Exodus 32:7-9; 19-35

⁷ The Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. ⁸ How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”⁹ Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.

¹⁹ When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf they had made and burned it. Then he ground it into powder, threw it into the water, and forced the people to drink it. ²¹ Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?” ²² “Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. ²³ They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’²⁴ So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!” ²⁵ Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control, much to the amusement of their enemies.^[c] 26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “All of you who are on the Lord’s side, come here and join me.” And all the Levites gathered around him. ²⁷ Moses told them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Each of you, take your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other. Kill everyone—even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.” ²⁸ The Levites obeyed Moses’ command, and about 3,000 people died that day. ²⁹ Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have ordained yourselves^[d] for the service of the Lord, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Today you have earned a blessing.” ³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will go back up to the Lord on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness^[e] for your sin.” ³¹ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves. ³² But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!” ³³ But the Lord replied to Moses, “No, I will erase the name of everyone who has sinned against me. ³⁴ Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Look! My angel will lead the way before you. And when I come to call the people to account, I will certainly hold them responsible for their sins.” ³⁵ Then the Lord sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshiped the calf Aaron had made.”

It’s here thirdly that we see the:

3. Reality – Vs 7-9

You can’t hide your heart from God. God revealed what was going on to Moses. Their sin didn’t just infect their lives it affected Moses life and cut his time with God on the mountain short. Notice what God told Moses in verse 7, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves”God sees our sin, he knew the heading of their hearts and that they were following after a man more than Him. Its here that we see the:

4. Ramifications – Vs 19-35

First, we see that their rebellion led to:

• The breaking of the commandments – Vs 19

Not just physically but literally:

1. I am the Lord thy God, you shall not have any gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

But it wasn’t about breaking the rules it was about the break in relationship with God. Sin always separated us from God leaving us swimming in our guilt. But when we confess our sin to God, 1 John 1:9 says “if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

• They had to drink their disobedience – Vs 20

Moses burned the idol in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. Isn’t Moses overreacting a little! Why did he go to these extreme lengths, because lies don’t die easily! The remedy to their rejection of God is that you have to exchange the lie for the truth. It’s 4 times harder to get rid of a lie than it is to believe it! The Lie fights back because it wants you back. That’s why it’s such a struggle when we try to give up something that was getting in the way of God.

• Aaron was called to account – Vs 21-24

Aaron made excuses, he tried to blame his lack of leadership on the people. Bad leaders refuse to take responsibility for their failure. Aaron’s defense was that it just happened, it was an accident. But isn’t that just like our human nature?When we are caught putting something before Godour first response is usually, but it was an accident. I didn’t mean for it to happen. But it wasn’t an accident it was a conscious choice. They chose to give their gold and Aaron chose to make a god. You don’t exchange the worship of God for the worship of something else by accident. You don’t accidentally forget to pray. You don’t accidentally forget to read your bible. We don’t accidentally walk away from God in order to worship something else. If we’re honest with ourselves it’s because we have replaced Him with something else. It’s not because of chance it’s because of our choices.

• Sin gives Satan an opportunity to celebrate – Vs 25

Verse 25 says that they became a laughingstock to their enemies instead of a light. Their witness became worthless. Are you living a joke or are you living for Jesus? One of the reasons people laugh at Christianity is because we don’t take it seriously ourselves. When we go to worship on Sunday and live like the devil on Monday the world sees a hypocrite and Satan celebrates when we succumb to sin.

• Sin also brings suffering – Vs 35

It’s here that we see the seriousness of sin, instead of bringing delight it brought death. Look sin may seem fun for a season but sooner or later it will suck the life out of living. Living for pleasure brought a plague of death and destruction. So, what about you, is their sin in your life that is separating you from God? Then confess it, repent and return to God. Remember repentance is not just a recognition of sin but a rejection of sin.

Exodus 32:1-6

“When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.” ² So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.⁴ Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” ⁵ Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!” ⁶ The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”

Not only did their rebellion lead to a loss of leadershipand cause them to waste their time, talents and treasure on wants instead of investing them in worship, but it also

• Led to living a lie instead of living for the Lord – Vs 4

verse 4 “When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”They didn’t just lie to themselves they lied to others. How do you believe such a blatant lie? It’s not hard when it’s not the first lie you have listened to. Remember in verse 1 they stated that it was Moses, who brought them out of land of Egypt, but that’s not true. It was the Savior who brought them out of slavery, Moses was just the servant. God’s shepherds are servants who should point people to the Savior not to self. Pastors are you pointing people to Jesus. Because it’s about creating followers of Jesus not fans of self. Look when you base your life on a lie it becomes easier to listen to more lies. They didn’t just buy into the lie they began building on the lie. What you buy into you will build on. What lies are you buying into and basing your life on? Why do we listen to the lies because we’ve stopped listening to the Lord. As a result, we let ourselves be led by the lies instead of by the Lord. You can’t listen to the lies and live for the Lord. The lies you listen to will dictate the life you live. Are you listening to lies or to the Lord? Are you filling your heart and mind with truth or trash? How did they go from worshipping God to a calf worshipping cult? They focused on a man not the Messiah. They made it about Moses more than the Master. When we follow a person it’s not long before we forget about God’s presence. Why a calf because that’s what the culture they had come from in Egypt worshiped. Today we still experience that same spiritual peer pressure, am I going to cave to popular culture or worship Christ? Today we think we are so much more sophisticated than those pagan people who worshiped calves, but look around we are a culture that is still worshiping creation instead of the Creator. A while back I did a wedding in Colorado, it was supposed to be an outdoor wedding and the forecast was for bad weather, so the wedding coordinator said we will have to ask the universe for good weather.  I responded to that by saying let’s pray and ask the creator of the universe to bless the day. Today we are worshipping creation instead of the creator of creation, Jesus Christ. You will either worship Jesus or a joke. The people traded the Father for foolishness. Making it about an object instead of the Author. When we can’t see God there is a temptation to replace Him with something that we can see, money, possessions, sports. So let me ask you, are you living for an idol or are you living for the Lord? Not only did it lead to living a lie but also to:

• Following our feelings instead of the Father – Vs 5

Verse 5 say “Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!”Their decisions were driven by emotion instead of devotion. Following your feelings feeds the flesh but following the Father feeds your faith. Are your decisions based on your feelings or on your faith? Notice that Aaron declared that it would be a festival to the Lord. This is God’s name. Israel wanted to worship, but they wanted to combine a pagan god with the Real God. They wanted to straddle the fence, to have one foot in the Word and one in the world. There’s a fancy word for that, it’s called pluralism. Where we try to combine the true God of Scripture with other beliefs. It’s a smorgasbord kind of faith where we cherry pick what we want to create a hybrid faith that fits our feelings. It’s the religion that’s ruling America. We have become a nation that worships our wants. Feelings have replaced the Father. And when people don’t feed into our feelings, we get offended. That’s why we are so easily offended because we worship our feelings. We worry more about being offended than being an offence. We are so caught up in being offended that we fail to see our sin as an offence to God. As a result, we focus on our hurt feelings more than the heart of the Father. We need God and only God because everything else is garbage. Are you worshiping your wants or the way the truth and the life? Lastly it also:

• Led to a lust-based life instead of a love-based life – Vs 6

Verse 6 says “The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”They were not feeding their faith they were filling their flesh. They made it about their happiness not their holiness.They looked for something to substitute the place God had in their life. “This is your God, oh Israel”(Ex. 32:4). But they didn’t just look for a substitute they lived for it. They gave their heart to their substitute god and they tied their salvation to their substitute god, offered it their burnt offerings and peace offerings. A lust-based life is focused on getting but a love-based life focuses on giving. Are you living a love or a lust-based life? When Moses showed up verse 25 says that the people were naked and had lost their guilt and shame. They were out of control, that describes our country. We worship sex instead of worshiping the One who gave us the gift. Rebellion always results in ruin. Is there any rebellion in your heart that you need to repent of and return to God?