How Do We Understand the Old and New Covenants - Voddie Baucham

0:00 If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to Exodus 19. As we come rapidly to the end of the second section of Exodus, this second movement, if you will, in Exodus. The first movement was Exodus 1 through 12. And in Exodus 1 through 12, we went on a journey from the people's prayer and desire for deliverance all the way to the Passover. and to the death angel coming and God delivering his people through wrath. And then after that, we took a break and looked at the Lord's Supper and implications for how we, as followers of Christ, apply the truths that we find in that first movement of the text. Now in this second movement of the text, we're looking at verses 13, chapters 13 through 19, and we're watching the people of Israel become just that, the people of Israel. And we see the trials and tribulations in the desert and we see the continued wrestling with unbelief.

1:11 Coming now to a close of this section and as we close this section, the people are being prepared to enter into a covenant with God, to enter into the Mosaic covenant. By far the most famous of all of the Old Testament covenants, this covenant with Moses. And as they prepare for this covenant here in chapter 19, Moses is going to prepare them to meet with God. and it is going to be a meeting unlike any other and as they prepare to meet with God they have to consecrate themselves and it is to this that we turn our attention in chapter 19 beginning at verse 9. Remember God is about to come down on the mountain and deliver to them the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. He's going to deliver this covenantal document, if you will.

2:22 And we are just prior to that. Look at verse 9. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of the people and you shall set limits for the people all around saying take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death no hand shall touch him but he shall be stoned or shot and just as a footnote here in a way a lot of young people here and I know that if the young people here are anything like the young people in my house when you read that verse the young people in my house kind of look up and go they had guns?

3:57 no that would have been with arrows so just for the young people to put your minds at ease so you can continue to listen to me and not be stuck right there for the rest of the morning. Okay. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds, a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people. And they washed their garments. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman. Now, the danger in today's text lies in the low-hanging fruit. It would be easy to read this text and its emphasis on consecration prior to coming into God's presence and run full speed to the obvious application to the way many Americans come to church from board shorts and flip-flops to blue jeans and graphic tees. One could have a field day pointing a righteous finger of indignation and calling people to repent.

5:18 However, doing so would miss the mark on several fronts. First, it would ignore the ample evidence in both the Old and New Testament that makes it clear that God is after much more than just the way we dress. Second, it would fall into the trap of viewing righteousness as an outward reality. As if somehow there is something that you can put on yourself that will make you righteous. That there is something that you can possess and place on your person that would make you righteous. this would not only fall into a trap but it would also put us in the category of other religions that basically identify their holy people by something special that they wear thirdly it would fail to grasp and communicate the significance of the continuity and discontinuity between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant and what those things teach us about true holiness.

6:30 And finally, if we did that, there would be no good news. None whatsoever. You see, we could do that without the gospel. We could do that and there would be no need for Christ. We could do that and basically what we would communicate is Jesus didn't need to come and die because all you have to do to be righteous is just put on the right clothes. Just wear the right thing outwardly and you have conquered righteousness. That is not good news. I believe the way we dress when we come to church matters. Not because I believe there's a particular type or quality of clothing that makes us acceptable to God, but because of the connection between what we put on and what we believe. Walking in the church looking like a streetwalker, surfer, or a homeless person, not necessarily sinful. If you indeed are a streetwalker, a surfer or homeless person but the issue is that we have been commanded to approach the lord robed in righteousness and righteousness is not an outward garment amen so if those things are true then how do we look at this text and God obviously calling Israel to consecrate themselves and obviously calling them to consecrate themselves specifically in an outward sense.

8:19 He doesn't tell them, get your heart right. He tells them, wash your clothes and then don't go near a woman. So obviously there's a message here of something outward. So if there is this message of something outward and of consecrating ourselves and preparing ourselves has something to do with this message of outwardness, how do we then apply that to who we are today in the new covenant and not under the Mosaic covenant without just going straight to that issue of clothing. Well, we do it by understanding the continuity and the discontinuity between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant. And if you look at these things in light of that continuity and discontinuity, there are truths here that apply to us all the other thing we have to understand is that what we are looking at if you look through the arc of redemptive history is we are looking at the church in infancy redemptive history is just beginning we've just come out of genesis and we're just now in Exodus. God is revealing himself to his people and he is doing so progressively. Think about it in terms of the way we raise our children. There are truths that we desire to communicate to our children that are deep theological truths. But when our children are small, before we can get to the deep theological truth, we have to sometimes deal with these outward issues in hopes of later making the connection between that outward issue and the inward one. And as they grow in their maturity and their understanding, we can be clearer and clearer about the connection between these things. But oftentimes we just begin with the most simple. And if you understand that this

10:31 is part of redemptive history unfolding, you understand that God is here dealing with his people in infancy. First, let's look at the continuity between the Mosaic and the New covenants as it relates to this issue of consecration. The first thing that we see here in terms of continuity, when I say continuity, I mean the things that are the same, things that haven't changed between then and now. And later we'll look at the things that have changed between then and now and their significance in the way that we apply this truth. First of all, the sanctity and centrality of the word has not changed between then and now. In verse 9, the Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. There's two purposes in God coming in the thick cloud. One, so that the people can hear the word of God. And two, so that the people can know that Moses is God's prophet and can trust Moses as God's prophet. The whole idea here is that the people of God would have a relationship with God based on the word of God. This was true then and this is true now. The people of God have a relationship with God based on the word of God.

12:00 The word of God is the foundation of our relationship with God. It is the fount from which flows God's truth that changes our lives. It is the way we know who God is. And so there are two things here. First, the source of the revelation, God himself. God is revealing his presence prior to revealing his law. God is revealing to the people of israel that he is the source of the revelation Because if god is not the source of the revelation then the revelation is not binding If moses comes with a law and the law didn't come from god, it is not binding on the people The only thing that can bind the conscience of god's people is the word of god. Amen By the way, this is one of the hallmarks of Baptist theology.

12:56 The liberty of conscience that no one can bind the conscience of a believer save God himself in his word. No one can say to a believer, taste not, touch not, where God has not given such instructions. instructions. No one can bind the conscience of a believer and force a believer to adhere to rules and regulations that are anything other than the rules and regulations of God. No one can do this in a theological sense. Again, we're not talking about whether or not people can establish speed limits. Amen? So don't run out of here saying, oh, they're trying to bind my conscience. Because God has made it very clear how you are to show respect for things like that. But it's the word of God that makes that clear. When I talk about our conscience being bound, I'm talking about people who make rules for how it is that you approach God. Rules for how it is that you know God.

14:05 Rules for how it is that you obey and serve God rightly. That's what I mean by binding the conscience. Moses did not have the right to do that even though God had singled him out as his prophet. Moses did not have the right to choose on his own what things he would communicate to the people in terms of what is righteous and what is not. Moses did not have that right and if he had exercised that right he would have been in sin and anyone who allowed their conscience to be bound by Moses and not by the word of God would be in sin. What does this look like? We see it all around us, do we not? We see the binding of consciences, and I'm not just talking about outside of people who call themselves Christian. I mean within people who call themselves Christian. Don't we see people whose consciences are bound? People who, for example, won't eat meat on Fridays? Amen. I went to high school in San Antonio, to largely Roman Catholic area. And I remember being in high school in San Antonio and they wouldn't serve meat in the cafeteria on Fridays. What's that about? That's the first time I learned that there were people who because of their brand of Christianity believed that it was more pious for them not to eat meat on Fridays.

15:40 That, my friends, is binding the conscience. Amen, somebody. When there are rules for righteousness that come from someone or somewhere other than the scriptures, the conscience has been bound. But not only is God revealing himself to be the source of revelation, but he's revealing Moses, his prophet, as the steward of the revelation. Look at what the text says, that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. Moses has been communicating to the people as God's spokesman. And the people have doubted Moses again and again and again. God says, there are a couple of things that I desire to accomplish by coming down on the mountain in the thick cloud. One, I want the people to hear from me. I want them to know that what they're dealing with is the word of God. And two, I want the people to know that I have chosen you as my prophet, so that as they listen to you, they are listening to me. John Calvin commenting on this text writes, for if the mightiest prophet Moses obtained, or the mightiest of prophets rather, Moses obtained credit in the church on no other grounds than because he bore the commands of God and only taught what he had heard, how foolish and impudent will it be in teachers who sink down far beneath him to endeavor to attain a higher point. In fine, this passage shows that we must believe in God alone, but that at the same time, we must listen to the prophets who spoke out of his mouth. Besides this, it appears that God did not wish to obtain credit for his servant Moses during a short period of time, but that posterity

17:49 should pay him the same reverence even after his death. In other words, we listen to Moses just like they listen to Moses because God made it clear that Moses was proclaiming the word of God. So Moses was being validated as God's spokesman. The Decalogue is being validated as God's law. And the Bible was being validated as God's word. This is why we adhere to the scriptures. This is why we believe what we have in the Bible. Because God has validated the Bible. Hebrews 1, 1 and 2, we read it earlier. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

18:50 So there is continuity between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant in that God's word is final. That our obedience is final.