Sovereign Grace (Part 1)

No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise.

God's Sovereign Grace as the Attribute of Attributes

It was 1996 in Pasadena when I first met Sinclair Ferguson. It was at a Ligonier conference and I was talking to him in the parking lot and as some of you know, I asked him the question, what is God doing right now?

He stopped and thought just for a moment, and I wish I could give you his Scottish accent, and he said, God is simultaneously exercising all of his attributes. God is simultaneously exercising all of his attributes.

What an answer! A glorious answer, a biblical answer. Simultaneously exercising his righteousness, his justice, his love, his mercy, his faithfulness, his wisdom, his power. But if you could take all of God's attributes, all of his attributes, and somehow hypothetically distill them down to, let's say one attribute, what would you pick?

If you looked at God's attributes long enough, wouldn't there be one that, like Mount Everest or K2, would just begin to protrude? I think the answer is yes. Turn your Bibles please to Exodus chapter 24.

Today I'd like to talk about the attribute of attributes, that if we could see God's nature, God's essence, who God is at his core, you are going to find a very interesting attribute there. It will encourage you, I trust it will also convict you, and it's an important topic because we want to make sure our view of God is biblical, don't we?

If we think about God according to the Bible, we're thinking properly. If we just kind of do the cultural thing that says, well my God is this way, well my God is that way, if it's not the God of the Bible, it's just a made up God, and we want to make sure we don't slump into or slink into idolatry.

Any thought about God that's not true is idolatry. I've been around the world and I've seen little idols, I've seen big idols, but with the Puritans I think mental idols are worse than metal idols. Mental idols are a lot worse than metal idols because we can see the obvious flaws in the metal idols, but the mental ones are difficult.

So this passage today will help you think properly about God so that you might trust Him more, so that you might worship Him more, that you might be more thankful, and that you can see God as He shows Himself in Scripture.

We want to make sure our thoughts about God are worthy of Him. The attribute of all attributes, if you could distill the nature of God and see one attribute, you would see the sovereign grace of God. You say, well, you know, Isaiah chapter 6, the seraphim sing, holy, holy, holy, maybe that's the attribute of attributes, and I think we'll see in Exodus chapter 32 and 33, God showing Moses His sovereign grace, and it's going to be important for us today, it'll be important for you today because we live in a culture where we have my rights.

What was the slogan of the War of American Independence? The American War of Independence, we serve no what? We serve no sovereign here. So sovereign grace is going to be very important because we do serve a sovereign God who's gracious.

I do not believe in accidents. I do not believe in luck. I don't want you to tell me good luck because you know I will nicely rebuke you if you ever say good luck. I'll pretend like I don't hear you. I do not believe in karma.

I do not believe in coincidence. I do not believe in kismet. I do not believe in chance. I do not believe in fate because there is one God and there is no one like Him because He is utterly sovereign, and if He speaks something, it will come to pass.

The Golden Calf and Israel's Rapid Descent into Idolatry

Well, Exodus chapter 32 and 33 is where I want to go today, but I need you to go to 2418 to start. As we dive into Exodus, we're going to take a little detour from 1 Corinthians in light of the funeral last week and my trip was delayed this week getting back here.

So I'd like to preach the sovereign grace of God from Exodus 32 and 33, but it's fair to ask the question, what is Exodus about? And it is the temporal deliverance of the Israelites by God. And of course, it's going to be pointing to the greater deliverance, the spiritual deliverance that God grants to us through Christ Jesus, the spiritual redemption that we have of our sins.

In chapter 24 verse 18, today's sermon is going to be a potpourri of ESV and NES. But Exodus chapter 24 verse 18 says,. And Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. So the scene, the backdrop, the stage that is set is Moses goes up into the glory of God for 40 days and 40 nights.

Then if you just quickly look at your Bibles, chapter 25 through 31, that is 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, deal with the plans of the tabernacle. So chronologically, 24, 18 and 32, one go together. We just have this interlude about the construction details.

But if you'd like to know what's happening, where we are in chapter 32, Moses has gone up into the glory of God for 40 days, 40 nights, and now temporally are chronologically 32, one starts. Now, my outline is going to be very easy today.

There is no outline. Why? Because this passage is so awesome, it doesn't need one. Sometimes you do outlines as a pastor because you want to give some mental hooks for people to hang, not themselves on, but to hang on to.

Just a few words difference makes all the difference in the world. And you want to have them see progression and see I'm moving towards the end of the sermon. There's kind of a climax building. But this passage here, 32 and 33, there's almost nothing like it in the scripture.

And so the outline is we'll work through 32 and 33, and then we'll ask some questions at the end. So I guess that is an outline. And you're going to see to start in chapter 32, one and following, some kind of gross split screen.

You ever see split screen TVs? There's one thing going on here, and there's another thing going on here. Part of that split screen is going to be just awful though. 32, one, Exodus. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled around Aaron and said to him, come, make us a God, ESV, make us gods 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 now something weird is going to happen. It's going to be a terrible incongruity. It's going to be clowns at a funeral, things that don't go together, things that ought not to be together, murder in a church, Moses.

He's been there 40 days, 40 nights. Maybe he's dead. Maybe he's been translated. Maybe God consumed him for some of his sins, but we've got to go to the promised land and we need a leader. And we need somebody to bring us into the promised land.

You can even see how this is phrased. As for this Moses, this Moses here, we don't know who, we don't know where he is and we need a leader. What are we going to do now? Moses is up in the glory cloud talking about the construction of the tabernacle.

And now we're going to see Aaron and the people down below talking about the construction of a false God. And these people, there goes my ring, these people can see the glory cloud. It's not like they're on the other side of the planet.

They need some God. They want somebody to take them into the promised land. You don't know how long he's going to be gone. And now in verse two and following, you can feel the language of acceleration.

It's just like when you're going to sin at home, let's just sin really fast. Because if I stop and think about it, I might say to myself, God's holy, he saved me, he's redeemed me in light of my salvation.

I ought not to do that. So if I want to sin, I better sin fast so I don't have time to think about it. And this passage right here from two and following, it reminds me of a motorcycle throttle that's just been stuck on wide open.

It's just fast. Listen to the language. It's rapid. There's an alacrity to it. It just slides. So Aaron said to them, take off the rings of gold that 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, a golden calf.

And they said, and A .S., this is your God, E .S .V., these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Let's pick a strong Egyptian god like some cow because we need a strong leader to take us into the promised land.

Now when Aaron saw this, do you see verse five? He said, stop it, quit, repent. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord, Yahweh.

We'll worship God. We'll worship the cow. It'll be a good synchristic kind of worship. And this is as weird as it gets. This is Twilight Zone, X-Files, Bizarro kind of thing. Verse six, so the next day they rose early and worshiped this false god with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

They offered burnt offerings. They brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and they rose up to play. Sinai is covered with the cloud of glory and down here, they're eating, they're drinking, they're playing.

Now, this word play is kind of a nice word in the NAS. The ESV says, they rose up to play. It's a nice word there. But this is a dirty word. This is a filthy word. This is a very gross word. This is a word used for orgies, drunken orgies.

And the only thing more gross than a drunken orgy is this idolatry. This is egregious. This is just grotesque. There's the glory cloud and here is a drunken orgy. One lexicon translates it, conjugal caresses.

If only it was that nice. It is shameful, flagrant, rank unbelief. And you mark it, unbelief leads to lawlessness, leads to immorality every time. Show me some immoral people, I'll show you people that have been lawless but ultimately have been not believing God.

Some drunken sex party. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, verse 7. Yahweh, the covenant keeping God, spoke to Moses. Go down at once for your people. How many times did God call the Israelites, my people?

It's kind of like when a husband and wife watch their kids disobey and the husband says to the wife, would you kind of make your son obey? Won't mention any names. Go down at once for your people, Moses.

They act more like you than they do me, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt. They've corrupted themselves. The same verb found in Genesis 6, 12. The people on the earth were corrupt before God.

Now then let me in alone, God says, that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them and I will make you a great nation. God's holy righteous indignation says we're going to start over.

We're going to just take that board, that white board, and wipe it clean and we'll start over with you. Two million executions and we start over with you. Have you ever seen those little etch-a-sketches?

Small little things like that. It kind of looked like an iPad almost, red borders, and you have two knobs and you have to draw things with those two knobs and how do you get a diagonal line with two knobs and drawing things, it takes such a long time.

And when you want to erase an etch-a-sketch, what do you do? And here it's like God says with the Israelites who are acting worse than the Canaanites. He says, here's what I'm going to do with them.

And Moses, we're going to start over with you. Start from scratch. And then Moses prays. This is as good as it gets from Moses. Verse 11, you've chosen Israel, God. Verse 12, your name should be vindicated, God.

Verse 13, you've made promises. 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.

Moses just beseeches the Lord. He cries out in verse 14, it says, and the Lord relented about the harm which he said he would do to his people. He relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Verse 15, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back, they were written.

Moses Intercedes, the Tablets Are Shattered, and the Idol Is Destroyed

Now just imagine, Moses is sent down by God, he's got the tablets, and it's going to be one against two million, one against two million people who are in some kind of frenzied state, some kind of sexual whirling, dervish kind of activity.

And you can imagine the sweat and the smell and the saliva and the sounds. And Moses now descends. Joshua must have been at a strategic meeting spot, for the text says in verse 17, now when Joshua heard the sounds of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a sound of war in the camp.

But he said, it's not the sound of shouting for victory or the shout of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear. It's the sound of singing. It was so loud, it first sounded like some war.

It sounded like some kind of defeated army. And then it's singing. Stuart says, Moses heard probably a mixture of sounds from such things as drunken singing, wild dancing, men shouting as they chased women and women screaming as they were being chased, people fighting over food and drink, women fighting over men and men fighting over women, and the sort of shrieking that pagans thought appropriate to rousing the gods.

I'm positive that for as long as Moses and Joshua lived, they never forgot that sound. Ever been in a car wreck and you hear two multi-ton vehicles hit each other and that sound of metal and you think, I never will forget that.

I call this a cacophony of carousing. Verse 19, and it came about as soon as Moses came near the camp, and he saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hand and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

Now if you go back to 1917, I'll just read it if you don't want to go back. The foot of the mountain's not just, oh, he just threw them at the foot of the mountain. It's the bottom of the mountain. It's just some kind of indiscriminate place.

No, 1917 and 1912 are going to let you know. This is the official meeting place. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. You say, oh, that's kind of like burning the flag, isn't it?

No, it's a lot worse. It's like taking the Constitution of the United States and going over to the Supreme Court building and burning it on the steps of the Supreme Court on TV, and he took the calf which they had made.

It's not a real god. They made it with their hands. He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it over the surface of the water. Those are all actions that if you want to try to obliterate something, you can't make matter matterless, but you can try to grind it down to the smallest possible thing, and this is used in Hebrew language for just trying to get rid of it.

But you know what? If you just grind it up, these worse than Canaanite people are going to find it, and they're going to remake it. And so there's one sure way to stop a scavenger hunt. There's one sure way to make sure people don't go panning for proverbial gold.

You make them drink it, because then it'll be defiled. Then you'll have to go through human waste to try to get this pulverized god. So what does the text say? Verse 30, and he made the sons of Israel drink it.

I call this an owning up to sin drink. There's going to be no panning for gold here, friends. And Aaron, he's still full of excuses. Verses 21 to 27, specifically verse 26, Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side?

Come to me. All the sons of Levi gathered around him. He said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from the gate to the camp throughout the camp.

And each of you kill his brother and companion and his neighbor. Two million of the people deserve to die. But here God, even in his mercy, says, You either can kill the ones who are continuing in the worship, or you kill the ringleaders.

They all deserve it, but just go kill these. So, verse 28, the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about, it should have been two million, except for the mercy and grace of God, they were all guilty.

About 3 ,000 men of the people fell that day. 3 ,000 out of 2 million, I don't know what that number is percentage-wise, but it's not very large. True or false? He could have justly slain the whole nation.

The Journey Resumed and Moses' Prayer for God's Presence

True. And on a side note, you will never understand the sovereign grace of God unless you understand man's guilt, man's depravity. Chapter 33, verses 1 to 11, basically show us that the journey is resumed, and the angel is going to be sent to drive out the people.

Moses has a tent of meeting, chapter 33, verse 7 to 11. And then he prays. What a wonderful prayer again, verse 12 of chapter 33. Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.

I need guidance. I need a leader. You've been rightly mad at the people. Does that mean you won't go with us anymore? You won't lead? I can't lead these people. I need divine guidance. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you've also found favor in my sight.

Now therefore, verse 13, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people. Verse 14, and he said, My presence shall go with you, and I shall give you rest.

Literally in Hebrew, my presence is my face. I personally will go. My face will go closely, intimately. I will guide you. I assure you that I will be there to lead the people into the promised land. And you can hear an echo of this very verse in Matthew chapter 11.

Can't you? When our Lord Jesus said, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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