While you're turning there, I
remind you this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I'll be preaching
in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. It's for the Grace Baptist Church.
David Collier is the pastor, and it is right on Old Lexington
Road. So it's not I don't know how
to tell anybody how to get there, but it's easy to find. I've seen
it. So if anybody comes, you'll figure
it out. Exodus, Chapter 32. Now, this
is the day after. the golden cat incident, and
here we have the prayer of Moses for them and God's reply to his
prayer. Now let's begin reading in verse
30 of Exodus chapter 32. And it came to pass on the morrow
after this horrible, horrible sin, that
Moses said unto the people, You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go unto the Lord. Peradventure, I shall make an
atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto 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, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of
thy book which thou hast written.' And the Lord said unto Moses,
Whosoever hath sinned against me, him Well, 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. Nevertheless, in the day when
I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued
the people because they made the calf which Aaron made. And this is a very special scripture. Filled with truth, wisdom. And instruction. And we need
the Lord's help. As we always need the Lord's
help in understanding what this passage of Scripture is telling
us. Now, the first thing that I see in this passage of Scripture
is the truth about sin. Notice, it says you in verse 30, you
sinned a great sin. Now, the reason it's so great
is found in verse 33, the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever has
sinned against me, him, will I blot out with my book. Now,
I want you to listen to me real carefully. You can feel guilty and feel
bad about your sin. You know, right before this service,
I was thinking about something so frivolous and so vain while
I was getting ready to preach that it absolutely scared me
to death. I thought, I can't preach like that. And that's
bad. That's bad. I feel guilty about
it. But that is not really true conviction
of sin. You can feel bad about things
like that, but you understand something about your sin when
you see that it's against God. He said, Whosoever has found
sinning against me, him will I blot out of my book. My sin,
here's what's so bad about it. It's not just me wanting to have
some fun, and I sinned, and that wasn't necessarily against God.
No, my sin is against God, and that is only seen in the cross.
If you want to know the true nature of your personal sin,
and if I want to know the true nature of my personal sin, there's
one place for me to look. It's not within my heart. It's
not even to look at my actions. It's to look at the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And there, when God leaves a
man to himself, he proves he hates Jesus Christ. And that's
what I've been guilty of. That's what you've been guilty
of. I see the true nature of sin here. It's against God. Now, don't ever think of your
sin in any other way than that. That's why it's so bad. It's
against God. Look in verses 32 and 33 of our
text. Moses is praying for these people,
he says, yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin. If thou wilt. Forgive their sin. And if not,
this is very similar to what Paul was saying in Romans chapter
nine, if not, if you're not going to forgive them, blot me. I pray
thee out of thy book which thou hast written. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out
of my book." Now these people who are found having sinned against
God, they will not be saved. Now this reference to blotting
out of the book. That doesn't mean your name is
written in the Lamb's Book of Life and then it's erased, it's
gone, and then maybe you put it back there again if you straighten
out. That's not what that's talking at all. This is speaking to the
weakness of our understanding. He says, if you've sinned against
me, whoever's found having sinned against me, they will be blotted
out of my book. They will not be saved because
he will by no means clear the guilty. Look at Exodus chapter
34, verse 7, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin that will by no means, by no means whatsoever, under
no circumstances will he ever clear the guilty. visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and the fourth generation. If I'm found
having sinned against God, if that's the way God sees me, I
will not be cleared. I will not be saved. The only
way I can be saved is if there's an atonement made. that actually
puts away my sin to where I don't have any sin and I don't have
any guilt. If I have any sin on me, when God sees me, if He
sees any sin on me at all, it's sin against Him. It's not little...
indiscretions, it's sin against him, and I won't be saved. I
must be perfect in his sight, and the only way I can have that
is if atonement is made for me. That sin must be punished. Let me show you a passage of
Scripture that helped me to understand what atonement means. Turn to
Numbers, chapter 25. We're going to get more to this
in a moment when we talk about atonement, but I want you to
see this in Numbers, chapter 25. I read this a couple of weeks
ago. And Israel abode in Shittim,
and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of
Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifice of their gods,
and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. This is the
children of Israel. They got together with the Moabite women,
and they bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself
unto Baal Peor. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel, and the Lord said unto Moses, Take all
the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord
against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned
away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges
of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto
Belpheor. And behold, one of the children of Israel came,
and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman, one of the
Moabites. in the sight of Moses, in the
sight of all the congregation of Israel who were weeping before
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phineas,
the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, He
rose up from among the congregation and he took a javelin in his
hand and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust. He was in there with that woman,
which is what the anger of the Lord was against him for. He
went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both
of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly.
So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. And those
that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar,
the son of Aaron, the priest, and turned away my wrath, away
from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake
among them, that I consume not the children of Israel in my
jealousy. Wherefore, behold, I give unto him my covenant of
peace, and he shall have in his seat after him even the covenant
of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his
God, and made atonement for the children of Israel." Now, how
did he make atonement for the children of Israel? By the sin
that they were guilty of committing. being punished. What they were
guilty of doing, he took the javelin and punished that sin. Now, the only way atonement can
be made is if my sin is actually punished. And that's the way
I stand without guilt before God. If I'm found having any
sin, I will not be saved. Now, back to our text, the next
thing I notice in this passage of Scripture is that there is
a book of life. Look what he says in verse 32.
Yet now thou wilt forgive their sin. If not, blot me, I pray
thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And notice this
book had already been written. It's not a reference to the Scriptures.
This is talking about that book that's spoken of in Revelation
chapter 5. where no man was found worthy to open up the book. It
was sealed with seven seals. It was written on the front side
and the back side. It's all the purposes. It's all
the decrees of God. This is the Lamb's Book of Life
he's referring to. And even Moses knew about this.
If you went into Lexington, Kentucky and asked most people whether
they knew anything about the Lamb's Book of Life, they'd say,
what in the world are you talking about? But yet this is something Moses
knew of, and it's so clear in the scripture. This represents
God's purposes, his decrees. It has the names of the elect
written in it. Let's look at some scriptures
regarding this. First turn to Revelation, chapter 13. Now,
in this book written within on both sides, that means nothing
can be added to it or subtracted from it. This is the book of
God's purposes and decrees. It's got the names of God's elect.
Revelation, chapter 13, verse eight. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Look
in Revelation 20 verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another
book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. And they were judged every man according to their
works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Look in Revelation 21, verse
27. And there shall in no wise enter
in anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh an abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life." Now let me show you another scripture that is very
comforting to me. Turn to Luke chapter 10. Luke
chapter 10. Our Lord refers to this book
in Luke chapter 10, verse 17. And the seventy returned again
with joy, saying, Even the devils are subject unto us through thy
name. Now, I would be impressed with
that, too, if I was in their position. The Lord gave me grace to where
devils were subject to me. Demons were scared of me and
would have to do what I said. Can you imagine if the Lord gave
you such power? You'd think, well, the Lord's
really blessing me, and I can understand them feeling pretty
good about themselves. I would, too, wouldn't you? Now,
let's go on reading. Verse 26, and he said, Wait a minute, I'm in the wrong,
Luke, where was I at? Verse 18, thank you. And he said
unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold,
I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and
over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you, notwithstanding in this Rejoice not that the spirits
are subject unto you, but rather rejoice, because your names are
written in heaven. Now, that's something to rejoice
in, isn't it? I can't rejoice so much in what the Lord has
done through me or with me. I don't even know. But I can
rejoice in this. My name is written in the Lamb's
Book of Life, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Now, this is a book. It's a book that has all of God's
purposes, all God's decrees, and it's a book that knows no
revisions whatsoever. It is all set. It cannot be changed. The Lamb's Book of Life. But
what I want us to notice about this back in our text, Moses's
understanding of this Book of Life did not make him fatalistic
because look what he says, verse 32, Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive
their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book
which thou hast written." Now, Moses knew there was a book of
life. He knew the elect were in that book, and he knew only
the elect would be saved. He didn't have any problem with
that, but did that keep him from praying for these people? It
didn't in any way. He still pled for the salvation
of these people, and he loved them so much he said, if you
don't have mercy on them, blot me out of that book. He shouldn't
have been speaking like that, I'm sure, but look at his attitude. It didn't make him say, well,
the elect will be saved, the non-elect won't. No point in
seeking the Lord, no point in asking for the Lord's mercy.
That's not the attitude to have towards God's sovereign election.
Pray regarding everything. Let me show you an example of
this. Turn with me to the book of Jonah.
This scripture was very much an encouragement to me, Jonah.
It's Amos, Jonah. I want you all to find this and
look at it. Jonah, chapter three. And the word of the Lord came
into Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, going to Nineveh, that
great city, and preach to it the preaching that I did there.
So Jonah rose and went into Nineveh, according to the word of the
Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey.
And Jonah began to enter into the city, a day's journey. And
he cried and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. He didn't say maybe it won't
be, or he doesn't say it won't be if you repent. He said in
40 days, Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's the way it is. That's
all he said. Now let's go and read. So the people of Nineveh
believed God and proclaimed to fast and put on sackcloth from
the greatest and even to the least of them. For the word came
unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and
he laid his robe from him, and he covered himself with sackcloth,
and he set ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed
and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and
his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water,
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily
unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from
his evil way and from his violence that's in his hands. Now look
at this. Who can tell if God will repent and turn away from
his fierce anger? And we perish not. And God saw
their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God
repented of the evil that he said that he would do unto them,
and he did it not. Now, should an understanding
of God's sovereignty, he's purposed everything, he's decreed everything,
only the elect will be saved, the non-elect won't be saved,
only the folks Christ died for will be saved, the people that
he didn't die for won't be saved, therefore, I should not pray
and not ask the Lord to do something? No, who can tell? You know, the
Lord delights in mercy. The Lord, listen to me real carefully,
the Lord delights in mercy. He's more willing to give you
mercy than you are to receive it. Ask how merciful He is. He
delights in mercy. So who can tell? Ask the Lord. Seek the Lord. Who can tell?
He may have mercy on you. You see, He's merciful. He's
gracious. He delights in mercy. So don't
let the glorious truth of God's absolute sovereignty, which we
surely love, turn you into a fatalist thinking, well, what's the point?
Why pray? Why seek the Lord? No. Who can tell? Who can tell? Now, Moses also understood that
forgiveness was totally and completely dependent upon the will of God.
Look what he says in verse 32. He doesn't try to hide their
sin. He talks about it being a great
sin. And remember, when you confess your sin before God, you don't
confess it as not being that bad. You know it's great. It's
against him. You say with David in Psalm 25,
11, For thy namesake, pardon mine iniquity, for it's great.
He didn't say because it's not that bad, but because it's great.
The only way my iniquity can be pardoned is for your namesake.
Now, Moses. He comes into God's presence
with an understanding of the book of God and the decrees of
God. He knew God. God spoke to him face to face
as a man speaks to his friend. The next chapter says he knew
God, and yet he pleads with God. But he shows this understanding
of what he says. Verse 32. Yet now, if thou wilt
forgive their sin. He knew that forgiveness was
found only in the will of God. He knew exactly what that leper
understood when that leper said, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. It's wholly in your will. This attitude or this belief
that is preached in our day that God wants to save everybody,
wants to forgive everybody, and he'll just forgive you if you
only accept him and accept his forgiveness. That's pure foolishness. That doesn't even make sense. If you come up and hit me in
the face and then say, well, I'm going to let you forgive
me, I might not forgive you. I mean, it doesn't work that
way. No. Lord, if you will, Moses understood that forgiveness was
holy in the sovereign will and good pleasure of God. Look in
Exodus 33, verse 18. Moses said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. And he said, I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious. And I will show mercy to whom
I will. Show mercy. But how Moses loved
these people. I just don't know if I know anything
about this. Moses said, yet now if thou wilt
forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of
the book which thou hast written. He was saying the same thing
Paul was in Romans 9 when he says, I say the truth in Christ,
I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, for I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself
were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh. Moses is saying the same thing. A belief in Sovereign election
in the Lamb's Book of Life, that didn't make him indifferent about
the salvation of others. Look how greatly he desired their
salvation. He said, ah, if you don't save
them, don't save me. I don't even know what to say
about that. I don't know how to explain it.
I've read commentaries that say he couldn't have meant that.
Well, yeah, he did. And I don't understand it. But it's glorious,
isn't it? That attitude. Look in verse
35 of our text. And the Lord plagued the people
because they made the calf, which Aaron made the plague of sin. Now, I want us to understand
this. I want me to understand this. I want you to understand
this. There are consequences to our actions. Always. Always. The Lord plagued the
people because of their sin. Now, if I'm saved, my sins are
blotted out. Blotted out, I'll be when I stand
before God in judgment, there won't be any sin to condemn me
for. But all my sin here on earth, I'll be plagued by it. I think
of what was said to David. He said the thing that David
did displeased the Lord. And he said, because you did
this thing, the sword's not going to depart from your house as
long as you live. And understand this, our sin,
there's consequences in this life to our sin. Now, I'm thankful the Lord's
merciful. The Lord's gracious. He doesn't give us what we deserve
at all times. But you can't sin. against him
without some kind of consequence. He plagued the people because
of their sin. Now, in this passage of Scripture,
here's what I really wanted to get to. All that other stuff
is very important. But in this passage of Scripture,
what a beautiful type Moses is of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Savior of sinners. This is a beautiful gospel picture
that begins with the story of our sin. Verse 30, and it came
to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, you sinned
a great sin. And now I'll go up unto the Lord. Peradventure, I shall make an
atonement for your sin. Now, Moses couldn't make an atonement
for their sin as far as an actual atonement, you realize that,
but we This follows this type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
only way my sin can be dealt with is if he makes an atonement
for it, because my sin is great sin. And how Moses loved these
people, even though they'd sinned this great sin, he expressed,
if you don't save them, let me be blotted out of your book. And he said, You've sinned a
great sin, and now I'll go up to the Lord for adventure. I
shall make an atonement for your sin. Now, sin, what is atonement? Remember what I said a few minutes
ago. Atonement is, the only way my sin can be atoned for is if
my sin is punished. and put away. It actually has
to be punished. The sin that is atoned for, it
has to be punished or there is no atonement. Now, this is what
the Lord did on Calvary's tree. He made atonement. He was punished
for sin. You see, sin cannot go unpunished. God would sin if he let any sin
go unpunished. God would cease to be just if
he lets any sin go unpunished. Any sin that I've ever committed
must be punished or God would cease to be God. He would no longer be a just
God. Do you believe that? That's our
God. He's a just God. Now, what is meant by atonement?
Let me show you where the word is first mentioned. Turn to Genesis
chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. This is where God is giving Noah
instructions regarding the ark. He says, make thee an ark of
gopher wood. Runes shalt thou make in the
ark and shalt pitch it within and without. with pitch. Now
that word pitch is the exact same word in the Hebrew translated
atonement. He said, you take that ark and
all you have, it was made out of wood, there were cracks, water
could get in and you were to cover it completely on the outside
and on the inside with this black tarry substance called atonement. That's what it's called. Now
what is it that kept the wrath of God out of the ark? The atonement,
the pitch. The atonement. What is it that
keeps the wrath of God away from me? The atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what kept the water out
of the ark. That's why I am preserved. The atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now let me give you the words the Hebrew dictionary gives
to define the word atonement or pitch. It means to cover. And God's covering is not like
our covering. See this thing? I can cover it. You can't see it, can you? But
is it still there? Yeah. But when God covers something,
it's no longer there. That's what his atonement does.
It is translated to expiate. That means through the atoning
work of Christ, God's reason for anger is removed. That's what atonement means,
his reason for anger. And I, in and of myself, I can
think of God having plenty of reason to be mad at me, just
just like I fucking robbed before this service. I've never had
such frivolous thoughts in all my life. I mean, I thought I'm
getting ready to preach thinking about something like that. And
I thought I can see where the Lord would be just angry with
me over that. But if my sin has been atoned for, he actually
doesn't have a reason to be mad at me. He looks at me and sees
no reason for anger. It means to cancel. I like that. To disannul. To appease, to placate,
to cleanse, to forgive, to be merciful, to pardon, to purge
away, to reconcile. And this is what our Lord did
on the cross in His atoning death. Here's the best way I can think
of to explain atonement. To explain propitiation, expiation,
all those big words. It's found in that That parable of the publican
and the Pharisee. The Pharisee prayed thus with
himself. I love the way the scripture
says that. He wasn't praying to the Lord. He thought he was, but he prayed
thus with himself. God, I thank Thee that I'm not
as other men are. I fast twice in a week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
unjust. I'm not even as this publican. I thank thee. I believe the fellow was a Calvinist.
He was giving God the credit. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are. But you don't hear him saying
anything about the blood of Christ. You don't hear him say anything
about the atonement of Christ. You don't hear him say anything
about the righteousness of Christ. He was just thinking, I'm not
like... You know, you can always find somebody that you're a little
bit better than. I'm not like that fellow. I'm not like...
I mean, I might not be perfect, but I'm better than them. You
know, that's what self-righteousness does. It always compares itself
to somebody else, but the publican. He stood back in the back and
he beat upon his breast and said, God be merciful. And that word merciful is actually
propitious. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. That's what the atoning work
of Christ is. It's a propitiation. That means
the reason for anger is removed. God is propitious. He said, God
be propitious to me, the sinner. And you know what our Lord said
after that? He said, I'll tell you. That man went down to his house.
Y'all know the next word? Justified. Justified. Rather than the other. Now, if you're justified, Justification is not a piece
of paper that says I'm not guilty. Justification means I'm clean
through and through. It means there is no sin. That means there is no guilt.
Now, that fellow, as far as the way he felt about himself, God
be propitious to me, the what? The sinner, the worst man to
ever live. That's the way he felt about
himself. But what did the Lord say about him? He said, I tell
you, that man went down to his house justified. And if Jesus
Christ the Lord said he justified, you know what he was? He was
justified. He was without guilt. Now, that's what the atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ does. It makes it to where I
am justified. You know, that's the hardest
thing in the world there is to get hold of. But it's the only
hope we have. That I'm justified by what Christ
did. Now, look back in our text in Exodus
32. Yes, he did that, but at what a cost. Now look where Moses
said, Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me. I pray thee, out of thy book
which thou hast written." Christ was blotted out. Christ was numbered with the
transgressors. The sin of His people became
His, and He bore the full penalty of hell. All that hell is. Now, let me
make a couple of comments about the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. What love. How many, when we're reading
those passages of scripture, about the Lord telling them to
blot out the Moabites and so on, you think, boy, God's harsh.
What love? Before you start thinking that
way. What love that God would give His Son to this? What love that He would give
His Son for me? Does God really love sinners?
Does He really, genuinely, truly love sinners? I tell you what,
wherever there's a sinner, if you're a sinner, you're somebody
God loves. I can assure you that. If you're
a real sinner, God loves you. He loves sinners. This man receives
sinners. He always does. It's the only
kind of people he receives. But God really and truly loves sinners
that He would give His Son. And what love that the Son would
give Himself, that He would love me. To me, this is the hardest
thing, honestly, this is the hardest thing for me to grasp,
is that Jesus Christ actually loves me. It's easier for me
to see Him loving you than it is to see Him loving me, but
He actually loves me. so much that He gave Himself. Jesus Christ loved His bride
so much, He was willing to be blotted out for her sake. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. He gave His head to the crown
of thorns. He gave His face to have His
beard ripped out. He gave His back to the cat of
nine tails. He gave His hands and feet to
be nailed to a cross. He gave His side to be pierced
through with a spear. And this, no doubt, shows the
cruelty of men. But listen to me. Listen to me.
It was the Father that was doing that to Him. It was the Father
that was driving the nails in His hands and in His feet and
pressing the crown of thorns on His head. It was the justice
of God that smote Him. What love! What justice! It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That's what the scripture says. It was those soldiers. Yeah, they were the secondary
causes, but it was the Lord that was doing this. It was the justice
of God. Now, oh, the justice of God. God's just. I sure am glad He
is. He's just. Oh, the love of God. Oh, the beauty of the gospel. Can you see the beauty in how
God can be just and yet justify a sinner? Isn't it beautiful?
Only God could do this. Oh, the beauty of Jesus Christ,
who was willing to be blotted out so I might be saved. And can we not truly say, God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. What a beautiful gospel type
we have in Moses' prayer for a very sinful people. Thank God for the gospel. Let's
pray together.