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Welcome to the Kid Us Off First Podcast, where we're building transformed lives one message at a time. Each week you'll hear Christ-centered sermons from Dr. J. Perry Fowler, rooted in the truth of God's word. This is where real faith meets real life, because a life built on truth is a life that lasts.

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Good morning. Take your Bible. Turn to the book of Exodus. We've been studying through the book of Exodus. Amen. God is good. God is good. His word is always so good in our life. It changes our life. It is the word of God. And we're going to study it today, Exodus chapter 19. We've been through uh already through 18 chapters of the book of Exodus. We've come to chapter 19. What a wonderful place for us to land today, before the Easter season. When we get back, we can do the Ten Commandments. How's that? We'll do that together. But we look today in Exodus chapter 19, and we see Moses. The Bible says, in the third year, after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, so the very day they came into the wilderness, and when they set out from Repedim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and they camped in the wilderness, and there Israel camped on the mountain. And Moses, we always see him the central figure, the central figure of the man that was leading them to God. I love it. I love him. What a blessing he was. Moses went up to God and to the Lord. And the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel, for 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 then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among the peoples, for all the earth is mine. What an incredible invitation he's given to them. And he says, You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are the words that shall you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So Moses, he came and to the elders of the people, and that he set them before them, before the words of the Lord, and as he had commanded it. And all the people, they answered together, and this is how they answered. All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. What a beautiful passage. There's so much we learn from this. I like to call today the sermon from Sinai. We have the sermon on the mount, and we have the sermon on this mount, Mount Sinai, and God's gonna say something about himself. God is gonna reveal himself for who he is, and that's what he's come here for you today as well. For you to meet with him. God has come near. When we think about God's nearness, one of the things that I was reading about this week was in January 5th of 2011, United Airlines 940, it had left Chicago and was headed to Frankfurt, Germany, and something happened. What happened was the pilot was drinking coffee in the cockpit, and while he was drinking coffee, he spilled it. Did anybody do that this morning? All right. Some of you already know what this is like. He spilled his coffee in the cockpit, and it fell upon some of the instrument panel. And when it did, it sent out a message that said this This plane is being hijacked. Now, can you imagine being that pilot? Well, when that happened, of course, they were able to fortunately be able to get back a hold of the authorities and let them know listen, don't scramble the Air Force jets. Don't do that. And they they were able to keep that from happening, but they did have to make an emergency landing in Canada, and of course, they all had to switch planes. Well, when we think about that particular thing, you'd say, well, that's tragic. That's awful to send this message out that could have been very dangerous. But what we also know is today, churches across the world are sending out mixed messages. We're hearing about this right and left over and over. Some churches preach one thing, another church preach another thing. And I want to read to you something that has become very much of a concern in our society today, and it should be a concern. Arizona Christian University's Cultural Research Center recently spoke to a constituency of young people. They took some research from this and they said that one of the greatest challenges that keeps surfacing among young people in our culture of America today is they don't know what to believe in God. They don't know what God is really all about. And they say the main reason is because they keep hearing from one church one message and they hear another message from another church, specifically in issues that relate to social living and cultural living. I want to read something to you that should be disconcerting to you. It's disconcerting to me because what is happening in America today is 49 to 50 percent of students are saying, I don't know what to believe about God because I'm hearing so many different messages from different churches that are completely and diabolically different. Let me read it to you. I'm gonna just quote it to you. You can take it for what it is. And it says, as they were studying this, and the research center says this, they don't know, and I quote, what to believe. When it comes to the sanctity of life, because different churches teach different things, they're sending mixed messages. For example, one is speaking in the cultural issue of abortion, and they're saying that that life is begins in the womb, and life as we know it begins at conception, while others call abortion, get this, women's rights. Two messages, two churches, different churches in America, and our young people are suffering because of this because they say, I don't know what to believe. Let me go on and read what else they said. They said they don't know what to think about family, because some churches teach the traditional family and others have the LBGTQ agenda. Literally, this is what they wrote. Literally, 49 to 50% of kids that they spoke to say, I have no idea what to believe. If the church sends mixed messages, what message should I believe? They're asking. What is God really like? It is a very serious thing that we have culturally going on in America today. And that is that there are different churches that have different beliefs, different thoughts, and they're teaching these agendas instead of the word of God. And the question today is not what do I believe, what does this pastor preach? That doesn't matter. What really matters is what God thinks. What really matters is what God says, because ultimately, here's who we're we are to answer to in life. Not a preacher, but to our living, almighty, amazing God. And so this morning, what we see God doing in Exodus chapter 19 is this he doesn't want there to be mixed messages. He doesn't want there to be mixed messages for the children of Israel about who he is. But the problem was that up to this point in Exodus, we see that Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, but God was near and he was present, but he also seemed to be very distant. Let me give you an example of that. When God was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, you see that God is revealing himself in a pillar of fire by night. Yes, God is present, but he seems very distant. Then also we see he leads with a cloud by day. And God is present with them, but he seems very distant. And in our world, God wants so much to come near. And God did come near, God is near today because of Jesus Christ. Aren't you grateful we live on this side of the Bible? Aren't you grateful that Jesus died, rose again, and Jesus has come near this morning. With this, God wanted so much. You're gonna see this theme. God so much wanted to reveal who He is. God is so much wanted. Follow me now. God so much wanted to come near, and that's what you're gonna see as a theme in Exodus chapter 19. But even more than that, God did not want to send any mixed messages. So with this, God sends a message on several things we see in Exodus chapter 19 about himself. So maybe today you're here and you say, What is God like? What is God like? Well, God is a God that teaches us who he is. And the way he does that, he comes near. And you're gonna see him this morning leave out of the portals of heaven and set foot upon Mount Sinai. Why? Because God wanted to become near. Now, what did he teach the children of Israel while he was there? What does he teach us? What is the sermon from Sinai? What does he want us to know? He wants us to know, first thing, about salvation. Salvation is very important to God, and he wants us to know salvation is not based upon performance, it's based upon grace. Now, let me just say this: there's mixed messages across the world today about this. You can go to one church, and the church will say, Well, the way to salvation, the way to know that you're going to heaven is you have to believe in Jesus, but then you add something to it. And Galatians speaks against that. But also there are some, as we are, that come and say salvation is by grace. The question is, is not what do we say. The question is, is what does God say about salvation? And this morning, what we find God doing, the first thing that he wants to reveal to the people who are there at the base of Mount Sinai, he wanted to reveal to them the true means of salvation. So I want you to see how he foreshadowed salvation. You can see Jesus in this passage, you can see the grace of God, the message of salvation. And one of the ways you see it is through the foreshadowing of Calvary, the foreshadowing of Jesus in this particular revelation of God Himself. And so we see this as we go into first off verse four. The Bible says that God speaks about his rescue to them. And he says, Listen, physically I rescued you from the land of Egypt. Now I want you to see how he does it. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you, here it is, on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. You know what God's saying here? He's saying, when it came to my salvation for you, you Israelites, you did not take the initiative. I took the initiative. And this is true in our salvation as well. We didn't take the initiative, God took the initiative. God comes to us, God reveals to us right now. Some of you are in that moment, right this very second, where God is speaking into your heart. God has taken the initiative, he's come to you and he's revealing himself to you right now. And one of the ways he does that is he reveals in pictures. And the picture that he provided for them first of when it comes to his salvation is the picture of eagle's wings. Now, what does he say to them? He says, You saw how when I went into Egypt, you saw what I did among the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings. When you think about the rescue of God, you have to think about the eagle. Because God wants to use this picture. So he's giving them a little picture book, I guess, to say, you want to know what kind of God I am? You want to know how I save people? You want to know how I bring salvation? Look at the eagle. If you understand the eagle, the eagle will take the eaglet and he will put the eaglet on its back. And the eagle will fly, and the eaglet is on its back. And you know what the eaglet does? Does nothing but hang on for a dear life. You know what I'm saying? And the eaglet is there, and he's bored up by the eagle, so that in turn, what will happen is it can be moved from one place to another. And God had moved the children of Israel from Egypt to the base of Mount Sinai, as God had been like an eagle who allowed them to literally, as he took initiative, to get literally on his back and for him to lead them to and toward the promised land. And what the eagle knows is the eagle knows that there's danger below. And in order for there to be, of course, this with the eagle's understanding of salvation, of how it takes care of its young, it looks down and it watches for any one that might want to shoot it through. But before, before anything could touch the eaglet, it would first have to go through the eagle. And isn't this what Jesus did on the cross? When we think about Jesus here, he took and and the nails pierced him through. The sword in his side pierced him through, and through that, he took our judgment, he took our place. He is like the eagle who let us be bore on his back, and on his back, by his grace, through his death, through his resurrection, we have been set free. Aren't you grateful for that visual of the gospel? But it's not just there that we see it in this passage, we see it in another place. We see it as also when we look in verse 16. God says, Listen, this is what I'm gonna do. I want you to see the theme of this passage, chapter 19. It's all the theme is about his salvation. And in his salvation, what we find God doing is as God comes to them, he offers an invitation to them, and God begins this process of saying, I'm gonna come down. And he tells them to consecrate themselves because what he's about to do is he's about to come down on Mount Carmel. Or not Mount Carmel, but Mount Sinai, rather. That's Elijah's Carmel. Anyway, here we go. So it came, verse 16, so it came about in the, look at verse 16, in the third day. Why did God choose the third day? Does that ring a bell for any of y'all? I don't know if it jumps off the page to you, but God is already foreshadowing what we know would bring the ultimate salvation. It says, so it came about on the third day when it was morning, that there was thunder, there was lightning, there was flashing. Here God is coming down, God's revealing that he is alive, and the thick cloud upon the mountain, the very trumpet sounds, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. Isn't it amazing that God does this on the third day? Where does that I mean, does that ring a bell for any of you? Well, it does for me. And matter of fact, the drama that surrounds it also reminds me of this, Matthew 28, verse 2. The Bible says, when Jesus rose from the dead, it says there was a severe earthquake. And the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came down and rolled away the stone. When did he do that? On the third day. So God is foreshadowing. I love how God shows what his plan is in the future. He does this often in the Old Testament. He foreshadows what he's going to do. And Exodus 19 was no, no exception. So we see as well another picture that he provides here in this theme of salvation that he is revealing in Exodus chapter 19. And that is in Hebrews chapter 12, we see something similar. Because what we find is they came to Mount Sinai, to the base of Mount Sinai. But this is what Hebrews 12 says. He says, But we, the people of God, go to a different mountain. We go to Mount Zion. Stay here with me. And what we find is in Hebrews 12, he says, For you have not come, look at how he's comparing and contrasting these two mountains in Hebrews 12. How you have come to a mountain that cannot be touched, uh, and uh and to a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a whirlwind, a blast of trumpet. Does that sound like Exodus 19? Of course, and the sounds of words which sound was that those who bet heard it begged to no further, hear no further words spoken to them. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God. These are like three displays where God says, Listen, I want you to know I'm a salvation God. And yes, I displayed that practically and physically in foreshadowing ability. I did that in Exodus chapter 19 by showing you how I took my people out of Egypt, brought them out of bondage, and brought them in the promised land. God's second test says, Listen, I want you to see, I want you to remember this. I wanted to ring a bell in the churches throughout the ages that when the third day, that's when I came down, there's something special about the third day. And then he talks about the mountain. Yes, we don't go to Mount Sinai where the law would condemn us, but we go to Mount Zion, we go to the place of Calvary where Jesus Christ died and rose again. And listen, glory be to God. God says, Listen, my salvation, my salvation is available for you and for me. So we live in a world of mixed messages, but God begins right all the way back in Exodus chapter 19, giving a visual of how true salvation comes. It reminds me a little bit of what we know is happening today with gift cards. Anybody like getting a gift card? All right, all three of you like gift cards. Nobody else likes them. Well, maybe the reason why you don't like them is one out of five gift cards are never ever redeemed. Isn't that interesting? There's a reason why. Supposedly, 50% say I don't have enough time to redeem my gift card. I'm not kidding. Uh 37% said I can't find anything I want. 14% said I lost my card. And then there's another 12% that said the card expired. But what we see is as we sum up what God did for us in his redemption, and we'll say, How could you neglect such a great salvation? Because this is what God has done for us. God has made himself known, God has come near, and you'll see it through this passage over and over and over again. God wants us to know there's only one way of salvation, and that one way is through Jesus Christ, who will come and tabernacle with us, who will die on the cross, who will raise again, and who will offer himself up as a sacrifice for you and me. And that's the salvation redemption story. And if it's your story, you have something to shout about today, because you have something to celebrate today, because today you are born again. What a glorious blessing we have in our Father who loved us so much to give his son. So that's the picture that he begins with in Exodus 19. I mean, just scattered through these passages, scattered through this event where God is about to come down on Mount Sinai, he is already proclaiming the gospel. Now, the second thing that he teaches about himself is my salvation gives me purpose. When he wants us to know why we're saved, uh, he wants us to know for what purpose we are saved. And here he tells these children of Israel, if you'll look at this picture once again, he tells them, listen, what I've done is I have rescued you from Egypt. And he says, and now, verse 5, read it with me. This is so cool. Now, then, if you will indeed obey my voice, and you will keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among the peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. And Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded them. Notice how they respond, verse 8. And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken to us, we will do. What a glorious moment. Here they are at the base of Sinai. God says, Listen, I have rescued you for a reason. Now I want to pause and just say this. If you have been rescued, you have been rescued as well for a reason. I want you to see the reason why God had rescued them from Egypt. He says, This is the reason I want you to be a kingdom of priests to me. Verse 6, I want you to be a holy nation. These are the words that you should speak, God says to Moses, to the sons of Israel. I want you to understand something here. God did not choose them because they were attractive. We live in a world today, and the world where we live today is a lot of people will look at somebody and they'll make a judgment based upon what they look like. And they'll say, okay, well, that person is attractive. So that person literally, I mean, psychologists have said this, they've done studies of this, that if you are an attractive person, people are more likely to listen to you. They'll say, even sometimes they think if you're an attractive person that you're smarter. Or maybe there's a certain look that you have that makes them think you're smarter. But here, understand, God does not look on the outward appearance, he looks upon the heart. And when he looks at the children of Israel, I want you to see who they were. They were slaves. They were slaves for over 400 years in Egypt. And God went and rescued them from the superpower from Egypt, and he did it not based upon their appearance, not based upon how smart they were, not based upon how they looked. God looked at their heart and God looked back at his promise to Abraham. And when God looked at Abraham, God said, Listen, this is what I'm going to do with you, Abraham. Through your descendants, through your descendants, all the nations of the world will be blessed. And let me just say this today. We look at that today and we say, okay, God brought that same picture, that same calling, and he's now declaring that calling, that promise to Abraham. He's saying to them, he's offering invitation to the children of Israel at this point at Sinai, and he's saying, Listen, you, I want you to be a kingdom of priest. I want you to be a holy nation. See, the holy God wanted a holy nation. And it should be that through the Jews, that ultimately all the people of the world would look and say, I want to know, I don't want mixed messages, I want to know what God is like. We should be able to, if they would have obeyed this invitation, if they would have truly did what they said, which we're gonna do everything that God wants us to do, if they would have done that, folks, what would have happened is we would look to Israel today and say, Here we see who God really is. But I want you to know God's not finished with the Jews yet. So don't you dare be anti-Semitic. And the reason why I say that is if you read the Bible, God is going to bring them into ultimately, when you read the last part of the book of Revelation, God will lead them in the very end days to this wonderful destiny where they will be declarers of the Savior and the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But that's my Wednesday night study. You can show up for that. But nonetheless, what we see is as they promised, oh God, we'll be this holy nation. We'll be what you want us to be, but yet they fell short so many times. Stay with me. They fell short so many times. You remember this? What we find is we find over and over, God is saying, Listen, I want you, I want you to be a holy nation, but we're gonna study the history of Israel as we go through the book of Exodus. We'll see over and over the failure and the unwillingness they had to obey and to follow God. Well, see, there's literally their sin on display. And what we know is ultimately it looked like when the days of Solomon, it looked like, oh, just maybe now Israel will come into its destiny. And what will happen is Solomon will say, when we study the scripture, Solomon will say, Oh God, I want to have wisdom. I desire wisdom more than wealth. And at that moment, when we see it in the history of Israel, Solomon do this, we get so excited, the queen of Sheba comes. And the book of 1 Kings talks about this and how she comes and she says, He had such wisdom, such wisdom that she literally lost her breath. But then there was a problem. Solomon loved many foreign women, and Israel is divided. And today we still look and we still wait for the Israelites, the Jews, to fulfill what they promised to do in Exodus chapter 19. But you say, Well, where'd I fit into this story, this history, this amazing history, and this invitation that God gave to the children of Israel and Mount Sinai, did you know that God has issued to you the same invitation? I want you to see this, it's exciting. 1 Peter chapter 2, 9. It says, but you, the church, he's quoting Exodus chapter 19. You, the church, are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special, here it is, possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Did you know what God's saying? He's saying, listen, while the Israelites, while the Jews failed in this, I have called my church to be that holy nation, to be that example, to be the ones that will ultimately also accept that invitation. And here's the invitation of Exodus chapter 19 to you. It's repeated in 1 Peter to you. Look at your neighbor and say, This is for you. Just do it real quick. This is for you. I don't want you to miss this. I don't want you to fail to understand in the middle of all the minutiae of all this history I'm sharing with you. Don't miss this. What God is saying is, listen, where the Jews failed, I'm asking for you to fill in. I'm asking you to say, yes, I have a purpose. I have been saved with a purpose. I have a position before God. God has called me to be a holy priest. He's called me to be a holy nation. He's called us as a church to declare the wonderful praises of God. Listen, when God saved you, he didn't save you just so you could have a religion. He didn't save you just to get you to heaven. He saved you to bring a little bit of heaven down to earth so that through that you would be able to declare something that he's wanting all the way back to Exodus chapter 19. He wants an example. He wants people to look at somebody. He wants us to look at the church. And he's saying, look at the church. They're declaring no mixed messages, they're declaring who I am. And God help us to be those people, folks. God help us. God help me. God help you to answer the call and the invitation of saying, I am an example. I carry Jesus so that the world will know what Jesus is like. You know, it's a beautiful thing when that happens in our world, by the way. People are looking for Jesus. People are mesmerized by Jesus. And one of the ways I know this is because of the relics. I want you to see several relics that people are going to go see today. They want to get close to Jesus. They want to know something about Jesus. Look at this relic. This relic that's going to come up on screen is something that I saw in Shechem. It's uh in the Palestinian side. Uh when you travel to Israel, you can go in over to Shechem. It's where Jacob's well is, and they have this particular uh thing enshrined. Do you know what that is? That is the enshrining of a piece of the skull of the Samaritan woman. Now you look at that and you say, that is weird. Definitely is. I'll show you something equally as weird. The next picture is a picture of what people say is the splinters of the cross. They've enshrined them. And many people worship them. Here's another thing: their royal robe of Jesus, the royal robe of Jesus is now on display in Germany. You can travel to Germany and they say this is his undergarment, more or less. This is Jesus' underwear, if you want to put it that way. And they got it on display, and people go and they touch it and they venerate it and they worship it. You know why? Because they're looking to, they're wanting, how can I get closer to Jesus? How can I see Jesus? But guess what? If people want to get close to Jesus, the Bible says that we have been issued an invitation as a church to be that royal priesthood, that holy nation. We are to be the ones that they come and look to and say, Yes, I can see Jesus in you. And see what happens when people see Jesus. And when people get around, people start talking. Every notice that I read that this week. It says, whenever Jesus walked into synagogues, people talked. Anytime Jesus dealt with sinners, people talked. Anytime Jesus spoke, people talked. Jesus was the talk of the town. If you're representing Jesus, people are probably talking about you. I want to ask you, have you given them something to talk about? Listen, that's who we are as the church. We're supposed to be something that people are talking about, and they're talking about Jesus, and it's not always bad. A lot of times it's good. Listen, if they're interested, 500,000 people this year have gone to see that robe of Jesus. Let me just say this: millions need to see Jesus in you and me because guess what? He is alive in us. We're not some dead relic, we're not some old religious parchment. We are the church of the living God, and greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. That's what God wants. He wants us so greatly. It reminds me of the man who was running through the airport one day. And he was running through the airport and he was late for his plane, and he knocked over a fruit cart. And when he knocked over the fruit cart, the fruit just went all over the floor, and he had a choice. Am I gonna stop and he'll pick up the fruit? Or am I gonna keep running? He stopped and he went back and he picked up the fruit. He missed his plane. And while he put everything back in place, the young man that was there that was at the fruit cart, he stopped and he said, Sir, can I ask you a question? He said, Yeah, what's your question? And he says, Are you Jesus? Let others see Jesus in you. Listen, that's why you're here. If you've been saved and born again, God, this invitation of Exodus 19, he's transferred that. Yes, he still has a purpose for the Jews. Yes, he's still gonna use them. Yes, he still has a plan. But guess what? God wants people to see Jesus in you. We are plan A, and there is no plan B. Did you know you were so purposeful and so you have such a powerful identity on this planet earth? But that's who you are. That's why we cannot send mixed messages. We must reveal who the living God is, not just by what we say, but who we are. We are a holy nation. We are a royal priesthood. We are set apart for the glory to proclaim the glorious and wonderful and powerful salvation in person of the Son of God. He is alive in you. Is that amazing? Somebody say thank you to God for that. Amen. The last thing that we see here, when God comes and reveals himself in Exodus chapter 19, he reveals that he wants to come near. Now, this is the major theme of Exodus chapter 19. God had been, of course, as I said earlier, God had been present but seemed very distant. And that's not because God wanted to be. I want to remind you that God never wanted to be distant from any of us. God walked with Adam and Eve in the coolness of the day. He did not want to be distant. But when sin came into the world, God has always been present, but he seemed very, very, very distant. And there was a reason for that. We saw that. In the fire by night, in the cloud by day. This gets even more exciting. What we find is God begins to reveal why we can't and He can't come in our presence. Notice verse 18. Let's take this thing home. It says, now Mount Sinai was all up in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. And its smoke ascended like the smoke of the furnace, and the whole mountain quaked uh violently. So when God came down, notice things get dangerous. They don't just get dangerous, but they get deadly. You know why? Because God is an almighty and a holy God. And for in the Bible tells us that this is how holy he is. It says, when the sound of the trumpet grew louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in the thunder. And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up, and the Lord spoke to Moses. Don't miss this, and said, Go down. Listen to this. Warn the people so that they do not break through to the Lord to gaze. In other words, they don't need to get a peep of me. If they see me, they're going to perish, he says in verse 21. He said, Also let the priest who come near the Lord consecrate themselves, or else the Lord will break out against them. What is it? What is it about God that God says, listen, we've got to keep our distance. You can't, only one is gonna come up on the mountain. That's you, Moses. Listen, even the priests can't get up there. When they want to come as close as they can to the mountain, listen, they got to consecrate themselves. You know why? Because God is that holy. Listen, we play games with sin because we have forgotten how holy God is. God says, I'm so holy that if you come into my presence, it's not only dangerous, it's downright deadly. Now follow this. So what God does is He says, Listen, this is what I want you to do. What I want you to do is, I want you to understand how holy I am. If you were to go to Arabia today and you were to go to Mount Sinai, this is what you would see. I want you to see this picture. This is a picture that will give you a little bit of understanding. That is the place where God came down. That is the top of Mount Sinai. Look at everything around it. Do you see the difference on top of that mountain? That whole mountain is charred. And that you can go up there and you can get a stone. Here's a picture of one of the stones. It is absolutely charred. You know why? Because the Bible tells us in verse 18 that the Lord descended upon it with fire and smoke and ascended like the smoke of a furnace. The Hebrew word there is the word kiln. And do you know how hot a Hebrew kiln would get? 3,000 degrees. I don't recommend you go hang out in a 3,000 degree room today. It won't work out well for you. That's how holy God is. Listen, you can go there. You can see this is not a bunch of fables. This is the word of God. This is what God did in history. God wanted to come near, but he even came on top of the mountain, and the mountain was charred. So, how in the world is God gonna come near? God wants to, and so God comes up with a plan. You'll see this in the rest of the book of Exodus. God says, Listen, I want you to make a tabernacle. In my quiet time, I'm studying that right now, and it's been an incredible time to see how detailed this tabernacle is. And if you're just reading it through the book of Exodus, you're probably gonna get bored a little bit because it's so detailed. But what we get out of all that is to understand one thing that tabernacle really mattered because God had come down on the mountain, and the only way that God said, I'm going to be able to dwell and travel with you, not from the sky, not from way up there. The only way I'm going to be able to get near to you, Israelites, is there must be a tabernacle. There must be a holy of holies, there must be a place where I can dwell that's separate from you. And they built a tabernacle and ultimately it became the temple that Solomon built. He built one in Jerusalem. But I want you to see something even more wonderful. God, knowing that he wanted to come near to his people, God did something amazing. Put it together. John chapter 1, verse 14. The Bible says the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Is that amazing? God said, Listen, I want to come near, but if I get near, listen, it's not only dangerous, it's deadly. And so God said, Listen, okay, temporarily, let's put this tent and they'll travel with this tent, and the we'll have the Ark of the Covenant, and we can do this because I want to be near to my people. I want to be near. And then ultimately they went to Jerusalem and built the temple. But the greatest gift of all, God had a plan to come near. And God said, I know what I'll do. I will come in flesh, and I will tabernacle among men, and I will give my life in the flesh. So that the wall in the partition that was in the tabernacle, that was in the temple on the moment Jesus died could be ripped from top to bottom. Now we can come near through the blood of Christ. Listen, if that doesn't get you excited, you need to get your spiritual kiddling tried out. Because God has come near and he's here today with you and me. And that's the sermon from Sinai. Do you want to sum it up? Why did God come near? Three words. There are three reasons why God has come near. He came near because God, say with me, God loves. Me. God's come near to you because He loves you. That's the sermon from Sinai. So, God, thank you for coming near this morning. Thank you for being here with us, unveiling to us the beauty through history and through pictures and through everything you did on Sinai to reveal, to leave no mixed messages that God, you love us. And it's through you and through the tabernacling of our Savior that we can come near. Lord Jesus, there are people in the sound of my voice that want to come near. But you've already taken the initiative and you're near to them. And right where they are sitting and listening right now, you're saying to them, I'm right here. Here's my gift of grace. You've sinned, and that sin puts you in a position before me is not only dangerous but deadly. The Bible says we're dead in our trespasses and sins, but God has quickened us through the blood of Christ. Would you this day just say, Jesus, your blood apply to my account? Forgive me. I've made a decision today that you are the way of salvation. You're my way of hope. You're my purpose. And I want to glorify you in my body. I repent of my sins and I come and I give my life to you today, Jesus. He's come in to dwell with you and to give you his grace today. We just say thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for coming into my heart. Thank you for living in my life. I receive you today, and I respond to your invitation to be conduit for the world to see Jesus through me. God loves you. And if you made that decision today, listen, don't hold back. Make it public. Shout it from the rooftops. This is the greatest day in your life. As believers today, we stand before God. We stand before a world that so greatly wants to see Jesus. Tens of thousands go just to try to understand and touch something that relates to Jesus. Listen, you are the most grandest display. You are the most grandest display that God has chosen to reveal a Son through. As believers, Lord, we pray you would shine through us. You said, let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify the Father in heaven. Lord, the world does not need old dead relics. They need people who have a genuine relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. Lord, we commit ourselves to that. We say all that you say, Lord, we'll do. So, Lord, you draw as you so see fit. But as we stand and we follow, we sing of your worthiness and we respond to it today in this time of decision. For we pray it in Jesus' name.

unknown 49:33

Amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

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