Every now and then I'm asked
to go someplace that our folks are aware. Folks might not have
heard anything like what I preached before. And somebody asked me,
sir, are you going to be comfortable there? And I'll respond, I'm
going to be comfortable. They might not be. And I'm sure
comfortable here. We go back a long ways. I thank
God for your friendship. 42 years ago, a little more than
that, first time I stood preach to you folks. I remember the
first thing that happened very well, with a mayhem sitting behind
me, and I got up to say, open your Bibles or something. And
when I did, Brother Henry jumped up and grabbed the microphone,
been way down under the pulpit, and he said, I forgot to tell
you, this young man learned to whisper in a sawmill. At along about that same time,
oh, I was 26, 27 years old, Brother Charlie Payne preached a sermon.
I don't remember anything about it except the title. And we've
used it so many times, I can't forget the title. He preached
to you from Exodus chapter 32. The title of the sermon was Blame
It on the Flame. Some of y'all might remember
it. Every time something goes wrong in a bar or a shop there,
I look at each other and say, blame it on the flame. But that's where
I want you to turn to tonight. Exodus 32. The pastor was kind
enough to read it for me before the message. The Soldier Bible
is open in Exodus 32. The heart is deceitful above
all things who can know it. How we prove that incessantly,
day by day, the heart is deceitful above all things who can know
it. Brother Eric read to us back
in pastor study Hosea 14, the very last line of the chapter,
speaks the righteous walking in the way of the Lord, and the
wicked shall fall therein. Because the heart is deceitful
above all things, who can know it? How deceitful, how fickle
the heart of man is. When Moses read the book of God's
law to the children of Israel upon Mount Sinai, back in Exodus
24, the congregation spoke in immediate response with unanimous
voice. And this is what it said, all
that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient. Less than
six weeks later, we come to Exodus chapter 32. while Moses was in
the mount receiving the heaven-lit pattern for the tabernacle. Moses
was in the Mount of God and God showed him all the redemptive
work and glory of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
he said, now you show this in picture. And he gave him the
candlestick and the mercy seat and the Ark of the Covenant,
table of showbread and the brazen altar and the altar of incense
and the veil and all those things pertaining to the tabernacle,
all of it together. portraying God's salvation and
God's glory revealed in that salvation by Jesus Christ the
Lord. While Moses was in the mount
receiving that pattern to give instruction to the children of
Israel, Aaron and the children of Israel were awaiting his return. And they made a golden calf. Moses came back and he heard
the sound. what was going on. And Joshua
says that it sounds to me like some, some fellows who've been
at war and they've won the victory. Moses said, no, that's not the
sound. This is sounded men and women in revelry. They had made
them a golden calf and in their revelous idolatry, they're dancing
naked around the calf and they called it the worship of God,
worshiping the works of their hands. They called it the worship
of Jehovah. Now we know that even this sad,
sad portion of scripture and this sad portion of Israel's
history came to pass according to the will and purpose of our
God, that Israel might stand before us as a beacon, a warning,
an example, lest we should follow them in the pursuit of our heart's
lust. The Holy Spirit in first Corinthians
10 specifically tells These things happened that they might be an
example to you, lest you also fall in the pursuit of your heart's
lust. The scriptures are so very instructive
here. I want to just call your attention
to five lessons found in this record of the Golden Calf. Five
lessons from the Golden Calf. Here's the first one. We are
all, by nature, superstitious idolaters. We are all, by nature,
superstitious idolaters. Till the day she died, my mother
would make a statement, knock on wood. It's called superstition
and idolatry. Superstitious idolaters. But
while we smile at that, we also are guilty. The Egyptians had
among their many, many gods, the image of an ox, and they
worshiped the image of that ox. I can think of better things
to worship, but they worshiped the image of an ox. And it must
have been a very impressive image of strength because the Jews
remembered it and they made a replica of it as an image, only they
called it Jehovah. Can you imagine that? They took
an image of the Egyptians ox god and they said, this is Jehovah. Aaron said, these be thy gods,
O Israel. Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah. Look at verse one and two. When
the people saw Moses delayed to come down out of the mount,
the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said
unto him, up, make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this
Moses, I had Shelby read this to me coming down the road this
afternoon. She did amazing. After all that God had used Moses
to do for those folks, as for this Moses. And so this old man
Moses, we don't know what's happened to him. This man that brought
us out of the land of Egypt, we want not what's become of
him. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings,
which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, of your
daughters, and bring them unto me. Now, Aaron was obviously
a good orator. He was Moses mouthpiece, but
he wasn't a good leader. God's priest was responsible
to be a leader. Aaron failed miserably. God's priest was responsible
to lead his people. Aaron failed miserably. Here
I am, a pastor, a preacher. There sits your pastor. It is
our responsibility to lead God's people, never to follow them. Never to follow them, to lead
them in all things. The folks who were so avidly
supportive of Mr. Spurgeon's ministry used to call
him Captain, Captain Spurgeon. How come? Because he is the one
responsible for the sailing of the ship. God's servants must
be leaders. Aaron lacked backbone. He was
apparently one whose heart craved approval. I say that because
it's obvious the children of Israel knew they could manipulate
Aaron. They knew Aaron would obey their
wishes, their whims. They didn't ask him for counsel.
They simply said, get up and make us some gods. And immediately
Aaron complied willingly. The fear of man bringeth a snare. especially for men who are supposed
to lead them. Look at verses three and four.
And all the people break off the golden earrings, which were
in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them
at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tooth after he
had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods,
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
The psalmist records the history this way. They made a cast in
Horeb and worshiped the molten image. Thus they changed their
glory, that is changed their God into the similitude of an
ox that eateth grass. They forget God, their savior,
which had done great things in Egypt. Exodus 32 verses five
and six. And when Aaron saw it, he built
an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and
said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early
on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat
and to drink and rose up to play. At the very moment when the Lord
God was in the mount with Moses, ordaining Aaron to be his priest
with peculiar honors as the great high priest of Israel, Aaron
was aiding the Israelites in idolatry. Well might the Apostle
say, the law maketh men high priest which have infirmity.
The law maketh men high priest which have infirmity. But blessed
be our God Our great savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great
high priest is a priest without infirmity. Read about it for
a minute, just a minute. Hebrews chapter seven, Hebrews
chapter seven, verse 26. Such an high priest
became us. This is the kind of priest we
had to have. One who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and higher than the heavens. One who needeth
not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first
for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did
one time. When the Lord Jesus was made
sin for us, he died under the penalty of God's law, making
one sacrifice for sin when he offered up himself. For the law
maketh men, high priest, which have infirmity. But the word
of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the son who is
consecrated forevermore. Thank God we have a priest who
has no infirmity. Hold that. Harmless, undefiled. One touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, a man, so that he is able to succor them,
they're tempted. But one who has no corruption,
no evil, and no weakness. adding insult to insult and blasphemy
to blasphemy, Aaron and the children of Israel called their sin, their
sin. They called it the worship of
the triune God. The spirit of God describes their
religion and their ceremonies and their activities in these
words. They sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. That's a pretty good description
of man's religion throughout history and especially today.
I didn't pay any attention as I was coming in to Ashland today,
but I suspect you've got several buildings in this town and around
it that used to be called church buildings. Now they're called
family life centers. That sounds so wonderful, doesn't
it? because the people in their idolatry sat down to eat and
drink and they rise up to play and they call it worshiping God.
Lasciviousness, foolishness always accompanies idolatry. Idolatry
is filth and it always leads to filth. And so the commandment
is flee from idolatry. Well, pastor, how does that apply
to us? Every form of religious imagery is idolatry. Every form. Every form. If it represents
something that's supposed to be spiritual, religious, or heavenly,
it's idolatry. Every addition to the worship
of God is idolatry. Doesn't matter what you put in.
Every mixture of false religion with the worship of God is idolatry. Every effort of man to mix the
works of his own hands with the glory of God is idolatry. Read the scriptures one more
time. As you go throughout the Old Testament scriptures, men
engaged in idolatry. Do you remember how it's described?
The work of their hands. The work of their hands. The
work of their hands. The work of their The gods they
worshiped were gods made by their hands. And every effort to mix
the work of your hands with the work of Christ our Redeemer is
idolatry. What was it that these people
did that cost the lives of 3,000 of them in one day? What was
their crime? They kept the feast of the Lord.
They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings as God required.
They used the strongest images possible to represent Jehovah's
might and power. They spared no expense. This
was a huge calf made of gold. They spared no expense. They
ascribed their deliverance from Egypt to Jehovah, their golden
calf. That didn't make the calf Jehovah,
and that didn't lessen their idolatry, but it eased their
minds and consciences, and especially Aaron's. What did they do that
was so terrible? They worshipped the work of their
hands and called it the worship of God. They worshipped themselves
and called it worshipping God. Here is Paul's description of
Antichrist. You see him setting himself up
in the house of God, demanding that men worship him as God. What is that? It is the work
of all free will works religion, call it badness, Buddhist or
papist, it doesn't matter. When men ascribe to man power
that belongs only to God, when men ascribe to man work that
belongs only to God, it is nothing but antichrist and it's idolatry. Men ascribe to man the power
of salvation. Men ascribe to man the power
of redemption. Men ascribe to man the power
of atonement. Men ascribe to man the power
of salvation. Men ascribe to man the power
of righteousness, to his will, to his work, to his decision.
I had a Baptist preacher in my office. Oh, this had been 40
years ago, close to 39 years ago. And he asked me, what's
the difference between what you preach and what I preach? And
I took the time to tell him. And I said, if I understand this
correctly, this will just summarize the whole thing. I said, you
believe that Christ, when he died, made it possible for all
men to be redeemed, justified, and saved, but it didn't actually
redeem, justify, or save anyone, but rather made it possible.
And man, by his faith, gives efficacy to the blood of Christ
for his salvation. He said, yes, that's right. I
said that's damning heresy. That's a false gospel. That's
called idolatry. So it is with the idolatry of
our age in all parts of the land. God save us from the religious
idolatry that runs deep in the depraved heart. The love of self-righteousness,
the delight of will worship, the sweet bondage of legality
and works religion. The Apostle Paul speaks plainly.
He said to the Philippians, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous, but you flat need to hear it.
For you, it's safe. Beware of dogs, especially the
one with collars. You'll get that in a minute.
Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Folks
who subdue and mutilate their bodies to make themselves whole. Beware of folks who circumcise
themselves or are circumcised to make themselves righteous.
Folks who go through certain disciplines to the flesh to make
themselves nearer God. The concision. We are the circumcision. We are God's true covenant people. We are the men and women who've
been born of God, circumcised at heart, which worship God in
the spirit, worship Him in the deep recesses of our souls, in
our hearts, and we worship Him in the spirit of God being born
again and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That is, we place the whole of
our confidence in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and place no confidence
in the flesh. No confidence in who we are,
where we came from. No confidence in what we know
or what we've experienced or what we've done. We rest in Christ
alone as our all before God, our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption. Beware of this horrible tendency
to idolatry. Flee from it, oppose it in yourself
all the time. Second, Israel's sin was horrible. It was inexcusable. Their idolatry
can't be justified or lessened by any consideration. But in
verses 7 through 14, we see that Israel was spared because Israel
had a mighty intercessor with God. Israel had a mighty intercessor
with God. Hear me, my friends. The wrath
of God we deserve has been turned away by one, one whom God ordained,
one that God raised up, one whom God accepts as our representative
and mediator, one who is himself God in the flesh, Jesus Christ,
our Lord. This is beautifully portrayed
in verses seven through 10. And the Lord said unto Moses,
get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of
the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned
aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They
have made them a molten calf. and have worshipped it, and have
sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, O Israel,
which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 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, and that I may consume
them, and I will make of thee a great nation. These Jews fully
deserve God's wrath. They were corrupt and wicked,
more corrupt, more wicked than the Egyptians God destroyed in
the Red Sea. These were people like you and
me, far more deserving of God's wrath than multitudes who've
gone to hell before us. They corrupted themselves with
a willing hand, not only with their natural depravity, they
corrupted themselves, looking out for ways to make themselves
more vile. They turned aside quickly out
of the way God had revealed to them. They made a molten calf. They worshiped the calf. They
called their handmade God, Jehovah, our Savior. They were stiff-necked
people. They would not bend. They would
not bow. Lord God said to Moses, Moses,
get out of my way. I'll destroy these people and
I will make of you a great nation. Oh, and Moses intercedes for
them. He said, Lord, destroy me and
spare them. Destroy me in their stead. Look at verse 11. And Moses besought
the Lord, his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax
hot against thy people? God had said, I'll destroy your
people, thy people. Moses said, no, Lord, they're
your people. Your people which you brought forth out of the
land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Wherefore
should the Egyptians speak and say? Notice how Moses argues
with God. I'm not talking about arguing
in rebate, I'm talking about pleading his call before God.
He said, why 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 thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel. That's a strange way to speak.
We almost always say Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, don't we? Remember
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. God remember you called him Israel.
You turned him from a deceiver to a prince with God. You turned
him from one who is a debauchery spreading man to one who is a
man of grace and peace. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, thy servants. to whom thou swearest by thine
own self, and saidst 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 repented of the evil which he thought to do unto
his people. Now, I don't have to tell you
of this congregation. You've been taught, you're instructed
better by your pastor. No, God didn't change his mind.
but he appeared to. No, God didn't alter what he
purposed to do, but it appeared so. God threatened to destroy
the people, but he never intended to destroy them. Because you
see, the Lord God had given them an intercessor before ever they
transgressed. So it is with us. So it is with
The Lord God provided a mediator, an intercessor, a substitute
long before we transgressed in our father Adam. Surely it is
the spirit of God's intent that we hear lose sight of Moses and
behold him of whom Moses was a type, our Lord Jesus Christ. He saw that there was no man
and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his own
arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness, it sustained
him. And notice the arguments Moses
uses here. Giving God reasons why these sinful people should
be spared. Lord, they're your people. They're
your people. You redeemed them. Thy people,
which thou broughtest forth out of the land of Egypt, and your
name's at stake here. Your honor is pinned to the salvation
of these people. God Almighty has pinned His honor,
His glory to the saving of His people. I had just been overwhelmed
with that thought in the last several months. God's glory. We like to use religious words
and religious expressions. We talk about God's so holy. Holy. He's whole. In the totality of His being,
He's distinct from everything and everybody else. That's called
holiness. Sanctification. God's glory. God's glory is wonderful. Set
forth in this your kind of glory. You know what God's glory is?
God's glory is the saving of your soul by His Son. God's glory
is pinned to the salvation of his people. When you get to Exodus
40, this tabernacle, God designed it so that one man could raise
it up in one day. And Moses did. Because Christ
promised, I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. And he
did. And when Moses raised up the
tabernacle, he couldn't enter because the glory of God filled
the tabernacle. Now hear me, hear me. The glory
of God is revealed in the saving of sinners by the merits of Christ. That's where it is. That's what
Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. That's what John saw. That's
what Ezekiel saw. That's what every sinner comes
to understand in the experience of grace. How we thank God for
our all glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who like Moses,
stands in the breach for us. The psalmist said, nevertheless,
he saved them for his namesake. He said, therefore, he said that
he would not, he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen,
stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest
he should destroy them. and he remembered for them his
covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his tender
mercies. Now here's this third lesson,
verses 15 through 19. It's given to us in vivid, clear
symbolism. God's broken law demands and
will have satisfaction. God's broken law demands and
will have satisfaction. I have, in recent months, had
a good bit of correspondence from people who have gotten smarter
than me and smarter than God, too, and they want to take you
to task for preaching eternal judgment, eternal damnation.
They say, no, no, no, no, no. When the ungodly die, it's all
over. There's no such thing as eternal punishment. You think
God would create men just to send them to hell forever? Read
what God says. God says the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And in not talking about mere
physical death, God punishes sin forever. Deny eternal judgment,
eternal punishment, and you deny the necessity of the atonement. Paul said he denied the resurrection.
He said the resurrection is already past. That's a denial of the
whole gospel. No, no, no, no. Don't ever give in to this idea
that somehow or another God's not life. He says he is. The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. And the reason hell's eternal
is that you can't, by all that you suffer of the wrath of God
in infinite darkness and damnation, in the pit of separation from
God in everlasting death. You can't, being isolated in
the company of multitudes, alone in the company of multitudes,
in bitterness with a gnawing conscience in the company of
multitudes, cursing you and you cursing them. You can never satisfy
the justice of God. That can only be done by one
work, by one man at one time. by a man who is God. Jesus Christ,
the Savior, satisfied the justice of God. Look at verse 15. 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
their 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, graven upon the tables. And when
Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said
to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. And he said,
it is not the noise of them that shout for my strength. Neither
is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the
noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass as soon as
he came nigh to the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing
and Moses' anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his
hands and broke them beneath the mount. Did you ever wonder
why Moses was never reprimanded for that? Why? He took the law written
in tables of stone by the finger of God and threw it down and
smashed it. He saw the reveling of the children
of Israel. And he cast God's law to the
ground. By this action, he displays that
God demands and God works perfection for his own. God demands and
God works righteousness. God demands and God works eternal
salvation. His broken law, I repeat, demands
satisfaction. But God alone can repair the
law that man has broken. You can't do it. You can't perform
righteousness. You can't perform holiness. You
can't pray your way into God's favor. You can't reform your
way into God's favor. Only God can perform what he
requires, the requirements given in his law. Walk before me and
be holy for I am holy. Be thou perfect for I the Lord
thy God am perfect. And Bob, God won't take anything
less from you or me. Perfection, holiness, righteousness. He won't take anything else.
Now, these tables are the broken law. Do you know where you find
them? God gave the law to Israel again
on tables of stone, and they demanded that they put in the
Holy of Holies an ark of the covenant, covered with a mercy
seat, where the blood of atonement is from God. Stick the law right
there. Stick the law right there. The
whole thing is accomplished by the doing and dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior. I'll come back to this in a minute,
but let's look at this fourth thing. There's no reconciliation
to God until in our hearts we justify God against ourselves. I want to tell you something. I hear folks who lose their conviction
when someone close to them dies. You may think your son gets killed,
robber of a bank or gets killed in a drug overdose, or wife gets
killed doing something in rebellion, or husband, or mother, or father.
And how could God? Oh, God told me this. If ever
you take sides with God against yourself, you won't have trouble
taking sides with God against everybody else. If ever you find yourself rightly
judged by God, you will recognize the righteousness of God in the
judgment of anyone of us. Anyone of us. Let's look at what
he said. Exodus 32 verse 20. And Moses
took the calf which they had made, and he burned it in the
fire, and ground it to powder, and strode it upon the water,
and made the children of Israel drink of it. Moses said unto
Aaron, what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so
great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger
of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that
they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, make us
gods who shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what's
become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever
hath any gold, let him break it off. So they gave it me. Then
I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And
when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made
them naked to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood
in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let
him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves together. Moses took that calf and ground
it to powder and scattered it on the water. And he said, Now,
drink your iniquity. And each man had to take his
sin and drink it, confessing his guilt, his sin, and the just
judgment of God upon the people. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned and done this great evil in thy sight. There's no
salvation for any sinner until he takes his place before God
as a sinner. No salvation for any sinner until
he acknowledges and confesses his sin. Not his sins, though
that's included his sin. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. How do you do that? Some of you
can remember days when folks would be called down to the front
of the church to the altar or morning bench and they confessed
they sold a watermelon or they cheated on a test or they lied
to a neighbor or something, you know, confessed their sin. You
know, it's what you do. You come clean with God. Open your heart. and acknowledge what you are. Nothing but evil. Nothing but
corruption. No goodness. Just sin. Just sin. I can't do that. I know you can't.
I won't do that. I know you won't. Unless God
shows you your sin. And if God convinces you of your
sin, believe him not on his son. you will confess your sin and
cry like the publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now, in verses 27 through 35,
we learn this fifth thing. The children of Israel were spared
because satisfaction was made by a legal atonement. He said
unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man
his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate
throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every
man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children
of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell
of the people that day about 3,000 men. For Moses had said,
consecrate yourselves today to the Lord. Even every man upon
his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow upon you a
blessing this day. And it came to pass on the morrow
that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin, and
now I will go up unto the Lord per adventure. I shall make an
atonement for your sin. And Moses returned to the Lord
and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made
them gods of gold. Yet now, If thou wilt forgive
their sin. Pastor, I can't think of another
place in our translation where there is a long dash used, can
you? It's as if Moses said, no way, let me, let me be sure I
know what I'm saying here. If thou wilt forgive their sin,
and if not blot me, I pray thee out of thy book, which thou hast
written. And the Lord said to Moses, whosoever hath sinned
against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore, now go
lead the people into the place of which I have spoken unto thee.
Behold, mine angel shall go before thee. That angel, I hope you
know who he is. Nevertheless, in the day when
I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued
the people because they made the cake which Aaron made. None
were spared except those for whom intercession was made. And
all were spared for whom intercession was made. None were spared except
those for whom Moses made intercession. And all were spared for whom
he made intercession. So it is with our great intercessor. None are spared, God's wrath,
except those for whom He makes intercession and blessed be his
name. The father hears him pray his
dear anointed one. He cannot turn away the presence
of his son. All are spared for whom Christ
makes intercession for whom he made intercession as our covenant
surety before the world was. for whom he made intercession
as he went to the cross of Calvary, for whom he made intercession
upon the cursed tree, for whom he makes intercession to this
day at the right hand of God on high. How sweet are the waters
of forgiveness flowing from a satisfied God. Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice
of himself, has fully satisfied the justice of God. With one
tremendous draft of love, he drank damnation dry. Do you remember what you read,
Eric, back there in Hosea 14? God said, all right, I'll forgive
him. For I have turned my anger from
him. I have turned my anger from Him,
Him who bore the wrath of God for them, Him who was made sin
for them, Him who died for them, Him who satisfied the justice
of God for them, Him who makes us the very righteousness of
God in Him. Moses made a symbolic atonement,
but atonement could only be made by one great substitute, our
Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us under the curse of God's holy
law, being cursed when he was made sin for us. God in justice, God in justice, drew forth his
dreadful sword and slaughtered his son in the fury of his anger. He says to Jacob, fury is not in me. Fury is not in me. Fury is not
in me. You understand those words? Here
I am. A man who is nothing but sin, who can do no good. No. And God Almighty never, listen
to me now, God Almighty in all his strict holiness, justice
and truth, never has a reason be angry with me. She does. You do. Not God. Not God. Beauty is not in me. Justice is satisfied. Oh God
give you grace to trust his son. Take sides with God against yourself
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and go home justified. Forgiveness flowing freely from
God who has no reason to be angry with any sinner for whom Jesus
Christ has died. Amen. Well, that's the gospel. As simply
and completely as it can be preached in one sitting, that's the gospel. I'm so thankful I was here. God
gave us faith to believe it. I thought as Don was preaching,
I remember 41 years ago when you were preaching. I remember
it. I didn't believe it then, but I remember it. And from then
until today, 41 years later, this tells you something. His message hasn't changed. Not
a whip, it hasn't. But the gospel hasn't changed.
And those of you who are around here 41 years from now, the Lord
hasn't returned, you seek out this gospel that you heard preached
tonight, you find it. You make it your business to
be under it. You make it your business to hear it. Because
that's how God saves sinners. It won't change. It simply won't
change. Ever. And throughout eternity,
it won't change. That's the gospel. Let's bow
in prayer. Our God, how we thank you for
this clear declaration of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ that
we've heard preached tonight. Father, I pray that you give
us faith to believe, that you give us faith to believe the
Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver us from in our sin and
our rebellion over-complicating matters. And know I'm the sinner
that needs a Savior. Run to Christ the Savior. Father,
give us that faith, I pray. Father, I ask that you bless
our brother Don. Bless him and Shelby as they
travel back home tomorrow and continue to bless that ministry
in Danville and places that you've allowed Don to go preach. Father,
bless. Bless in a mighty, special way, we pray. Thank you for the
Friendship we've had all these years. Pray that you'd bless
our time of fellowship to go this evening. It's in Christ's
blessed name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's turn now
to 216. We'll stand as we sing, please.