Exodus 24:1  And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.
Exo 24:2  And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.
Exo 24:3  And 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 hath said will we do.
Exo 24:4  And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exo 24:5  And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.
Exo 24:6  And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

God continued to show His desire to meet with man. God knows how important it is for us to know Him. The sad fact is that most people do not want to know Him. God invited, indeed commanded Moses to come up to Him. He also commanded others to come up at that time. Moses was a privileged man. He was privileged because he chose to know God and to listen to Him. Aaron was also a privileged man, but he did not have the same depth of faith that Moses had. Nadab and Abihu were the two eldest sons of Aaron. In Leviticus 10 we read the sad account of how these two men decided to play around with the holiness of God. They thought they could change His laws and nothing would come of it. They were killed by God for their rebellion.
There have been and still are many others who want to play around with God’s holiness and His Word, and He does not strike each one dead right away. That does not mean He has changed His mind. He shows us the importance of giving reverence to Him. He will hold each person accountable to the same standard that He gave to Moses and Aaron, and his sons and the elders.
God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to provide the only way for sinners like all of us, to be forgiven and saved. Those who are truly born again receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and He gives us true understanding of Truth which is God’s Word.
I know there will be people who will take offence to what I say next, but the Truth is important. I heard a person pray recently and that person addressed their prayer to the Holy Spirit. That prayer was broadcast over loud speakers. Thousands of people heard that prayer. However, the One Who needs to hear our prayers did not hear that prayer.

Psalm 66:18  If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

The humble person submits to God. He or she does not rebel and demand that God change to accept our whims and wishes. True, Biblical prayer must always be to God the Father in Jesus’ name. That is what the Bible declares. Check it out for yourself. God wants to hear and help. He is holy and He has a righteous standard. We do not meet that standard on our own. We need to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and we need to be clothed in His righteousness.
In our text, the LORD commanded Moses to bring these others with him, but he alone was invited to come near to the LORD. The others were not allowed to come hear to Him. The rest of the people were also not able to come near to Him. God is holy. We must be holy to enter into His presence. The only way to be able to come into His presence is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 3 we read that Moses came to the people and told them all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments. God does not want anyone to be ignorant of the facts. He will hold every person accountable for the Truth. Romans 1 reminds us that no one will have an excuse for believing the wrong things about God and Christ. It does not matter where in the world someone lives or what language they speak, all can know the true God.

Romans 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

The problem is not a lack of Truth. The problem is a lack of willingness to humble oneself and accept the Truth.
We read in verse 3 that the people answered the LORD with one voice. They claimed that they would do all that the LORD declared. We are emotional beings. We can be moved along by the atmosphere we are in. However, what is more important is to allow God to move our hearts to the place of obedience.
The crowd in our text, did not do that. We know that as we continue to study this book. We have already seen their attitude in their complaints they have already made against God and Moses. It is one thing to cry out to God for help. It is another thing to accuse Him of not being the good God that He is.
God is patient. He is gracious and He is merciful. He also expects each person to trust in Him and learn of Him. Moses was chosen to be the principal human leader of the nation of Israel. He was to instruct Aaron and his sons and the elders. They needed to submit to Moses. Moses needed to be careful to speak the Truth. Moses did not always obey God. God dealt with that. However, Moses’ failures did not give the people the right to disrespect him. He was God’s chosen vessel.
Today God does not have any man on this earth that is equal to Moses. The Lord Jesus Christ is the antitype of Moses. He is more than Moses. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the Saviour of mankind. He is the Mediator between God and men. He is not here with us in body. He is with those who will turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. We know the truth when we receive the Word of God as It is — THE TRUTH.
God has ordained pastors who are supposed to be men of God who study God’s Word and teach It properly. No pastor is infallible, although he must be a humble servant of God. He needs to point people to the Word of God and show them the importance of trusting in the Lord. No pastor is the final authority. He needs to teach people the Truth and the person must choose whether they will believe the Truth or not. In Hebrews 13 we are reminded that God will hold the pastor accountable for what he teaches. He will also hold him accountable for not teaching the truth.
We need to understand that there are thousands of people who claim to be pastors these days. Most of them are self-appointed and they are heretics. Most people would rather choose one of these many heretics as their spiritual advisors. Few people accept the fact that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. The perversions have done much to convince deniers that there is no truly inspired Word of God today. ‘We just need to do the best we can with what we have’. Those people make God a liar. He declared:

Psalm 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

We notice in our text, that Moses told the people all the words of the LORD. Moses fulfilled his responsibility here. The people promised to do all that the LORD commanded. They did not fulfil their promise.
In verse 4 we read that Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. Not only did the people hear them, they would have them recorded for future reference. Those words have not been lost. God has preserved His Word so that every generation can know the Truth.
We read as well that Moses rose up early in the morning and he worshipped the LORD. He built an altar and he also made twelve pillars as a representative of the twelve tribes of Israel. These were not idols for the people to bow before. God had already commanded them not to bow down to idols. These were simply memorials to remind the nation of Israel of God and His Truth.
In verses 5-6 we read that Moses was instructed to send young men of the children of Israel to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. The blood was to be caught and half of that blood was to be sprinkled on the altar and half of the blood was to be put into basins. Moses needed to hear God and his doing what God said was the proof that he was hearing Him. Biblical hearing is more than hearing a sound. It is doing what we hear.
That is so needed today. If we want the blessing of the Lord, we need to hear Him. We need to worship Him. We need to exalt Him. We need to draw nigh to Him.
Pastor Bartel