← Back to sermon library

We'll turn with me please in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 24. Exodus chapter 24, if you were expecting a sermon on the priestly garments from Exodus 28, that was a typo on my part. If you saw the church social email, It's not on the priestly garments. I suspect John Gill could preach a good Lord's Supper sermon on the priestly garments, but I'm going to go with the ratification of the Old Covenant. Simply explain verses 1 to 8 and then draw a contrast with reference to the Old and New Covenants. 

Exodus, chapter 24, beginning in verse 1. He said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people go up with him. So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord has said we will do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, All that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. And 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." Amen. 

Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for all Scripture. We know it's given by inspiration of God. We know it's profitability for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. and for instruction in righteousness. We pray that you would thoroughly furnish each one of us unto every good work. May your Spirit guide us, may the Spirit illumine us, and may we be led into all truth, and may we see in a passage like this the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the superiority of the new covenant. As the author of the book of Hebrews says, it is a better covenant founded on better promises that affords a better hope. We thank you for your mercy to us displayed through that true Israel of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, forgive us now for all of our sins and we pray in his most blessed name. Amen. 

Well, when we come to this particular section of the Book of Exodus, it's actually called the Book of the Covenant. So in chapter 20, you've got the giving of the moral law, or what we call the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, which simply means the Ten Words. And then you have judicial law in chapters 21 to 23. and then the ratification of the Old Covenant in chapter 24. From 25 on to 40, you've got an emphasis on ceremonial law, the way that the children of Israel in the Old Covenant were to worship their God. They were to have a priesthood with priestly garments. They were to have a tabernacle They were to furnish it just so, and they were to have a sacrificial system by which sinful man could enter into the presence of a holy God. So the book of the covenant is right here in the book of Exodus, and this ratification, as I said, it's an occasion of great solemnity, but it's also an occasion that the author of the book of Hebrews, I'll just call him Paul from here on out, does show us or appeal to that in various places in the book of Hebrews. And the primary emphasis is that the Old Covenant, it's not bad, it was good, but it served the purpose that it was intended by God. There was a built-in obsolescence. That means it was built-in ultimately to be fulfilled by the true Israel, which is Jesus Christ our Lord. 

So, Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, inaugurates the New Covenant in His own blood. We see the ratification of this covenant was with blood. You see the ratification of the New Covenant is with blood. Again, Paul tells us that. He speaks to that specifically in Hebrews chapter 9. 

So I want to look at Exodus 24 under three heads. First, the instructions given by God in verses 1 and 2. Secondly, the compliance rendered by Moses in verses 3 to 6. And then finally, the ratification of the covenant proper in verses 7 and 8. 

But note first the parties involved. Moses functions in a mediatorial capacity in Old Covenant Israel. The children of Israel knew that they couldn't wander into the presence of a thrice holy God, and they oftentimes cried out for mediation. Well, Moses functioned that way. And of course, Moses functioned typically concerning the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Covenant. 

The reality is, is that God is holy. God is majestic, God is just, God is righteous, and we don't just wander into His presence without the blood of atonement and without mediation. So in this particular setting, Moses functioned in that mediatorial capacity. 

Notice as well the emphasis on the priestly class. Now he said to Moses, come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. So the presence of Aaron and his sons implies the presence of a priesthood. Priesthood will be dealt with later in the book of Exodus. So this is sort of a preemptive statement, or rather a statement in seed form that will be developed throughout the entirety of the book of Exodus. 

But then you have the 70, and this 70 becomes known ultimately as the Sanhedrin. Remember the instructions by Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, back in Exodus chapter 18. Basically, Jethro said, Moses, if you try to adjudicate all of the affairs of Old Covenant Israel, he didn't say Old Covenant, but if you try to get involved in everything, you're going to kill yourself. You need to appoint men. You need to appoint elders from the tribes. You need to make sure that you have some help so that they can adjudicate the lesser matters, and then Moses would function sort of as a supreme court when it came to the big issues affecting Israel. 

Numbers chapter 11, a similar instance. Moses is basically throwing up his hands before God and saying, just let me die, take me away, I can't do this alone. So God hears his prayer, God answers his prayer, and God tells him to appoint these 70 men so that they may help Moses to execute the office that had been entrusted to him. By the time we get to the New Testament, it's called the Sanhedrin or the Council. It is the highest political and religious court in Old Testament Israel. 

So these are who accompanied him. The priests and elders would worship from afar. Alter, Robert Alter says there's evidently a tripartite deployment. Moses alone goes up to the mountaintop. The 70 elders, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu remain at a stopping point partway up the mountain and the people stay at the foot of the mountain as they were instructed to do in chapter 19. Remember God made it very clear that the people were not to come up the mountain. Threat of judgment would incur or would be theirs if they violated that particular precept. And again, the emphasis then falls again on Moses in verse 2. So the mediatorial office of Moses to go directly before God Most High and then deliver his words, to deliver his judgments, to deliver his statutes, and to deliver this ultimate covenant that is being ratified in this situation.

That brings us then to the compliance rendered by Moses. Notice in verses 3 to 6, there's a written record that obtains with reference to this transaction. Verse three, so Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said we will do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

The communication of the words of the Lord and the judgments. Again, the Decalogue, chapter 20, foundational moral law that is foundational and crucial to Israel's covenantal status before God. If you look back for just a moment in chapter 21, notice how it starts off. It says, now these are the judgments which you shall set before them. So basically, in chapters 21 to 23, as I said, judicial law. We might call them political laws. We might call them civil laws. Basically, the sum and substance of the Ten Commandments, how are they fleshed out in civil society? How do we move from the general principle, you shall not murder, to life in covenantal Israel? Well, that's what chapters 21 to 23 begin to flesh out, begin to tease out.

So Moses communicates this. It's a written document. We see again later in chapter 24 that he writes, and this is very important, that he writes, covenantal documents are intrinsic to the old covenant just like covenantal documents are intrinsic and inherent to the new covenant. But before we get there, notice what the people say in verse 3. So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said we will do.

So in terms of the ratification ceremony, they're swearing their fealty before Yahweh. They are swearing their fealty as vassals to the suzerain that they will be obedient to all that the God of heaven and earth has commanded them. Matthew Poole makes the observation, all the words which the Lord hath said we will do. This they so readily and rashly promise. because they were not sensible of their own weakness and because they did not understand the comprehensiveness and spirituality and strictness of God's law, but thought it consisted only in the external performances and abstinences expressed. He says they did this rashly. He says they did this without actually concern with the internality or rather the internal nature of the law itself.

And again, this is a pretty big expression here. All that God has commanded we will do. It's hard to escape what our particular Baptist brothers recognized, and some Pado-Baptist brothers recognized as well, that the Old Covenant was a covenant of works. And that is precisely what we see in verse 3, and then again repeated in verse 7. They swear fidelity to the living and true God, that they will uphold their covenantal obligations, all that the Lord has commanded we will do.

Now, our confession does not treat the old covenant as an administration of the covenant of grace. Rather, as I said, the particular Baptist brethren saw it as a covenant of works. There is one covenant of grace finally realized in the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's there in a promissory form. It's there in Genesis 3.15. It's there in Exodus chapter 24. But the final realization, the completion of it, comes with the coming of the one who is sent forth by God, born of a woman, and born under the law, to redeem those under the law.

Now in terms of the written record, again verse 4a, and Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. Covenantal documents. We need to think this way. So that when we get to the New Testament, we understand that the people of God associated with the God of Israel, those who had some semblance of connection to the covenant, would appreciate and understand the nature of the New Testament documents. They were covenantal records founded upon a covenant enacted by God with them.

So the act of writing out the covenant, Moses does this. The eventual placement of the tablets in the Ark of the Covenant. Later we're going to see that if we continue on in Exodus and in Deuteronomy and then as well in Joshua. These two documents, one represented God's copy, one represented the people's copy, they would be placed in the Ark of the Covenant. We do a similar thing today. If you enact a transaction, you enact a covenant, you enact some sort of a treaty with persons, you both sign a copy and you both have a copy with their signature and your signature. This is not something out of the ordinary. It's not something strange. It is something rather that is consistent with covenant making.

Klein says the origin of the Old Testament canon, canon isn't a big gun, kids, that shoots people. It is a big gun that shoots people, so if you ever see a canon and you're on the business end, you might want to, you know, step aside. But canon means rule or standard, and we often use the word canon to speak concerning Scripture. What books are canonical? What books belong in the canon of Scripture? And so when it comes to the Old Covenant, there's a canon. In the New Covenant, there's a canon.

So again, Klein, the origin of the Old Testament canon coincided with the founding of the Kingdom of Israel by covenant at Sinai. The very treaty that formally established the Israelite theocracy was itself the beginning and nucleus of the total covenant cluster of writings which constitutes the Old Testament canon. Again, if we think through New Covenant, if we think through New Testament, how is it communicated to us? It's communicated to us in written form. It's inscripturated for the protection of God's Word, for the blessing of God's people, but as well as a testimony to what's going on between God and His people.

So in this context, the purpose for writing it out would be succession with reference to their children. All these things you shall teach when you rise up, when you walk by the way, when you lie down. By the way, we're going to deal with that section on Deuteronomy chapter 6 on Wednesday night. that whole emphasis on family religion. We're going to spend a whole session on that. So if you've got kids and you want some, I'm not saying guidance and a guru sort of a way, but we're going to look at Deuteronomy 6 and try and unpack that and what it means practically to rear children in the training and the admonition of the Lord. I would invite you to come to that.

But in terms of the new covenant documents, we see similar features in covenantal texts. Consider, you've got an inscriptural curse. an inscriptural curse. In other words, a prohibition against adding to the Word of God. You've got that in Deuteronomy chapter 4, definitely dealing with the Old Covenant, but you have it in Revelation 22 as well. What's the emphasis? You're not supposed to add to the Word of God, whether you're in the Old Covenant or you're in the New Covenant.

As well, there's a demand for public reading. When you move on in the Pentateuch, when you get to Deuteronomy chapter 31, for instance, there's a demand for public reading of the covenantal documents. What does Paul say with reference to the churches? Paul says that the letters written by the apostles are to be read in public worship. In other words, publish The covenant, its records, its documents, its attestation for the people of God so that they understand their obligations. Not in a covenant of works sense, but in terms of normative use of the law to be sure.

And then there is even a similar structure in the New Covenant. If you've got the Pentateuch in the Old Covenant, you've got the Gospels in the New Covenant. If you've got the historical books in the Old Covenant, you've got the book of Acts in the New Covenant. If you've got the prophets in the Old Covenant, you've got the epistles in the New Covenant. Again, I would argue that the people of God in the New Covenant would have been all too receptive to written documents attesting to the way of God in dealing with His people. the way of God in saving His people from their sins, and then as well, speaking to them in every jot and tittle of their lives.

It may not be as comprehensive. Say, for instance, Exodus 25 to 40, construction of the tabernacle, the plans, the purposes, the specifics, and then the actual building of it. We don't have that kind of detail in the New Covenant, but we have detail. We have the instruction that the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. We have the instruction in the church that the church is to sing the word, the church is to pray the word, the church is to preach the word, the church is to read the word, and the church is to see the word in the sacraments of supper and baptism. So all of these things are very consistent from one covenant to another, the basic written record of the covenantal situation.

Now in terms of the formal elements involved in the covenant making here, verses four to six deal with that. There's an altar and there's pillars, and these pillars represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Poole says, representing the people of Israel, the other party. So here are the outward signs and symbols of a covenant made between God and the Israelites. So if the altar represents the presence of God, the pillars represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Again, parties are involved in covenant.

The most basic explanation of covenant is found in the Little Children's Catechism. It says, what is a covenant? A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons. I would want to load that up a bit, an agreement appended by sanctions, stipulations, threats, cursings, all that sort of a thing. But in its basic form, it's an agreement between two or more persons. So the two parties are represented at this particular scene. You've got the altar, God. You've got, not saying the altar is God, is represented there by the altar. But then you've got these 12 pillars. And then as well, you've got sacrifice.

Again, Hebrews 9.22, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. That was something Old Covenant Israel was tutored on. They were tutored on it by the tabernacle. They were tutored on it by the priesthood. They were tutored on it by the shadows and types and prefigurements. They were tutored on it by Genesis chapter 22, God will provide the Lamb. They were knowledgeable of this reality.

In fact, going back to the garden, post-fall, what do Adam and Eve pass on to Cain and Abel, the necessity for sacrifice. Where did Adam and Eve learn the necessity of sacrifice? But from God Himself. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, God seeks them out, God kills animals, and God clothes Adam and Eve with the skins of those animals. God taught the doctrine of substitutionary curse-bearing. God taught the doctrine of atonement in Genesis 3.21. And Adam faithfully conveyed that information to Cain and Abel, so that at the end of the days, in our translation, it says, in the process of time. The margin is better at the end of days, the end of the days of the week, the day set aside specifically for worship. How would Adam have known that? God's pattern. What does he do on the seventh day? He rests, he blesses, he sanctifies. That's information passed down from Adam to Cain and Abel. So they knew enough to sacrifice. They knew enough to sacrifice on the Sabbath day. Unfortunately, Cain got it wrong. Abel got it right. He offered up blood.

And so with reference to sacrifice, we see that all of the formal elements involved in covenant making are present, and then the blood. Notice in verse 6, Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. So some onto the altar and then the rest onto the people. Again, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. The same sacrifice that we consider tonight with reference to our Lord Jesus Christ inaugurating the new covenant in what? In His blood. This wasn't a new thing. It's a superior thing. It's a better thing. It has better promises and affords a better hope. But in terms of God's dealings with men, the things taught here at Sinai were passed on covenantally such that when Jesus comes on the scene as the true Israel of God, as the sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, as the Great High Priest, None of these things were revolutionary. They were rather fulfillment. They were rather realization of what was anticipated and promised in this Old Covenant ceremony called the ratification of the Old Covenant.

So the blood put in basins and the blood sprinkled on the altar. And again, Paul in Hebrews chapter 9 details this. He deals with this in great detail. Again, the argument largely considered is the superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant. Gil says, the altar here seems to represent the Lord who is one of the parties covenanting and therefore is sprinkled with blood as a ratification of the covenant on his part and the promises of it. So, part with God, part with them, two parties involved, stipulations are made, promises are given, threats are being issued later on in the Pentateuch, and then we come finally to the ratification of the covenant in verses 7 and 8.

Notice again verse 7, then he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people. This is good. This is what we do when we come together to eat the Lord's body. Not physically, we're not papists, but we preach the word. We then look at the word in the bread and the wine. In some sense, it's a renewal ceremony of what God has already done. It is to refresh, it is to encourage, it is to confirm, it is to further us.

As our brother mentioned this morning in teaching from chapter 18 on the assurance of salvation, The supper is not to be neglected. The supper is to be utilized. The supper is a time for that renewal, for that refreshment, for that confirmation. It's the devil's logic to say, you know, I sinned last Tuesday and I don't feel worthy to go to the supper. Well, confess your sin. Come to the supper. Receive the blessing of God. These are good things. God has made us physical creatures. So God provides for us physical sacraments to signify, to emblemize, to hopefully encourage us with bread and with wine concerning the nature of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf.

This is not a means of reward for those who have performed well since Tuesday. This isn't a cookie or it's not an ornament to be taken as if you've performed well. No, it's to come to the supper. It's to come to the lamb. It's to come and to feast as one who has been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So back to verse 7, he reads the covenant in the hearing of all the people. And once again they said, all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. This time they step it up even, they further it. They say essentially the same thing in verse 3, but then they say and be obedient. We see that in Deuteronomy. We looked at that on Wednesday night.

These people under this particular arrangement were of the mind that in order for them to stay in the covenant, it depended upon them. And it did. It was a covenant of works. In the New Covenant, just a little foretaste of the contrast, it depends on Christ. It depends on the covenant head. It depends upon the mediator of the New Covenant. Notice the difference. All that the Lord has commanded, we will do. What was one of the emphases we saw as we moved our way through John's gospel or any time we consider the doctrine of justification by faith alone? What are the twin blessings included in justification? God forgives us of all of our transgressions and receives us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.

So the old covenant, it was all that the Lord has commanded we will do. The new covenant is all that the Lord has commanded, Jesus says, I will do. That's a covenant of grace. It's the covenant of works kept for us by the true Israel of God, by the Lamb of God, by the last Adam, who is working out the salvation of all those whom the Father had given to him.

So at the reading of the words and their swearing of fidelity, again, Gill says, which contain the words, I'm sorry, which is a repetition and confirmation of what they had before said, verse three, and is expressed in stronger terms, so that this was not done suddenly and inconsiderately, and yet they seem not to be so well apprised of their own ability to keep the laws of God, and of the treachery of their own hearts as to their regard to them. They didn't seem to be aware of the fact that within a couple of chapters they're going to be dancing before a golden calf and predicating of it the power of having brought them out of the land of Egypt. See, that's the futility of a covenant of works. We can't do it. Why? Because in Adam all die, but in Christ all shall be made alive.

So what was laid upon the Israel of God in the Old Covenant is championed and obeyed by the true Israel of God in the New Covenant. So they swear this fidelity to Yahweh. The blood then is sprinkled, according to verse 8. 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.

Again, if you want to see some commentary on this, I'm not going to point you to Gill or Poole. I'm going to point you to Paul in Hebrews chapter 9. He deals with this in detail. And he says, essentially in chapter 10, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. What was in that? There was a reminder each and every year of the sinfulness of man, the incompletion of these sacrifices, the prefiguring of these sacrifices, but culminating in the reality of the Son of God who assumed our humanity, who lived for us, who died for us, and who was raised again for us the third day. That's how Paul ends that section in chapters 9 and 10, and then he gets real practical in verses 19 to 25.

Based on all that I have said, now here's then how you ought to function in this new covenant setting. Well, as I said, I just want to make a couple of quick contrasts. And the contrast may not be what you're expecting. It's practical. It's not doctrinal. Doctrinally, we could say, well, there's a big difference between Paedobaptists and Baptists. Yeah, I grant that. That's why I'm a Baptist. We're not going to deal with that. I want to deal with a practical contrast.

But first, the nature of the covenants. As I said, the Old Covenant was a covenant of works. If you fail to see that, if you say, well, no, it's an administration of the covenant of grace, I think you've got big problems then with chapter 24, verse 3, and chapter 24, verse 7. I also think you've got big problems with the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision in Genesis 17. That's not a covenant of grace. If you are not circumcised, you will be cut off. That's an obligation, that's a condition, that's a work, that's a performance. So this idea of seeing the covenant of grace in the old covenant, again, it's there in a promissory form, Genesis 3, advanced along by farther steps until the final discovery is in that coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But to say that the old covenant is the covenant of grace, I think is faulty doctrinally. And I just said I wasn't going to deal with that, so of course I had to deal with that. Galatians 3, you can turn there, just to emphasize the nature of the old covenant as a covenant of works. Galatians chapter 3, specifically at verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. What's Paul's point in Galatians? to show that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It's not by faith plus works. It's not by grace plus performance. It's not you're in by grace and you stay in by your faithfulness. See, if Paul said that, he'd be a papist. If Paul said that, he'd be the patron saint of federal vision theology. If Paul said that, N.T. Wright and E.P. Sanders, they would all herald him as the founder of the new perspective on Paul. Notice it's the new perspective on Paul. Paul had the old perspective on Paul. Isn't that what Obadiah Sedgwick, that book? It's whatever the title is, and then the publisher adds, you know, the old perspective on Paul.

Brethren, you want the old perspective on Paul. You don't want the new perspective on Paul, because it's potpourri. Another garb might look Protestant, but it's potpourri. Doesn't have the hats, doesn't have the miters or the scepters, it doesn't have all the trappings, but it is potpourri.

Paul understands this all too clearly. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. And remember for Paul, he's not dealing with the strict category of works righteousness versus faith. That's not what he's dealing with. And by the way, papists don't believe that either. Oh, they hold to a works religion. Yeah, but it's a faith plus works. That's what Paul's condemning. It's not works alone. It's faith plus works. It's mingling a bit of the old covenant in with the new. It's yes, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and always beware of the and. Always be aware of the and, you gotta get circumcised. Well, okay, well, and there's some calendar observations that you gotta make as well. Okay, so Paul's not dealing in the strict categories of works. I'm going to just work my way to heaven. I'm just going to obey perpetually, personally, exactly, and entirely all that the Lord has commanded. That's how he's dealing with in Galatia. He's dealing with Judaizers. He's dealing with faith in Jesus plus the works connected to the Mosaic administration. So he understands the theology that he's relating here. He understands precisely what it is he's doing. And he says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. That's Deuteronomy chapter 27.

How is that a covenant of grace? One of the passages I neglected to point us to this morning when I was mentioning how we ought to think like Jesus with reference to the final destruction of the enemies of Jesus, Jesus seemed to, if not celebrate that, call upon God to affect it, call upon God to render it, call upon God to enact it. It jives with what we find in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 says it's right with God to pay back with tribulation those who trouble you. Revelation chapter 18 at the destruction of the great whore. What do the people of God do? They rejoice. Revelation chapter 19, when the whore and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire, what do the people of God do? A fourfold hallelujah.

You know what Deuteronomy chapter 27 says? It speaks of blessings and curses and more bullet points, 28 then amplifies. It's kind of a house of horrors, actually, when you get to chapter 28. It's no walk in the park. If Israel is not faithful to their covenant obligations, this is going to be their lot. But in Deuteronomy chapter 27, probably about 15 to 26, when the curses associated with covenant breaking are pronounced upon the sinning Israelites, you know what all the other people do? They say, Amen. All the people respond, Amen. Why? Because it's right for God to punish sinners. It's right for the people of God, blood bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who have the Holy Spirit, to rejoice in that justice and the execution of righteousness. It's okay. We're not supposed to be weird about it. We're not supposed to be, you know, bullies about it.

But we're not supposed to recoil in horror at the thought that Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him, says the Apostle Paul. When the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, let him be damned to hell. Again, we don't do that for people that cut us off in traffic, but to the abject rebel, the vicious, vile, bloodthirsty and deceitful man, when God cuts them off, we don't have to apologize for that. We don't have to be meek and feeble about that and try to explain away God's judgment.

When God demands that Israel goes into the land of Canaan and dispossesses the land of Canaan, we don't have to defend God. We don't have to say, well, you just don't understand the culture back then. They were wretched. They were vile. They engaged in bestiality. They were corrupt through and through. So when God says, go in and dispossess the land, it's not wrong for us to say, amen.

So with reference to Galatians, back to chapter 3, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do that. Paul's point is that if you choose circumcision, you're obliged or indebted to keep the whole law. He'll say that in Galatians 5. That's always been the purpose. That was always the design. Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things. Not in some things. Not the things you're good at. Not the things that you stumble onto that occasionally you get right. But you have to continue in all things.

But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. See, what Paul does there in quoting the prophet Habakkuk is to say, this ain't new theology. This has always been the case. It's prophesied by Habakkuk in chapter 2, the just shall live by faith. It precedes Habakkuk. It goes back to Genesis chapter 15. Abraham what? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. The only way a sinner enters into the very presence of God Most High is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our whole and sole righteousness, faith alone. So Paul underscores that.

And then he goes on to say, verse 12, yet the law is not a faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. The apostle Paul does not have any truck whatsoever with the introduction of works plus faith in order to get into God's favor.

And as well, when they sprinkled that blood, when Moses splashed the blood on the altar to represent God's presence, as a covenant party involved, and then he splashes the blood on the people, there could be an indicator there of something that you see back in Genesis chapter 15. What was going on in Genesis chapter 15? God gave Moses, or Abraham, some pretty massive promises. And Abraham says, how do I know this is gonna come to pass? you know, we might think, how dare he ask God? God didn't say that. God said, I'll tell you how it's gonna come to pass. I want you to go fetch a bunch of animals. I want you to cut them into two. I want you to put them on either side. Because that was a covenant ratification ceremony as well. You covenant parties march down the middle of those covenant, or of those cut up animals, with the emphasis being at the end is that if I renege on my covenant responsibilities, may what happened to these animals happen to me.

It's beautiful, because Israel doesn't, and ultimately in Genesis 15, Abraham doesn't walk down the middle. It's only God alone. But if you think about that for a moment, if the stipulation or the threat involved in covenant breaking is bloodshed, if the threat in that sort of a ceremony is, if I fail to carry out my covenantal obligations, may what happened to those animals happen to me.

Verse 13 is beautiful. Christ in our stead. Christ walking between the animals for us. Christ taking upon himself that. If they renege, I will take what happened to these animals. That's 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So what was to be a cutting off, what was to be a cutting up, what was to be a bloody punishment for us, was heaped upon the blessed Savior.

The new covenant is, in fact, a covenant of grace. The Lord Jesus, the true Israel of God, took to Himself the responsibility. All that the Lord has commanded, I will fulfill. I always do that which is pleasing to my Father. My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me. I have, you know, marching orders founded in eternity past. I have come not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

I think our confession, 2nd London at chapter 7, paragraph 3, I think that if you get what they're saying, It's a beautiful thing in terms of God's covenantal dealings with His people. This covenant, the covenant of grace, is revealed in the Gospel. First of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament. And it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect. And it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.

If you get that, and I'm not saying you don't, but I know for me, I had read it many times, I probably had taught on it many times, and then I had a Lutheran moment. You know that old story where Luther was reading Romans, studying Romans, he got to 116 and 117. You know, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And as far as Luther was concerned, the last thing he wanted to face was the righteousness of God. I don't want God's righteousness. God's righteousness terrifies me. God's righteousness gives me great fear. But when he got to Romans 1, 16, and 17, and he's pondering it, he understood the righteousness of God in that context was the righteousness that God demands and God supplies in the Christian gospel. So he says, it was as it were, paradise opened up. I had that, maybe not to the degree that Luther had it with Romans 1, 16, and 17, but certainly 7.3 came home with power at one point in my Christian experience. And I'm really thankful for that because I think it's a well-articulated, well-crafted statement that sort of encompasses the three major theological covenants. You've got covenant of grace, you've got covenant of redemption, you've got covenant of works.

Secondly, in terms of contrast, the superiority of the new covenant. Again, Hebrews chapter 7 and 8, better covenant, better promises that afford a better hope. We've got a better priesthood. It's Paul's point in Hebrews 7, Jesus lives forever. The priests in the Levitical system, the Aaronic priesthood, they died, right? They died. Not Jesus. The priests in the Levitical system had to first offer up sacrifice for themselves, not Jesus. The priests in the Levitical system could even be corrupt, could be bad guys, not Jesus, holy, harmless, and undefiled. So the priesthood is superior.

But as well, the sacrifices. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, if you're still in Galatians 3. Hebrews chapter 10. I already referred to this. Verse one, for the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? In other words, if it was all sufficient, if it was a done deal, why would we have to duplicate it each and every year? Why would we have to replicate the Day of Atonement if it worked? And I don't mean it didn't work. It worked for what God had intended it to in that old covenant setting, in terms of cleansing, external holiness, so that the people of God could come to tabernacle and temple.

But the point is simple. For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. Think about that. There's a reminder of sins every year. What are we reminded of when we come to the supper? We're reminded of Jesus, the sin bearer. We're reminded of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In fact, Hughes says the gospel transforms this word reminder from a remembrance of guilt to a remembrance of grace. That's what we're reminding ourselves of when we eat this bread and drink this cup.

And then verse four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. It's not possible. Again, not that it was bad, not that it was wrong, not that it was misguided, but that it was designed to point forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It was designed to hedge the people in. It was designed to teach them principles concerning worship and approach to God. It was designed as well to keep them looking forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So the sacrifices, turn back to Hebrews chapter two, Hebrews chapter two. Specifically verse 17, therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Don't you love that language? The sins of the people. It's not general, vague, ambiguous sort of sin out there that perhaps could be atoned for, but it's the sins of the people that our great high priest made propitiation to God for. And that idea of propitiation assumes, presupposes, and has the context of God's wrath. Christ takes that wrath for us men and for our salvation. And then in terms of benefits. The benefits, not that these benefits were absent in the Old Testament. All the benefits that I'm about to mention were present in David. In fact, in some ways, he surpassed the religiosity and the spirituality of many New Covenant Christians today. But they weren't essential features of the Old Covenant.

Again, Hebrews chapter 9, they were concerned with the outward washings, the external, until the time of Reformation. Not in the 16th century or the 15th century, but the time of the Reformation when Jesus came. Benefits were prophesied by Jeremiah in chapter 31, 31 to 34.

So you've got the forgiveness of sins. Again, David understood that. David blessed God for that, but David didn't append it to his law-keeping based on the Old Covenant. the saving knowledge of God, the internalization of the law of God, boldness at the throne of grace, Hebrews 4.16, and entrance behind the veil, Hebrews 10.19-25. Again, elements that were present by virtue of the new covenant, retrospectively applied.

And if you want to see the doctrine of retrospection or retroactive application, rather, look at Hebrews 9.15. Hebrews 9.15. We're coming to an end, I assure you. hopefully not physically, but at least in terms of the clock.

So after discoursing on the covenants old and new, See the but now, or the but Christ came in verse 11? There's a contrast. Contrast between Old Covenant and New Covenant. He then discourses concerning Christ, once for all sacrifice, he obtained eternal redemption. And then in verse 15, and for this reason he is the mediator of the New Covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the First Covenant.

How did David know the joy of the Lord as His strength? How did David know the forgiveness of sins? How did David receive a righteousness that avails with God? By virtue of Christ and the New Covenant. It's retroactively applied. We look back to the cross, they look forward to the cross. So when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, all those whom the Father had given Him are saved in the same manner. And that's what 915 highlights specifically.

Then I want to end on the practical application that I want to speak to. There's a problem in mixing covenants. There's a problem in mixing covenants. Again, it yields paedo-baptism. That's at the doctrinal level. There's a problem in mixing covenants at a practical level. Where are we living? Are we living at the base of Sinai or at the base of Calvary? Think about that. Is your relationship to God in your mind predicated upon all that the Lord has commanded I will do? Or is it predicated upon the one who said it is finished?

See, I think you're gonna be holier living at the foot of Calvary than you are at Sinai. You know what one of the problems with self-righteousness is? I mean, there's a whole host of problems, but you know one of them practically is you're a miserable person to be around. Luke 18, two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and one was a publican. What's the occasion for that parable? He told this parable because there were those who were righteous in their own eyes and despised others.

So you may not be putting yourself at the foot of Sinai, but man, you'll put others at the foot of Sinai. If they don't dot my I's, they don't cross my T's, they don't do it the way I think. It's obnoxious. Those two things go hand in hand. In fact, turn there. You can see it for yourself. I'm not making this up. Living at the foot of Sinai is no bueno for the people around you. And certainly putting the people around you at the foot of Sinai is no bueno for them. Notice in Luke 18, kids, that means no good in Espanol. which is in Spanish. Look at Luke 18, 9. Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

Inextricable connection. When I trust in myself that I'm righteous, nobody ever measures up. I can stand before God and say, thank you, Lord, that I'm not like other men. Thank you, Lord, that I'm not a murderer. Thank you, Lord, that I'm not an adulterer. Thank you, Lord, that I'm not an extortioner. And thank you, Lord, that I'm not like this publican. It's a despising others. Putting yourself at the foot of Sinai is going to hinder any assurance of faith that you ever thought to have. Putting others at the foot of Sinai is barbaric.

That doesn't mean we don't new covenant, new covenantally exhort our brethren. Look, man, you can't do that. You can't do that not because all that the Lord has commanded we will do in order to be saved. You can't do that because you bring reproach upon the Savior who lived for you, who died for you, and who rose again for you. You see, there's a different emphasis.

I would suggest as well there's a problem with the preachers of the Word of God, some preachers of the Word of God. Fisher called them legal preachers, legal preachers. Putting the sheep of Christ at the foot of Sinai? That's not good. You need Calvary. You need to hear, it is finished. You need to hear the joy of the Lord.

Again, there's exhortations, there's imperatives. In light of the indicative of the cross, all preaching should have, as its intended end, to set forth Christ and all of his offices, to remind everybody what we have in him, and then to call everybody to live in light of that. But there is that tenor of preaching that is legal in nature. that is scolding in nature, that is lecturing in nature, that is browbeating in nature.

Brethren, we are not at the foot of Sinai. We have come to Zion. We are in the presence of the Lamb who said, for us men and for our salvation, it is finished. If you gravitate toward legal preaching, maybe listen to a few antinomians too, just to sort of back into, you know, some semblance of balance there. I'm kidding. Listen to gnomians or correct, whatever correct, orthodox gnomians. There's always the antinomians, there's always the, you know, the legalists or neo-gnomians. The foot of the cross hopefully solves those problems.

When Paul comes to deal with Christian holiness in Romans chapter 6, he will get to, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness, after first reminding them of Calvary. You died, you were buried, and you've been raised from the dead. That's the best impetus for you to not sin. That's the best encouragement for you to live in a manner that is consistent with God's high calling for you in Christ Jesus. He will get to do not present your members as instruments of righteousness. He will get that bit of Sinai in his preaching, but he's not putting the people of God at the foot of Sinai. He's reminding them of Calvary at the first step, and then telling them, in light of that, live in a manner that is consistent with that calling in the gospel.

Well, bless God for Calvary. Bless God that Christ said, all that the Father has commanded, I will do. This is why in Hebrews 7, he's called the surety of a better covenant. Blessed be his holy name.

Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for what we have in this new covenant setting. We thank you for the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, that true Israel of God who took upon him all the obligations laid upon him by the Father in terms of obedience to that law. We thank you that he executed it perfectly. that he died in our stead on the cross and that he was raised again the third day. Help us to live in light of that. Help us to rejoice in what we have in Zion and help us not to go back to Sinai and some sort of a covenant of works or a mixing of the two. Cause us to reflect upon free grace and the glory of the Christian gospel and the glory of the Christ of the gospel. And we pray in his blessed name, amen.