Please stand, if you're able for the reading of God's word, this
is the lengthy reading. Recording most of Exodus 32 from
many of you are, very familiar text, but I promise you there's
things in here that you likely have never seen this.
I believe is Moses's finest hour.
What he does is he comes off the mountain and confronts.
The people sin is truly remarkable.
So, as I read it, I want you to listen carefully to the sounds
of the Gospel, the sounds of good news.
As I read this, listen carefully to the conversations that take
place between God and Moses, the people of God and Aaron Moses
and The people of God. And then once again back to God
and Moses, Exodus 32 12 24 and 30 to 35.
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the
mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and
said to him up, make us Gods who shall go before us.
As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of
Egypt. We do not know what has
happened. What has become of him.
So Aaron said to them, take off the rings of gold that are in
the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and
bring them to me. So, all the people took off the
rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron
and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with
a graving tool and made a golden calf.
And they said, these are your God's o Israel.
Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt?
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it and Aaron made a
proclamation and said tomorrow she'll be a feast to the Lord
and they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings
and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and
drink and Rose up to play. The Lord said to Moses, go down
for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of
Egypt have corrupted themselves, they have turned aside quickly
out of the way. That I commanded them, they have
made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and
sacrificed to it and said these are your God's o Israel, who
brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold
it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore let me alone that
my wrath be burned hot against them and I may consume them in
order that I may make a great nation of you, but Moses
implored, the Lord his God and said, O Lord.
Why does your Rathburn hot against your people whom you
have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with
a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say
with evil intent? Did he bring them out to kill
them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of
the Earth. Turn from your burning anger and
relent from This Disaster against your people, remember,
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore.
Your own self and said to them, I will multiply your off stream
Offspring as the stars of heaven and all this land that I promise
I will give to your Offspring and they shall inherit it
forever and the Lord relented from the disaster that he had
spoken to Bringing on his people.
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with two
tablets of the testimony in his hand tablets that were written
on both sides on the front. And on the back they were
written. The tablets were the work of of
God. And the writing was the writing
of God, engraved on the tablets when Joshua heard the noise of
the people as they shouted. He said to Moses there is a
noise of War and the camp but he said it is not the sound of
shouting for victory or the sound of the Cry of defeat but
the sound of singing that I hear and as soon as he came near the
camp and saw the calf and the dancing Moses his anger burned
hot and he threw the Tablets out of his hand and broke them at
the foot of the mountain, he took the calf that they had made
and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scoured.
Scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel.
Drink it and Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do
to you? That you have brought such a
great sin upon them and Aaron said let not the anger of my
Lord burned hot. You know, the people that they
are set on evil for they said to me make us Gods who She'll go
before us as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the
land of Egypt. We do not know what has become
of him. So I said to them, let any who
have gold take it off. So they gave it to me and I
threw it into the fire and out. Came this calf The next day,
Moses said to the people, you have sinned, a great sin.
And now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make
atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord
and said, alas, this people has sinned, a great sin, they have
made for themselves gods of gold.
But now if you will forgive their sin But if not, please
blot me out of your book that you have written.
But the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, I
will blot out of my book. But now go leave the people to
the place about which I have spoken to you behold, my angel
should go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I
visit I will visit their sin upon them.
Then the Lord sent a plague upon the people because they had made
the calf the one That Aaron made.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks, be to God.
Please be seated this morning as we moved through the text.
I want to focus on three things. I want to focus on the anatomy
of idolatry. The confrontation confronting
idolatry and atonement for sin, the anatomy of idolatry
confronting idolatry and the atonement for sin.
They had not been far removed from hearing the Ten
Commandments. And when we look at the first
few verses in chapter 32, we see the way idolatry forms.
Whenever there is a delay according to us, always not God.
God is never delayed. God does all things according to
his perfect timing a day to God is like a thousand years and a
thousand years like a day, but we feel the delay.
I mean, we long for the day when Christ will return and we don't
know when that will be. We just know that he will
return. He will return.
When the father sends him, the perfect will of God.
God, and it may be very soon. Some of you think it is we might
still be in the days of the early church, we just don't
know. I hope not.
But God is never delayed, according to God, but we feel
the delay and when we feel the delay dangerous, things can
happen. And you here you see the anatomy
of idolatry how it forms look with me verse 1.
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the
mountain, by the way, he never said, how long he would be up
there. But he had been up there far
longer than he'd ever been. This was not routine.
He is their leader and now he's not come down, so the anatomy
Delay. Forms.
This anatomy of idolatry. You can see how it works.
Soon, a god, less Gathering forms.
And that Godless Gathering forms.
Because in the mind of one person, and then two, and then
many and remember, there's well over a million, probably over
two, maybe even three million people here, who are the people
of Israel. Once that forms and the Godless
Gathering happens. People begin to say things that
showed that they're becoming delusional, literally
delusional, it happens all the time.
One of our first missionaries, has a saying that I love.
He says, when we faced fears when we Face anxiety, we are
tempted to close our eyes and close our ears, and our mind
goes crazy. So, while the people of Israel
are waiting from Moses to come down from the mountain, this
Godless Gathering of people, they're closing their eyes,
they're closing their ears, and their mind is going crazy.
And one by one, they began to talk to one another.
And suddenly there is a movement and it's a Godless Movement by
God's people and we can all be a part of him.
It can swell up in a moment when suddenly while you feel the
delay while you're waiting, while you're expecting something
to happen, you take matters into your own hands and that's what
they did. They speak from a place of
tremendously, tremendous delusion and instead of going to
Aaron who is the leader. Now, while Moses on the mountain
and asking him, what do you hear, what do you know where?
As our leader gone, they come with demands.
Their delusion leads to demands Their Fear, their anxiety
looking outside looking in, and they come to Aaron.
And what do they say? Look with me up, make us Gods
who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who
brought us up out of the land of Egypt.
We do not know what has become of him up to the priest up.
Make us gods, Now, Aaron, we're going to get to him more in a
minute. Has the opportunity here to say,
stop enough, you are a Godless Gathering, you are rejecting the
truth that God has given us. And it wasn't that long ago.
The Godless Gathering built out of this delusion, people closing
their eyes closing, their ears, their minds.
Going crazy causes them. To ask Aaron to do something,
which would cause them to break the first and the second
commandments that God had given. You have are to have no other
gods before me, and you shall not make for yourself a carved
image. They heard it.
They knew it more than that. They said all of them.
We will obey all of it. Aaron responds.
To release to the request. He collects the goals were given
great detail as to what he did. And we need that.
Says in verse to take off the rings of gold that are in the
ears of your wives, your son's, your daughters, and bring them
to me. So picture that listen to that
all this jewelry coming verse 3. So, all the people took off the
rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
He received them picture, that so many moments where he could
have said, what am I doing? Why am I compromising?
Why am I about to lead this people into this great sin?
The people of God, But he doesn't.
He uses his own hands to craft a golden calf.
Why? Because in this moment that's
what made sense to him. In the moment when the Godless
Gathering began to talk about what to do asking the priest to
make a God for them and I do for them, that's what made sense to
them. You can take Israel out of
Egypt, but it's very hard to take Egypt out of Israel in for
all the years that they serve their as slaves.
This is what they saw. They saw these bulls and these
calves that were being worshipped.
They believe there must might be some power in those things.
And so they close their eyes. They close their ears Moses was
taking too long. God was taking too long, and
they did the unthinkable. Aaron did the unthinkable?
He made this calf with his own hands.
He took matters into his own hands and then he built an altar
for which they could have a feast and offer their praise.
How does it happen? Will you know how it happens?
Just a few minutes ago. You and I sing.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour it thy feet, its treasure store,
take myself and I will be ever only all for thee, ever only,
all for thee and I bet you sang it.
And I bet when you sang it you really meant it but you and I
know we can use the exact same confession of sin next Sunday.
Or actually even later this Sunday and it would still be
appropriate because like, the people of Israel, we are so
quick to forget God and to worship idols.
One of my favorite writers is a w pink.
Here's how he defines an idol. He defines an idol as anything,
which displaces God in my heart. It may be something, which is
quite harmless and itself. Yes, yet if it absorbs me, If it
be given the first place in my affections and thoughts, it
becomes an idol, it may be my business, a loved one or my
service for Christ. Anyone or anything which comes
into competition for the with the Lord's ruling me is an idol.
And friends, every one of us. Have multiple Idols that compete
for the place that belongs only to God and the Temptation is for
us to not take them seriously. To not see them as God sees
them. As Moses saw them, even as they
spoke of him, ask the holy spirit because you can't see
this on your own. What are the idols in your life?
Is it work? Is it your children?
Their success, their happiness. Is it money and the security
that money supplies is it? You're standing in the church,
your reputation. What is it?
What are you tempted to turn to when it seems like God is taking
too long. What are you vulnerable neural
to trust in when he seems to be staying up on the mountain.
Where do you go? When God's not moving as fast as
you want him to? That's the anatomy of idolatry.
It's on all of us. So now let's look at confronting
idolatry. This is amazing.
Let's turn from the conversation.
That took place between Aaron and the people.
And then between Moses and Aaron will come back to in a minute.
But now let's go to the conversation between God and
Moses. First, we see the righteous
anger that exists. 47. The Lord said to Moses, go down
for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of
Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly
out of the way that I commanded them.
He describes what we have already heard that they've done.
Moses is on the mountain, still up on the mountain, and he is
talking to God, the same God that we are talking to and
worshiping today, the same one, father son, Holy Spirit.
Moses is about to do something really incredible.
He's about to intercede for the people of Israel.
He is about to confront god with what he thinks is the wrong
plan. Compare that to Aaron, who
wouldn't confront the people who are just people who wouldn't say
no, please, no stop. Don't this is wrong.
Or even I'll have no part of it, make your own calf, Moses.
Here's what God plans to do and what is it?
God plans to do. Look with me in verse 10 now.
Therefore, God speaking, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot
against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a
great nation of you. What is God saying?
I'm going to wipe out not the whole earth, like I did with
Noah, but the people that I let out of Israel and I'm going to
start over with you and make a great nation of you.
Moses hears this. And here's his response.
Prayer is important. It's powerful Moses, implored
the Lord his God and said, O Lord.
Why does your Rathburn hot against your people, whom you
brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with
a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians Say?
And What Moses is doing now, saying Protect Your Great Name?
Remember your promises, one of the ways.
You see the Promise remembered, as in verse 13 and it's so easy.
Easy to miss this. But here's what we read,
remember, Moses pleading with the Lord, remember, Abraham,
Isaac. And would you expect to see as
the name, Jacob, remember, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but
that's not Moses, does he uses Jacobs new name, Israel?
Which is the Covenant promise name.
That's amazing. Remember the servants to whom
you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply
your Offspring as the stars of heaven and all this land that I
promise I will give to your Offspring and they shall inherit
it forever and the Lord relented from the disaster that he'd
spoke of bringing on his people. God is sovereign.
He ordains the means, as well as the ends.
And one of the means here was that Moses and talking to God
would play the role of intercessor, he would move
between the people who have been obedient disobedient Unfaithful
and beg God's mercy, and the Lord will enter it.
Now Moses goes down. If he moves down the mountain,
he runs into Joshua. Remember Joshua went halfway up.
Joshua was a general. He's in the military.
Remember the sounds we listen for the sounds.
We're told that they hear a sound.
What is it? They don't know verse 17 when
Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted.
He said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. but he
said it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the
sound of the Cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear
What were they singing? the last time we were familiar
with their singing was when they lifted their voices and Triumph
across the Red Sea, What type of lyric now was coming from their
lips. Verse 19 is soon as he came near
the camp and saw the calf and the dancing Moses anger burn
hot. And he threw the tablets out of
his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
What a graphic scene. First.
He is carrying the word of God. This is important.
Verse 15, it says Moses turned and went down from the mountain
with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand.
These had never been created. While Moses was up In some form
of delay. According to the people, God was
giving him these tablets. The tablets of the testimony
were in his hands, they were written on both sides on the
front. And on the back they were
written. The tablets were the work of
God. And the writing was the writing
of God, engraved on the tablets. This word, these tablets it's
not man's word about God. It's not Moses's word about God.
It is God's word about himself. When you are confronted with
evil all over this world were depraved people who have closed
their eyes and close their ears, and their minds have gone crazy.
And they're promoting something that is against God's design,
whether it has to do with human sexuality, or gender or any
other issue. That is contrary to what God's
word says, you as a Christian have the Bible and the Bible is
never man's word about God. It's God's word about himself
and all of it. Is god-breathed useful for
teaching, rebuking correcting and training in righteousness.
Peter says it this way, knowing this, first of all, that no
prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation,
for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of, man,
but men spoke from God as they were carried Along by the Holy
Spirit, you have everything you need if you know his word, and
because of the war that we have been in from the beginning,
because of the DraStic ways were confronted with it constantly.
We need to know his word. You need to be equipped.
We want to help you. But it's always God's word about
himself, not man's. I want to show you a few more
things. I want to show you how not to
repent. Repent means to turn.
Moses has gone down. And what he sees breaks his
heart. He's offended.
He's angry and his anger is righteous.
There will be other times in the Bible where his anger is not
righteous and he will be punished.
So severe will be the wrath of God that he will not be able to
enter into the promised land, but this righteousness This is
anger, that is righteous. He speaks to the people, it
tells us that he destroys the golden calf.
Just like he destroyed the tablets.
He throws the tablets down as a metaphor that you have broken,
God's word. God's word is broken before them
shattered. Now, he takes the golden calf.
He destroys it. He puts it in the water and
makes the people drink it. This is his finest hour.
He is leading the people to see The Horde that they have
created. We do not know exactly why he
had them drink. This powder on the water.
Augustine tells this that it was because he was making them drink
down. Their sin.
Shows how the people had to swallow their ungodliness.
But what I want to do is focus in our remaining time.
On Aaron. Philip riken's, president of
Wheaton was the longtime pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church
where James Boyce preached? He says there's three things
that we learn from how Aaron failed to repent.
First is this He tells his accuser.
To back off verse 21. Moses said to Aaron, what did
this people do to you? That you have brought such a
great sin? Upon them for 22.
Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot back off.
In my position, I have the privilege and I mean this of
helping people repent. When they come to a place in
their life, where they know, and it's all of us that I'm not
living as the Lord has called me.
I see this pattern. I see it in Erin's life and I
see them. My own life.
People are tempted to tell their accusers to back off.
If somebody confronts you, even somebody that loves you
confront, you about an idol in your life, your immediate
reaction spoken or not is back off.
You don't know. What Aaron should have done is
said immediately like David did like the prodigal son.
Did I have sinned against God? I have done something horrible
but he doesn't. He tells Moses to not be so
angry back off. Second thing he does I see this
all the time too is he blames? Others verse 23, for they said
to me, make us Gods who shall go before us.
As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land.
We do not know what has become of him.
He's blaming others, he's blaming Moses and ultimately,
he's blaming God. And then lastly and you chuckled
when I read this, and I'm not surprised.
Aged he refuses to fully admit what he's done.
Do you do that even before the Lord?
When somebody confronts you on something that seemingly is an
idol in your life. And you're caught because of
God's mercy. Do you tend to minimize the sin?
Look with me again? He speaks of what happened.
Verse 24, I said to them, let any who have gold?
Take it off. So they gave it to me and I
threw it into the fire and out. Came this calf Well, I'm not
going to take the time to go back to versus four and six
because I've already been there. But Aaron was deeply involved
with his hands? And it wasn't just throwing it
into the fire. It was crafting, it friends.
This is not repentance. Repentance is laying yourself
bare before the Lord saying, I can't even see all of my sin.
Show me mercy by showing me at all.
It's not defending yourself. It's not making excuses this.
Not minimizing, it, it's not saying, leave me alone.
It's humbly coming before the Lord.
Last thing I want you to see has to do with atonement.
Go over now to verse 30. The next day, Moses said to the
people, you have sinned, a great sin.
And now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make
atonement for your sin. You see his heart for the
people. You see his heart.
As a mediator, is an intercessor.
And Moses than goes up and returns to the Lord verse 31.
He says this alas, this people that sinned, a great sin, they
have made for themselves gods of gold for 32, but now now I want
you to see something in the Hebrew, there is a break and
this break is assigned, Moses is in incredible.
Emotion, incredible turmoil. Exodus 32 32 Remember this Moses
has. But now, if you will forgive
their sin, notice the dash. That's the break in the Hebrew.
This is important. If you will forgive their sin,
Pause. But if not, please blot me out
of your book that you have written.
This is amazing. God, and His righteous anger
said to Moses earlier in 32. I'm going to blot out this
people. I'm going to consume them that I
might make a great nation out of you.
At the end of 32, Moses is saying.
Forgive them of their sins. And if you were unwilling, then
pause. Take me.
Take me, let me atone for their sins.
But he can't. Because he's a sinner too.
An atonement. Has to be about a perfect, not
almost perfect, not more good days than bad.
A perfect substitute. Where satisfaction for that
which is wrong, is given And a sacrifice made.
All of this is pointing to the one who would come and I promise
you in their mind. It seemed like a long delay.
And then he was born. He walked on the earth for 33
years. Tempted, far beyond what any of
us could ever imagine. And Jesus Christ, the son of God
never said he became our atonement.
If you want to understand atonement more fully go back and
just read what we saying earlier and Before the Throne of God
above that is the best him on, at element.
I can imagine Jesus Christ was our substitute and we needed
one. He was the only one who could
satisfy the perfect Wrath of the father.
He secures for us, what we ultimately needed and it was
through his sacrifice. He then rose from the dead, he
ascended into heaven. And right now, he reigns is our
King until the father sends him here, and it feels like it has
been a long delay. But not according to God.
So, where do you go? When the delay seems to be
overwhelming. Friend.
There is only one to go to. just as you've listened to the
conversations between God and Moses and Moses and Aaron and
Aaron in the people and God and are and him got in the people
through Moses, what is the Lord through his Spirit saying to you
now, do you know him? Is he your savior?
If not today, may be the day when you will surrender to him
and say you alone can save me, pray that prayer.
If you have been saved by God, you know that you're in Christ.
You are wise enough to know that you are prone to wander, prone
to leave the god, you love and you are running two things,
always that. You think make sense?
And once they're exposed, you're tempted to run to cover it up,
to make it not look as bad. Friends.
Come before the Lord. Surrender Your Life to him, ask
him to search, you and know. You was David dead and whatever
he reveals. If you're in Christ, you're safe
now. Then don't put that sin in a
Cupboard or in a closet to kind of hang onto just in case.
Ask God to grind it down and destroy it if it's materialism.
Mmm. If its power, if it's lost.
If it's gossip. Your body, something you
worship, whatever it is, ask God to destroy it, to grind it up
and while he sanctifies you meaning doing that work, making
you more like Jesus. Which some days is going to feel
like a long delay. Don't take it into your own
hands. Don't rely on
self-righteousness. Let go.
And be bare before the Lord. Covered by your savior.
Jesus, father in Heaven. What an amazing word that you've
given us thousands of years ago, this actually took place at the
foot of a mountain and on a mountain.
And here we seeing and we listen and we think and we are grateful
that we have your spirit to show us what we need.
It's your word. And what it tells us is true
about who you are and who we are in.
You father, let us soak in these words, not just today but every
day until you return or call us home, we pray in Jesus name and
all of God's people said, amen, the stand.