You can find our New Testament text in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. Although what we will consider tonight in the book of Exodus is certainly a type. of the Lord Jesus Christ and his being our mediator, God covenanting with us in him. Yet we also find a great contrast as well in these two covenants. Beginning in verse 18, give ear to the reading of God's word. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them. They could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth but now he has promised yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken that is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. Then our Old Testament text and sermon text tonight is found in the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 19. I'll pick up the reading at verse 7 to save us a little time and then read through the end of the chapter. Exodus 19 beginning with verse 7. So Moses came. and called the elders of the people and said before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around saying, take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord, to look, and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him, Go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them." Thus far the reading of God's Word. You may be seated. Let us ask God's blessing on the reading of his word and on his preaching. Our Father in heaven, we are thankful that you are the God who has spoken to us. We thank you that we do have your word, that we don't have to guess your will for our lives, that in Christ, our great mediator, our great prophet, priest, and king, you have revealed to us the will of God for our salvation. And so now tonight, by his word and spirit, we pray that you will illumine our minds, that you will give us understanding, that you will work faith within our hearts so that Christ and all of his benefits may be applied to us so that we may see ourselves for who we are, so that we may see you in your holiness, in the splendor of your holiness for who you are. and that we may see how you have reconciled us because of your great love to us in Christ Jesus. May we revel in all that you are for us in him, we pray this in his name, amen. They were as glad as anyone can be who was afraid, and they were afraid as anyone can be who was glad. I came across these words again recently while reading with my younger children Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia. I know Narnia illustrations get old. They're overused, I know, but bear with me if you will. In the chapter, the lion roars. The children are pursuing Aslan. He is elusive. The youngest, Lucy, has seen him. But she is the only one who really is believing that he has appeared. And so they're following Lucy, taking her word finally that Aslan has appeared. And they're getting glimpses of him at night as they're following and they see a shadow. And then one by one they see him. Did you see him? Well, I saw something and it goes and goes and finally there he is revealing himself to the children once again in all of his majesty. And there what we see is what I mentioned just a moment ago is the truth of what they learned when they first heard of Aslan and wondering when they were told they were going to meet a lion. They asked the question, is he tame? You know, is he safe? And the answer came back, no, no, he's not safe. He's not tame, but he's good. And so here now that he is revealed to them in all of his majesty, Lewis writes, they were as glad as anyone can be who is afraid and they were afraid as anyone can be who is glad. The great hope of the Christian faith has been called the beatific vision, that is, the sight of God beholding his face, Jesus. It's said in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount in the Beatitudes, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. The Aaronic blessing included, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you. Later in this book, Moses will ask, please show me your glory. In Psalm 27, David said, Lord, you said seek my face. So my heart says to you, oh, Lord, your face do I seek. This is our great hope to to see the Lord. Our first parents, of course, were made to dwell in God's presence, in life and communion with him in the garden sanctuary of Eden. I ask you tonight as his people, do you want to see the Lord? Do you want to see him? As his people, you're thinking, aren't you? Yes. Yes, I want to see the Lord, but with the text we just read, I'm not so sure maybe. It should at least make us be cautious, shouldn't it? Give us some precaution as to what that means to be brought into God's presence. Of course, God in his essence is invisible. We read in scripture that no one has seen God at any time, and yet the scripture is replete with examples of Well, passages like this one where God has made his presence known, he's manifested himself in invisible form. We call this a theophany, the appearance of God. We saw one earlier in the book of Exodus in chapter 3 and God appeared to Moses in the fire in the burning bush. And now here he is in fire again appearing in a greater way before all the people on the mountain. It's hard for us to understand this text in a sense, at least as far as it goes, because we weren't there. We don't know exactly what it was like to behold this site. And yet at the same time, we're given this vivid imagery that we might grasp, that we might have an understanding of what it was like for God to come down, for the people to prepare to meet their God. Well, this chapter opened, I didn't read the first seven chapters, but it opened in verse one with him coming to Mount Sinai, finally, where God has brought them to after delivering them from Egypt. And this will be their home. They will camp here for the next nearly a year, 10 months or so. And Moses has gone up the mountain, being summoned up there by God to the mountain. And the Lord is there reminding him of what he did for his people. I brought them on eagle's wings out of Egypt. brought you to myself and now you must obey my voice, you must keep my covenant. And God's revealed to them, you are my treasured possession, my royal property, distinct from all the nations of the earth, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And Moses was commanded to take these words back to the people and so he did. And that's where we pick up in verse 7. What the people are preparing to do is to meet God to covenant with Him, to enter this formal relationship. The covenant that God made with Abraham is expanding, it's heightening. We're understanding more of what it means to be God's people, not merely as a family, a patriarch and his sons, but now this family of the children of Abraham as they have become a nation. So they will learn God's laws. They will see his worship instituted with the priesthood. They will learn what life is to be like under his rule as their king. But this text, as we read, is the beginning of all this. The people are brought to the foot of the mountain to meet with the Lord, to enter into covenant with him. And what I want you to see this evening is that the Lord has condescended to covenant and commune with his people through his chosen mediator. I hope you can already see how this points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord has condescended to covenant and commune with his people through his chosen mediator. We'll see that in two simple points. We'll see the preparation of the people in verses 7 to 15. That is to say how the people were to prepare to meet the Lord. And then we'll see in verses 16 to 25 the presence of the Lord, the preparation of the people and the presence of the Lord. Well, it's worth asking the question, how does one prepare to meet with God? Or better yet, how does a people collectively, how do they prepare to meet with the Lord? Well, Moses is given some terms, general terms. He's brought back to them God's commandment, gathering the elders in verse 7 of the people and giving them the words that the Lord had commanded them. Namely, what I mentioned a moment ago. You remember what I did for you. Now obey my voice and keep my covenant. And so these are the general terms that are given. The people respond as it appears the elders apparently relayed the word from Moses to all the people. And in verse 8, all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. So they respond, not having all of the details yet to God's laws and what it means to obey him and to keep covenant, but they respond with an implicit obedience. Whatever the Lord says, we will do. All that the Lord has said, we will do. And this, of course, is the way they should have responded. And yet at the same time, we are well aware, aren't we? that they failed to keep covenant with the Lord. Now Moses will return once again and give in verse 8 these words that the people have said back to the Lord. So you have this going back and forth, ascending the mountain and descending the mountain again and again as Moses. It's becoming more and more clear to us that he is the one that God has chosen to work through, to speak through his people, the instrument, the one in whom they must trust. In verse 9, he reveals, I'm coming to you for this reason. I'm going to speak to you. They're going to hear it so that they may also believe you forever. So that they will trust you as the mediator who brings to them God's word. And there's a sense in which we may even say this text is fulfilled in our hearing. For we're still believing Moses. We believe that God worked through Moses to give us the words of this book that we have read this evening. And we trust them as not only the words of Moses, but the word of God. And so Moses is back up on the mountain, giving, reporting the words back to the Lord that the people have said. Doing something that's entirely unnecessary. Because it's not as though the Lord didn't know what they were saying or what they had said that he couldn't hear from the summit of Sinai. But this back and forth, this reveals to us or communicates to us the formal nature of this agreement and what they're entering into in this covenant. And so now Moses receives more instruction for the people in how they are to prepare. Two days they are to consecrate themselves in verse 10. Consecrate them today and tomorrow and then they're to be ready on the third day. To consecrate is the same Hebrew root for the word holy. The idea is to set something apart for God's use. And so they're to consecrate themselves two days, taking two days to do this, to be ready on the third day. They've already seen the cloud leading them. And yet now in the cloud that will appear there's something even more significant about God's special presence here. And so these specific terms are given. They're threefold. One, they were to wash their garments. Two, they were to set a boundary around a perimeter around the mountain. And three, they were to abstain from sexual relations between husband and wife. So wash their clothes. They were not fit to enter God's presence as they were. I think all of these things are pointing to that they're anticipating the erection of the tabernacle and the institutional priesthood and this ritual cleansing and setting a boundary that there are certain places that not everyone is allowed to go. And also purification rites even involving human sexuality. But they wash their clothes, first of all, not that dirt in itself is wicked, is evil. We know that the Lord has cursed the ground for man's sake. We know that people are unclean in God's sight, in their sin. And all of this speaks to this truth. Remember when Moses first saw the Lord in the burning bush, the Lord said to him, remove your sandals from your feet. For the ground that you're standing on is not a cursed ground, but it's become a holy ground. In that small fire. Now in the larger theophany, the people are commanded to wash all of their garments, to cleanse themselves, to prepare to meet God. And then they're to set a boundary. A boundary around the mountain and with the threat of capital punishment. If a man or a beast crosses this line, you're to stone him or shoot him through with arrows. You're not to touch him. You're not to make yourself, if the ones who were to carry out this execution were not to make themselves unclean by handling the corpse, but rather they were to carry this out in a way that would involve distance in stoning or arrows being shot through the air. And then they were to abstain from sexual relations. We find this in verse 15 when the Lord says, Be ready for the third day, do not go near a woman. So the commandment is given to men, it's understood for all. And it's again, not to say just like with dirt, it's not to say that the thing itself is sinful. But there is a certain preparation that is required here. an abstinence to demonstrate that what is about to take place is outside the realm of what is normal. And so there is a due preparation involved. You know, the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians speaks something similar that even in the New Covenant that we can abstain for a time to give ourselves over to prayer and fasting, abstaining from the normal relations between a husband and a wife. Well, why was all of this necessary? These specific requirements? Well, if we reason from the lesser to the greater, there is an obvious analogy as we think of the preparation that is necessary to come into the presence of someone who is honorable or who holds a noble office. So think if you were to meet the President of the United States or the Queen of England and think of the preparation that would be involved there. The care with what you were to wear or you don't just get up out of roll out of bed in your pajamas right to go meet someone in high authority. You'd also be you yourself would be subject to to see whether or not you were carrying something that would endanger the life of the person that you're meeting. Security precautions. And if we think throughout history and if kings of the earth have required a certain preparation or a certain approach to gain a hearing with them, to have a meeting with them, then how much more is preparation necessary to meet the high king of heaven, to come into the presence of the living God, the king of glory? And of course, all of this testifies to the fact that we are not fit in ourselves to meet with God. We are not fit for God's presence because of our uncleanness. Not that the dirt that affects our body, but the uncleanness of our souls, the guilt and the pollution, the corruption of sin. And so the Lord cannot be approached in merely any way. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were cast out of the presence of the Lord. There was a way barring the entrance to the Garden of Eden. There's a way barring Mount Sinai here, there was a way barring the tabernacle and the temple. When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, he saw the seraphim with their six wings. And so with two of them, they're flying. With two of them, they're covering their feet. And with two of them, they're covering their faces. God is holy. And this imagery is meant to communicate that. That he's not your pal. That Jesus is not your buddy. But God is holy and we must approach him, not casually, but according to his holiness and in the way that he has prescribed, through the mediator that he has appointed. The one who has been called to consecrate the people of God. And so as the Lord is the holy one who dwells in unapproachable light, We must have a reverential fear of him. And we will. We will if we've gotten a glimpse of his glory by faith. If we've seen him for who he is in his holiness and if we've seen ourselves for who we are in our sinfulness, we will have a reverential fear of him. But if you're nonchalant in your approach to the Lord, whether it's in worship or whether it's in your life. If you're claiming, for instance, to belong to the Holy One and yet you're living in gross hypocrisy. And I'm not so sure you've gotten a glimpse of who he is. I'm not so sure you have a proper fear of the Lord. You can't have the attitude. I know this sounds a bit extreme, but it's true that some have this attitude that, hey, it's given to me to sin and it's God's responsibility to forgive. And that's the mutual understanding that we have. No, but the Lord is holy. And so the preparation of the people, general requirements and specific requirements Then we move on now to beginning of verse 16 and we actually see the day arriving. The trumpet blasting, the ram's horn literally, the people taking their place at the foot of the mountain and we've seen the preparation of the people. Now we will see the presence of the Lord. So on the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast. So that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Three things I want to note about the presence of the Lord here. And the one just picks up on what we've been saying all along and that is that the presence of the Lord was terrifying. Imagine the scene as best you can that the mountain is enveloped in smoke. The Lord has descended upon it in fire, not only is it surrounded with smoke, but at the summit, smoke is billowing up as though it were coming from a furnace. The mountain itself is trembling. The people's knees are shaking. There is the sound of a trumpet that's growing louder and louder, and as Moses speaks, God responds in thunder. Living in Florida, you're well aware of thunder, thunderstorms. Have you ever been at home or somewhere and you've seen lightning flash, it strikes by really close? And sometimes when it's far away and you wait a while, you hear the thunder kind of roll in the distance, but you know when it hits really close, that in that brief moment, you're anticipating the thunder is going to be loud. And it's going to roll. And sometimes it even seems as though it's shaking your home. And this is when the children, they gasp. This is when the animals, the pets, the dog seeks refuge under the bed. This is when you feel so small, so helpless. If you're near the window or if you're outside on the porch, this is when you hightail it and get back inside. And yet they're coming to meet the God who has control over it all, who has control over every bolt of lightning and every clap of thunder. The elements of a great storm, regardless of how big it is or regardless of the name you attach to it, Matthew or Irma or the latest one that I can't even remember. What was it? Florence. Regardless, God is sovereign over all. And they are coming now to hear the God of glory himself thunder. And so the sight was terrifying. I asked you at the beginning, do you want to see the Lord? I ask you now, do you want to see the Lord? Do you want to see his glory revealed? Although this text speaks to the holiness of God and the uncleanness of man, I also want you to consider that the Lord did not come down in order to consume his people in his wrath. And so not only was the presence of the Lord terrifying, the presence of the Lord was also a gracious condescension. The Lord, in verse 20, the Lord came down. It's a bit odd in verse 21 that as soon as Moses is called up the mountain again, that he's told to go back down and warn the people one more time not to break through. Let some of them look on the Lord, let some of them break through to the Lord and look and many of them perish. And Moses responds, well, they can't come through. You yourself have given us this commandment. You said to set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. And yet the Lord says to him, go down. This testifies to the fact that the Lord does not desire the death of his people, but he desires the life of his people. It seems that it would be a better thing to be stoned with stones or to be shot through with arrows than to break through and to be incinerated in the presence of a holy God. So go Moses, make sure. And we might wonder why. Why would anyone want to break through with this sight that's taking place? With the sound of the trumpet and the thunder? It seems that it would make one want to close their eyes. To stop their ears, to turn away. But there's always one, right? There's always one who can't help but to cross the red line. For some of us, for many of us, we see a switch. You know, do not turn off or a button, do not push. And it repels us from it. OK, we'll stay away. But there's there are some and, you know, people like this, right? Maybe some of you are like this. There are some when you when you see a button like it's like a magnet drawing you to it and you have to touch it. Well, we're sure there were those like this in Israel. And so Moses has to go down, warn the people again. The way is barred. And the way has been barred ever since the fall of man. Not being able to ascend back into the presence of God. And so the way up the mountain, the ascent is barred as well. There's danger in the approach. Psalms 15 and 24 ask, Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may ascend his holy hill? Only the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. Anyone want to volunteer? We know this is not true of any of us. For we have sinned against the Lord in thought, in word, in deed, with head, with heart, with hand. Only the Lord Jesus himself is qualified to ascend the hill. And this is a type of what we see here. Moses is as the mediator even, but a man, but protected. And later we'll see his need for protection as he asks, please show me your glory. And the Lord says, you can't, you can't see my face and live, but I'll cause my back parts to pass before you. And I love what the Lord says, show me your glory, Moses asks. And God says, I will hide you in the cleft of the rock and I will cause all of my goodness, all of my goodness to pass before you. Moses couldn't bear the sight of the full spectrum, the full revelation of God's glory. Do you want to see the Lord? So the way was barred. And yet there was a way. There was a way up the mountain and the way up the mountain was through Moses. Because not only was the presence of the Lord terrifying, not only is it here a gracious condescension, but it's a gracious condescension in that the presence of the Lord was a mediated presence, that he's provided this way through Moses. Again, he doesn't desire his people's death. They are not fit for his presence, but the Lord is desiring to covenant with his people, to commune with them. And so he's provided this mediator, this go between, the one whose voice they are to listen to, the one who will lead them, who will represent them before the Lord. And so here we might say, as shocking as it sounds, that God so loved Israel that he gave them Moses. Because Moses shows us that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. There's an old Puritan saying, it goes, outside of Christ, God is terrible. Not terrible in the moral sense, of course, but meaning if you seek to approach God outside of Christ, the only thing you have to expect is terror. Fear of the holiness of God, what we've seen here, it's been evident by the barrier here around the mountain. And yet as true as that statement is, there's also a danger in that statement, at least for some of us. We've already spoken of the need for a reverential fear of God, and surely there are those who, if that is true, if you need to be, you're too comfortable. If you don't have a reverential fear, if you don't consider God in His holiness, And so in your comfort, you need to be afflicted. But there are also those among God's people who do understand the holiness of God, they do understand their sinfulness, and so they are afflicted by this. And if that is you, you need to be comforted. Comforted to know that in a statement like this, the danger in that is that for some of us, We have, yes, a fear of the Lord, but it's not the reverential fear of the Lord. Because of his holiness, we have the servile terror. Because we can't believe, we know scripture tells us that God loves us, but we can't, maybe he does, but we can't believe that he really likes us. Might be led to think that the Lord merely tolerates us. There is a type of fear that is appropriate, but that type of fear, brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ, that type of fear, that servile terror is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You need to know if that is true of you, you need to know. That the Lord has come down to this mountain, even in this this awful sight, as awful and as frightening as it was, he came down on this mountain to meet with his people because he loves his people. And in Christ, a new and a living way, a better way has been opened for you. And in Christ, you can approach, you can draw near to the throne of God. But in Christ, God has condescended. to demonstrate his love for you. And that while you were a sinner, he was not waiting around. You know, sometimes we might have this idea that God's just waiting for us to mess it up so we can really do what he wants to us. So he can really rain down on us with the fires of Mount Sinai. And for some of us, It's difficult to see that the Lord really does delight in us because he delights in his son and we are in him. Sure, there is such a thing as the fatherly displeasure of the Lord against his children, but they're still his children. And if you belong to the Lord, if you're in Christ, God says of you what he says of his own son. This is my beloved son or my beloved daughter in him or in her I am well pleased. The Lord sings over his people because he loves his people. So we must not compromise a millimeter on the holiness of God, the reality of his wrath, the reality of his hatred of sin. But because of the grace of God is in Christ, that is in Christ, we must also proclaim the love of God for his people. And we must bask in the light of His rich mercy and His free love in those who are in His Son. So don't get the idea that Christ twists the arm of the Father to keep Him back from what He really wanted to do. Don't divide the persons of the Godhead in this way, that the God of the Old Testament is the Father The Marcionite heresy that he is a cruel God or the God of the New Testament is a gracious God. Or that the father really, really doesn't like us, but because of the son, he's sort of talked him into tolerating us. No, but John, what is the most well-known verse in the Bible say? It's God who so loved the world that he gave his only son. Thomas Goodwin said, All that Christ does for us is but the expression of that love which was taken up originally in God's own heart. Christ adds not one drop of love to God's heart but only draws it out. The love of God for his people even here at Sinai it's seen. So the Lord has condescended to covenant and commune with his people through his chosen mediator and that mediator It's not Moses, Moses is only a type, that mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. In Christ, God has extinguished his wrath. For Christ is the one who entered the fiery wrath of God. who took it all upon himself." The Jews, yes, they took up stones to stone him. Though they were not successful, he ultimately died outside of Jerusalem on Calvary's Hill and there he received those darts, there he received those arrows, the fiery darts of God's judgment that were due to us for sin. So that as we'll sing in a moment, John Newton wrote, he has hushed the law's loud thunder. He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame. This manifestation of God's presence here is certainly remarkable and it is when we see it at other times in scripture as well. The Lord appearing to his people in his holiness, the Lord appearing to Isaiah in that great vision in the temple. But you know, to receive a glimpse of God's holiness, we don't have to be at Sinai. We don't have to be at the mountain and see the fire and hear the thunder and to see all that's described to us here. Do you remember when Jesus told Peter? to set the boat out a little way and drop your nets. In Luke 5, Peter was reluctant because they'd been toiling and fishing for a while and hadn't caught anything, and then they go out, they drop their nets, and the fish that they bring in almost sinks the boat. And it's really interesting what Peter does in that moment. He doesn't jump for joy, he's not just giddy and amazed, but he drops to his knees in the boat, right there, In the middle of the slimy, smelly fish, he says, depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. He got a glimpse of the holiness, the glory of Jesus Christ in a boat on the sea. But I love what the Lord says to him. Do not be afraid, Peter. Do not be afraid. Depart from me, O Lord. When we receive a glimpse of the glory of God, there's something about it that we want to go, we want to pursue, right? Go down and warn the people again lest they break through. But there's part of it as we see ourselves that makes us want to turn away. As the children at the beginning, perhaps Peter was as glad as anyone could be who was afraid, but also as afraid as anyone could be who was at the same time glad. And if this evening you have received a glimpse from this text of the glory of God, and if you've received a glimpse of your own sinfulness in understanding who you are before the Lord, I want to plead with you, though you might be tempted, don't turn away from Him, but instead turn to Him. If you're sensing your need, then what you need to also sense is that your need is a need of Him. He is the only one who can cleanse us from every stain of sin, and he does so in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb without spot or blemish. And through him, through the rending of his flesh, Christ, who has ascended the holy mount, has atoned for our own sins with his precious blood. And so we ask the question at the beginning, who can ascend, or in the middle here, who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? It is Christ, yes, only, but he takes us as it were by the hand. He takes his church because we know that he will, in the end, present us before the Father without blemish and without spot. He brings us into the bosom of the Father, into the presence of the Father through the new and living way that he has made. And that is the gospel. That is the light that shines, that is warm and bright, that we stand to have our souls warmed in the love of God and His Son. I'll close with these words from Hebrews 10 as an encouragement to us, because I can't add anything more or better to what the Lord says through the author of Hebrews. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near. With a true heart and full assurance of faith. with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, as we try to handle holy things, as we try to describe holy events, as we try to communicate The realities, the truths of the gospel of your son and your great love for us and even your holiness and wrath and judgment. Lord, our words fail us and we confess, we ask that though in the midst of our weakness and because this is the means through which you have ordained to make yourself known to your people, we pray that by the power of your word and spirit, you would give us a glimpse of your glory. But you would cause us to understand who we are in your presence. Yes, as sinful. But also as justified and adopted and sanctified children. And so, Lord, we pray that because of this and because you have hidden us in Christ. Because we have only known all of your goodness to pass before us. that we would be able to answer the question and say yes, yes we want to see the Lord. We long for the day when we will finally see our Lord but even now we pray for the grace to behold your glory in the face of Jesus Christ your son. We ask it in his name, amen.