And the Lord said unto Moses,
I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked
people. Now therefore let me alone, that
my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume them,
and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the
Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doeth thy wrath wax hot against
thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with a mighty hand? What wherefore should the
Egyptians say and speak, and say, for mischief did he bring
them out to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them
from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and
repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own
self, and sayest unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars
of heaven. And all this land that I have
spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit
forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought
to do unto his people. And Moses turned and went down
from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his
hand. The testimonies were written
on both sides, on the one side and on the other were they written.
And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the
writing of God, craven upon the table. And when Joshua heard
the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses,
There is the noise of war in the camp. And he said, It is
not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither it is the
voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them
that sang, Do I hear? And he came to pass, as soon
as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the
dancing. And Moses' anger waxed hot, and
he cast the table out of his hands, and break them beneath
the mount." I want to talk tonight about
the righteous judge. The week before last we talked
about them making the golden calf. The golden calf and said
this is the gods that brought you up out of Egypt. And God
told Moses exactly what was going on down there. He was way, way
up on that mountain. He couldn't hear. When they started
down, that's when they started hearing the noise. But God told
him exactly what happened. And he said, now Moses, get out
of my way, I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill them
all. And Moses interceded. He interceded. And I tell you
what, he stayed in God's presence. He's pleading God's grace. Pleading God's glory. Pleading
God's faithfulness to him. And his intercession was effectual.
God said, I won't destroy. I won't. I won't do it. And that's the way God is with
us with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I don't know about
you, but without Christ, God could not even look in my direction. There'd be nothing but wrath
and judgment and condemnation. but Christ sits at the right
hand of God and he ever lives ever lives to make intercession
for us wonder how many times he interceded for me today just
today indeed he's gracious ain't he he's gracious and he's coming
down from the mountain And he's very, very angry. He come out
from the presence of God and having communion with God. Getting
the law from God, the tabernacle, the pattern for the tabernacle
from God. And he came down, and it says
there in verse 19, as soon as he came down to the camp that
he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot. That's what God said, his anger.
Oh, he asked God not to be angry with him. And he cast the tables
out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. The law was
broken right there as he saw these people. And so he goes
from interceding to being a judge. Goes from being a mediator, taking
God's anger off of them, and then he comes down to now being
a judge. And that's how, how can this
be? Well, our Lord Jesus Christ said
this, He says, The Father judges no man. He's committed all judgment
unto the Son. He that honors the Son, honors
the Father. He that honors not the Son, honors
not the Father. And you can go to Revelation,
you see the Lord Jesus Christ's eyes like fire, feet like brass, with a rod in
His hand, And He executed judgment on all those churches in Revelation
except one. Except one. And that's what He
done. He's gonna be the one that people
are gonna say, hide us. Hide us from the wrath of the
Lamb. From the face of the wrath of
the Lamb. Now how can a Lamb be angry?
He can be when He's God's Lamb. And that's how Moses is here
now. He was a mediator, now he's a
judge. But he's not like God, he's not a consuming fire. But
what he does, he reveals these people's sins to them, make them
see how hideous they are, and he executes judgment on them. And this judgment is to correct
them and to make everybody else know that if you do this, this
is what will happen to you. That's what Paul said over in
1 Corinthians 10. He said, these things are written
for our example. They sat down to eat and rose
up to play. And so this is written for our
Lord. And you know, and so our Lord
Jesus Christ, He come in Revelation exposing the evil. And he exposed
the idolatry. And that's what Moses is doing
here. So let's start at verse 15 and
go down through these verses together. First we had the grace
of God when God was up there on that mountain and Moses and
God brought them out of Egypt. Now we see the government of
God, just government of God. And Moses turned and went down
from the mount and the two tables of the testimony were in his
hand. The tables were written on both
sides, front and back. On the one side, on the other
were they written, front and back. And listen to this, and
the tables, tables of stone now, were the work of God. This is
God's work. This is God's work. And the writing was the writing
of God. God himself wrote this down.
And so when you talk about God and people talk about the law,
God himself wrote this down. This is God's work. And I know
one thing, and we'll see here in a minute, when he broke those
tablets, he broke those tablets, that work of God that he was
going to bring down and tell the people. When he broke those
tablets, beloved, I'm telling you, people got in trouble then,
real trouble. And thank God that we had a mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Joshua heard the noise
of the people as they shouted, he was hearing them shout, shoutinging,
making a great noise. He said unto Moses, there's a
noise of war in the camp. There's a war going on down there.
And he said, no, no, no. And you know why he know? Because
what God told him up on that mountain. And he said, it's not
the voice of them that shout for mastery because they're winning
the victory. Neither is the voice of them
from cry from being overcome crying for being whipped in the
battle But the noise of them that sang do I hear? and all when he came down there
and saw them that calf and The dancing that went on around that
calf. I mean they were dancing around
that calf He took those two stones He took those stones written
on this side and on this side and on this side and on this
side. He had them. Carried them like a book. And
he seen those people and he got so angry he just broke them. Broke them. And that's where
those folks from that day forward stood on the broken law of God. And I tell you what, I'd rather
stand anywhere as there. Hey man, and I tell you what,
these tables of stone, they announce the righteous, righteous requirements
of God Himself. This was God's work. God cannot
ever set aside His law, no matter who breaks it. Even Moses broke
it, but God could not set aside His requirements of His law. And here, you know, the scripture
says, You know that to mock God is to be deceived. And these
people were mocking God. They were actually mocking God.
And so listen, and God brings this law down. And the first
thing they have to do with is a God who is angry at a broken
law. And then look what happens now.
In verse 20. And he took the calf. You know Moses came down, what
a spectacle. Came from the very presence of
Jehovah. Pleading for the people. And
to return and see such a gross, gross sinfulness. He got so angry. And let me go back to breaking
those tables. You know the scripture says to
offend in one point of the law is to offend in all points. There's
no way in the world. That's why I don't want nothing
to do with God's law. Paul said to the Galatians, ye
that desire to be under the law, don't you hear what it says? Don't you hear what it says?
You break one point of it. One point. Then you can't undo
that. Sin is a transgression of the
law. And whatever sin you commit in breaking God's law, you can't
go back and undo it. You can't stop it. You can't
stop the judgment. You can't stop God's requirements.
You can't stop God's holiness. You can't stop God's judgment.
And if men face God on the faces of the broken law of God and
call it a rule of life, anything they want to, they're bringing
their self back under God's law. And Moses, I tell you, you know
sin is a transgression of the law. And I wonder, I wonder,
now you just, you just wonder this yourself. This is what I
wonder. I wonder how many times a day,
a day, we all break God's law. Huh? Do you get out of, wake
up in the morning and say, oh, I love God with all my heart.
And then you know you get up and say I love my neighbor on
that side and I love my neighbor on this side and I love my neighbor
across the road. And I'm going to be as honest
as the day is long. I'm not going to thank any evil.
I'm not going to say any evil. I'm not going to do any evil.
I'm going to be like those three brass monkeys. I don't see, I
don't hear, and I don't feel. But oh my. It's a sad, sad thing. But now look what he says here
now. In verse 20. And he took the calf. which they
had made, and burn it in the fire, and ground it to powder,
and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel
drink it." You want your sin? You want your idolatry? You want your calf? Well, here it is. He grounded
his finest dust, poured it in water. Now you drank it. You
drank it. And I'll tell you what. And let
me show you. Look over in Deuteronomy 9. Look
in Deuteronomy 9. Verse 21. Well, 20 and 21. You know, in an idol, they made
this thing into an idol. John said keep yourself little
children from idols and he said here and the Lord was very angry with
Aaron to have destroyed him and I prayed for Aaron also the same
time and I took your sin see what he said I took your sin
the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and
stamped it, and ground it very small, even till it was small
as dust, and I cast a dust thereof into the brook that descended
out of the mountain." And over here it says that Moses made
him to drink it. And an idol, he said, oh they
had this idol, an idol is anything You know, keep yourself from
idols. Covetousness is idolatry. Now
what is an idol? What is an idol? It may be harmless
in and of itself. It may be harmless. I mean, an
idol, if you set up a statue, it's harmless in and of itself.
It can't do nothing for you. But if it takes the Lord's place,
if you put it in the place of the Lord, That when it's become
an idol. Anything that you put in your
heart, anything you put in your mind, anything you put in your
life that enters into your relationship with Christ and with God, that's
an idol. That's an idol. And if it absorbs
you, it's an idol. Anything that's given the first
place in my affections more than Christ, it's an idol. It may
be business. It may be a business somebody
has. It may be even a loved one that somebody has. It may be
even people who think, boy, I do so much for Christ. And they
said what they do for Christ up for an idol. I haven't missed
a Sunday school. I know a preacher, he said he
was on the baby's roll. Even before he was born, his
mother put his name on the baby roll. So when he was born, they
put his name down there. And they kept him on the roll
all of years until God saved him. And they made big business
out of that, big deal out of that, that this boy was always,
he was on the cradle row. That's what they call it, baby
row, cradle row. Cradle row. Already in the church and hadn't
even been born. That's idolatry. That's idolatry. Anything that comes in competition
with the Lord ruling over me, I know one thing God will do
just like Moses did here. He'll break it down and stomp
it till it's dust. And if you got it and you die
with it, he gonna stomp it down till it's dust. There won't be
no isles, do you? There won't be no isles. And
you know it. Now look here in verse 21, 23.
through 23 and Moses said unto Aaron now listen to this he addresses
Aaron now he's the one responsible for this he's the one who should
have maintained God's glory and honor and Moses said unto Aaron
what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great
a sin upon them oh my what did these people do to make you do
this Aaron? And listen to what Aaron says
now. You're talking about like Adam accused Eve. Look what he says here now. And Aaron said, let not the anger
of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest that the people,
that they are set on mischief. They're just mischievous. They
just wanted to play. They just wanted to have some
fun. They wanted to do some dancing. They wanted to have a big feast. Oh, they just mischief. Oh my. And see, for they said
unto me, make us gods which shall go before us. As for this Moses,
the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know
not what become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever
hath any gold, Well, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's go
back and mention this here. Aaron should have maintained
God's glory and God's honor. He should have. He's a high priest.
And how sad. There was Aaron. Now there was
no sense of the awfulness of the sin that he committed in
making this golden calf. He blamed it on the people. They're
mischievous people. There are people that's always
looking for something to do, to play. And like our Lord said,
they're like children sitting in the marketplace. If you sight
pipe to them, they won't dance. If you mourn, they won't mourn. So there's nothing you can do
to please these people. But Aaron, no signs of repentance
here. No signs of saying, Lord Moses,
I'm sorry. Oh God, I'm sorry. He never said,
Oh, I've done the wrong thing. What an awful thing that I've
done in making this golden calf. But instead he put the blame
on others. Put the blame on others. And
I tell you what, we have to make concessions to the people, you
know. You gotta make concessions, you know. You gotta let the people
have their way. And you know this is one of the
troubling things of our age is that preachers think you got
to be relevant to the culture in which you live. You got to
make yourself go along with the times as they are. And if the times, you know, you
gotta let the church become like the world. And the church won't
survive until we make ourselves relevant to the world that exists
today. Now I don't know what that means. I really, I know what they're
saying. They're saying we need to compromise to do whatever
we can. We gotta take Christ out of the
gospel. We've got to take grace and replace
it with works. We've got to give them coffee
shops to drink coffee in when they come. Give them donuts for
breakfast when they get here. Give them couches to sit on instead
of pews. Give them water and cokes to
sit and drink while they're in the services. Let them dress
any way they want to dress when they come in. Have no respect
for God. Have no regard for God. That you're in the presence of
God. We just want to make the folks
feel comfortable. You reckon these people felt
comfortable when God come down on them? Is that all God's for,
is to make people feel comfortable? Is that all Christ is for, to
make people feel comfortable? To make us feel at ease? To make
us relevant? Well, that's what Aaron's doing
here. He said, you know, I had to make
concessions to these people. And all see the difference between
Moses and Aaron? They're both brothers. They're
brothers. Aaron feared the people. Moses feared the Lord. Aaron
makes excuses for himself. Moses comes down and willing
to face 600,000 people. If he has to face them by himself. What a difference. What a difference.
And here he comes to execute judging on them and to maintain
what was due God himself. Then look what Aaron said here
in verse 24. He said, I said unto them, whosoever
hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me. Now listen to this. Then I cast
it into the fire, and there came out a calf. You see the absurdity of compromising
with people, trying to justify yourself, trying to acquit yourself,
no sorrow, no repentance, no grief. You know they was worried about
where you was Moses and they wanted something and I said give
me your gold and he throwed it in the fire, whoop, out popped
a can. Oh my! He tries to deny all spit
responsibility. He told out an outright lie.
He made that calf and then the scripture said he engraved that
calf. He engraved that calf. Great
was his sin, great, great was his sin, but wondrous, wondrous
was the mercy of God to him, not to destroy him. You know
why I just read it to you over in Deuteronomy? Because I heard
God was going to destroy Aaron, but I prayed for him also. And
I tell you this situation calls for drastic, drastic action.
Now look here in verse 25. And now listen to this now. And
when Moses saw that the people were naked, You know how most
folks say this, it's naked. That's how Bruce and Craig would
describe it, they'd say, it's naked. And the people were naked. That's
the way they said it. I'm not trying to be funny, but
that's the way we say it. But they were naked. For Aaron
had made them naked under the shade. I'm sorry. Then Moses stood in the gate
of the camp, and said, Whosoever is on the Lord's side, let him
come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves together unto him. Look at the condition of these
people. Not only are they dancing, but they're naked. Naked. naked to their shame. He says
to their enemy's shame. To the shame among their enemies. They were immoral, sensual, fleshly
in their idolatry. Now can these people be turned
to repentance? Can they be returned to soberness?
Can they undo this awful, awful thing that they've done? Moses
said who is on the Lord's side verse 26. Let him come unto me
I'm standing right here If you're on the Lord's side get over here
Get over here and that's the way Christ is when you're on
his side you get up close to him and And I tell you Moses
was the sinner that everybody gathered around. And Christ is
God's sinner that we all gather around. And listen to what happens
now. And all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves unto him. Who's on the Lord's side? No
time for concealment now. No time for compromise. When
apostasy is this bad, there's no neutral ground. Our Lord said,
he that's not with me is against me. And he that gathers not with
me scatters abroad. And I'll tell you what, there's
no neutral ground here. He that's on the Lord's side
is such a time that you're either for me or against me. And that's
what Moses said here. If you're on the Lord's side,
get over here. And that's exactly what's going to happen when our
Lord Jesus Christ comes again. You know what he's going to say?
These sheep over here on my right, they're on my side. They're my
sheep. He's going to put the goats over here on the left hand
side. There's going to be a great separation.
And that's what's happening here. There's a separation. Got to
be a separation. And all these people profess
to be God's people. Oh, they're dancing naked, but
there must be a separation. And Moses' cry makes it manifest. And all that's on the Lord's
side gathers around Him. And all that's for Christ and
all that's for Christ, they gather around Him. He's God's center.
He's the sum and substance of it. And then look what He says
now in verse 27. The Levites, they came unto Him
together. They were the ones that were
overcomers. and look what they said he said unto them thus saith
the Lord God of Israel this is what God said now put on every
man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate
through the camp go through every gate go through camp to camp
and slay every man his brother every man his companion every
man his neighbor oh my now you talking about a test Now I tell you what, God said,
get your sword, slay your neighbor. Get your sword, slay your companion. Get your sword, slay your brother. Now this is the way our Lord
put it. He said, if a man loves father,
mother, brother, sister more than me, he's not worthy of me.
That's what he said. And you say, whoa, this is an
awful thing to do. Are we going to let our family
keep us from Christ? Would we let our family keep
us from Christ? Would we let our companion keep
us from Christ? Would we let one of our brothers
keep us from Christ? Would we let one of our neighbors
keep us from Christ? And that's exactly what Moses
is saying here. You cannot be on God's side and
have an idol. You cannot be on the Lord's side
and go out here and dance naked. And so I'll tell you what. Nature's
against this. Sentiment's against it. Reason's
against it. But every man put on his sword.
And then look what happened. and the children of Levi did
according to the word of Moses and there fell of the people
that day about 3,000 you know on the day of Pentecost
that's exactly how many people were brought to Christ 3,000
God slew 3,000 here you say boy that's an awful judgment that
ain't nothing compared to what it's going to be when Christ
comes absolutely nothing Absolutely nothing and then look what he
said for Moses said now here he says this Moses said Consecrate
yourselves today to the Lord even every man upon his son and
his brother and Here's what he said that he may bestow upon
you a blessing this day now I tell you I don't want nothing, and
I know you don't either. Not a family member, not a neighbor,
not a son, not a daughter, not anybody we know would want to
separate us from our relationship with Christ. And if we see people
doing that, we see the world the way it is, and we say, God,
have mercy on this generation, Because we know when this is
said and done, what you're going to do is going to be awful. Make
people as comfortable in this world as they can because this
is the only world they're ever going to live in. And I'd rather, I'd rather, what
they said this morning, I'd rather have Jesus than the riches of
this world than be a king over a great old man. Because there's
nothing, nothing, nothing we want between our souls and Christ.
Right? Amen. Our Father, oh blessed Savior,
Lord, your ways are past finding out. But we always know they're
right. We know they're just. And Lord,
when you arise, When you rise off your throne, and you come,
and the judgment is set, O Lord, let us be found, as Paul said,
in Christ. Let us be found in Him, not having
any righteousness of our own in any way. but be found in Christ
with his blessed, glorious, precious righteousness alone. May you
make it so. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for Christ. Thank you for grace. Thank you
for God's people. Lord, thank you. Amen. Amen. Let's stand and sing 303.