WEBVTT 00:00:06.279 --> 00:00:09.539 Psalm 106, we've been in it for a few weeks. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:11.679 I told y 'all we weren't going to go too fast. 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:14.900 We were just going to take our way through it 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:18.440 pretty slow because the psalm references a lot 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:21.780 of Old Testament stories, and it references them 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:25.320 real briefly, just in a few verses usually. But 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:27.600 they're good stories, and I think that while 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.160 they're being brought to our attention here in 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.740 Psalm 106, I feel like it's a good time to go 00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:35.700 back and look at these stories. and just refresh 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.539 ourselves with them if it's a story we know or 00:00:38.539 --> 00:00:40.659 maybe it's a story we're not too familiar with. 00:00:41.700 --> 00:00:45.240 But the whole chapter, Psalm 106, is talking 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:48.960 about God's people being disobedient to him. 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:52.100 And we saw an example of that last week with 00:00:52.100 --> 00:00:55.460 a few guys that wanted to rebel against Moses. 00:00:55.659 --> 00:00:57.939 They weren't happy about Moses and the way Moses 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:01.060 was leading. And so a handful of guys got together 00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:05.900 and got a couple hundred more, 250 more, to stand 00:01:05.900 --> 00:01:09.599 up against Moses, and God didn't please God. 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:12.879 He wasn't pleased about that, and God was ready 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.340 to just annihilate the whole crew. And Moses 00:01:16.340 --> 00:01:19.000 said, well, hold up. Why don't you just take 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:20.900 care of these guys who were causing the trouble? 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:22.980 And that's exactly what God did. It said that 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:25.920 the earth opened up and swallowed them up, these 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:30.579 guys and their families, and even still. Crazily 00:01:30.579 --> 00:01:32.420 enough, after all that happened, the next day 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:35.280 the people were back complaining again, and God 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:38.340 sent a plague on them, and they would have all 00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:42.159 died if it had not been for Aaron making atonement 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:46.659 for them. And so this Psalm 106 is just recounting 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:48.379 those type of stories, and we're going to look 00:01:48.379 --> 00:01:51.280 at another one very similar to it tonight. We're 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:57.579 going to be in verse 19. Psalm 106, verse 19. 00:01:58.650 --> 00:02:00.209 We're going to start there. We're just going 00:02:00.209 --> 00:02:03.290 to read through verse 23, and then we will flip 00:02:03.290 --> 00:02:07.469 back to Exodus 32. And we will attempt, I know 00:02:07.469 --> 00:02:09.789 it's a Wednesday night, but we will attempt to 00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:12.330 get through as much of that as we can tonight. 00:02:12.469 --> 00:02:16.289 But we may not make it, so we'll see. Psalm 106, 00:02:16.409 --> 00:02:19.849 verse 19, let's pray, and then we'll get started. 00:02:20.469 --> 00:02:23.090 God, I thank you for your word. I pray that these 00:02:23.090 --> 00:02:26.979 words would be a... reminder to us that would 00:02:26.979 --> 00:02:29.319 help us to look at our own lives dear Lord to 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:32.659 see if maybe we are unfaithful to you in some 00:02:32.659 --> 00:02:35.439 way maybe there are ways that we need to be trusting 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:38.219 you and we are not any better than the Israelites 00:02:38.219 --> 00:02:40.520 dear Lord we should praise you for all the good 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:43.419 that you do just as they had seen you do much 00:02:43.419 --> 00:02:46.500 good but dear Lord they got caught up in their 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:49.419 own ways and their own desires and began to seek 00:02:49.419 --> 00:02:51.599 other gods and maybe we're guilty of that in 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.460 some way too so I pray that you let your word 00:02:54.460 --> 00:02:57.020 speak to us tonight. Just help us to learn what 00:02:57.020 --> 00:02:59.240 your word says and grow in it and tuck it away 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:01.840 in our heart and mind that maybe you'll recall 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:04.180 it to us at some point in time when we need it. 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:07.240 And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:14.659 Psalm 106, 19 says, At Horeb they made a calf 00:03:14.659 --> 00:03:18.419 and worshipped the cast metal image. They exchanged 00:03:18.419 --> 00:03:21.419 their glory for the image of a grass -eating 00:03:21.419 --> 00:03:25.400 ox. They forgot God their Savior, who did great 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:28.879 things in Egypt, wonderful works in the land 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:33.219 of Ham, all inspiring acts at the Red Sea. So 00:03:33.219 --> 00:03:35.840 he said he would have destroyed them if Moses, 00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:40.379 his chosen one, had not stood before him in the 00:03:40.379 --> 00:03:44.099 breach to turn his wrath away from destroying 00:03:44.099 --> 00:03:47.300 them. Now again, we have just a few short verses 00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:51.620 here that reference a pretty major event that 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:54.490 occurred. in Israel's past. Now, if you turn 00:03:54.490 --> 00:03:59.069 to Exodus chapter 32, you will see that event 00:03:59.069 --> 00:04:01.849 in full detail. Now, I would encourage you this 00:04:01.849 --> 00:04:07.770 week to read all of chapter 32. We will briefly 00:04:07.770 --> 00:04:09.949 just touch on it instead of reading through the 00:04:09.949 --> 00:04:12.870 whole thing tonight. We will kind of try to go 00:04:12.870 --> 00:04:15.430 through the whole situation and what's taking 00:04:15.430 --> 00:04:19.329 place. As we just saw from Psalm 106, it recalled 00:04:19.329 --> 00:04:22.029 the crossing the Red Sea. That was a pretty major 00:04:22.029 --> 00:04:24.350 event. That should have been a life -changing 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:27.389 event for them, that they saw such a miraculous 00:04:27.389 --> 00:04:31.089 thing take place. But it wasn't long after they 00:04:31.089 --> 00:04:33.990 made their way out of Egypt and crossed the Red 00:04:33.990 --> 00:04:37.170 Sea that Moses was up on the mountain talking 00:04:37.170 --> 00:04:40.709 to the Lord. And he was gone for... Quite some 00:04:40.709 --> 00:04:43.329 time, 40 days, he was up there talking to the 00:04:43.329 --> 00:04:47.269 Lord. And in that time, God's people got impatient. 00:04:47.649 --> 00:04:49.810 Now, again, I encourage you to go back and read 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:52.629 all of Exodus 32. We'll try to hit the high points, 00:04:52.949 --> 00:04:55.189 but I want you to go back and read it for yourself. 00:04:56.529 --> 00:04:59.970 So Moses is up on the mountain talking to God, 00:05:00.029 --> 00:05:01.670 getting the Ten Commandments, getting the stone 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:05.089 tablets, and the people are getting antsy. They're 00:05:05.089 --> 00:05:09.410 getting impatient, waiting on God. There's a 00:05:09.410 --> 00:05:13.290 good lesson in there for us in that too. Do we 00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:15.870 ever get impatient waiting on God? Is there ever 00:05:15.870 --> 00:05:19.050 something that God's working on in our life, 00:05:19.069 --> 00:05:21.810 something that God's putting into place in His 00:05:21.810 --> 00:05:25.329 time, which very seldom lines up with our time, 00:05:25.509 --> 00:05:28.970 and we get impatient? There's something we want. 00:05:29.089 --> 00:05:30.610 There's something we're praying about. There's 00:05:30.610 --> 00:05:32.350 something we're really seeking. There's something 00:05:32.350 --> 00:05:35.170 that we're seeking God with all of our heart, 00:05:35.209 --> 00:05:38.050 and we have for days or weeks or months or years, 00:05:38.110 --> 00:05:40.810 and we just have prayed, and nothing's happening, 00:05:40.829 --> 00:05:42.889 and we think, well, God must not be listening, 00:05:42.930 --> 00:05:45.810 or maybe there's something God requires of me. 00:05:46.129 --> 00:05:50.230 And so then we decide we need to do it our way 00:05:50.230 --> 00:05:53.370 in some way. It's not maybe necessarily that 00:05:53.370 --> 00:05:55.389 we're saying, I'm done with you, God, but... 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.139 We still are praying to God and we still trust 00:05:58.139 --> 00:06:01.639 God. We still believe in God. But then we just, 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:04.439 we kind of do things our way because our way 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:06.959 will get it done a little faster. Well, that's 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:08.759 exactly what they did. They said, what's taking 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:11.420 Moses so long? He brought us all this way. He's 00:06:11.420 --> 00:06:13.860 gone. What are we going to do? We need a God. 00:06:14.019 --> 00:06:16.600 They said, we need us a God that's going to lead 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:20.360 us along the way. Now, you would think that they 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.060 would have remembered the God who parted the 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:27.980 Red Sea. They didn't. Now Aaron should have stood 00:06:27.980 --> 00:06:30.959 up and said to the folks here, Hey, wait a minute. 00:06:31.060 --> 00:06:33.000 This ain't right. Y 'all just need to hold your 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.420 horses. God's been good to us. We're going to 00:06:35.420 --> 00:06:38.980 wait on Moses. But Aaron didn't really push back 00:06:38.980 --> 00:06:42.120 any, it doesn't appear in the text. He tells 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:43.920 them to take off all the gold that they have. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:45.920 All the gold you got, take it off. We're going 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:49.939 to melt it all down. And they made a golden calf. 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:53.819 And after they made this golden calf, they said, 00:06:54.459 --> 00:06:57.399 This is our God. This is our God who's led us 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:01.439 out of Egypt. Wait a minute. Where was this God 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:03.920 when they came out of Egypt? He was nowhere to 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:06.300 be seen, this golden calf. This was a God that 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:10.759 they made. Now, what kind of God do we want to 00:07:10.759 --> 00:07:13.740 follow? Do we want to trust? A God who made us 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:16.699 or a God that we make? There's no power in a 00:07:16.699 --> 00:07:18.740 God that we make, but there is great power in 00:07:18.740 --> 00:07:22.379 a God who... And so they made this golden calf, 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:24.439 and the Lord knew what was going on. And he told 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:26.319 Moses, you better get on back down there. The 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:28.199 Lord says, I'm ready to go ahead and do away 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:30.939 with these folks. And Moses says, just hold up. 00:07:31.139 --> 00:07:33.600 Now Moses, it's beautiful. We've seen this in 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:36.259 this story, and we saw it in the story last week. 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:39.379 We see these examples in the Old Testament of 00:07:39.379 --> 00:07:43.939 Moses and Aaron, in this case just Moses, interceding 00:07:43.939 --> 00:07:46.939 for the people. That God says, hey. They had 00:07:46.939 --> 00:07:49.100 an opportunity to be obedient to me, and they 00:07:49.100 --> 00:07:51.420 failed in their obedience, and so I'm going to 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:52.839 wipe them out. And God would have been right 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:54.839 to do so, just as he would have been in the story 00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:57.500 last week. But Moses says, hold up. Well, Moses 00:07:57.500 --> 00:07:59.240 goes down the mountain, and he sees what's going 00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:03.759 on, and Moses is irate. He is not happy about 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:06.939 what is taking place there. And he asks Aaron 00:08:06.939 --> 00:08:08.519 about it, and Aaron says, well, we just threw 00:08:08.519 --> 00:08:10.879 all our gold in the fire, and out came this calf. 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:14.500 Well, probably didn't really happen like that, 00:08:14.519 --> 00:08:17.500 but that's what Aaron said. And it says that 00:08:17.500 --> 00:08:21.000 Moses crushed up all the gold and sprinkled it 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:22.879 on the water and made the people drink the water, 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:25.480 which was probably not a good situation for them. 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:30.120 And God was not at all happy about this situation. 00:08:30.540 --> 00:08:33.940 And we see as we get closer to the end of the 00:08:33.940 --> 00:08:41.059 passage. Let me scroll down here. We see as we 00:08:41.059 --> 00:08:46.049 get down to the end of Exodus chapter 32. In 00:08:46.049 --> 00:08:49.350 verse 30, the following day Moses said to the 00:08:49.350 --> 00:08:52.769 people, you have committed a grave sin. Now I 00:08:52.769 --> 00:08:56.970 will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I will be able 00:08:56.970 --> 00:09:02.269 to atone for your sin. Okay, so the Lord is ready 00:09:02.269 --> 00:09:04.799 to... Take care of these folks. And some of them 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:06.639 have already been punished. It says a few verses 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:09.500 before that 3 ,000 of them were put to death. 00:09:09.659 --> 00:09:12.460 Now, it's not specified who the 3 ,000 were. 00:09:12.659 --> 00:09:15.779 I would guess, this is just my opinion, that 00:09:15.779 --> 00:09:18.360 probably those 3 ,000 that were killed by the 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:21.100 Levites in the verses before, maybe those were 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:23.120 some of the head ones that were the instigators 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:26.139 of the situation. Maybe that's why those 3 ,000 00:09:26.139 --> 00:09:28.629 were put to death. We don't know how many people 00:09:28.629 --> 00:09:31.049 there were at this time. It's estimated that 00:09:31.049 --> 00:09:32.769 there could have been a couple of million. Now, 00:09:32.850 --> 00:09:35.190 maybe it was more than that. Maybe it was less. 00:09:35.370 --> 00:09:37.950 But it's not an insignificant amount of people 00:09:37.950 --> 00:09:39.649 that we're talking about. It's a large number 00:09:39.649 --> 00:09:43.149 of people probably. And 3 ,000 was a lot of people, 00:09:43.230 --> 00:09:46.889 but not nearly all the people. So I suspect probably 00:09:46.889 --> 00:09:50.659 the 3 ,000 that were killed probably... were 00:09:50.659 --> 00:09:52.779 some of the ones who were kind of at the forefront 00:09:52.779 --> 00:09:55.659 of starting this. Not so unlike the story we 00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:59.860 saw last week with Dathan and Abraham and Korah. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:02.919 These are the ones who started this whole thing, 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:05.899 and these are the ones who were destroyed. And, 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:08.259 of course, the 250 along with them were destroyed. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:12.179 But all the people were guilty here. It's not 00:10:12.179 --> 00:10:14.039 like there were just a handful of people that 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:16.539 were involved in this. It appears as though they 00:10:16.539 --> 00:10:19.830 were all guilty. And Moses calls this a... Grave 00:10:19.830 --> 00:10:22.169 sin. That is a sin that's deserving of death. 00:10:22.330 --> 00:10:24.909 A sin that should put you in the grave because 00:10:24.909 --> 00:10:29.009 you have disobeyed God in such a way. But what 00:10:29.009 --> 00:10:32.009 does Moses say? The same thing we've seen before 00:10:32.009 --> 00:10:34.710 of Moses. I'm going to go up here and I'm going 00:10:34.710 --> 00:10:37.570 to talk to the Lord and I'm going to see if I 00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:41.350 can make atonement for you. Now we saw that last 00:10:41.350 --> 00:10:45.090 week with Aaron. That he made atonement for the 00:10:45.090 --> 00:10:46.950 people. That God had sent a plague and people 00:10:46.950 --> 00:10:48.610 were dying, a lot of people. I believe it was 00:10:48.610 --> 00:10:52.110 14 ,000 had already died. And then Aaron made 00:10:52.110 --> 00:10:56.549 atonement and then the people were spared. But 00:10:56.549 --> 00:10:59.669 we see this kind of theme in our last two weeks 00:10:59.669 --> 00:11:02.710 in the passages that we've looked at. Is that 00:11:02.710 --> 00:11:06.590 God's people are disobedient and they are deserving 00:11:06.590 --> 00:11:11.129 of death. But in both of these stories, there's 00:11:11.129 --> 00:11:14.639 an intercessor. There's one that stands in the 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:17.519 gap for the people. There's one that stands before 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:21.559 God and pleads on their behalf and makes atonement 00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:24.960 on their behalf so that God will not destroy 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:27.580 them. Let's read one more verse here in verse 00:11:27.580 --> 00:11:44.600 31. Let's continue on. Please erase me from the 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:48.019 book you have written. Now that's one of my favorite 00:11:48.019 --> 00:11:50.279 passages. I love that passage in this story. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:55.500 That Moses, the leader of the people, he says, 00:11:55.559 --> 00:11:58.779 God, would you forgive them? And if you won't 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:01.539 forgive them, would you erase my name from your 00:12:01.539 --> 00:12:04.519 book? Now, we don't really have any details on 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:07.440 this book. We see in the New Testament, and particularly 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:10.299 a couple times in Revelation, we see this book 00:12:10.299 --> 00:12:13.299 of life referenced. And I think it's probably 00:12:13.299 --> 00:12:15.759 safe to assume that those who trust in the Lord, 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:18.899 whose names stay in the book of life, those are 00:12:18.899 --> 00:12:20.860 the ones who are going to receive God's blessings. 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:24.370 That's what we see in the scripture. And perhaps 00:12:24.370 --> 00:12:27.649 that's what Moses is talking about here. I think 00:12:27.649 --> 00:12:29.409 that it's probably safe to assume that that's 00:12:29.409 --> 00:12:31.649 what he's talking about here, that the same book, 00:12:31.690 --> 00:12:34.090 even though we don't have details about it, where 00:12:34.090 --> 00:12:36.789 he got details about it, I'm not sure, but we 00:12:36.789 --> 00:12:39.309 kind of see this same idea mentioned in the Old 00:12:39.309 --> 00:12:41.950 Testament and the New Testament. And Moses says, 00:12:42.029 --> 00:12:44.769 look, if you won't forgive your people, then 00:12:44.769 --> 00:12:48.730 erase my name from the book you have written. 00:12:49.639 --> 00:12:52.139 Now that's a pretty bold statement. That's a 00:12:52.139 --> 00:12:55.179 sign of a good leader. It says, look, these people 00:12:55.179 --> 00:12:58.320 that I was supposed to lead have sinned, and 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:03.200 because of their sin, may I pay the price. May 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:06.740 I suffer the consequences. May I endure the punishment 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:10.320 for the people who have sinned. And let's see 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.620 what God said here. In verse 33, he says, The 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:16.720 Lord replied to Moses, I will erase whoever has 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:20.879 sinned against me from my book. Now go, lead 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:23.500 the people to the place I told you about. See, 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:27.279 my angel will go before you. But on the day I 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:29.740 settle accounts, I will hold them accountable 00:13:29.740 --> 00:13:33.840 for their sin. And the Lord inflicted a plague 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:36.340 on the people for what they did with the calf 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:42.139 Aaron had made. Now, the Lord responds to Moses. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:44.000 Moses says, look, if you won't forgive them, 00:13:44.059 --> 00:13:47.299 then erase my name from the book. But God says, 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:49.740 nope. I'm going to punish those who are worthy 00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:52.940 of punishment. Not everybody, but those who are 00:13:52.940 --> 00:13:55.399 worthy of punishment. Now, we certainly see that 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:57.399 there was some punishment inflicted here. There 00:13:57.399 --> 00:13:59.879 was a plague that was inflicted on the people. 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:03.940 Perhaps it was every one of them. Perhaps it 00:14:03.940 --> 00:14:06.879 was just some of them. I don't know. But nonetheless, 00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:09.840 it wasn't a pleasant experience. We're again 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:12.379 seeing a theme here. We see the same pattern. 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.059 Last week in the passage, they complained about 00:14:15.059 --> 00:14:17.679 God. They were disobedient to Him. He killed 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:19.320 some of them and he brought a plague on the rest 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:21.320 of them and they would have died too had there 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:24.100 not been atonement. Here we see the same thing. 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:26.500 God's people are disobedient. They don't want 00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:29.399 to wait on him. God's angry with them. He's ready 00:14:29.399 --> 00:14:33.000 to destroy them. Moses intercedes. A few of them 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:35.679 are killed, but the majority of them are spared. 00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:38.519 Not without consequence. There certainly was 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:42.519 consequence. But they had a man like Moses who 00:14:42.519 --> 00:14:45.110 was willing to... Step up on their behalf and 00:14:45.110 --> 00:14:48.370 go before the Lord on their behalf. And that's 00:14:48.370 --> 00:14:50.090 a beautiful part of the story. I think that's 00:14:50.090 --> 00:14:52.330 what makes this passage so beautiful and the 00:14:52.330 --> 00:14:56.009 passage we saw last week so beautiful. Is that 00:14:56.009 --> 00:15:01.370 these ideas and this idea that people are sinful 00:15:01.370 --> 00:15:05.750 and deserving of death and an atonement is made 00:15:05.750 --> 00:15:08.370 and through the atonement that's made by another, 00:15:08.610 --> 00:15:11.730 God's able to spare those who are deserving of 00:15:11.730 --> 00:15:14.600 death. we're already beginning to see the themes 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:19.480 and kind of these little nuggets of information 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:23.419 that's pointing us forward to Jesus Christ. We're 00:15:23.419 --> 00:15:25.639 beginning to see God's plan in just a little 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:28.779 way in the Old Testament. And these old stories 00:15:28.779 --> 00:15:31.480 that happened thousands of years before Jesus 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:34.419 came onto the scene, and as you read through 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:36.960 the Bible, you can start to see these things 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:39.559 and these stories and how they are woven together. 00:15:40.169 --> 00:15:42.350 And then when you read the New Testament and 00:15:42.350 --> 00:15:45.929 you see Jesus, and you go back and you study 00:15:45.929 --> 00:15:49.149 these stories, you see that it's pretty clear 00:15:49.149 --> 00:15:52.809 that God's pointing everything forward to Jesus. 00:15:52.909 --> 00:15:55.570 Everything that we see in these stories is foreshadowing 00:15:55.570 --> 00:15:59.230 Jesus. That our story is not so unlike the story 00:15:59.230 --> 00:16:03.370 of the Israelites. That we too are sinful. That 00:16:03.370 --> 00:16:06.370 we too commit grave sins. For the wages of sin 00:16:06.370 --> 00:16:11.039 is death. Our sins deserve death. We are just 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:14.659 as impatient. We don't want to wait on God. We 00:16:14.659 --> 00:16:16.139 don't want to listen to God. We don't want to 00:16:16.139 --> 00:16:18.000 listen to people that God may want to use to 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:20.179 speak into our life or lead us in the way that 00:16:20.179 --> 00:16:24.580 Moses was here. We become impatient. We make 00:16:24.580 --> 00:16:26.659 our own gods. And you say, well, I've never made 00:16:26.659 --> 00:16:28.559 a golden calf. Well, praise the Lord. I hope 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:31.019 you hadn't. But is there anything that we begin 00:16:31.019 --> 00:16:33.580 to trust, to find security in, and to find hope 00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:38.570 in? That in some way becomes our God. Now, maybe 00:16:38.570 --> 00:16:40.350 it's our money or maybe it's our wealth or maybe 00:16:40.350 --> 00:16:43.090 it's our home or maybe it's our job or maybe 00:16:43.090 --> 00:16:46.409 it's our fame or maybe it's drugs or maybe it's 00:16:46.409 --> 00:16:49.370 alcohol or maybe it's our pride or fill in the 00:16:49.370 --> 00:16:52.789 blank. I mean, whatever it may be, what do we 00:16:52.789 --> 00:16:55.210 go to for our strength and for our comfort? What 00:16:55.210 --> 00:16:58.629 do we go to to help us get through the day? Well, 00:16:58.750 --> 00:17:01.450 if we trust in those things of the world and 00:17:01.450 --> 00:17:03.769 that's what we turn to in our times of trouble, 00:17:03.929 --> 00:17:07.049 well, in a way, those things have become our 00:17:07.049 --> 00:17:10.220 God. We said, okay, I'm not going to wait on 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:11.900 God. I'm not going to listen to Him. I'm not 00:17:11.900 --> 00:17:14.279 going to trust Him. Yeah, maybe I've seen all 00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:16.220 the ways that God has worked in my life, and 00:17:16.220 --> 00:17:18.940 I see a Bible full of ways that God has worked, 00:17:18.980 --> 00:17:21.160 but I don't want to wait on God because I want 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:24.599 it my way, and so it's easier if I just do what 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.200 I can do. And that's exactly what the Israelites 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:29.819 did. We'll just do it our way. We'll make our 00:17:29.819 --> 00:17:32.420 own God, and it's right here. We can see it. 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:34.660 We can touch it. And that's what we're going 00:17:34.660 --> 00:17:38.119 to worship. And maybe we're guilty of the same 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:41.859 thing. We certainly are guilty of plenty of sins 00:17:41.859 --> 00:17:46.539 in our life that are grave sins. And apart from 00:17:46.539 --> 00:17:50.559 somebody to intercede for us, God's wrath would 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:54.559 burn against us. Now Moses is not the intercessor 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:58.319 for us. We have a better intercessor. Moses was 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:02.900 just a glimpse of the intercessor that was going 00:18:02.900 --> 00:18:07.480 to come in Jesus Christ. Jesus is like Moses, 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:11.599 but perfect in every way. Jesus is the one that 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:15.200 sees our sin, that goes before God, that stands 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:19.539 to intercede for us. Jesus is the one who was 00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:22.680 nailed to a cross to intercede for us. Jesus 00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:25.359 is the one who says, let me make atonement for 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:29.480 their sins. They have done the sinful deed, but 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:32.420 may I take their punishment for it. That's what 00:18:32.420 --> 00:18:36.180 Moses did. And that's exactly what Jesus does 00:18:36.180 --> 00:18:41.799 for us. He did it. He died on the cross. And 00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:43.880 so when we look at these stories in the Old Testament, 00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:46.799 they're not just old stories. They really have 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:48.640 a purpose. They have a point. They're pointing 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:52.519 us forward to Jesus Christ. And so we have to 00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:55.200 think about our life and think, okay, we read 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:57.460 about these old Israelites, but if we're honest, 00:18:57.619 --> 00:19:00.470 we're not so different than they are. And there's 00:19:00.470 --> 00:19:02.470 sin in our lives that needs to be atoned for, 00:19:02.509 --> 00:19:04.549 and the good news for us tonight is that Jesus 00:19:04.549 --> 00:19:08.009 Christ, the Son of God, was crucified and resurrected, 00:19:08.289 --> 00:19:12.329 and He's atoned for our sin tonight if we would 00:19:12.329 --> 00:19:14.690 just trust Him, if we would just seek Him, if 00:19:14.690 --> 00:19:17.710 we would just ask Him to forgive us. We can know 00:19:17.710 --> 00:19:20.250 that everything that needs to be done has been 00:19:20.250 --> 00:19:25.089 done not through us, not through our deeds. Our 00:19:25.089 --> 00:19:28.440 actions deserve death. But through Jesus Christ's 00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:32.480 actions, we receive life. Let's pray. God, we 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:34.960 come to you. We thank you for these good words. 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:37.079 I pray, God, that you would forgive us if we 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:40.180 make other things our God. Maybe we're guilty 00:19:40.180 --> 00:19:42.160 of that in some way. Maybe somebody's struggling 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:44.720 with that now, or maybe they have in the past, 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:46.740 or they will in the future, dear Lord. I pray 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:49.759 that you just would help us to know that our 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:52.720 hope is only through Jesus Christ, dear Lord, 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.990 that our sins are... probably worse than we realize 00:19:55.990 --> 00:19:58.869 that they are, but your grace is greater than 00:19:58.869 --> 00:20:01.589 we could possibly imagine. So I pray that we 00:20:01.589 --> 00:20:04.410 would trust in Jesus, that we would know that 00:20:04.410 --> 00:20:06.710 he has made atonement, and that we would ask 00:20:06.710 --> 00:20:08.789 for forgiveness tonight, that we would trust 00:20:08.789 --> 00:20:12.430 him and seek him and rejoice in you. And I ask 00:20:12.430 --> 00:20:14.549 these things in Jesus' name. Amen.