chapter 32, Exodus chapter 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, 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 has 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 to drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, go, get thee down. For thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth 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? 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 to whom thou swearest by thine own self and saidest unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.' And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain. And the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. The tables were written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. And he said, it is 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 burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, strutted 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 are 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 what is become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me, then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. I'm going to stop my reading with that verse, but truly this chapter, there's so many subjects, so many lessons that we might bring from this chapter, but I've chosen four. Four that we're going to look at tonight, and the first one will be the title of the message. We're going to look at it first. And it is simply, Be Angry and Sin Not. Be Angry and Sin Not. Notice again, if you will, in verse 19. 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. Be ye angry and sin not. Now it's easy when you read this verse of scripture, it's easy to just assume that Moses flew into a rage, that he was in a fit of rage when he threw these tablets down. But remember this, the scripture tells us that Moses, the man Moses, was very meek above all men which were upon the face of the earth. And we should never confuse meekness with weakness. He was a very meek man, the meekest of men. The Lord Jesus Christ himself was meek and lowly, but never weak, and neither was Moses. because at this particular time, remember, he had gone in before Pharaoh, who was a mighty monarch, probably the most powerful man on the face of God's earth at that time. And he said, thus saith the Lord, let my people go. He stood before Pharaoh and told him, let my people go. But he was very meek. 40 years later, After they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, Moses described and explained what he did here, and it wasn't in a fit of rage. If you will, look with me to Deuteronomy chapter nine. You know, people realize the scripture says that God is angry with the wicked every day. But God stirs up his wrath, but never in a fit of rage like men. You know, we see, and we ourselves, many times we are overcome with rage because of something that's done to us or something we see. But this wasn't the case with Moses. It's very clear here as he tells the people now 40 years later in Deuteronomy when they're after wandering for 40 years and they're back now about to cross over Jordan to go into the land of promise. In Deuteronomy chapter 9 beginning with verse 10. And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God. And on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire and the day of the assembly. And look at that, that verse just in passing, Moses said, the Lord had spoken unto them. I mentioned that, I believe, in a message a time or two back. I'm not sure, but many believe, and it seems to me from this verse of Scripture, that the people heard when God spoke the Ten Commandments. When He spoke from Mount Sinai, they heard His voice. And Moses said as much here, according to all the words which the Lord spake with you, and the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And it came to pass at the end of 40 days and 40 nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. And the Lord said unto me, arise Get thee down quickly from hence, for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten image. Furthermore, the Lord spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire, and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. Now, watch this. And I looked. He's not acting as we will see here. He doesn't act in a fit of rage. The first thing we read here, he said, I looked and behold, he beheld the situation and he made a judgment. I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. He made a judgment, realizing what they had done. You had turned aside. You had made you a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you, and I took This is very intentional what Moses did. It wasn't out of rage. He looked, he beheld what had taken place there, he made a judgment, he assessed the situation, and he took the two tables, one in each hand, he tells us, and he He broke through them to the ground and cast them out of my two hands and break them. And notice before your eyes, I think that's very important. It was very intentional what Moses did here before the eyes of the nation of Israel. When he did this, of course, it was very significant because in breaking these two tables of the covenant, the covenant was annulled. It was annulled. He was angry, yes. The scripture tells us that his anger waxed hot, but it wasn't something he did in a fit of rage. Anger, the Lord Jesus Christ, he also, at once at least, I believe more than once, but once at least, the Bible tells us that he showed anger. In Mark 3 and verse 5, the scripture says, when he had looked round about on them with anger, he was in the synagogue. And there was a man there that had a withered hand. And he asked them if it was lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath, and they wouldn't answer, you know. And the scripture tells us clearly the Lord Jesus Christ looked about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. He saith unto the man, stretch forth thine hand, and he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. I believe he showed anger when he cleansed the temple, when he went in with a scourge and drove those money changers out of the temple when he said, my house, my house, this temple, it's my house. Why? Because he's God. and you've made my house a den of thieves. Yes, I believe that he did that in anger, but not in a fit of anger. You know, the scripture in Hebrews 1 tells us this about the Lord. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. If you and I, if we truly love righteousness and hate iniquity, Then yes, there's going to be things that we will be angry about, things, injustices that we see, people being mistreated, people being abused. Yes, but we will not act in a fit of anger. Paul said, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your anger. So that's the first thing I wanted to bring out tonight, be angry. Yes, there's some things that we see every day. We see, we hear about, and it makes us angry, doesn't it? You know, when I see not hundreds, not thousands, yea, many thousands of people being led into hell by religious leaders, it makes me angry. I don't get angry at the people who are being led, but I'm sad, aren't you? That people are deceived like they are. So many being deceived. When we have the word of God and God's revealed the truth unto us, then when we see error and we see that it's so damning error, it's not just error, it's so damning error that people follow the blind, the blind leading the blind, yes. Moses. He was angry, his anger waxed hot. But what he did, and I think it's important to see this because I believe he knew when he threw those tablets down that that covenant was broken. It was broken. And they could never, never obey that covenant as God had given it. Look what he did, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but when he took the molten calf and ground it to powder and put it in water and made them drink it. Now they take the, this is their God. Think about this. This is who they had just been worshiping. And what they drink it, it passes through their body and out. And that's what that God is worth. Right? Paul said even his so-called religiosity, he counted but dumb that he might win Christ. Yes. A second thing I would bring out to us here tonight is the tendency of sin. The tendency of sin. Sin entered this world, and we all inherit a fallen nature, a sinful nature. And I want to bring this out in two ways here. First of all, sinful men, all of us, sinful men, and we're all sinful, we are all naturally prone to shift the blame, to shift the blame from ourselves to someone else. And we know if you look back to Genesis chapter three, it goes all the way back to the first man, doesn't it? In Genesis chapter three and verse 11, when the Lord spoke to Adam and said, who told thee, Genesis three and verse 11, who told thee that thou was naked? Now here's the question. Hast thou eaten of the tree? Where have I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? Now that's a yes and no. That calls for a yes or no answer, doesn't it? Have you eaten? It's either yes or no. Well, no. The tendency of Adam and all of us by nature is to shift the blame onto someone else. And we see, of course, Adam, the woman, the woman, and notice the woman which thou gavest me. God, the goodness of God gave him a wife, a help me. It was not good that man should live alone, be alone. And out of the goodness of God's heart, he gave him a wife, a helpmate. And now Adam is more or less accusing God of giving him that which had caused him to do what he did, no? He was responsible for his actions. The woman was deceived, the apostle Paul tells us that, doesn't he? She was deceived, and Satan is a great deceiver. Yeah, she was deceived, but not Adam. Well, look back now in chapter 32 of Exodus, and we see the same thing with Aaron. In verse 21, Moses confronts him. Exodus 32 and 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. You know these people. You know these people that they're set on mischief. What is he doing? He's trying to pass the blame right onto the people. You know, when God will save a sinner, when God's purpose is to save a sinner, he will bring that person to confess, it's me. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Before convicting power of God, the Holy Spirit, we're all prone to want to blame someone else. But when God, by the power of His Spirit, using the word of God, shuts a man's mouth, a woman's mouth, and she says, it's me, oh Lord, it's me. It's not my neighbor, it's not my husband, not my wife, not our children. No, the problem is me. It's me. God brings a person to that conviction of sin. And the second thing I would point out about sin is how quickly, how quickly man may turn out of the way. In Hebrews chapter three and verse five, we read this about Moses. It says, Moses verily was faithful in his house. Moses was faithful in his house, that is the house of Israel. He was a faithful minister. He was a faithful preacher. He was a faithful man of God. But even so, look how quickly these people that he had led turn out of the way. How quickly the people turn out of the way. How quickly they turned out of the way in which he had led them. They had only recently, I mean just a few months before this, they had walked on dry ground through the Red Sea. They were at this particular time eating bread that God rained down from heaven and drinking water out of a rock that God smote, and yet how quickly they turned out of the way. How does the chapter begin? They say, we don't know what's happened to this Moses. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, how long had he been gone? 40 days, less than six months. Yeah, six weeks rather, less than six weeks. And God, if you read through the chapter and we have, God points this out several times, how quickly, how quickly they have turned out of the way. And I mentioned this tonight, I wanted to bring this out because of the danger of following a man. Their eyes obviously had been upon Moses, not upon Christ, not upon Moses' God, But they had their eyes set on Moses, and now Moses is gone, and how quickly they turn out of the way. The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in the church at Corinth, and he said, be you followers of me. But he didn't put a period there, did he? No, there's a comma. Be ye followers of me even as I also of Christ. You follow a man as he follows Christ, yes. But our eyes must be upon Christ. pastor that I had great respect for, he mentioned this after pastoring the church for many years, and then he couldn't pastor any longer, and how quickly the people turned aside. How quickly, just like these Israelites, how quickly. And the reason, of course, obviously, has to be because men are following a man instead of following Christ. Look into a man. And that man did his best to point men to Christ. I understand that. But still, when he was gone, then many people turned aside. The third thing I want to bring out is the evil of idolatry. If you look back to chapter 20 at these commandments, this covenant that God made with the nation of Israel, it always appears to me, when you read through these 10 commands, that the commandment against making an image is especially marked out by God. Special word of warning. Look in verses four and five. Now shall not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, thou shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Them that hate me, those who practice idolatry, God says, are those that hate me. The Israelites had an idol here, which was a physical object of gold, a calf. And I doubt that any of us here tonight would ever be guilty of dancing around or bowing down to a golden calf. But you know the scripture speaks about idols of the heart, hidden idols of the heart. Let me mention just a few from the New Testament. Covetousness, covetousness, Paul calls idolatry in Colossians 3 in verse 5. Now, when we speak about covetousness, we usually associate that with the love of money, and that's certainly included. But you know, a person can be covetous of other things, not just money, but a person can be covetous of other things. It is an inordinate desire for something that belongs to another. I'll just mention preachers. Preachers. They see another preacher that seems like God is blessing and using, and they may become covetous of that fame that that preacher has. You can apply that in many different ways. As we go through this world, you see something someone has, and maybe it's a family that they have, and you become covetous of that, whatever. It's an idol in the heart, covetousness. It's idolatry, Paul says. And then a second thing Paul mentions is their God is their belly. essential appetites, sensual appetites, their God is their belly. And I wonder sometimes if we as Americans, if we are not guilty of putting too much emphasis on delicacies, food. I mean, it seems like we come to the place we live to eat, instead of eating to live. I can be an idol. Paul said they're God, it's their belly. And then in Romans chapter one, he said, they love and serve the creature more than the creator. That is, a person loves his family, and we should love our families. We love our wives, even as Christ loved the church. We love our husbands, our children, but yet God must be first. He must be first. We can make an idol out of a family member. And when we do so, we provoke the Lord to jealousy. You remember the verse in the proverb where God said, my son, give me thine heart. If God has your heart, he has everything. And if you give everything else to God but not your heart, he's not gonna accept that. No, it's the heart. My son, give me the heart. And the fourth thing I want to touch on is a great division. Notice down in verse 26, a great division. And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. You know, the world divides men into various groups and divides men in different ways. Men are divided by their nationalities. Men are divided by their status as far as their income, there's the rich and the poor. Men are divided by their education, the learned and the unlearned. But truly and really, there are only two groups of people in this world. Two groups of people. The Lord Jesus said, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. There are two groups of people in this world. There are those who are in the kingdom of darkness, and there are those who've been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. There are those who have been made partaker of the divine nature, that is, they've been regenerated by the Spirit of God, and there are those who are carnal. They're carnal. They've never experienced a life-changing regeneration. There are those who will be upon the right hand of the Savior and will hear his words, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And then there will be those on his left hand who will hear him say, Depart from me, you cursed and everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Yes, it behooves all of us to take a stand and to know whose side we are on. The apostle Paul on that ship that was out there at sea being just washed about as the wind blew, you know, he stood before those men and he said, whose I am. And an angel of God stood beside me. And then he said, whose I am. In other words, I'm God's. Whose I am and whom I serve. And just like these Levites, when Moses said, who's on the Lord's side, they took a stand. And every one of us should be like Joshua, shouldn't we? And be able to say, as for me and for my house, we will serve the Lord. I pray the Lord would bless these thoughts to us here this evening. Gavin, if you will, lead us in a hymn.