April 10, 2016 Christ, Atoning for Sin by Eric Hollingsworth

The Golden Calf and Israel’s Great Sin

Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 -15 on page 833. So when you arrive at Genesis 32, if you're able, please stand in honor of God's word.

For Genesis 32.

And people saw that Moses had laid come down together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods, they shall go before us. And as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

And they received the gold from their hand, and they fashioned it with an engraving tool. And they went to the camp, and they said, This is your god of Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

He built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is the feast.

He gave up the dead who were in it and rejudged his works.

Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the fire. God bless the reading of this word. Please be seated. Sadly for us, and joyously for yourself, and sadly for us, when you were moving to Tennessee, and I felt upon him and graciously accepted to handle not just Sunday school for this Sunday and next, but also the preach.

So I'm very excited to hear what he will preach to us from the book of Exodus and show us the gospel. In that Old Testament passage. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, now we gather together to hear your word preached and taught to us, and we pray, Father, that you would regard, speak, and hear alike by your grace, Lord, and grant speaking permission to our friend, our brother, Pastor Hollingsworth, and give him power to declare your word boldly and accurately.

And Father, by the same grace, soften our hearts that we may hear and do as your word would say. So do all this, Lord, to help us to know you better, grow us into the image of your Son, and Lord, by your Spirit, attend the proclamation of your word this day.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Love of God Revealed in Christ’s Atoning Death

Thank you, Josh. It's a real blessing to be here among the brethren, to be invited to share in the fellowship with these blessed saints. Let me just pray also before we start. Father in Heaven, assist us now to understand your word and to be blessed by it.

Feed us with the heavenly bread of Christ. Sustain us with the knowledge of his work at the cross. Encourage us with your love that you poured out upon us through your Son. Father, help us to know your love.

Help us to know that we are loved. And help us to then return our love to you. For we ask it in the name of your beloved Son. Amen. Open your Bibles, if you would, please, to Exodus 32, verse 30. Some of us, truth be told, in our earthly lives, have never known real love.

Perhaps our human parents have failed us. Our father was cold or abusive. Our mother was demanding, controlling. Perhaps every relationship we've had since our childhood then has been roughly the same.

Being used by others, being controlled by others, being disregarded by others, being taken for granted by others, by those who should have loved us in our families, in our churches, in our marriages. And so perhaps this lack of ever having known true love now makes it hard for us to understand and receive God's love.

We hear the words, we read the Scriptures, people tell us, God is your Heavenly Father, who loves you, but it simply doesn't register. We can't process it or connect to it. We don't get it. We sit inside our own minds then, alone, wearing a mask to hide our bewilderment from those who do get it, simply because we don't know what real love feels like.

Well then, imagine, imagine, if you will, being loved. Imagine someone who drew near to you, someone who got to know you, wanted to spend time with you and grew to appreciate you, someone who was there for you whenever you needed help or encouragement, someone who cherished you, someone who stuck with you even when you didn't deserve it, when you, in fact, were unloving, someone who said that he would literally do anything for you, even give his life for you.

And then imagine that he did. John 13, verse 1,. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Our sin had brought us to a dangerous precipice, our own rebellion against our Creator, our own idolatry and lack of love towards both God and neighbor had brought us under the penalty of the wages of sin, which is death, Romans 6 .23.

Physical death, of course, but also spiritual death and eternal death in hell. But then, our good shepherd, our friend, our loving bridegroom, he went to hell in our place. Went to the cross where he experienced the torments of hell, the wrath of the Father, the wages that we deserved in our place.

And we who deserved punishment instead received love, only love. We received union with Christ. We received fellowship with the Father. We received a lifetime of walking in grace with brothers and sisters in the church.

A lifetime of purpose and meaning and joy and a guaranteed future and hope, an eternal home with no more tears, no more pain, no more manipulative or controlling love. Only the pure love of a God who is love stretching out before us forever.

Well, we don't have to imagine such a friend, such a love, such a reality. For Christ has come and the cross is there for the seeing, for the experiencing. But there still may be something blocking your way to experiencing this cross.

And so I hope and pray that you will be able to see it this morning in our text. The love of God for you. Exodus 32, verse 30. Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, You have committed a great sin.

So now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, Oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a God of gold.

Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book, which you have written. And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.

Now, therefore, go lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.

So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. When I preached through the book of Exodus a few years back at our church in Hayward, I came to realize and appreciate the truth that the book of Exodus is an old covenant picture of our new covenant salvation in Christ.

There are pictures and types of Christ and of the cross of our salvation all the way through. And it might be right here in our text where we can see this most clearly. Moses has been meeting with the Lord on the mountain for 40 days, receiving the instructions for the tabernacle and the priesthood.

But then the Lord tells him that Israel has sinned by worshiping a golden calf, that they have already broken the covenant they had just agreed to before Moses went up. The Ten Commandments which said, you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall make no graven image. You shall not use my name in vain. All of these commandments and more they broke. And no doubt the ones concerning adultery too and covetousness. And Aaron lying to Moses and the people stealing from the Lord so many ways they had broken the covenant that they had just agreed to only 40 days before.

So as we read earlier in Exodus 32, the Lord's anger burned hot against Israel, prompting Moses to take up the role of mediator as a type and a picture of Christ. So first Moses representing the people to God turned away God's wrath, his hot anger, telling God that showing mercy towards Israel instead of consuming them in a moment was the only way to preserve his own honor because Israel was God's firstborn son and he had a relationship.

He had committed himself to bringing Israel into the promised land. Not just bringing Moses into the promised land but Israel. And then further in Exodus 32, Moses the mediator now representing God to the people went down to confront Israel by way of the swords of Levi.

Not to wipe them out but to discipline the people for their sin. Rather than letting them continue in their idolatry, he gave them an opportunity in his mercy to repent. Just as Christ does for us. His spirit through the sword of his word convicting us of our sin and then prompting us to kill it.

To mortify our flesh and walk away from our idols and to walk in newness of life. But as Moses woke up the next morning, now at verse 30, he realized there was more that he needed to do. There was more mediatorial work to do.

See, God's wrath had been turned away because of his mercy Israel was still there. They weren't all dead. But God's relationship with Israel, his closeness, his nearness to Israel had yet to be restored.

Fellowship. Because guilt remained. Guilt before a holy God that had not been atoned for. Sin had been committed. Great sin and Israel was in line to pay the cost. God's justice had to be satisfied and the wages of sin is death.

So Moses thought about this problem and he realized something. He understood the gospel. He thought about the sacrifices which had already taken place. The Passover lambs back in Egypt. And then at the covenant ceremony where Israel had become God's people there were sacrifices.

Sacrifices which pictured an innocent substitute standing in for sinful men and women. So Moses wondered if perhaps he could stand in for Israel. The innocent for the guilty. Because Moses, it had nothing to do with that golden calf.

So he's thinking that he might just qualify. He might be able to offer himself as a sin bearer in Israel's place. Blot me out of your book of life. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends.

So Moses tells Israel verse 30 you have committed a great sin. Literally in the Hebrew you've sinned a great sin. The sinfulness of sin. So now I will go up to the Lord perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

Atonement meaning to cover sin. To deal with sin. To propitiate sin. To turn away God's wrath against sin. To merit forgiveness for sin. It's striking though how there's nothing said here about the response of the people.

No one is agreeing with Moses. Yes, we have committed a great sin. No one is getting in Moses way pleading for him not to go to save himself instead. No, we will pay the cost. You need not bear it in our place.

No one even saying we will thank you then Moses for wanting to help us to restore our relationship with God for giving your life for us. Which is so so reminiscent of Christ going to the cross on the hill called Golgotha.

Isaiah said and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. And so Moses climbed the mountain of God alone. Step-by-step drawing near to what he might think will be his end.

Driven by love. Driven by love for God and love for his people. Moses enters the archetypal sanctuary the mountain tabernacle of God's holy presence. And in a sense Moses lays himself on the altar. He pleads with the Lord verse 31.

Oh these people have committed a great sin. They have sinned a great sin. That have made for themselves a God of gold. There's no sugar coating. There's no down playing. There's no evasion. There's no blame shifting.

Only the simple unvarnished truth which Aaron had been unable to face. Aaron with all of his excuses. It's their fault Moses. It's your fault Moses. I didn't do anything. It just popped out. Moses says the people have sinned a great sin.

There is no excuse. Yet now if we'll forgive their sin. And Moses pauses letting his sentence drop to the ground incomplete. Knowing that it's not possible for God to overlook sin to simply forgive out of thin air out of nothing to forgive without a payment to forgive without justice.

For if God were to merely wink at sin he would not be God. And we would not even want to live in such a universe where wickedness goes unpunished. Where rebellion is not avenged. Where men and women are free forever to cast off God's law.

Free to not love God. Free to not love their neighbor. We would not want to live in a world where everyone would simply live for themselves using and abusing everyone in their way. So Moses says yet now if you will forgive their sin but if not I pray blot me out of your book which you have written.

The book of life. Of which we read earlier in Revelation 20. Paul also in Philippians 4 .3 wrote of his co-workers in the gospel whose names are written in this book of life. The book of those elect unto salvation.

The book of those whose sins will not be held against them. The book of those whose faith in Christ apart from works Romans 4 .5 is accounted for righteousness. One day into glory who will stand in the presence of God as his beloved children because Christ has loved us and took our place on the cross because he said blot me out instead of them.

Paul wrote in Romans 9 remember so much like Moses for I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my countrymen according to the flesh were Israelites. An echo of the love of Moses an echo of the love of Christ blot me out.

Praise Moses. Take me instead. Praise Jesus. I will pay the cost for their sin. I will pay the cost for their sin. That is love. That's the love of the soldier who takes his household with his unit his brethren in arms and in flies a grenade and immediately throws his body on that grenade in order to save his band of brothers.

It's the husband driving with his wife on a country road when a big rig jackknifes in front of their car and the husband swerves right exposing the driver's side instead of the passenger side where his wife is sitting.

As long as she draws breath that's the kind of love which Moses put on display and much more because that's the love of Christ the innocent for the guilty the righteous for the unrighteous. I will die for you.

I will endure the hell of God's wrath for you. Why? Because I love you. So all of this sounds very familiar to those of us who know Christ. But then in verse 33 we're taken aback because here we're reminded that this isn't the new covenant yet but the old covenant and that this isn't Christ our new covenant atonement maker.

No, this is Moses who is himself merely a sinner and therefore cannot take Israel's place. Only Christ is infinite God is sufficient to die for the infinite sins of many and only Christ as perfect man is righteous enough to be our substitute.

For the Lord says to Moses whoever has sinned against me I will blot him out of my book. Of course this shouldn't surprise us for this is the basic declaration of Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 where God said obey me and live or disobey me and die the wages of sin.

We'll come back to verse 33 but what do we make of the last two verses 34 and 35. Now therefore go the Lord says to Moses lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold my angel shall go before you.

What this means is that God keeps his covenant promises. It means that national Israel as a nation is elect unto the salvation of the promised land. That's going to happen. Israel will enter Canaan. What he says here has nothing to do with any individual salvation in Israel.

We need to be careful to keep this distinction that the old covenant people in Exodus are a collective picture of our individual new covenant salvation. But not that each of these individuals who worshipped a golden calf many of whom apparently would not even repent are all in heaven today because they were the chosen people of God.

Because nearly every one of these men and women would die in the wilderness for their sin. They would not reach the promised land that picture of heaven of the covenant. I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.

Literally this is in the day of my visitation I will visit them for their sin which looks to me like a long before prophecy of the day of judgment. In the day of my visitation, the day of judgment, in the day when I come again in vengeance against all who have sinned in that day I will most certainly punish these sinners.

And just to drive home the point verse 35 the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. Meaning no Moses this generation will have to pay for their own sins. In other words I mean what I say.

The covenant breakers will be held to account and here's a little preview of that. Yes I'll carry the nation of Israel into the land because I promised Abraham that I would as a picture of salvation in Christ.

And so that Israel might be the means of bringing Christ into the world. But no I will not carry anyone into glory because whoever has sinned against me whoever has sinned against me I will blot him out.

Beloved this is the terrifying jeopardy into which sinners place themselves when we prefer our golden calves over the living God. Look at verse 33 again this startling reminder of the dire reality of sin and its consequences.

I mean think about whoever has sinned against me I will blot him out of my book. That's everyone individually. That's the human race apart from Christ. Everyone who doesn't love God with all their heart soul mind and strength.

Everyone who has not loved their neighbor as themselves. Everyone who's chosen to break the commandments by murderous anger by adulterous lust by lying to make themselves look good or by covetous hearts grasping at what the Lord has not given to us with a bitter mindset against anyone who has blocked our way to what we want in life our golden calf whatever that might be.

I was there for so long 20 years bitter against God for not giving me the marriage that I wanted the life that I wanted the children that I wanted bitter at God for blocking my way to the temporal happiness that I demanded as my right but even worse was that I could not see my sin.

No because I was a good person who didn't deserve to be so miserable. I was the committed Christian. I was the faithful husband. I was the gifted Sunday school teacher. I was the hard-working employee.

I was the law-abiding citizen. So how come God you aren't holding up your end of the deal not giving me a healthy wife and a house full of children. All I could see was my life wasting away my twenties and then my thirties and then into my forties my entire youth being lost.

And all I wanted was a little happiness a little normalcy. Instead here I am in the middle of this howling wilderness. Not enough to eat said Israel. Not enough to drink said Israel. And by the way where is this Moses.

40 days we don't know what's happened to him. God why have you abandoned us. What did we ever do to you. I could not see my sin any more than Israel could see their sin. I could not see that. I was an idolater serving my golden calf serving self instead of Christ demanding in fact that my perfect plan.

And all the while I was wondering all the while I was so perplexed how come God doesn't love me. So verse 33 didn't apply to me. Huh. Those people who worship a golden calf. How stupid is that. No wonder God turned down Moses offer of atonement to substitute himself for those people they didn't deserve a mediator.

They're idolaters. I don't need a mediator. Oh sure. I needed Jesus to take me to heaven someday because he's the way the truth and the life. But I felt no real love for him no real connection with him.

Why not. Because in my sin I felt no real love from him. And why not. Because I felt no real sin against him. I felt no need for a mediator. The cross didn't move me. Look back at verse 30. Moses speaking to Israel.

You've committed a great sin. You have sinned a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. How did they respond. No indication in the text that they're even slightly repentant.

Did the people just shrug their shoulders. I mean Moses. You know you know whatever. Moses. I'm still alive after the bloodletting of yesterday. I'm still here. I'm not one of the bad ones. I didn't instigate this whole thing.

All I did was just enjoy myself a little bit dancing around that calf getting some small bit of pleasure that I deserve relief from the drudgery that my life has become. I'm here Moses. Remember. And you can hardly blame me anyway.

Moses since you've been gone for 40 days and I'm sitting here at the foot of this smoky mountain in the middle of nowhere. I just want to get to Canaan. Is that too much to ask. And remember I've been in bondage in Egypt my whole life.

Cruel people treating me cruelly. And so when I just want a bit of happiness you're all going to need atonement for that. Anyone here ever feel that way. Idolatry. What are you talking about. That's not me.

But then do you wonder why you can't feel God's love. There's a connection. Do we see what's happened here. Moses is going up the mountain to meet with a holy God to offer himself as a sacrifice on the altar of God as a substitute.

I will give my life so that you might live the greatest act of love in the Bible to date. Because this is a foreshadowing of the cross which is the greatest act of love in the universe to date. But Israel doesn't even get it.

Just like the man or woman or boy or girl who can look at the cross who can read in the Bible of the sacrifice of Christ of his substitutionary death of his taking upon himself the wrath of God in my place.

The person who can read of the cross and not be humbled and brought to tears who can look at the cross and not realize that was my sin. That was God's love for me. Turn please to Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7.

I think Steve mentioned this last Sunday. He who is forgiven little loves little. We may love little because we don't know how much we're loved. Luke 7 starting at verse 36. And as I read this ask yourself who am I in this story.

What character do I represent. Am I the woman or am I the Pharisee. Luke 7 36. Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And he went to the Pharisees house and sat down to eat and behold a woman of the city who was a sinner when she knew that Jesus Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisees house brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at his feet behind him weeping.

And she began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. And she kissed his feet and anointed them with fragrant oil. And when the Pharisee who had invited him saw them he said yes.

He spoke to himself saying this man if he were a prophet would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered and said to him Simon I have something to say to you.

So he said teacher say it. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay he freely forgave them both.

Tell me therefore which of them will love him more. Simon answered and said I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him you have rightly judged. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon do you see this woman I entered your house.

You gave me no water for my feet but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in.

You did not anoint my head with oil but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven the same loves little.

Then he said to her your sins are forgiven. And those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves who is this who even forgives sins. Then he said to the woman your faith has saved. You go in peace.

So who am I in this story. Am I the Pharisee in my pride refusing to see my own sinfulness refusing to see my own need. Or am I the sinful woman. Maybe you don't feel much love for God because you haven't yet felt much love from God.

And maybe you don't feel much love from the Savior because you don't yet feel much need for a Savior. John 15 13. Greater love has no one in this than to lay down one's life for his friends. Can we sink our teeth into that verse.

Can we sink our hearts into that. Greater love has no one in this than to lay down one's life for his friends. If you're in Christ by faith then you have been loved to the greatest degree possible. Our mediator offering up himself as an atonement the Lamb of God in heaven right now.

Revelation 5 showing his nails scarred hands and feet to the father on his throne pleading on behalf of sinners like me and you. And so well what if you still aren't moved by that. What if your heart still can't connect to this love of God in Christ.

What if you're still blind to your need. Then ask God to show you your need. Start there. Ask God to show you your sin. To show you your idolatry. To show you your bitter heart. To show you your fleshly desires that are an idol.

Plead with God. I'm afraid I'm the one that you need. Show me my need for atonement. Ask him to show you what exactly you've been forgiven. Or perhaps what exactly he's waiting to forgive. And then see Jesus in all of his glory waiting at the foot of the mountain for your true repentance waiting for you to receive and to know his love up there at the cross.

Because maybe it's true that you've never been loved the way you ought to have been loved by your human parents by your human spouse and by your human friends. Maybe that's true but there is nothing keeping us from being loved by God except our own unwillingness to see our need for the atoning death of Jesus Christ.

Prayer for Repentance and a Deeper Sense of Christ’s Love

Let's pray father. Thank you for blessing us with your word this morning. Thank you for blessing us with a glimpse of Jesus Christ in the person of Moses. Thank you that you have granted to us your word which is able to sink deeply into our hearts.

And we pray that it will bring us to the place we need to be repentant ready ready to see who we really are. So that we might see who you really. Are. But we ask you in Jesus name amen.