Chapter 32, I've entitled this message, It's
Not My Fault. You ever said that before? It's
not my fault. Chapter 32, And when the people
saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, that the
people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him,
Up, make us gods which 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 is become of him. And Aaron said unto them,
Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your
wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto
me. 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 tool, 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.
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 drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go get thee down for thy people, 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
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. Skip down
to verse 15. And Moses turned and went down
from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his
hands. The tables were written on both their sides, and 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 unto Moses, there is
a noise of war in the camp. And he said, it's not the voice
of them that shout for mastery, 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 unto 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 break them beneath the mount, and he took the calf
which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it
to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children
of Israel drink of it. And 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're set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us
gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not as
it will become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever
hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me, and
then I cast it in the fire, and there came out this calf." Verse 35. And the Lord plagued the people
because they made the calf which Aaron made. When Aaron is confronted by Moses,
what did these people do to you that caused you to commit this
great sin? His reply was, In verse 22, let
not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people
that they're set on mischief. For they said unto me, make us
gods which shall go before us. But as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what
is become of him. The modern translation is, It's
not my fault. You know the people, they're
set on mischief. That was true. They were set
on mischief. It was a wicked bunch, but out
came this calf. We threw the gold in the fire
and out jumped this calf. That was an obvious lie. Aaron
made the calf with a graving tool, but perhaps he forgot about
that detail. It's not my fault. Now that is our natural response
when we're in trouble. Shift the blame. It's not my
fault. This kind of thinking has been
around for a long time. Remember Adam? I just read that
passage of Scripture. Did you eat of the tree that
I commanded you not to eat? Notice his answer, the woman
that you gave me. The implication being, if you
had never given me this woman, this would have never happened.
The woman that you gave me, she gave me of the fruit and I did
eat. However, if you would have never
given me this woman, I would not have eaten. So the responsibility,
the blame ultimately is yours. He says that to God. Shift the
blame. That comes as natural to us,
every one of us, as it is to breathe. I'm going to tell a
little story about Ben Walmsley. I was glad when you came in.
Here's an example of shift the blame. Ben was just three or
four years old at the time. And we were in Aubrey's bedroom,
and Aubrey had this blue carpet, and there was this big pink wad
of bubble gum in the carpet. And I knew my daughter wouldn't
have done that. And I said, Ben, where did this gum come from?
He said, I think John did it. I said, Ben, John's not here.
He looked down. He said, I think Stephen did
it. I said, Ben, Stephen's not here. I think David did it. Ben, David's
not here. Now, fess up. Who did this? I
don't remember. Everyone's been there, haven't
we? Aaron was a believer. He's called in Psalm 106, verse
16, Aaron, the saint of the Lord. But what a weak man he proved
himself to be. He caved into peer pressure and
he committed a great sin. I want you to look at how the
Lord viewed this sin. Turn with me to Deuteronomy,
chapter 9. after he made this golden calf, Moses gives us some
information of some things that took place behind the scenes. We read beginning in verse 18,
he's telling the story of what took place, and he said, I fell
down before the Lord, as at the first, Forty days and forty nights
I did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins
which you sinned in 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. God said I'm going
to kill him. But Moses said, I prayed for
him, that the Lord would deliver him. So we see that the Lord
was very angry over this. Now Aaron refused accountability. He refused responsibility. The people, you know they're
set on mischief. That's the truth, isn't it? These
people were set on mischief. It was a half-truth. And then
out jumped this calf. Now when we say, it's not my
fault, we put the blame somewhere else.
It's somebody's fault, much like Adam did. Who did Adam blame?
He blamed God. The woman that you gave me, she
gave me of the fruit and I did eat. Quite often, people use
the sovereignty of God as a reason to deny accountability and responsibility. But all we do when we do that
is prove we don't really have any understanding of God's sovereignty. Turn with me for a moment to
Romans chapter 9. Hold your finger there, Exodus 32, and turn to
Romans 9. Verse 17. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Romans 9, 17. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, and I love the way it says that. God said that to Pharaoh. Well, the Scripture said it.
That means God said it. The divine authority of this
book. This is God speaking. God saith
to Pharaoh, the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my power in
thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
God says this is the purpose I raised you up. I raised you
up to destroy you, to show forth my power and my justice and my
sovereignty. Therefore, Hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth? Thou wilt
say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? If Pharaoh was
raised up by God to be dumped into the sea and to drown, if
God raised him up for that purpose, how can God hold Pharaoh responsible? How can he find fault with Pharaoh? I mean, God ordained this. It
was all part of his purpose. It was all part of his plan.
He controlled it all. How can he find fault? How can
he hold Pharaoh responsible? Thou wilt say unto me, why does
he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will?
If God wills something to happen, it's going to take place. Nothing
anybody can do about it. Who has resisted his will? And
I love Paul's answer. Nay, but, O man, who are you? to reply against God since when
are you in a state of moral superiority over God where you can say with
regarding what he does I agree with that or I don't agree with
it. Whatever he does is right and Pharaoh is completely responsible
for what he did. Now God is absolutely sovereign. What's that mean? That means
he has a will That means he has the power to make sure his will
always comes to pass and his will does in fact always come
to pass. He is the first cause behind
everything. That's God's sovereignty. Anything
short of that is a denial of God's sovereignty. God is sovereign
and men are completely responsible for what they do. Men do what
they want to do. You can't say the devil made
me do it. You can't blame God's sovereignty for your sin. Anytime
I sin and every time I sin, I do what I want to do. And anything I don't do, it's
because I do not want to do it. If you don't believe the gospel,
it's because you don't want to believe the gospel. It's not
because you're not elect. It's not because God won't have
mercy on you. It's because you do not want
to believe. If you do not obey God, there's
only one reason why you don't obey God. because you do not
want to obey God. We all do what we want to do. You believe that? It's so. If I believe the gospel, it's
because I want to believe the gospel. If I come to Christ,
it's because I want to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. We do
what we want to do. God is absolutely sovereign.
Absolutely. You can't take it too far. You
can't overstate it. It's impossible to overstate
the sovereignty of God. He's absolutely sovereign. And
men are completely responsible. Those two truths don't conflict.
I can't bring them together. I'm not worried about it. I'm
really not worried about it. It doesn't bother me a bit that
I can't intellectually bring them together. They're both true.
God is sovereign. And you and I are responsible. We're not fatalistic. And we're
not free willers. We believe what the Bible says.
Now, Aaron, the saint of the Lord, has failed to take responsibility
for his sin. Now, what I want us to consider
is some of the problems that come from that way of thinking
and that statement, it's not my fault. And I guarantee everybody
in here has grappled with this. It's not my fault. How can my
sin be my responsibility if God is absolutely sovereign? How
can I be held responsible? Every one of us has said the
same thing Paul anticipated we'd say in Romans 9. Thou wilt say
unto me, why does he yet find fault? How can he do that? Now,
when we say, it's not my fault, we call God a liar because he
says, it is my fault. James chapter 1 verses 13 and
14 says, let no man say when he's tempted, I am tempted of
God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted
when he is drawn away, listen to the language, when he is drawn
away of his own lust and enticed. You see, all my sin is my fault. I can't blame my mom and dad.
I can't blame my upbringing. I can't blame my environment,
although all those things come into play. I realize that. But
still, all my sin is all my fault. I can never say the devil made
me do it. I cannot say God and His sovereignty was the first
cause behind my sin. Therefore, I should not be held
responsible. My sin is my fault. It's all my fault. Now, let's
carry this out. If my sin is not my fault, then
there's no personal guilt. I'm not guilty. If it's not my
fault, I don't really have any guilt before God. I've told you
this story before, but it bears repeating. I remember one time
that there was, I read a book entitled, Blame It on the Brain,
because I wanted to see why people were saying, you know, that these
chemical imbalances and so on affect people. It affects their
emotions and it affects their way of thinking. And indeed it
does. Indeed it does. And the premise with the book
is, although all those things are real, it's still never an
excuse for sinful behavior, which I thought was a very good premise
for all that. But at any rate, I was reading the chapter on
head injuries. And head injuries do, in fact, cause people to
change their personality. I had a buddy that was in a motorcycle
wreck. And he was a criminal after that because of this severe
head injury. And I've had some severe head injuries. I've got
a shunt in my brain right now. I've got a big dead spot in my
brain. That explains what's wrong with me right now. You all know
that. I've got this big area right like that. I've fallen
out of a barn right on my head. I've been knocked unconscious
three times. And I mean, I've had some serious, so y'all understand
what makes me tick. But I remember I was reading
that about head injuries. And for a moment, I thought,
this explains it all. It's not my fault. And I felt
good. Oh, I felt good for about five
seconds. Then I thought, I bit the hook. I bit the hook. You see, if I say regarding my
sin, it's not my fault, then there is no true and genuine
confession of sin. You see, confession of sin is
taking sides with God against myself. And I certainly don't
do that if it's not my fault. I think of David's confession. David said against thee, and
thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when you speak, and be clear
when you judge. Whatever you do is right. Now
you can't, David didn't say now my, I was born in sin and I can't
help it, therefore I shouldn't be held responsible. It's not
right, it's not fair, nothing like that. No, he confessed his
sin was all his fault, and God would be absolutely just in damning
him. That was his attitude. It's all
my fault. The prodigal said, I've sinned
against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called
thy son. If I say it's not my fault, I
can't ask for mercy. Now think about this. If it's not my fault, I cannot
ask for mercy. When I ask for mercy, I say it's
my fault. I'm guilty. And the only hope
I have is mercy. But if it's not your fault, you
don't need mercy. Mercy is for people who are blameworthy. For people who don't deserve
anything but justice. Can you imagine that? Publicans. in the temple, if he said, God,
be merciful to me, the sinner, because my sin is not really
my fault. Therefore, I should have mercy. It's really not that
bad. If this hadn't taken place and that hadn't taken place,
I would have never done it. Therefore, mercy is an entitlement
to me. What's God going to say to that?
Do you think God's going to respond to that? There's no humbling of ourselves
before God if our sin is not our fault. If it's not my fault,
there's nothing in my experience of what the scripture calls godly
sorrow over sin. If it's not my fault, I'm not
sorry. I mean, I hate it that it happened, but if it's not
my fault, there's no godly sorrow over sin. True, genuine sorrow
for sin is impossible if, after all, It's not my fault. When I say it's not my fault,
I'm not being honest. I'm telling a lie, just like
old Aaron did. Out jumped this calf. That's
the biggest lie ever told. But he fabricated that lie. It's not my fault. You see, honesty
is the confession of sin. It's all my fault. If it's not
my fault, I failed to move God to pity me. Now, listen real
carefully. Grace. God's reason for grace
is found wholly in Himself. He doesn't give you grace because
you're sorry. He doesn't give you grace because you admit to
guilt. He doesn't give you grace because
you need grace. He gives you grace because He's
gracious. That's His very nature. He's
gracious. That's an attribute of God. I've
heard people say, Must be just. I've even said it. God must be
just, but He may be gracious. No, God must be just and He must
be gracious because that's His nature. He delights in saving
sinners. Grace, God doesn't have to find
a reason in you to give you grace. Isn't that encouraging? Aren't
you happy for that? God doesn't have to find one
reason in you to give you grace. He does it simply because He's
gracious. But mercy is moved by the misery of the objects. You know, the Lord has moved
to compassion toward misery, but if it's not my fault, I negate
that completely. I'm not going to have mercy from
God. If it's not my fault, if all
my sin is not all my fault, then faith is impossible. I cannot trust Christ as my only
righteousness if my sin is not all my fault. To say all my sin
is my fault is to confess that I'm destitute of any righteousness
and it's only as I have no righteousness that I can trust Christ as my
righteousness before God. When we fail to take responsibility,
We never see our own personal weakness. What do I mean by that? Paul said, when I'm weak, then am I strong. Now, if it's
not my fault, my personal sinful weakness is not the problem.
Something else is. But it's only when I confess
that all my sin is all my fault, sinfully, whoa, I'm weak, I'm
powerless, that's the person, that weak, powerless person,
that person who has no strength, that's the person God strengthens.
That's the person God has mercy on. That's the person God gives
His grace to. And as long as it's not my fault,
I'm never going to be weak. It's always some other problem.
But when it's all my fault and all my sinful weakness, that
is when I'm strong. If we fail to take responsibility
and accountability, the problems are never solved. And I think
the classic example of this is marriage problems. If Lynn would
do what she's supposed to do, Everything would be perfect.
Everything would be great if she'd just do what she's supposed
to do. And as long as I take that attitude,
we ain't going to make any progress at all. Of course, we don't have
any problems, so don't start thinking, what's he talking about?
Just forget that. I'm just trying to give an illustration. You
all know that. The point being, it's all my
fault. And you know, when I really,
when it's all my fault, things go well. Now, if it's all her
fault, things are, they don't get better, do they? They don't
get better. Oh, but when it's all my fault,
my sin, guilty as charged, that is true repentance. Taking sides
with God against yourself. That's what true repentance is.
I'm on the Lord's side. Whatever he says, that's right.
I agree with everything he says. It's all my fault. When it's all my fault, then
I'm a candidate for God's grace, God's unmerited favor. That is
one of the things I love about God's grace. God's grace doesn't
have to have any merit to Draw it. It's unmerited favor. Completely
unmerited free favor. Don't you love that about God's
grace? It's unmerited favor. Now, if it's not my fault, I
can forget unmerited favor, can't I? I lose it. But if I plead guilty just like
that publican did, I will be justified just like him. And
you know, there's something about this guilty plea. this need for
mercy that moves the Lord's compassion. When it's all my fault, when
I am the problem, when I am the sinner, that moves the Lord Himself
to compassion. That leper, you remember what
he said, Lord, if you will, it's totally up to you, I can't claim
this by entitlement, by merit, by dessert, but if you will,
You can make me clean. And you know what the Scripture
says about the Lord? And Jesus moved with compassion, said,
I will be thou clean. Blind Bartimaeus
cries out, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. He didn't say, Give me what I
got coming? He was born blind, but he said,
have mercy on me. Our Lord was on his way to Jerusalem,
going through Jericho. The scripture says he set his
face like a flint on his way to the cross. All kinds of people
were yelling at his name. He didn't pay any attention to
them, but here's something that stopped him in his tracks. Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still. If you want Him to respond to
you, it's all your fault. And you cry for mercy. You know, when we accept responsibility,
it's my fault. Others will help us. Others will help us. I love Walter
Groover's example. He says, if I see a fellow out
in the field trying to move a rock that he can't move, I see him
out there struggling with it, I'm going to go out there and
help him. But if I go out there and he just waits for me to do
it and decides he's not going to take any responsibility, I'm
not going to help him. There's really something unburdening
about taking responsibility. Isn't there? There's something
unburdening, not burdening, but unburdening about coming clean
and confessing, it's all my fault. Now, I want to make a couple
of closing comments. Where would we be if Jesus Christ said, it's not
my fault? Where would that leave us? If
from Calvary's tree he said, this is not my fault. You can see where he would have.
But he didn't. You see, my sin became his. He took the blame because he
was guilty. My sin actually became his, and
the reason he kept his mouth shut, the reason he didn't answer
his accusers, is because he was guilty as charged. I sure am thankful that he didn't
say, it's not my fault, because if he would have, there would
have been no salvation for me or you. Here is the one place where we
refuse to take any responsibility or any blame. In our salvation, in my salvation,
it is all His fault. And I can't take any of the responsibility
for that. Here's the one place where we shift the blame. It is all His fault. He is completely 100% responsible
for our salvation and He gets all the glory. It is only as
we take all the blame for our sin that we give Him all the
glory in salvation. Isn't that so? In 1 John chapter 1 verse 9,
John says, if we confess our sins, if we agree with God, if we take sides with God against
ourselves, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just. I love those two words, faithful
to His covenant, just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Aaron, my brother, Aaron, my brother, should we
not say, I've sinned. Forgive me for Christ's sake. That's the only safe place to
be. Now I'd like to sing a closing
hymn, Duane, whatever you've picked out. After that, Brother
Jesse, would you come up and lead us in prayer after that?
We've been so delighted having him with us this week and the
service this Sunday, but lead us in prayer and then I'd like
you to come up. Let's stand and sing hymn number
233, Depth of Mercy. 233. Depth of mercy, can there
be? Can my God His wrath forbear
me the Jesus? of sinners spared. I have long withstood his grace,
long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his oath,
grieved him by the Do incline me to repent Let me
now my sins lament We believe and sin no more. There for me, my Savior stands. Holding forth his wounded hands
God is love, I know I feel Jesus weeps and loves me still Father, we thank you. We thank
you. We thank you for the word we
have heard today. We thank you for reminding us
what we are and what we do. We thank you for reminding us
that, indeed, it is our fault. But, oh, Lord, we thank you for
also reminding us that there was one who became sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might indeed be able to say, it's all
his fault. that we are saved, and that by
his free grace. As we go, Lord, watch over us
and keep us, and may this word sink down deep in our soul and
spring up an abundance of rejoicing and thanksgiving for him who
loved us and gave himself for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.