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It seems to me that many people are interested in creating a God in their image, not so much coming to know the true and living God revealed to us in the Scriptures. However, the Lord’s character is richer than just those qualities we prefer, as the children of Israel were about to learn.

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Exodus 19:16, ESV

What we find here in this account is not simply a dispassionate cerebral encounter, but rather an intensely emotional experience, one overwhelming the senses. So then, let’s try to imagine ourselves there that day when the Lord God shows up as both a fascinating and yet also frightening display of his transcendence and power.

I. _______________ And _______________

Lightning is great but one needs to have a healthy respect for it. In fact, in one bolt of lightning there are a billion volts of electricity, and one bolt of lightning is five times hotter than the average temperature on the surface of the sun. That day long ago, when the Lord showed up on Mount Sinai, there was a tremendous thunderstorm with ground shaking thunderclaps.

II. A Thick _______________ On The Mountain

III. A Very Loud _______________ _______________

“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”…. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” Exodus 19:12-13, ESV

Repeatedly in this chapter the Lord makes it clear that the people were not to touch the mountain or climb up it when his presence was upon it or they would surely die.

IV. _______________ And _______________

Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. Exodus 19:18, ESV

God makes Mount Sinai his own personal volcano, flashing with fire and hidden in smoke. And if that wasn’t enough, notice our text tells us “that the whole mountain trembled greatly.”

The mountain wasn’t the only thing trembling, for our text tells us that “all the people in the camp trembled.” God is at one and the same time both fascinating and fearsome, delightful and dangerous. One of several reasons we need such a God is so that we recognize both God’s immanence and yet also his transcendence. Immanence speaks of the wonderful reality that God is present in time and space, and as such we can come to know him

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Exodus 6:7, ESV

However, God is not only immanent, but also transcendent. in other words, he’s exalted, above, and beyond us. Transcendence speaks of the otherness of God.

The proper response to such a realization of the transcendent power and sovereignty of God is to tremble, because we're overwhelmed and humbled by the fact that only because of divine grace do we enjoy a personal relationship with this majestic, mysterious, fascinating and fearsome God.

Because Jesus now serves as our means of access to the Father, our experience of relationship with God is different then God’s people of old who gathered around Mount Sinai that distant day to meet with him. Through the salvation Jesus has provided to us through his death, burial and resurrection, while we who are in him should certainly fear the Lord, we don't have to be afraid of him.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16, ESV