The Four Sins in Liberty (Part 2)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrock. 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.

The Golden Calf and Moses' Intercession

They turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They've made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it. And to make it worse, and sacrificed to it and said, this is your God, oh 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.

I've said this before. It's like God saying, we're going to start over from scratch. They've all corrupted themselves and so we start over with Moses alone. If I was teaching kind of a council time at Awana, I would probably have a mountain and some people here on an echo sketch.

You ever seen the echo sketches? And then how do you erase it? That's what God's saying. Let's start from scratch. It's a do over. Wipe them out. He's done that before, by the way, in Genesis chapter six, seven, and eight, wiped everybody out.

And this is as good as Moses gets right here. The prayer of Moses, God, you've chosen Israel. He implored the Lord as God, verse 11 said, oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

God, you chose them. God vindicate your name, verse 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. God, you've made promises, Abrahamic covenant 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 verse 15, goes down the mountain with the testimony in his hand to a horde of two million people. The tablets, verse 16, were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

When Joshua heard the noise, remember when Moses went up, Joshua went partway to wait for Moses. When Joshua heard the noise as they shouted, he said to Moses, this is the noise of war in the camp. Sounds like war, sounds, have you ever heard a car crash?

That sound of metal just is, it'll make a memory, that's for sure. And then all of a sudden, how about the sound of war? But he said, verse 18, it's not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of a cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear.

They're drunk, committing immorality. It's loud. And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

Not rebuked for this one, not chastened for this one. I don't think that's sin at all. Throws the covenant law down and breaks it. Deffenbaugh said, imagine if you can having the President of the United States taking the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States and tearing it up before the eyes of the nation on national TV.

It took the calf, verse 20, that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the people of Israel drink it. Why drink it? Why pulverize it? Because these people are so sick and so gross that if it's not pulverized, they might try to find it later.

It's crazy. And it gets worse. Moses said to Aaron, why did this people do to you? What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? You're to blame. Why don't you just do something about it?

Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know the people that they're set on evil. They said to me, 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 come of him.

Moses, it's your fault you didn't come down fast enough. Now, if you're not careful, you might miss this in verse 24. Aaron said to them, let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me. I threw it in the fire and out came this calf.

Now, anybody who laughs, they don't quite get it. No, just kidding. I think this is what Aaron is saying. He's not saying, oh, spontaneous combustion threw it in. Here's what he's saying. It was a supernatural miracle.

It's as if Moses, we threw the stuff in and miraculously, supernaturally out comes this calf. It's a work of God himself. J. Vernon McGee in his typical Southern way said, by the way, do you know J. Vernon McGee is dead?

I just want to make sure you knew that. He was dead for 20 years before I knew it. Aaron tried to crawfish out of it all. There's a miracle. By the way, Deuteronomy 9 said that God was so angry at Aaron that he was ready to kill him.

And when Moses saw, verse 25, that the people had broken loose for Aaron had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies. They're running loose. They're running wild, cashing off all restraints.

Worship that's not precisely revealed by God, you can mark this, is never real worship no matter how sincere you are. Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who's on the Lord's side? Come to me.

All the sons of Levi gathered around him. Now, by the way, you're going to see the most interesting ordination exam you've ever seen in your life. Do you believe in ordination? I believe in ordination, but I bet this didn't happen to Steve for his ordination.

And I know it didn't happen to mine in mine 15 years ago. Is ordination biblical? Yes. And he said to them, this, thus says the Lord God, verse 27 of Israel, put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from the gate throughout the camp and answer all the theological questions the ordination board will ask you.

No, here's the ordination. And each of you, these Levites, kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. Too severe, you might ask. Spiritual cancer is there, you cut it out, excise it. And actually, this is a pretty small number of people killed.

It's the mercy of God that more didn't die. Maybe it's just the ringleaders and the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day, about 3 ,000 men of the people fell. Today, you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, verse 29.

Each one at the cost of his son and his brother so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day. Those people that were killed are the sacrifice for the sin that was committed by the whole. It was a dedicated sacrifice.

Just another side note that I need to just put in for you to think about. Godliness does not need a majority. Can you imagine Moses, one man, single-handedly turned back everyone. Verse 35, it says, then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made a calf, the one Aaron had made.

Idolatry in the New Testament and in Our Own Hearts

So let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, now that you know the scoop. For Paul, he says to the church of Corinth, they stood, they rose, and they played. That signaled everything to them. They knew Exodus 32.

It was burned in their brain. It was tattooed in their mind. So he says, don't become idolaters as some of them were. That was the root sin, idolatry, that people sat down to eat, drink, and rose up to play.

And the technical way Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 10, 7 is, stop doing this, meaning some people were doing it. So here's what I'd like to do in the time we have left. I'd like to talk to you about idolatry in our day.

Because you know what? I don't know if anybody here still bows down to some real God, some real carved image. But what is idolatry for us today? And is it a big deal? Tertullian said, the principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment is idolatry.

Now for Israel, it was making something that represented God. And how could you make something that represents God when God is invisible? For Israel, it was having one God, maybe, and then two gods. But if there's only one God in the universe, we believe in monotheism.

How can that exist? But what about for us? It's not image carving, but it is giving undue honor and regard for someone or something in the place of God. Idolatry today for most Christians is to value something or someone in a way that hinders the love and trust we owe to God.

Loving something more than, loving a good thing more than. And we want to run from that, J .C. Ryle said. Idolatry is a worship in which the honor due to the triune God and to God alone is given to some of his creatures or to some invention of his creatures.

What do you think the number one idol is today? If you had to pick the number one idol today that people could struggle with, maybe it is power, maybe it is pleasure, maybe it is other people, money, but I'm thinking our biggest idol is ourselves, fueled by self-esteem instead of esteem for the lamb who was slain for us as sinners.

I think this helps, and it's a very scriptural concept. For us, here's the best way you can think of idolatry. It's to have a divided heart. When your heart is divided, no wonder in the Old Testament it says things like this about the evil kings of Judah.

They did not follow Yahweh with their whole, what, heart. No wonder Jesus says in the great commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. No wonder Josiah was called the good king.

Why? Before him, there was not a king like him who turned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to the law of Moses, nor did anyone arise after him. No wonder Jesus said, you cannot serve God and money at the same time.

David Pauluson said, has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart's trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear, and delight? It is a question bearing on the immediate motivation for one's behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

True or false, you are a worshiper. Everyone here in the room is a worshiper. True. It's just who is going to be the object of your worship. We all worship. God has set eternity in our heart. We will worship.

I have a question I could ask you. What would you give anything to have? I'd give anything to have. My life would be so much better if I just had this. If I only had money, if I only had a husband, if I only had a wife, if I only had children, if I only had more money, if I only had a better pastor.

I'm just kidding. Which one doesn't fit in? For you shall not worship any other God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Rightfully so. He made us. He owns us. He sent his son to redeem us.

What is the one thing your heart craves? What would change your life? If I only had this, my life would be changed. If I only had this, I could be content and have peace. One man said, what is the one thing that you mourn having to live without?

What is the one thing that fills your daydreams and commands your sleeping meditations? What is your one thing? See that's why if you worship God with all your heart, then you don't have any percentage of a heart to linger over here to the things that aren't God.

And isn't it amazing when Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 said, you know what? We don't even eat with idolaters. Idolaters do not inherit the kingdom of God. It's easy for us to say, oh, homosexuals don't inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. Idolaters do not inherit the kingdom of God. Because they're loving something more than God. They're venerating something else. And people who worship idols in the Bible are called deceived, shamed, foolish, and they eventually imitate who they love, what they love.

For you know this with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of God and Christ. How does 1 John end? I love you. I'm kind of your grandfather.

Peace and grace to you. 1 John ends so strangely that some commentators think that can't be the end. This cannot be the end. It's like Mark chapter 16, verse 8. How can it be the end? It's too blunt. It's too crazy.

Here's how 1 John ends. Maranatha, Lord come. No, little children, keep yourself from idols. And I like the way that's phrased too. Keep yourself from idols. It's a good prod because you know what happens if we don't actively say no to these things?

Then we just drift towards them. Well we want to be known for what we're for. I'm going to go on record right now for once and for all at Bethlehem Bible Church No Compromise Radio Ministry. I am against idols and I want to be known for an allegiance against idols.

How about that? I want to be known what I'm against. Can you imagine the loving John? I'm against idols. D .A. Carson said this, people do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace driven effort, people do not gravitate towards godliness, prayer, obedience to scripture and delight in the Lord.

We drift towards compromise and call it tolerance. We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom. We drift towards superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation.

We slouch towards prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism. We slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Someone other than Christ Jesus who's taken the title deed to your heart. And when you see Jesus on the throne, the risen king, rightly, scripturally, then everything else fades. Everything else, you say, who else could I love?

Who else could have top priority in my heart when I see who Jesus is and what he's done for me? How could I want anything more? J .C. Ryle said, Christ rightly known, Christ truly believed, and Christ heartily loved is the true preservative against ritualism, Romanism, and every form of idolatry.

Psalm 106 says this of the Israelites in Exodus 32, and I think it gives a good reminder for us. Psalm 106, they forgot God their savior. They forgot God their savior. It is a fact of life. Here's spiritual algebra for you, spiritual math.

That when you neglect the study of the word of God, it is much easier to slip into all kinds of other things, including idolatry, immorality, testing, and grumbling. I could flip it around. Show me someone who is dabbling with, indulged in, trifling with, sexual immorality, idolatry, not having a full allegiance to God, testing God, and grumbling.

And I'll show you someone who is lax in their Bible study. It's like back in the old days, in counseling, they would tell us when someone walks into the room, you don't say, how are you? You say, what have you been doing?

Because if you've been doing the right things, I know how you are. Because if you do the right things, you feel the right way. And when you flood your mind with scripture, it gets rid of all the other stuff.

John Makarowski years ago taught the young boys at an overnight thing, plumbing. And he called it Plumbing University. And I listened to that discussion. I don't think he taught the Bible, but at least a little bit about plumbing.

Just kidding. He made some allusion somewhere along the line. And he said, there's two things about plumbing that if you get these two things right, you'll understand plumbing. If he would have said 20, I would have just zoned out.

Two things. I think I can get two. Gravity and displacement. OK, now you've got plumbing. Gravity and displacement. You could be a good plumber. Leaving plumbing allusion to the side. Displacement. How do you get these brown leaves off these trees?

Well, when the new leaves sprout out, the other ones just drop off. When I think about idolatry, I need to flood my mind with scriptures. Say, well, you know what? I'm not going to do it, but I should.

If I ask you how many people start off the day with reading your Bibles, I think we'd be shocked. Even at a Bible teaching church like this. Here's the good news. It's not too late to start. To read your mind.

I like to have my mind fresh. Here's what I do, I bet you, every single morning. I read from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John before I read anything else because I want to see again the King who redeemed me.

I was an enemy. He made me his friend. I want to see King Jesus in one of these Gospels because I used to be slave to sin and self and death and Satan and God's son at Calvary redeemed me. I used to have the holy law of God, just and true, going to wrathfully punish me.

And Jesus was my substitute and took that in my place. And I like to study Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John every day to start off with because I want to make sure I see the King lofty and say to myself, this is a King worth living for, this is a King worth dying for.

I don't want any other alternative to Jesus. That's basically what John is saying in 1 John 5, verse 21. Reading your Bible. After all, haven't we had enough of idolatry? Remember when you weren't a Christian?

Weren't you just living it up in idolatry? Listen to what Peter says. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. Didn't you live that enough in the past? Living in sensuality.

Didn't you have enough of that? Passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. When God saved us, he saved us from that. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, you turned from idols to God.

Maybe you could diagnose yourself this way and then we need to wrap up. Here's a fact. You will serve whom you worship. The one whom you worship, you will serve. So now ask yourself the question, I serve money, I serve career, I serve getting ahead, I serve myself, then a good chance is you are what?

Worshiping yourself. Because worship and service go together. Worship and service. I worship the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore I serve him with all my heart. And he says to serve others, I want to gladly do that.

But if my service is for money and fame and power and things and prestige, whatever else divides your heart, then you say, you know, my worship is not right. And here's the good thing. God loves repentance.

God loves repentance. I'm not trying to beat you over the head. I'm trying to tell you, single-mindedly focus on Christ Jesus. And if you see his glory, you won't have room for these other things. Can you imagine Christ Jesus on the cross?

Earlier in the ministry of Christ Jesus, remember the baptism? This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Always pleasing the Father, Christ was. Remember later the transfiguration? This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

Listen to him. And can you imagine at Calvary, Jesus Christ excelling himself in love, excelling himself in obedience. God the Father had manifest his pleasure on many other times before. Eternity passed always.

And then at the time when Jesus was excelling himself the most in love, greater love doesn't know anything better than what Jesus was doing. When he was excelling himself in love, God the Father, what?

Was silent. When Jesus' heart was exceedingly troubled in the garden, the Father heard him. But now when the Son is surpassing himself in obedience, doing more than he ever would in his hour of need, going to bear the wrath of God in our place, no word except curse and abandonment.

The Catechism says, At the cross he felt and bore the weight and the wrath of God. And the Father could not spare the Son because of the eternal plan of God, the Son dying in our place. And if he does that for us, I think then I want to live well, run well.

And maybe what I'm going to start doing to myself is saying every time I try to have a divided heart, it's like worshiping or worship the cow.

That's not for me. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.