The Sin of Idolatry, Part 2

If you have your Bible, turn with me, if you would, to Exodus chapter 32. We're looking at the sin of idolatry. And last week we talked about the character of that idolatry. Today we're going to look at the condemnation.

Of that idolatry. And next Sunday, we're going to look at the compassion for the idolaters. Those are the three points we're covering in Exodus chapter 32. And I'm going to cover three aspects of the condemnation of idolatry: one, by the Lord Himself, the other, by the leader Moses, and the third, by the Levites.

So let me read to you, beginning with verse number 1, Exodus chapter 32. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron, and said to him, Come, make us a God who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me. Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

And he took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool. And made it into a molten calf. And they said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, Tom shall be a feast of the LORD. So the next day they rose early, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Then the LORD spoke to Moses Go down at once, for your people, whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let me alone, that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of You, a great nation.

Then Moses entreated the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why doth thine anger burn against thy people, whom thou hast brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a Mighty hand. Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, With evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy burning anger and change thy mind about doing harm. To thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants to whom thou didst swear by thyself, and didst say to them, I will multiply your descendants at the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken, I will give to your descendants.

And they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which he said he would do to his people. Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Tablets which were written on both sides. They were written on one side and the other. And the tablets were God's work, and the writing was God's writing engraved on the tablets. Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people, as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a sound of war in the camp.

But he said, It is not the sound of the cry of triumph, nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing Here. And it came about as soon as Moses came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger burned. He threw the tablets from his hand and shattered them at the foot of the altar. The mountain. And he took the calf, which they had made, and burned it with fire, and grounded to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water, and made the sons of Israel drink it.

Then Moses said to Aaron, What did this People do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them. And Aaron said, Do not let the anger of my Lord burn. You know the people yourself. That they are prone to evil. For they said to me, Make a God for us who will go before us. For this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off. So they gave it to me. And I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.

Now, when Moses saw, the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them get out of control. To be a derision among their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered together to eat. Him. And he said to them, Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate. Camp and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.

So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed. And about 3,000 men the people fell that day. Then Moses said, Dedicate yourself today to the Lord, for every man has been against his son and against you. Against his brother, in order that he may bestow a blessing upon you today. Now, this is quite a chapter. We haven't even finished reading it yet. That al covered all that's in here. But today I want to talk to you about the condemnation of idolatry by looking at, first of all, the Lord.

And I want you to notice about our Lord and His omniscience. The Lord knew what was happening down at the base of the mountain. Moses didn't know, but God knew. And the condemnation of idolatry begins because God knows the heart. And God knows the lifestyle of people. And while Moses didn't know, God knew. You see, the people in this assembly today at Christ Community Church don't know about your private life, about what's happening. What idols do you have set up in your heart? Those things you worship, those things you adore, those things that you put above God.

No one in this room probably knows what those are in your life, but God knows. God knows. Psalm 139 speaks of the fact that God knows your thoughts before you even think them. God knows the words that you're going to speak before you even speak them. God knows everything. And he knew, he knew, number one, that they had def themselves before him.

It says down in verse number se that they have corrupted themselves. And while the world might think that what they're doing is okay, the Bible says that they went out to play.

It's a word that deals in the Hebrew with the immorality that took place, the nakedness that took place. That they would strip themselves clean of their clothes and dance around naked, this idle calf. In 1 Corin 10, it talks about the fact that they had committed immorality that day. God also knew of their departure from him. Him. It says in verse number eight, they have quickly turned aside. Because of the defilement in the heart, it causes the man to depart. From God. And these people had moved slowly away from their God.

And the sad thing about that is that they believed in their heart they were doing the right thing. Because they just wanted to see a God. They wanted to hold a God. They wanted to be able to fix their eyes upon something that they could worship. But it was wrong. And while they were doing that, they were departing from God slowly. Sure. Listen, when you don't follow the word of God in its entirety, you begin to depart from God. And that's what was taking place at the base of the mountain. In Exodus chapter 32, and God knew they were departing from him.

Remember in Thessalonic, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse number 9, they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. These people were turning from God to idols to serve a false God. There are many people who honor God with their lips, but their hearts. Are far from them. The whole religious establishment in the days of Jesus, what do they do? They thought they were doing the right thing, they thought they were honoring God, but only with their lips. Because their hearts were far from them.

The base of the mountain were over two million Jews whose hearts were far from God because they had defiled themselves. And thirdly, the text says that they dishonored God.

They looked at the calf and said, O Israel, this is your God who delivered you from Egypt. No, it wasn't. That's a complete dishonoring. Of God. You see, you cannot honor God or seek to honor God while violating the Word of God. You see, you can't do that. People think, well, you know, I can disobey over here, but I can honor God over here. No, you can't. If you're dishonoring God there, you're dishonoring over here. You can't break the law of God to fulfill the law of God. And so, what is happening is that they are dishonoring God.

And God knows that. Over in Isaiah chapter 42. God said these words, verse number 8: I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven images. God says, I am a jealous God.

I am not about to give my glory, the glory due my name, to some object. It's not going to happen. And that's why God condemned what they did and was outraged at what they did. Did. They defiled themselves, departed from God, they dishonored God. Fourthly, they defied God. They defied Him. God says this people in verse number nine is an obstinate people.

They are a stiff-necked people. That wasn't a physical problem, that was a spiritual problem. They were against God, they weren't for God, they were against God. No matter what they thought they were doing, they truly were against God. They were defying. His authority in their life because they broke the commandments that God had verbally spoken to them they should keep. And they had verbalized back that they would keep, but they defied the authority of God in their lives. Condemned him for that.

So we see his omniscience and what he knew. But the second thing I want you to notice is the order God gave to Moses.

What's he say? Moses, get down there. Now, in that order is great grace. Better Moses go down than God go down. And so he sends Moses down. Now, think about that. The wicked conduct of the people needs. To be stopped by the leader of the people. If you're a leader today in your family, you need to make sure you go down and stop the wicked conduct in your family. Family. If you're a leader in the church of Jesus Christ, you need to make sure that you stop the wicked conduct in the church of Jesus Christ because you have been called to live a holy and pure.

Righteous life. And the people of God need to understand the importance of obeying the word of God. Unfortunately, we have. Too many leaders who are like Aaron and not like Moses. Too many people who bow to the whims, too many leaders who bow to the whims of the people rather than standing against the people in their error. And the Bible speaks over in Psalm 97, verse number 10, hate evil, you who love the Lord. If you love the Lord, you gotta hate evil. Psalm 119, 104, hate every false way. Moses goes down.

So, what you have is the omniscience of God, the order from God, and the outrage of God. The outrage of God. And you know, you read the story, only 3,000 died that day. That's it. That too is the grace of God. For the wages of sin is what? I'm sorry. The wages of sin is what? Death, right? If you sin, you deserve one thing and one thing only: death. If you live, that's called what? What is it called? Grace. I didn't hear that very loud, but it is grace. It's the mercy of God. Grace of God, it's the goodness of God, the kindness of God.

It's the grace of God that didn't wipe them all out. God says, You know what, Moses will do. I'm going to wipe them all out, and I'm going make you the father of a great nation. I'm going to birth a new nation through you. Now, Moses could have said, hey, that's a good idea. Wipe them all out and I'll start this thing. Forget about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All be the father of a great nation. Moses was a man of great compassion. He would plead to God, and we'll talk about that next week. But God was outraged.

And that's the way God is with sin. He's a holy God. If he wasn't outraged with sin, he wouldn't be holy, would he? He wouldn't be holy. If he didn't deal with sin, he wouldn't be just. So he has to deal with it. And in his great mercy and compassion, how did he deal with it? For your life and mine? He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die as your. Substitute to pay the penalty of your sin. That's the grace of God. Second thing I want you to see is the condemnation by the leader, Moses.

Himself by the leader, Moses him. Verse 15, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets. Verse 17. Now when Joshua heard the sound, Of the people. Moses went down with Joshua. When we're done with our study of Exodus, we're moving to the book of Joshua. Joshua is going to follow Moses in terms of leadership. Moses is going down to deal. With the people. And the Bible says, and it came about as soon as Moses came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing.

And Moses' anger burn. As you recall earlier in our study of the book of Exodus, Moses' anger burned against Phar. Burns again. Every man of God is hot-tempered against evil. And you want to know why our anger doesn't burn against evil like it should? It's because we don't spend the time with God like we should. Where was Moses for 40 days? On the mountain, communing with God, right? The closer you get to God, the more angry you are at sin. The further you are from God, the less angry you become.

That's sin. God didn't rebuke Moses because of his anger. It was a righteous indignation because it was against the law of God. And the law of God defines for us the character of God, who He is. And they violated that nature and character of God. They were obstinate against God. And Moses' anger burned because of the s. Sin of the people. He saw what was happening down there. When you see sin in your family, are you outraged or you just let it bypass? No big deal. We need to be outraged and we need to stand strong in the truth of God's holy word.

Aaron didn't. Moses did. So when Moses comes down, what's he do? He destroys the tablets. Very symbolic, isn't it? Very symbolic. James 2. 10 says, if you break the law in one point, you're guilty of breaking the entire law, right? Because it's a unit. It's one. You can't say, well, I've only broken one of the Ten Commandments. I'm 90% good. No, you're 100% bad. See? You've got to realize how God looks at it. If you break one aspect of the law, you've broken the entire law because the law is one.

It's all about God Himself, who is one. And to violate one aspect of the law is to violate the nature and character of God and is to go against Him. And so, therefore, what happened when Moses shattered the Ten Comm? When he threw them down, it was very symbolic that the people had broken the entire law of God, not just one aspect of that law. Law. And then what did he do? It says, the Bible says, what?

Took the calf, which they made, burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water, and made the sons of Israel drink it. I look at that and think, man, that's vicious.

That's vicious. And our idols can be consumed in a matter of moments. The things that we cherish above God, the things that we put before God, they can be taken from us in a matter of seconds, nanoseconds. It'll last. And Moses turning that calf into powder and sprinkling it there in the river and making them drink it was very symbolic of the fact that what you're doing is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It means nothing. Who wants to worship a God that can be ground to powder? Who wants to worship a God that can be consumed at a moment's notice?

And then he denounced Aaron. We talked a little bit about this last week, and I want to talk a little bit about it with you this morning, just in terms of review. But notice about Aaron, he came against Aaron.

He, Aaron, why'd you do this? Why'd you do this? I want you to know something about Aaron. When Aaron was with Moses, he was strong. When Moses was gone, Aaron was weak. Moses was a strong man. And sometimes, you know, we can ride the coattails of the strong king. Can't we? Now, granted, if someone's strong, you want to ride those coattails, you want to be with them. But in the meantime, you've got to be able to develop your own Strength. It's like our children. You want them to ride your coattails.

You got them for 18 years. You want to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You want them to be strong for God. But one day they got to learn to stand on their own. And will they be able to stand on their own when you're gone? That's the proof. That's the proof of your parenting, right? What is the proof of your parenting? It's not when they're two and three and four and five and you make them mind and sit and eat and drink. It's when they're 20, 21, 22, 25, 30, 35. What is happening down the road?

Down the road. Didn't stick because they've got to learn to stand on their own. Because Aaron was more interested in being popular than being pure. And that's why he failed. That's why he failed. But.

Number three, the Levites. And folks, I want to tell you something. This is r. I want you to pay very close attention. Because if you're here today and you're saying, you know what? I know I have idols. I know something else more important to me than God. What do I do? I know that God's not the first place in my life.

What idols do we bow down to? And let me begin by taking you back in our study of the book of Genesis to Genesis chapter 49, when Jacob.

Pronounced his blessing upon the sons of Israel. And when Jacob would pronounce his blessing upon the sons of Israel, He lumped Simeon and Levi together. Why? Because Simeon and Levi were behind the destruction of the men of Shechem because of how they dealt with their sister. Remember that story? And so the curse pronounced upon them, which really truly was a blessing, was that you should not listen.

To the council of Simeon, whose name means to hear, and you should not be joined together with Levi in his evil. And his name means joined together. All that for Levi sets the tone for the Levites in Exodus 32. Because you see, those two tribes didn't get a share of the inheritance in Canaan. And now you begin to understand what happens. Because it's on this day, some 4 years later, that the tribe of Levi Makes restitution. The tribe of Levi stands for the right things. The Bible says this.

Now when Moses saw the people were out of control, for Aaron had led them to get out of control, to be a derision among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Whoever is for the Lord, come. To me. Now that has opened everybody in the camp. And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. And what we have here is, first of all, is a person separation.

And the tribe whose name means to be joined together joins with Moses. Moses, by the way, is from the tribe of Levi. So is Aaron. So is Phine. So is John the Baptist. Got some great men in that line. And so, whoever's for the Lord, come and join me. And all the tribe of Levi, they go stay with him. There was a personal separation. Listen, whenever you decide to leave your idolatry, you need to separate yourself from it. A clean break. The tribe of Levi separated themselves from everybody else in the camp of Israel, didn't they?

They stood alone. And with the personal separation comes a public declaration. You see, you can't separate from your idolatry without everybody else recognizing what was happening. Right? So, what do we have here? We have a personal separation, we have a public declaration, and that leads, my friend, to a powerful voc. A powerful calling. What happens? Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: Every man of you put a sword upon his thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother.

Every man is friend. Every man is neighbor. And 3,000 men were killed that day. These men were engaged in a powerful vocation, a powerful calling, because they were called to condemn those who would not repent of their sin. They were called to deal with those who continued to live in their sin. See? And they didn't know that was going to happen. They were called. But they acted in obedience, didn't they? From a personal separation to a public declaration to a powerful vocation leads prominent compens.

Prominent compensation. Because the Bible says, then Moses said, Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord.

for every man has been against his son and against his brother, in order that he may bestow a blessing upon you to day. The tribe of Levi became the priestly tribe of Israel. Wow. What a blessing. Did they know that when they took a stand? No. When they would separate themselves from everyone else, did they know that? No. The ones that would lead Israel in worship. See that? And whatever God asked them to do, they would do, because they would follow the will of God. 1 Peter 2. 9 says, we are a holy nation.

We are a chosen generation. We are a holy people. A priesthood. You see, we have the same responsibility as the Levites. And while we might not wield a physical sword, and while we might not actually perform the sacrifices in the temple of God, we present our bodies a living sacrifice. And we wield the sword of the spirit because this is our weapon. This is our.