The law given at Mount Sinai, rather than being a path to salvation or a rule for Christian living, served to debar people from God, bring death, inspire dread, and create distance. The sermon highlights that the law is holy and good, but it reveals sin and leads to death because of human guilt, contrasting this with God's grace shown to Israel before Sinai. The text then points to an altar of earth, symbolizing Christ, as the means through which God will come to bless humanity, emphasizing that salvation is solely through Christ's finished work on the cross, not through human effort or adding to it.
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Exodus chapter 19. We're not going to read the chapter. We have read from it before, because as you know, and as you see from the red line in the chart, we have reached Mount Sinai. We've already had several studies there. We're not going to linger too long, you that God kept his people Israel for one year, practically a whole year, at Mount Sinai, even though they were on their way from the land of bondage to the land of their God-given inheritance.
But God kept them there for a year. He had lessons that they needed to learn, important lessons, just as they have to stop you and me in our Christian life some times that we might learn that which will be of real benefit and blessing to us as we then resume our activity for him. Now, this morning I'm just going to very briefly point out to you the effects of the giving of the law. Now, as you will readily understand, The subject of the law is all through our Bible, right here from Genesis 19, right on through to the end of it, and very much could be and should be said about it.
But we're not going to linger too much on that, or we would just spend as long as Israel did at Mount Sinai. But let me make it clear, before we even read a passage, there is so much misunderstanding minds of men and women, even Bible reading men and women, even preachers regarding the subject of law and grace. Now, law was never given as a way of salvation. Let's be clear on that. The law was never given as a way of salvation to those who are lost and in their sins.
It is not the way of life. It's the way of death. Nor was it given, and here is where many who understand that statement that I've made that the law is not the way of life for a sinner. Here's where many of those go astray. The law is not the rule of life for a Christian. The law is not the rule of life for a Christian. In a such place, it's God-given place, a very, very important place.
But without having time to go into that in detail, and we often have pointed this out, please carry away those two thoughts at least. The law is not the way of life to the sinner. the law is not the rule of life for the Christian. But now what we're going to do to help us to understand the nature and the effect of the law, let me say what scarcely needs to be said, that there is of course nothing wrong with the law. It's the law of God.
And as Paul tells us, epistle to Romans, it's holy and just and good. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a law there couldn't be. It's God's law. And it's His standard. We have already discussed some of this, even since we came to Mount Sinai, as it were, in our studies. But what we want is the effect that the giving of the law had on the people. And that will help us to understand its nature and the effect it has on people.
Now, to help you to understand it, because we'll just condense it, to help you to understand and to remember, think of four words. These will be pegs that you can hang some of the thoughts that I expressed to you on for your help in remembering them. Think of the word debarred. The people were debarred from Mount Sinai. We'll see that in a minute. And the law brought death. And the law filled them with dread. And fourth, the law put them at a distance.
Now have you got those four? They are given to us here in chapters 19 and 20 of the Book of Exodus as the four outstanding effects of the giving of the law. Now the brothers, of course, for let's look in chapter 19 at verse 12. God is speaking to Moses. We're not going to retrace what we've already mentioned, the six or seven times that Moses went up and down the mountain and what happened each time. Verse 12, Thou shall set bounds unto the people round about saying, Take heed to yourselves that you go not up to the mount, or touch the border of it.
Moses had to come down, and they set, put some kind of a barrier around the mountain, that is around the part where the people were. Now we're not told what that was, we don't need to know, but we would call it today, this And as it were, there's no thoroughfare. They had to put bounds around the mountain. Now, we were not able on our visit to Israel. We were not able to get down as far as Mount Sinai. I would like very much to have gone, but we couldn't go everywhere.
It's down there, of course, in the southern peninsula. But where we did go, we got almost down to the end of the Dead Sea, not quite, but where we did get to at Mesaida, which I have spoken to you about, it gives a good idea of the ruggedness of the mountains in that area, and they are rugged. though we've every reason to believe that Mount Sinai was a most rugged mountain. Now Moses have been up there in the presence of God, but he comes down at God's command and he puts this barricade around that part of the mountain where they were encamped.
Now that would immediately tell you you were debarred from it. If you come to anything that has a barricade, you immediately know that you can't go any further. Or if you do, maybe it's at your own risk. Now that's exactly what happened. Now look, let me just throw this out. If God was giving away of salvation to the Lord, would He put a barricade around it? Would that be the symbol to make known to all men that He was ready for them? Why certainly not. An open door or a would have been much better wouldn't it so they were debarred but read on in verse 12 whosoever toucheth a mount shall be surely put to death so that the second effect of the giving of this law it must have been the most majestic sight but the second effect of the giving law was death now if any person or even of an animal, where to go past the barricade and even touch the mountain, they were
to be put to death, immediately teaching us that this is what is called in St. Corinthians chapter 3, in the inspired words of Paul, the ministration or the dispensation, not of life, but of death. dispensation of death. And on this day, at this time, when the law was given, there were 3,000 persons that died under the judging hand of God.
Remember the contrast? 3,000 saved at Pentecost. But 3,000 died at at Mount Sinai because, as I've already reminded you, before Moses could come down and actually give them the written law, they had broken the first two commandments. So that here we have very forcibly brought before us what we could reign through the New Testament and show you that the law brings death. wrong with the law? No. But everything wrong with a sinner.
You see? Anything wrong with a death penalty in America? No. Who's in the wrong? The murderers. And the death penalty brings death to certain people because of what they did, not because of the law. The law merely out its sentence. So it is with God's law. The fault is all with man. He's a guilty sinner. Now, many of you have been with us from the time when we embark from Egypt. And as we've pointed out, it has taken approximately two months to come from Egypt down to Mount Sinai.
Now, remember how they murmured? You remember? how they complained again against, they murmured and complained against God and sinned against him. How many times would we read of God reacting in judgment? Not once. When they complained about not having any food, what did he do? He gave them manna. When they complained about not having him to drink. What did he give them? He gave them water from the rock. Why? Because they were under God's grace. They hadn't been given the law yet.
He says, he has seen what I did. I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself. Now, God didn't have a lot a big eagle swooped down under these people and carried them to Mount Sinai. They had to walk every foot of the way. But God is telling them that just as an eagle carries her little ones on her wings until they learn to fly for themselves, swooping under them when they're going to fall, and they're learning. So he, in his grace, had carried them in spite of their weakness, in spite of their sin, he'd brought them to Mount Sinai.
But now, when you and I leave Mount Sinai and continue our journey toward the land of Canaan, it's going to become a veritable graveyard. A graveyard. are. Our first study after we leave the Mount Sinai will in all probably have to do with a manna. But instead of God forgiving them as He did before and providing for them, we're going to see a lot of people die. Why? They're under the law. They're under the law. It's every one of these at Mount Sinai is going to die before they come to the land of Canaan with the exception of Joshua and Caleb.
Moses is going to die, Aaron is going to die, Miriam, their sister is going to die, and all of them are going to die except the children who weren't responsible. They're going to be the next generation that will go in and possess what God had promised them in the land of Canaan, because God keeps his promises. But he can't keep his promises where there's unbelief. And these unbelievers all died in the wilderness, and their children went in along with two believers.
Joshua and Caleb. So the second effect is death. The third one is given to us in verse 16. Just glance at verse 16. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mouth, and the voice, the trumpet, exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp Humboldt. Here was dread. Their hearts were filled with dread. What a sight it must have been. That mountain, almost as it were on smoke, lightning flashing, thunders rolling.
And Moses says, I did exceedingly fear and quake. Even the man who had been in the presence of God, even the man to whom God spoke face to face as a man speaks of his brand. He said, I did exceedingly fear them quake. Isn't it different when our Lord was born? There wasn't any thunder. There wasn't any lightning. There wasn't any great trumpet blast. It was the song of the angel. Untie, fear not.
Don't dread. Fear not. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. Oh, my friends, it's not going back under the thunders of Mount Sinai that saves a person. It's going to Mount Calvary. its grand display of the grace and love of our God. Now, the fourth one will have to turn to chapter 20, and you'll notice in verse 18, almost a repetition of what we've been reading, the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they removed and stood a far off distance.
It didn't draw them near. They withdrew instinctively to a distance. What a difference again to the grace of God. When you hear of Christ dying for you, when you see that marvelous display of his love at Calvary, Do you feel like drawing away? It'll be 50 years, the month of May, since where the eye of faith I saw that, I drew near. I came in true repentance, as it were, to the foot of Calvary's cross.
But now I would like you to notice, even in the midst of this, not in the actual events but in the recording of it look at what you have in verse 24 I'm referring to Exodus 20 here something seems altogether out of place it doesn't have any connection with the law the giving of the law an altar of earth thou shalt make unto me and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy offering thy sheep and thine oxen, in all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee."
Isn't that a contrast? What did the law do? It raised a barricade. It debarred them from coming to God. It brought them. It filled them with dread. It put them at a distance. God says, now, make an altar of earth. And you know, I think there's a lovely touch here. The word earth here is, in the Hebrew, Adam. It's the same word that the first man was called. Because his name, as you may know, Adam, means red or red earth.
Because your memory is made as far as the body is concerned of the dust of the ground. This is the same Hebrew word here. Here's a little touch, I believe, given by the Spirit of God, that our altar would be the second Adam, the man, Christ Jesus. An altar of earth. Nothing so grand about that. Man makes his altars. so-called, covers them with gold, studs them with precious stones. Here's an altar of earth.
What a lovely picture that little babe in Bethlehem, that Galilean peasant walking around the shores of the Sea of Galilee, that man dying on the cross. God, as it were, is saying, look, my holy law, because it reveals your sin, keeps you from coming to me. It spells death to you. It puts you at a distance. But look, I'm coming to you. You see, that's what he says? I will come unto thee.
How? Not through law, but through the altar. On that altar, sacrifices, the burnt sacrifice. That was for God. That was all God's claims met. And after they'd offered the burnt offering, on top of that they put the peace offering. That was for man. Because it's because all God's claims have been met by the death of Christ, that man can be at peace with God and God can be at peace with man. It's all on a righteous that altar with its sacrifice pointing forward to the death of my son I'll come unto you and when I come what will I bring I will bless you then it goes on verse 25 if thou wilt make me an altar stone thou shalt not build it of hewn stone for if thou lift up thy tool upon it thou has polluted it When you make me an altar of stone, says God, don't use stone mason's, go ahead and
square it all up and make it pretty. You leave it alone. You take that stone out of the ground the way I, the Creator, put it there and build me an altar like that. Why? Because you can't, you dare not, you must not touch the cross of Jesus Christ. If you add one iota of your works to the work of Christ on Calvary, you've polluted it, you've ruined it, you've swore your opportunity to be saved. He finished the work. He, the rock of ages, the stone cut out without hands of Daniel chapter 2, He finished the work.
You can't, with your little tool of good works or church membership or baptism or anything else, you can't add anything to the crosswork of Christ. There's just one other thing, he said. Neither shall thou go up thy steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereof. There are no steps up to Calvary. No. If you try to climb up to God's salvation by your own works, you're only showing yourself as a naked sinner before God. There are no steps to Calvary.
God summed him down here, and the ground is level at Calvary. Doesn't matter who you are. You may be a penniless pauper. It may be a millionaire. The ground is level at Calvary. And the pauper and the millionaire, the American and the African, and all classes and kinds and creeds of men stand on the same ground before Calvary. By nature, lost, guilty, hell-deserving, hell-bound sinners.
By faith in Christ, children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Which side of Calvary are you on this morning, Frank? Do you remember? One man died and went to hell from Calvary so that no one might presume, but one man died and went to paradise. that none might despair. So don't presume on the grace of God. Don't imagine you can go up any steps to heaven.
You can't do it. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto Father but by me. And we sing the old hymn, I must needs go home by the way of the cross. but this, I shall ne'er catch sight of the gates of light, if the way of the cross I miss. Now that's what they used to call needle and thread preaching. The law of the needle. Do you ever try to sew up a patch with a thread alone? Well, that's like trying to get people saved with the grace of God alone.
They've got to be convicted. And the needle makes the hole. And the law makes the whole. And the law shows a man he's a lost, guilty sinner. He listens from God. Do you ever try to solve the path of the needle? The Lord, he does make some more holes. And that's what people are doing. They're trying to preach the laws of the way of salvation. Just make more holes in the sinner. But you need the thread of the gospel. And when you make the whole of the law, and then come along with the thread of the gospel, conversion and a man is saved or a woman is saved and on their way to heaven. While we bow in a word of prayer, wind it up in your heart and let the Lord Jesus Christ