Extraordinary Relationship
Series: ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY GOD
Speaker: John Lau
Date: 30th May 2021
Passage: Exodus 19:1-20:26
00:00:00 --> 00:00:29 Thank you.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:48 I believe the answer would most likely be no and depend on where the proposal is taking place.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:56 If this is at the gap, we might end up reading on the news that someone got pushed over for a proposal gone wrong.
00:00:56 --> 00:01:03 A marriage relationship means two people exclusively devoted to each other.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:09 We put boundaries in place to honor and protect that relationship.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:22 If we are unwilling to accept anything else less than that standard, I wonder why we are not treating God with the same standard, who has loved us exclusively.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:30 There is no one on earth who failed a relationship higher than the extraordinary God of the Bible.
00:01:31 --> 00:01:41 We have been looking into the book of Exodus of the Old Testament to see the interaction between the extraordinary God and the ordinary people.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:54 The event of Exodus is about God saving and redeeming the people of Israel, taking them out of slavery under Egypt's king's pharaoh to a land he promised.
00:01:54 --> 00:02:05 Instead of letting his people, his sons, serve an earthly king, the heavenly king and father of all nations want his people to serve and worship him alone.
00:02:05 --> 00:02:13 Recapping from chapter 4, verse 21 to 23 is a background and the context of the book of Exodus.
00:02:14 --> 00:02:25 The Lord said to Moses, when you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do.
00:02:26 --> 00:02:31 Then say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:35 And I told you, let my son go so he may worship me.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:41 But you refuse to let him go so I will kill your firstborn son.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:49 We have spoken of Moses' wonder and events of God killing Pharaoh's firstborn over the last five weeks.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:57 If you have missed any of those sermons, please visit our website and use our app to catch up.
00:02:57 --> 00:03:02 With today's passage, we come to a significant moment of Exodus.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:12 God led his people through the wilderness between chapter 15 to 18, then came to a mountain in the Sinai Desert.
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 The mountain also called Sinai.
00:03:15 --> 00:03:24 After chapter 19, God's people stationed in front of the mountain Sinai and took their toll to move again in the later book of the Old Testament.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:32 At Mount Sinai, God established his confidence with his people by giving his law.
00:03:33 --> 00:03:38 The giving of the law is one of the most significant redemptive historical events.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:49 Through his servant Moses, God set forth the foundation of his redemptive relationship with the nations of Israel and his world.
00:03:49 --> 00:03:58 He called us, he tells us his expectation of how we would approach him and treat one another.
00:03:59 --> 00:04:04 At Mount Sinai, God's people received the heart of their old confidence.
00:04:05 --> 00:04:09 And Moses reached the pinnacle of his work as a mediator.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:14 Let's look at three ascents in the preparation to receive the law.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:18 The law itself in its two dimensions.
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 And the mediator, the one and only.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:22 So three, two, one.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:31 When we read between chapter 15 to 18, it may seem that Israel was constantly putting God to the test.
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 They went, they want to turn back to Egypt.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:40 They grumble and complain when they were hungry and thirsty.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 When God give them bread, they want the meat.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:47 However, it was God who was putting them to the test.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:55 The wilderness was God's way of ripping Israel's self-love and self-sufficiency out of his people.
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 Much as he had done with their leader, Moses.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:04 Remember Moses spent 40 years in a desert wasteland,
00:05:05 --> 00:05:09 transformed from a prideful fugitive to God's servant.
00:05:09 --> 00:05:13 God is preparing his people in the wilderness.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:22 What needed to die in the wilderness and Sinai was their sense that they could go it alone.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:29 They also need to learn that life after redemption was not meant to be easy.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 It's hard road to the land of promise.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:42 If you ask any of your Christian friends, they will most likely have a wilderness experience about their life that they can share with you.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:52 The whole chapter 19 to 20, verse 2, reveals something about the role, the law in God's relationship with his people.
00:05:52 --> 00:06:06 At Mount Sinai, God cemented his covenant with his baby nation that he had elected from all the nations of the earth to be his firstborn son.
00:06:07 --> 00:06:13 God set the stage of giving the law by establishing the nature of his relationship with his people.
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 God shared with his children how they were to serve him.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 He taught them how to live and how to worship him.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:29 He gave Moses and the people a definitive distilled declaration of his moral law in the Ten Commandments.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:38 In chapter 19, Moses ascended the mountain many times to enter the presence of God.
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 And each time he descends to share God's word with the people.
00:06:43 --> 00:06:49 What do we learn about God and his relationship to his people from each of these ascents?
00:06:49 --> 00:07:01 The first ascents, in verse 38, verse 3 to 8, served to reassure Moses and the people that God is with them and love them.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:05 In verse 4 to 6, it says,
00:07:05 --> 00:07:12 You yourself have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:19 Now if you obey me fully and keep my confidence, and out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession.
00:07:20 --> 00:07:26 Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:34 God brought the people to himself, intending for us to be his treasured possession.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:41 Although he owns the whole earth, he chose them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
00:07:42 --> 00:07:49 God has a particular plan for his people, and he lovingly expects us to live according to his plan.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:59 The second ascents, in verse 9 to 13, which was read out earlier by Pharaoh, confirmed the holiness of God.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:06 God, while leading to his people, may also be separated from them because of his holiness.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:15 We see that from the setting of the boundary and the command for Moses to consecrate the people before God come to them.
00:08:15 --> 00:08:25 God's holiness and our human sinfulness is a dilemma that only God can fix, and he did fix it.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:30 The third ascents is from verse 16 to the end of the chapter.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:35 Confirm that Moses is God's undisputed mediator.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:44 God does not speak to Israel directly, but he spoke to Moses directly in front of them.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 And mediated his message through Moses.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 But Moses was not the ultimate mediator.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 I will explain this after we look at the law itself.
00:08:56 --> 00:09:03 As the second ascents demonstrate, there is no negotiation regarding the human's relationship with God.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:10 God, as a sovereign king, established the parameter of his relationship with his people.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:18 The Ten Commandments was given in a unique, original, redemptive, and confident context.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:24 However, they have often been taken out of its original context.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:26 Which is very easy to be done.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:33 Because those who know the Bible often go straight to Exodus 20, verse 3 to quote them.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:41 We read out verse 1 and 2 and then jump to verse 18 to highlight what is said before and after the commandments.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:50 The law was shared with Moses and Israel when they were exhausted from their wandering in the wilderness.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:57 They wanted to enter the land that God had promised them, but they were not ready.
00:09:57 --> 00:10:02 God had not finished his preparatory work with them.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:08 The people of Israel need to understand what it means to live in a confident relationship,
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 in confidence with God who had brought them out of Egypt.
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 They need to understand God's love and his expectation.
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 The law was given in this context.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:49 God emphasized this point in verse 1 and 2.
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 And God spoke all these words.
00:10:54 --> 00:10:58 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:09 God reminded Israel that he established a relationship with them by liberating them from the bondage that they experienced in Egypt.
00:11:10 --> 00:11:17 As I already said, when God gives a moral law, he did not give the law to establish his relationship with the Israelites.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:22 He gave it because he already had a relationship with his people.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:27 And he wanted them now to learn how to express this relationship faithfully.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:36 Throughout the ages, the people of God meant to treat the law with this same attitude and apply them to their life.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:41 The law was given to Israel because God loved his children.
00:11:41 --> 00:11:50 And he wanted to instruct them regarding how to please him and how to live wisely and well in the land he was giving them.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:57 We can look at the Ten Commandments in two sections, in terms of two dimensions of relationship.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 One goes up and down, and the other goes across.
00:12:01 --> 00:12:05 If you are a physical person, think about the cross.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:12 The first five commandments set the boundary and parameter of our interaction with God, the vertical.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:23 The detail of the first five commandments would enforce the idea that Israel's relationship with God was not to be at the mysterious and irrational level.
00:12:23 --> 00:12:35 They were to enjoy a personal and moral fellowship with God based on his instruction as an integral part of the whole experience of God coming to them.
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 The relationship is based on understanding and obedience.
00:12:41 --> 00:12:48 The fundamental principle of living in a relationship with God, who had graciously brought them out of the land of slavery
00:12:48 --> 00:12:52 and consecrated them to himself, is exclusive devotion.
00:12:53 --> 00:13:05 The avoidance of idolatry, the sanctifying of God's name, the observance of the Sabbath, is a way of showing exclusive devotion to God, who had redeemed them.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:15 The second section, the horizontal, is about obedience to God in the everyday relationship of family and nation.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:21 These commandments instruct Israel on how to treat one another.
00:13:21 --> 00:13:30 Murder, adultery, theft, false testimony were all prohibited by God.
00:13:30 --> 00:13:37 With these commandments, God reminds his people that loving their neighbors is as important as loving him,
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 because each human being is made in the image of God.
00:13:41 --> 00:13:48 With the last commandment addressing not just the action, but also what is going on in the heart,
00:13:49 --> 00:13:53 God emphasized the most critical lesson of his expectation.
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 God does not just want your outward obedience.
00:13:58 --> 00:14:02 He wants your whole body, your mind, and most of all, your heart.
00:14:02 --> 00:14:08 Jesus said in Mark chapter 7, verse 21 to 22,
00:14:08 --> 00:14:25 All these come from the heart.
00:14:25 --> 00:14:32 Looking at the Ten Commandments in the shape of the cross was taught by Jesus in Matthew 22, verse 36,
00:14:32 --> 00:14:37 when he was asked, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
00:14:38 --> 00:14:42 He gave the best summary of the nature of these commandments by replying,
00:14:43 --> 00:14:47 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 This is the first and greatest commandment.
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 And the second one is like this.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:58 Love your neighbor as yourself, as the Lord and the prophet hang on these two commandments.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:02 Like so much of the Old Testament, Revelation,
00:15:02 --> 00:15:07 the Ten Commandments can only be fully understood through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
00:15:09 --> 00:15:16 Moses was a human vessel that God chose to communicate his law to his people.
00:15:17 --> 00:15:22 But Jesus was the one who fulfilled that law, both in meaning and in practice.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:26 God gave his law through Moses.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:32 And we read in the end of chapter 20 that the people also want Moses to mediate for them.
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 They were very fearful of seeing God themselves.
00:15:37 --> 00:15:41 Moses is considered one of the greatest prophets in the whole Bible.
00:15:42 --> 00:15:46 But his significance was not ultimately found in his role as a mediator.
00:15:46 --> 00:15:52 His significance was in fact due to him being a preacher of Jesus Christ.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 While he was not fully aware of his service,
00:15:57 --> 00:16:02 Moses ultimately pawned to Christ when he shared the law with Israel.
00:16:03 --> 00:16:07 Jesus Christ is the most excellent and final mediator.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 Apart from the Ten Commandments,
00:16:11 --> 00:16:16 God also gave Moses the blueprint of the tabernacle at Mount Sinai.
00:16:17 --> 00:16:21 We will be speaking about the tabernacle in coming week.
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 Eventually, you will see how the law and the tabernacle
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 merge in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 Jesus clarifies and expands on the meaning of the law
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 through the gospel and the teaching of his followers.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:41 His Sermon on the Mount in the early part of Matthew's gospel
00:16:41 --> 00:16:45 is the most concentrated of his teaching on the law.
00:16:45 --> 00:16:49 He gave them new meaning and pawned directly to the heart.
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 Jesus said in Matthew 5, 21-22,
00:16:52 --> 00:16:56 You have heard that it was said to the people long ago,
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58 you shall not murder,
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01 and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:05 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 will be subject to judgment.
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 Jesus continued in verse 27 and 28,
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 You have heard that it was said,
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 You shall not commit adultery,
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully
00:17:19 --> 00:17:23 has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:28 Apostle Paul taught the following in Ephesians 4, 28,
00:17:29 --> 00:17:29 regarding stealing.
00:17:30 --> 00:17:33 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer,
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 but must work, doing something useful with their own hand,
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 that they might have something to share with those in need.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 And earlier from the same chapter, in verse 22-25,
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 Paul also said this about false testimony.
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 You were taught regarding your former way of life
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 to put off your old self,
00:17:53 --> 00:17:57 which is being corrupted by his deceitful desires,
00:17:57 --> 00:18:00 to be made new in the attitude of your mind,
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 and to put on the new self,
00:18:02 --> 00:18:06 created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 and speak truthfully to your neighbor,
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 for you are all members of one body.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:17 Even more importantly,
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 Jesus fulfilled all the laws through his active obedience.
00:18:22 --> 00:18:25 It is Jesus who now resides in the center of our life
00:18:25 --> 00:18:28 and serves as a constant reminder to God's people
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29 of God's holiness.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:32 Our need for a mediator
00:18:32 --> 00:18:36 and the glorious redemption from bondage to sin
00:18:36 --> 00:18:41 The greatest gift that Jesus gave to his people
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 was not his explanation of the law.
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 Instead, it was his own perfect life,
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 lived in fulfillment of that law on our behalf.
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 That is something Moses could not have done
00:18:53 --> 00:18:55 on behalf of his people.
00:18:55 --> 00:18:59 We must remember that our redemption
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 was secured through Jesus' death on the cross
00:19:02 --> 00:19:06 and the righteous life that he lived upon his earth.
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 Jesus lived for our salvation
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 as much as he died for it.
00:19:13 --> 00:19:15 Without the life and death of Jesus,
00:19:16 --> 00:19:17 the law that came through Moses
00:19:17 --> 00:19:22 could only bring condemnation and death to us,
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 but by Jesus' perfect obedience imputed to us
00:19:25 --> 00:19:29 and by his perfect sacrificial death on our behalf,
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 Jesus accomplished what the law never could.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:36 He made his people righteous and holy.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 For what the law was powerless to do
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 because he was weakened by the flesh,
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 God did by sending his own son
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 to the likeness of sinful flesh
00:19:47 --> 00:19:48 to be a sin offering.
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 And so he condemns sin in the flesh
00:19:51 --> 00:19:54 in order that the righteous requirement of the law
00:19:54 --> 00:19:55 might be fully met in us,
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58 who do not live according to the flesh,
00:19:58 --> 00:19:59 but according to the spirit.
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 The most significant contrast
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 between these two mediators
00:20:05 --> 00:20:08 is that Moses' law could only bring death,
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 but the law fulfilled by Jesus
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 brings life and liberty.
00:20:14 --> 00:20:16 As Apostle John reminds us
00:20:16 --> 00:20:19 in his Gospel, chapter 1, verse 17,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 for the law was given through Moses,
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.
00:20:26 --> 00:20:27 At Mount Sinai,
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 God established his confident relationship
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 with those that he has chosen out of the world.
00:20:34 --> 00:20:35 God's plan for his people
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 to be his treasured possession,
00:20:37 --> 00:20:40 a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,
00:20:40 --> 00:20:43 and to bless the rest of the world through them.
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 God kept our relationship with him by Jesus,
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 the most excellent mediator.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 He surpasses Moses
00:20:52 --> 00:20:54 because he did not just give or explain the law.
00:20:55 --> 00:20:56 He fulfilled them for us.
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00 Therefore, there is now no condemnation
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02 for those who are in Christ Jesus,
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04 because through Christ Jesus,
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 the law of spirit who gives life
00:21:06 --> 00:21:10 has set you free from the law of sin and death.
00:21:11 --> 00:21:13 The law was not given to earn redemption,
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 but rather to express gratitude for that redemption.
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 So how is your relationship with God?
00:21:21 --> 00:21:26 Are you growing in your gratitude and appreciation
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 of what God has done to redeem you?
00:21:29 --> 00:21:32 Are you still fearful of approaching God
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 because there is some part of you
00:21:34 --> 00:21:37 that you have not entirely devoted to God?
00:21:38 --> 00:21:42 God demands exclusive devotion from you
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 because he is exclusively devoted to you.
00:21:45 --> 00:21:48 He is so devoted to you
00:21:48 --> 00:21:51 that he has given his one and only son to you
00:21:51 --> 00:21:53 that when you believe in him,
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 you shall not perish but have eternal life.
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 God did not send his son into the world
00:22:00 --> 00:22:01 to condemn the world,
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 but to save the world through him.
00:22:04 --> 00:22:07 If you have not yet to believe in Jesus
00:22:07 --> 00:22:10 and accept God's relationship with you
00:22:10 --> 00:22:12 based on what he has done for you,
00:22:13 --> 00:22:14 what is holding you back?
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 What are you pushing back on?
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21 Remember God said to Israel that
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 if you obey God fully and keep God confident,
00:22:25 --> 00:22:26 then out of all nations,
00:22:26 --> 00:22:28 you will be God's treasured possession.
00:22:28 --> 00:22:31 It's so amazing that even though Israel
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 failed to obey God fully,
00:22:33 --> 00:22:36 God still treat them as his treasured possession
00:22:36 --> 00:22:40 because of Jesus who fully obeyed God.
00:22:41 --> 00:22:44 And we can also be God's treasured possession
00:22:44 --> 00:22:45 because of Jesus.
00:22:45 --> 00:22:49 I would love to chester Jesus with you together soon.
00:22:49 --> 00:22:50 Contact us.
00:22:51 --> 00:22:51 Speak with me.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:55 Or join me to worship our extraordinary God,
00:22:55 --> 00:22:56 our Father in heaven.
00:22:56 --> 00:22:57 Amen.
00:22:57 --> 00:23:06 Lord for a Mostior,
00:23:06 --> 00:23:06 and we are God's treasured within this world.
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 The president is for a long-term carewijLooo,
00:23:08 --> 00:23:09 so that you lanziled in this world,
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 Uncle Armand of the Peace Corps,
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 and I know that you have to go see
00:23:13 --> 00:23:15 through ourSnAS.