You know, when we look at chapters 31, or 32
through 34, they're parenthetical chapters. You can look there
in the last verses of chapter 31, where Moses is up on the
mountain. Verse 18, he's up on the mountain
with God communing with him. and two tables of testimony,
tables of stone, written with the finger of God. And so, there's
going to be lots of things between chapter 32 and 34 that we're
going to deal with, especially about God and His grace, how
He deals with people, how Moses is the mediator and the prophet
that wants to stand between them and God from absolutely and absolutely
destroying them. And you know, God's been on,
Moses's been up on the mountain, and he's up there, and you notice
when we went through the tabernacle, what God gave him the pattern.
He stayed up on that mountain a long time, and God gave him
the patterns for that tabernacle. And he came down with that, told
them all what to do, and how to do it, and how to make everything
about the tabernacle, the dress, everything about it. And how
to make all the vessels. And he made the people know the
revelations that God had sent him. But here, the tabernacles
interrupted. Here we see what went among the
congregation of Israel. While Moses was up on that mountain, you know what this bunch done? They made him a golden calf.
He said, this is our God. This is our God. Huh? Oh, here's
the sin of Aaron. The sin of the whole congregation.
And it's mentioned in the book of Acts. This very thing. It's
mentioned in the book of Acts. And it's mentioned in... You know, I can't remember a
quick word else that's mentioned, but it's mentioned. in a lot
of different places. But here we see their leader,
their prophet, their mediator is all. Communing with God. Fellowshiping with God. Getting
God's Word, getting God's revelation to bring down off that mountain
and give it to them. We see God's condescending grace
to come down and speak with Moses. God spoke with Moses as a man
face to face. And then you turn around and
while he's up on that mountain enjoying God, communing with
God, getting God's word, getting God's revelation, we see what
they do. We see the awful depravity and
sinfulness of fallen man. And oh, I tell you what, we'll
get over here where it says the Lord said, I'll have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. I show mercy unto thousands of
generations. And so we said he will raise
the poor up out of the dunghill. Set him among princes. So we're
fixing to get in some glorious, glorious things here. But here
are these people gathered together. Gathered together. And they're
often an abomination what they did. An absolutely abomination. God had just gave them the tabernacle
and told them what all was going to be in the tabernacle. This
is how you worship me. This is how you approach me.
You've got to have a priest. You've got to have a sacrifice.
You've got to have a brazen altar. You have to have them dressed
just right. You have to come and confess
your sins. And the blood is going to be
applied. And they sprinkle the blood on the people. So these
people, God provided for them a place and a way of worship. Told them just exactly how to
do it. And then, then, they turn around, turn right around, and
manufacture themselves an idol. Tim James said one time I heard
him preach and he said you know we have an imagination and he
said you know what imagination means the word means image that
means you conjure up images in your mind. He said this is a
God factory. That's what he said. The appearance
that they make one image after another of God right out of their
mind. And that's what these people did. They got in their minds
and created themselves a God. Made him with their own hands.
Made him out of gold. That made him very valuable.
And oh, they made that golden calf and then they bowed down
before it to worship. You know truth is stranger than
fixing. God said this in Ecclesiastes
7.29. God made man upright, but he
sought out many inventions. Sought out many inventions. And
I tell you what, there's gonna be, you know, you go through
the scriptures, God told them to sanctify themselves. God came
down, they said, oh, we don't want God to speak to us, let
him speak through Moses. And so here they come. And oh
my, they, you know, we found them murmuring time and time
again against God and Moses. And look what it says here. And
when the people saw, that Moses delayed to come down out of the
mountain. Now, it wasn't Moses delaying
himself. God has some things to say to
him. He's up there with God Almighty. He's up there with God, speaking
with God, and communing with God, and getting God's Word.
He said, and the people gathered themselves together to come up
to Aaron. Aaron, they got all around Aaron.
Aaron is Moses' brother. He was a spokesman for Moses
when they went down to Egypt. And they said, get up, get up
Aaron. Make us gods which shall go before
us. And listen to what they said
about Moses. Ask for this Moses. This Moses. That's what they
said about Christ. This man, we know his father,
we know his mother. Why are you going to stone me
for it? Because you make yourself to be God. And I tell you, they
come down there and said, oh listen, who is this Moses brought
us up out of the land of Egypt? Ah, we don't care. We don't have
a clue what's become of him. We may never see him again. And
they didn't like Him to start with. You know how many times
they was found murmuring against Him? You brought us out here
to kill us. You brought us out here to start
us to death. You brought us out here that we go thirst to death.
And every time they complained, God gave them what they wanted.
They wanted food, He gave them food. They wanted meat, He gave
them quails. They wanted water, He gave them
Christ the rock. And He smoked that Christ, mowed
that rock. So everything that they wanted,
they wanted to eat, they needed something to wear, they needed
something to drink, they needed something to... And God gave
them everything they wanted. And gave them somebody that could
lead them and guide them. And they turned and said, what
in the world is this man Moses? We don't know where he's at and
don't may never see him again. And oh, they blamed Moses. If
Moses had been here, we wouldn't have done this. And I tell you,
they looked at Moses. Blamed Him for not being there.
Blamed Him for not coming back down off that mountain. Blamed
Him because He's up there with God. And they'd already told
Him, don't let God speak to us, let Him speak to you, Moses.
And they showed contempt for Him. Contempt for Him. And I
tell you, He gave them the Ten Commandments and here's one of
the first ones. He says that thou shalt make no image No image
of me. Huh? But here's what man has
to do. Man in his depravity. He must
have him an object that he can look at. Huh? Make us gods. Not just a god. Make us gods.
One ain't enough. We got to have two or three or
four. And oh my. And Aaron said unto
them, break off the golden earrings which did the ears of your wives,
and your sons, and your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all
the people took them off, brought them to him. He told
Moses, he said, I throwed it in the fire, and out come a calf.
That's what he told Moses. What are you doing? What did
you do, Aaron? He said, well, I throwed that gold in the fire,
and a calf come out. But it says here that he molded
that calf and then he took a graven tool to it and took all the rough
off of it, all the rough edges off of it. But the human, oh,
you know, they would rather have an object that they can see and
touch and taste and handle than to have the true invisible God. Men will always create him an
idol. And this is man at his best. He read it tonight in the
study. He said, man at his best state
is altogether vanity. You go down through history and
man without grace has always made himself an idol. He's made
him one after another. You know the greatest idol he
made of himself was his free will. That's the greatest title
that man has given himself in this world. His ability to make
God at His will. God can't do anything unless
He lets Him do it. That's the biggest title that's
in this world today. In religion, you go ask a fellow,
I'll guarantee you this, and I'll tell you this, and you ask,
you ask anybody. Next time you stop at a gas station,
you ask a fellow. Say, listen, do you go to church
anywhere? Say, no. Say, well, if you was
going to go to a church, what would you want them to preach
and what would you want them to believe? And I'll bet you, if I was a
bad man, I bet you a cow and a calf to a dollar and a half,
he'll tell you just exactly what the average free will Baptist
preacher says. Because if God is going to save me, He's got
to let me have all the power. I want to go where God is God
of love. I want to go where God is good. I want to go where God lets me
make all the decisions. I want to go someplace where
He can't infringe upon my will. I've got to have the power. I've
got to have the goodness. I've got to have the merit. I've got to have the choice. And if I don't get my choice,
I don't want to go places where I can't have my choice. I'll
tell you where we made our choice at. The whole human race made
their choice in Adam in the Garden of Eden. That's where we made
our choice at. And then we made it again when
the Lord Jesus Christ was on this earth. He said, we'll not
have this man to reign over us. And the Lord said, you will not
come to me. And I tell you, the human heart
lusts after what can be seen. What they can get their hands
on. Gary was telling us tonight, there's a place that he's been
at. He counted how many pictures
of Jesus? 26 pictures of Jesus on the walls
in this building. And then he had a shelf over
here that had all these relics on there. And they had Buddha
sitting right there with all the pictures of Jesus. And the Buddha and Christ is
not even... Well, there ain't no difference
to them. I mean, it don't make any difference. I mean, you go,
get a rabbit's foot. Oh, listen, I got a rabbit's
foot. Let me get my rabbit's foot out
here. Get my lucky charm out here.
Oh, I'm telling you. Oh, they lust after what can
be seen. They're not like Moses who endured
as seeing Him who is invisible. And everything about God and
all about God is invisible until He makes Himself visible to you. And He hadn't made Himself visible
to this bunch of people. And when men don't have faith,
you know what they do? They get out their pocket knife
and they go to whittling. And they whittle them out of
God. And I tell you some of the gods they whittle out. They whittle
them out of cross. They whittle them out of cross.
And then they took a pitiful man and put him on that cross. And they either hang him around
their neck or they put him in their ears or they put him in
their cars or they hang him on their wall. And if that ain't
enough, they gotta have a picture of Jesus with a crown of thorns
on him, with his face looking down, and they put that on the
back of their automobile. And to let you know how much
God's a God of love, they put John 3, 16 on the back of it. And the preacher has to put clergy
on the back of his bumper. And that's what these folks done.
I tell you what, oh God have mercy. I tell you, if God's made
himself known to you, we would have been just like these people
right here had not been for the grace of God. You know, we had
a God of self-righteousness, God of works, a God of living
right, God of dressing right. They got a God, you know, that
if you wear a black hat and wear a beard and wear dark clothes, They're holy. And they got another
bunch of... So we all listen. Our gods are
speaking in tongues. And we know all about this business. You know, we got to speak in
another language. And that's the only way we know we got the
Holy Ghost. And then we got to turn around and we got to have
another God that's got to sanctify us. Then we got to have another
God that's got to keep us. And then if we decide we want
to go back to sin again, we got to start all over again. Y'all remember when they used
to make recaps? That's what I think people happen when they go back
and they get recapped. And the recap don't last very
long. But all this and that's what
men do. Oh my. They get out their graven
tools and they go to work and they produce them a golden calf.
And that's why John said, little children, little children, keep
yourself some items. And when we talk about having
an object of faith, their object of faith was this golden calf.
He said, make us gods. Make us gods. But our Lord Jesus
Christ is object of real faith and true faith. He told his disciples,
he said, I'm going away. I'm going away. I'm leaving here. I'm going to go to the cross
and I'm going to be delivered into the hands of men. I'm going
to be crucified and I'm going to be betrayed by a man here sitting with me
right now. And some of you are going to
flee from me and some of you are going to deny me. And I'll
tell you what, they got worried. They got worried. They got to
feeling awful bad. And our Lord looked at them and
they were so long faced and they were worried and said, oh my,
what are we going to do? Kind of like Moses here. What
in the world was Moses? When is he going to come back?
And our Lord said, I'm going away. And they all got just so
sad and got so worried. Oh my, what are we going to do
if he leaves us? And you know what the first thing he said
to them? Let not your heart be troubled. Don't let it be troubled. Huh? You believe in God? Believe also in me. In my Father's house, and that's
where you're going, there's many, many mansions. And I'm going
to prepare a place for you. That's why I'm going away. And when I've prepared that place
for you, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to come right
back down here again. And I'm going to get you And
I'm going to take you to where I am. And how many of us has laid hold
of that one promise? And oh, and sometimes God keeps
that promise and comes and gets one. We'll say, the Lord kept
His promise to that one. And that's what happens. That's the object of our faith.
And those folks, you know, I'll tell you what, And we're kept
and Christ keeps us from idol making of our own. And Moses
was up there 40 days. And 40 when you find in the scriptures,
40 means a time of testing, a trying time. He was in the Moses in
the back of the desert 40 years. And upon the mountain 40 days.
Christ was tipped of the devil 40 days. That's a testing time, and you
know. And they brought Aaron down here.
They left Aaron and her to take care and lead the people. And
Aaron's put to the test. Aaron, are you going to stand
up? Honor God? Are you going to stand up in
your priesthood? Are you going to stand up and
bless God? Are you going to stand true to
God? Are you going to be real? Are you going to be a real man?
Are you going to be a man that stands up and witnesses for God
and defends your brother Moses? Instead of putting his trust
in the Lord and telling these folks, he said, we have one God. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one. And oh, instead of putting his
trust in the Lord, instead of boldly, boldly standing up and
withstanding these people, without any struggle, it didn't seem
like he even debated it, didn't even think anything about it.
He never said, now wait a minute, let's think this thing over.
Don't you remember coming through the Red Sea? Don't you remember
the Passover night? Don't you remember the miracles
Moses did down here in Egypt? But oh, he didn't do that. He
didn't do that. Oh my. First thing they said
to him, said, well, if you want a God, give me the gold. Give
me the gold. Pile it up here. Pile it up here. I read a story
this week. True story. I got out of somebody's
bulletin. That there was a man that was
extremely wealthy. And he was dying. And he asked
them to bring him a bag of gold. And they brought him a bag of
his money, a bag of gold, and laid it on his chest. And he said, take it away. It
ain't gonna do me no good now. Huh? Oh my. And that's what happened here.
And that said, y'all bring me that golden earring. Bring me
them earrings. And they brought them to Aaron.
And this says there in verse 4, He received them at their
hand. And got him out his graven tool.
Graven tool. After he had made it a molding
calf. He had a mold. Evidently they made him a mold.
And molded that calf. And then that's when he got out
his graving tool and went to putting the eyes in it and the
ears on it. And making it look like a calf. Instead of just something that
come out of a mold. And all he went to working on
that thing. And then he said, These be thy gods. These be thy gods. And listen
to what he says here. Oh Israel, which brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt. Could a calf bring anybody anywhere? A golden calf and not one that
doesn't even live? Look over at Psalm 106. Look
with me here. You know, You know David, look what it
says here in verse 19. And they made a calf in Horeb, and
worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory,
God's glory, Israel's glory, God's glory, Christ God's glory,
into the similitude of an ox that eats grass. Listen to this
now, they forget God, their savior, which had done great things in
Egypt. Oh my, so here he is, here he
is. And then he said, these be thy
gods. You remember when David was asked, David, where's your
gods? All those people around him,
they had gods. Lots of gods. When Jacob left his father-in-law
Laban's house, his wife and a bunch of them took their gods with
them, put them on their camels and hid them. And Laban went after him and
said, you've got my gods! You took my gods, you took my
idols, what am I going to do? And he went through everything
until he found them. And took them back with him.
What am I going to worship if you took it away from me? And oh, that's what Aaron did.
And in verse 5, And when Aaron saw this God, this golden calf,
Now he had graven, fashioned it. You know what he did? He built an altar to it. Built
him an altar. Built him an altar. And you know
it has to be made out of stone because he is going to offer
some offerings on it. They not only built an altar to a false
god. And they said to David, where
be thy gods David? We've got ours here with us.
And David said, Our God is in the heavens and He does whatsoever
He pleases. Uh huh. And oh my. He built an altar to it. And
that's what they, you know, they tried to sanctify it. They tried
to sanctify it. And look what they said here.
He built an altar before it. Before this golden calf. He built
this altar and set that golden calf up right in front of it.
Standing up there and he built this altar and here he goes and
then he made a great proclamation He proclaimed all of them. Oh
We're gonna have us a great great feast tomorrow. I mean, we're
gonna have a big time We're gonna have a wonderful time. We're
gonna oh my goodness. This God's have brought us up
out of Egypt We're gonna have the best time you can imagine
What a hallelujah time we're going to have. You ever heard
preachers say, Boy, the Spirit took over the services so much
I didn't even get to preach? Look what he went on to say here. Oh my, that's all you have to
do is have a feast to the Lord. Anything is alright as long as
you put some religion before it, Jesus before it. say Christ
before it or Christian in front of it. I'm going to say a couple of
things here and I hope it don't offend anybody. People say they
have these Christian schools. Now you tell me how a school
can be a Christian school. Can a school be Christian? You know where God's school is
at? Right here. But as long as they put Christian
in front of it, that's all it cares. That's all that matters. And then look what they did.
And this is what, it's over in 1 Corinthians 10, this very same
thing is up over in 1 Corinthians 10. And it says in verse 6, and
they rose up early. Oh, they got up early in the
morning. Well, we're going to have a big day today. We're going
to have a great big day. Oh my goodness, what a day we're
going to have today. Going to have us a big feast.
And they rose up early in the morning. Look what they did.
They brought a burnt offering and they brought peace offerings.
And what a horrible, horrible sin this thing is. This thing called sin is. to
offer sacrifices that were to prefigure our Lord Jesus Christ
and offer them to an idol. A burnt offering and a peace
offering. But I tell you an offering that they did not offer. You
know what it was? They did not offer a sin offering. You know why they didn't offer
a sin offering? Because they didn't need one. They didn't need a sin offering.
You know why? Because they're not sinners.
They got gods that they can pick up now and carry with them. Huh? Oh my. And they've offered their
offerings, they felt free to indulge the flesh. And look what
it says. And the people sat down to eat. Sat down to eat and to drink. And then they got up and went
to playing. And this is what actually happened
was they started, it says in another place, they actually
got naked. They took their clothes off and
everything and they just started having a great party. They started
having this incredible party. Oh my goodness, dancing around
that calf, whooping and hollering and dancing and raising up their
hands and giving it all that you know and oh, they're just
having a big time. Having a big time. But now I
want to tell you something. God knows everything that's going
on. Look what He said to Moses now. You think God don't... He's
up on the mountain communing with Moses and He knows exactly
what's going on down here too. Huh? And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go! Get down from here! For thy people
which you brought out of the land of Egypt, look what He said,
they corrupted themselves. corrupted themselves. It's bad
enough to be born with corruption, but then after you get old and
know about God, then you corrupt yourselves. And listen to what
else God said about it. They have turned aside quickly,
quickly, out of the way which I commanded them. Five months before, you know
what they were singing? In chapter 15, they were singing
the song of redemption. It's our great God. He brought
us up out of Egypt. He threw the horse and rider
and then He's our strength. He's our stay. He's our courage.
He's everything to us. Five months later, they got a
golden calf. And I tell you, He tells these
people, He tells Moses exactly what happened here. Exactly what
happened. He told them, he said, oh, they
turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, and
they made them a molten calf. How'd God know that? He wasn't
there. So, the next time you make an
idol in your brain, remember God's watching. He's up there,
and He's down there. God's everywhere. He beholds
the good and the evil, and His eyes run to and fro on the face
of the earth. And oh, he said, they corrupted
themselves. Listen here, they made them a
molten calf. Not only did they make them a
molten calf, but he said they worshipped it. He told Moses
they worshipped that calf. And not only did they worship
that calf, but they sacrificed to that calf. God's telling Moses
exactly what happened down here and what these people said and
what these people done. And then he said, do you know
what they said down there Moses? I'll tell you what they said.
These be thy gods O Israel that brought you out of the land of
Egypt. He knows what they said, knows what they did, why they
did it. And he says, you know what? They
did it against Me. I told them what to do. And they
did this. And while He was communing with
him, he saw all, and he heard all, and he did all. And then
it says, you know, there in verse 8. When I get back, I'll finish
this up because there's a lot more to this story. But it says
there in verse 8, they have turned aside quickly. You know how quickly
people turn aside from God? Adam turned aside quickly. Noah quickly failed after he
got out of the ark. Nadab in the bayou quickly built
a strange fire and offered it unto God. When it comes to what
humanity does, fallen humanity does, They do what God commands
them, they're not going to do it. And everything man lays his
hand to, apart from God's grace, is failure, failure, failure,
failure. And then look what he says in
verse 9. He says, Moses, behold, it is
a stiff-necked people. I have seen this people. They
are stiff-necked people. You know what stiff-necked means?
Opposition. Pride. Not going to bow, not
going to submit. It's rebellion, it's self-will. Stiff-necked. Pride. Opposed to you. Not going to bow. And that's
what Stephen said to him, you're a stiff necked bunch of people
just like God said and they stoned him to death when he said that.
And then look what he said to Moses, now therefore in verse
10, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against
them and I may consume them and I'll make you a great nation.
Oh listen, I'll destroy this bunch and I'll make you A great
nation. But look what Moses said. And
this is where we'll pick up next time. God's going to give them
what they just desert to their sins. He goes to destroy them.
And then look what Moses. He besought the Lord. You talk
about a picture of our Lord. God angry with us. God going
to consume us. God going to destroy us. He's
a consuming fire. Moses said, Oh Lord, Lord God,
why doest thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast called
them thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land
of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? We know how
you got them. We know how you saved them. And
listen to this now. Wherefore should the Egyptians
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 this
people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self,
and said 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 it forever. And the Lord said,
I won't do this, but he thought to do this people. And that's
what Christ did for us. What God would have done to us
outside of Christ. As Moses stood between them people
and God. They deserve for God to destroy
them. And every man deserves God to destroy them. But the
Lord Jesus Christ stands in the breach, stands between us and
God. And ain't you thankful that He does? He says, Lord, they're
your people. And you gave them to me, and
I'm going to give them back to you to keep them. Amen. Father, thank you again for your
blessed mercy. Thank you for your Word. Oh Lord,
keep us from idols. Keep us from anything that would
take the place of our Lord Jesus. Take the place of God Almighty.
that we would put in your place, that we would ever think for
a moment that something could take the place of our Lord, take
the place of His blood, take the place of His righteousness,
take the place of Your grace, take the place of the salvation
You brought in us. Keep us, O Lord God, from idols
and cause our hearts, our hearts to seek You earnestly and honestly
and humbly desire in you above all things in this world. Oh
God, help us for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? They're all taken away, away. Their sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away.