Exo 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.
Exo 19:2 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.
Exo 19:3 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;
Exo 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Exo 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:

There are always conditions with the promises and rewards that God grants to those who belong to Him. They will be God's peculiar treasure above all people. They were God's chosen people. Yet there were conditions. If the conditions were not met, they would be cut off. Years later they were cut off for a season but thank the Lord there are many Jewish people being grafted into their own vine even as I write. Thousands are coming to Christ every year and I rejoice in this.

We who are not Jews and not of the covenant given to the Jews are placed in the vine of Israel when we place are faith in Jesus Christ and accept the gospel that Israel has rejected. This makes us part of God's kingdom. Yet if God didn't spare the natural branches because of unbelief, we need to take heed that He does not spare us. We are not to be high-minded and start teaching the ridiculous doctrine of replacement theology. We never replace Israel. Israel will be saved and many are already coming to Christ. We become part of Israel when we believe but we never replace them.

We  need to take heed. There are also conditions with the promises God made to us. We can read these in John 15, Revelation 2, 3 and the book of Jude for references to this. . Jesus doesn't save people from sin only to have them openly return to sin without repenting.

Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

This was given to them. They were the original recipients of the gospel. They were to become a holy nation. Gentiles are grafted into this if they come by faith to Jesus Christ. The root stays the same. We never replace Israel but only become a part of the promises of God through faith in Jesus. God did not remove Israel only added us to them to make one fold with one shepherd.  All, both Jews and Gentiles have to come through Jesus Christ since the time when Jesus came in the flesh.  There is no other way and there is no such thing as a duel covenant. To agree never to preach the gospel to Jews because of a false assumption that they do not need to go through Christ to be saved is to doom their souls to hell forever. This is stupid.  God would not have sent Jesus to die for sin and make that sacrifice is there was another way to be saved.

Exo 19:7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
Exo 19:8 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.
Exo 19:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.
Exo 19:10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes,
Exo 19:11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
Exo 19:12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:
Exo 19:13 There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.

This shows us the holiness of God. We cannot approach God in our natural selves. He is too holy and pure. We are too defiled and unclean to enter His presence without literally dying. He presence is mighty and powerful.

I do not know if all we see when people fall out under the power is for real or an emotional reaction but I have seen occasions where the presence of God is so strong that people do fall to the floor overcome by the presence of the Lord. If God was to come into our midst in the fullness of His glory, we could not stand before Him.

God had to make a way for us to be able to enter His presence. This was made possible when Jesus came and died for sins. When we believe in Him to the point of turning our lives over to Him and allowing His Holy Spirit to abide with us, we can then enter His presence without fear.

We are separated from God because of sin. God made a way for the sin to be done away through faith in Jesus. Now we can boldly enter His presence when before, we could not. We see this in this chapter. We see how holy God is and how they needed to be changed in their inner soul and spirit in order to be worthy to be in His presence. Jesus had not came and died for sins yet so they had to go through ritual cleansing, animal sacrifices and all had to be done through Moses and Aaron. Even with all that they could not touch the mountain where God's presence abided.  Now through Christ we could have touched the mountain if God were to come in that same way again.  Yet we must go in reverence and respect. 

Exo 19:14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
Exo 19:15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

When we take time apart to fast and pray we are to practice abstinence during that period but quickly return to our spouses after the period of fasting is over so that we are not tempted in the flesh to sexual immorality. This may be the reason sexual immorality is found among the type of religions that
forbid marriage to the clergy.  God sanctifies marriage and blesses it.  We are never to forbid marriage.  If one chooses not to marry, it must be his or her own choice.  

Exo 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightning's, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Exo 19:17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
Exo 19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Exo 19:19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
Exo 19:20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
Exo 19:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
Exo 19:22 And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
Exo 19:23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
Exo 19:24 And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them.
Exo 19:25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spoke unto them.

God was trying to protect the lives of the people and instructed Moses not to allow them to break through the barriers out of curiosity.
We must not take the worship of God lightly by worshipping in a light haft hearted manner. God is holy.

At the same time, we must not set up priests and pastors to go to God on our behalf and not do our own praying and worship.

Before Jesus died and rose from the dead, they had to go to God through prophets and priests. This was because the common person was still in his sins and in need of cleansing from sin. The blood of animals atoned for sin but only temporarily; they could not take away the sin and give the Holy Spirit to individuals. We have access to that now because Jesus already came and made Himself the supreme sacrifice for all sins. Now we who believe can approach God without a prophet or priest.

Yet in saying that, we must not take it lightly or come into His presence in a half hearted manner.

God warned the people not to break through because many would come not to seek God because He was God but because they were just curious to see God.

We must come to God with the attitude that we want cleansing from sin, we want victory over sin, we want forgiveness of sin and we believe Jesus can give us power over sin. We must not come with the attitude that we want to be saved from hell but we do not want to live for God and have no intention of forsaking any sin we enjoy.

God does not give fire insurance, He gives freedom from sin and eternal life. He gives us the Holy Spirit and requires that we live in holiness because we love Him and want all He has for us.

God is holy and we do not have to understand all about everything but we need to have respect and awe for what little we do know.
I cringe and some of the comments I hear people speak against the gospel. Jokes are made now about being "born again".

Jesus paid a high price for our salvation. God allowed His own Son to suffer pain and suffer having every filthy sin everyone committed be laid upon Jesus when He was upon the cross. He did all He could to save mankind from hell. He even gave the presence of the Holy Spirit to those who would believe and obey the gospel. To give the best He had to us just for us to take it lightly and make jokes about it is very dangerous.

Whether we make light of worship services or make light of the gospel by turning back to the sin Jesus saved us from, it is dangerous. It is taking the price Jesus paid for us lightly and crucifying Him over again.

There is a difference in committing a sin which causes us to immediately repent and make it right with God or going on with our sin knowing it is wrong and bringing a reproach to Jesus Christ. It is dangerous to return to sin not caring whether it is right or wrong and continuing in it. It will destroy us.

We can overcome if we remember that Jesus died for our sin and give us the Holy Spirit for us to live like a new creature. The old creature was crucified with Him. It is gone. We must remember this in order that the tempter does not lure us back to the place we were before we came to Christ.

We can not overcome the world ourselves, we have to let Jesus take over. We can't, He can.

There is a song called, "Jesus Take the Wheel." We can't overcome but He has already overcome the world by His death and resurrection. We can't but He can do it through us.

Exodus 20