Exodus 20:18-26 - I AM Your Fear

[Music] let's open up our bibles to the book of exodus please chapter 20 exodus chapter 20. father in heaven as we come before your word we come lord with hearts that are listening hearts that are reverent and lord hearts full of faith we believe jesus that you are here in our midst and that you want to speak to your people so now as we open your word we ask that you speak to us do it lord as you've so faithfully done before in jesus name amen well as you turn to exodus chapter 20 i realize that it's been well it's been like four weeks since we've been in the book of exodus i mean first we had the sunday before easter and you're going to talk about christmas that would be a long time before wouldn't it ah all right let me just regroup here just for a minute first he had the sunday before christmas and we spoke on a christmas theme and then i took a sunday off and then last week was mission sunday so it's actually four sundays ago since we were last in the book of exodus but i hope you remember at least a little bit of our general context where we were in the book of exodus the children of israel had come out of egypt and all the slavery and all the bondage in egypt that was connected to that they had come through the red sea in a miraculous crossing they ate manna that was provided for them every morning they were had a miraculous provision of water for them in the wilderness and god led them by a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud through the day just exactly where he wanted them to go and he wanted them to go to mount sinai because they were going to stay at mount sinai for an entire year and in that year at mount sinai god was going to reveal himself to the nation and as we saw in the beginning of exodus chapter 20 god revealed himself to the nation when they were gathered at the base of mount sinai and god in some way i don't know how to describe it exactly but i know how to describe the effects because the bible tells us what the effects of god's presence on mount sinai was those effects were marked by uh thunder and lightning and an earthquake and smoke and the thing that blows my mind almost most of all there was a trumpet blast that was blown by no human trumpeter but some angelic or heavenly trumpeter blowing a trumpet blast from heaven and then finally at the end of all of that god spoke to them the ten commandments from heaven we looked at that over two weeks we saw the first four commandments that are directed sort of between us and god that's their focus and then we saw the next six commandments that are more horizontal if you want to say in their character they deal more with how we should relate to one another but when all of that was done when all the exhaustion and and uh and and majesty and and sovereign display of god's presence was finished when god's voice fell silent at the end of it what do you think the children of israel what do you think the response would be more more god tell us more no look at what it was verse 18 now all the people witnessed the thunderings the lightning flashes the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking and when the people saw it they trembled and stood far off in other words there wasn't something magnetic about this awesome presence of god on mount sinai no almost quite to the contrary it was a sense of exclusion they understood that there was something so mighty so majestic so powerful about the presence of god as it was displayed on sinai and there was something unholy impure in themselves that they felt that they must get away or at least put some distance between themselves and god you see the awe of the phenomenon did nothing to draw the people closer to god look at what it says there in verse 18 it says they trembled and stood afar off no we don't want to get any closer if anything we want to take a couple steps back it made them less hesitant excuse me less ready more hesitant to rush into the presence of god now you're going to see this reflected in verse 19. take a look at it here it says then they said to moses you speak with us and we will hear but let not god speak with us lest we die isn't that strange don't we imagine in our minds that if we had an up close and personal connection with god that we would say yes yes more more more give me all you got all i can say is from what we see in the scriptures it doesn't always work like that sometimes it does we have scenes in the life of jesus where it seemed like people just wanted to be with jesus and couldn't get enough of them but we have other scenes when jesus was displaying his majesty was displaying something of his glory for example when he had just done something beautiful and powerful and supernatural something that really displayed his glory peter's reaction was this depart from me for i'm a sinful man do you get what i'm talking about that there is an aspect in which god displays himself not that he's trying to push us away not that god is running away from us look if he wanted to run away from us he could do it very easily but rather there's nothing in god saying get away from me no he's just being who he is and our reaction to us to say i don't know if i can stand in the presence of such a holy such a just god that's why they said in verse 19 let not god speak with us you see biblically speaking an up-close encounter with god can just as often be troubling as it might be comforting israel came and they couldn't see and they couldn't feel and they couldn't hear this much from god and know their own sinfulness and reconcile the two they were acutely aware of the fact he's holy he's glorious he's majestic and i'm not that was a little too much for them to handle and they felt like they needed a little bit of separation that's why they said to moses verse 19 you speak with us and we will hear now there's two things that i think are fascinating about that number one it's fascinating to consider how they thought first of all that they still wanted to hear from god just not so directly yet we still want to hear moses you go talk with god tell us what he says and then that'll be great but the second thing i notice here is that they seem far over confident we'll hear we'll listen we'll obey i want to spoil the rest of the book exodus for us we're going to be going through on sunday morning how'd they do with that how'd they do it yes lord you just whatever you tell us to do we'll do it i don't think it worked out quite that easily quite that neatly but they said here verse 19 did you notice it again it says let not god speak with us lest we die you see in drawing back from this direct dealing with god israel wanted moses to be their mediator moses you stand between us we sense that there's such a gap between who god is and who we are that we need somebody in the middle to bridge the gap that they feared death if they didn't have a mediator i'll tell you this friends man's desire for a mediator somebody to stand between us and god it's satisfied in jesus christ oh listen moses was something of a mediator for ancient israel no doubt about it he stood in the middle between god and israel but that was moses and he was an imperfect mediator i've got good news for you god has provided us a perfect mediator in jesus christ the new testament tells us this at first timothy chapter 2 verse 5 there is one god and one mediator between god and men the man christ jesus he's our mediator he's our stand between now please understand you don't need another mediator sometimes people grow up and it's very natural for young people i i think of maybe somebody a young person 11 12 13 years old and there is a sense when a child's that young the parent is the natural sort of mediator between them and god sort of leading them to god being the one who guides them towards god there comes a place where they realize no i've got to deal with god directly i need a mediator jesus himself not somebody to stand between other times in history people have tried to make other things saints or maybe mary as their mediator no no don't look to the saints don't look to mary look to jesus as your mediator and worse yet sometimes some people have looked to the preacher to be a mediator they thought well look i i won't seek god for myself i'll let the pastor seek god and tell me what he comes up with it no jesus christ is the mediator and each one of us has to have our own direct dealing with him because there's one god and one mediator between god and men the man christ jesus now verse 20 moses is going to respond to this request from the people this backing off of the people the people were so impressed but sort of in a fearful way of what god did there on mount sinai the people wanted to take a step back and now moses is going to respond to the people and speak to them at verse 20. look at this together with me and moses said to the people do not fear for god has come to test you and that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin a couple things here that i find are so so fascinating first of all he says in verse 20 do not fear for god has come to test you you know i wouldn't blame somebody in israel for saying something like this moses do not fear if god didn't want us to fear why did he scare the pants off us with all that stuff at mount sinai isn't that what we're supposed to do no but there's a sense in which they were supposed to fear and there was a sense in which they were not supposed to fear and it's really found that almost contradictory but actually complementary idea found right there in verse 20. notice here in verse 20 it both says do not fear and then it also says that his fear may be before you does god want you to be afraid yes and no let's deal with the no first there's lives here and your life is bound by fear you worry about it all the time you're troubled by it by day you're worried about it by night your life is consumed with fears things that might happen to you things that might happen to people you love things that might happen to the things that you have and you worry all the time and god wants to bring his sweet release to you and say don't be afraid don't fear would you please just get would you cast your cares upon me because i care for you there's that sense in which god says no put away fear but there's another sense in which god wants us to fear this sense in having an appropriate reverence and respect of who he is i don't know if you had that person in your life i don't know if it was your parents i mean i suppose ideally so it's your parents but some of us had good parents and some of us didn't i don't know if it was your parents maybe it was respected teacher or youth leader or somebody like that but somebody that you so loved you so honored you so respected that in a very appropriate way you wanted to please them that's what god wants from us in this beautiful dimension between us and our relationship with him verse 20 as it says that his fear may be before you again it's distinguishing between those two kinds of fear fear not and yet fear now notice this it says that you may at the end of verse 20 so that you may not sin is fear an adequate motivator to keep people from sinning well kind of think of it in israel's case did fear keep them from sinning i'm thinking about 40 days from now they're going to be dancing around a gold calf and saying this is the god that kept us from egypt that brought us from egypt isn't that amazing these same people who were shaking in their sandals in front of mount sinai a month and a half later seem to have forgotten it all and they're dancing around a golden calf it's crazy isn't it in that sense fear is not an entirely effective barrier against sin you know what a greater one is love love will keep you from sin more effectively than fear will look let me illustrate this to you from a passage in first john chapter 4 verse 18 it says this there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment but he who fears has not been made perfect in love we love him because he first loves us friends it's not bad for you to obey god out of fear that's not bad to be honest i'd rather that you obeyed god out of fear then you disobeyed him that's not bad but i'll give you even better motivator to obey god love and gratitude for all that he's given you all that he's done for you all that he's poured into your life that is a far better motivator now verse 21 so the people stood afar off but moses drew near the thick darkness where god was isn't that an awesome verse verse 21 you see israel dreaded the powerful presence of god but moses said no there's something in there there's something powerful there's something that speaks of the glory of god and i'm just sort of wetting your appetite because in several weeks we're going to be in exodus chapter 30 and at exodus chapter 33 moses is going to be so bold that he's going to go and pursue god in a dimension that nobody else in israel had and he's going to want to see something of god's presence and something of god's glory that he hadn't seen before moses was drawn by this magnetic presence of god and i love this verse because it speaks to us about this heart that says okay the rest of the people may be backing off but moses said i want to go further with you lord i pray that god would fill this congregation with people with the same heart that moses had right here this art that says you know it doesn't matter to me how many other people just shy away from wanting to really go for it with the lord really want to shy away from giving god all of their heart all of their commitment they say no god i'm going to pursue you to the greatest depths that i can i want to be drawn in by your presence i want to say as it says there in verse 20 where moses drew near the thick darkness where god was and please remember moses wasn't some kind of flawless saint if i could remind you moses had the blood of murder on his hand had he not murdered an egyptian several decades before yet nevertheless god says if your sin is satisfied by the work that's done at my altar come moses you can come in i think god is drawing i think god wants people who will say yes lord i want to pursue you i want to go after you i want to draw near even if it seems like thick darkness to other people it's a cloud of glory as far as i'm concerned and that was the heart of moses now at the end of verse 21 we have a transition we sort of end the experiential account of when god came down and spoke to israel with a powerful display of his presence there on mount sinai we move from that at the end of verse 21 and we move into a section where god gives them many instructions and laws and we'll be talking about that in the coming weeks what i think is fascinating about this is right at the very beginning when god is going to spell out instructions and laws that he wants israel to keep do you know where he began he began with an altar does he know what an altar is all about look maybe we should just read it verse 22 then the lord said to moses thus you shall say to the children of israel you've seen that i've talked with you from heaven you shall not make anything to be with me gods of gold or gods of goo excuse me gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves now first of all verse 22 makes it very clear that god did speak to israel audibly from heaven right it's right there and there verse 22 you have seen that i talked with you from heaven but secondly notice it in verse 23 you shall not make anything to be with me gods of silver or gods of gold because god did not reveal himself in any image on mount sinai israel was forbidden from making an image as all the other pagan nations did as a normal practice they were forbidden from making an image of god to worship they were to worship him in spirit and in truth god said you didn't see a great big bird descending down on mount sinai so don't make a bird statue you didn't see a great big angel descending on mount sinai you don't make an angel statue you didn't see a glorious man so don't make a man statue don't worship any of those things but worship me in spirit and in truth but then very much connected with the idea of true worship is what we find beginning now at verse 24 look at it with me where it says an altar of earth you shall make for me and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings your sheep and your oxen in every place where i record my name i will come to you and i will bless you and if you make me an altar of stone you shall not build it of hewn stone for if you use your tool on it you have profaned it nor shall you go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness may not be exposed on it now as god starts laying out instructions for the practical daily life of israel where did he begin in this well he began first of all almost in a preface almost in a preamble god says let me tell you about an altar why did god begin with an altar because you need it and i need it any time we start talking about god's law anytime we start talking about god's standards we are vitally aware of the fact that we don't keep them that we've broken them oh i hope we take it seriously and say yes lord you helping me i want to keep your commandments better you helping me you filling my life i want to do the very best i can to live the way that you want me to but god i recognize that i have not kept your law and undoubtedly in the future to some extent or another i will not keep your law i need to be forgiven even though i'm a law breaker you know i i am very grateful for this congregation when we were in exodus chapter 20 a few weeks ago when we went through the ten commandments four commandments on one sunday six commandments on the following sunday i mean i said those were a couple heavy sundays at this pulpit that there there was a thickness in the air there was a sense of of heaviness and i mean in a good way there was a sense that lord we're gonna open up our hearts before you and we're gonna let you speak to our lives and where it's good it's good and where it's bad we need to hear it lord so come and bring it and i'm very grateful i thank the lord that this is a congregation that wants to hear the word that doesn't want it sugar-coated that's it just bring it pastor just bring what's here in the book but when we do that we come back to the idea again and again we need this mediator we need the sacrifice almost like this the the people say pastor slaughter me with the word go ahead and do it but please pastor don't leave me there point me to the hope that i have you want to know what the hope is the hope is found at the altar there you are slaughtered by the ten commandments there you are fearful for mount zion the earthquake the smoke the fire all of it just sort of freaked you out where's your refuge you law breaker you shaking in your boots person from mount sinai i'll tell you where the refuge is it's for you it's for me it's for every one of us our refuge is at the altar the altar is the place of sacrifice now what does alter mean well our english word comes from the latin the latin altus which just means high because typically altars were on raised platforms to give prominence to the business that was done there but that's the latin word that's our english word you know the ancient hebrew word that's translated for alder i'm going to be a little bit free in my translation so to give you the concept behind it but basically in the hebrew the idea behind an altar is this killing place it's a place of death sometimes sort of metaphorically in the church here we talk about the front being an altar you talk about having an altar call in the church come forward to the altar a place of sacrifice a place of dedication and that's fine as it goes i think we should be a people of sacrifice and dedication unto the lord but i'll tell you this in the old testament when moses spoke that's when the people of israel heard this they knew what an altar was all about they knew that it was at the altar that the jugular vein of an innocent animal would be cut its warm blood would pulsate out until the heart stopped the blood would be gathered and applied in a sacrificial way to the altar and depending on the type of sacrifice the animal would be cut up would be distributed again depending on the type of sacrifice it was sometimes it would be entirely burnt before the lord sometimes only portions of it would be burnt before the lord but it was a place of blood and if i could say gore and sacrifice because it was an altar it was a killing place now you may say and rightfully so i am so happy that we don't have that kind of religion today wouldn't that be the strangest thing instead of after the message here we sort of have a second set of worship instead of that you know why is he bringing a goat on stage it would be something like that it would be strange bizarre we wouldn't know what to think about we wouldn't know what to deal with it but friends here's the good news it's not like we've given up on an altar oh no we have an altar and our altar stands and it reminds us all the time of the greatest killing place of all of the greatest altar where the greatest sacrifice was ever offered i'm talking about how every alter of the old testament found its perfect fulfillment at the cross where jesus christ was offered not just at the perfect altar oh look just like god instructed them don't make the altar fancy i don't want it to speak of the glory of any man's work i want the altar to be rough inhuman is there anything more rough in hume than a cross it wasn't gold it wasn't silver it wasn't made with fine craftsmanship from a wood carver it was two rough beams put together and on those two rough beams the son of god hung and he was he was sacrificed for our sins it wasn't just a glorious altar it was a glorious sacrifice upon that altar now to prepare the people for this eventual fulfillment god spoke to israel and he says for example in verse 25 here in exodus chapter 20 you shall not build it of hewn stone if you're going to make it of stone don't carve it up nice i don't want anything at that altar that's going to draw attention to man i've been in churches probably you have to i've been in churches especially in europe where the whole thing is like an art museum well matter of fact that's what you do you walk around the church like an art museum well here's this beaut and some of the paintings and sculptures are gorgeous we just love to walk through and look at it and there's a stained glass and you've got to say it's a very impressive stirring soul-stirring artistic achievement but i couldn't imagine sitting down and listening to an actual sermon in there first of all because usually the acoustics in those places are terrible but let me add terrible for preaching wonderful for singing wonderful for singing never forget one time we we took a group of our interns from the bible college in germany and we went to london for sort of like a field trip and there we went into westminster abbey and we wanted to go see westminster abbey until we found out that it cost like 30 bucks to take a tour of westminster abbey we said man forget it these are a bunch of poor interns we're not going to do that so then we found out that in just about a half hour they were having a service there and you could get into the service for free and have a look around westminster abbey well that appealed to us just fine of course and so what did we do we walked in there to westminster avenue and there was an anglican service going on and let me tell you it was beautiful it was beautiful and and when they got the choir up there to sing there were tears in the eyes of many of our group because it was so beautiful and it sounded tremendous and then i don't know the vicar the priest whatever you would call him in that particular anglican category he got up to speak and you could hardly understand a word he said and it wasn't because he had a funny english accent you could hardly understand a word he said because the acoustics of that building were perfectly engineered for beautiful song but not for hearing the word of god clearly and so listen you go inside these churches and you see them and they're beautiful this but you sit down and try to listen to a message and all you see is man everywhere you're looking at the past you look right up over his shoulder it says this memorial plaque placed by this and this you look over his other shoulder and it says this person buried here in the year 1672 and then you look down at your feet and there's somebody buried right under your feet and then over on the other side you look at this and there's this beautiful sculpture and you could just sit and look at that sculpture for a long time and forget all about the message thank you very much but you see what god says he said listen there's a place for art there's a place for man's artistic achievements and accomplishments and god bless those in our midst who pursue such things but when my people gather for worship i want the focus to be upon me not upon the skill of the engraver but i want the focus to be upon me he even said this so much so that if you notice there in verse 26 he said nor shall you go up by steps why so that the nakedness of the man wouldn't be explicit well what kind of business is going on here expose nakedness no he's even talking about the subtle character of the priest's leg his bare leg being exposed as he went up steep steps to the altar he said i don't want anything to draw any attention to man i want the focus to be upon me god says why and i'll end with this look at verse 24 the phrase is found in verse 24 i will come to you and i will bless you when god's name is honored at an altar where he is glorified and his altar is properly presented and glorified in the midst of his people god makes a promise and what's that promise look at it right there at verse 24 i will come to you and i will bless you isn't that beautiful don't you need that today don't you need the presence of god not in the fear and torment of mount sinai but in the love and forgiveness that he provides at his altar you need him to come to you but you know what else you need you need him to bless you i won't ask for a show of hands but wouldn't it be nice to see how many people consciously know they need the blessing of god i think just about everybody of us here right you need his presence and you need his blessing do you realize he said that he would bring it at the altar and this makes it so wonderful that today today together as a congregation we're going to come to the lord's table we're going to receive the bread we're going to receive the cup that speaks to us of god's altar what we're going to do in a very demonstrable way is together as a congregation we're coming to his altar and i want you to believe it i want you to believe it with all your heart lord you will come to me at your altar lord you will bless me at your altar he's not doing this from a distance folks he's coming up very close to us as we come to meet him at his altar are you ready for that father this is our prayer we pray it in the name of jesus lord we pray it with um with hopefully that that rightful reverent sense of respect and honor towards you but lord we also pray it as people who have received at least something of your love and together now lord not just as a collection of individuals but lord as a true congregation we come to your altar we come believing that you will meet with us and we're bold enough to believe that you will bless us not because we deserve it but because you promised it so lord i pray that you would prepare our hearts right here right now to meet with you to receive your blessing at your altar do it lord for the sake of jesus your son we pray this in his name [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 1,097

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: david guzik, guzik, enduring word, pastor david guzik, pastor david, exodus 20:18-26, exodus 20, exodus, I AM Your Fear, Israel, mount sinai, God, Lord, laws, worship, altars, fear, the presence of god, old testament, moses

Id: fOYIKvNmLGM

Length: 33min 32sec (2012 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020