The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Have we proved those words every
day? The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Every man's heart. every depraved
human heart, yours and mine, your children and mine, your
wife and mine, your folks and mine. The heart is deceitful
above all things, treacherous, and who can know it? when Moses read the book of God's
law to the children of Israel. He'd been on Mount Sinai. God
had given him the word of the law, and Moses came down and
read it to them. The children of Israel spoke
quickly, spoke very quickly. And they responded in unison
as one man with one voice, all that the Lord hath said will
we do. and be obedient." They heard the reading of the
law, the law that you and I read and wonder how anyone could presume
to keep it. And when they heard the reading
of the law, they with one voice unanimously stood before Moses
on Mount Sinai and said, we can do that and we will do that. All that the Lord hath said we
will do and will be obedient. Less than six weeks later. Less
than six weeks later. That is just a little over five
weeks. They're still on Mount Sinai.
And Moses is up in the mount. They're down at the bottom of
the base of the mount waiting for him. Moses is up in the mount
receiving the revelation of God's salvation by the pattern given
in the heavens, the picture of the tabernacle. He's receiving
the revelation of God's salvation and grace for sinners in Jesus
Christ in all that's portrayed in the tabernacle. And just about
the time the revelation is finished, just before Moses comes down
from the mount to give them God's word and to go about the business
of setting up the tabernacle, the children of Israel are found
dancing naked around a golden calf, calling it the worship
of Jehovah. We've just read about it. I asked
Brother Larry to read the text in Exodus chapter 32 because
it's a bit lengthy, but I want us to look at all 35 verses tonight
and see what God the Holy Spirit intends for us to learn by recording
this dark, dark, dark picture of idolatry in the history of
the chosen nation of Israel. Lessons from the golden calf.
That's the title of my message. Without question, even this sad
portion of Israel's history came to pass according to the will
of God and by the purpose of God. I don't mean any suggestion
that they are excused from their guilt. They're not. I don't mean
by that statement that in any way the children of Israel are
not responsible for what they did. They were indeed. And those
in hell today will tell you they were. But God's will is never
overturned. God's will is always performed. And we know by divine revelation
that this event in the history of Israel came to pass for the
benefit of God's elect, you and me, right now, to teach us something. Listen to this. You can look
at it later. 1 Corinthians 10. Now, these things were our examples
to the intent, that is, for this purpose. that we should not lust
after evil things as they also lusted, neither be ye idolaters,
as some of them, as it is written," Brother Larry just read it back
in Exodus 32, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose
up to play. He's talking about this right
here, this right here. Now all these things happened unto them
for in samples. They are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Here's the
first thing. Hold your Bibles open on your
laps at Exodus 32. Here's the first thing. We're
taught here this fact. And I can't tell you how I have
labored with this fact in preparing this message. We are all superstitious idolaters
by nature. That's the nature of fallen man. We are all superstitious idolaters
by nature. We poke fun at superstition as
long as it's not one that gets too close to us. But we are all
superstitious idolaters by nature. And all superstition is but a
form of idolatry. It is but a form of idolatry.
We joke about things about luck, good and bad. We joke about things
we just, you know, you feel better if you do it this way, do it
that way, don't go there, don't do that. It's all superstition
and idolatry arising from the corrupt hearts of fallen men. It's demonstrated clearly here
in the book of Exodus chapter 32. The Egyptians worshiped hundreds
of gods. They had gods for everything.
One of their greatest, most prominent gods was in the form of an ox. They chose the form of the ox
for its might, its strength, a powerful representation of
God. And the children of Israel learned
to worship the ox while they were in Egypt. And now, here
they are. They've been delivered out of
Egyptian bondage. They've crossed over the Red
Sea. They've received the law given at Sinai. They've seen
God perform wonders one after the other already. And here they
are now, when they come to wait before God at Sinai, and they
produce the replica of an Egyptian ox, God, and they call it Jehovah. They call it Jehovah. They call
it Jehovah our Savior. They call it Jehovah our gods. I think there's clearly an implication
there of the three-in-one God Jehovah represented in this ox. That's what they're pretending.
They pretend while they're dancing naked before this golden calf
that they're keeping a feast to the Lord Jehovah who brought
them out of Egypt. These be thy gods, O Israel,
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Verse 1. When
the people saw that 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, what a way to speak of Moses. As for this Moses, what
Moses are you talking about? The one who risked his life for
you? You're talking about the one
who sacrificed everything for you? As for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't have
a clue what's become of him. We want not what's become of
him. And Aaron said to them, okay. It's just that simple. All they had to do was come to
Aaron and suggest to Aaron, now we're looking to you instead
of Moses. And Aaron said, well, give me
your gold and we'll see what we can do. You see, Aaron was
a much better speaker than Moses, a much better orator than Moses,
a much more appealing man than Moses, but he wasn't anywhere
near the man Moses was. He lacked character and he lacked
backbone. He was led by his sister to mock
Moses over his choice of a dark woman to be his wife. And he's
now led by the children of Israel to lead them in the worship of
God through idolatry, calling it the worship of God. Aaron
is here one who obviously is brought in a snare by the fear
of man. He could be manipulated and the
children of Israel knew it. And so Aaron took their gold
and he fashioned them God. this golden calf. And they said,
verse 4, at the end of verse 4, these be thy gods, O Israel,
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. In Psalm 106,
you can look at it later. In fact, I encourage you, if
you want to clearly understand Exodus 32, read at one setting
these 35 verses with Deuteronomy 9 and Psalm 106. In Psalm 106,
the psalmist says, they made a calf in Horeb, in the land
of Horeb, in this place of great revelation, in this place where
God had done so much. and worshiped the molten image.
He doesn't say they worshiped God, they worshiped the calf.
Thus they changed their glory. They changed the glory of God,
the invisible God. They changed the glory of God
who revealed himself in miraculous works through that Passover lamb
and through delivering Israel. They changed the glory of Jesus
Christ. They changed their glory into
the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. Now you and I can hardly fathom
how utterly contemptible that language is. They change the
glory of God into the image of an ox that grazes a dumb, worthless,
brute beast that feeds off grass all the time. They call this
God. They forgot God their Savior. which had done great things for
them in Egypt. In verse 5, back in Exodus 32,
when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, before this
calf. He cast in the gold and he melted
it all down and he took his tools and made a fine calf and he saw
that calf he had made. And man, I never saw such a piece
of workmanship. I never saw anything like that.
Oh, look at this calf. Look at these hands. He saw it
and look what he did when he saw it. He said tomorrow he made
an altar before it and he made a proclamation and said tomorrow
is a feast to the Lord, a feast to Jehovah. and they rose up
early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and they brought
peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink
and they rose up to play. At the very moment Moses is in
the mount receiving instructions from God about how to adorn Aaron
with the priestly garments, and the mitre, and the breastplate,
and all the various things that went along with those priestly
garments, and how he was to set Aaron apart from all the children
of Israel, Aaron and his sons, to be priest unto God. How that
he was to anoint Aaron, and how he was to take blood and put
some on his right ear, and some on his right thumb, and some
on his right toe, so that Aaron's consecrated to God as his high
priest in a remarkable way. At that very time, Aaron is leading
the children of Israel in the worship of a golden calf he had
made. Now, I hear fellows argue about
what God's people can do and what they can't. Quit arguing. If God leaves you to yourself
for just a little bit, you'll be right here with Him. And me,
too. Me, too. God makes men priests
on the earth who have infirmity, Paul said. But thank God there's
another priest who's holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners, higher than the heavens, who has no infirmity. Not one
after the flesh, but one ordained and chosen and made of God to
be our high priest forever, Christ Jesus the Lord. Adding insult
to insult and blasphemy to blasphemy, David and the children of Israel
call their sin, and that's what God calls this golden calf, their
sin, their sin. He calls their sin Jehovah. He calls their sin Jehovah. He
called the golden calf Jehovah. God called that golden calf their
sin. He calls their sin our God and worships it. The Spirit of
God describes the religious ceremony like this, they sat down to eat
and to drink and rose up to play. I can't think of a more contemptible
way to describe religious activity, can you? And that exactly describes
the religious activity of the whole world. and sit down to
eat and drink and rise up to play. Anytime religion is dictated
by men, any group of men, it is false. Three times in this
book, three times, you find the people of God led in worship
by the will of the people. Here, Aaron is leading the people
according to their will. They come to Aaron and say, Aaron,
we've had a beating together, and we've decided that you need
to make us some gods so that we can worship our God and we
can follow our God because we don't know what's happening to
Moses. And Aaron does what they require, and he makes them a
god according to the will of the people. And they wind up
dancing naked around a golden calf. David was going to bring
the ark of God up to Jerusalem. A good intent, a good thought,
but he consulted with the people. and said, what do you think about
this? Oh, David, this is a good thing to do. He consults with
the people and he brings the Ark of God, not as God required
in the law, but in a pompous ceremony, a great act of pageantry. And he winds up with Uzzah laying
in the ditch and the Ark of God in the house of Obed. How come? Because we sought him not after
due order, the Lord made a breach upon us, David said. And then
in Acts, after Judas had committed suicide, Peter decided to have
a meeting with the church. And we got to choose somebody
to take the place of this man, Judas. He's lost his bishopric.
We know according to the Psalms, somebody's got to take his place.
Rather than waiting on God, they played spin the bottle and chose
an apostle God didn't choose. The apostle Paul was the apostle
to replace Judas, not Matthias. The will of men never judges
rightly. I don't mean occasionally, I
mean never judges rightly. Human opinion is never right
with regard to spiritual things, but always wrong. Here the children
of Israel choose to worship God after their own will in their
own way. And thus they wind up in lascivious
foolishness following their idolatry. Idolatry is filth. always leads to filth. Idolatry
is spiritual filth and it always leads to moral filth. I again
urge you read what I'm telling you in Romans chapter 1. The
Apostle Paul speaks of the degeneracy of the age in which he lived,
and he could not have more accurately described the day in which you
and I live right here than he does in Romans chapter one. And
he says the reason is to be traced to the doorstep of idolatrous
freewill religion, men worshiping the works of their own hands.
And that's the source of God's judgment or the cause of God's
judgment upon the society in which we live. Every form of
religious imagery, is idolatry. Here they have this golden calf
and they call it Jehovah. The papist will tell you that
we don't worship the crucifix. No, it's just an image by which
we worship God. Try taking one from them. Just try taking it. Doesn't
matter what image you have, images of crosses, or images of Jesus,
or images of angels, it's all idolatry. And I promise you,
the folks who cherish the image, worship the image, not Jehovah
they claim to represent. Every addition to the worship
of God, be it what it may, is but idolatry. Doesn't matter
what you add to it, it's just idolatry. It is the whim of man
he adds to the worship of God. Every mixture of false religion
with the worship of God is idolatry. This is what these Jews did here.
They just mixed together the Egyptians' religion and their
religion. The Egyptians' religion and what
they had learned thus far from God. And they now call it the
worship of Jehovah. Every effort of man to mix the
work of his own hands with God. And that's what free will works
religion is. Not just mixing the work of your
hands and mixing what you do with the work of Christ. It is
mixing who you are and what you are with God himself so that
the creature is set up in the house of God demanding that men
worship him as God in the place of God. And thus we have it all
around the world in our day. In every place around this world
where the men and women do not believe the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace, they worship man and not God and call it the
worship of God. For they make everything dependent
upon the will and worth and work of man. What was it that these
people did that cost the lives of 3,000 men? What was their
horrible crime? They kept the feast to the Lord.
What could be wrong with that? Well, surely that's not bad.
They offered burnt offerings to the Lord. Surely that's not
bad. They brought their gifts to the
Lord of peace offerings. They used the strongest image
they could think of to represent Him. Surely those are good things. They ascribed all their deliverance
out of Egypt to Jehovah. They didn't say Baal brought
us out. They didn't say one of the gods of the Egyptians brought
us out. They said Jehovah brought us out. And he's represented
here in this ox, this golden calf that we have made. What
did they do that was so terrible? They worshipped what they had
made with their own hands and called it God. That's exactly it. They worshiped
themselves and called it worshiping the Lord. So it is with the idolatry of
our age. God save us from religious idolatry. That idolatry that runs deep
in every depraved heart. And it takes the form of self-righteousness. It takes the form of will worship.
It takes the form of legalism. It takes the form of works religion.
Paul, turn to Philippians chapter three, if you will. Hold your
hands here in Exodus. Turn to Philippians three. Paul's writing to the Philippians
and says, Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice
in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me, indeed,
is not grievous, but for you, it's safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of dogs. Now, he's not
talking about the kind that run the streets and the dog catcher
picks up. He's not talking about the kind
that you go down to the kennel and get for your child. And he's
not talking about any other kind of physical dog. He's talking
about preachers, dumb dogs, love to slumber, can't bark and they're
blind, dumb dogs. There's a passage in Deuteronomy
that forbids bringing the price of a dog into the temple. Does
that mean you can't raise beagle hounds and sell them? No. No.
Does that mean you can't raise great danes and sell them? No,
that's all right. That's all right. Well, you can't tithe
on that. That's another story, but that's not what it's talking
about. It's talking about male prostitutes. Don't bring the
price of a dog or of a whore into the house of God, he says.
He's talking about male prostitutes. Those men who prostitute God's
glory and prostitute the gospel of God's grace for their own
gain, beware of them. Beware of them. And that's what
people do. I look at it, Lord willing, soon
in Malachi chapter two. I haven't neglected that. I'm
working on a message about priests who deal treacherously. Dogs. Beware of dogs. These dogs who
prostitute God for gain. Beware of them. They're called
evil workers. Evil workers. You mean preachers
and priests and prophets and religious folks? Yeah. Evil workers. Beware of the concision. Paul's
talking specifically about folks who cut themselves. The circumcision. people who abuse themselves,
people who torment their bodies to make themselves holy, people
who teach you to abstain from this, that, or the other to make
yourself good, people who teach you to practice Lent or fasting
or something else so that you can get close to God, get God
to do what you want him to. Beware of dogs. evil workers
that teach you to cut yourself, to mutilate your body in order
to be holy. For we are the circumcision. We are God's covenant people
which worship God in spirit. Worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. We we trust him. We're confident
in him who alone is righteousness and redemption, who alone is
our life and our sanctification. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in any work of
our hands. No confidence in anything we
do. No confidence in the mightiest,
most costly golden calf we can produce. No confidence. Read on, Exodus chapter 32. Israel's sin was horrible. It was inexcusable. Their idolatry
can't be justified or lessened to any degree by any consideration. But in verses 7 through 14, we
see that Israel was spared because of one thing. They had a mighty
intercessor who took their part before God. Moses intercedes for them. Let's read these verses together.
Verse seven, the Lord said to Moses, get thee down, go get
thee down for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land
of Egypt. have corrupted themselves. They've turned aside quickly
out of the way which I commanded them. They've made them a molten
calf and have worshipped it and 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 to Moses, I've seen
this people and behold, it is a stiff neck people. Now, therefore,
let me alone. That is, Moses apparently has
already been begun to intercede for me to let me alone, that
I may that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume
them and I will make of thee a great nation. These folks fully
deserve God's wrath. They were more corrupt, more
wicked, more vile, more base than the Egyptians who were slain
at the Red Sea. These folks had seen God's wonders
performed in Egypt. They had seen the wonders of
the Red Sea. They'd come out of the Red Sea, across the Red
Sea and come out of Egypt by God's mighty hand. They'd seen
God perform wonders for them. And now they make their golden
calf and mock and blaspheme God. The Lord said to Moses, said,
just get out of my way. I'll kill them all. I'll kill
them all. Now, when the scripture speaks
here of God repenting, as we'll read in just a moment, it's not
talking about God changing his mind, but rather God changing
his way of working. changing his act before men. The Lord God doesn't change,
but he often changes his display of himself. And Moses' prayer
here is just as much a part of God's will as was the beginning
of this day when Israel made their molten calf. And God's
working by Moses' prayer as well as by his own purpose and revelation. Read him verse 11. Moses besought the Lord his God,
and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot? Now look how he
reasons with him, against thy people. Oh, these are your people. You chose them. You named them
as yours. He says in verse 12, wherefore
should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring
them out? He said, Lord, your name is penned on these people.
Your honor depends on their salvation. Your glory depends on bringing
them into the land like you promised. He says, turn from thy fierce
anger, thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people.
Turn from your wrath. Turn from the display, the outpouring
of your wrath. Verse 13, remember, remember
Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Remember your covenant, Lord.
And in verse 14, when Moses got done, the Lord repented of the
evil which he thought to do unto his people. Surely the Holy Spirit's
intent is that we should lose sight of Moses in this place
and behold him of whom Moses was but a type. the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior. This is how it is described by
Isaiah. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there
was no intercessor. Therefore, his arm brought salvation
unto him and his righteousness. It sustained him. All right,
back here in Exodus 32 again. How we thank God. for our all-glorious
Christ who, like Moses, stands in the breach for us, intercedes
for us. But in verses 15 through 19,
we see thirdly a vivid, clear symbolism that shows us that
God's broken law demands satisfaction. Moses went down from the mount
with these two tablets of stone in his hand. The book here tells us that these
are the work of God with the commandments written by the finger
of God. And as he goes down, Joshua says
it sounds like folks are singing. And Moses said it didn't sound
to me like they were singing about war. Something going on
down there. And he walked up and saw them
in their naked revelry around that golden calf. And before
all of Israel, Moses takes the law and throws it on the ground
and breaks the tables of stone. But have you ever found anywhere
in the book of God where he is reproved for doing so? Not that. He's reproved for smiting
the rock when God said, speak to it. He's reproved for other
things, but not for this. Why? Because there's a vivid
symbolism here. God's broken law demands satisfaction. But this law that man has broken,
none can repair except God who wrote the law and God who gave
it. Now, come back to that in a moment.
But understand this next, verses 20 through 26. There's no reconciliation to
God in our hearts. until we justify God against
ourselves. Moses took the golden calf, which
they made, and he burned it with fire, and he ground it to powder. This is the meekest man who ever
lived, you know. This is meek Moses. Not the kind of meek folks think
about. Not pretentious religious meek. Meek because he knew he's
God's servant. Meek because he knew who he represented
and whose he was. And he takes their golden calf
and he burns it and he grinds it to powder and he strolls it
in the water and he gets dippers. And he said, drink your God.
Drink your God. Drink him up. Your God is nothing. this God you have made, the works
of your hands. It is nothing. Just drink it
and pass it through you. It's nothing. And so the children
of Israel take their sin and drink it to themselves and thus
side with God against themselves and not just against themselves.
For when you side with God against yourself, You side with God against
your son, and your daughter, and your husband, and your wife,
and your mother, and your father, and your neighbor, for all are
in the same boat we're in, desperately wicked. And Moses said, who's
on the Lord's side? Come stand right here. Put your
sword on your side. We've got some business to take
care of. and they went out the Levites and slew three thousand
men. Brothers and sons of these very
men who are slaying them and these who are standing here watching
the process, drinking their sin. Now fifth, Not only does God
demand satisfaction and we must take sides against ourselves
with God and thereby consecrate ourselves to him. God almighty
satisfies himself. The children of Israel were spared
because satisfaction was made, made by a legal atonement. None were spared except those
for whom Moses made intercession. Hold your hands here and rather
than reading this last portion of Exodus 32, turn to Deuteronomy
9. Deuteronomy 9. Verse 17, Moses says, I took
the two tables and cast them out of my two hands and break
them before your eyes. And I fell down before the Lord
as at the first 40 days and 40 nights. like I know of another
intercessor who fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. I did neither
eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins which you sinned
and doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to
anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith
the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord
hearkened unto me at that time also. And the Lord was very angry
with Aaron to have destroyed him. It is amazing, it is amazing,
of all the people to be spared on this occasion, of all the
people to be spared, Moses prayed for Aaron and God spared Aaron. How often Moses prayed for Aaron
and God spared Aaron. He says the Lord was angry with
Aaron to have destroyed him. And I prayed for Aaron also the
same time. And I took your sin. You see
how God speaks that calf? The calf which ye had made and
burnt it with fire and stamped it and ground it very small,
even until it was as small as dust. and I cast the dust thereof
into the brook that descended out of the mount. I took your sin and I threw it
in this stream of water that's flowing down from the Mount Sinai
and said, drink it. And as you drink your sin, You drink the sweet water of
forgiveness flowing from a satisfied law because that's what's represented
in what follows here. Moses intercedes and he says
to the Lord, Lord, either forgive them or blot me out of your book. Either forgive them or take me
out of your book. And God says to Moses, you won't
dictate to me what I do. He said, whosoever hath sinned
against me, him will I blot out of my book. Well, how could this sparing
be done? How could Aaron and all of Israel except for those
3,000 on that day be spared? Because God Almighty has won. upon whom he has laid the sins
of all his people, by whom justice has been satisfied, by whom the
law has been completely repaired, and when he made him sin for
us, he blotted out our transgressions, put them away forever, and now,
flowing from the stream of the mount of God, as we are made
to take sides with God against ourselves, confessing our sin. At the same time, we drink in
the sweet waters of free, full forgiveness through a justly
crucified substitute who was made sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Oh, thank you, blessed
God. Thank you, blessed Lord Jesus. Thank you, blessed Spirit of
God, for making known in our hearts the sweet revelation of
your grace in Jesus Christ, our Lord, by whom our sins have been
put away. How can we express our gratitude?
Forgive us for the lack of gratitude for him who knew no sin, but
willingly was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Lord, now we acknowledge what
we are. We acknowledge your justice and
your truth. We fully deserve your wrath.
But oh, how we rejoice to acknowledge forgiveness through our crucified
Redeemer, Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.