Good evening.
Thank you all for coming to the Wednesday night service here at Faith Word Baptist Church.
Go ahead and grab your seat and a hymnal and we'll get started here.
Chittering Your Hymnal is song number 263, Verily Verily, song number 263.
O what a Savior that He died for me, From a combination He hath made me free,
He that believeth on the Son said, He hath everlasting life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Verily, verily, best it ever knew,
He that believeth on the Son tis true, Hath everlasting life.
All my iniquities on Him were bled, All my indebtedness by Him was paid,
All who believe on Him the Lord hath said, Hath everlasting life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Verily, verily, best it ever knew,
He that believeth on the Son tis true, Hath everlasting life.
O poor and needy, I can trust my Lord, Though weak and sinful, I believe His Word,
O glad message every child of God, Hath everlasting life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Verily, verily, best it ever knew,
He that believeth on the Son tis true, Hath everlasting life.
O all unworthy, yet I will not doubt, For Him that cometh, He will not cast doubt,
He that believeth on the good news shout, Hath everlasting life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Verily, verily, best it ever knew,
He that believeth on the Son tis true, Hath everlasting life.
Amen.
Turn over to the left, song number 125, The Solid Rock, song number 125.
My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest rain, But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale My anger holds within the veil.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the wealthy flood,
When all around my soul gives way, He that is all my hope can stay.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found,
Dressed in His righteousness alone, Flawless to stand before the throne.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
And we'll get one to you on the inside. We have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 10 30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6 30.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we're in Exodus chapter 32.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and
baptisms. We actually had 10 baptisms.
And then February birthdays are listed as well as anniversaries.
And then the San Francisco soul winning marathon is coming up.
I'm looking at the clipboard. It looks like that church transportation
filled up pretty fast. You can check the clipboard,
but I think it might already be filled up as far as the church provided.
But that's going to be a fun event out there. Preaching in Sacramento at
Verity Baptist Church on Friday night, February 28th,
and then going soul winning throughout the day on Saturday the 29th.
And then on the back, we've got the congratulations of the Pion family on
baby Reuben, born Wednesday, January 29th, the Bible memory passage,
Luke 22 through 26. And we're just wrapping that up.
Just another week and a half to go on that or less.
Actually, it looks like the cutoff date is February 9th,
so that's just coming right up here this Sunday.
It looks like is the deadline on that. So who's already got the whole thing done?
Put up your hand if you're finished. All right. Lots of people. Very good.
Who's not done, but you're going to get it done by then.
Even more people. All right. Man, you're just getting down to the wire on this thing.
All right. So other upcoming events are listed below.
Now, we really need to pray for the Shell family.
Okay. Brittany Shell was pregnant, and she's just about to be delivered very soon.
And everything was fine a few weeks ago. And now all of a sudden,
she just found out the baby had no heartbeat.
And so it's going to be a still birth. We really need to pray for them.
She still has to give birth. She still has to go through labor.
And so we need to pray that that goes well and just for comfort right now of grieving.
Obviously, it's hard to give birth even when the baby's alive,
but how much harder in this type of situation? So we need to pray for God to comfort them.
Let's pray right now, in fact, together. Dear Lord, we just pray right now for the
Shell family, Lord, and we pray that this birth would go as smoothly and safely as possible.
And Lord, we just pray that you'd comfort them right now.
I know this is a very difficult time for them. And I just pray that the joy of the Lord would
be their strength and that you would comfort them and just strengthen them to be able to just
get through this hard time. And Lord, just please give the doctors wisdom so that everything would
go smoothly with this birth and keep them safe and healthy and use this for your honor and glory
and ultimately for the good, Lord. We know all things work together for good to them that love
God and to them who are the called according to His purpose. And so Lord, help us to just
have the faith to believe that right now. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right. And then at this time, we're going to go ahead and count up the soul winning from
the past few days, going back to Monday. And by the way, thank you to everyone who's been visiting
them and being there for them at this time. All right. So soul winning, anything from Monday?
Anything from Monday? How about Tuesday? Anything? We got four. All right. Whoops.
Okay. We've got another one there. Okay. Anything else from Tuesday? We've got two over here.
Anything else from Tuesday? All right. And then I know today we had two for the church
van. Anything outside the van? Okay. We've got one. All right. What else have we got for today?
All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. With that, let's go ahead and sing
our next song. All right. We're going to sing Psalm 126 on the lavender colored Psalm sheets.
Raise your hand if you need one. The ushers will pass one out to you. Psalm number 126.
When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
And was our mouth filled with plaster, and our tongue with CD.
The next day, among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them.
The Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad.
Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south,
May the soul in tears shall reap in joy, May the soul in tears shall reap in joy.
Next day, among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them.
The Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad.
We let forth and we bid the very precious He, Shout, Doubtless, come again!
Shout, Doubtless, come again! With rejoicing, bringing His sheep with Him.
Next day, among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them.
The Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad.
I will sing one more song to him, song number 315, Take My Life and Let It Be, song number 315.
Take my life and let it be, Consecrate me,
Take my life and let it be, Consecrate it, Lord, to Thee.
Take my hands and let them move, At the impulse of Thy love,
At the impulse of Thy love, Take my feet and let them be,
Swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice and let me sing,
Always only for my King, Always only for my King.
Take my silver and my gold, God of my good I withhold,
Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my little and make it thine,
It shall be no longer mine, Take my heart, it is thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne, It shall be Thy royal throne.
Exodus 32, starting in verse number one.
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 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 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 to whom thou swearest by thine own self,
and saidst 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 mount,
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 is 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 made, and burnt it in the fire,
and ground it to powder, and strawed it up upon the water,
and made the children of Israel to 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,
what not what has become of him?
And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.
So they gave it to 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.
And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Put every man his sword by his side,
and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp,
and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion,
and every man his neighbor.
And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses,
and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord,
even every man upon his son, and upon his brother,
that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people,
Ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord.
Peradventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin.
And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said,
O 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 has sinned against me,
him will I blot out of my book.
Therefore now go, lead the people unto 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.
Brother Jake Thornton, will you pray for us, please?
Exodus chapter 32. This is probably one of the most interesting chapters in the book of Exodus.
It's a pretty action-packed chapter as we go through this.
There's so much in here.
It starts out in verse number one.
And remember, we're just coming off of several chapters, just giving God's laws,
and explaining how you're going to build the tabernacle.
I mean, just stop and think about this.
Just chapter after chapter about how there's going to be the holy place, and the most holy place,
and Aaron's going to be consecrated.
So all these godly things are being discussed, and they're going to build God's house,
the tabernacle, and all these different things.
Meanwhile, down below, things have just gotten completely wicked, just idolatry, fornication, drunkenness.
And this is sort of what it's like being in the ministry, is that you want to do great things for God.
You want to build something for God.
You want to win souls to Christ.
You come up with all these plans of, hey, we're going to do missions over here.
We're going to do soul-winning over here.
We're going to preach these sermons over here.
But then you kind of just end up getting hit with these things that you don't plan on,
or just this battle that you didn't think you were going to have to fight,
where sin comes in, or heresy comes in, or fornication, drunkenness,
whatever the issues that end up coming up.
So it says in verse 1 of chapter 32,
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come 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 is become of him.
So Moses is up in the mount for 40 days and 40 nights.
So that's kind of a long time, right?
I mean, that's almost six weeks that have gone by.
And without a leader, then the worst element ends up taking charge.
I don't think that this was unanimous, obviously.
Later in the chapter, Moses is going to say,
Who's on the Lord's side?
And a lot of people are on the Lord's side.
But what we have to understand is that when there's a vacuum of leadership,
or a leadership void, when there's no strong leadership,
the worst element will take control.
And Aaron is too weak of a leader to stop them.
He gives in to their demands.
I don't think Aaron was a horrible person.
I don't think he was a bad person.
I just think he was not cut out to be the main leader.
You know, this is the kind of guy that you don't want to be a pastor.
He could be a great Christian.
He could serve in the church.
He could be a great second in command.
But when he's in charge,
the worst element is just going to walk all over him.
Being a pastor, part of that is being able to stand up to people,
tell them no, put a stop to bad things.
And Aaron just lets these people just run him over.
And they talk him into doing these horrible things.
But you have to understand the importance of strong leadership.
When there's no strong leader, I'm telling you,
the worst element will rise to the top.
And this is what's wrong with these anarchist philosophies
that people have politically.
Whether it's the libertarian brand of anarchy
or the anarcho-capitalist, anarcho-communist, whatever.
It doesn't work.
Because of the fact that when you don't have leadership,
then the worst kind of scum will step in and take that void.
When a church doesn't have a pastor,
rarely is that church going the right direction.
One of the most dangerous times for a church
is when they're between pastors.
Because then you'll have these kind of people rise up
and start changing the church and taking it a bad direction.
And so we need to understand the importance of having a strong leader.
And that's why what we believe about church governance
or church government, we believe in a pastor-led model for the church.
We don't have a deacon-run church or a board of elders
or a board of supervisors or something.
We believe in a church that's run by a pastor.
All the great churches that I ever went to growing up
were all led by a pastor.
Churches that in the last generation and in this generation
have done great things for God were led by a man of God.
And I preached a sermon on that a while back
called One Leader.
All throughout the Bible, God uses a leader that he raises up
and that one leader is important, you know, like with Moses.
I mean, he had to be there.
As soon as he's gone, things start to fall apart.
What are we going to see in the Book of Judges?
When Joshua dies, things go downhill.
Then there's Othniel, things go downhill.
Then you have Ehud, you have Barak, you have all these different men.
But whenever there's a leader, things go downhill.
And that's why you men need to be a strong leader in your home.
You know, as a dad, you're that leader.
Pastor of a church needs to be a strong leader.
In business, you've got to have a leader.
I mean, everything in life rises and falls on leadership.
So we must have strong leadership.
And when you hear these people whining and complaining
and saying, oh, you know, we shouldn't have a pastor
and we shouldn't have a pastor,
and everybody's the same, and we should have five pastors
and three pastors and seven pastors, you know,
and they don't want to have a strong leader,
it's because either they're misguided or they're bad people.
Okay.
Because you can't point me to a single church that's run that way
that's doing great things for God
or that everybody's the same.
Okay.
Because you can't point me to a single church that's run that way
that's doing great things for God
or that has ever done great things for God.
Show me one.
Say, well, the Bible says, okay,
but shouldn't what the Bible says also match reality?
Okay.
And first of all, I'll show you what the Bible says,
starting in Genesis all the way to Revelation,
God using a man, whether that's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
whether we get into the judges and the period of the judges.
God lifts up a man that leads and judges.
And then we get into the period of the kings
and then we get into prophets like Elijah and Elijah.
God uses these men of God to do works and to lead.
And when we get all the way to the book of Revelation,
when Jesus Christ has a message to the seven churches,
he specifically has a message for the angel of the church of Ephesus,
which angel simply means messenger,
the angel of the church of Smyrna,
the angel of the church of Pergus,
the one who's bringing the message
and he's rebuking that man personally.
And then he's also rebuking the entire church.
That's why if you're reading a King James Bible in Revelation 2 and 3,
you'll see the switches between the and thou, which are singular,
and you, ye, your, which are plural, right?
So any of those words that start with a Y are plural.
The T words, the, thou, thy, thine, those are singular.
So you see, sometimes he's talking to the angel of the church
and sometimes he's talking to the entire church,
but he's rebuking that man or giving instructions to that man in many cases.
Why? Because there's a leader at that church that he's talking to, okay?
Just like Titus is told he needs to ordain elders in every city
because that's lacking.
You know, you must have a bishop that's the husband of one wife
and all these different things.
And you say, well, the Presbyterians, you know, they have their presbytery.
Okay, hold on a second.
Are the Presbyterians turning the world upside down,
preaching the gospel to every creature?
No, they're not, okay?
We see Baptist churches evangelizing in Phoenix that are led by pastors.
And throughout America, we need to go with the pastor-led model.
It's biblical.
I don't want to preach the whole sermon on that,
but a church needs a leader, a family needs a leader,
any organization needs leadership, okay?
And when you don't have leadership and you have this pie in the sky,
oh, we don't need a leader, everybody is the same.
Well, you know what ends up happening is this ends up happening,
what we see in this chapter, okay?
Or this happens when you have a weak leader.
Moses puts Aaron in charge,
and Aaron is not the right guy to be in charge
because he's too soft.
He's not able to stand up to people and tell them no, all right?
Now, Moses, the Bible says, the meekest man on the face of the earth.
But even though he was meek and humble,
you know, he took his leadership role very seriously,
and we don't see weakness.
Don't confuse meekness with weakness.
Moses is not a weak leader.
Moses is a very strong leader.
I mean, we're going to see him in this chapter come down really hard.
He's going to put people to death,
and he's going to grind up that idol,
and he's going to make them drink it.
So this guy is not playing games, okay?
He says, oh, man, he must be so unloving,
and he's too prideful. Wrong.
The Bible says he's the meekest man on the face of the earth,
but he's a strong leader.
So let's get into the story here.
We don't know what happened to Moses,
so the first verse shows us what the problem is.
No leadership. Lack of leadership.
They don't have the man of God.
They don't have a strong leader,
and the guy that was left in charge is a poor substitute, unfortunately, right?
Aaron said unto them, and in verse 2, he should be rebuking them.
What are you talking about, meekest gods?
There's only one God.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
He parted the Red Sea. He delivered us out of Egypt.
We need to wait. We need to be patient.
Or even if Moses is never coming back, we need to stay with the Lord, you know?
But again, Aaron is a weak leader, so he says unto them,
break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives
and of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
And the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears
and brought them unto Aaron.
It's kind of interesting how it doesn't say that they were in their ears.
It says, you know, break off the golden ears that are in the ears of your wives,
your sons, your daughters, and you say, well, you know, should men wear earrings?
Well, I don't believe that men should wear earrings, okay?
And let me give you some reasons why.
First of all, in the book of Genesis, you see people having earrings in their ears,
the men that are following Jacob and his household,
and when Jacob tells them to put away the false gods,
you know, they actually, they take off their earrings
and they get rid of the earrings and they get rid of the false gods.
And not only that, but here we see that they're breaking off the earrings
and making a false god out of it.
Now, the Bible does have a positive mention of women wearing earrings.
In Ezekiel, for example, and obviously we have the servant of Isaac
who puts the earrings on Rebekah and so forth.
I don't believe that men should wear earrings.
I feel that it's effeminate for men to wear earrings.
The Ishmaelites, the Bible says, oh, they wore earrings because they were Ishmaelites.
So it wasn't really something that the people of God were known for,
men wearing earrings in their ears.
And then here, you know, it's funny how it says,
oh, the earrings are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters.
Well, look, if I don't have earrings in my ears,
my sons don't need to have earrings in their ears either, all right?
So, you know, that's the rule in my house.
And I've told my sons, I said, son, if you ever get an earring
and you come over to my house with that earring,
I'm going to rip it out of your ear.
And that, I mean, that's going to hurt, right?
That's going to cause some damage.
So I tell them, I said, don't ever come over to my house with an earring
or I'm going to rip it right out of your ear, all right?
So I'm not against women having earrings or girls having earrings.
But you know what?
Why don't we leave the jewelry with the ladies, okay?
And not feel like we have to decorate ourselves?
That's not a manly attribute.
Decorating yourself is not a manly attribute, right?
That is effeminate for men.
If we see a man who really cares about his appearance
and he's getting, like, super expensive hairdos
and having these really fancy designer clothes that are all tailor fitting
and he's spending a bunch of time in the mirror,
wouldn't we say that that man's effeminate?
That's not a manly attribute.
You know, women, they pretty themselves up.
Men who make themselves pretty are effeminate.
And what are earrings for if not to pretty yourself up in 2020?
Well, you know what?
In our day and age, the last thing we need is men being more effeminate
than they already are, okay?
So we need to wear rugged clothing.
We need to not be overly concerned with our appearance and fashion
and putting on jewelry and all these things to decorate ourselves.
It is not manly.
But anyway, they break off the golden earrings and they bring them to 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.
Now, what in the world?
You just made a golden calf.
But what did Aaron say?
Aaron makes a proclamation.
Well, tomorrow a feast to the Lord.
So you see, Aaron, he wants to keep things pointed toward the Lord.
Isn't that interesting?
The people are like, Make us gods.
And he's like, Oh, okay.
You know, he makes a golden calf.
And it's interesting what the people, this has always perplexed me.
The first time I read this, I was nine years old.
And this one thing about this really perplexed me, and it still perplexes me,
is why they say, Make us gods.
Right?
And then it says he made it a golden calf.
So how many golden calves does he make?
One.
Make us gods.
He makes one golden calf.
And what do they say?
These be thy gods.
Plural.
Which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it,
and Aaron made a proclamation tomorrow as a feast to the Lord.
Singular.
Okay?
And then they rose up early, and they do these different things.
And then if you jump down to verse number eight, it says,
They've turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them,
and they've made them a golden calf, and have worshipped it,
and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, What did they say?
These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
So you can see Aaron and the people are not on the same page here.
And not only that, the people aren't even on the same page with reality.
They're looking at one calf, one item.
Make us gods.
These are your gods.
And it keeps repeating it consistently, plural.
But then Aaron's like, Well, this is a feast to the Lord that we're doing.
He's trying to keep it monotheistic.
They're trying to make it polytheistic.
They're all looking at the same stupid animal that's melted out of gold.
Right?
So false religion doesn't make sense.
Okay?
False religion makes no sense.
And then there are always going to be guys like Aaron,
who basically, it's like they want to mix the Lord's religion or Christianity with false religion.
Right?
They're trying to find common ground with Judaism,
or they're trying to find common ground with Islam,
or trying to find common ground with Buddhism,
or, Hey, we're going to do the Native American traditional peyote religion,
but we're also going to believe in Jesus Christ.
Believe me, folks, when we go out on the rez, that's what people tell us.
Oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but I'm traditional.
And it's like they want to do both.
And that's what we see Aaron trying to do here.
See, Aaron's actually saved.
So he's not going to go just completely after false gods.
He's making this idol to appease the people,
but then he's like, Well, we're still Christians, folks.
You know, it's a feast of the Lord tomorrow.
So he's like a total compromiser.
He's like the one who's, he's still a Baptist.
You know, he still believes in salvation by grace through faith,
but he wants to fellowship with Catholics, Jews, Mormons.
You know, he wants to go to that ecumenical prayer breakfast,
but he's still, you know, for him, you know, it's just Jesus Christ.
For me, it's by faith.
No, for everybody, it's by faith.
And the gods of the nations are devils.
They're idols.
And so do you see the disconnect here between gods versus acaf, the Lord?
It's not making any sense, right?
It's the kind of confusion that comes about when there's a lack of leadership,
false religion, doesn't make any sense.
And so he says, Tomorrow's a feast to the Lord.
So Aaron is kind of trying to push him in the right direction a little bit.
Well, he's not doing enough here, okay?
He's, you cannot compromise on these matters of religion, okay?
You must draw a line in the sand.
You can't say like, well, I had to because the people, so yeah, we're going to bring in a little bit of idolatry.
There has to come a point where Aaron should have just said, no, this is wrong.
I want nothing to do with this.
This is wicked.
And he should have rallied all the people that were on the Lord's side.
They should have done the slaying already instead of having to wait till later in the chapter, okay?
So it says 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 to drink and rose up to play.
Now keep your finger there and go to 1 Corinthians 10 because this is going to shed a little bit of light on this.
Some things in the Old Testament can be a little tough to understand.
And the New Testament is much easier to understand and really shines a light and makes things much clearer sometimes.
So let's go back to 1 Corinthians 10 and see what it says here.
It says in verse number 6, Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day, three and twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.
And those are talking about later events, obviously, in the wilderness wanderings.
But he says here, Don't be idolaters, as were some of them.
Does it say that all of them were idolaters? No. Some of them were idolaters.
As it is written, The people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.
The people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.
So is everybody involved in this? Is everybody guilty here? No.
And this is what I mean about a lack of leadership.
You've got a bunch of people just sitting by, letting this happen, sitting back, and they don't have the leadership to put a stop to it, right?
And stand up and preach against it and rebuke it.
But not everybody is involved in this debasement that we see here.
So let's keep going in chapter 32.
It says, They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
What does it mean when it says they rose up to play?
What does it mean by play?
Well, when we think of the word playing, first of all, we can think of playing a musical instrument.
There's definitely music going on as we read this passage.
We see there's music, there's dancing, that's part of what they're doing.
So you could say, when it says they rose up to play, they're getting up.
All right, let's play. This is kind of like a partying, dancing, playing music.
I think that's what's meant here by the word play.
Verse 7, 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 have commanded them.
They have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed thereunto.
So look, God's real clear on how many items there are here, right?
They're worshiping a calf.
But what did they say?
These be thy gods, plural, 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.
Imagine, these are the people, and I know this was many weeks ago, these are the people who heard the voice of God out of the mount, giving them the Ten Commandments.
And these are the people who got the Book of the Covenant, those three chapters of statutes and ordinances and laws.
And remember, Moses sprinkled the book with blood, and he sprinkled the people, and all that the Lord has spoken we will do, and they all committed, they're going to keep God's covenant.
And then just quickly, 40 days to God, that's quickly, he's saying, that's not long.
Six weeks to just completely throw out the Ten Commandments, and you're doing this idolatry.
So it says, this is a stiff-necked people.
What does it mean to be stiff-necked?
The Bible says, he that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
So this is the person who at correction, they bristle.
Instead of being tender, pliable, it's like, you know, you'll see people sometimes harden their neck, literally, and just bristle at any kind of a correction.
So they're stiff-necked, they don't want to be told what to do, they don't want to be corrected, they're not willing to follow God's laws.
Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I'll make thee of thee a great nation.
He's offering Moses, I'm going to start over with you, you're going to be the new Abraham.
I'm going to wipe out the nation, and I'm going to make of you a great nation.
Now, Moses, obviously, if he was unloving, could have just said, cool, yeah, let's do it.
But in verse 11, it says, And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why did 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, why 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 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.
Verse 14, don't miss it, And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
Now, when the Bible says evil, don't confuse evil with sin. God doesn't sin. Sin is that which is bad, wicked, morally wrong.
Evil is not necessarily something that is morally wrong, because we see God doing evil, therefore it can't be morally wrong, because God is perfect and righteous, and God is without sin.
God doesn't sin. God cannot lie. God is perfect.
But yet, the Bible says in the book of Amos, is there an evil in the city, and the Lord has not done it?
When it talks about the fires, and the earthquakes, and different things, it talks about how God brings evil.
And here, he was going to bring evil upon the children of Israel, and he repented of that.
Now, what is evil? Evil in this context is that which is harmful.
So if God's harming people, he's doing evil unto them, meaning he's hurting them.
This has nothing to do with the morality of what he's doing, or the righteousness of what he's doing.
Everything God does is right, and righteous.
So basically, it's like when the Bible says about the virtuous woman, about her toward her husband, she'll do him good and not evil all the days of his life.
Meaning, everything she's doing is beneficial to him, she's not harming him.
She's not negative toward it, she's a positive in his life.
If God does something negative, if God's killing people and wiping people out, sending a fire, sending an earthquake, then God is sending evil upon people who deserve it.
So don't misunderstand that word evil.
So when the Bible says the Lord repented of the evil, he's not repenting of sin, he has no sin.
Everything he does is right, he's God.
He's repenting of the evil that he was going to do.
He's going to hurt people, and he decides not to.
Now, this is a good verse to help us understand what the word repent means.
Repentance is simply turning.
How do we know what that turning is? By the context.
So sometimes in the Bible, that turning or repentance is a change from not believing in Christ to believing in Christ.
It could be repentance where you're serving an idol, and then you turn to the true and living God, right?
You turn to God from idols, that's repentance.
You've turned from Catholicism to salvation by faith alone, or you've turned from Islam to Christ.
You could turn from Judaism to Christ.
You could turn from being an atheist to being a believer.
That's a turning, right?
Or you could use the word repentance in the context of, hey, I repented of drunkenness.
You know, I used to get drunk all the time.
I didn't, thank God, I've never been drunk.
But you could say, I repented of drunkenness, I used to get drunk all the time, now I no longer get drunk.
Then that means you've repented of what?
Drunkenness, you know?
Someone could be committing adultery and then repent of that.
Someone could commit theft or stealing, and then they repent of that, right?
So repentance can be turning from sin, or it can be turning from a false religion, a false belief,
or it could just be turning from a certain course of action.
I could say, I was going to go to the grocery store, but I repented.
Meaning, you know, it's like I got halfway there and I repented.
You know, I turned the car around and I went home.
I changed my mind, I decided not to do it.
So the word repentance, what I'm trying to get across to you is it's a very broad word.
And that's why it's used in the Bible in so many different contexts.
And what people do with this word that's wrong is whenever they see the word repent, they just add of your sin to it.
So like the Bible says repent and believe the gospel, here's what they see with that.
Repent of your sins and believe the gospel.
That's not what the Bible is saying.
You know, when the Bible says, you know, at the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
See, you know, he's commanding them all to repent of their sins.
No, no, no.
They're worshiping idols and he says, times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Repent of what?
The ignorance of worshiping idols.
Okay, they need to repent of that and turn to the true God.
So we'll see these verses where the Bible says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all nations.
He's not saying, hey, we're going to preach a 12-step program in all nations for forgiveness of sins.
And you know what?
That's what a lot of people's view of the gospel is.
It might as well be a 12-step program.
Quit sinning and thou shalt be saved is not the gospel.
Being willing to quit sinning and thou shalt be saved, that's not the gospel.
What's always amazing to me is when I go out sowing and I ask people how to go to heaven and frequently they give me an answer that has nothing to even do with Jesus.
They don't even mention Jesus.
It's like Jesus isn't even in the picture.
So what do you think a person has to do to go to heaven?
Well, you know, you've got to return from your sins, repent of your sins, live a good life.
It's like, well, anything to do with Jesus?
Obviously I don't say it like that because that would be rude, but it's like Jesus isn't even a part of the program.
Or people will say this.
They'll see someone who supposedly got saved and when they see them quit drinking or clean up their life, they'll say, oh, that's the evidence that they're saved right there.
Boom.
There's the proof right there.
And then someone who doesn't clean up their life right away, they'll say, oh, well, they're not saved because they didn't clean up those things.
But here's what's wrong about that is that there are all kinds of people cleaning up their life all the time without Christ.
There are people who go down to Alcoholics Anonymous.
They hit rock bottom and somebody makes an intervention.
They go down to AA and they quit drinking and they get off the drugs.
Does that mean that they're saved now?
Well, that's the evidence, right?
I mean, they did those things.
Folks, did you know that you can quit drinking without Jesus?
People quit drinking without Christ.
People get off drugs without Jesus.
Did you know that?
No Holy Spirit required.
They just quit drinking and quit the drugs.
They go through the programs.
But you know what?
You can't do without Jesus.
You can't go to heaven without Jesus.
So believing on Christ gets us to heaven.
Now, can the Lord Jesus Christ help us kick addictions?
Of course.
Of course he can help us.
But you know what?
That's not the acid test of whether someone's saved or not.
Did they kick their addiction or not?
That's how we'll know if they really got saved.
Wrong.
Because you can kick the addiction without Christ or you can have Christ
and because the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,
never get out of that addiction, unfortunately,
because you are not walking in the Spirit.
You're not putting on the new man.
You don't want it bad enough.
Whatever.
So don't get confused on this word repent, okay?
When he says here, the Lord repented,
this shows you right there that you can't just add of sin to that
because the most common repentance in the Bible is God repenting
and God has no sin.
So keep in mind that repentance just means turning.
And any time you want to know what that turning is, get the context.
And if you go to the Book of Acts and look at these verses like
God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, you know,
or repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look up every time repents mentioned in these places
and see what they're repenting of and you know what you're going to find
is that when it's in regard to salvation, it has nothing to do with
repenting of sins in our life.
It has to do typically with repenting of a false doctrine,
a false God, idolatry, whatever.
So the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do in his people.
But what's an important lesson we can take here?
This is a great lesson on prayer.
This guy knows how to pray.
Now look, God says, hey, leave me alone.
I'm going to wipe these people out.
Moses intercedes.
This is an intercessory prayer.
And when the Bible commands us to pray in the New Testament,
he says that prayers, supplications, intercessions,
and giving of thanks be made for all men.
So we're to pray, we're to make supplication,
but we're also to make intercession, the Bible says.
So we should pray for other people
and this is probably the best example in the whole Bible
of intercessory prayer.
The Bible teaches intercessory prayer again in 1 John 5
when it talks about if any man see his brother sin a sin that's not unto death,
he shall ask.
Pray.
And he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.
Now there is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it.
All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death.
So we see that for the sin not unto death,
we're to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ,
we're to make intercession for them
that God would go easy on them
and God would be merciful to them, right?
And here's such a great example.
Now, how does Moses do this?
Because shouldn't we take lessons from this?
Like, if we want to pray effectively
and we want to make intercession,
God's telling us in the New Testament to make intercession,
here's the playbook.
How does Moses teach us to pray?
What does he do?
Well, what he does is he actually brings up God's promises
and kind of turns this around on God and says,
well, God, don't you remember?
This is what you said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Are you going to make good on that or not?
Do we want the heathen to look at this
and think, so look, he's talking to God
with an understanding that God is the most important being
here in the universe.
Thy will be done.
Isn't that the pattern prayer that Jesus gave?
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
in earth as it is in heaven.
We need to pray according to God's will,
so we need to look at things from God's perspective
and not just, oh, God, make me happy
and give me stuff I want so that I can live a cool life.
You think that that's a great prayer life?
Give me a cool car because it's fun.
That's not the kind of prayer.
The Bible says that that's just asking for things
to consume them on your own lust.
You're praying wrong.
Moses is praying about how God's work is going to go forward
and how God's name is going to be glorified if he does this.
That's how we should pray.
We should pray according to the will of God.
And in this passage here, we see that he's bringing up
God's own promises.
And look, this is something that we should do when we pray
because a lot of people are like, when I pray to God,
what do I say?
Or maybe they pray for 30 seconds, a minute,
and they're like, OK, I'm out of stuff.
I'm out of ammo.
What do I say?
One way to pray is to bring up the promises of God
and say, God, here's what I want you to do for me.
You promised this, Lord, and I want you to please make good
on that promise in this situation.
You've said that you would do X, Y, and Z.
So, Lord, please do that in this situation, right?
And also you could pray and say, Lord, you know,
let's say you're sick and you want to get well.
You know, you could pray things like, Lord,
please help me to get well so I can serve you.
I can do more for you out there than in this sick bed, right?
Get me out there, Lord, doing your will.
You know, that's the kind of prayer
that God is responding to here, where
it's all about God's will, God's work going forward,
God getting the glory, and it's a reminding
God of his own promises.
Because what's the first word of verse 13?
God, remember.
Remember.
Now, look.
You say, well, that's silly because God knows everything.
You know, it's not as if God, oh, that's right.
You know what?
You're right, I did promise that.
Do you really think that God forgot that for one second?
No, but this is how we communicate with God.
OK, even though we know God knows everything,
the Bible says, don't get too smart for God
where you think you're smarter than God
or smarter than the Bible.
You know, what does the Bible say?
You have not because you ask not.
So don't sit there and say, well,
God already knows everything anyway,
so I'm not even going to bother praying.
What does the Bible say?
You have not because you ask not.
Don't get so smart and philosophical
where you talk yourself out of any reason to pray.
God wants us to pray, and when we come to God in prayer,
prayer actually changes things.
I don't believe for one second that praying is just
this exercise we go through, and God's
going to do whatever he's going to do anyway,
sort of a fatalistic or Calvinistic view that just,
well, whatever's going to happen is going to happen.
I don't believe that.
I believe that you have not because you ask not,
and that if we ask, we shall receive.
If we seek, we shall find.
If we knock, the door shall be opened.
Guess what?
If we don't knock, it's not going to be opened.
If we don't ask, we're not going to receive, OK?
The number one way to get nothing is to not pray, right?
And if you pray, you're accomplishing something.
There's value in prayer.
Just like when we go out solvening.
We're not just out spinning our wheels.
When we read our Bible, we're not spinning our wheels.
When we pray, what we're doing matters, OK?
And so he says here, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I quote scripture when I pray.
I say, well, God, you said this.
This is what you said, God.
And so, Lord, please do that.
Say, well, he's going to do that anyway.
No, not necessarily.
Because God talks about doing a lot of things.
God makes a lot of promises.
But most of those promises have to be activated.
They need an activation code, all right?
You know what I mean?
Because God, he makes all these promises.
But if you're not praying, you're not doing God's will,
you don't get access to that stuff, all right?
You have to pray.
You have to bring these things up to God
and ask God to do this.
And it says, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
thy servants, to whom thou swearth.
I mean, by thy known self, you swear this.
You said.
And then look, does this tactic work?
Yeah, because in verse 14, the Lord repented of the evil,
which he said he would do unto them.
Look at verse 15.
And Moses turned and went down from the mount,
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 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.
So Joshua goes up into the mountain with Moses.
He doesn't go all the way up,
but he's partway up the mountain.
And so he doesn't know about this thing
that has just happened with the,
because remember, this just happened,
the golden calf, the partying, whatever.
And by the way, here's another lesson,
is that a lot of times when we give up on God,
sometimes it's right before God was about to come through.
Remember when they go in the wilderness,
they don't have any water,
and then they complain and then God's mad,
and then it's like the water was right there
if they would've just pushed through a little bit harder.
Well, here's the thing.
Oh, man, 40 days, where's Moses?
If they would've just waited a couple more days,
it would've been fine, right?
So don't give up on God.
Sometimes the darkest hour is right before dawn
and you just have to wait a little bit longer
for God to come through for you.
But he hears the shouting,
and Joshua's first thought is we're under attack.
He's hearing this just noise of war coming from the calf.
So he assumes foreign nations have attacked.
We're gone and the attack's happening.
We gotta get down there and defend them.
And then Moses corrects him,
and he says, it's not, verse 18,
the voice of them that shout for mastery,
basically the people that are winning,
neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome,
but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
So basically they're having just a loud partying down there.
They're rocking out down there,
and so it sounds like maybe they're banging the drums of war,
screaming, shouting.
It sounds like it's a battle,
but it's really just more like, woo, yeah!
You know, it's more they're just partying.
And so it came to pass,
as soon as he came nigh into the camp,
he saw the calf and the dancing,
and Moses' anger waxed hot, right?
So he comes down basically to the Super Bowl halftime show going on,
is what he finds, you know, at the bottom, right?
Just all this wickedness,
the singing and dancing in a wicked way.
And you know, Baptists are notorious for being against dancing, right?
You know, it's like, oh, you're a Baptist, so you're against dancing.
And you know, I remember what Brother Hiles used to say.
Brother Hiles used to say, he said, I'm not against dancing.
He just said, I'm just against standing and hugging someone that's not my wife.
You know what I mean?
It's not the dancing that's the issue
of why we don't want our kids to go to the prom
and to go to these homecoming dance at the high school.
The reason why we don't want to go to those events
is because of the fact that it's a bunch of teenagers hanging on each other.
Okay, that's the dancing.
And then they're listening to all this really bad YMCA's blasting
and all these, and you know, I know that because I went to homecoming
and yeah, it was YMCA was blasting.
So don't say that I'm wrong about that.
Of course, that was over 20 years ago.
But anyway, you know, you go to these dances
and they're playing a bunch of sinful music, right?
A bunch of wicked music.
And then basically you just have everybody hanging on each other
or moving their body in a sexual, sensual way.
I mean, folks, you know, obviously I didn't watch the halftime show,
but it's like there's all these like news articles about it
and everything popping up that, correct me if I'm wrong,
but it seemed like even worldly people were saying that it was obscene
and that it was pornographic.
Like even, like people that aren't even claiming to be a Christian,
just worldly, unsaved people were saying,
this is pornographic, this is sleazy, this is horrific.
How could we let children and teenagers watch this?
And I saw a statistic.
It was watched by like a hundred some thousand people, you know,
that were tuned into this.
Or I'm sorry, a hundred million people, a hundred thousand.
It was like, oh wow.
No, no, it's a hundred thousand people.
Yeah, right.
No, it was literally like, I think it was like 112 million people.
Sorry, I'm tired.
Okay.
There were 112 million people tuned into this thing.
And I wonder how many five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten-year-olds,
eleven-year-olds, twelve-year-olds are watching this garbage,
this filth, this stupidity.
Okay.
And they're just watching this.
First of all, first of all, the music itself is just complete crap.
It's like, it's basically like if it were food, it would be like a Twinkie.
Seriously.
Like if you were to compare it to a food,
it would be like just the nastiest fast food cheeseburger or whatever.
You know what I mean?
Just this greasy, hydrogenated soy whatever.
I mean, I'm just saying like even just from an artistic standpoint, okay,
this pop music that they're playing is just junk.
Because I'm reading about it.
It was listing like all the songs they sang.
And I'm like, so the show lasts like 15 minutes.
How do you do 15 songs in 15 minutes?
Or whatever.
It was like listing all these songs.
I'm thinking to myself like basically all of these songs are such garbage,
you can't even listen to them for more than like 60 seconds.
You got to switch to a different song.
It's like ADD music or something.
You know what I mean?
Because it's just like, it's just ah, ah, ah.
And then like I read all these different articles
and every article is showing a different aspect.
I'm like, how many halftime shows were there?
It looked like there were like 15 different halftime shows.
Because it's just like, oh, and then this person came out.
Ah, ah, ah.
I'd rather listen to one good song for 15 minutes.
But it's just all just this cotton candy, twinkie, fast food junk
that's just, it's artistically bankrupt.
Not to mention the fact that it was just downright just pornographic
and just sleazy.
And you know, just imagine these 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year olds
watching this stuff, prepubescent children that should be innocent.
Like they shouldn't even be exposed to these things.
They shouldn't even know that such things exist.
And what are they thinking?
You know what those little girls are thinking?
Oh, this is what it means to be a great woman.
Isn't that what they're thinking?
They're basically looking at that and saying like, oh, this is a role model.
Look, everybody's cheering, everybody's worshiping.
I saw all these images of men like bowing down to these sleazy musicians.
Literally like worshiping them.
Like on their knees, literally.
I mean, you want to talk about worshiping the golden calf.
How about worshiping the golden grandma
that's out there gyrating her body, half naked.
These be thy gods.
They're literally bowing down and worshiping.
It's disgusting.
And one of them showed an image like she has her arms out
like she's on the cross or something,
like trying to take the place of Christ.
Okay.
You know, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
you know, the serpent is up there, you know, replacing Christ,
being worshiped, being sleazy and sensual.
And you know what?
Little children are seeing that stuff and their minds are being programmed.
That stuff makes an impression on you.
Like when you see that stuff as a little kid, like little kids,
have you ever seen a little kid watch something on TV?
They're just like.
That's how kids watch videos, don't they?
They're just like.
They're just like a blank piece of paper like a sponge just soaking it all up.
And you know, the devil wants to pervert our young people.
And he's like, oh, you know, we're just watching a football game,
just watching sports.
And then that's what he really wants to get them to watch.
Not to mention I read that there were also some queer commercials
during the thing or something or transvestite commercials or whatever.
But the point is that's just the kids under 12.
Their minds are being corrupted and perverted
in ways that we can't even understand
watching just this sleazy, sensual garbage.
And then not only that, what about the teenagers?
You know, they're watching this stuff and basically these boys are being taught,
oh, this is attractive.
This is what they're being taught to lust after.
And then the girls are being taught to emulate that
and to dress like that and act like that and just to basically have no shame.
And so, look, when we say, when Baptists say, hey, that we're against the dancing,
it's not that we're against dancing.
At least I'm not against dancing if it was the right kind of dancing.
But you know what?
We're talking about shaking their body and gyrating.
And basically, you know what they're basically doing?
They're basically pantomiming fornication is what they're doing.
When we say we're against dancing, we're basically against men and women
miming fornication because that's what they're doing.
And if that's what dancing is, then yeah.
Because you say, well, the Bible says there's a time to dance.
Yeah, but there's no time to shake your booty, okay?
That's not in Ecclesiastes, okay?
There's no time to look like a hooker and look like a whore and a prostitute
and someone who works at a gentleman's club.
That's not mentioned.
When it says, hey, praise the Lord with the dance or there's a time to dance,
it's not talking about this kind of sensual miming of fornication.
And that's what it really is, okay?
And it's also not talking about just a bunch of teenagers getting together
and just hanging on each other and pawing all over each other, okay?
That's the issue with dancing.
It's not the dancing itself that's the problem.
It's the kind of dancing.
So when we see here that, you know, the people are dancing and it's like,
oh, man, he comes down, he sees the calf and he sees the dancing.
These are the two things he gets mad about.
Why did he get mad at the dancing?
Because the dancing was basically a Super Bowl halftime kind of dancing
is what he's looking at.
That's why he's offended by it, right?
It makes perfect sense to me.
And you say, well, I don't know if that's really what it was.
Well, look what verse 25 says.
And when Moses saw that the people were naked,
for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies, okay?
So he sees that the people are naked unto their shame.
Now, I'm not saying that they were necessarily stark nude
or something like that, but they had obviously stripped down somewhat, you know,
and the dancing was obviously obscene for Moses to have been offended by it,
to see it and be horrified by it.
And look, there's nothing new under the sun.
If this happened today, what would it be like?
It would be like that halftime show because that's what it is like
because that's what just happened a couple of days ago.
So when we see wicked people partying, that's how they do it.
Well, guess what?
That's how they've always done it.
Like, there's nothing new under the sun, okay?
Obviously, when they're stripping down and eat, drink, party, rise up to play,
they're obviously not just down there like,
doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, da, da, da, da, da.
You know, and they're obviously not like, you know, this kind of stuff.
Use your brain.
Obviously, he didn't see, you know, all these other dances.
He's obviously looking at something that's inappropriate
or he wouldn't be getting mad about it.
So I don't know if that was around back then.
There's nothing new under the sun.
Haven't you ever heard that prostitution is the oldest profession?
You ever heard that before?
That stuff's always been around.
There's a prostitute in the book of Genesis, okay?
And so we see that if there are women out there doing lewd dancing
and miming all these activities,
I guarantee you the same thing was going on back then.
If it's going on now, it was going on back then
because human nature is human nature.
And so that's why Moses is horrified when he sees the calf and the dancing.
So at the end of verse 19, I got to hurry up for the sake of time,
but 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 burnt it in the fire
and ground it to powder and strawed it upon the water
and made the children of Israel drink of it.
And Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people unto thee?
He's thinking like, they must have tortured you.
How did they get you to do this?
What made you finally snap?
How long were you waterboarded to get you to do this?
Right?
And that's what should be asked of people who put their kids in front of this stuff
or even play it in churches.
I promise you that that Super Bowl halftime show was watched in church on Sunday.
Because you know there are tons of churches that watch the Super Bowl
and I'm sure a lot of them turned off the halftime show
because it's so filthy and vulgar,
but you know probably a lot of them just let it play.
You think the ones with the rainbow on the sign said, oh, we better turn this off?
Folks, look, it's like were you waterboarded?
What did they do to you?
What did this people unto you that thou has brought so great sin upon them?
And Aaron said, oh, let not the anger of my Lord wax on.
Now notice the people.
They're set on mischief.
You know how these people are.
You said it yourself.
They're stiff necked, you know.
For they said unto me, make us gods which shall go before us.
That's true.
They did say that, right?
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 I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.
Now that's all true, right?
Everything's true.
So they gave it to me and then I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf.
I mean I just threw it in the...
Now is this the stupidest lie ever?
So I threw all the gold in the fire and then the calf just leapt out.
It's evolution, right?
It's stupid, but you know what?
You know what I think God's trying to show us here is that when you don't take responsibility
for your actions and you make excuses, you end up just making an idiot out of yourself.
You know what?
It's so much better.
Look, people make mistakes.
People do wrong.
We all make mistakes.
It's better to say, you know what?
I messed up.
I'm sorry.
I'm an idiot.
Forgive me.
Help me get this right.
Instead of saying, oh well, you don't understand.
What really makes Aaron look like an idiot here is what he says there.
And he's going to look like an idiot for all eternity now because it's in the Bible and
God's word is forever.
You know, that doctrine of preservation is rough on guys like Aaron because this story
is not going anywhere.
Okay.
If you think about that, all right.
I mean imagine if Aaron would have said, you know what?
I'm so sorry.
I tried to mix worshipping the Lord with keeping people happy.
I shouldn't have compromised.
Please forgive me.
You know, more kids would be named Aaron and you'd have better feelings toward Aaron.
No offense to those that are named Aaron.
I know that is a popular name, but it's just like, you know, you want to name your kid
Aaron, but then you're kind of like, that lie though.
I don't want my kids saying stuff like that to me.
But anyway, again, no offense to those named Aaron.
But the point is, you know, sometimes the coverup is worse than the crime.
You know, we can sympathize with the crime, but it's like you look at this lie and you
say, well, yeah, but I'll tell a better lie.
You know what?
Whenever you start lying your way out of trouble, you end up just making an idiot out of yourself.
It's better to just come clean, tell the truth, take responsibility, and so forth.
So he lies this ridiculous lie how he just put it in the fire and just this calf came out.
And here's the thing.
What's funny is that technically he's telling the truth because he did cast it into the fire.
And a calf did come out, but what he's failing to mention is how, you know, there was a lot
of human involvement there where he made the calf.
He forgot the part about him making the calf, all right, which he's lying and saying stupid
things that don't make sense, basically.
So then in verse 25, when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them
naked under their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and
said, who's on the Lord's side?
Let him come unto me.
And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
And he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by
his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his
brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor.
And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses and there fell of the people
that day about 3,000 men.
So these 3,000 people are obviously the instigators, the worst offenders.
These are the really guilty people and they have to kill these people.
You know, I have to put these people to death.
So obviously in the New Testament, we don't take up the sword, right?
Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.
He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword, right?
And the Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
And so obviously we are not to actually assault people or kill people.
But what the Bible is teaching us here spiritually is that if you're on the Lord's side,
it's not enough to say, well, I didn't worship the golden cap.
And you know what?
This is where a lot of Christians are at today.
A lot of Christians are at this point of like, well, you don't see me worshipping the golden cap.
I mean, I'm not bound down to idols.
You don't see me going out and getting drunk.
I'm not going out and fornicating.
I'm not committing adultery.
But you know what?
It's not enough to be on the Lord's side.
These people couldn't just say, well, I'm on the Lord's side.
I didn't do anything.
It's like, all right, if you're on the Lord's side, you grab a sword and you go kill the
people who did this.
That was the test of who's on the Lord's side.
Does everybody see that?
I mean, isn't that what it says?
He said unto them, verse 27, dost sayeth the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword
by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man
and every man his companion and every man his neighbor.
And verse 29 says, for Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, every man, even
every man upon his son and upon his brother that he may bestow upon you blessings.
He's saying, I don't care if it's your son.
I don't care if it's your brother.
I don't care if it's your friend.
I don't care who it is.
The people who are responsible for this need to be put to death.
And they had to go do it.
That's what it meant to be on the Lord's side.
Now, again, we're not talking about a physical battle here in the New Testament.
What we're talking about is that we need to take the sword, and it's not enough to just
say, well, I didn't do that stuff.
We need to take a stand against that stuff.
And when we see our children doing this stuff, or if we see our brother or our sister or
people that are in our sphere of influence or people in our church doing this stuff,
you know what?
We need to stand up and do something about it.
And you know what?
It's not enough for pastors to be King James, soul winning, separated, independent, fundamental
Baptist if they're not going to get up and preach against sin.
Well, they don't fornicate.
Yeah, but are they condemning fornication?
They don't drink, but are they preaching against it?
You know what I mean?
It's not enough.
And the problem with most pastors is not what they say.
It's what they don't say.
Okay?
In order to be on the Lord's side, you have to take a stand.
Don't be that dad where his daughter walks out of the house emulating Jennifer Lopez
and dressed up like, and just goes, well, you know, I mean, you know, don't be the mom
who just says, well, I don't dress that way.
No, you have to take a stand and take the word of God and condemn it and preach against
that stuff and speak out.
And when you see, you know, people going down a dark path, you need to do two things.
When you see people going down a dark path, you need to tell them you're wrong.
You need to reprove them.
You need to correct them, right?
You need to approach them and correct them with the word of God.
And then you need to get on your knees and pray and intercede for them that God doesn't
just wipe them out or God doesn't chastise them too severely or they can't get up again.
So if we love people, we need to correct them and we need to intercede for them.
But don't be, don't be this Christian who just says, well, I'm just going to do all
the right things in my life, but I'm not going to speak out against sin.
You know what happens when we don't speak out against sin?
It all goes to hell in a hand basket.
You need a Moses to come down and condemn it.
I mean, there were a lot of people who didn't participate, but is that enough?
No.
That's why Moses had to come down and say, all right guys, it's not enough to abstain
from the sin yourself.
You need to also gird the sword on your thigh and you need to purge this out.
You need to get rid of this.
And so that's what we need to do as obviously as a pastor, that's why I preach sermons like
I did on Sunday morning, you know, condemning alcohol or preach sermons against fornication
or preach against, you know, this, this pornographic junk that was, that was being played to the
nation, 112 million people or whatever, not to mention all the people that are watching
on YouTube and everywhere else, all the replay and everything.
You know, we need to get up and condemn this stuff and we need to say, as for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord.
So we need to make sure that we get our houses in order and that we speak out against these
things and not just say, well, I didn't do it.
I wasn't part of it.
Okay.
But if you're not part of the solution though, you're part of the problem.
Okay.
We as Christians need to stand out against sin.
Now, obviously there are situations where it's not our place.
I don't think it's your place to rebuke your parents and, and, you know, go in and start
telling your parents off and throwing all their DVDs in the trash and telling them that,
you know, that they're in sin and everything.
Because that's your parents.
Obviously, when you're, when you're an employee at a job, it's not your place to go into that
company and just start basically just turning it into a soapbox for church.
But you know what?
We have plenty of people that are in our sphere of influence.
We have our, we have our friends.
We have our families, like, like talking to our brothers, our sisters, people that are
on our same level.
We have our children.
We have nieces, nephews.
Hey, we need to take those people aside and not just give them the gospel, but after they
have the gospel, get them baptized and teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ
commanded us.
So, you know, it's okay to take your nephew aside.
It's okay to take your niece aside.
It's okay to take your son and your daughter, your brother, your sister, your friends and
take them aside and say, hey, you know what?
I just want to show you what the word of God says, that you're wrong here.
You know, this is, this is sin.
What you're doing is sin.
And you know what?
Yeah, sometimes people are going to get mad about that, but oftentimes those people are
going to respect you more in the long run.
And, and you know what?
Even if they, even if they get mad and don't accept it, you know what?
At least you did what you could.
Because a lot, a lot of young people, they don't have anyone telling them the truth.
No one's telling them.
All their, they see this stuff on TV.
They hear it at school.
They hear it on the radio.
No one's telling them.
Don't fornicate.
No one's telling them.
Don't drink.
No one's telling them.
Don't dress this way.
You know, and so you might be the only person to tell them that.
You know, and again, obviously we need to stay within the lines as far as we don't want
to overstep our boundaries and start rebuking our parents and our boss at work and things
like that or our coworkers or something in an inappropriate way.
You have to use wisdom and discretion of what's appropriate.
But we have plenty of people who we do have influence over in our lives, who we do have
contact with, and you know what?
We need to stand for and speak the truth.
And in this day and age where everything's just being turned into queerness and promiscuity
and sensuality and filth, somebody's got to stand up to this garbage.
You know, and we're the salt and the light here that's supposed to be.
Now look, unsaved people, they need the gospel.
But I'm talking about our fellow Christians because you know what?
Our fellow Christians are involved in these things.
Okay, and you know, somebody needs to call these people to repentance.
Okay, because some of them are going to a church where they're never going to hear preaching.
They're just going to hear these little soft messages or whatever.
They don't actually get the real preaching.
They're going to Aaron Baptist.
Okay, and they need a Moses in their life.
Or they need a Levi in their life, you know, a Levite to come and tell them,
hey, you know what?
You really shouldn't be doing this because here's what the Bible says.
I'm not talking about imposing man-made standards on them.
I'm talking about taking the Word of God and showing them what the Bible says about how
we should live our lives and warning them, you know, that young man that's about to marry
a divorced woman.
What does the Bible say about that?
Maybe somebody should take him aside.
If he's a Christian man, he's about to marry the divorcee and show them what the Bible says.
Whosoever marrieth her that is divorced comitteth adultery.
Whoo!
That's what Jesus said.
But you know what?
A lot of people don't even know that because it's not being preached, right?
Or when you see that young person starting to get into drugs and alcohol, maybe just
smoking a little pot or whatever, you know, who's going to take them aside and show them
what the Bible says how we need to be sober?
And all the warnings and all the negatives and all the things, somebody needs to show
them to stay pure until they're married.
Somebody needs to take them aside and teach these things.
It's not enough to abstain from sin yourself.
It's not enough to walk the walk.
You also need to talk the talk.
You know, we often talk about the opposite.
Well, don't be a hypocrite.
If you talk the talk, walk the walk.
But you know what?
Some people walk the walk and they don't talk the talk.
And you know what?
I'm glad that you're living a good Christian life.
I really am.
But you know what?
You need to get some other people on board with you.
And not just say, well, I didn't worship the golden calf.
Yeah, but did you try to stop it though?
And so that's the standard for being on the Lord's side.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter.
There's so much that we didn't even have time to talk about.
But Lord, thank you for this chapter and what we can learn from it.
And Lord, just help us not to just be kind of sitting back and letting our country go
down the toilet.
Help us not to just be the ones who just kind of sit back and let our children go down a
dark path and we let our nieces and nephews and our siblings.
And we just kind of just sit back and just let it all happen and just say, well, I didn't
do it though.
I'm not.
Lord, help us to take responsibility and be the Moses in that person's life that comes
to them and leads them to follow you, not just to be saved, but also to be baptized
and also to observe all things that Christ commanded.
And Lord, we just pray that you would just give us wisdom, Lord, and give us boldness
in this day that we're living where we're living in some strange times.
We're living in very sinful times in 2020, Lord, but help us not to just be these passive
people in 2020, just letting everything happen.
Help us to get involved in putting a stop to these things, at least amongst God's people
and at least amongst Christians, Lord.
And so in Jesus' name, we ask these things.
Amen.
All right, we're going to sing one more song before we go tonight.
Song number 197, Singing I Go, song number 197.
The trusting heart to Jesus' wings, Nor any ill forebodes,
But at the cross of Calvary's sings, Praise God for lifted loads.
Singing I go, along life's road, Praising the Lord, praising the Lord,
Singing I go, along life's road, For Jesus has lifted my load.
The passing days bring many cares, Fear not, I hear Him say,
And when my fears are turned to praise, The burden slips away.
Singing I go, along life's road, Praising the Lord, praising the Lord,
Singing I go, along life's road, For Jesus has lifted my load.
He tells me of my Father's love, And ever slumbering I,
My everlasting King above, Will all my needs supply.
Singing I go, along life's road, Praising the Lord, praising the Lord,
Singing I go, along life's road, For Jesus has lifted my load.
When to the throne of grace I flee, I find the promise true,
The mighty arms upholding me, Will bear my burdens true.
Singing I go, along life's road, Praising the Lord, praising the Lord,
Singing I go, along life's road, For Jesus has lifted my load.
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