Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleYou Have Seen
Bible TextExodus 19:1-6
Synopsis In this passage, we see how God continually reminds his believing people of what he has done for us and continually reminds us of his sure promise to us. Listen
Date14-Oct-2018
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: You Have Seen (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: You Have Seen (128 kbps)
Length 33 min.
 

Series: Exodus

Title: You Have Seen

Text: Exodus 19: 1-9

Date: October 14, 2018

Place: SGBC, NJ

 

Our gospel is simple—salvation is of the Lord, apart from our works.  God will not give his glory to us.  The purpose of God in saving his people is to show his people his glory and bring us to worship him.

 

Isaiah 43: 7: Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

 

Isaiah 48: 11: For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

 

John 17: 24: [Christ’s High Priestly prayer is] Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

 

1 Corinthians 1: 31: As it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

 

The test by which every true believer discerns the truth from a lie is do they preach according to this word, giving God all the glory and man none.

 

No part of salvation is of us; all is of God.  There are only two messages in the world: grace and works, Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau.  The good news which every true believer assembles to hear are the works of God by which we are saved.  As we preach this message, we also rejoice that God teaches sinners that our works for salvation shall not profit us.

 

Psalm 145: 4: One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. 5: I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works…10: All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.

 

Isaiah 57: 12: I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee. 13: When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;

 

Even when the apostles teach God’s saints to maintain good works, it is always by preaching the works of God in saving us, so that we are constrained by the love of Christ for us, rather than by law.  So when any man objects to the gospel, it is because they want some of the glory for their works rather than God having all the glory for his works in salvation.

 

In this passage, we see how God continually reminds his believing people of what he has done for us and continually reminds us of his sure promise to us.

 

I have titled this message “You Have Seen.”

 

Exodus 19: 1: In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. 2: For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. 3  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4: YE HAVE SEEN what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. 5: Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

 

CHRIST JESUS THE MEDIATOR

 

Exodus 16: 3: And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;

 

God continually reminds his believing people of Christ Jesus our Mediator and all the promises of God fulfilled by him. 

 

Moses goes up to God for the children of Israel and Moses comes down to the children of Israel for God—that is the work of a mediator.  Christ Jesus is the Mediator typified by Moses.  Our Lord Jesus Christ is the “daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.” (Job 9: 33)

 

1 Timothy 2: 5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

 

Moses was the mediator under the covenant of works which required the sinner to fulfill man’s side of the covenant.  But Christ is Mediator of a better a covenant, the covenant of grace.

 

Hebrews 8:6: But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

 

Hebrews 9:15: And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

 

No sinner can keep man’s side of the covenant of works because we broke God’s law and we continue to break it.  Every sinner God saves must die in order to uphold the law.  The Son of God became a man to fulfill all the works required of his people as our covenant Head.  The Son of God took flesh and walked this earth without sin for his people.  He is the only one God looks unto in place of his people.  Christ is the holy and righteous last Adam whose person and works are the person and works of his people before God!

 

As Substitute of his people, Christ willingly bore our transgressions and the punishment of divine justice and justified his people from our sins.  By doing so Christ upheld God’s justice declaring God just and Justifier.  By his death, by being made a curse for us, Christ redeemed his people from the curse of the law.  Loving God and his people perfectly by laying down his life for both, Christ fulfilled the righteousness of the law. 

 

Therefore, when the Holy Spirit calls us and gives us faith to believe on Christ, God gives us the sure promise of eternal inheritance with Christ because there remains nothing for us to do to fulfill the covenant.  Christ fulfilled it all for his people!  That is why it is a covenant of grace.  That is why it is a better covenant with better promises.

 

2 Corinthians 1: 20: For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

 

WHAT WE ARE

 

Exodus 16: 3: And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;

 

God continually reminds his saints what we are.

 

The children of Israel were created by God to give a picture of God’s true Israel, his elect.  There were some in Israel who were God’s elect, but not all.  God has Gentiles who are his elect, too.  Together, we make up the true Israel of God who were chosen by God from eternity by his free grace, not based on anything in us. 

 

Romans 9: 6: Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8: That is, They which are the children of the flesh, [as Abraham’s son, Ishmael was] these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. [as was Isaac] 9: For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. [Isaac was not born by Abraham and Sara’s works but by God’s power and grace according to God’s promise—so are all God’s elect] 10: And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11: (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12: It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13: As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. [God chose Jacob because he loved him without a cause simply by his grace; but God hated Esau having no regard for Esau at all] 14: What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? [that is what I said when I was a spiritually dead sinner. That is what all spiritually dead sinner’s say. But does a born-again, sanctified child of God say?] God forbid. 15: For [God] saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16: So then [our calling and our salvation is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 17: For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. [that God might get all the glory for saving his people] 18: Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 19: Thou wilt say then unto me, [this is what every spiritually dead sinner says] Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20: Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21: Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 22: What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted [prepared] to destruction: 23: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24: Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

 

So not all the children of Israel were God’s elect, only those chosen of God, which are from among Jew and Gentile.  Christ died only for his elect.  We preach this because scripture says it.   Also, we preach it because we declare Christ victorious in accomplishing what he came to do.  When the angels announced Christ’s name they said, “He shall be named Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins” (Mt 1: 21).

 

Due to the blessed fact that Christ satisfied justice for us, all who Christ redeemed must and shall be born-again of God the Holy Spirit.

 

Romans 2: 28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

 

So those born of God have two natures.  We have a sinful nature which we got from Adam’s corrupt seed and we have a new, holy nature we got from Christ’s incorruptible seed, which is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you.  Therefore, God continually reminds us that we are Jacob and we are Israel—"Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;”

 

In our sinful nature we are Jacob.  His name means supplanter.  In our Adamic nature we are yet sinners and only produce sin.  In our holy nature we are Israel.  It means as a prince thou has power with God and hast prevailed.  The apostle Paul spoke of his two natures when he said,

 

Romans 7: 18: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19: For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20: Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21: I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22: For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

As long as we live in this flesh we will be sinful Jacob in our flesh and holy Israel in our inward man. As he did here through their mediator Moses, through Christ our Mediator, God our Father will not let us forget that we are still sinful in our flesh so that we depend upon Christ to save us from our flesh and never look to ourselves.  It is only because we have a new nature that we know our fleshly nature is sinful so that we look out of ourselves to Christ Jesus alone.

 

WHAT HE HAS DONE

 

Exodus 19: 3:…Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

 

God our Father continually keeps his saints remembering what he has already done for us.

 

God’s sanctified children gather to hear the gospel to be reminded how Christ delivered us from bondage by destroying all our enemies.  This is typified in God delivering the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage and destroying the Egyptians in the red sea.

 

Exodus 14:28: And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

 

Concerning the sins of his people, by Christ’s death on the cross, before God’s bar of judgment “there remains not so much as one of them.”  Concerning our enemies such as the devil, death and hell, now that we are robed in Christ’s righteousness “there remains not one of them.”

 

Romans 8: 1: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

 

God continually keeps us remembering that due to our being dead in sins, Christ had to deliver us from our sinful flesh by sending the Spirit and drawing us to God—“ye have seen, how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.”  An eagle’s wings are strong.  God’s power and grace are irresistibly strong.  The Spirit of God gave us life, faith and brought us to Christ by his power, making us willing to be brought.

 

John 6: 44: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

 

The reason we continue to come to Christ, and shall continue coming to Christ, is because God continues to bare us and bring us to himself.

 

Deuteronomy 32: 9: For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10: He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11: As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 13: He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

 

1 Peter 1: 5: Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

 

I pray that God might be pleased to draw one of his lost sheep to him today.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful!  Thank God for his power and grace in destroying all our enemies and bearing us on eagles’ wings.

 

THE EVERLASTING COVENANT

 

Exodus 19: 5: Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 7: And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 8: And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.

 

God continually reminds his saints of his everlasting covenant promise.

 

For the natural children of Israel this was a covenant of works—“if, then.  Their answer was pride and arrogance—“All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.”  Next time we will see how they washed themselves to prepare to meet God.  It is a picture of a sinner trying to sanctify himself.  But when God revealed himself in Mt Sinai with lightning and fire—a picture of God revealing himself to a sinner in the law—they ran back begging Moses to mediate for them.  When God makes his child hear the law declare him guilty, the Spirit of God makes us flee to Christ our Mediator to represent us to God.

 

But for God’s elect, we should read the “if’s” as promises.  It is because whatever God requires of his people, God provides in Christ.  That is why scripture says, “All the promises of God are in Christ yes and in him amen, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace.”

 

God said, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant”—Christ obeyed perfectly for his people and he brings us to obey God by bringing us to believe on him as we rest from all our works.  This is that better covenant with better promises of which Christ is the Mediator.

 

God said, “then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation”—the natural children of Israel never fulfilled the covenant of works therefore there never was a person who was both a priest and a king.  But by Christ’s blood, all who are born of his Spirit are all of these things:

 

1 Peter 2: 9: But ye are a chosen generation [the true Israel of God], a royal priesthood [kings and priests], an holy nation, a peculiar people [treasure]; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10  Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

 

Brethren, let us thank God for keeping us ever mindful of these things you have seen which God our Father in Christ Jesus his Son has fulfilled for us!  Let us give God all the glory for salvation is of the LORD!

 

Amen!