Would you turn with me back to
Exodus chapter 32? I've entitled this message, Lessons
Learned from the Golden Calf. Lessons Learned from the Golden
Calf. Now, Moses had been in the very presence
of God for 40 days. on Mount Sinai receiving the
law. And not that much time had elapsed
since the parting of the Red Sea, just a couple of months.
That very day, in our text, the children of Israel had eaten
manna that had fallen from heaven, and they drank water from that
rock that was smitten. They experienced the miracle
of God that very day. And verse 1 of Exodus 32, And 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, 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 break them unto me. Now Aaron was a very weak
man. That's evident from the scriptures. He was a believer. As a matter
of fact, he's called in Psalm 106, verse 16, Aaron the saint
of the Lord, the holy one of the Lord, the sanctified one
of the Lord. But how easily he was influenced
by this crowd. He was a better speaker than
Moses, but he sure wasn't a better man, was he? how quickly he was
influenced by this crowd and he was guilty of making this
golden calf. Go on reading. Verse 3, 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. What a sin, the sin of idolatry,
a man-made god. Now you remember that very day,
they ate the manna that came from heaven. They drank of the
water from the smitten rock. Yet look how quickly they turn
aside. Verse 5, And when Aaron saw it,
He built an altar before it, this golden calf. And Aaron made
proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. You see,
all this was done in the name of truth. He said, this is a
feast unto Jehovah. We're not worshiping a false
god, this is just a visible representation of Jehovah. An ox, it shows his
strength. We're going to have a feast to
Jehovah. He wouldn't come out and say,
this is a false god, this is a feast to Jehovah. Verse 6,
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, because all this was was
play. That's all it was, sensual, devilish. They were playing. Verse 7, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Go, Get thee down for thy people. Notice he calls the
people at this time, 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 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've seen this people. And behold, it's a stiff-necked,
wicked, hard-hearted people. Now therefore, let me alone. Don't even ask for mercy for
them. Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and
that I may consume them, and I'll make of thee a great nation. Now, Moses could have been in
the line. He was through Judah. The Lord
could have made him through the line. Remember Aaron and Moses
were brothers. And Moses besought the Lord his
God. He didn't want that to happen.
And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, Why doth
thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought
forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty
hand? 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 thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, thy servants, whom thou swearest 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 thy
seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented
of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. And the first thing that strikes
me as I read this narrative is how sinful we are. And notice I use the word we. Not them, but us. We're right there with them. Apart from grace, you and I will
prove to be just as bad or worse. Do you believe that? And this was a great sin they
committed, remarkably evil, after all they had seen. They went
back so quickly into idolatry. And Moses realized this, look
in verse 31 of this same chapter, Moses knew this was a great sin,
and Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh, this people have
sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Now listen to me, it takes great
sinners to commit great sin. Look at God's testimony regarding
these people. He said in verse 9, Behold, it's
a stiff-necked people. When Moses confronts Aaron, look
what Aaron says in verse 22 of Exodus chapter 32. And Aaron
said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the
people that they are set on mischief. They're set there. For they said
unto me, Make us gods, which shall go up before us. For as
for this Moses, the man that thou broughtest out of the land
of Egypt, we want not what's become of him." Sins are committed
by the sinner. And great sins are committed
by the great sinner. Now understand this. God doesn't
punish sins, does he? He punishes the ones who committed
the sin. People say, God loves the sinner
but he hates his sin. Where do you find that in the
Bible? It's not there. These were remarkably wicked
people and their actions prove that and they demonstrate to
us how bad we are. Look in verse 7. And the Lord
said unto Moses, Go get thee down for thy people which thou
broughtest up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
They turned aside quickly out of the way which I have commanded
them. They've made them a molten calf
and worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said, These be
thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."
Now, there's only one explanation for this. I wish I knew how to describe
human sinfulness the way it ought to be described. But I know this. Apart from the grace of God,
that's me. Quickly turning aside. Quickly
making a golden calf and sacrificing to it. Quickly. Quickly. You know why? Because we're born
into this world with evil natures. Sinful natures that will depart
from the living God. I really believe total depravity. It's one thing to believe in
the doctrine of total depravity and it's another thing to believe
that you yourself are totally depraved. Now that is the case
of these people. Now, the next thing I see in
this narrative regarding the golden calf is the elements of
human religion. Now, we see all the elements
of human, man-made religion in this passage of Scripture. And
religion is an evil thing. First of all, the first thing
I notice about human religion is it's based upon sight. And
when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the
mount, they couldn't see Moses. So they said, up, let us make
gods. And notice, he says, up, not
down. True worship brings you down,
down at his feet, on your knees down before the sovereign God. But they said, up, make us gods. It'll go before us. And I think
it's interesting to notice that what did Aaron tell him to break
off? Why not bracelets? Why not golden belts or necklaces
or something? Hearings. Hearings. It has something
to do with hearing. Something to do with the hearing
leaving. You know, in human religion,
there's not hearing God's Word. There's hearing everything else
but God's Word. And it has as its foundation
a man-made God. Up, make us gods which shall
go before us. There's no true worship there.
Up, make us a man-made God. And a God that is not exactly
like the God of this book is a man-made false God. A God that is not precisely like the
One who reveals Himself in this Word is a man-made God that cannot
save. Now the Christianity of our day
is just as idolatrous and false as this was. A God that's not
absolutely sovereign is a false God. A God that's not perfectly
just is a false God. A God whose will can be thwarted
is a false God. A God who can demand payment
for sin twice, first at Christ and next at the sinners is a
false God. A God who can change is a false
God, no different than this golden calf. Human religion, I think,
is interesting. It always goes under the name
of truth, though. Look in verse 5. Now, this was a false god,
but look what Aaron said, and when Aaron saw it, he built an
altar before it, and Aaron made proclamations that tomorrow is
a feast not to a golden calf, but to Jehovah, the true and
living God. This idol, this golden calf,
it represents strength, and it shows how strong God is, and
we're not worshiping that golden calf. We're worshiping what that
golden calf represents. It represents God. No, it's idolatry. Going under the name of Jehovah. Going under the name of truth. And human religion is playing. Look in verse 6. They rose up
early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought
peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat, and rose up
to play. It's pretense. It's pretending. It's got its sacrifices and offerings
and peace that it claims, but it's plain, sensual, nothing
more. Now, this was the great sin,
and the fact that it went on under the name of truth and orthodoxy
in Jehovah's name made it all the more appalling. What a great
sin we see committed by those who claim to be God's people. Now, the next thing I see in
this narrative. We also see in this how weak,
how weak a true believer can be. Aaron. Aaron messed up so
many different times. Here's the first time. And as
I've already said, Aaron is called in Psalm 106.16, Aaron, the saint
of the Lord. Saint Aaron. And if God calls
him a saint, you know what that means? He's a saint. He's a believer. He is one of God's holy ones. And what that reminds us of,
is how powerful and how awesome union with Christ actually is.
Aaron, in his weakness here, in his sinfulness, he's still
called the Saint of the Lord. If I'm united to Christ, however
holy the Lord Jesus Christ is, that's how holy I am, united
to Him. Even Aaron is called the Saint
of the Lord. But how Aaron proved himself
to be such a weak person He certainly didn't have the spiritual strength
of Moses. Aaron caved in to peer pressure. Look in verse 2 of
our text. And Aaron said unto them, after
they said up, make us gods, Aaron said unto them, break off the
golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, and your
sons, and your daughters, and bring them unto me. Aaron caved
in to this peer pressure. He's the one who made the golden
calf. Look in verses 3 and 4, 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 hands,
and he fashioned them with a graving tool after he'd made a molten
calf. And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt. Now, Aaron had a real hard time
with accountability. I want you... Aaron was a weak
believer. He was a very weak believer.
There's no doubt about that. But one thing that you're going to
find if a believer stays weak, it's because he has a real hard
time with this issue of accountability. And let me show you this in the
Scripture. Look in verse 21. 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.
He doesn't talk about himself, he talks about the people. He
doesn't talk about his sin, he talks about the people. Look
what he says in verse 23. 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 not what not
what is 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 out came his calf. It just popped
out. Aaron wouldn't take any responsibility
for anything. He said, the people, they're
the problem. And this calf, it just came out.
Aaron was the one who made the calf. Now, people who remain
weak refuse accountability and responsibility. It's not my fault.
It's not my fault. It's somebody else's fault. It's
Adam's fault. It's my upbringing's fault. It's
my environment's fault. It's somebody else's fault. Now,
understand this regarding personal responsibility. If you see that
the fault is your own sinful weakness, you know what you'll
do? You'll cry to the Lord for strength.
If it's all your fault, you'll ask the Lord for help. But when
you blame somebody else, you're going to remain a spiritual pygmy
the way Aaron was. He was a very weak, weak man. And it's because, you see, he
wouldn't take responsibility. He wouldn't be accountable for
anything. It's always somebody else's fault. I'm going to talk
more about that the next time we get into this passage of Scripture.
But we learn from Aaron how weak the flesh is. You know, I think
of what our Lord said when he came and saw his disciples sleeping.
He said, The Spirit indeed is willing, and it is, but the flesh
is what? Don't say, I hope nobody ever
says this again. Believers won't do that. Don't
say that. That's a presumptuous statement.
You're asking for it. There's not a sin that a believer
won't commit, that a lost man won't commit, except for the
sin against the Holy Spirit. Now that's the truth. Believers
are weak. They can be just as screwed up
and messed up and off as any unbeliever can. And Aaron is
an example of that. And what that makes me say is,
Lord, strengthen me by Your grace. Increase my faith. Cause me to
be in my weakness, to be strong. You know, Paul said, when I'm
weak, then am I strong. If you see your weakness, that's
where strength begins, isn't it? That's when you look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's a blessed lesson
learned from the golden calf. God forgives great sin and great
sinners. Isn't that wonderful? God forgives
great sin and great sinners. Now at first it appears that
he was not going to forgive them. Look at verse 9. He says to Moses,
and the Lord said unto Moses, I've seen this people, And behold,
it's a stick, people. Now therefore let me alone. Don't
try to stop me from this, that my wrath may wax hot against
them, and that I may consume them. And I'll make of thee a
great nation." And Moses intercedes for them. And here Moses is a
great type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Moses besought the
Lord his God, as Christ is our intercessor. Moses was interceding
for the people. And Moses besought the Lord his
God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hard against thy
people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with a mighty hand? 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 thee of the evil against
thy people. I love the argument he uses.
Lord, remember these are your people. Remember Abraham. Remember Isaac. Remember Jacob.
Oh, I love his intercession for them. And what happened? Verse
14 says, And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought
to do unto his people. Now, obviously, this language is given to accommodate
us as human beings. You know, the Scripture says
the Lord is not a man that he should repent. And he never changes. This is not a denial of his immutability,
but the Lord is speaking to us where we're at. And when you
see that, when you're afraid the Lord's gonna come down in
wrath, you say, Lord, have mercy. Have mercy, don't do this. How
many times have you asked the Lord to do that for yourself?
Lord, have mercy. And as far as The way we can
see, things do change. Things seem like they're going
one direction and the Lord turns it around. How many times have
we seen that now? His will was always done. His decrees have
always come to pass. I mean, just exactly as He said,
but He does repent in this sense. This statement doesn't cast a
shadow upon the immutability of God, but it certainly encourages
us to pray, doesn't it? Turn from this evil. And I love
Moses' argument. He says in verse 11, And Moses
besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why dost thou wrath
wax hot against thy people? which thou hast brought forth
out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty
hand." These are your people. What would the Egyptians say
if you kill them all? Turn over to Numbers chapter
14. This is pretty much the same
thing in the book of Numbers. Now this is Moses praying once
again for the people in their unbelief. We read in verse 11
of Numbers 14, And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this
people provoke me? And how long will it be ere they
believe me? For all the signs which I have
showed among them, I will smite them with the pestilence, and
disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation, and
a mightier than they. And Moses said unto the Lord,
Then the Egyptians shall hear it. For thou broughtest up this
people in thy might from among them, and they will tell it to
the inhabitants of this land. For they have heard that thou,
Lord, art among this people, that thou, Lord, art seen face
to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest
before them by the daytime in a pillar and a cloud, and in
a pillar of fire by night." If thou shalt kill all these people
as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of
thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring
these people into the land which he sware unto them, which he
has therefore slain them in the wilderness. And now I beseech
thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according to thou spoken,
saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving
iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity
of this people, according unto the greatness of thy mercy. And
as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt, Even until now, and
the Lord said, I've pardoned according to thy word. God saves for many reasons. Because He's good. Because He's merciful. Because
He's love. And in salvation, He showcases
His ability. His ability to save even the
chief of sinners. And isn't that what we believe
in saving faith? We believe in His ability. Paul said, I know whom I believed
and persuaded that He is able. He's able to keep that which
I've committed to Him against that day. God showcases His ability
to save. Now, if you come up and knock
over my glass of water and break the glass. I like this glass.
And you break it. And if I forgive you for doing
it, that's commendable. But if you'd murder Aubrey, and
I would forgive you. Now that, which shows the power
of forgiveness. He forgives great sin of great
sinners. Oh, the power of the blood of
Christ that causes God to forgive the very worst. And this is the
very worst, isn't it? The very worst. Look at how Moses
reminds God of the covenant back in Exodus chapter 32, verse 13. He's pleading with God for these
people. And Moses, as I said, he's a
type of Christ, interceding for his people. And he says, remember
Abraham. I see what they've done. They've
sinned a great sin. But remember Abraham, Isaac and
Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self,
and said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven.
Now if you wipe all these people out, that won't be done. And
you said that you're going to multiply their seed. You didn't
say you wouldn't do it if they didn't do it. You just said you'll
do it. Now do as you said. That's His plea. He said, 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.
He pleads the covenant, the promise God made. He says, Lord, you
said you were going to do this. Now do it. Now that's what it
is to plead with the Lord in prayer. Lord, do what you said
you're going to do. But we know this, God is always
going to do exactly what He said He's going to do. That's the
foundation of our faith. He's going to do exactly, precisely
what He said He's going to do. Now, He said, I'm going to make
your descendants to Abraham as the stars of heaven. If He'd
wiped these people out, that wouldn't be done, would it? He's
always going to do what He said. Now, this story tells what happens
if man is left to do his part, he'll make a golden calf. But
the one reason He forgave them is His covenant. And I couldn't
help but think of another familiar passage of Scripture. And I've
got a lot of favorites. But I don't like any passage
of Scripture any more than this one. David's dying. These are his last words. And what all could have been
going through his mind at this time? A whole lot of things. He could
have been thinking about the sin with Bathsheba, murdering
Uriah. He could have been thinking about
numbering the people. All the horrible things that David did.
You know, God called him a bloody man. He wouldn't let him build
the temple because of his life. He could have been thinking about
those things. He could have been thinking of all the good things that he
did. He was the sweet psalmist of Israel. He was the man after
God's own heart. He was a very special man. There's
a lot of different things he could have been thinking about
on his deathbed. But what does he say? Although my house be
not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure. And I love what he said after
that. Does anybody remember? And this, this everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure, this is all my salvation. Now how much of all is all. Turn with me for a moment to
Romans chapter 8. Let me show you how much of all is all. Verse 28, And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. Whom He did foreknow. Not what He foreknew. Whom He
did foreknow. Whom He did forelove. He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. And notice every one of those
things are spoken in past tense. What should we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? You see,
that covenant really is all my salvation. And not only is it
all my salvation, you know what he said next? He said it's all
my desire. It's the only way I want to be
saved. I don't want to be saved any
other way. I don't want to be saved by my works. I want to
be saved by Christ. I want to be saved by His grace.
That's all I want. My only desire, the desire of
my heart, is that I might be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my desire. I don't want
God to deal with me in any other way but the glorious covenant
that he made with his son, wherein his son agreed to be my surety
and did everything for my salvation and there's nothing for me to
do. That's all my desire. Now, that's all my desire. What do we learn from this? incident
of the golden calf where we learn how sinful we are, how quickly
we'll go apart from the grace of God. We see how evil human
religion is. It's a man-made God. We see how
weak a believer can be. But thank God we also see the
greatness of His forgiveness. He forgives great sin for the
sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious gospel we have. There's mercy for even the chief
of sinners. And this is an example of that
in this blessed history. Let's pray together.