He Suffered Outside the Gate (Hebrews 13:11-12) | Worship Service

Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Church. Would you please stand as we begin our worship service? With a call to worship from Psalm 2, in verses one to four it says, why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate on a vain thing?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against his anointed, saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord mocks them.

It seems like every time there's an act of war, we sing this psalm, that is a coincidence or divine providence, shall we say. So let's sing together, why do the nations rage, Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage? The people plot in vain. The kings and rulers of this age against God's will in their war oppose the whole, the sunderer shall be undone. Declares the Lord, his scorn came from his hat to war.

According to my will, anointed king, now God's anointed one shall tell of this decree. He said, today thou art my son, I have in me no mate. As thou hadst of earth for thee to reign, so thine a state shall be.

Rule thou the lands of creation, shalt thou shame. As earth then we warned, O judge of earth, before the Lord bowed trembling down and there broke. Give homage to the son, lest he give anger sway. Lest thou be in his wrath a nun and perish in the way.

The blessed drawing here, there's his own. Tree of the cross, I cannot call. Agonies of Calvus, your son. Drink the bitter cup, preserve for me your blood. Has washed away my sin, Jesus, thank you. The father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus, thank you.

Once your enemy, now seated at your table, Jesus, thank you. Perfect sacrifice I've been brought here. Your enemy, you bitches of your glorious grace. Your mercy and your kindness made my sin, Jesus, thank you.

The father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus, thank you. Once your enemy, now seated at your table, Jesus, thank you. Of my soul, I want to live for my soul. I want to live, my soul washed away, once your enemy.

Jesus, thank you. I share his fames of my Savior. Jeshua, his song is sure and stature. Good shall I sing your praise.

You may be seated.

I just have three announcements that I want to draw your attention to. All of whom have to do with some deadlines that you need to be aware of, events coming up. First, there is a new round of fellowship dinners starting.

So if you want to join up with some other families in the church to host as well as visit with them around meals, I would encourage you to take the opportunity today to sign up on that signup sheet that is in the foyer for the fellowship dinner.

Second, the women's retreat is coming up quickly and this is the last Sunday today for you to register if you plan on attending that. So make sure you do that before you leave here. And then also June 7th and 8th is our equipping conference and your time to pre-register for that in order to get the free book, The War on Men by Owen Strand that is coming up by the end of this month.

So if you want to come to the equipping conference June 7th to 8th, make sure you register before the end of April. Will you turn please to Hebrews chapter nine for the scripture reading and verse 23.

In fact, if we're going back in Hebrews for a scripture reading is not indicative that we are starting anything over. A couple of weeks ago, I read from Hebrews chapter one and I saw everybody in the front row up here kind of chuckling after I announced that because somebody behind them said, oh no, we're starting over.

That's not the case. Hebrews nine, we're going to begin reading at verse 23 and we're going to read through chapter 10, verse 14. Hebrews nine, verse 23. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would often offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

Otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.

For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have had consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired but a body you have prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me to do your will, oh God. After saying above sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired nor have you taken pleasure in them which are offered according to the law.

Then he said, behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. You stand with me as we pray. Our Father, we have just read here of the mysterious plan of redemption for lost sinners. That you have laid upon your son all of our sin, iniquity, transgression, all of our sins of omission and commission, every way that we have failed you, our violations of your holy law, our rebellion against your kind and gracious rule, our not giving you praise and honor for your benevolent gracious kindness to us through all of life.

Every sin we have ever committed has been laid upon your son so that we may rejoice in the forgiveness that is ours and look forward to no further sacrifice, no further offering and no further blood to be shed.

So we thank you that you have done this gracious work of perfecting and sanctifying forever those who call upon your son and come to him. We thank you that in that one sacrifice there is grace sufficient and atonement provided for the worst of sinners.

And we are those sinners. We deserve your judgment and justice, but you have given us grace and taken our sin out of the way. So we thank you for that. And because you have done this, you are worthy of infinite honor and glory and praise, adoration, thanksgiving, adoration and worship.

You are worthy of those things and we are commanded to give those things to you. It is our duty to do so. And it is the joy of those who are yours to do so. But we confess and acknowledge that we are unable to give to you what you are worthy of.

For we are weak and frail and feeble children of dust. We still carry around with us a sinful nature, but we pray that in spite of our weakness that you would receive what we can offer to you, which is adoring hearts, loving worship, and wholehearted obedience to your word.

Be glorified and honored through the sacrifice of your people and strengthen us in the power of your spirit, we pray, to sing in a way that you are worthy of hearing, to meditate upon your word, and to respond to truth in a way that will be for the glory and honor of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

And can that a man in a state of death pursued Should die, should he left his body, soul, himself In this long and gentle way, no condemnation now I dread Jesus and all in him is mine, alive in him my living head And clothed in righteousness divine, my life is thine Bold and...

In Ephesians chapter two, verses 13 to 16, it says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself, he might create the two into one new man, making peace and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in himself put to death the enmity.

We're gonna close our music service this morning and sing together how vast the love.

Gaze upon your savior. Behold your great high priest. Draw near in awe and wonder. His cross has spoken peace. Come rest from sin and striving. Find endless stores of grace. The heart that turns to Jesus Is cleansed from every stain.

Oh how deep, how wide, how low is us. Oh how his blood cries in his name. Oh how Jesus, oh how sure of his strong assurance. In Christ we've been brought, his promise is our hope. The star, his love has led us home of Jesus.

Oh how sure, how sweet, how strong. Oh how vast is love for a man

You may be seated.

And we turn now to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. When you found your place there, we will go to the Lord and ask his blessing upon our time and our study here this morning. Our Father, we bow now with humility before your word, believing that it reveals to us everything that we need for life and for godliness.

When the word of God is rightly preached, the voice of God is rightly heard. And so we pray today that you would strengthen both speaker and listener, that you would be honored through what is said in the meditation of our heart.

Send your spirit to give us that strength and to open our eyes and hearts to your word. And even as we discuss the passage that is admittedly difficult to understand, we pray that you would grant to us the insight that is necessary.

And that having been convinced that we have heard you in your word, that we would then turn around and yield obedient and loving and worshiping hearts back to you for your great gift of salvation and for the great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ask these things in his name, amen. Well, the message of the cross has always been and always will be foolishness in the eyes of the world. It must be that way. Jesus Christ is to the world a worthy object of shame and derision.

His name is used as a swear word. Only his name is coupled with profanities. Only he is mocked and derided in arts, entertainment, culture, and academia consistently. In fact, you would be regarded by the world as a luminary of stunning intellect if you can invent some new blasphemous way of understanding Jesus of Nazareth.

And you'll be hailed as one of the great artisans of the age if you can invent some cutting edge way of degrading Christ, slandering his name and his reputation in a book or a painting or a song. And academia will award you a Nobel Peace Prize if you could manage to rid the entire world of all vestiges and influences of Christianity.

That is how much the world hates Christ. This is so because there can be no fellowship between light and darkness. There can be no camaraderie between Belial and Christ. There can be no meeting of minds between truth and error.

The message of Christianity is an affront to the pride, the self-reliance, the self-importance of fallen man. And it is forever an unchanging declaration that man is condemned in his sin, fallen, ruined, and hopeless, and unable to change his own condition.

It is that because the cross condemns our efforts to please God by our own good works. It condemns our efforts to somehow satiate God by good deeds or works of righteousness or keeping the law. The cross stands as a constant declaration that man is so fallen, so ruined, so irreparably sinful as to demand the sacrifice of God's own son on a Roman cross to atone for his sin and to give him the righteousness that he must have if he is to stand in the presence of a holy God on the last day.

And so the cross is foolishness and scandalous to the world. It is scandalous to the unbeliever because it suggests that their sin death is so large that the death of God's only son was required. That their lack of righteousness is so profound that the infinitely righteous one had to give them righteousness.

And it reminds them that they can do nothing to commend themselves to God. Law-breaking rebels trying to gain God's favor by their puny efforts and their paltry works and their putrid good deeds is offensive to him.

And that fact is offensive to the unbeliever. Our good deeds are offensive to him in our unsaved fallen state. And that fact that he is offended by us is offensive to the unbeliever. And there's always a effort afoot to make Jesus appeal to the masses.

If you are after a cultural cachet or academic acceptance or political prestige, Christianity is not your golden ticket, not at all, at least not biblical Christianity. The Christianity that stands constantly being remade by the spirit of our age, that people do use like grifters to make themselves look good and to gain money and prestige.

But biblical Christianity cannot do that. There is an affront to remake Jesus in order to appeal to the masses. This never ends because the only way to do that is to reimagine him in the image of the masses.

And you must remove the offensive teachings and smooth out the rough edges of his personality and his teachings. You have to ignore his exclusive claims. You have to rehabilitate his image into a soft, effeminate, hippie figure with no standards, no truth, no demands, no offense.

And that's just not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible is offensive to the world. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18 to 24, says the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

It's written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever, I will set aside. Where's the wise man? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.

To the Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul there is putting his finger to the heart of what the world wants.

We want oratory. We want manmade wisdom. We love human philosophy. We love to-do lists. We love things that make us look righteous. We want wisdom and we want philosophy and we want oratory. And Paul says, instead of giving the world any of that, we come right in and we preach to them the message of the cross, which is foolishness to Gentiles and offensive to the Jews.

They hate it. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God unto salvation. To us who are called by the father, chosen by him and given to the son and then redeemed by the Holy Spirit in regeneration, Jesus Christ is not weakness.

He is the power of God. He is not foolish. He is the wisdom of God and he is not offensive. Instead, he is the precious cornerstone, not a scandal, but a savior. That is the difference between the saved and the unsaved.

In that distinction, every person on the planet will fall into one of those two classes. Either you embrace what the world says is the foolishness of God and you receive his wisdom, his power, his salvation, or you will pursue the wisdom of man and you will be bereft of and cut off from God's wisdom, God's power and God's salvation.

In Christ, for us who are in him, we have all the treasures of wisdom, knowledge, power, glory. The world cannot see that. It cannot see it. So it does not see it. And then the world regards him as a worthy object of our shame and our scorn.

And they are willing to take him outside of the city and to crucify him. That brings us to our text. You understand then why he was burned, he was taken and suffered outside the gate. This is verse 12.

Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Now we talked about a little bit in last week about what it means that he suffered and what the author is driving at here in this argument.

You will notice at the beginning of verse 12 that he is making a parallel between Jesus and something else when he says, therefore, Jesus also. There's something in the context. We haven't looked yet at verse 11, but the context begins in verse 11 there for the comparison.

The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. And you'll notice three references to being outside the camp or outside the gate.

One in verse 11, burned outside the camp. One in verse 12, suffered outside the gate. And then one in verse 13, go to him outside the camp. So the author in verse 12 when he says, therefore, Jesus also, he is drawing a similarity between Christ and this offering that was taken outside of the city or outside of the camp and burned.

And this is a reference to Christ's rejection. That is what the author is driving at. And that's gonna be our focus today. The significance of Christ's work being outside the camp. This is a reference in verses 11 and 12 to the day of atonement.

Now, back when we were in, I think it was Hebrews nine or 10, somewhere in there, eight, seven. I don't expect you to remember it because I'm struggling to figure out where it was exactly at. I preached a message where we covered all of the details of the day of atonement and what that involved in terms of the sacrifice and the applying of the blood to the mercy seat on that one day a year by the high priest.

The author has wrapped up his long extended section dealing with Old Testament sacrifices and thus Christ in chapter seven to 10. And we kind of left that and got into the faith chapter of chapter 11 and the discipline in chapter 12 and the warning passage there.

And now we come into chapter 13 and the author is just jumping back to his discussion of the sacrifices and he's drawing one final parallel because this one final parallel basically is what he wants to sort of leave ringing in the ears of his audience.

This parallel being in the application of verse 14 that we are to go, or verse 13, we are to go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. And so the key here is understanding what it means that Christ suffered outside the gate.

The author is obviously making something out of that, that he suffered outside the gate because he mentions it in verse 11 and verse 12 and verse 13. The author is here referring to the day of atonement, the sacrifice on the day of atonement, the one sin offering, which the Jews call Yom Kippur.

It's that one high holy day. And you might remember from that that the author has this one particular illustration in mind that rather than offering a sacrifice on that altar over and over again, year after year, Christ has done what that sacrifice could not do in that he suffered one time and offered himself as that sacrifice.

And therefore, as we read earlier, we have been forever sanctified through the one offering of our Lord on that one time. He has done what the blood of bulls and goats cannot do. But now the parallel is to something else, something that the author did not mention previously when he was talking about the day of atonement.

And that is in verse 11, the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, those bodies are burned outside the camp. Now, rather than going back to Leviticus chapter 16, which I would encourage you to do on your own time and reading about all of the details of the day of atonement sacrifice, I want to highlight a couple of them, just a couple so you can see what the author is alluding to here.

Of all the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings, the author has in mind here one particular offering that was offered on one high holy day, the day of atonement, by one man who was allowed to go back into the holy of holies on that one day of the year and apply blood to the mercy seat.

He's talking about the day of atonement. Now, here's the details from Leviticus 16. The day of atonement was in the seventh month on the 10th day of the month. And it involved first a ceremonial cleansing by the priest where he would wash himself and dress up in his priestly garments.

And then he would offer a sacrifice first for himself and then for his family. And then he would turn around and offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people. And he would enter then with the blood of that sacrifice into the holy of holies and apply the blood to the mercy seat.

Then there was another element of that sacrifice and it was the scapegoat. They would take two goats and they would cast lots for those two goats. And the one goat they would sacrifice as part of the sin offering and apply the blood to the altar.

The other goat, the priest would stand with the other goat and put their hands on the goat's head and confess over it all of the sins of the nation of Israel. And then they would let that goat wander off into the wilderness, which was a picture of our sins needing to be removed from the camp, needing to be taken outside of where the people of God are.

That was part of that offering, the scapegoat. Now, after the priest applied the blood to the mercy seat, he would then take the body of the beast out into the wilderness where they would burn the bodies.

Leviticus 16, verse 20. This describes the scapegoat. When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins.

And he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness, that is outside of the camp, by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary place in the land, and he shall release the goat into the wilderness.

This was intended to picture the other part of the sacrifice, not just that it required blood, but those sins had to be taken away. They could not be with the people of God anymore. Then we have the reference to the blood of the scapegoat as well as the blood of the ox.

Leviticus 16, verse 27. Here's what happened to the sin offering. But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire.

Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water. Then afterward, he shall come into the camp. You see, even the act of taking the sin, the animal that was offered for the sin, outside of the camp and burning it rendered him unclean.

So he'd have to bathe himself before he could come back into the assembly of God's people. Now look at the connection in Hebrews 13, verse 11. The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place, so we just read by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp.

Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. This is the main point of the author in this passage, that Christ is the fulfillment of that sacrifice.

Now in a sense, in a way, he is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament sacrifices, but the day of atonement has been the author's focus throughout the book of Hebrews. He sees that one, the highest and holiest day, that was sort of the sacrifice of all sacrifices, he sees in that sacrifice the work of Christ being pictured in the animal sacrifice.

Hebrews 10, verses three to four says, in those sacrifices, there is the reminder of sins year by year. It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And so the author has made the point previously, Christ fulfilled this by doing what the priest could never do in offering himself and atoning for what the offering of those animals could never atone for, which was actual sin.

Rather, in those sacrifices, you simply had the acting out of the need for an animal sacrifice year after year as blood, more blood was always and continually applied to the mercy seat as a reminder that that is the cost of sin.

And this is what sin has done to us. And then we have to confess our sin and send it outside the camp. And every Jew who went through that year after year, day after day, had to long for and look forward to the day when God would do something to finally deal with the sin issue.

Because they knew that those sacrifices were merely a temporary sign or a symbol of a sacrifice that was to come. God would have to take away sin. And this never happened because there was no expectation that that would ever end.

It was just, you were supposed to do this perpetually. Well, therefore Jesus also, He says, and this is the pointed similarity, He suffered outside the camp. Just as the animals were drug outside the camp and burned, so Jesus went outside the gate and there He suffered.

And this is the parallel. So now what is the meaning of outside the camp? There is in the passage a similarity and a dissimilarity. We're gonna notice both of those, a dissimilarity and a similarity. First, the similarity, He suffered outside the camp.

What does that mean? Suffering outside the camp was a picture of expulsion, of rejection, of repudiation. It pictured impurity and uncleanness, being distant from God, having broken fellowship, being excluded, being cut off from the commerce and the fellowship and the industry and the worship of the people of God.

What did God do with Adam and Eve after they sinned and broke that fellowship with Him? He sent them outside the garden. To them, they had walked with God in the coolness of the garden and they had enjoyed that fellowship.

Sin severed that and then He excluded them from the garden. And then, this is an interesting study. If you follow and trace the idea of being set outside the camp and outside the city and outside the gate throughout Scripture, it is a fascinating study because this always has to do with sin and iniquity and repudiation until at the very end, you get all the way to the book of Revelation and guess what?

There's a new city with 12 new gates and guess who gets to come in?

The righteous.

In the garden, we are excluded, cast outside. In Revelation, we are brought back in and that being brought back in is permanent. So, who was set outside the gate? I want you to listen to outside the camp in these references.

First, blasphemers. There's an incident in Leviticus chapter 24 where a man who is the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian is gathering stones on the Sabbath. I'm sorry, no, he curses the name of God and then Moses detains him and inquires of the Lord what shall be done with this man who has blasphemed God's name.

And here's what the Lord said. He spoke to Moses saying, this is Leviticus 24, 13 to 15, bring the one who was cursed outside the camp and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head. Then let all the congregation stone him.

You shall speak to the sons of Israel saying, if anyone curses his God, he will bear his sin. This was a picture of what happens when you curse God. The person who hears it identifies with that sinner, says yes, I testify against him.

They take him outside the camp and execute him. There's another incident in Numbers chapter five where we have a picture of uncleanness in how lepers were to be kept and cared for. Numbers five, verses two through four, command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who was unclean because of the dead person.

You shall send away both male and female. You shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst. The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

Thus the sons of Israel did. So the leper, leprosy, which was a picture of the contagion of sin and the danger of sin, that leper, when he had that skin disease, was taken outside of the camp. He was not allowed to be amongst the people of God because it was a picture of defilement.

So blasphemers and lepers and then Sabbath breakers. In Numbers chapter 15, we find a man who is gathering wood on the Sabbath and they detain him and inquire of the Lord saying, what shall be done with the man who gathers wood on the Sabbath?

Now hardly the ink had dried on the tablet, commanding them to observe the Sabbath and already they have people in their midst who are breaking that commandment. So Numbers 15 verse 35, the Lord said to Moses, the man shall surely be put to death.

All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So blasphemers, lepers, Sabbath breakers, even those who are ceremonially unclean.

Deuteronomy 23, if there among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp. He may not reenter the camp, but it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water and at sundown, he may reenter the camp.

So he had to be excluded for a period of time until he was no longer ceremonially unclean. And then not to get graphic, but human waste was taken outside the camp. Deuteronomy 23, 12 through 14, you shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there and you shall have a spade among your tools and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you.

Therefore, your camp must be holy and he must not see anything indecent among you or he will turn away from you. So blasphemers, lepers, Sabbath breakers, people who are ceremonially unclean and human waste were all taken outside of the camp.

Now, what's the point? The point is that things that are impure, unclean, indecent, defiling, things sinful, things deserving of death, the impenitent, the lawbreaker, the rebel, these were taken outside the camp so that they would not be amongst God's people.

This is a picture of what sin does for us, by the way, to us, it's a picture of what sin does to us. When we sin, we are making ourselves unclean. We are cutting off our fellowship with the Lord and we are reminding ourselves we deserve to be cast outside the camp.

And only by the grace of one who suffered outside the gate can we even be amongst and in the people of God. But this requirement is a graphic picture of the defiling nature of sin. Now, all of that to say, I think all of those are behind this idea of being outside the camp, sin is taken outside the camp, lawbreakers, blasphemers, Sabbath violators, et cetera, taken out there and executed.

But there is a very intriguing and interesting event in Exodus chapter 32 and 33 that I'm gonna read to you. I want you to listen to this. Moses was on the mountain receiving the law and you remember what happened, God wrote the law on those tablets and he got the law and the instructions for the tabernacle.

And then when he was all done, God said, hey, Moses, those people whom you brought up out of Egypt, they have defiled themselves at the foot of the mountain. And you remember the story, they had taken their gold and their silver and all their precious jewels and they had given them to Aaron and he took them and melted them down and cast this idol and then set it up in the midst of the camp and said, this Israel is your God, this is the one who delivered you from the land of Egypt and from the house of Pharaoh, worship it.

And they did, they worshiped it. And the Lord told Moses about this, the people crafting that idol. Aaron, it says in Exodus 32 verse four, he took from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf and said, this is your God, who Israel who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

Now, 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. They're calling this golden calf Yahweh. It shall be a feast to Yahweh.

So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Then God's anger burned against them. The Lord said to Moses, go down at once for your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

Notice there in that phrase that God did not even own them as his people. He said, Moses, your people whom you brought up and you might be tempted to say, no, not my people. And I didn't bring them up.

I didn't part the Red Sea. This is all yours, Lord. The Lord doesn't own them in that sense at all. He is remarking to Moses how these people are no longer his people. They have rejected him already. He can't even bear to bring, put upon Moses' mind the idea that this nation would be his people.

They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

Lord said to Moses, I've seen this people and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then, let me alone that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. I'll make of you a good nation, a great nation.