he's not waiting just for the prodigal son to come halfway and then run to get him. No, this father has gone into the pigsty to lift up the son out of his filth. The father went into Egypt and broke the chains and dragged him out while the son was kicking and screaming against him. This is a sweet, powerful, Love of the father. These two actions have to be seen together, the mighty right arm to deliver the sweet, tender arms that embrace. This is what he has done for them. This is what they need to remember. Now, before we move on to verse five, we need to explain a little bit of how verse four and verse five relate together. Verse four is about God's salvation. They have been saved. They have been delivered. But what does this mean in terms of the bigger covenant of Abraham? What does this mean in terms of this is a new or this is a covenant now? I think it's important to see that God says it's my covenant. When he's speaking here, he says, if you keep my covenant. It doesn't say he's cutting a covenant. I believe God here is actually referring back to the Abrahamic covenant. The Mosaic covenant is a continuation in the Abrahamic covenant. There's not a separate covenant that goes alongside of Abraham's covenant. There's not two covenants. There's not two ways to be saved. There's not two planes of God. There's one. This, these commands. These new laws, they have to fit in within the one plan of God. Exodus 2.24, the whole action that God is doing here for Israel is based upon the Abrahamic covenant. You can see this in Exodus 6. You can see it in Exodus 2.24. Over and over again, he reminds them, I have done this because I remembered the covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Now it's important that this, we see that the commandments aren't a new way to be saved. It's not a new covenant. The new covenant comes when Christ comes, when he fulfills the old covenant. I hesitate to use this word because it's been abused and it's unhelpful in some realms, but this is a new dispensation in the one covenant. This is a new dispensation in the One Covenant. And let me define what dispensation means. A dispensation is just a household order. So a new dispensation happens when the rules of the home change. Example, in your home, the rules for your child changes. When they're two, they have to sit in a car seat. When they get to a certain age and a certain weight, they get to sit in a little booster seat and then they get to sit up front eventually. And then one day they're driving. So the rules change. The household order changes. In our home, a year ago, Lillian wasn't allowed to touch anything in the dishwasher. Now she has to get her dishes out of the dishwasher. One day she'll do all the dishes in the dishwasher. A child grows in responsibility and privileges as the household rules change. There's more responsibility as the child grows. Israel is a child, the firstborn son. They're maturing. God is revealing more of himself, more of his purpose, more of his plan. The law was put in place to guard Israel. Let me remind you what Paul says of the law in relation to the son. In Galatians 3.23, I'll begin reading. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came. In order that we might be justified by faith, but now that faith has come, we are no longer under guardian for Christ Jesus, for in Christ Jesus we are all sons of God through faith. Because Christ the proper son has come, we are now adopted into a sonship and we're not just servants under the law. So let me ask a couple of questions that I think will be helpful. What is the chief difference between Israel at Sinai and Israel and the promise to Abraham? So God begins this covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12. What's the chief difference between the God revealed at Abraham and his relationship to Israel and Sinai? Well, the difference is clear in chapter 6 of Exodus, verse 3. To the fathers, God did not make his name known. Here, God has made his name known. Now, I think Abraham knew the name Yahweh in the technical sense. He knew those letters, he knew the syllables, he could say that name, but the name represents God. Abraham didn't know how faithful God was. God had not yet revealed that he was with his people in the way that he revealed himself in Exodus, in the redemption, the deliverance. And so the covenant that God has with Abraham in Israel and the seed form, it's different in that the name is more revealed. This is actually more interesting in the sense of the question, what is the difference between Israel and the wilderness in Israel and Sinai? So what is the big difference that takes place here at Sinai? Well, that's what I've referred to a number of times as God defining the relationship. God defines the relationship. He has kept his relationship, but he hasn't yet revealed until Sinai what his expectations are of Israel in this relationship. The language here that God borrows to establish this relationship is actually from a treaty that kings would have with their servants. The king would say, I'll provide for you, I'll protect you, but you owe me your allegiance. If I go to battle, you're battling with me. You are for my glory, you will pay taxes. God's doing the same thing here. He's provided for them. He gave them bread and water in the wilderness. He protected them. He destroyed the Malachites. And now He's giving them what His expectations are if they're going to be His people. He's defining the relationship. Let's put that in more contemporary terms. A young boy wants to pursue a young lady. And then that awkward conversation comes up where you start to define the relationship. The young man, he says, my intentions are to pursue you for marriage. He says, this is what I'm going to do. I'm no longer going to look at other women as possible brides. I'm going to look to you. I want to start pursuing you. The other women no longer matter to me. The boy makes a declaration of his interest and his intent and the new expectation here. The young lady, if she agrees, she no longer hears from other suitors. They begin pursuing a monogamous relationship. They're no longer interested in anyone else because they said, we are going to begin a relationship with the possibility of becoming married. See, they define the relationship. There's no longer other boys for the young lady. There's no longer other girls for the young man. They've set the expectations. They've defined the parameter. Now, this is also a helpful time for the young lady to point out all the bad habits of the young man. If we're going to get married, you have to stop being such a filthy slob, things like that. And of course, I know some dads are saying, but the boy talked to the dad, right? That really breaks the analogy here. So we're not. God doesn't ask anybody permission to pursue Israel. He alone has authority over her. From now on, Israel will be judged based upon what God declares at Sinai. So let's look at these declarations. Verse five. This is not how to be saved. He's already declared you are safe. What he's now setting up is the declaration of how they are to live as God saved people. The very first words are so important to understand verses four and five and how they relate together. Now, therefore, if. Therefore, everything else that he's going to say is based upon the fact that God's already saved them. The assurance is in God's act of saving, therefore, because I brought you to myself as a father brings his son. Therefore. That's the condition. F. He's calling them to obedience in order to be who God has called you to be, you must obey. And then he declares three different declarations. You will be my treasured possession. You will be my priestly kingdom. You will be my holy nation. What does it mean that God says you will be my treasured possession? The treasured possession is a personal prize possession. You can actually go to Deuteronomy 7. That actually gives more detail in terms of what this means to be a treasured possession. What God says there is, I loved you because I loved you, not because of anything great about you. God declares to Israel, you are my treasured possession. This would be the same thing as the crown jewels, the most expensive, precious thing one owns. It's a precious possession that you desire and love the most. Again, I think When a young man, after they pursued one another for some time, he gets a ring. It has a jewel on it. And if you've gone through this, you know that this is a prized possession. You spent a lot of money on this particular rock to put on that girl's finger. And what you're doing with the ring is saying, you are my precious possession. You are what I desire most. It's amazing about God declaring us his prized possession, is he doesn't declare it with something perishable, like a gold ring. He declares it with his own son. We have not been redeemed with something perishable like gold or silver. We've been redeemed with his own son. God has sent his son to make us his prized possession. He sent the one he loved to redeem us. The second declaration, priestly kingdom. I believe this is the best way to interpret that phrase because these two go together. Priestly kingdom, holy nation. The adjective of the noun needs to work the same way. Well, in order to understand what the priestly kingdom is, we need to look at the two main duties of a priest. First, they represent God. to a people, so a priest would go up and they would represent God to Israel, and the priest would go and represent Israel to God. The priest had an ambassador function, a mediating function. Here, this people, Israel, is called out to be a mediator for God among all the nations. All these descriptions have to do with how Israel is separated from all the nations and how they will relate to all the nations. Go back and look at the treasured possession. You're my treasured possession from among all peoples for all the earth is mine. Here, you're a priestly kingdom. They have unique access to God because God's given them his word. They're to be united under that, declaring God to all people. This is not a new plan of God here. Adam was created to be an ambassador. He had dominion. He was supposed to image God. He was supposed to reflect God. Abraham was called out and was given a blessing so that he could be a blessing to all nations. God's plan has not changed. Here it's just given more flesh. He's flushing it out and explaining it more. Finally, holy nation. Again, this takes us back to Genesis 12. Very important that we know Genesis 12, where God called Abraham. God told Abraham, I will make you a great nation. The same exact word here. Only now you are a holy nation. And it's not just separated. God hasn't just separated them out. He's consecrated them. He hasn't just separated them out horizontally. He has called them up to him vertically. They're divided out for a special purpose. They're divided out for God's plan and His plan of salvation. We have to remember about Israel here. They've been separated for a purpose. This is all about vocation. These terms are all vocational terms. You're supposed to be functioning as a priest. You're my treasure possession for the purpose of representing me to all nations. They've been given a great power. They have the name of God. They are now to represent God to all people. So how do we think about this as a church? Well, these descriptions have been given to us, as Brian read earlier from First Peter. We're declared the chosen race. We're declared the Holy Nation. We're declared the kingdom of priests. The main difference is we're not genealogically connected. Abraham isn't our isn't our father from the flesh. No, we're all connected in a more beautiful way. Connected by our faith in Christ, this is what the true children of Abraham. This is how you define the true children of Abraham, those who are connected to Christ So what does this mean for us? If you continue to read that passage, you're a kingdom of priests so that you might declare the salvation of God, how He has delivered you out of darkness into the kingdom of light. Our vocation is exactly the same. Israel's mission was a passive mission. They were supposed to order themselves in such a way that all other nations would come and look and see and see that they are ordered according to God's word and want to know the God who has ordered them. Our mission is not passive. Our mission is active. We're to go out and tell the world of God's salvation. Do you realize we have the most powerful weapon this world has ever known? We can think of all the bombs, we can think of the military weapons. They have nothing in comparison to the weapon that God has given us. As Israel had the name of God, we actually know the name of Jesus and all authority in heaven and earth are in that name. Do we trust the power of the gospel to proclaim him? Do we trust that if we declare the gospel of Jesus Christ, that that weapon, which doesn't kill, it actually gives life? That's why it's the most powerful weapon. It doesn't destroy. It gives life to what is already dead. Do we trust the power of that weapon? The second thing I want us to see from 1 Peter 2. is that not only are we supposed to go out and proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness, it's also an urging here in verse 11. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Having been called to God, having been brought to Him, having been declared His treasured possession, now it's supposed to be His priest and His holy nation, We are to abstain from sin. We are called to represent God by pursuing holiness according to his law. This passage has a lot to do for folks who are wrestling with assurance. Because there's the gospel and there's works and too many people put their emphasis, their focus on their works. So let me just tell you, if you're wrestling with assurance, find your assurance in what Christ has done and pursue his righteousness. Find your assurance in Christ and his death and his resurrection. And if you want to experience that assurance, you will have to repent. You'll have to stop loving sin so that you can know the fullness of his love. If you're wrestling with assurance, it's the sin that keeps you from assurance. I just want to challenge those who are not wrestling with assurance. Are you not wrestling with assurance because you have placed your faith in the victory of Christ, or is it because you're not taking your sin seriously? Are you not wrestling with assurance, not because you have absolute confidence in Christ, but because you take your sin so lightly? Sin is dangerous. If you're not thinking about your sin and you're not thinking about Christ and his conquering, I would warn you. Take your sin seriously and your call to obey God seriously and find your freedom and your forgiveness in Christ. Finally, is a response. All the people answer together, all the Lord has spoken, we will do. This is sad. It's good that they're responding here now, but they're going to build a golden calf in just a few weeks. This is sad, and we know where this story is going. We know Israel fails and fails and fails and fails. That's why we don't look to Israel for salvation. We look to the son for salvation, where Israel, the firstborn son as a nation, they failed. The firstborn son of God, the only begotten son of God, he has succeeded. How will we respond? First, we need to declare Christ to all nations. As Brian prayed, we need to be declaring Christ to all nations. Let's start here. You know, I get excited about boring testimonies. As someone who has an exciting testimony, I love hearing a boring testimony. Because those of us with so-called exciting testimonies have a lot of baggage. There's nothing I want more than God to preserve the innocence of those who have boring testimonies. So, let's be proclaiming the gospel to our children. Let's be praying for the children of the church. Church, come alongside the parents and be models. Be those who come alongside their declaration of the gospel and share it with them. Secondly, we're called to obey God's law. As God's kingdom of priests, as God's holy nation, we are called to order ourselves according to God's word. And that doesn't just mean having elders and deacons. That means we pursue righteousness, that means we're in our homes and our rooms alone at night, we pursue righteousness. It's not just that we're ordered properly here as an organization. No, we order our lives. As Augusta Christ, we order our loves. We stop loving sin and we love God alone. We love God above everything else. We love Christ because He's forgiven us. We love God because He's the one true God who is worthy of our greatest affection. If we're going to be the kingdom of priests, if we're going to be a holy nation, we must learn to love Him above all else. And as we conclude, one of the great ways we can learn to stop loving this world is to be expectant. Be expectant that Christ is coming again. He is coming to judge us for what we have done. He is coming to judge us for our works. Christian, we will have to stand in judgment for what we have done, how we've wasted our time, how we pursued sin. Does it mean the wrath of God is against us? We have to give an answer to how we have spent our days. We must be expectant that Christ is coming. We need to look forward to worshiping him without the sins that entangles. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we praise you that you bring your children to yourself. You have stretched out your mighty right arm and put it into the filth of our lives And You have drawn us. You have made what was dead alive. You have cleansed us. You've forgiven us. We praise You, our great God. Help us to live lives that reflect that. Help us to order our lives so that we love You above all things. Help us to stop loving sin. Purify us, Almighty God. Help us to sing your praises. Help us to long for your return. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.