The Golden Calf God never asked for

Before I start teaching, I'm going to ask Ruth to come up and read the passage where

I will be teaching today, which is from Exodus 32. The words will be projected on the screen,

so as she reads, you can follow.

The golden calf. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the

mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, Come, make us gods who will go before us as

for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt. We don't know what has happened to

Aaron. Aaron answered them, Take off the gold earrings that your wives and your sons and your

daughters are wearing and bring them back to me. So all the people took off their earrings and

brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into a cast in the shape of a

calf, fashioning it with a tooth. Then they said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up

out of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, Tomorrow

there will be a festival to the Lord. So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt

offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterwards they sat down to eat and drink and

got up to indulge in rivalry. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go down, because your people whom you

brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt and they have been quick to turn away from what I

commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down

and sacrificed to it and have said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are stiff-necked people. Now leave me

alone so that my anger may not burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you

a great nation. But Moses sought the favour of the Lord, his God. Lord, he said, Why should your anger

burn against your people whom you have brought up out of Egypt with great power and mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians say? It was with evil that the intent that he brought them out to kill

them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth. Turn from your fierce anger,

relent and do not bring disaster to your people. Remember your servant Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,

to whom you swore to your own self. I will bring your descendants as numerous as the stars in the

sky and I will give your descendants all this land. I promised them and I will be their inheritance

forever. Then the Lord relented and said to, and did not bring on his people a disaster,

he did threaten. Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant of

the law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work

of God. The writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the

noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, There is the sound of war in the camp. Moses replied,

It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat, it is not the sound of singing

that I hear. When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned,

and he threw the tablets out of his hands and breaking them into pieces at the foot of the

mountain and he took the calf. The people had made and burned it in the fire. Then he grounded it into

powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. He said to Aaron, What did

these people do to you that you led them into such sin? Do you not, do not be angry my Lord. Aaron

answered, You know how prime these people are to evil. They said to me, Make us gods who will go

before us as for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt. We don't know what happened to him,

so I took him, I took them, whoever, whoever has any gold jewelry take it off. Then they gave me

the gold and I threw it in the fire and out came the calf. Moses said the people were running wild

and Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he

stood at the entrance of the camp and said, Whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And all the Levites

rallied him. Then he said to them, This is what the Lord the God of Israel says, Each man strapped a

sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from the one end to the other, each killing

his brother and friend and neighbor. The Levites did as Moses commanded. And the day about three,

and that day about 3000 people died. Then Moses said, You have been set apart to the Lord today,

for you were against your own sons and brothers and he had blessed you this day. The next day

Moses said to the people, You have committed a great sin, but now I will go up to the Lord,

perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses went back to the Lord and said, Oh, what a great

sin these people have committed. They have made themselves gods of gold. But now please forgive

their sin. But if not, then blot me out of the book of you have written. The Lord replied to Moses,

whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place I

spoke of and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish

them for their sin. And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the

calf Aaron had made. Thank you. Thank you Ruth. Guys, I know it's a long, long chapter. It's a long

passage, but that'll be the main text for today. And we all are familiar with that story about the

golden calf that we read. Some of us, at least that there's something about a golden calf that

was mentioned in the Bible, right? But it's, it's, it's a passage where it is not about one thing,

as you just heard it, but there's a lot to draw from. And so tonight, we want to spend some time

here. And I'll go slowly line by line, verse by verse. And this has to do with us corporately. And

this has to do for us individually as well. Right? So I, I hope and I pray that as you prepare your

hearts, may the Lord speak through these verses so that what you need to receive today, you will

receive today. Yeah. So that's my hope. That's my prayer. You know, this was just another, this was

just few, few weeks ago, I was at a traffic and there were two cars in front of me. And the car

that was next to the traffic light as he was waiting for the for the lights to turn green,

waited for a few seconds. And then finally the light turned green. And this car didn't move

immediately after the lights turn green. Yeah. So what the next car, you know, the driver on the

next car did was he's he gave a very long and a loud honk. And it's just a matter of two seconds.

But we we live in a time like this, you know, where we are so impatient with each other, right? He's

gonna move out for sure. But even just a split of a second late, is like, you know, you hope we honk

at each other, right? We're getting very impatient. You know, our, our technology is getting faster and

things are getting faster, more efficient. But on the other hand, one thing that is more prevalent

now is impatience, right? This is something I see in myself as well. Sometimes, you know, with a

little wait, two minutes here or five minutes here, you kind of like, you were kind of disturbed,

yeah, or sometimes it upsets you. And so this was something very similar here. Moses went up to

meet the Lord. And in Exodus 24, we read that Moses was up on a mountain with the Lord for 40

days and 40 nights. That seemed long for the Israelites. Yeah. So in these process, they did

something with their own hands. They made a calf, right? In this period of waiting, they created a

golden calf, which God never asked for. That's why I titled the golden calf God never asked for. This

was something that was never God's idea. He didn't ask them to do this. But but in the process of

impatience, in the process of waiting for Moses to return, what they did was they made a golden calf,

right? So that's the first point, right? The golden calf was not born out of atheism. Yeah,

they didn't say that they didn't deny outright that they don't they no longer believe in God.

No, they did not stop trusting God. They continue to trust God. But I mean, I mean, wanting God.

But what happened was that they decided what they'll do. And they decided that they'll do it in their

own way with their own timetable. That's a very dangerous place to be in. Yeah. Verse one says

like this. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered

around Aaron and said, Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who

brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. Here, you know, we're talking

about a different area, not our area in here. Yeah. But we have to think about this, this context,

right? What happened was that people begin to perceive with their eyes, physical eyes, right?

Moses was out of sight. God seemed to be nowhere. And you know what? They immediately turned to

Aaron, right? Who was in charge. And this is a problem with seeing with our physical eyes. If we

are not aware, with our spiritual eyes, sometimes physical can be so deceiving, right? You know,

we see this pattern again and again in the Bible. You know, Abraham's nephew, he saw that the land

was fertile with his eyes. Yeah. He chose the land. David, he saw a woman taking a bath, right?

Bathsheba. He saw with his eyes. And so the problem with this is that this is something that'll

surface. That'll surface again and again during times of silence, right? During times of silence,

during times when you're waiting for the Lord, during times when you have prayed for something

and you are anticipating. It is in these times, during moments of silence, where your real

conviction begins to surface. Yeah. That's a really important point for us to understand.

Because that really exposes what's inside you and inside me. A classic example is also King Saul,

right? He knew that Prophet Samuel told him to wait for him. And he waited for seven days. He

couldn't wait. Yeah. And what he did was, he did something very spiritual, right? Which is offering

sacrifices to God. But he did it in his own terms again, with his own timetable. And he did it

and this is something that's for us to remember because in the process of waiting for the Lord,

if we are not careful, you know, Ishmael is birth, right? Same thing here, you know, a golden calf is

birth, right? And you see how short their memory is because you know why? Prior to the making of

this golden calf, they had experienced extraordinary things with Moses already. Yeah. They had

experienced water gushed out of rocks. They had experienced the bitter water turned into sweet.

They had experienced the crossing of the Red Sea. All these things, all these extraordinary events

had already unfolded before this happened. Yeah. That's the crazy part. They have experienced so

much with Moses already. And then you know what? When Moses was nowhere in the picture, they

immediately turned to Aaron. Yeah. And the reason, the intent for them turning to Aaron is

so that Aaron can do what they want him to do. It is not surrendering to Aaron. It is not surrendering

to where God wanted them. But it is like they have already made a decision. Yeah. And they wanted

Aaron to approve it. That's the first one. The second one was, you know, how they treated Moses.

Yeah. No, wait, not yet. Yeah. The first one was that. But the second one is even worse.

Moses was their appointed leader.

And then they said, this fellow. Yeah. This fellow who brought us out of Egypt. This fellow. Right.

Did you notice how quickly their hearts changed because Moses was no longer of service to them?

Yeah. This is what impatience does, guys. Impatience has this way of erasing God's faithfulness in our lives.

Yeah. Impatience has this ability to make you forget what God has done in your life.

All these times, they have been trying to make you forget what God has done in your life.

All these times that I have experienced God's goodness in my life, and then something doesn't happen, and I forget. Yeah.

It comes out of my frustrations as well. You know, guys, people who have walked away from God, most of them,

the reason is not because God has failed them. Yeah. It's not oftentimes just because God has not failed them.

But because they often forget what God has done. Yeah. God has been faithful so many times, and then one unanswered prayer, they only remember that.

And they walk away. Oftentimes it's like that. Yeah. People have been experiencing God so many years, and then one heard from a church friend, they don't want to be part of the church again.

It's these kind of little, little things that ropes us from experiencing what God is preparing for us.

Here, Moses went up to the hill, and he's inquiring of the Lord so that he can bring what God wants into the valley.

The Israelites knew that. But out of their impatience, what's birth is an idol. Right?

So, guys, here's a cure for our restlessness. Right? Here's a cure for our restlessness. It is so important that we remember what God has done.

You know, remembering the Red Sea moments, remembering when the bitter water was turned into sweet water.

You know, when we recall God's goodness, then we begin to remember, and now we begin to wait upon the Lord again. Yeah?

That's why for us, sharing our testimonies become a critical part in this.

Because when someone shares of how amazing God's goodness is over their lives, now it begins to strengthen my own faith as well. Right?

I don't need to experience a miracle to know God is a miraculous worker. If I hear from Jillian's life, it strengthens me, it builds me. Yeah?

If someone is miraculously healed by God, it strengthens me that God is a supernatural God. Yeah?

So that's one. The second one is the leader who gave what they wanted. Read this part. Aaron, you know, the people said...

Sorry, let me go back to the first one.

Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow, Moses, who has brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.

And then they went to Aaron, and you know what they said to him?

And then now here's Aaron's response. He said, take off the gold earrings that your wives and your sons and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me.

So all the people who took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron, he took what they handed him and made it into an idol, cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.

And they said, these are the gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

The people got what they wanted. Yeah?

Here's a people-pleasing person here, Aaron. He wouldn't stood his ground. He was given in charge when Moses was gone.

Now people demanded, and then he gave them what they wanted.

The crowd asked. Aaron answered. Terrible, eh?

He did not pause. He did not inquire of the Lord. He did not wait for Moses.

And you know, here's a very disturbing line. These people said, these are your gods.

After they had this golden calf, they said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

Aaron knew it. Aaron was the one who was with Moses when they were at the Pharaoh's court.

He had seen how God had delivered them.

And so Aaron could have easily said, no, these are not your gods. It is Yahweh who brought you up out of Egypt.

He could have easily clarified that. He knew that was a lie.

But you know, here's the problem, guys. He let a lie stand.

Because, you know what? Correcting them would have cost the crowd's approval.

Correcting them would have cost him the crowd's approval.

And so, you know, silence in front of a lie is kind of agreeing with them, right?

You know, if we don't take a stance, when we are confronted with a lie and remain silent,

we are contributing to the shaping of people's beliefs. Yeah?

But here's the thing. Aaron has a deeper problem.

The problem is that he compromises, right? He wants to blend.

And here's the thing, guys. He, on one hand, wants to build an altar for the Lord. Yeah?

He wants to build an altar, but he wants it alongside the calf. Crazy, man. Yeah?

He wanted to give what the crowd wanted, and yet he still wants to build an altar for the Lord

and call it a festival of the Lord, right? To celebrate.

And so here's a very disturbing part. On one hand stood the calf,

and then on the other hand he wants to build an altar for the Lord, and he wants to call it a festival of the Lord.

He wants to hybridize a very dangerous thing to do for us as well.

This is very, very prevalent in churches as well.

It's one of the most, I would call it, common idols in the church today,

which is embracing both. Embracing God, but embracing the world.

And this is one of the greatest idols in the church today, I would say. Yeah?

And you know, here's the part. The people indulge in revelry.

And I started researching that word, revelry.

And it is heartbreaking.

Because we see this in Daniel as well, right? When the king, Belshazzar, throws a great feast,

and then he offers wine, right? And then makes people drunk.

And then the secret gold vessels, which they have taken away from the temples, from the Israelites,

they would pour those wines onto those vessels and make them drink and worship the idols, right?

And then the other one is Paul. Paul is talking about revelry in Galatians 5,

where they're indulging in revelry and orgies and witchcraft and dancing

and all these things that are done in contrary to God.

And you know, these things are practiced right in front of Aaron, and he allowed it.

This is the danger, guys.

A leader who gives what people want. And this is not just a leader.

This happens to our individual lives too.

Sometimes, when we are hanging out with Christians, we sound like Christians, yeah?

But when we are hanging out with people who have no convictions, we're the same.

And this is a problem for us, right?

And the people indulge in revelry. Aaron allowed it.

And then the third one that I want to highlight is, but, here's the thing,

but the God who sees the valley while on the mountain, right? I love this part.

Then the Lord said to Moses, go down, because your people, whom you have brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

They have been quick to turn away from what I have commanded them,

and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said,

these are your gods, Israel, who has brought you out of Egypt.

You know, here's a beautiful thing.

Moses was with the Lord on a mountain.

And then God is telling Moses what's happening in the valley. Yeah?

It describes the omniscience and the omnipresence of God, like God all knowing, and then God being present everywhere, right?

While he is in the mountain, he is present in the valley too.

And while he is talking with Moses on a mountain, he is exactly telling the details of what's happening in the valley.

Crazy, eh? The words that God quoted is exactly what the people said in the valley. Right?

Look at some of those lines.

These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. Those were the words of the people. Right?

And God is quoting exactly what the people were saying down in the valley while he was with Moses on a mountain.

This is the God who is the God of the mountains and who is the God of the valleys, guys.

And I think this point should pierce us and this should highlight two things for us too. Yeah?

Two things for us. One is that it should make us steady.

Why? Because God knows that...

God knows that what's happening in the valley is like you and I cannot hide from him.

You and I cannot hide anything from him. Right?

Sometimes we think that nobody knows. Sometimes that this is personal, some habitual sins, things that we can do in secret and things nobody knows.

But God knows exactly what's happening.

And I think that that should make us sober. Yeah?

And then, and then another second thing that should do to us is that these compromises, God will expose that.

God will expose that.

God will expose that. Sin can never hide for long. It always comes out.

So those are the two things, right? And then the next point is that, but we see the mediator on top of the mountain.

Yeah? The man on the mountain. I love this part.

Then the Lord said to Moses,

Go down because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

They have been quick to turn away from what I have commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

You know, did you notice the difference here?

God is saying to Moses, your people. Yeah.

God is telling Moses, your people, your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt. Right?

God is saying that these are yours now. These are your people, right? Your people. Your people are becoming corrupt.

They are turning the way they would like to. Right?

And then, you know, God offers something so beautiful. God says, I will.

I mean, he said, leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and destroy them.

Then he says this, then I will make you into a great nation.

God offers two things here. One is that he offers these people to Moses, right? That he's going to destroy them.

But the other thing is that God wants to restart with Moses. That he will bless him into a great nation.

And you know what? The people ask for what they wanted. Aaron gave it.

And here is a very contrasting approach with Moses. Yeah?

Moses was offered a throne. Moses was offered that God's going to start with him again.

And you know, Moses could have easily said, oh yeah, Lord, they are stiff neck people. I agree with you.

They are stiff neck people. They deserve that. Destroy them. Yeah? Destroy them. Wipe them out.

Yeah, you're right. Start with me. Yeah? He could have easily gone that route. Yeah?

But I love how Moses said, yeah? Instead, he sought the Lord. Wow. He sought the Lord.

And he does not defend people's behavior, right? He appeals to God himself. And he does three things.

One, he says, Lord, now, you know, God is saying, your people, Moses, your people, Moses, the people that you brought out of Egypt, right?

And now Moses is saying to God, God, they are your people in the first place. Yeah?

They are your people in the first place. Yeah? It's you who brought them out of Egypt, right?

The rescue plan was your plan, right? That's the first one. He reminded God again. It's not my people. It's your people, right?

Then the second thing he did was God's reputation. He cares about God's reputation. I love that about Moses. Yeah?

What will the Egyptians say? Yeah? That you brought them out to kill and wipe them from the face of the earth? God, you got to, I care for your reputation. Yeah?

What will the enemy think of you? Right? That's the second thing, you know, he brought up to God.

And then the third one, he remembers the covenant that God had with the Israelites. Oh, man, this guy.

He said, Lord, remember, you know, you're the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You said that you will bless this people, that their descendants will be as numerous as the stars. Right?

What would that happen now? Because you already have a covenant with this people. Here, you see the heart, the true heart of a prophet, the true heart of a prophet who is an intercessor, right?

Beautiful. This is that's why one of one of the guys that I love in the Bible is Moses. Yeah, not perfect. He's done some mistakes. Yes.

But the heart, not just the amount of things that he did, the supernatural things he did, but his heart, his heart behind the things he does.

It is amazing. That's why he kind of enjoys intimacy that no man had ever enjoyed, which is talking face to face with God. Yeah.

And yet, you know, here's the beauty about Moses's heart. You know, he is so intimate with God that he draws directly from God.

And yet his spirituality, his intimacy with God does not distance himself from the sinful. Right?

You notice how these are rebellious people, and yet Moses is fighting for them.

Moses is interceding for them. Right?

That's the true heart of a man of God.

And what happens is even more staggering.

The Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

Yeah. These people had no idea that they were singing and dancing on top of the mountain, and they didn't know that God's wrath is coming upon them.

Right? These guys have no clue about what's going to fall on them.

And you know, there's a man who was standing in the gap, interceding and pleading God not to bring his wrath on these people.

These people had clueless about what's going to happen to them.

And here's a man who stood in the gap, and God relented his anger.

Crazy, man. He changed God's heart.

When God's going to do something, and then you stood in the gap, and that didn't happen. Wow, man.

I hope that you and I can play these roles, man, for Richmond, for your friends, for your family members who are lost, for your neighbors who are perishing, for your coworkers.

I hope that you and I can be able to stand in the gap like this. Yeah?

They may have no clue about what's going to fall on them.

But how about you and I being able to stand in these gaps? Yeah?

I love how these tablets, which he received from the Lord, says that it's inscribed on both sides, and it says it's the work of God and the writing of God. Yeah?

The work of God, the writing of God. When I read that, wow, it's nice. Yeah?

And so here is Moses carrying what heaven has revealed. Right?

And then he's taking to the earth, and he's going to receive a response that is so unexpected. Yeah?

Here is a man receiving what God desires for the people on earth.

And then the earth's behavior towards what heaven has revealed. Yeah. Right?

And here's this part that I love. When they were coming down, Joshua heard the sound of the people.

And he said, surely there's a sound of a war cry happening in the camp. Yeah?

There's a sound of war in the camp. And it is fair to say that he is listening with his ears, and so there's nothing wrong in guessing that way.

And we know that Joshua is a good man, but at this time he's not mature. He's not as sharp as Moses yet. Yeah?

And Moses had to correct him, saying, no, this is not the sound of a battle cry, nor a singing of victory or defeat.

But he says, I hear singing. Right? The sound of singing that I hear.

You know, here are two big differences here. Joshua is hearing by what he hears with his ears.

He's operating by what he hears. Moses is operating by what has been revealed.

One is operating by hearing, the other is operating by revelation. That's a huge difference, guys. Yeah?

Because you know why? Moses, even before he descends into the valley and starts to see any face, he knew what's already happening out there.

Why? God has told him on a mountain. Right?

See, here's this important line, guys. The person who has been on a mountain hears differently.

The person who has been on a mountain hears differently.

For us, you know, today, we don't have to literally climb the mountain, guys.

But for us, as we learn how to withdraw, how to connect with our Father, be it in your closet, be it in your own rooms, be it corporately.

But as we learn how to ascend the hill of the Lord, people who knows how to locate God on a mountain, they hear differently, guys.

Moses, you know, the man on a mountain, the man who heard God on a mountain.

Maybe someone should write a book with that title, The Man on a Mountain. Yeah.

But he heard what God had revealed him on a mountain. Now he knows what to do in the valley.

That's the beauty and that's the open secret for every believer.

When you learn how to withdraw and find and locate God on a mountain, you'll always have direction for your valleys.

It's guaranteed, guys. Yeah?

So now, Moses, you know, Moses returns from the mountain.

When Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and dancing, his anger burned.

He threw the tablets down and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

Then he took the calf, burned it in the fire and ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

This is the zeal of the Lord consuming Moses. Yeah?

Sounds brutal. Yeah?

And you know what? When Moses broke the Ten Commandments, it is not just the breaking or it's not just an outburst of an anger or a temper. Yeah?

But it is so symbolic, guys. It is the breaking of the covenant that the people had already committed. Right?

It is so symbolic, guys. And you know what? The very idol that they made, they were made to drink.

They were made to swallow. Because these idols were helpless.

And this is a question that I want to leave it to you and to myself, especially when there are these compromises, when the things of God are distorted and you know it's evil.

Will you be consumed by the zeal of the Lord like Moses? Or we will let it be? Yeah?

Sometimes we name it as this is part of our culture. Yeah?

We say this is part of our system.

What if every Christian says like that? Who will stand in the gap? Who will say, nope, I won't let that happen. Yeah?

Which now turns our attention to this man who was given in charge, which is Aaron. And watch his excuses. Yeah?

Which I call it Adam's syndrome. Adam in the Bible, in Genesis. Yeah?

Here it says, he said to Aaron, now Moses turns to Aaron and he said, what did these people do to you that you led them into such great sin?

And then he replies like this, do not be angry, my Lord. Aaron answered, you know how prone these people are to evil. Right?

He blames people now. Right?

Now, can you go back to the other slide?

I think it's the second slide or where it says Aaron had fashioned it. Yeah, I think slide number two. I think. Yeah.

So when you read there, right? Aaron answered them, take off the gold earrings that your wife, your son, your daughters are wearing and bring them to me so that all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Right?

He's making it. He's fashioning it. It was his design. You know, it was his design. Yeah, he made it. It's his design.

Now go back to the verse where we are, where we just read.

Crazy, eh? Moses confronts him. He wouldn't take it.

Now he blames the people. These people are prone to evil. Right? He blames. And you know what? Out came the calf. Oh, really?

Like, it just came out, you know? That's his version. Right? And he said the fire did it.

Crazy, eh?

He was supposed to hold the line. He won't. He is supposed to own up. He won't.

And you know what? You know, Adam said, this woman that you gave me, you know, in the Garden of Eden, right?

This woman that you gave me won't take responsibility, blames his wife. Yeah?

This is the same problem, yeah? Same behavioral pattern.

And we do this in similar ways sometimes. Everyone does it. Oh, you know, the pressure was too much. I gave him. Right?

And now everyone else is doing it. Oh, they ask for it. Right? It just happened.

This is an ancient pattern, guys. Ancient pattern.

You know what? True repentance is when excuses come to an end. Yeah?

As long as there are excuses, that's not true repentance.

True repentance is when I come to the end of myself and saying I have no excuses.

Yeah? That's where the true repentance begins, right?

Moses had heard enough. Aaron won't draw a line. Moses comes. Moses now draws a line. Right?

Who is for the Lord? Decide this day. Yeah?

We see very two contrasting leaders here. Right?

And these are...don't just think of leaders in this church. Think of yourself. Which side do you belong to? Right?

Are you someone...it doesn't matter whether you're a leader or not. This is for us as a body. Right?

When you're out, where do you draw the line? Right?

Aaron won't draw the line. Moses comes and Moses draws the line.

And said, whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And you know what? The group of people who rallied to him, the Levites.

Yeah? The line has to be drawn. Guys, there comes a point of time when neutrality has to end.

And then a decision has to be made. Because we have to pledge our allegiance to Christ. Right?

Because he is the only way, only truth, only life. Wow.

There's no middle ground. Right? So we have to draw the line.

And you know what? The Levites chose Yahweh over their own family, over their own comfort. Yeah?

And something tragic happens that day. A severe judgment was executed that day.

About 3,000 people died that day. Yeah?

And the Levites were willing to stand against their own sons and daughters and brothers. Right?

This passage is very heavy, guys. Yeah? And it's okay. We should let it be.

It tells us that sin is not a small thing. There are consequences to sin. There are consequences to sin.

And so today it's not relevant for us to draw a physical sword.

But Jesus had shown us how this is done. Right?

That the Kingdom is advanced through love. Through love, through truth, through the cross. Not physical violence.

And yet, the principle is the same.

Your decisions may disappoint your families. Yeah?

Some of the choices you make may upset your best friends. It may cost you.

But this is critical for us. As we draw a line. Right?

And then you know what? Moses draws the line. And he puts himself on the line.

I love that. Yeah?

The next day, Moses said to people, you have committed a great sin.

But now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

He does not minimize. He does not excuse the behavior of the people. Right?

He names it plainly. But this is one of the most beautiful lines, beautiful prayers that I read in the Bible.

I'm not saying this is the top, but this is one of the most remarkable prayers that I see in the scripture.

And let me read the prayer of Moses here.

Moses went back to the Lord and said like this, Oh, what a great sin these people have committed.

They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin.

But if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. Wow. Yeah?

Let me read that again. So Moses went back to the Lord. See, Moses draws a line. Right?

And now he puts himself in the line and saying, he went back to the Lord and saying,

the very people that he's pleading that God would to relent, you know, bringing your destruction upon these people.

And then now he draws a line and then he puts himself on the line. He says, Moses went back to the Lord and said,

Oh, what a great thing these people have committed. They have made themselves gods of gold.

But now, please forgive their sin. If you cannot forgive, take me out.

Let me die on behalf of these people. Yeah? Blot me out of the book you have written.

Crazy, hey? What a guy. What a guy.

He's saying, if you are really going to destroy your own people, destroy me first.

You know, compare this with Aaron. He's trying to save himself. Yeah?

He's trying to make himself look good. Because at this point of time, Aaron hasn't really matured yet.

Huge difference, guys. And then the chapter ends with a plague. Yeah?

Sin has consequences. Even when mercy is in motion.

There are consequences to sin. There's the grace of God. There's the judgment of God.

And we have to learn how to hold this together. Because many Christians take advantage that, oh, I can do this. Why?

Jesus will forgive me. Yeah? So on one hand, yes, God forgives.

But you and I cannot take God for granted when it comes to sin. Because sin has consequences. Right?

The grace of God covers it. But there are consequences to sin. Right?

You know, here's the big difference between these two guys. Aaron, he watched the crowd.

He watched the crowd. And what the crowd wanted, he wants to please them. Right?

Moses was not watching the crowd. Moses was watching God.

They are watching two different things here. Right? One is watching the crowd. The other was watching the Lord.

His eyes was fixed on the Lord. Yeah? Huge difference. Same calling, same access.

Same God. The difference was where their eyes were fixed.

We all have a same God. My question to you and my question to myself is, where is your eyes fixed?

Right? When it comes to provision, people look for savings, jobs.

When it comes to healing, they immediately think of hospitals. I'm not against hospitals. Yeah?

But God remains a second option. And you know, one thing that the Lord hates is not when you put him last or when I put him last.

The Lord hates is when you and I put him second.

He says, you shall have no other gods before me. No other gods. Right?

And you know what? Moses is receiving this Ten Commandments where it says that you shall have no other gods.

It's written there. And then here, here are the people who are having a god of their own. Crazy, eh?

This is where I want to end. Last one is, so we are progressing with this chapter, right?

Now as you go towards the end, which I want to leave us with is, don't melt the gold God gave you.

You know, here's a very interesting detail of this story. Yeah? Do you know where this gold came from?

Those two verses you will see. Exodus 12 and Exodus 25. When they left Egypt, God stripped of Egypt's jewelry, gold, everything.

Yeah? God stripped them and then blessed them. It was God's provision, a gift from God.

God did not just deliver them, but God made them so wealthy when they came out of Egypt. Guys? Yeah?

They were slaves and they came out very wealthy. Gold came out of this. It was supposed to be a provision from God.

Same gold, two altars, right? One, they made it for themselves. You know what? A few chapters later, which we don't have time today,

but God asked them to strip their gold so that this gold can be used for building the tabernacle. Beautiful man.

And yet, before God asked them for the gold, they've already melted into their own God. Yeah?

Today we don't melt our gold into a golden calf like this, but we melt it into something else. Yeah? Fame, success, security. Yeah?

Status, comfort, intimacy with God, which looks spiritual on the outside,

but melting it into something that God has never created in the first place. And that's something that I fear the most. Yeah?

The enemy's goal is not always open rebellion, but often he keeps us engaged with shaping and molding things that are not from him. Yeah?

These days we cover a lot of things in the name of being busy. We're in this rat race of being busy.

And you know what? How do you know the things that you are building, the things that you are shaping?

Look at your priorities one. Second, what are some of the things that you often find yourselves going back to again and again and again? Yeah?

Those are good depictions. I'm not saying that those are the only, but I'm saying those are the good indications of where and what you are building.

And then you'll find out whether it's the golden calf or not. Yeah?

Things that you always find time, sins that you find yourself again and again going back to. Yeah?

Those become idols, guys. So, yeah, I want to leave with three questions here.

What am I building right now in the waiting?

There are things that are, there are words that are spoken over your life, over my life, individually, corporately.

And as you wait for those things to be fulfilled, what are some of the things that you are building?

Name some of the things that feels, I'm sorry, name the thing you reach for when God feels so quiet. Yeah?

And then think of Aaron, the excuses he gave. Are there any excuses in your life? Like Aaron, yeah?

Some of the things that it's a little more difficult for you to own up, for me to own up. Are there things in your life like that? Yeah?

And I would encourage us that we bring it plainly to the Lord.

And then the last one that I want to turn our attention to is that, like how Moses stood in the gap and God relented his anger, his destruction.

Being the man on a mountain. Who are the people that you are standing for in the gap? Yeah?

What are some of the things, not only people but even things, yeah? For the God things to happen in your life or through your life or in this city.

So let's pray.

Father, we come to you this evening right now.

Father, we lay down our idols.

Things that are good, things that you have gifted us, which are good, but which can take the role of an idol in our lives, we lay down right now.

We strip them off because we know you are the source.

We lay down our Isaac to you right now.

Father, we don't want anything that is human made.

We ascend your hill right now.

And we ask today for a fresh revelation for the blueprint of heaven, Abba.

Where we ascend the hill like Moses, drawing straight from the Father.

And Lord, as we descend into the valley, as we go back to our workplaces on Monday, Monday to Friday, be it in the offices, be it with our own businesses, wherever we are, oh God, may we learn how to draw lines, oh God.

When to draw lines, when to stay true, when to say no.

And Lord, help us, help us Lord, to stand in the gap for those who are unable to stand on their own.

Like how the people had no idea about the disaster that's about to fall on them and yet Moses stood in the gap which changed the heart of God.

May we learn to do that, oh God, individually and corporately, oh God.

We thank you once again.

In Jesus' name, Amen.