Lesson 3: The Pass to the Mountain

Like we've talked about in our blessed Kgusian, does God bless you with someone better than you or anything else in your life? Hey, everybody, welcome to lesson three, and I'm gonna entitle this lesson, The Pass to the Mountain. So let's just recap for just a second here, all right? Israel coming out of Egypt, please understand, you can learn so much about our salvation because the Bible says that they were examples for us today who, in these last days, this great salvation has come. But God gave hidden messages in types and shadows in what happened in the Old Testament. Now, let's reiterate this very important point. God delivered Israel out of Egypt for what reason? Say it out loud, to bring them to Himself. God delivered you from the world for what reason? To bring you to Himself. He is a father. He desires a intimate relationship with you. But on the same end, we've got to realize who we are dealing with. We are dealing with the creator of everything seen and unseen. So God wanted His people for Himself to be a father to them, to dwell in them and among them. He also has the desire for His people to seek Him for who He is, not just what He can do for them. You know, that's really no different than like a woman marrying a man just because he's got money.

She's marrying him, but for the wrong reasons. God desires His children for them to see Him as our greatest reward, not what He can do for us as our greatest reward. I hope you see the difference. All right, now, God has brought the people to Himself, two days of preparing themselves, cleansing themselves from all the filth of Egypt off their garments. Now, I wanna take the time and redefine these biblical terms. I said it in lesson one, I wanna say it again. Justification, this is when we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, the moment we are saved. We didn't do anything to earn our salvation. We didn't do enough good, you can't do enough good works to earn your salvation. That is a gift and it comes by putting our faith in Jesus Christ and submitting, listen, to His Lordship. In other words, Jesus makes statements over and over again. Why do you bother calling me Lord? Which means Lord means supreme and authority, carries the meaning of ownership. Why do you call me as your supreme authority? But yet you don't do what I say. So when we embrace His Lordship, we have the will to do His will. When we say, Jesus, I'm completely at your mercy, what you did at the cross, I believe in, I trust in, that is when we are justified.

We will never be more justified in the sight of God forever and ever than the moment we get saved. We are going to be насколькоfully ordained like Lord Jesus in this time of resurrection, et radius salvation catere, et relation et returns. So let's actually take this first look at what Pope Paul says in chapter 2 around the end. It says, we are ordained Lord and God in the desire of salvation so that we may save ourselves from the standoffs of the world. However, that is when the work of sanctification or holiness begins. There's a saying in the love of God. So let's go to the beginning of the third day again. Verse 18 and 19 of Exodus 20. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings and the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. Now we need to talk about this. These people had seen some of the greatest miracles of any generation ever before. I mean, if you look at Psalm 105 verse 37, it says there was not one sick or feeble one among Israel when God brought them out.

Now stop and think about this, okay? They were a bunch of slaves. They were eating terrible food. They didn't have good medical care. They didn't have any kind of medical care. And yet when God delivers 3 million people out of Egypt, there's not one person with a fever. There's not one person with a cold. There's not one person that's feeble or crippled among them. Do you understand? I mean, fathom this. Go to a city, go to a city that has 3 million people in it, okay? Just think of a city that has about 3 million people. I think Minneapolis, Minnesota has about 3 million people. Not one person. I mean, do you understand the miraculous power of God when they took that Passover lamb and they came out without one feeble one among them? Psalm 105 verse 37 also says, but he brought his people safely out of Egypt, loaded with silver and gold. I mean, the Egyptians were like, take our gold, take our silver, take, just go, go, go. I mean, God so miraculously moved that the people that were their masters that were enslaving them were like, take our gold, take our silver, take, just go, go, go. The people that were enslaving them were like,

take our silver and gold, please go, please go, please go. It was amazing. They saw the miracles. They saw every firstborn was, life was gone. They saw the flies that infested the whole land. They saw the hail with fire. They saw some of the greatest plagues humankind has ever seen. Yet when God comes down on the mountain, they all run in a hide. What's the difference? Well, here is a truth, okay? You can hide sin and your love for the world in the presence of miracles, but you can't do it in God's glorious presence. This is why Jesus said, many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? We spoke your mighty word in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We did many miracles, wonders in your name. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, but I will declare to them, these people were comfortable in the atmosphere of miracles. They were comfortable in church atmospheres but Jesus said they were practicing lawlessness. See, this is why we want to pursue the glory of God. This is also why Jesus said in Luke 12, two through five, He said, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden, that will not be known.

Why? The glory of God's gonna reveal it all. And what you have spoken in the ear of the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops. And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and afterwards they can do no more. But I'll show you whom you should fear. Fear God, fear Him, who after He is killed, has the power to cast in hell. Yes I'd say to you, fear Him. The glory of God reveals and exposes everything. There is nothing, listen to Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. There is nothing hidden from His sight. To draw near to God, you must not love or try to hide sin. Okay, I'm just being honest. I'm telling you the truth. You're in this because you want a heart ablaze for God. You can't hide sin, okay? And Jesus made a statement in John chapter three, verse 20, that is so remarkable. And it gets overlooked so often. Jesus made this statement. This is the New Living Translation. They stay away from the light for the fear that their sins will be exposed. So let's talk about the difference between being afraid of God, because you can't be intimate with somebody you're afraid of and the fear of the Lord, all right?

Moses looks at the people, this is Exodus 20, 20. This is after the people said, hey, you go near to God, tell us what He says, we'll hear and do it. Moses says to them, do not fear. Now listen to this, do not fear, for God has come to test you. What's the test? And to see if His fear may be before you so that you may not sin. Now wait a minute, do not fear, because God's come to see if His fear's in you so you don't sin. What is Moses doing? Is he talking out of both sides of his mouth? No, he's talking about the difference of being afraid of God and the fear of the Lord. There is a huge difference, okay? The person who is afraid of God has something to hide. What does Adam do when he sins against God? He hides from the presence of the Lord, because what? The light, it reveals what he has done. Remember, sin is disobedience, okay? The Bible says in 1 John 3, 4, sin is lawlessness. Lawlessness means you're not submitted to the authority of God, to the law of God. Remember, God doesn't give laws to constrict us, He gives us laws to protect ourselves from ourselves, okay? So Adam has disobeyed God, he's hiding from the presence of the Lord

because he knows he's gonna get exposed, right? The person who fears God has nothing to hide. That person's actually terrified of being away from God. So if you want your real true definition of the fear of the Lord, this is an aspect of the fear of the Lord, not the full definition. It is to be terrified of being away from God. Image of a Bible that used to say, at the end of Exodus, you can't be afraid of any judge's order in the book of Ephesians, you can't be afraid of any justice or fighting a judge. and take it serious to cleanse themselves from the filth of Egypt. In fact, at the actual end of it, God was exposing their love, your judgment's gonna be dark and it's gonna scape. which would later manifest with that golden calf that we'll talk about. Scape means you're on the verge of sunset, God's light is exposing, so they're getting away because they don't want, remember Jesus said, there's nothing hidden, it will not be revealed, okay? They have hidden love for the world, hidden love for sin, and they're standing afar off. They can't handle the presence of God. Moses, on the other hand,

who says, I don't want anything to do with the world anymore. I found God, I want God, he draws near. So the person who fears God draws near, the person who doesn't fear God backs off. Whenever the presence, not the miracles, not the atmosphere of miracles, the atmosphere of services, worship service, I'm talking about when you have the presence of God, the stronger it gets, the more a person who loves sin will withdraw. This is so important that we understand this. So in Deuteronomy, this is 40 years later, Moses now is speaking to the young generation. The older generation that was at that mountain had died off. Everybody 20 and under and the new people that were born in the desert, Moses is now speaking to them 40 years later before they go into the promised land. And Moses starts recounting the story that happened at that mountain. And we get some new insights of what he's talking to them about. So in chapter five of Deuteronomy, verses 23 through 25, and then verse 27, Moses recounts what happened 40 years earlier. He says, so it was when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire

that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and elders. And you said, surely the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his greatness. Well, actually he did, but he did it in a dark cloud. Because remember, Moses said, show me your glory. And God said, you can't look at my face and live Moses. So I'll show you my backside. I mean, this is amazing when you stop and think about it. And then he says, and we've heard his voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet he still lives. Now, therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die. Then the people said this, you go near and hear all the Lord our God may say, and tell us all the Lord our God says to you, but we say it to you. Yeshua said it to you. So the fire was consuming the people when they were telling those stories. destruction was coming. It had to be the end of the world because that was the beginning of the end of your life, you're not going to go back

and start a new life forever, not never. And so he did this, and he had them build over 1500 years and they could not do it. That is the only way you can obey God is when his grace comes into your life, and when the new testament, a believer has been changed, our nature has changed. Peter said that God has actually put his divine nature in us. We have the ability to approach him and not shrink back because our desires, our inner desires in here are to do his will, are to obey him if you're truly born again. Now you can choose if you keep living after the flesh after the flesh. Paul says in Roman six, hey, you'll die, you'll become a slave to sin and you'll die. We choose. We have a brand new alive created in the image of God's spirit on the inside

with his divine nature. And that's why Jesus said the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. Stay in prayer, stay in the word, strengthen your spirit. The Bible says we build up our inner man by praying in the Holy Spirit. Paul said, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and bring you into your inheritance. What inheritance? Of being in the presence of God. That is the greatest thing a person can receive. I know some of you have a hard time relating to it. You think heaven, oh gosh, is it gonna be a boring place? Is it gonna be a non-ending worship service? No, are you kidding? Everybody wants to be close to God. Everybody wants to be near him. I have heard people say that have been to heaven that everybody wants to be in that throne room

because there is nothing more beautiful in all of creation than the creator himself. I mean, the angels that are standing by his throne are crying holy and they're not saying, God, can you please give me a replacement? People want to be in his presence. I look at Ezekiel in the 40s. I think it's 43, 44, somewhere in there. God says, there's a priesthood that refused to go after the idolatry that my people went after. They stayed with me. They stayed sanctified. They stayed pure. They stayed holy. He said, I'm gonna be their reward. He said, now those guys, those priests, they pursued the idols with the people. He said, they're just gonna minister in my house, but they won't be able to come near me. The ones who come near me

are the ones who kept themselves. of set apart for me during the time that Israel was sending. There is something in that message. I think the greatest reward that we can have in the next life is proximity to God. There are people that are gonna be able to get close because they chose to walk in holiness and godliness, and this is what this message is all about. Their heart's already on fire. Let me tell you something. You don't enter into eternity when you physically die. You entered into eternity the moment you got born again. That is the moment you began eternity. I mean, man, you know what, people? I look at the Charlie Kirk situation that happened in the United States, and people are just, we're all been grieving. We've been grieving. Here's a man who was preaching the gospel probably to more college students in the United States than any other human being that's lived in history, and we're all grieving over it. But you know what? Charlie's still alive. He just changed addresses. I mean, you kill this body, and I'm still alive. I'm just gonna change addresses, and you know where it's gonna be? In his presence, in his glorious presence, in the throne room of God, in heaven, in the city of God.

That's why the Bible says they were looking for a city who has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Man, what an inheritance we have been called to. It is absolutely amazing. So they said, you go near and hear all that the Lord says, right? So they wanted Moses to hear from God for them, and they promised to listen to whatever God said to do, and they would do it, but they couldn't do it. They tried for 1,500 years. So heartbroken, Moses now goes back to God alone, and then the Lord, now watch this. Moses is now interacting with the Lord alone. This is Deuteronomy, and we're going to chapter five again. Then the Lord heard the voice of your words. When you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, I've heard the voice of the words of the people which they've spoken to you, Moses. They are right in all that they have spoken. Now, can you just imagine the shock in Moses? What, what, these guys are right? You mean for once, these guys are finally right? Why can't they come into your presence? Why is it that they can't come near you? And God bemoans and says, oh, that they had a heart in them, that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever. God says, Moses, they can't come into my presence because they don't have hearts that fear me.

You fear me. They don't. Remember, the fear of God is not to be scared of God. It's actually being terrified of being away from God. We'll get into this in a minute. Now, once God says that to Moses, he says, this is why they can't come into my presence. He gets, I believe, the most tragic statement in the entire Old Testament. There's nothing more tragic. I mean, some people think, well, no, the most tragic is when they didn't inherit the promise. I know you're about to hear the most tragic, the most tragic thing to happen in the Old Testament. God then says, go and say to the people, return to your tents. In other words, go back, play church, have your community. Then he says to Moses, but as for you, stand here by me. Now, again, I wanna read to you what Paul said to the Corinthian church. Now, all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our teaching. It says admonition, it actually means warning. They were written for our warning, upon whom the end of the ages have come, okay? How many people today are like those people of Israel? Do we get God's word from others, but we withdraw from the mountain or the presence of God? Are we afraid to hear God's voice that lays bare the very condition of our hearts?

Are we concerned that if we draw too close, something might be revealed that we want to keep a secret? God bemoans, oh, that they would have a heart in them, that they would fear me. They could not draw near to God because they didn't fear him. God didn't say, now, I want you to listen to this carefully. God didn't say, oh, Moses, that they would have a heart in them that they would love me. He didn't say that. Listen to this, Paul, the apostle, writing to Philippian church, Philippians 2.12, says, as you have always obeyed in my presence, now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. He doesn't say work out your salvation with love and kindness. He says, work out your salvation. In other words, work it out, work from the inside to the out with fear and trembling. There's a difference, again, between the fear of God and the spirit of fear. I can't emphasize this enough. The person who does not fear God is the person that treats sin lightly. The person that fears God looks at sin as a very deadly thing that can bring me into trouble. to captivity. There's your difference, okay?

Now, see, here, let me say this. You got two teenagers. One's cocky, one's not. The cocky one, he goes, it's just a grizzly bear and her cubs. And he goes taunting the cubs. Okay, he's really stupid. He has no fear of that mother grizzly and he will be mauled by that mother grizzly. The teenager that was smart goes, that is a mother grizzly with her cubs. I'm not going anywhere near it. He's got the wisdom to stay away from it. The other guy has no wisdom at all. He gets his life taken from that mother grizzly. See, all fears are not negative. There are healthy fears. There is a healthy fear that says, don't walk right at the edge of a cliff that drops 2000 feet. That healthy fear gives you the wisdom to stay at least five, 10 feet away from that cliff and not go right up on the edge of it. There are healthy fears. Not all fears are unhealthy. The fear of the Lord is the most healthy because the fear of the Lord gets you to always constantly examine what's in your heart. It doesn't say I'm satisfied with just appearing to everybody as being a godly person.

No, I wanna be godly in here and I want it to appear out here, but it's more important that I take care of here, my motives, my intentions, my actions, than I portray being godly to other peoples. So what is the fear of the Lord? It's when we venerate God. That word venerate is huge. It means to reverence, respect, honour Him above anything or anyone else. When we fear the Lord, we take on His heart. Now what is important to Him is important to me. What is not so important to Him is not so important to me. Now I love what He loves and I hate what He hates. John, you just used hate and God in the same sentence. Yeah, yeah. Now let me alleviate any concerns. The legalist, and by the way, God hates legalism. The legalist is the one that says, I fear God, that's why I hate those sinners. No, you don't fear God at all because you actually hate who He loves. God loves those quote sinners so much He sent Jesus to die for them. What God hates is the sin that unmakes the object of His love, namely human beings. God so loved the world, the whole world that He gave His only begotten Son. So when we love God, this is why the Bible says, all who fear the Lord will depart from evil.

We hate evil, we depart from it. It doesn't say all who fear the Lord dislike evil. You dislike evil? I question whether you really fear God or not. When you fear God, you hate evil, all right? To fear God means that we will tremble at His word. This is actually a scriptural term. You'll find it in Isaiah. God says, this is the one that I will look on him who is humble, who is a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. What does it mean to tremble at the word of God? It means we're gonna obey God instantly. Psalm 119 verse 60 in the New Living Translation, David said, I will hurry to obey your commands with haste. You ever heard somebody say, oh, well, you know the Lord's been dealing with me about this now for several months and they laugh about it. You're laughing about your lack of the fear of God. The fear of the Lord obeys quickly. The fear of the Lord means to tremble at His word means you'll obey God even if it doesn't make sense. Hey, does it make sense to forgive the people that have really hurt your family? Does it make sense? Does it make sense when Charlie Kirk's wife stood up in front of the whole world and forgave the man who shot dead her husband when she's got two little children and now she doesn't have a husband?

Does it make sense? No, she didn't feel like obeying God in that respect. I'm sure she didn't have that feeling, but inside she had a determination to obey God. And she said in front of the whole world, I forgive you. There have been people that have done the same. I've seen it over and over again. It doesn't make sense because you don't feel like it. See, we live too much by our feelings. Truth keeps us on the path of life. Feelings will mislead you. They'll misguide you. When you tremble at God's word, it means you'll obey God even if it hurt. I'm sure it hurt for her to say, I forgive the man who's killed my husband. I'm sure that hurt, but she knew it was right. And it felt right in here because she was obeying truth. You will obey God even if you don't see a benefit. And yet they believed that God was about to make a change and he did help them to obey God and show them a benefit. What if Esther would've bought into that? I mean, we almost teach if you serve, you get this. If you obey, you get this. If you give, you get this. If you pray, you get this. Does God give you this, this, this, and this? Yes, absolutely, but it better not be your motive because what if Esther would have had that motive? She's gotta go before the king.

She has nothing to gain. She's already queen of Persia. Her plan was not a Satanist plan. There are devil trADE on people who with her into a navy or killolling, whatever it is, and we've got to go before the king. I, the fear of the Lord, that we walk away from evil. I can't go before God. I have to obey the king. I want the thing that God, You know, I believe with all my heart, even if he orders it, that's what you decide to do. God has given us this narrow road to life. Remember this passage, for we've got to listen to the story Jesus talks about it. a little bit faster. I'm going before the king and if I die, I die. Enter by the narrow gate, for narrow is the gate, She feared God. and narrow is the road that leads to life. If you look at Proverbs 16,6, And by the way, the road is after the gate. it says by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. Every road has two ditches on both sides, okay? And so does the road of life. The first ditch is called legalism. Listen to me carefully.

Back in the 1960s, 1970s, I know most of you weren't alive back in those days, the church was in a terrible rut. It was called legalism, and God hates legalism. That's when they made rules and regulations and tried to control people's behavior with the rules and regulations, and they called it holiness. That's not holiness at all. They told women, don't cut your hair, don't wear makeup, wear dresses down to your ankles. A woman can be dressed up like that and have a seducing spirit up to her eyeballs. That's not holiness. Holiness is when she is purified inside and it works its way out. Let me give you a story. So, I grew up in a women's proposed jewellery brand, and they wanted me to be a jewellery expert too, but they wanted me undressed like that. And so I went to the night market. They're like we're gonna cord the whole market with the naked miniskirts, because if you're running the price, and that's the speed of light, then we're using decoration as much as it will cover it. Same thing happened with men, okay? So sit back and relax, and we went to the night market, and we got to the night market,

and we got a big crowd of people. And we were all just in our underpants doing the same thing. And we were like, what's this revolution going on? And we found out our God was our dad, and He loved us. And you know what the love of God did? It delivered us from the ditch of legalism. But you know what we did? We said we went so far away from that ditch, we went to the other side of the road and fell into the other ditch, and that ditch is called lawlessness. Not being submitted to the authority of God, it takes the love of God and the fear of God. This is why the Bible says God is love, but the Bible also says God is a consuming fire. That's New Testament. This is why the Bible says that He is Abba, father, daddy, but it also says that we're to fear Him, who is able to not only kill the body, but cast the soul into hell, okay? The love of God and the fear of God, it keeps us on the road to life. Do you know that Jesus actually delighted in the fear of the Lord? Oh yeah, go look it up. Isaiah chapter 11, verse three. And do you know that God calls the fear of the Lord His treasure for us? Yes, it's called His treasure.

He gave us a treasure, a treasure that will keep us from veering off course and getting out of the position where we can come into His glory. Psalm 103, verse seven says, He made known His ways to Moses, but He made His acts known to the children of Israel. Israel only knew God by how He manifested His power, answered their prayers, but Moses knew what God was gonna do many times before He did it, because God revealed the secrets of His heart to Moses. That is what the Bible says in Psalm 25, verse 14. The secrets of the Lord, or it says intimate friendship with God belongs to those who fear Him. With them, He shares His secrets. The fear of the Lord positions our heart and our life in a place where we can approach Him in His glory. The children of Israel, God bemoaned, they do not fear me, that's why they can't come near me, but you, Moses, fear me, therefore you can come close. It's so important that we cry out that God would baptize us with His holy fear so that we can come into His presence. I hope you got something out of this and look forward to the next lesson,

because in this lesson, everything we've talked about is going to come together and make real sense to today. ♪