Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed reminds us there are consequences to our sin.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Sometimes consequences do linger. Sometimes it gets harder before it gets easier. Sometimes it goes deeper before the Lord begins the deliverance. And sure, our failures will be repeated over time. They'll be repeated by others. They'll be remembered by others. It'll be a blot, a mark.

But you can recover. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There may be loss along the way. There may be lingering consequences for sure. But God is faithful to wash it away.

Guest (Male): From Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado, this is Abounding Grace. Glad you've joined us as Pastor Ed Taylor returns to his study in Exodus. Chapter 32 details one of the darkest times for the children of Israel. Up until that point in time, the Israelites sinned through their worship of the golden calf. And because of it, lives were lost. It stands out as a reminder that the consequences of sin can linger. Here's Pastor Ed with more.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?" Aaron's a leader here. And Aaron, you didn't lead. You didn't lead. And so how do you answer for that, Aaron? That you allowed the people and helped the people bring a great sin upon themselves. And Aaron said, "Don't let the anger of my Lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil."

Listen, you serve in this church, you want to serve in this church, I mean at any level, this can't be you. You must take responsibility for your own failures. I was about to say the worst thing you can do—there are actually more worse things—but this is a bad thing to do, and that is to blame the people for your sin. I want you to remember how they brought everything and they come to Aaron. Aaron had his moment. "We are not doing—are you guys out of your minds? We are not doing that." But instead he's like, "Bring it on. That sounds good to me," for whatever his motives are.

Moses grinds the calf into a powder, makes them drink it, and then confronts Aaron the leader. If you're taking notes, remember this: with servanthood and leadership comes responsibility and accountability. The leader is living under the banner of accountability always, not episodically. We are always accountable to the Lord. But we're also accountable to our leaders, as well as being accountable to the people.

So here's the thing. If someone comes to you as a servant and a leader in this church—I'll speak to this church, but of course if you're leading somewhere else it's applicable as well—if someone comes to you and asks you, "I want you to help me sin." I'm going to give you the answer up ahead. You ready? I'm going to help you and train you. Everyone will know that are here now and also listening at a later time. Somebody comes to you and says, "I want you to help me to sin." Here's what you tell them: No.

And you might say, "Are you out of your minds?" But you can just say no right away. And you can say it in whatever way that's necessary that it will be received. It might be a soft no. It might have to be a hard no. But I'm telling you, it better be no. And if by chance it's a yes and you bring sin upon the people because you are a people too, then you need to take responsibility.

You serve under the accountability of this church, under my leadership, under our leadership, but more importantly, you have accountability to the Lord. And here's what I've found to be true over the years. When you talk about accountability to the Lord, it's really not taken all that seriously because the Bible says because something's not judged right away, man is set in his heart fully to do sin.

Because you think you get away with it with the Lord because He's very gracious and very patient, you may find yourself thinking, "Well, this is the right thing to do. Nothing happened. It's fine. Let them dance. Let them go around the calf. It's fine with me. At least they're not on my back anymore." But that attitude is also driven over or spills over into the accountability toward the leaders that God has put in your life. Because a leader's patient with you, or because a leader is helping you and discipling you and helping you walk through, you also begin to think it's not that big a deal. But it's always a big deal.

Don't misinterpret patience and kindness and gentleness of the Lord as approval for your sin. It's important that we take this seriously. Not only did Aaron sin greatly with the calf, but he sinned even greater by blaming the people, blaming the people. It's a horrible mistake, blaming the people for his mistake. He's the leader and he's to take responsibility.

He comes up with this lie. It doesn't get any better. Not only does he not take responsibility, not only does he not humble himself, not only does he not seek God's best for his life and for the people, but notice what he says, verse 23. It's not only their fault, but they made him do it. Do you see that? "For they said to me, 'Make us gods that shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what's become of him.' And I said to them, 'Whoever has gold, let them break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I cast it in the fire, and this calf came out."

We're here to serve. We're not here to take advantage. The Lord's putting on your heart, just putting deep inside of you to serve God in the context of this little fellowship here. It's not to take advantage of people. It's not to blame them for mistakes that you made. It's not to harm them or hurt them anymore than they would hurt themselves. It's a partial lie, if you will. It's not completely untrue. They did come to him. They did want—I mean throwing it in the fire and a calf coming out, that's like, okay, Aaron. Okay.

It's partially true, which is fully a lie. When you choose to give partial truths, then you're completely lying. And understand when you and I choose to give partial truths, we've thought it through. We've determined what part to share, what part not to share. This isn't an innocent mistake that we make when we craft the narrative and try to jump in and get somebody's ear before they—that's not acceptable before the Lord for anyone, let alone the leaders of God's church.

And here he is with a lame excuse. He says in verse 25, "Now when Moses saw the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, 'Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me.' And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him."

The people were unrestrained and it was a shame to them. A lack of self-discipline, a carefree attitude. We're learning in our weekends, aren't we, about the grace of God and how glorious the grace is and how important it is to live under the grace of God and the freedom of God in all that He's given us in Christ? And that is often misunderstood among some believers in interpreting the grace of God and the freedom of God as license for sin.

The thought usually goes something like this: "Well, if God says I can do whatever I want, then I will do whatever I want. And if I happen to sin or anything I can always come back and I can ask for forgiveness and God will forgive me." And He will forgive you, but you have made a great error along the way. And that is understanding the grace of God as permission for sin.

It's not new. If you've had that thought and God's been working with you, that's not new. Paul addresses this in Romans. He opens up chapter six and he says, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. Certainly not." Just because more grace comes with more sin doesn't mean the means of grace is to sin more. Stay away from sin. It will wreck you and those that love you and close to you and those that look up to you. It was a shame to them. I want you to see that. Their lack of restraint was a shame.

So Moses calls out, "Who is ever on the Lord's side, would you come to me?" And I believe this was an opportunity for repentance. Whoever's on the Lord's side come. Remember what Joshua said in Joshua 24? He says in verse 15, "If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your fathers served, which were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in the land who you dwell." And then how does he end? "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

That is on so many plaques and bumper stickers and shirts, "As for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord." But that's only a portion of the verse. The verse portion is, "Hey, if you want to go serve the gods of the Amorites, you want to be idolatrous, you've got to make your mind up. You've got to make that choice." But Joshua said, "I've already made it. I've already made that choice. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. We're going to follow Him."

Only the Levites, it says, responded to the call. Well, notice what happens in verse 27. And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side, go in and out from the entrance to entrance throughout the camp, let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor." Sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about 3000 men of the people fell that day. And Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man is opposed his son and his brother."

That's a tough passage. If you read ahead, this was a tough one. It's hard to digest. I really don't know how to see it except to say that it was a radical surgery of sin. The chance for repentance came and so many didn't choose it. And the result of unrepentant sin was what? Physical death.

It's a pretty radical thing. I remember Jesus in Matthew chapter five, verse 30: "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, cast it from you." Radical surgery. 3000 people died because of this orgy, this false worship. Later in Joshua's day, Achan and his family would be found to experience the same demise. Fast forward into our study in the book of Acts in the early church. What happened with Ananias and Sapphira? They literally lost their lives because of their deceit.

I find in the progressive revelation of God that you don't see God doing this very much, but it certainly does happen. Some sins equal death physically. Some sinful mistakes can't be recovered from. You'll remember later on in the Corinthian church, some died because they were mishandling communion in their worship of God. I'm grateful for the grace of God. I'm grateful that God extends our lives.

But I would say the application is clear for us. We have to be on guard against sin in a culture that doesn't value right and wrong as absolutes. I know a culture does speak to right and wrong, but it's also misapplied, isn't it? If you have money or power or influence, our culture gives a pass to them. But they declare wrong for certain people, which wrong for one person is right for another. It's not unlike the time in the book of Judges when everyone was doing that which was right in their own eyes.

God doesn't deal that way. He has absolute truth, and it's the power of His word. We have to take it seriously or we're going to suffer, just for ourselves, just for my own life, for your life. We'll suffer if we think sin is not a big deal. If we really, really read in the Bible something that says stay away from this and we don't, how can you play with fire and not get burned? How can you be in a place where you're going to dabble? God says to stay away from it because you're going to die. "Oh no, I won't die." Okay.

Even the strongest of us, as strong as we may be today in our walk with the Lord, has the potential to be done in by sin. Aaron was the high priest and he fell big time. In Hebrews chapter two and verse one, it says, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard lest we drift away."

It's interesting the scriptures that God gave to me before the message. The power of God's word, it's the power of salvation. The inspiration of God's word, how it's profitable for instruction. When we're told in Hebrews 2 to take the more earnest heed to the things we've heard lest we drift away, what have we heard but the word of God? The power of God, the instruction of God, the correction of God, the help in staying right with God, and instruction in righteousness. It's a very difficult day for the children of Israel as lives were lost because of sin.

In verse 29 it says, "Then Moses said, 'Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.' And it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, 'You have sinned a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.'" The tabernacle hasn't been built yet. Sacrificial system is not in place.

Moses returns to the Lord, verse 31, and said, "Oh, these people have sinned 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 which I have spoken to you. Behold, My angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day that 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.

Moses, you had the option to have them wiped out, and now you're praying for them that you might be blotted out. It's just the heart of a shepherd. Moses identifies with his people, with the people of God and even with their sins, as if to say, "God, if You would only forgive them, but I'm a part of them too. So forgive us. And if You won't forgive them, then I'll take the penalty. I'll receive it."

We see the same thing Nehemiah prays for, "We have sinned," and he wasn't even a part of it. Daniel prays the same thing, identifying with the people. Paul would say this in Romans chapter nine, verse three: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh." And you can see those men, those leaders in the church that have made it all about them and all about their ministry and all about—they aren't walking in the paths of those that have served the Lord before them. It's not, "They have sinned," but "We have sinned. This is us. We're all going to go through this together."

I often talk with our team about when sin comes into the church, it hurts us all. It hurts us all. We might be dealing with it individually, helping someone go through it, but how can you not sit down with someone in your office and listen to them describe what led to their marriage failing? How can you not feel as you're listening and you're watching and you hear the tears? How can you not step back when you're trying to rescue a marriage? You got two people in your office and they're yelling and screaming at each other and you're like, "This cannot be what your wedding day looked like. This can't be it."

And you're listening to them, and then you hear someone go, "You know, I just don't want to serve the Lord," and you're trying to help disciple them and they're just resistant and resentful. How can your heart not break? What happened? You started out so well. And this is where we are today, and identifying and remembering that there, but by the grace of God, go I. What makes us think that we wouldn't one day be there if we choose not to abide in Christ or we choose not to press in? We let our guards down.

Paul says, "I'll give up my life if it meant that my fellow Jews would be saved. I'll give up my—I'll give up all my eternity." That's how much I love this resistant, rebellious people. Where does that come from but from the Lord? You can't make that up. You and I are incapable of dying to ourselves to that capacity. That's God enlarging our hearts and helping us to serve well.

He tells them, "Go lead them," verse 34. "Go lead them. I'm going to send My angel before you." But Moses, this is an episode, it's very difficult. It's going to be a blot. We're talking about blotting out of books. This is going to be a blot on the nation's testimony. But here's the bottom line: you need to keep leading them. You need to keep moving forward.

Jesus came to erase the blots that we've created, the marks that seem to be repeated over and over again against us. Even though consequences do linger, God answered, "I'm not going to blot—I'm not going to blot you out, Moses. But those that have sinned, those are the ones that will pay the price." There's forgiveness with the Lord.

But I love this in verse 34. Moses, with all this episode, it's like the darkest episode in the life of the children of Israel till this point, He says, "Go lead them. Just lead them. Take them and I'm going to send My angel to help you. You can follow him, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus." But there will be a visit. There will be a plague, verse 35, the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.

Sometimes consequences do linger. Sometimes it gets harder before it gets easier. Sometimes it goes deeper before the Lord begins the deliverance. And sure, our failures will be repeated over time. They'll be repeated by others. They'll be remembered by others. It'll be a blot, a mark.

But you can recover. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There may be loss along the way. There may be lingering consequences for sure. But God is faithful to wash it away and to restore to you the joy of your salvation. Jesus Christ has paid the price for all of your sin. And there is forgiveness available through the blood of Jesus Christ. You lose something along the way, you always do. We always lose along the way. But God is a God of the second chance and the third chance. And He's able to do for you what you're incapable of doing for yourself. If you'll just look to Him today, just trust Him.

I get a strong sense, too, that tonight's Bible study, this moment in time with the moment you're listening to me, this was a warning sign to someone who is ready to make a decision to sin. I don't mean some little mistake or mishap or a stumble with our mouth that we all do, but a pre-planned, willful, against-all-warnings sin. And today God has warned you. God has warned us. That is not the path to go. Maybe a leader among us, like somebody's come to you, "Help me sin," and you're about ready to say yes. Don't you dare do that. Or God's holding you accountable and you refuse to receive the accountability of the Lord. It's not going to end well. You have a great responsibility but also great accountability, and it only grows. To whom much is given, much is required.

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, we've been in Exodus as Pastor Ed Taylor is leading us verse by verse through this marvelous Old Testament book. If you joined us late or would just like to hear this message again, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com. Another way to take in a steady dose of God's word is through the app. It's free. We're also on oneplace.com.

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So if you're feeling a little overwhelmed by the waves, see how to get anchored on Jesus the rock as you read When the Storm Hits. Call 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also get the book online at calvaryco.store.

Be sure to join Pastor Ed next time for more teaching from the book of Exodus. That's all right here on Abounding Grace.

Guest (Male): Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church, Colorado, here in Aurora.