When We Sin

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s pray:

Dear Holy Spirit,

As you abide in our hearts, lead us to all truth.

Cause us to see Jesus and convict us of our sin.

And lead us to repent.

All through the power of your Word.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

The Lord does not ignore sin

When I was a boy, you’d often hear sermons that would talk about sins of omission and sins of commission.

And this text has them both in it.

Sins of commission are simple - you deliberate did something you knew God prohibits.

Something like building a golden calf

Or killing someone

Or stealing something from a neighbor.

Now sins of omission are just a smidge different.

Mostly it was preached to me that if you failed to do something God commanded, that was a sin of omission.

Failing to come to worship on a regular basis is a sin of omission.

James defines it as James 4:17

James 4:17 ESV

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

This passage from Exodus points out a very sinister sin of omission.

It’s knowing everyone else is doing something wrong and not doing anything about it.

Again, James, James 5:19-20

James 5:19–20 ESV

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Look back at verse 1 in Chapter 32 of Exodus 32:1 “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.””

Now think about this - do you think that EVERY person in that camp thought that was a good idea?

Do you think they all came to Aaron demanding an idol be made?

Do you not think that at least a few people were going, “No, No, that’s not what God said!

“Didn’t you people just hear from Him yourselves?”

You know they did - but they did nothing.

That’s a sin of omission.

Brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents - your children are scared.

Last Wednesday before the hurricane in our Wednesday Kids class, I could hear the fear in your children’s voices.

The school shooting near Winder has opened a Pandora's box of fear.

Innocuous things we used to say - things I’ve said when I get good and aggravated

“They ought to burn it down and start from scratch.”

Kids hear other kids say that in school and it scares them.

And the administration has to - they MUST take every threat seriously.

All they have to do is ignore the right one and we’ve got a tragedy.

So the kids see those kids get in trouble and it makes the threat even more credible in their minds.

They are scared.

Visibly scared.

And this is our sin of omission.

You can arm every teacher, you can put law enforcement in every room, you can confiscate every gun in the universe

And someone will find a way to kill a bunch of people.

Because they always have.

Because they are evil.

Because what they need to hear is God

But what they’ve heard is hate and division.

As God has been stripped and vilified in culture, we’ve sat idly by until we are where we are.

Oh sure, a few people have gone to school boards.

And we have some valiant keyboard warriors who spew their own brand of ignorance and venom all over social media.

I pray they aren’t Christian.

But the rest of us - we can’t even be bothered to vote.

There’s at least 42,000,000 Christians who claim to be evangelical in the United States.

What would happen if all 42,000,000 voted for Christian values?

But it’s more than just voting - it’s time to push back.

Whether it’s city government, county government, the school board, state government or the federal government, whatever organization or people group,

If what they are doing is unGodly, if what they enact is unGodly, we’ve got to start pushing back.

And I have no idea what that’s going to look like,

But, our kids are terrified and there is no one coming to fix the problem.

Because the One who can fix the problem has already come.

It’s time for us to step up.

Because if we don’t, the Lord is liable to lump us in with everyone else.

Just like the Lord did with Israel.

Look at Exodus 32:7 “And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.”

The Lord does not ignore sin

Moses was on the mountain top - he’s been there about 40 days now.

The Lord is finished giving Moses everything the people wanted but were too impatient to wait for.

You know Moses was riding the wave.

This is THE mountaintop experience.

And then the Lord says this.

I can hear Moses thinking, “My people - what do you mean my people?

“I didn’t bring them up out of Egypt, you led us out of Egypt.

“Corrupted themselves - What did Aaron do?

“What is Yahweh talking about?”

You know how your minds work.

In a flash that would have shot through his mind.

Then the Lord drops the bomb.

Exodus 32:8 “They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ””

Moses is sitting right there with the two stone tablets with the 10 commandments engraved in them.

Written by the very finger of God Himself.

As the Lord is talking, Moses reads the first three commandments to himself.

No other Gods, no graven images, don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.

This wasn’t an accident.

This was a sin of commission - they meant to do it.

They knew exactly what they were doing.

That word quickly - “They have turned aside quickly...”

That word has a nuance - it’s not just the speed with which they turned

It was the lack of thought that went into their decision.

They acted rashly.

They didn’t think it through.

We all said this, “It sounded good at the time.”

And what they did has a name.

It’s called blasphemy.

They took what God had done and they gave credit to something else.

Exodus 32:8 “... ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ””

They knew it was a lie when they said it.

How much blasphemy do you hear in our nation?

How much blasphemy do you hear around us every day?

Yahweh was not amused them - do you think He is amused now?

How did we get this land that we live in ?

How did we get the houses we live in, the food we eat, the plethora of toys we play with?

Where do the very tithes and offerings we give - how did we get them?

Was it all our hard work?

Our genius, our brains, our meticulous and calculated planning?

Psalm 100:3 ESV

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Yahweh was not amused then - He knew how they got where they were.

Do you think He is amused now?

How does the Lord react to sin?

Look at verse 10 Exodus 32:10 “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.””

Now, here’s where we make our mistake.

I know I’m a sinner but Jesus has forgiven me.

And yeppers, you are right - but we are skipping something.

Our sin needs forgiveness because Yahweh’s anger burns against us.

If you look back at verse 9, the Lord says, “I have seen this people...”

That means He knows them - He understands them

And He understands that they just don’t take Him seriously.

They are obstinate.

They want what they want, when they want it

And if they don’t get it when they want it, they’ll just do it themselves.

Rashly - without considering the consequences - they just fly off and go.

Have we done this?

Are we guilty of this?

See, this is no small deal.

This is how the Lord reacts to sin - His anger burns.

Listen to this and take it to heart.

The Lord says, “That I may consume them.”

Consume means to make them vanish, make them fade away - and here’s a word we don’t like

Make them fail.

Sometimes when we ask, “Why is my life so hard?”

Do you reckon this could be the answer?

Now, if you are not a Christ follower, this is where you live.

If you’ve heard the gospel of Jesus

That He came to save you from your sins

That He died to take the punishment for your sins

And He was resurrected to give you new life

And you’ve no to that.

This is where you live.

You live with the Holy Creator of the Universe burning with anger against you.

That is no small thing.

If you aren’t a Christ follower, God is not on your side.

He’s not in your corner and He’s not going to bless you

No matter what things happen in your life that you call a blessing - it’s just common grace.

It’s what happens to anyone by virtue of God’s mercy on humanity.

But it doesn’t change the equation.

You’ve rejected Him - His anger burns against you.

There is only one thing that will rescue you.

We need someone to speak up for us

In their case, it was Moses - look at verse 11 Exodus 32:11 “But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?”

Now there is something odd you might have noticed here.

God told Moses to “let me alone” - you see that in verse 10 - and then Moses doesn’t.

That’s because what the Lord said was actually an invitation.

Yahweh was saying, “Moses, if you’ve got something to say, now’s the time.”

If we get nothing else from Exodus, it’s got to be that the Lord issues invitation after invitation to join Him.

He wants to be our God and He wants us to be His people.

But first they have to repent and Moses, He shows us how to repent.

Exodus 32:11 “But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?”

Notice what Moses says here - he never denies their sin.

He didn’t make any kind of excuses because really, there are no excuses to be made.

If you sinned, you sinned - there’s never an adequate excuse for it.

There is no degree to it - a sin is a sin is a sin.

So Moses starts repenting for the people by stating the truth.

Remember what the people said in verse 1 about Moses being the one that brought them out of Egypt?

Moses tells the truth - You were the one Lord who rescued us with great power and might.

I saw your miracles with my own eyes.

Second, Moses tells the Lord that he’s more concerned with the Lord than he is with himself.

Listen to verse 12 Exodus 32:12 “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.”

Moses knows that the Lord has a plan to save as many in the world as will be saved.

The Lord told Abraham that all of the world would be blessed through him.

There is a depth of humility here.

Moses is saying that I know we don’t deserve rescuing

But Lord, you don’t deserve the pain the people are causing You either.

In essence Moses is saying to the Lord, “You don’t deserve to suffer because we are obstinate people.”

Finally, Moses reminded God of God’s own Word.

Exodus 32:13 “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ””

Now here is the question - why does it matter if Moses quotes back God’s Words to Him or not?

Did God get so mad he forgot and needed to be reminded?

Maybe this is TMI, but I’ve wondered before about this.

Why did God need to hear His own Words repeated back to Him?

It wasn’t that God needed to be reminded

It’s that God wanted to hear Moses faith.

Moses repeated God’s promise back to Him because Moses not only believed it was true

The last year of Moses life has been dedicated to that promise - it was Moses mission.

It’s like Moses is saying, “Lord, you promised you would rescue us.

“And I believe it, I believe it with all of my heart - as bad as it looks right this second - that makes no difference

“You promised and I’ll die with that promise on my lips because You are God.”

I hear an echo of Jesus in the Garden here.

Luke 22:42 ESV

saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Whatever happens to me, Father, doesn’t really matter.

What matters is what happens for You.

“For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.”

That’s the attitude of repentance.

That’s the attitude that will get you saved.

Look at Exodus 32:14 “And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”

This is the Lord’s response to humble repentance.

It’s what the Lord’s desire was all along.

It’s what the Lord’s desire is now. Jesus said:

John 3:16–18 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The equation hasn’t changed since the days of Adam and Eve.

And the equation will remain the same until the day Jesus returns and brings the new heaven and the new earth.

You can look around this room and see a million differences between us but really, there are only two.

Some of us are not condemned.

And some of us are condemned.

I don’t think that’s where you want to be.

We’ll stand and sing

If you know you stand condemned, please talk to someone in here about Jesus.

I’ll be at the front pew if you want to talk to me.

But anyone in this room can get you started.

Don’t leave this place the way you came in.

You don’t stand a chance if you are called before a Holy God.