Sunday School, Moses and the Golden Calf

Awesome.

We're in our summer series called Sunday School, and we

called it Sunday School because all summer we're going through

some of the most popular or the top Sunday School stories.

If you grew up in church, you definitely would have

heard these stories, probably on repeat hundreds of times. But

even if you didn't, most of these stories you actually

will be familiar with. Even though you hadn't heard them

in church, you might have heard them outside of the church.

So most of us, I think, could could be pretty sure.

About how these stories will go.

But sometimes the thing we might not be as clear

on is the point of the stories, like why these

stories are in the Bible, why God has us know

these stories. So our hope in the series is not

just to know how these stories go, but actually know

the point of these stories. And so far we've talked

about Noah in the flood that was awesome and terrifying.

We've talked about Abraham and Isaac, and last week we

got to talk about my favorite Bible story and Bible character.

That was Joseph. I love it. It was awesome.

God always accomplishes his plans and often in unexpected ways.

He always accomplishes his plans, and oftentimes he does it

in unexpected ways. There's no way anyone could have expected

or predicted Joseph's story to go the way it went.

No one could not even Joseph, he didn't even know.

But God orchestrated that entire thing all to accomplish what

to accomplish his plans and his purpose of saving many people.

So this week, what we're going to be talking through

is a story of Moses and the Golden Calf.

Moses and the Golden Calf.

It's also where God gives Moses and the people of

Israel to ten commandments. So today's message is titled Moses

and the Golden Calf. If you're taking notes, you can

write that down, but grab your bibles because we're going

to be in we're working our way to Exodus thirty two,

but we're going to start in Exodus nineteen.

We're not reading all the way through there.

We're going to kind of like cherry pick some things

between those two chapters, but we're working our way toward

Exodus thirty two. Really important for us to see some context.

It's important for us to know where the children of

Israel have come from. And what has been happening in

the story up until this point. Because what it will

do is it will help the chapter thirty two make

a whole lot more sense. So what I wanna do

is I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna get into it. Okay, God,

we just thank you for today, thank you for your word.

We pray that our ears are open to hear it. God.

We just we just want to learn from you.

So God, let us see the things you want us

to see today in your word. God, let it enter

our hearts and let us hide your word in our

hearts that we might not sin against you. That as

we read your word, it is alive, it is active,

it does its work in us, that it would jump

off the pages right into our hearts. So God, thank

you for your word, and thank you for the work

you do in our lives as we read it. Do

that work today in Jesus name. Everybody said A men

who here takes the time to read through terms and conditions?

On My mom's raising her hand, Gigi, does you know

any time you like, want to use a service or

you want to participate in something, there's always terms and conditions.

There's some agreement that you must make in order to

partake bars.

I didn't even mean to make that rhyme.

You set up a Netflix again, Yeah, only Jordan God

that you set up a Netflix account, you agree to

their terms and conditions. You set up a social media account,

you're agreeing to some terms and conditions. Go to the bank,

open up an account with them. There are some terms

and conditions. What about enrolling in school a college course,

getting your driver's license, or renting a car, or even

joining a gym, having a gym membership. With all of

these examples, there is some form of terms and conditions

that you're agreeing to with them. There are certain things

that they expect of you when you interact with their

product or their service.

But who other than my.

Mom actually stops and takes the time to read those

terms and conditions.

You're a rare breed if you do that. Most of

us don't.

Most of the time, I just view them as a

hindrance to whatever I'm trying to do, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure,

I agree, whatever, Just let me watch my Netflix show.

That's usually how I view these terms and conditions. But

because most of us don't read them, that's just the

way most of us are built. We could be agreeing

to all kinds of things we don't know. We could

be agreeing to give away our firstborn kid, and we

never know it because we didn't read the terms and conditions.

But regardless if we've read them or not, we sign

the dotted line, we checked the box in agreement. We

are held accountable to them. We're on the hook. We

agreed to let them use all my information for research purposes.

I know you've seen that one before.

We might unknowingly break a rule since we didn't read them,

but ignorance doesn't change the fact that we're still held

accountable to them.

Right, that makes sense?

What if we did read them? What if we knew

everything they expected of us? What if we knew all

of the rules and then we broke them? Isn't that

a lot more severe? It's bad breaking them no matter what,

But knowing what those terms and conditions are and still

breaking them, how much more severe is that? And what

we're going to see today in our text as we're

going through these chapters in Exodus is exactly that that

the Israelites heard God's clear commands from him. They heard

his commands, then they freely agreed to them. They weren't

coerced or forced to agree to him. They agree to

God's clear commands and then almost immediately break them. They

almost immediately break those commands. And this is just kind

of what they do. They break the commands of God.

They show over and over again that they are an

unrighteous and an unholy people. Unrighteous and unholy. They know

exactly what God has commanded, but they just can't help

but do the opposite. And God calls them stiff necked

and rebellious people.

Stiff neck do tell me what to do?

And rebellious people. They continue to break the terms and

conditions that they knowingly agreed to. And unholy people are

standing before a holy God. And that's very important for

us to understand in all of this text today. And

unholy people are standing before a holy God, and an

unholy people are in need of someone to go before them,

their need of a mediator between them and God. And

that's where Moses comes in, because they need a mediator.

And at this point are up until this point in

the Israelite's journey, they've been forced into slavery and mistreated

in Egypt. So God sends Moses to lead them out

of Egypt and all the craziness of the Ten Plagues.

Maybe we should have covered that in our Sunday school

stories with the ten Plagues in Egypt leads them out

and God leads them as a pillar of fire in

the night and a pillar of smoke in the day.

That's crazy to just imagine that that a giant pillar

of fire at night is leading the children of Israel

and a giant pillar of smoke during the day.

And they've already crossed the Red.

Sea at this point to escape Pharaoh and the Egyptians,

and now God has brought them to Mount Sinai, to

the base of Mount Sinai. So let's look in chapter

nineteen of Exodus, and we're going to start right there.

In chapter one, on the third New Moon, after the

people of Israel had gone out of the land of

Egypt on that day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

They set out from Refidem and came into the wilderness

of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness there. Israel

camped before the mountain, so they're not on the mountain,

they're right before the mountain or the base of it.

While Moses went up to God, the Lord called to

him out of the mountain, saying, thus you shall say

to the house of Israel to tell the people of Israel,

you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians,

and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought

you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey

my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my

treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine,

and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests

and a holy nation. These are the words you shall

speak to the people of Israel. So today, in today's story,

Moses is going to get his steps in because he's

going to keep going up and down this mountain a

lot during this moment in history. He goes up the

mountain to speak with God or to hear what God's

words are for the people, and he goes back down

the mountain to actually speak to the people and relay

that information. And this first time up there, God tells

him exactly what to say. He says, you saw what

I did in Egypt. Now, if you will indeed obey

my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my

treasured possession.

That's what God is telling the people. Sounds like a

pretty sq deal to me. Anyway.

They've seen God do incredible things. And I love the

verbage that's used there. It says, how I bore you

on eagle's wings, eagles fly above it, all, fly over

all of the turmoil. Okay, that God was taking them

out of Egypt. You've seen God do these incredible things

on their way out of Egypt. So just obey God

and be his people. It's amazing. So Moses goes down

the mountain and tells the people, and let's look at

how they responded.

Look at verse seven.

So Moses came and called the elders of the people

and set before them all these words that the Lord.

Had commanded him. All the people say. All the people.

Answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken,

we will do. They agreed to it. They agreed to

obey the voice of the Lord. So Moses goes back

up and tells God what they said. And Moses reported

the words of the people to the Lord. And the

Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you

in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when

I speak with you and may also believe you forever.

And this is where things get a little crazy in

their story. God has the people get themselves ready to

hear from him. He has them consecrate themselves, wash themselves,

cleanse themselves, and then he descends on the mountainous fire

and smoke. All of us have seen Mount Rainier around here.

It's beauty on of a clear day anyway, it's beautiful.

It's huge.

Imagine being at the base of Mount Rainier, which looks.

Palatable, if that's even the right word to use. From Afar.

It doesn't look that big and impressive when you're standing

at the base. Does anyone know how long the trailer

is that goes around the base of Mountaineer anybody off

the top of their head, it's like a hiking trail.

It's super long. It's huge. And to think that God

shows up on Mount Sinai and descends on it in

fire and smoke, now that would be quite the scene

to see on mountain. If you look, he descends on

it and fire and smoke. The mountain trembles, the earth

is quaking, there's lightning, thunder and loud trumpet blasts. This

is what's happening on the top of Mount Sinai, and

Moses speaks to God and God answers him in thunder.

That's what the Bible says. God answers him in thunder.

Now that's pretty terrifying, so intense. And after this display,

God calls Moses up to the top of the mountain,

and you know what he gives Moses while he's up

there on the top of the mountain.

Gives him the ten Commandments.

This is where we get the ten commandments, the big ten.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall

not make for yourselves a carved image and bow down

and worship it. You shall not take the Lord's name

in vain. Remember the Sabbath day. Honor your father and mother.

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adulter. You

shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, and

you shall not cove it. God starts with these big

ten commandments. And after giving these ten commandments, I'll see

what the people said. Turn over to Exodus chapter twenty

and look at verse eighteen. Now, when all the people

saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning, and the

sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking.

The people were what.

Afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said

to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen,

but do not let God speak to us lest we die.

Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God

has come to test you, that that your fear of him.

Excuse me, that the fear of Him may be before you,

that you may not sin. People stood far off while

Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

So when the people hear God speak from the cloud

and from the mountain, they.

Are so terrified.

They tell Moses like, don't let God speak directly to

us or we will die.

We'll talk to you. They're terrified. But I love what.

I love what Moses says here because they're essentially they're

asking Moses to be there their mediator. That's literally what

they're doing there, go between us and God, be between

us because we can't. God can't speak to us, or

will die. And I love what Moses says about this fear.

He's like, don't fear, but this fear of God is

meant to keep him from sinning. Well, that's interesting, but

I think that a lack of fear or reverence for

God leads to all kinds of sin. Let me say

that again, a lack of fear or reverence for God

leads to all kinds of sin. Fear is not always

a bad thing. Fear of the right thing is actually good.

Your fear of being run over by a car is

what makes you look both the ways before you cross

the street. So a healthy fear of the Lord is

what will keep us from sin. And this is what

Moses is telling the people here. And then he goes

right back up into that dark cloud, the thick cloud

where God is, and God reiterates something. Now, when God

reiterates something or repeats something, it's probably really important. Look

at verse twenty two in chapter twenty and the Lord

said to Moses, thus you shall say to the people

of Israel, you have seen for yourselves that I have

talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods

of silver to be with me, nor shall you make

for yourselves gods of gold. So, just in case you

missed it the first time, don't have any other gods

before me, and don't make any idols. This is what

God is reiterating. And then after that God gives Moses

a bunch more laws to tell the Israelites, and he

goes back down to tell the people what God said.

But again, let's look at what the people say in response.

Now let's flip over to chapter twenty four. We're kind

of breezing through these chapters just to get us to

chapter thirty two. But look at chapter twenty four and

verse three. Moses came and told the people all the

words of the Lord and all the rules. And all

the people answered with one voice and said, all the

words that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

Again.

They're committing to or agreeing to the standards that God

has set. And I think it's really important for us

to see this ahead of time because it's going to

make what happens in chapter thirty two all the more

severe or even crazier. So let's recap this just really

briefly up the story up until now. God says, if

you obey me, I will make you my people. The

people agree, we will do it. Then God gives the

ten commandments. He reiterates the one about not having idols

or making idols. Then he gives some more laws, and

all the people respond with, we will do everything you

have said. So at this point they've read all the

terms and conditions and they've agreed. They checked the box,

they signed on the dotted line, and they agreed to everything.

So now Moses enters the cloud again to be with God,

and this time he's going to stay up there a

little bit longer. He's going to stay up there for

forty days and forty knights, and God's going to give

him more instructions to relay to the children of Israel,

which is kind of helpful because if God gave it

all at once, that's a lot to remember. It's already

a lot to remember, and he's giving it in bite

sized chunks. But this is where everything starts to fall apart.

And so we've finally made it to chapter thirty two.

You guys hanging in there, awesome. So let's take a

look at what happens. Starting in verse one of chapter

thirty two, when the people saw that Moses delayed to

come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together

around Erin. Erin is the one who's walking with Moses

the whole time he's been speaking, because Moses is like,

I don't talk good and Aaron, God's all said Aaron,

to help you out. And they said to Erin up,

get 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. 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 Erin. And he received the gold from

their hands and fashioned it with a graving tool and

made a golden calf. And they said, they the people

of Israel, said, these are your gods, o Israel, who

brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And

when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it.

And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow shall 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.

Okay, what's the first commandment that God gave? Everyone? Shall

have no other gods before me? What was the second commandment,

no carved.

Images, don't bow down and worship them, No idols, no

other gods before me, no other idols. And what was

it that he read? He iterated those two very same commands.

He said them, and then reiterated them. And guess what.

All the people agreed. They heard, they understood, and they

agreed with everything. So Moses has taken a while to

come down from the mountain. And the first thing they

do is break, immediately, break the first two commands. Aaron

takes their gold from the rings that are in their ears,

of them and their families, and he makes a caf

out of it. People call it their god. Aaron makes

an alter. This is all just bad. This is all

just bad. But the thing I need is to see

here is that God made humans with the innate desire

to worship. He made humankind with this innate desire to

worship and to praise. The problem comes is when our

worship is directed at the wrong thing. That's where we

get it wrong. There's only one who is worthy of

all worship. That's God himself. God himself is the only

one who is worthy of all worship. And this isn't

a thing of hubris on God's part. We need to

understand that this isn't just like God needing something, because

he doesn't need anything. He is self sufficient, unlike any

of us. He needs nothing. But he has to demand

worship of him. If he demanded what we worship something

or someone other than him, than that thing or that

person would be God.

He's God.

He has to demand worship of himself. God is meant

to be worshiped because he is God. It's because he

is God. It's just for who he is. And then

you add on top of that, look at all that

he's done. The list for why God deserves all worship

is literally endless. It is endless. Our worship should only

be directed at him. That's the only proper direction for

our worship to land. And this is what God is

commanding the Israelites, that they would worship him alone.

And what do they do?

They turn and start worshiping a created golden calf. Well

the omniscient, which means all knowing. God knows what's going on,

and he tells Moses about it. Look at verse seven

in chapter thirty two, and the Lord said to Moses,

go down for your people, whom you brought up out

of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

I just noticed this.

Now the Lord's talking to Moses and says, go down

for your people. God isn't even calling his people your people,

whom you brought out of Egypt. Hold on, I thought

God did all that He did do it. But this

is how God's We're getting to look into how God feels.

Right now, Your people whom you brought out of the

land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside

quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They've

made for themselves a golden calf, and have worshiped it

and sacrificed to it, and said, these are your gods,

o Israel, who brought you up out of the land

of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I've seen

this people, and behold it is a dif necked people.

Now therefore let me alone. I means, leave 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.

God wants to start over in a way. Do you

guys remember knowing the flood.

God's feeling a little bit like that, Maybe not fully

like that, but a little bit like that.

He wants to start over.

He tells Moses, they've all turned aside, they've turned away

from me, so let me just wipe them all out

and start over with you. And based on their wickedness

and almost instant rebellion, that's kind of what they deserve.

It's kind of what they deserve. It wouldn't be wrong

of God to do that. But here's where you see

Moses step up and intercede for the people, which is

pretty cool. This is where Moses becomes the mediator. And

this is where God shows mercy. I mean, he shows

mercy all over the place, but he continues to show murcy.

Look at verse eleven. But Moses implored the Lord his God.

He begged him and said, Oh Lord, why does your

wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought

out of the land of ed Moses like they're your people?

You know, you just called them I people.

They're your people, whom you have brought out of the

land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.

Verse twelve. 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 the disaster

against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants,

to whom you swore by your own self, and said

to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars

of heaven in all this land that I've promised, I

will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.

And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had

spoken of bringing on his people. Man, the people are very,

very lucky to have Moses. They're very lucky that Moses

was there because he went to bat for them. Do

you know what the definition of a mediator is a

person who attempts to make people involved in a conflict

come to an agreements to go between. It's someone who

intervenes between two trying to make or restore peace and friendship.

That's exactly what Moses is doing here.

He is being the mediator.

He's imploring or begging God, please relent, remember your promise.

And Levey says, don't let the Egyptians say you saved

him just to kill them, like, don't.

Give them the satisfaction of that, And God heard Moses,

and he listened, and he relented from his anger. This

sinful and rebellious group of people need a mediator. They

needed a mediator because unholy man needs a mediator before

a holy God. Unholy man needs a mediator before a

holy God. But just because God relented didn't mean the

people weren't corrected and punished.

That still happens.

Moses heads back down the mountain and he hears the

sounds of celebration.

Look at verse nineteen.

As soon as he came near the camp and saw

the calf and the dancing, Moses anger burned hot, and

he threw the tablets out of his hands 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 scattered it on the water

and made the people of Israel drink it. I think

it's safe to say that Moses is big mad right now.

Like he is mad.

I could imagine God telling him, hey, this is going on,

then him as he starts his climb down, being like, please,

don't let that be true, Like I'm hoping that it's

not that, But unfortunately it was and when he gets

back down the camp to the camp, his anger burned

hot at what he saw. He was so mad that

he broke the tablets that God gave him with the

commands on them. I mean, you gotta be pretty mad

in order to break something.

God. Literally just God gave me something. I'm not breaking it.

I mean, not that it was a gift. It was

the commands, which is a gift in theyway.

But I'm just saying you have to be pretty mad

for God to give you something and you to break it.

But I actually think it's kind of poetic or actually

metaphoric what he did. God gave the people commands and

they broke them. So in a way, Moses is illustrating

what the people had just done by taking the commands

of God and his hands written on the tablets and

breaking them. They'd broken the commands of God. Moses is

big mad, so he burns the idol, grinds it to powder,

puts it on the water, and he makes him drink it.

It's pretty hardcore.

And then Moses turns to Aaron and he's like, bro,

what the heck I left you in charge? Like what

did you do? Verse twenty one and Moses said to Aaron,

what did these people do to you that you've brought

such great sin upon them? Like were they gonna, I

don't know, like cut your head off or something like?

What did they do to you to make them sin

this great? And Aaron said, let not the anger of

my lord burn hot. You know the people that are

you know the people, they are set on evil, that's

for real. Verse twenty three. For they said to me,

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. So I said to them, let any

who have gold take it off. So they gave it

to me. I threw it in the fire, and out

came this calf. Aaron, You, sir, are a liar. Need

we remind you that you fashioned this golden calf with

a graving tool, that's not a threw it in the fire,

and out came this calf.

You literally crafted it, Aaron.

I'll try to make it sound spiritual or miraculous, but

the truth is we Christians do that kind of stuff

all the time. We tried to justify our sin by

making what we did or what we're about to do

sound spiritual or miraculous. Spilling people's tea in the form

of a prayer request, Just Jordan, could you help me

pray for Duncan? Heeded prayer? You know he's been having

angry issues and yelling at his wife a lot prayer?

Or how about asking for advice when you're just gossiping

about somebody. You know, I just oversaw someone drinking too

much in the in the bar. What advice would you

give me to tell them? Pastor Jordan. People even make

leaving churches sound spiritual. I just felt the Lord telling

me it was time to move on, when the truth

is you just disagreed with the decision that was made.

Or you didn't like the music that they were playing,

or whatever it is.

We have all kinds of reasons, and I'm not talking

about false doctrine issues like unrepentent false doctrine. You call

it a false doctrine, But if it doesn't change, then

I would get out of that church. But I've even

had people tell me they felt the Lord release them

from their marriage when they had no scriptural allowance for divorce.

The Holy Spirit will never tell you to do something

contrary to the revealed will of God in scripture.

The reason I know that because the Holy Spirit is God.

He will never tell you to do something.

So if you're like I just feel peace from God

about this decision and it's something sinful that's not God,

I don't know what that is. Could be satan, it

could be your own wicked heart, could be the sin

within you, could be the salsea you ate at eleven

o'clock at night. I don't know, but don't listen to

it if he's telling you to go against God's clear

revealed will in scripture. Aaron right here is just trying

to sound all spiritual though just through in the goal,

no game, this caf whatever had liar crafted it, and

then it makes it worse that he made an altar

before it and offered sacrifices to it. All of this

is just spitting in the face of God and all

of his commands.

That's what this is. That's what this is.

God gave him all these commands, which they all agreed to,

and they're just spitting in his face. And after making

the people drink up the ground the ground up powder

like pulverized idol, Moses wasn't done yet, because he continues

and he says out loud to the people who is

on the Lord's side, come to me and the sons

of Levi, the Levites.

They answer the call.

What Moses does next is he sends them to go

to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp,

killing people, which is crazy. And about three thousand people

fell that day. This is a bad day for the Israelites.

But I need to remember the wages of sin is death,

and so what we're seeing here is just a glimpse

of the penalty of sin, a small temper view, not

even the eternal weight of sin, just the temporal weight

of sin, this death that we're seeing in the camp.

But I think it helps us understand how God feels

about sin and wickedness, and how serious he is about obedience.

And he's allowed to be serious about it because he's God.

He created everything, He created everything for his purposes. He

set the standard for everything. And at this point, this

specific point is where our flesh will wrestle the most.

This is the piece that is hardest for us, I

think in our own hearts to accept. We don't like that,

we don't think that's fair. But what are we actually

wrestling with? What is the thought or the root thing

that we're actually wrestling with, And it's we don't like

that God gets to be God. We don't like that

God gets to be God. We want to be God.

We want to make the rules. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa,

I don't want to be God at all. What are

we saying when we say God, you did it wrong?

You're judging the judge. You're saying that God, what you've done,

what you've decided, what standard you set, you did it wrong.

You're trying to be the main judge. You're judging the judge.

So what we're saying is God, I don't like that

you get to be God. That is the core of

our struggle. But the sooner that we settle that struggle,

the better.

And what I think, and.

I've kind of put in one sentence, what I think

the problem is that we think we're better than we

are and that God isn't as good as he is.

We think we're better than we are and that God

isn't as good as he is. I hate to burst

your bubble, but we are not good. We are not

good looking at the Israelites. They are a wicked, rebellious

and stiff necked people. We are the same way. This

is not a unique pattern to just the Israelites. The

problem that we see is actually a human problem. We

all deal with it. We all know that there are

things that we ought not do, things that we should

not do, and yet at times we still choose to

do them. And we know that there are things we

ought to do, things that would be good and right

for us to do, and at times we still choose

not to do them.

This is the human problem. It's not an Israelite problem.

God makes his commands clear, and yet we still rebel.

They're very clear, and we still rebel. I think of

Paul and Roman seven. I kind of wrote this on

the side of my notes, when he's talking about learning

what the law said, then all of a sudden sin

was awakened in him. Once we learn what the rules are,

there's something weird and us as like, now I don't

want to follow that rule. There's this weird rebellion that

that is our flesh, that is in us. We want

to rebel against the clear commands of God. But not

only that. The Bible makes it clear that in comparison

to God. Even the righteous things we do are as

filthy rags. And if you really want to be grossed out,

look up the definition of what that root word means,

these filthy, soiled rags, even the righteous things we do

or polluted. Rome's three says, none is righteous, no not one.

No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have

turned aside. That sounds like the Israelites turned aside quickly.

All have turned aside together, they have become worthless. No

one does good, not even one. We have a bad habit,

a really bad habit, of thinking we're better than we are.

We're not good, not without the help of the Lord.

I know, almost like beating everyone up right now. It's

crazy me too. This is how the human condition. This

is the human condition. But in addition to that bad habit,

we also have a bad habit of thinking that God

isn't as good as he is. And Deuteronomy thirty two

actually puts it beautifully. And Deuteronomy thirty two verse one,

give ear o heavens, and I will speak, and let

the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my

teaching drop as the rain, my speech to still as

the dew let, like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim

the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God,

the Rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways

are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just

and upright is he. God is perfect, He is faithful,

he is just, He's without iniquity. That means he's done

literally nothing wrong. He has no wrong in him. And

first Peter says, but as he who called you as holy,

you also be holy in all your conduct, since it

is written you shall be holy. For I am holy.

God is holy. God is holy, and that means to

be pure, sinless and upright. We need to elevate our

view of who God is. It's easy to forget and

our view of God gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

And anytime we're tempted to do that, we need to

go back to what he says about himself, see what

he did, and elevate our view of who God is,

and also have a very sober view of ourselves. God

is perfect and holy. Humanity is imperfect and unholy. Well,

this presents a big problem for humanity again, doesn't it.

This is a problem. I like to think of holiness

as light, and you think of unholiness as darkness. Well,

darkness cannot exist where light exists. If you turn off

all the lights in this room, and it was dark

matter to black out the windows to make my point,

which actually just literally made my point. If you turn

off all the lights in a room, what happens when

the light turns on. Darkness ceases to exist. It literally

cannot exist where light is.

And don't get cheeky with like shadows and stuff. I'm

not talking about that.

You turn on the light, darkness ceases to exist. Unholiness

can't exist where holiness is any more than darkness can

exist where light is. Unholy humanity has a big problem.

We can't stand before a holy God and live. I

don't think we understand how holy God is. He's holy, pure, sinless, perfect.

We are not.

We can't stand in his presence and live. We need

someone to stand in the gap. We need a mediator.

That's what we need.

And we'll talk a little bit more about that in

just a second. But that's what Moses did for the

Israelites before, and that's what he continues to do. Look

at the end of chapter thirty two and verse thirty.

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 is sinned against me, I will blot

out of my book.

Now you go lead.

The people to the place about which I've spoken to you. Behold,

my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day

when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.

Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because

they had made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

Just in case you forgot which golden calf he was

talking about, it's definitely the one Aaron made.

Aaron will never be able to live that one down.

God won't even let him live it down. That's great.

But Moses goes up before the Lord again to plead

with the Lord for the people he's going to bat

for the people, and he says, if you don't forgive him,

then just wipe me out too. But that's not how

God does things. He holds everyone accountable for their own sin.

He holds every single unholy person accountable for their own sin.

And that's why we need a mediator. The Israelites had Moses,

Who do you have? The Israelites had Moses to stand

between them and God. Who do you have? Jesus is

our mediator. He goes before us to God on our behalf.

He's the only right answer. It's found in One Timothy two,

chapter verse five. For there is one God. There is

one mediator between God and men, the man Christ, Jesus,

who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is

the testimony given at the proper time. Jesus Christ is

our mediator. He is the only one who can stand

before Holy God on our behalf. Why because he lived

the perfect life that we are commanded to and we

couldn't live.

Because he's sinless, he's blameless. Jesus is holy.

He is the spotless lamb whose life and death are

the only acceptable substitute for our own. No other sacrifice

fully satisfies the debt oh to God for sin. Know

this is because the entire Old Testament is full of

the sacrificial system, all the clean, spotless, blemish less animals

being sacrificed for sins every year, every week, for sins

that are known.

For sins you didn't that you didn't even know you committed.

Because the wages of sin is death, blood must be

spilled for the forginness of sins. There's no other sacrifice

other than the spotless sacrifice of Jesus that fully satisfies

the debt oh to God for sin. First John two says,

my little children, I'm writing these things that He's been

writing to you.

So that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with

the Father who Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the

propitiation for our sin, and not for ours only, but

also for the sins of the whole world. That word

propitiation means to appease or to fully satisfy. You know what,

when you're hungry and you take one bite of something,

are you satisfied? No, it takes more propitiation that Christ's

sacrifice fully satisfied the debt owed Jesus is our advocate

before the Father because his sacrifice fully satisfied our sin debt.

But how does jesus sacrifice get applied to us? And

can I have the worship team come up please? How

does the sacrifice of Jesus get applied to us? That's

through faith, It's through belief. It is by the grace

of God on us, through faith in Jesus, that we.

Are forgiven and saved.

That we truly believe that Jesus lived the perfect life,

that he died on the cross from my sins, that

he rose from the dead, and he now sits on

the throne in heaven.

That you call Jesus Lord of your life.

And one of my favorite verses is that it's the

Father's will that all who look to the Son Jesus

and believe will get eternal life. All who look to

the Son and believe will get eternal life.

Not some all.

So those who have put faith in Jesus, that he

is interceding at the right hand of the Father right

now for those who have put faith in him. So,

if you've never looked to Jesus and believed in him

for salvation, for the forgiveness of your sins. Then I'm

imploring you, I'm begging you be reconciled to God. The

call is out there. Answer that call. Be reconciled to God.

Put faith in Jesus for our sake. He made him

to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in

him we might become the righteousness of God. That is

the only way at all for us to be made righteous,

to move from unholy to holy.

That's the only way.

There is no other way to be made right with

the Creator God. It's only through faith in Jesus. And

for those who have already put faith in Jesus, and

you're already relying on him to be your mediator between

the two of you, don't stop relying on him. Don't

stop relying on Jesus as your mediator. It's just like

first John said, stop sinning. But if you do, we

have an advocate, So keep going to that advocate, keep

going to Jesus. But I wanted to make this super

simple and very practical, so I put it in three

simple steps. You guys like three steps. Look at that,

patricia'snt They're already on the screen. This is what to

do when you sin, confess, repent, and bear fruit, to confess,

to repent, and to bear fruit. The first thing we

do when we sin is we confess.

First.

John One says, if we confess our sins, he is

faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So confess your sins to God.

Go right to him. That's what we should do. Confess

your sins to God. Don't do what your natural sinful

flesh wants to do. Don't do what Adam and Eve

did in the garden when they sin, what do they do?

They hid? They hid from God.

So there's a little bit of your sinful natural flesh

that wants to hide because you feel shame.

Or guilt.

Don't run from the Lord when you sin. Run to

him and confess. Go to God and confess your sins

to him.

That's part of the.

Whole gospel process in our life, acknowledging that we are

a sinner who has sin and is in need of saving.

We humble ourselves before the Lord and confess our sins

to him as part of them the whole gospel process.

But I want to take it a step further. Don't

just confess them to him. Confess him to a brother

or sister. In Christ, brothers confess to another brother, Sisters

confess to another sister. James five says, Therefore, confess your

sins to one another and pray for one another that

you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person

has great power as it is working.

Everybody doesn't have to know everything, but somebody's got to

know everything. Somebody's got to know everything.

Find a person you trust and confess it all. It's

in that confession that we pray for one another and

we experience healing and freedom. Healing and freedom. If you

are Knight, We've said this before. If you are ninety

nine percent known, you are unknown. If you're ninety nine

percent known, you are unknown. That one percent is the

foothold the devil wants to put you in a snare.

That it's that one percent that you're holding onto that

will stop you from feeling free and witless.

You're going to.

Continue to carry it around until you find someone to

confess it to and they can pray for you. It's

how we experience the healing that God is talking about here.

And have a real list of questions, very pointed question

like this is Pastor Jordan and I do this.

We meet every Friday. We have a list of questions.

We go down and they are very pointed, genuine and specific.

Find someone and write down the questions that you need

to be asked to genuinely and honestly answer for things

you're struggling with. If you struggle with patience, put patience

on the on the question list. And then what we

do is the very last question says, did you just

lie to me? Might have been able to get a

fib through the first time, but not the second time.

I gotta look this guy across the table and lie

to him twice. No way, double kay, he's cracking his

neck and stuff.

No, he wouldn't beat me up. Maybe there we go.

We need to be genuine and honest. We need to

give that one percent up. I'll keep holding on to that.

Be genuine, be real. So that's number one. To confess.

Number two is to actually repent, to repent of your sin.

To repent is to change your heart and direction to

no longer go in the same direction. If I was

walking this way, to repent is to stop, turn and

walk the other direction. So change of directions. So get

serious about it. Get serious about repentance. Jesus had some

strong words when you talked about ridding your life of sin.

It says better to gouge out your eye or cut

off your hand if it causes you to sin, because

it's better to enter Heaven maimed than to enter hell

fully intact, you take our fight with sin seriously to

desire pure purity and holiness. He who called you is holy.

Therefore you be holy in all your conduct, all of it,

all of your conduct. Just because you didn't do something

that wasn't holy, didn't mean to think something that was

wasn't holy. Thoughts, motives, actions, and I'm gonna put this

one out there. Emotions we don't ever, we don't usually

talk about those ones. Emotions can be sinful, and we're

told to control those and we're told, we're told how

we should feel all over the Bible. So feeling something

that contradicts with how God told us to feel, then

we need to take that to the Lord and start

repenting of that sin. Even to be serious in your

fight against sin, we are called to reflect the holiness

of God on this earth as his people, to reflect

that holiness. So let's get serious about putting our sin

to death. And lastly, number three is to bear fruit

in keeping with repentance. To bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

That means keep at it, repeat steps one and two.

What does it wash?

Rinse and repeat, continue to confess and repent. That's just

the routine of a believer, constant confession and repentance. We

feel we sin, and then we feel conviction from God,

the Holy Spirit, so we confess and repent over and

over and over and over and over and over and

over and over again. We just keep doing this. This

is your life now, believer on your way to perfection.

This is your life now as the Holy Spirit continues

to transform us more into the image of Christ. That is,

from degree to degree, which means from increment to increment,

inch by inch. How long does it take to turn

a cruise ship takes a while. It's not a fast process.

Neither is sanctification. Neither is us being made Christ like.

It is a slow, lifelong process. So keep taking steps,

don't quit. I don't care how many times you sin.

Confess and repent, Confess and repent and keep doing it.

Don't give up. Bear fruit in keeping with pentance. If

we keep confessing and repenting, we will see growth in

our life. And the reason I can confidently say that

because that's what God says, that he is perfecting us.

That's what he's doing. He's making us into the image

of Christ or the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Confess, repent,

and bear fruit. So if there's one thing I want

us to see from the entire story of Moses and

the Golden Calf, it's that man is unholy and sinful

and we need a mediator before a holy and sin

less God. Or to say it in even less words,

man bad, God good need help.

Why he's many word when few word do trick.

I could not make the story of Moses and the

Golden Calf any clearer.

Then man is bad, God is good, and we need help.

And our only help, our only mediators who it's Jesus.

So we turn to Jesus for everything. Amen, go ahead

and stand to your feet