Amen. Take your copy of God's word and turn with me to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 24. Exodus chapter 24, verses 7 and 8. Exodus 24, verses 7 and 8. Hear now the word of the living God. Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient. Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. This is the word of the living God, and we say, thanks be to God. Amen. Please be seated. Let's pray together. Now, O Lord, we ask for the intervention of your Holy Spirit in our minds to help us to understand, in our hearts to help our affections, to rise for the Christ who died for sinners. May we be captivated by the God of all grace today. We pray that we would recognize the voice of our shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the preaching of his word. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the things that I have grown to love are road trips. Some are better than others. But if you get into a vehicle and spend any time driving the roads of this country or another country, but this country, you will often find it to be the case that you have a destination in view. And in some cases, the road is straight. You may have three, six, 10, maybe 30 or 40 hours to drive. You know where you're headed and you know the destination and the road leads you there. As you drive, you will encounter various cities that dot the map on either side of that road until you make your final destination. In fact, in this country, it used to be that cities would develop around roads, waterholes and roads. So with stagecoaches or horses, little outposts would develop, places that you could spend a little time, and those places would serve you in order that you may reach your final destination. Those cities have grown, quite frankly, and now you can spend an entire lifetime in one city. But if you want to reach your destination, one of the things that you have to avoid, even if you stop to appreciate the landscape, to appreciate the city and the restaurants, One of the things you have to avoid is staying there, thinking that this city is your ultimate destination. We've arrived at one such city in the book of Holy Scripture. Let me put it to you differently. The Bible is one road from Genesis to Christ. It's one simple road. The entire journey is about getting you to Christ. The journey is seeing your need for a Savior and finding that God has graciously offered that Savior to you. That's the journey. But along the way, as you drive the road of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, There are a couple of cities that you stop off in. There are places that help you to understand how to get to your ultimate destination. There are places that God has put there to feed you, to fuel you, and to help you see that your destination really is worth it in the end. Exodus 20, verses 22 through Exodus 24, verse eight, is one of those cities. We need to travel through it. But we don't want to stay here. We need to drive through this city and see that it's a place that God has set up for us to understand our need for Christ. But it's not a city that is our ultimate destination. You just heard read from Exodus 24 verse 8 that there is a book of the covenant. This is not the ultimate destination. This is not the ultimate covenant that God brings in Christ. This is a covenant or a city along the road, so to speak, the book of the covenant. This book really is all of the writings of things that occur from the Ten Commandments to just before. So Exodus 20. Up to. Exodus 24 verse 8 the book of the covenant in exodus 34 we see that this entire section of Scripture is called a covenant. Look at Exodus 34, verse 10. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant. Or Exodus 34, verse 27. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. This is a city along the road to Christ. It is not the ultimate destination. But we stop off here. to see our need for where we're going. So what is meant then by this covenant? Well, I want us to look at three things this morning as we journey through these four chapters between the Ten Commandments and Moses sprinkling blood on people as he says, we've been given a covenant book from God. I want us to see the background to this covenant. We could call it the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, I want us to see the purpose of the old covenant. And then as people who have reached the destination of Christ, I want us to look back and see the benefit for us. You know, sometimes you reach your destination and you do look back. And you say, hey, three days ago when our family was in this city, it sure did help us. It sure was a benefit. We enjoyed our time there. What does it do for us to look back as we are today? So firstly then, the background of the Old Covenant. If you're just joining us, God has taken the road of his promise to get us to Jesus. And that road he drives from the Garden of Eden through a man named Abraham, and he gives Abraham a promise, and he says, hey, this savior that I've promised to you at the end of the road, he's gonna come from your family. And that family grows, and they grow so massively that God gathers them together in Egypt, but they're taken into slavery. A pharaoh arises and enslaves them, and you know the story by now. They are set free by God's mercy from slavery. They're brought through the Red Sea. And this freed people is now brought to a mountain in Exodus 19. And we saw that mountain covered with smoke and darkness and thick cloud and fire and trumpet blasts. And there God is preparing the people through Moses to give them a covenant, a city along the road. It's not the final destination. So this people is given this covenant. The words are going to be added to in later parts of the Old Testament, but the substance of it is Exodus 20 through Exodus 24. This covenant is about principles for national blessing in the land. You see, Abraham's family becomes a nation. It's not just Abraham and his sons and grandsons anymore. It's an entire nation. And God is going to make that nation a distinct people so that from that family and from that nation and from their kings, Jesus will come. So he gives the people of God a covenant, a city along the road to live in for just a little while. while the road from Genesis to Christ is driven. Well, what is this covenant? Well, we read later of this covenant. It's called the Book of the Covenant, yes, and Exodus. But listen, many years later, the prophet Jeremiah will talk about this covenant, and he'll say this in Jeremiah 7, verse 3. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. Sounds like the Ten Commandments. or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. In other words, keep this covenant. Do the work of the Mosaic covenant, the covenant that God through Moses gave you many centuries ago. Do it, and your reward will be life in the land, the land of Israel. That was what God was going to give them. Notice in our section, even in the book of the covenant, this is mentioned. Look at Exodus 23 verse 20. What is God going to do? Exodus 23 verse 20. Behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if indeed you obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries, for my angel will go before you and bring you into the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. I will cut them off. Obey the words of this book of the covenant and I will give you this land. You need to understand that everything we've heard thus far tells us that the people is required to obey in order for blessing to come. The blessing is not obey and I will give you heaven when you die. The blessing is obey and you will enjoy prosperity in this land which I'm giving you. Blessings Will come upon obedience Curses will come upon disobedience. Just one other passage of scripture Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 30 There at the very end of the first five books of the Bible we see this principle Deuteronomy 30 verse 15 See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But, but, If your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. Obedience gives you life in this land, Abraham's family. You're going to be a nation in this land as long as you obey. But if you disobey the book of this covenant, Exodus 20 through Exodus 24, then you will be removed from the land. Those of you that know your Bibles know that eventually what happens to this people? They are removed from this land. The curse of Deuteronomy comes upon them. The theologian Samuel Renahan in his book on the covenants writes this, quote, the Mosaic covenant was a covenant of works for life in the land of Canaan. Whether the Israelites enjoyed the land sworn to their fathers depends on whether they keep the commandments. Insofar as Israel obeys the Mosaic Law, they will enjoy the guaranteed blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. Insofar as Israel disobeys the Mosaic Law, they will experience the guaranteed curses of the Covenant. So then, what have we seen? Exodus 19, there at the base of the mountain, It's a mountain full of smoke and thundering cloud and trumpet sound and fire. Moses goes up. God speaks with the people. He gives them the Ten Commandments. He writes them, as it were, with his very finger. This becomes the summary of God's moral law throughout all of the Bible. But If you've already started to read ahead, there are many other commandments. Just look at Exodus 20 towards the end. Exodus 21, 22, 23. There are commandments after commandments after commandments. So there are two distinct things happening here. God's 10 commandments, which we see everywhere in the Bible, and then a whole bunch of specific commandments which God says these together make up the book of the covenant, the city that I'm developing for you to stay in for a while on that road from Genesis to Jesus. So there are two types of commandments in this book, there's God's 10 commandments, Exodus 20 verses 1 through 17, and a legal code of the Old Covenant. That begins in Exodus 20, verse 22. Now, we don't often do this, but let me just make sure everyone is tracking. The Ten Commandments is Exodus 21 through 17. Then, verses 18 to 21, you remember the people's response, which we saw last week. Now, in verse 22, what do we see next? Then the Lord said to Moses, and he begins to give a series of commandments for about three chapters. These commandments, along with the Ten Commandments, are folded together and put into the Book of the Covenant. And in Exodus 24, verses 7 and 8, the people stand there and they say, we will obey. And Moses takes blood. And as if he, on behalf of God, were making a covenant with the people, he sprinkles the blood on the people, and they are now in a covenant With God, a covenant of works for life in the land. Blood dripping down the faces, as it were, of the people closest to the altar. Little children are there and they have blood droplets from the sacrifice on their face. And all of them say, yes, whatever God has said for us to do, we will do. And they're in covenant with God. Covenant. for life in the land. Deuteronomy 4, verse 12, Deuteronomy 5, verse 2 calls this a covenant. And as we saw, Jeremiah, in several places, another place would be chapter 34, verse 13 and following, says that breaking this covenant means that curses will come on you. What are the curses? You will be removed from blessing in this land. And as we saw years ago in the book of Daniel, people are cast out of the land. But God's road from Genesis to Jesus remains the same. So let's then look a little further. What is the background of the Old Covenant? That's what we're talking about. What's the background to this city along the road? Well, God's eternal moral law, the Ten Commandments, is given as a center, as the foundation of His covenant with the nation of Israel. But alongside this, other laws are brought in in order to guide the people and to obligate them to certain practices for life in the land. This entire covenant is meant to carry along the promise that Jesus would come. It's a city to kind of help the road and the journey along the road continue to move towards Christ. I want you to understand something before we look at our second point. This is a covenant of works for life in the land. Over and over and over in the Bible, this covenant is referred to as a covenant which you must obey, a covenant which you must keep, a covenant which you must do. So this mountain, this Sinai covenant cannot be the promise of eternal life if you obey. It must be something else. It's not the destination. It's got to be a city along the route. So it is a covenant. helps us as we journey to get to Jesus. So that's the background of the covenant. The book of the covenant, sealed with the blood of an animal, is given to this people that they might know how to obey God and to enjoy prosperity in this land. God, you have taken our family and made us a nation. You've given our family and our nation a promise. Our men are sealed in their flesh with circumcision. To us, you've promised the Messiah. So we are a distinct family. We are a distinct nation. This is just a city along the road. Well, let's look secondly, then, at the purpose of the Old Covenant. If we've seen the background, what are the purposes of the Old Covenant? And for this, I want us to look at a variety of places of Scripture. You might be thinking, why is Pastor Ryan trying to cover four chapters of Scripture today? Well, we'll probably look at them again over the next few weeks. But the reason is, sometimes we have to get a whole picture of the city along the road. And so I want you to see what the Bible says about these four chapters. The purpose of the old covenant, and for that there are at least three. So if you're a note taker, point two has three points. Here are the purposes of the old covenant. This book of the covenant. Number one, to keep the people distinct until Christ. to keep the people distinct until Christ. You know, sometimes people who aren't believers will read the Old Testament and they'll take our modern day discussions of race and ethnicity and they'll look at the Bible and they'll say, see, the Old Testament is a racist book because God tells the Jewish people, don't marry people who aren't like you. It's racist. What these people lack in understanding is, no, God has told one particular people, I want you to stay a particular people until Jesus comes. Let's look at a couple of scriptural examples of this. Numbers chapter 23, Numbers chapter 23 and verse nine. They're in the midst of Balaam's first prophecy. We read these words. Speaking of this people, for from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him there, a people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations. What's this description later of Moses' people, of the Israelites? There are people who dwell alone. They're not dotting the other nations. They're not intermingling with the other nations. Their God has told them to stay distinct And what's the purpose? Well, Genesis 49, verse 10. This people contains many fathers, and one of those fathers was a man named Judah. And to Judah was promised, from your line, Jesus will come. And we read of this in Genesis 49, verse 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. until the one promised comes. You take this data and you put it together and you say, the purpose of this old covenant was that this people will be distinct until the promised one comes. And they will stand alone, they will stand apart. Part of the reason for some of these rules is to keep them a distinct people from whom Christ would come. Listen to the Puritan John Owen commenting on this covenant. He says this, Quote, that they should have a certain abiding place or country which they might freely inhabit, distinct from other nations and under a rule or scepter of their own. For God had regard to his own glory and his faithfulness as to his word and oath given to Abraham. Not only that they should be accomplished, but that their accomplishment should be evident and conspicuous. But if this posterity of Abraham, boys and girls, if this family of Abraham, from among whom the promised seed was to rise, had been, as it is at this day with them, scattered abroad on the face of the earth, mixed with all nations and under their power. Although God might have accomplished his promise, really, in raising up Christ from among some of his posterity, yet it could not be proved or evidenced that he had so done by reason of confusion and mixture of the people with others. Now, Owen did what a lot of the Puritans did. He used a lot of words. But he's saying there, God's purpose was to keep this people distinct until Jesus should come. Here's a second purpose. To carry along the promise until Jesus should come. That's what Paul says in the book of Galatians. Turn all the way over to the New Testament. You know, if you're new to the Bible, the book of Galatians is an interesting book because there were people who, after Jesus, were saying, you gotta go back to some of those laws from the book of the covenant in Exodus. And you gotta keep those and add those to your faith in Jesus. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. Now that Jesus had come, we don't keep this old covenant. We don't go back to that city. The road has taken us to the final destination. Listen to what Paul says. Galatians chapter 3 verse 19. What purpose then does the law serve? This law covenant of the Old Testament. It was added because of transgressions. Till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through angels. Remember that last week? It was appointed to angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Is that city that we drove through a horrible city along the road? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to all who believe, but before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. The law was meant to carry this promise along till the seed should come. There's at least one other purpose for the Old Covenant, and that is to point to the need for Christ. Yes, it was to keep the Jewish people distinct until Christ came. Yes, it was to carry this promise along from Genesis all the way to Christ. But it was also along the way to tell everybody, you need a Savior because you cannot keep this law. You say that you can obey, but you can't. And if you try to earn your salvation before God by works, you will fail. Maybe you're here today and you're thinking, I don't know what all this exodus stuff is. I've just heard someone tell me about Jesus and I'm kind of interested. Well, let me summarize all this for you. We're talking about the people from whom Jesus came and they were given a law and many of them thought at various times we can be good enough. for God to accept us. And all along the way, the regular message was, you can't because you're a sinner. You can't keep God's ways perfectly. You need a Savior, and there's no Savior to be found among you. Every last one of you has failed all of sin and fallen short of God's glory. But then comes the promised Jesus, and He does live a perfect life. And He dies on the cross as the final sacrifice for sinners, and all who trust in Him are seen as blood-covered law-keepers because of Jesus. So this city along the road had many purposes. We've looked at several, and the third is to point to the need for Christ. Let me just give you one passage of Scripture, just to highlight this. Numbers chapter 17, there's a striking statement here. People of God are still working with Moses, Moses is trying to lead them, there are stubborn people, there are stiff necked people. Most of them don't have faith in the coming Messiah, they wander in the wilderness, they complain about God's provision, they say they're going to obey, but they don't. But they have the sense. At one point in their journey, in Numbers 17, verse 12, to say this. So the children of Israel spoke to Moses saying, surely we die. We perish, we all perish. Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord, the place where God dwells with his people, shall die. Shall we all utterly die? It's like they're crying out to Moses. None of us can approach God's presence. We'll die. And that's actually part of the reason God gives this city along the road. You pass through this city on the road from Genesis to Jesus, and you leave the city with a souvenir that says, I must have Christ. Listen to what John Cahoon says in his book on the law and the gospel related to this covenant. He says, one reason, therefore, why the Lord displayed the law as a covenant of works on Sinai was that self-righteous Israelites And all Pharisaic professors, to the end of time, might see that as they have sinned and so have not performed perfect obedience, it is absolutely impossible for them to attain justification in eternal life on the footing of their own works. The law was there displayed in its covenant form in order to discover sin and condemn for it. and so to stir up secure sinners to inquire, to ask, to plead for after the perfect fulfillment of it by the second Adam. For until self-righteousness is overthrown, a man will never submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Until you pass through this city and see that keeping God's law as a covenant and earning heaven is impossible for you, you will never say, I must have Christ. If you think that you're moral, friend, if you think that you're good, or you're looking at yourself in the mirror and you think, I sure am bad, but I'm not nearly as bad as everyone else around me. God will one day just look at me and he'll say, you're better than most, so I'll let you in. If that's your plea, you'll never look to Christ. The New Testament tells us that there is not one single name in all of heaven and on earth by which we can be saved except the man, Jesus Christ. Drive your car, the car of your soul, down this road from Genesis to Revelation. And as you do, you drive through this city of Exodus, and the Book of the Covenant, and the Old Covenant, and what do you see all around you? Some wonderful things. Some restaurants, some places to sit down for a while. But this entire city along the road is simply meant for you to see that Christ has come, and you cannot save yourself. So we've seen the background. of the covenant, what's happening here. We've seen some of the purposes. Why did God build this little city along the road from Genesis to Jesus? But finally, let's look at the benefit for us today of kind of looking back. You know, you might say to yourself, well, if Jesus has come, why waste our time studying Genesis to Malachi, the Old Testament? He's come. You know, there have been Christians down through the ages who've sort of made that argument. We don't really need the Old Testament. So what benefit is it for us to spend weeks, perhaps a year or so, studying Exodus, particularly this covenant in the middle of Exodus? Well, I want you to see that there are at least two benefits. I'll give them to you. This section of Scripture, this city along the road, so to speak, helps us to see the law, and it helps us to see the gospel. It helps us to see the law, and it helps us to see the gospel. Let's look firstly, then, at seeing the law. In this book of Exodus 20 through Exodus 24, we are given a summary of God's moral law, the Ten Commandments. We've walked through that for almost three months. If you're new to attending here, you haven't heard this before. The Ten Commandments are what God requires of you, and He requires perfection, because He's a perfect God. He doesn't wink at sin. He must punish all injustice. So you want to know what it means to obey God perfectly? Take the Ten Commandments into your hands. I don't mean this sarcastically. After you stare at them a while, how's it going? But in addition to these Ten Commandments, we see that there are some other commandments. specifically Exodus 20 verse 22 all the way to the end of Exodus 23. Let me just read a few to demonstrate what I mean. If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it and an ox or a donkey falls in it, the owner of the pit shall make it good. Or he who strikes his father or mother shall surely be put to death. Or if a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed and lets loose his animal and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution. Or you shall not circulate a false report, do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. So just four or five examples of all these other commandments added to the Ten Commandments. What are we to do with these other commandments? Well, our confession of faith helps us because it rightly brings to light what the scriptures teach us. The London Baptist Confession of Faith, written in the 1600s, chapter 19, paragraph 3, says this. Besides the law commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel ceremonial laws containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings and benefits, and partly holding forth diverse instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of the Reformation to the time of Christ are by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah and only lawgiver who was furnished with the power from the father for that end. Done away with. I modernize the language a little bit. What are they saying here? These other laws about how to live as a nation, about how to do sacrifices, they last. They're the covenant that this people is supposed to live in in this city until Christ comes. And once they come, those laws of ceremonies and those laws of how to be a nation, they fall away and what remains? A saved people by the blood of Jesus who look to the Ten Commandments not to reach heaven. but to save, to glorify the Christ who has saved them and given them heaven. That's what we're to do with these commandments. So let me give you one example. You're reading in Exodus chapter 21 in your daily Bible reading, and you get to the Ten Commandments, and you remember this sermon series, and you say to yourself, okay, I know what to do with the Ten Commandments. I'm no longer condemned by these. Jesus is now giving me these to live a life of glorifying him. But what do I do with all this other stuff? Let's just take the very next section. You read the next section in Exodus 20, chapter 20, verse 22. You're reading this in your morning Bible reading. Then the Lord said to Moses, now this is a part of the book of the covenant. This is a part of that book of this people until Jesus should come. Listen to what God says. Then the Lord said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, you have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make anything to be with me. Gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. An altar of the 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, Stone that's been worked. Or 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. And you're saying to yourself. I think I have a handle on the Ten Commandments, but what am I supposed to do with this section and then the next section about servants and then the next section about how to live in a city or a nation with violent people? What do I do with all these other laws? Well, here's where it's helpful for us. We hear the words of our confession, chapter 19, paragraph four, to remember what these laws now mean for us. To them, or Israel also, he, God, gave sundry judicial laws which expired together with the nation of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution. their general equity only being of moral use. It's wordy. What does that mean? It means every time you read the other commandments of the Old Testament, you don't obey them literally on the surface. God is not commanding new covenant Christians to build altars and sacrifice anymore. God is not telling you what you can and can't do with stones anymore. What you are to do is to read all of these commandments and see in them the moral principle underlining them. Let me say it differently. The ten commandment principle underlining them. So you read this and you say, well, I don't make sacrifices anymore because Jesus is my final sacrifice. My worship doesn't involve me building an altar anymore because Christ has built, as it were, an altar as his church. So what do I do with this? Well, you read it looking for the moral principle behind it. What is God teaching me here about his moral standard? Let me just give you an example. As I started to read, did any of the Ten Commandments come to mind? Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, you shall not make anything to be with me gods of silver or gods of gold. You shall not make for yourself no other gods before the face of God. That's the first commandment. There it is. This people and that city a long time ago on the road to Jesus had a lot of other rules. For me, those rules don't apply because Christ has come, but the moral principle or general equity behind them is still there. Or how about an altar of earth you shall make for me and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. In every place where I record my name, I shall 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. When you sit down to worship me, you worship me according to the way that I've commanded you. Does that sound familiar? It's the second commandment. You see, all of these laws throughout this book of the covenant have a moral principle behind them. We're not to set up churches or nations anymore with these laws and say, well, let's start building stone altars again. None of the guys with tools in our church better not touch the stone anymore. That was then. That was the city along the road. But as we look back, we can say, wait a minute. God has always said to every people, everywhere, throughout every time, I am the only God. Don't have any other gods before me. You must worship me the way that I have prescribed for you. The Puritan Matthew Henry said this. At first, it should seem they made their images for worship of gold and silver, pretending by the richness of those metals to honor God, and by the brightness of them to affect themselves with His glory. But even in these, they changed the truth of God into a lie, and so, by degrees, were justly given up to strong delusions as to worship images of wood or stone. And ten chapters later, beloved, this people will literally build gold statues and say, through these gold statues we're going to worship God. Or how about verse 25? And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone. It's a simplicity of worship. And I want you not to build altars which you are so amazed by that you start to worship those altars. Or how about verse 26, this one might seem strange, boys and girls. Nor shall you go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness may not be exposed on it. In other words, I covered your shame in the Garden of Eden. And your shame in worship needs to be covered until my son will come. And he will hang on a cross, exposed to the world in utter shame, bearing your shame. See, even this principle of worship of the priest not climbing steps so that his nakedness may not be exposed points us in some way to Jesus. We see the law. But secondly, we see the gospel. in multiple places in the New Testament, this passage of Scripture, Exodus 20 particularly, but Exodus 20 through Exodus 24, is used as a comparison. For instance, in Galatians 4, two mountains are given names. The mountain of the covenant with Moses and the mountain of the gospel. Or how about 2 Corinthians 3? 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says, hey, remember that Moses stuff? That city along the road? It was meant to show you how great the final destination is. 2 Corinthians 3, 7. But if the ministry of death It's one way to describe what's happening in Exodus 20 through 24, the ministry of death. If the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? You ever drive your car, you're tired, The kids are with you. You find that hotel, maybe that you had before thought to make reservations at, maybe you just hope that there's a vacancy. You sleep, and it feels restful. There's even a pool for kids. There's an omelet bar, and you think, I could just stay here. I could just stay here. We don't need to make our final destination. There's a beauty there, isn't there? But then you get in the car, and you reach your final destination, and you see how much better it is. That's what Paul is saying to the church at Corinth. Hey, if that Moses stuff, that ministry of death, he's not calling it bad, by the way. He's saying all that that can do if you try to do it as your record before God is kill you. It was glorious. How much more glorious is what Jesus does? But then who can forget, and we'll close with this, Hebrews. The first recorded sermon that we have in Christianity outside of the work of Christ and the apostles. Hebrews 12, verse 18. This stuff that's happening here with Moses on Mount Sinai is described, and then what Jesus brings is described. And listen. Hebrews 12, 18. For you have not come Christian to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. You've not come to that mountain. That's not where you're at. You're not under the law as a covenant any longer. Verse 22, but you have come, OK, tell me where I've come. Preacher, if I've not come to that same mountain, being under covenant with God, having this requirement to obey for my standing in the land, if that's not where I've come, and if I don't have the sprinkling of animal blood on me and my children, where have I come? What's my final destination? Hebrews 12, 22. But you have come to Mount Zion. And then listen to all of the descriptors and see if they don't sound familiar, but better. And to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. Remember, the law was given through thousands of angels. You've come to an innumerable company of angels. to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are registered in Canaan, no, not in Canaan, in heaven, to God the Judge of all. You've come to God. Remember what the people cried out to Moses in Numbers 17? We cannot enter the tabernacle of God, for we will die. Where have we come? You have come to God. To the spirits of just men made perfect. There are saints that you come to. Saints above and saints below, justified and seen as perfect in God's sight because of Jesus' blood. And then listen, verse 24, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. And then, oh, the precious writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And to the blood of sprinkling. There it is. No more are we a people standing there at the base of the mountain saying we will obey God with animal blood dripping down our face, sealing to us that we have to obey to continue to stay in God's good graces in the land of Canaan. We're covered with the sprinkling blood. But, if you will allow it, the blood that is dripping down our faces, across our hands, covering our clothes, covering every inch of us, is the blood of our blessed Savior, who died the final sacrifice for sinners. And this is the end of the line. No more cities to pass through. You've come to the great city. You've come to the final blood sprinkling. You've come to the church and to the angels. If you're in Christ, you've reached the end of the destination. So you might be tempted, maybe not, to say to yourself, I need to worry about how to make altars and covering my nakedness when I worship God. But you may still be on the road. interested in making the final destination called heaven and you have taught yourself because you've pulled off the road into that city and you've been convinced it's all about what I do. It's all about what I do. And here you have planted your life. You have made a house. You've gotten rid of your car. You've built the house in this city of the book of the covenant which says obey and enjoy the favor of God. And that's what you think. Until your dying day, you think to yourself, this is where I must live. If I have enough good deeds and not enough bad deeds, God will let me into his city. And you have failed to see that this city was only a stopping off point to show you how much grander the ultimate destination is. But the destination, friend, is the blood of Jesus. Scripture says, that every person who preaches the gospel has the authority to say, Jesus is offered to you. He's offered to you. Even now, Christ is offered to you. He will save you. He will clean you. His righteousness will be what covers all of your failures, even the worst of them. This is the ultimate destination. This is what the Bible is about. It's getting us to Jesus and seeing that he is the only savior. I love road trips. I really do. And I love the cities. Ah, the restaurants, particularly the restaurants. The cities along the way. Every time you arrive at your final destination, you look back and you say, all those cities and rest stops along the way just served the purpose of getting me here. Have you truly rested in the blood of Christ? Let's pray. Almighty God, we ask that you would help us to rightly place this city along the road of the Bible, that these four chapters of the Book of the Covenant will help to highlight the ultimate destination, which is the city of God, and to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who sprinkles his blood on all who trust in him. And oh, the glory of the reality that all of heaven is completely pleased in what he's done, and that you, the triune God, accept as righteous in your sight, blood-bought believers. Help your people today, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.