her heart. Rain's going to cut
off one of its toes tomorrow. And that's just that they know
of. So they won't know the infection,
extend the infection, until they get in there. So they may have
to lose more. But remember her in your prayers. She was on her
way back from Hickory. She sounded like she was about
ready to fall asleep at the wheel. Remember her in your prayers
as well as rain. Seek the Lord's help for them. Yeah, at Hickory. Yeah. and she
don't know when, they haven't told her when it's gonna be done,
just sometime tomorrow, so I don't know whether she's planning on
going back or not, she probably needs to sleep all day tomorrow, more
than likely. Well, we'll begin our worship
service tonight, hymn number 496, Victory in Jesus. How our Savior came from glory. How He gave His life on Calvary
to save a wretch like me. I heard about His groaning, of
His precious blood's atoning. repeated of my sins and won for
victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior
forever. He sought me and bowed me. He loved me ere I knew Him And
all my love is due Him He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing
flood I heard about His healing Of His cleansing power revealing
How he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to
see. And then I cried, dear Jesus,
come and heal my broken spirit. And somehow Jesus came and brought Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and bought me with
His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and
all my love is to Him. ? Beneath the cleansing flood ?
I heard about old Mack John ? He is built for me in glory ? And
I heard about the streets of gold ? Beyond the crystal sea
? About the angels singing ? And the old redemption story ? And
some sweet day I'll sing up there ? The song of victory ? Oh victory
in Jesus ? My Savior forever ? He's on me and on me with his
reign He loved me ere I knew Him, and
all my love is to Him. He plunged me to victory beneath
the cleansing blood. Hymn number 212, Nothing But
the Blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I say. of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Precious is the flow that makes
me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You have your Bibles turn with
me to Exodus chapter 32. Begin reading from verse 7 and
read through verse 14. The title of my message tonight
is Let Me Alone. Verse 7 said, And the Lord said
to Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest
out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. and turned
aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, and 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 out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to
Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffening
people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax
hot against them. 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 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 and Isaac and Israel, thy servants,
to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and said unto them,
I will multiply your seed at the stars of heaven, and all
this land that I have spoken of I will 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. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, blessed
Lord over all, King of kings and Lord of lords. Absolute sovereign
in this universe. Ruling all your creatures with
absolute sway. Making use of them in the way
you see fit. We know, Father, that thou art
God and there is none beside thee. There is none like unto
thee. You declared the end from the beginning. What you've spoken
shall come to pass. What you've purposed shall be
done. We know you reside in the glory in the heavens and you
have done whatsoever you have pleased. We are thankful that you were pleased to come
to this world and die in the room instead of your people to
satisfy the holy law and justice. to consume the wrath that was
due us, to put away our sins by the sacrifice
of yourself, to wash us in your blood, count us to have died
with you, and was buried with you, and rose with you, and even
ascended with you to sit in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. We pray
for those who are sick, going through trials, pray for rain.
lose another toe. Pray for Sharon as she's ministering
to him. You keep her strength up. Pray for those who've lost
loved ones, whose hearts are broken. I know it's every case. I pray, Lord, you'd minister
as only you can to the heart and to the mind of those and
help them. We pray for your presence tonight,
Lord, that your Holy Spirit may take the things of Christ and
reveal them unto us. We pray with hearts full of thanksgiving
and praise for your mercy and grace toward us. Now, Father,
cause us in our hearts to worship you, we pray in Christ's name,
amen. Now, this is the account of the
Lord's anger kindled against Israel for the blatant idolatry
of making that golden calf at the bottom of Sinai and worshiping
it. They'd broken the first two commandments that our Lord gave
to his people, That's what he says in verse seven. They've broken the commandments
of the Lord. The first one is this, thou shalt
have no other gods before me. The second, thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above or that is on earth beneath, that is in
the water beneath, that thou shalt bow down thyself to them
or serve them. For I, the Lord God, am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
of the third and fourth generations of them that hate me." The language
employed by God here, written in the Word, sometimes
seems strange to the believer as it presents God here as repenting. We know that the Lord does not
change in repentance In the Old Testament, it usually means turning
from one behavior to another. In the New Testament, repentance
is a change of mind. The Greek word is metanoia, which
means to radically change your mind. What you change your mind
about is what you have believed thus far recommended you to God.
You change your mind about that and find out that only Christ
represents you to God. that nothing you do or don't
do can ever recommend you to God at all. The Lord said, I
am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Malachi 3.6. Now under the old
covenant, repentance represented a change in behavior or action
rather than a change of the mind or heart. when the Lord called,
under the old covenant, called his people to repentance, then
if they repented, he would stop whatever he was going to do to
them and change it that way. But he doesn't change Esther's
heart and mind. And it's interesting to note,
as I was reading this and thinking about these people at the bottom
of Sinai, that every man here in this nation at this time,
there was a boy 20 years of age will perish in the wilderness
because of unbelief. Everybody right here that the
Lord is dealing with. Those soon to be sexagenarians
will refuse to enter the promised land and will wind up being carcasses
in the desert. unbelief was were set forth in
Numbers chapter 14 in two ways first they did not believe the
spies that went into Canaan and they saw the giants of Anak and
they were afraid so when the Lord said go possess the land
they said we're not going in we're afraid and so our Lord
said okay I'm gonna turn you back into the wilderness you're
gonna die there their first unbelief was we're not going in then when
the Lord says you can't go in they said we're going in so unbelief
is always unbelief no matter how it looks but for this episode in their
life of rebellion we see wrath forstalled wrath is forstalled
the narrative is plain and the reason for God's wrath is reasonable
verses 7 and 8 he says the Lord said unto Moses get thee down
he's on Sinai now he's carrying the two tables of stone Now,
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 a molten
calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto,
and said to the golden calf that they may these be thy gods, O
Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. no question that the Lord's anger
against them is reasonable. The word corrupted means to ruin
or spoil or pervert. They perverted the worship of
God and remember that's what it always comes down to in the
Old Testament. Idolatry always has to do with
the worship of the true and living God. That's the basic thing. You worship God the way He is
ordained or you ain't getting nowhere with Him. We worship
God in Jesus Christ. We worship God through the blood
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that's the only way he's truly
worshiped and honored. They have ruined and perverted
worship. They made themselves of God and counted that the abomination
was the source of their deliverance from Egypt. Their religion is
works, and faith does not enter into the picture. Faith alone
sees God, and they cannot see him. So they invent one that
requires no faith, only sight. I often wonder where so-called
Christianity would be without the trinkets like crosses and
steeples and edifices and icons and indulgences. I really think
it would cease to exist if it had nothing to see. People need
to see things, but faith doesn't see anything. Faith believes. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for, the substance of things not seen, not seen. Paul said
to the Corinthian church, we look on things that are not seen. Faith looks on things that can't
be seen, can't be proved. There's nothing new under the
sun. The idolatry that was going on at the bottom of that mountain
is going on today. Men have made an idol of most
of religious stuff. They've made an idol of prayer
rather than honor the one to whom prayer is made. We'd have
made an idol of faith. They talk about my faith and
your faith rather than the faith that was once delivered to the
saints. They make an idol of faith rather than the object
of true faith, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people pray, but they do
not count on their prayers. God's people have faith, but
they don't count on their faith. They count on the object of faith
and the one to whom they pray. The carnal mind is a pagan mind.
Your old man is a pagan and he will always be so. Their turning
aside was not a slow digression. He said they quickly turned aside.
It didn't take place over a long
period of time by the intrusion of outside pagan forces. They're
not in Canaan yet. not faced with every idol in
Canaan when every country had their own system and their own
gods it says here they turned aside quickly they haven't been
out of Egypt very long actually less than six weeks and in that
six week period they've forgotten the God who saved them with his
mighty hand and God said I see them they are a stiff necked
people and that means they're hard cruel and obstinate. They won't be moved from their
idolatry. Verse 10 begins to give us the
true sense of the teaching of this passage. Our Lord says,
Now therefore, he says to Moses, let me alone, let me alone, that
my wrath may wax hot against them, and I may consume them,
and I'll make thee a great nation. The Lord declares that he's about
to destroy this entire nation, but he prefaces his threat of
wrath with a word to Moses. He says to Moses, let me alone. And he follows it with the word
that. Let me alone that I may show my wrath. Let me alone. This indicates that Moses, if he does not leave God alone, God will not destroy. That God's
wrath may somehow be quelled if Moses doesn't leave God alone. He says, leave me alone. Job, when he considered that
he could not justify himself before God in the ninth chapter
of Job, he said, you know, if I say one thing that's right
about me, you'll say a thousand things wrong about me. There's
that great chapter that says, how can a man be just with God?
And that's the question that needs to be answered on every
heart, every mind. But seeing that he could not
justify himself with God, he longed for someone to stand between
him and God who was able to speak on his behalf. His words were,
neither is there any day's man between us, that might lay his
hand on us both. He said, oh, that there was somebody,
I can't justify myself before God. If I'm gonna be justified,
there has to be a daisman, that's an umpire or a mediator, someone
who can stand in between me and God, who can reach down to me,
a sinner, who can't justify myself, and reach up and touch God, who
alone can justify me. This is who Moses is in this
situation. It's who he is. What God is saying
to Moses is this. Don't be a mediator. Let me alone. Don't be a mediator. Let me alone
so that my wrath may wax hot. The Lord even says that he will
make a great nation of the descendants of Moses. He says, leave me alone
so I can wipe this out and I'll make a great nation out of you.
I'll make a great nation out of you. Surely such a promise
will entice Moses to not interfere. But Moses is the meekest of men
and the world holds no charm for him. His interest is in the
people. This is the people that God has
assigned for him to deliver to Canaan and that's where his interest
is. That's the pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ over in Proverbs
chapter 8. It speaks of Jesus Christ. In
fact, the whole chapter, chapter 8, is about Jesus Christ as the wisdom of God. But in
Proverbs, chapter 8, verse 30, it says, Then I was
with him, Christ said, I was with you. Remember what it says
in John, chapter 1? In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with
God, the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God.
Then I was with him as one brought up with him, and I was daily
his delight. rejoicing always before, and
look at verse 31, rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth,
and my delights were with the sons of men. Christ came to this world with
an interest and a delight. Now it's to save His people.
That's why He came into this world. His interest was always
in the sons of men. He became their surety, the surety
for the elect before the world began. That means He assumed
their debt, as his debt, so they would never have to pay that
debt. Then he came into the world and paid that debt for them.
His interest is getting his people to the land of promise. He's
the mediator. He is that one, that one who
is both God and man, who can stand between us and God and
reach down and touch me, vile and unclean as I am. and reach
up and touch the holy god and be welcomed in both presence
what a thing john said in first john when we sin we have an advocate
with the father jesus christ the righteous the mediation of
moses here is argued on three grounds he said lord forstall
your wrath don't don't do this to your people It says in verse
11, Most besought the Lord is God. And it says, Lord, why dost
thou wax hot against thy people? The first point of his argument
is this, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt with
great and mighty power. It's the Lord who delivered them.
God has delivered his people from the slavery of Egypt and
he's done it with his mighty hand. The molten bovine deity
had nothing to do with their deliverance. and Moses said,
and God would not be considered the victor if the saved people
whom He saved and brought out, if He would then end up destroying
them. God wouldn't get glory. God wouldn't get glory. And that's
the case even today. If one for whom Christ died ends
up in hell, God's glory is gone. God's glory is gone. He saved
His people. He will not destroy them. That
was the point of mediation. Second Moses' mediation is about
God's honorable reputation as a just God and a savior. In verse
12 he says this, Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say,
Formitious did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains,
and to consume them from the earth. Turn thy fierce wrath,
and repent this evil against thy people. He said the Egyptians
should have us for a laughing stock. Have you for a laughing
stock. If God would destroy this nation, the Egyptians could rightfully
disdain the efficaciousness of his salvation. They could rightfully
do that. All the plagues, the drowning
of the Egyptian army was for nothing if he doesn't save this
people. It speaks of the eternality of
the salvation of the elect if God effectually spiritually saved
his people. According to scripture, they
shall never perish. In the face of unbelief, in john
chapter six when the pharisees said we don't believe you and
our lord said i know you don't believe me he said all the father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is my Father's will which is sent me, that of all he has
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again in the
last day. Everyone whom God gave me I'm going to raise up in the
last day. I'm going to take to glory. He said again in the Answering
Unbelief in John chapter 10, when they said, If thou be the
Christ, show us plainly. He said, Well, I've told you
plainly, but you don't believe me because you're not my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give to them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." And in John 17 too,
he said, God has given me authority over all flesh to give eternal
life to as many as God has given me. And his glory is tied up
right there. Because before he said that,
he said, glorify me to do what you told me to do. And in chapter
12, John, God said, I have glorified you and will glorify you. God
can't be glorified if one for whom Christ mediated falls. God's
glory, however, is sure. None shall ever be able to say
that he's failed. We preach the gospel. We send
missionaries to foreign countries. support them in foreign countries.
Why? We preach the gospel and send our missionaries out knowing
that the gospel will find purchase in the heart of God's people.
They will hear His voice and they will follow Christ. Who
are they? I have no idea who they are. The gospel is being heard in
Africa. The gospel is being heard in India. My book on Galatians
was translated and sent to India in Urdu or Hindu or whatever
they speak over there. There were a thousand copies
that were sent to us over there. The Gospel is getting out. Why?
Why do we do it? Why do we do it? Because we know
that this is the means that God uses to bring His people. Salvation
is in this Word. You are born not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible seed, even the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. Thirdly, most importantly, Moses'
mediation is that God is the God that honors His covenant.
Verse 13. He said, Remember Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, thy servants. These promises were made to them. Abraham, the father of Abraham,
Isaac, in whom the seed is called, and Israel, the true church of
God, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self. and said to them, I will multiply
your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have
spoken of will I give unto you and as you shall inherit it forever. Moses will make this mediatorial
argument as well as many of the prophets do over several times
when the people are so violent under the old covenant that God's
getting ready to destroy them. Often they will say, remember
your covenant. Remember your covenant. One fellow said, and
I think it was old Scott Richardson, said, if you ever learn anything
about God, this is one of the first things you're going to
have to understand, is God is a covenant God. And what we're
reading in the Old Testament, they're under the jurisdiction
of the Old Covenant. That Old Covenant is dissolved.
It's set aside. It's replaced by Jesus Christ,
Lo, it is written in the volume of the book. Lo, I will come
is written in the volume of the book of me. He taketh away the
first and establishes the second. The second covenant is actually
the eternal covenant. It's the second one revealed.
And it's the covenant of grace, which is eternal. But here in this text, as God's
wrath, like the sword of Damocles, looms ominously over the heads
of Israel, The veracity of the covenant is the hope of Israel.
God has made a covenant with me. Oh, and we can count on God. He ain't gonna back off of what
he see. Moses calls upon God to remember that he swore by
his own self, and there's none greater to swear by. He swore
to Abraham, I'll make a great nation of thee, to Isaac, shall
thy seed be called, to Israel, the true God of Israel. the true
Israel of God, to make them a great nation. And he has. It's a nation
more than the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea. Some
people say it's metaphorical language. Well, if it is, it
still means a whole lot. A whole lot. God swore, I will
multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land,
if I spoke, will be yours. God said to Moses, let me alone. Don't interfere. I'm gonna kill
this bunch. but the mediator must mediate and God cannot deny
himself. God has made a covenant. Look
over at Psalm 89. Psalm 89 verse 28 says this,
My mercy will I keep for him forever, forevermore, and my
covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make
to endure forever, and his throne is the days of heaven. If his
children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they
break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then I will
visit not them but their transgressions with the rod and with their iniquitous
stripes. Remember Christ said, with his stripes we are healed.
Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not
break. or alter the thing that's gone
out of my lips, my covenant. Look over at Jeremiah chapter
32. Verse 38 says this, and they
shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give
them one heart and one way that they may fear me. And that word
fear means to love, reverence, and worship. that they may fear
me forever for the good of them, and of their children after them.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will
not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my
fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. Yea,
I will rejoice over them, I will rejoice over them to do them
good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole
heart and my whole soul. This is the word of the Lord.
the result of Moses' mediation here because God repented. God
didn't destroy Israel. He repented of this evil which
he had thought against Israel. Moses' mediation pictures another
mediation, the true mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ and its
sure success throughout the scripture. Christ is said to be the mediator
in Hebrews especially. Hebrews 8 and 9 and 12 all those
chapters deal with Christ as the mediator of the new covenant
and when Paul wrote to young Timothy he says there's one mediator
between men and God just one the man Christ Jesus he's that
days man God is mighty he saved his people he can't destroy God has made a covenant with
His people, and He will not break that covenant. And He will not,
because He saved His people, have them perish because His
name would be dishonored. What stops God from killing them?
Moses, the mediator. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right. God bless you.