The passage of Scripture from which some of our teaching will be taken is found in the Gospel of John, a very familiar passage beginning in chapter 3 verse 16. This is God's Word. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is right or what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Here is the reading of God's Holy Word. If you turn to Exodus in your Bible and wonder why the thunder and the lightning and the trumpet and the smoke that's described in verse 18 came after the giving of the Ten Commandments, the answer is it didn't. Quite often if we're thinking about the Ten Commandments we'll just go through one of the passages that teach them, Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5. But if you look at the chapter before, chapter 19, beginning in verse 16, it says, On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud in the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so all the people in the camp trembled. 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 the mountain. And the Lord came down to Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. Now later it says that God instructed Moses to go down and warn the people not to come to the mountain, lest they die. So the smoke and the trumpets and the lightning and the thunder and the people trembling with fear were taking place all during the giving of the Ten Commandments when the voice of God thundered his commandments. When he said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me. It was frightening because God, the creator of all that is, had come onto Mount Sinai and the people were afraid, and they trembled. Think how frightened you have to be to tremble. Fearing for your life might cause a person to tremble. And certainly after what the Israelites had seen taking place at the hand of the Lord, they might have reason to fear for their lives. After all, they had seen him exercise his power in the Ten Plagues. They had seen him turn the rivers into blood. They had seen all sorts of plagues beset the people of Egypt. They had seen the sun darkened. And probably most frightening of all, they had seen God take the firstborn of every person in the land who did not have the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts. So they had seen God's judgment. They knew his power. They had seen him come to the Red Sea and divide the waters so that they could pass through on dry ground. And then the waters enveloped the Egyptian army and drowned them. But it wasn't only the sight and sound of God's power that made them afraid and tremble, it was hearing the voice of God delivering his commands. And more than that, it was understanding that he is holy and they are not. That he is holy and they are sinful and incapable of keeping the laws they had just heard. And he, the judge of all the earth, could see them. The reaction is very similar to the response of Isaiah in God's temple, which we can see in Isaiah chapter 6. It says, the year the king of Isaiah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple and above him stood the seraphim and each had six wings. With two he covered his face, two he covered his feet, and with two he flew and one called out to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke. You see, it's very similar to what was happening on a larger scale to the people of Israel. The mountain was covered in smoke and darkness as the Lord descended on it. They heard the trumpet blast, the lightning and thunder. Isaiah goes on to say in verse 4, the foundations of the threshold shook and the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said, woe is me, for I am lost. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. See, whatever pretense you and I have about our goodness, whatever delusions we have about our own righteousness, whatever thoughts we have that we are good enough to stand before a holy God, they melt away when we come into his presence. Which is why Israel didn't want God to speak to them. Isaiah's response to his close encounter with God is the same as the people of Israel. It wasn't only the sights and sounds and the trembling earth, it was the same as Isaiah, a complete and utter realization of God's holiness and their sinfulness. They were afraid of God, the judge of all the earth. Very similar to the fear that enveloped Abraham as God entered into a covenant with him in Genesis 15, it says, as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. This is what happens anytime somebody comes into the presence of God, especially if they come into the presence of God as unrepentant sinners. Which is what we see all the way to the end of the Bible in Revelation 6. Bear with me as this passage is fairly long. When he opened the sixth seal I looked and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became as black as sackcloth, the moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth and the fig tree shed its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and powerful and everyone slave and free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. Listen to what they did. Going to the mountains and rocks fall on us, hide us from the face of him who seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of wrath has come. And who can stand? You see at the end these people described here in Revelation 6 that encompass every category I don't know if you noticed there was seven or eight of them. They all are trembling and asking for an earthquake to envelop them rather than come face to face with the judge of all the earth. If we look back at Exodus in verse 19 what do we see? What do the people ask for? They ask for a mediator. They ask for somebody to stand in the gap between them and the Lord. They know they can't do it. They're trembling in fear. They know that they're sinful. They know that he is holy. They know that he is powerful. They know that no one can stand. They know like Isaiah they are undone coming apart at the seams as it were. As though they speak to Moses and ask him to speak to God for them and for God to speak to him for them. Anyone who has close encounters with God trembles like this. Now in the natural world almost nothing can be compared. Although I've seen a couple of things in the nature shows that I'd like to watch and one such show is of kayakers in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia. And suddenly there was a pod of killer whales, orcas that surfaced near them. They knew that if the whales decided to, they're not really whales they're very large dolphins. If the whales decided to they could eat them. They had no defense. They were trembling. But that pales in comparison to what it was like for Israel to see God. So they asked for a mediator and immediately we see Moses does so. Moses said to the people do not fear for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you that you may not sin. And in saying this he shows them that one of the purposes of the law is to restrain sin on the earth. The law restrained sin through the fear of judgment. In his commentary Philip Reichen points out that some of the purposes of the law and the fear of God causes people to sin less. Not to be sinless but to sin less. It acts as a deterrent to keep people from sinning by threatening punishment if we do. Keep going back to Dostoevsky's line in the Brothers Karamazov where he says if there is no God all things are permissible. And if there is no God the law has no teeth. Because all you have to escape is humanity. And we know from experience that many many people commit crimes and never get caught. If they have no fear that there will be an ultimate judgment day then they really have no fear at all. You might be thinking well either I or some people I know don't believe there is a judgment day. But if there is no judgment day every horrible sinful person got away with it. Even those who are caught, tried, convicted, and imprisoned or even executed. They got away with it because if death is all there is as punishment everyone dies. So their death is no different. But if at the end you have to face a holy God who will hold you accountable for your sinfulness that's something different. So the law restrains but it restrains even better if there is the belief that there is a God who judges all the earth behind the law. Another use of the law is to reveal our sin by proving that we cannot live up to God's standard. That's what the Israelites came to realize as they heard God thunder his law from Mount Sinai. Even though earlier when God said will you do whatever God tells you they all said that they would until they heard what it was and they trembled. For those of us who have been saved by grace the law shows us how to live in a way that brings God glory while continuing to restrain us from sin and show us our need of grace. Maybe you notice the confusing aspect of verse 20. Moses tells the people not to fear. They're trembling. They're coming apart at the seams. And he says don't fear. But then he says God is testing them that the fear of him might be in them or before them. So what does that mean? Don't fear but God is testing you so that the fear of you is before him. Well it's two different kinds of fear. The first fear is synonymous with being afraid. The second fear is akin to reverence and awe which is most often what is referred to in the scriptures when we talk about the fear of God. So the same idea would be to say do not be afraid. God has come to test you that the awe and reverence of him may be before you that you may not sin. But then Moses does something else that a mediator does. He enters the presence of God. He says the people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Tim Keller said that that's probably the bravest thing that Moses ever did. Even braver than confronting Pharaoh was walking into the thick darkness to be the mediator for the people. Philip Reichen points out further that there are many other things a mediator does. For instance a mediator makes atonement for the sins of the people which is what Moses did in Exodus 24. It says that Moses in verse 6 took half the blood and put it in basins of blood from the sacrifices and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. He took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people and they said all the Lord has said we will do and we will be obedient. So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. As a mediator Moses interceded for the people of God. When the people sinned he begged God, pleaded with God not to destroy them. Remember when the people sinned by creating an idol out of the golden calf. Moses is willing to die to save them. Offering himself as an offering of atonement. As Christians we can see that this is a foreshadowing of Christ. That Moses here is a type of Christ. In verse 30 says on the next day Moses said to the people you have committed a great sin and now I will go to the Lord and perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said oh this people has committed a great sin and have made a god of gold for themselves. Submit now if you will forgive their sin but if not I pray blot me out of your book which you have written. He's offering himself not only to die but to be blotted out of the book for the sake of the people who have sinned. What about us? Moses could not die for the people he was sinful himself. We're still going to have to face judgment. Hebrews 10 30 and 31 says the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If that doesn't make us tremble it should. When we stand before God on judgment day either we will answer for ourselves or we will need a mediator. Someone to represent us before the judge of all the earth. And who's the mediator that you want representing you on that day? No lawyer will be able to get you off. No mediator can save you except Jesus. There's only one who can save you from the punishment for your sins. As Paul wrote to Timothy in first Timothy 2 there is one God and one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all which is the testimony given at the proper time. Jesus is the only mediator who can save you and me from our sin. He is the only one who can bridge the gap between God's holiness and our sinfulness. And the reason he's the only one is because he's God and man. He is prophet and priest. He's prophet in that he represents the word of God to us. He's priest in that he represents us to God. There's another passage that talks about judgment. We read it earlier, Reed did. I'm going to read three verses again. Hebrews 12 22. But you've come to Mount Zion into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem into innumerable angels and festal gathering into the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all. Into the spirits of the righteous made perfect into Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. Into the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. The blood of Jesus, his sacrifice for us on the cross, his blood is what saves us. We're studying Leviticus in the Wednesday evening Bible study. If you don't have a Bible study or not in a Bible study, that's a very easy one to join because it's a Zoom Bible study. Just tell Reed that you want to be in it and he'll send you the links. And it talks about, we talked about this last Wednesday, all of the sacrifices that are made in the temple and what they mean. But they do not remove sin. Hebrews 10 says the blood of the goats can never take away sin. And every priest stands daily ministering the same sacrifices year after year, but they can't take away sin. But Jesus offered himself once for all time for our sin and sat down at the right hand of God. That's why his blood speaks a better word than Abel. This week I watched a clip of a man named John Lennox who's professor emeritus at Oxford University in mathematics and religion. And he's spoken all over the world in defense of Christianity. He's debated famous atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. And he says in this particular venue, he was asked, why is Christianity preferred over all the other religions to you? Why are you a Christian? And he said that he has spoken all over the world and he asked people what they mean by religion. And he says it's very similar. He was speaking to a university audience. He said it's very similar to getting into a university. There's an entrance exam. And if you pass, you're accepted. You're on your way. The journey has begun. But there's no guarantee that you're going to succeed in the end. You'll be taught by some very talented and kind and friendly professors. But even they can't guarantee that in the end you'll get your diploma. In the end you'll pass. In the end you'll be accepted. And that's how most people view religion. That's how most people, even many Christians, see religion. But he says in Christianity it's completely different. In Christianity you're accepted at the beginning. And that's based on any merit or goodness in me. If it were based on any merit in me, any goodness in me that says I'm better than other people, I would fail. It's solely based on who Jesus is and what he's done for me living a perfect sinless life in my place and dying on the cross in my place and being raised from the dead. That's why John 3.16 can say God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now it might sound easy. All I have to do is believe. It's not easy. Believing in him means that you repudiate all your other efforts to get into heaven. You repudiate everything else that you were trusting, depending on, to say that you're a good person. You turn from that and believe instead in the complete merit of Jesus himself. It says whoever believes in verse 18 of chapter 3 of John, whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already, simply because he didn't believe, because he's not believed in the name of the only son of God. This is the judgment the light has come into the world and the people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light that may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. When you come to Christ in faith, depending on him alone for your salvation, he's offered in the Gospel. You no longer have to fear the voice of God or the law of God because the law was given to teach us how to live for God out of gratitude for his immeasurable gift in a way that honors him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the Gospel. Thank you that we do not have to tremble in fear if we believe the Gospel, if we believe that Jesus is the only son of God, that he lived for us and died for us and is raised from the dead. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Please stand.