Exodus tonight. I prayed the Lord would let me go from Genesis to Exodus, but we've taken a, taken? All right, teachers. Taken a detour. One of these days we'll get to teach through Exodus. I'll tell you what, I love the Old Testament. You see Christ in every chapter, and to see it and look for Christ in the word of God, And how exciting that is. Just a test for those of my Sunday school class. You see anything different? There's a drop a little bit closer to the water, huh? What do you think's going to happen to that water when that drop hits? Is the water going to get cleaner? Or the drop get cleaner? Think about that. All right. We're in Exodus chapter 24. This is exciting stuff. because God is exciting, God is great, and God does miracles, and He's still in the miracle business, amen? If you don't believe that, you don't know this God. Now, I'm gonna tell ya, maybe you're this person in the Bible tonight, but you imagine what the children of Israel, now, again, this chapter 24, so I can't preach all the 24 chapters before that, The children of Israel have come out of Egypt with all the plagues and all the things that they saw out of Egypt. They came out and they saw Pharaoh's army drowned in the Red Sea. By the way, they got to walk through the Red Sea on dry ground. They saw that. They weren't blind. They don't have short memories. This isn't that long after that. And they saw manna on the ground every morning. They saw water come out of a rock to feed a couple of million people and probably 10 million or more animals. That's not a little puddle of water coming out of the rock, by the way. That's a lake. They saw that. Everybody saw that. Not just Moses and Aaron. Everybody saw miracles of God. But now Moses has taken some time and he's taken some advice from his father-in-law and he's called together some men because he's trying to do all of the work and deal with all the issues every day and it's becoming overwhelming for him. And so he's chosen out 70 elders. Now, these are not teenagers. These are experienced men who had been in Egypt, saw God bless, and were leaders among the people. And then he takes Aaron and Nadab and Abihu. In verse 1 it says, And he said unto Moses, Come unto the Lord. And thou, and, now listen to what the Lord says. Doesn't say, Joseph, you come by yourself. A lot of times we forget this. This part of the story really strikes me. God didn't say, Moses, you're the guy, come on. He says, oh, you bring a couple guys with you. He says, thou, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of the Lord, of Israel. elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off. So he's going to take them, these 74 men, and he's going to take them a little ways from the camp, away from the millions, the masses. Now the millions and masses have seen some miracles, but he's fixing to show these 74 men some really incredible things. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him. And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments, and all the people answered with one voice, they're in one accord, on one mind, and look what they answered, and said, all the words which the Lord hath said we will do. They trusted the man of God, and they believed that God was leading him, and they said, if that's what God told you, that's what we'll do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel, And he sent young men of the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen of the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in the basin and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar and he took the book of the covenant and he read in the audience of the people and they said all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. That would be an interesting sermon, wouldn't it? He sprinkled the blood on the people and he said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all of these words. Now the blood sealed the covenant and the blood still seals the covenant. It still takes the blood of Jesus Christ to seal the covenant of the New Testament. That's not the message, but it's still good preaching. And then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the 70 of the elders of Israel. Now look at what the next few words say. And they, plural, saw the God of Israel. Now listen, they didn't just get a glimpse of him. They just see him out of the corner of their eye like Elijah did. It says, they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in his clearness. They got a good look at him. And upon the nobles, now God puts this in here for a reason. Because to see God normally struck somebody dead. But here he says, and upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand, also they saw God and did eat and drink. Skip over to verse 17. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. Let's pray. I pray you give us clarity of thought this evening in the short time we have together. I pray you bless the preaching of your word in Christ's name, I pray, amen. So today, you and I may not see God physically like they saw God. But listen, you know, they say, well, no man's seen God. But when God makes an exception, it's okay, because it is his word. And God says, I'm going to make an exception here. And it says here that those 74 men saw God. Now, we may not see Him today, but we see Him all around us. We see His hand, and it's incredible if we just stop and praise God for what He is doing in our presence. It's awe-inspiring, and there's no way we can take away from the greatness, God's omnipotent greatness. I mean, that means all powerful, by the way. Greatness. The God that, the universe. I mean, can you imagine? This is the God they saw. But you and I see him. We see his hand every day. Go out tonight and look in the stars and go, wow. A little itty bitty me in this great big universe and God cared enough for me. So we see God. He does great things still, but many times we don't give him credit for it. I think of a little boy in Clayton when I was pastor there, several times the Lord intervened on this guy's part, but he got upper respiratory and it got so bad that he couldn't even cough the phlegm up. And it got so bad, I don't know if it was RSV or what it was, but the phlegm began to get hard in his lungs. so he couldn't expand his chest, and we're talking about an eight-year-old boy. And so they life-flighted him to Albuquerque. By the time Heidi and I got to Albuquerque, they had him strapped down to a table, and the table was shaking. They were hoping to shake a little bit of oxygen into the little lungs so that he didn't die. And you talk about, You see that little boy just shaking. They induced a coma. He was in a coma. I don't know how far or how long. But to shake oxygen into your lungs is a pretty serious situation. Now today, he's about a 250-pound little boy and running 100 miles an hour. The same little guy, about the same time, got shot in the eye with an arrow. You know how boys do. We shoot bows and arrows at each other. And once in a while, one of them, But you know what, he hit the bone right there. And instead of deflecting into his eyeball, it deflected out of his eyeball. Now, do you think that was not God? Do you not think that God thought of, no, that ain't happening. I mean, he was a hair from deflecting into his eye, probably into his brain, if not just his eye. This little boy's walking around with two eyes tonight. He's not a little boy anymore, but I think of my mom She had a tumor, there's no arguing about it, every doctor said it's there, it's golf ball size, and we're gonna do a biopsy, but you know what that means, that means, what we think it is, we're gonna operate immediately, and it's gonna be drastic. And they run every test, and she went in the morning of the biopsy, and they wanted to check one more thing, and they couldn't find the tumor. And so they did every single test again and couldn't find the tumor. It was gone. And the doctors go, I don't know what happened, because here's an x-ray with it. Here's one without it. Here's every other test with it. Here's every test without it. I don't want. We've got to beg God. And he's still the same God Moses saw here in Exodus. God's hand is up. He ought to amaze us. How do we belittle an omnipotent God and not give him the credit for it? I want to say tonight that these men saw God. They saw him. It says so right there. I believe it. And all of Israel had been seeing his presence in their lives and through miracles. I mean, imagine the pillar of fire. Which way are we going? Well, there goes the pillar of fire. I guess we know which way we're going. And hey, we get to stop. Why? Because the pillar of fire stops. I mean, they were gotten used to seeing God do things that would blow our mind. They got used to seeing it. They got ungrateful. These men actually saw God and God didn't kill them. I mean, if Elijah cannot look on God, Who are these guys? But God said, some need to look at me so that I can teach them a lesson. I mean, when we read the description, I don't know how to picture it in my head. His feet are as paved as sapphire stones and as were the body of heaven in his clearness. I can't draw a picture of that, and I try to be an artist, but I can't. I don't know how to do that. But they saw it. They were having a hard time describing what they saw. God says, I'm not gonna kill them, I'm only, I mean, and this only happened a couple times in history. But I'm pretty sure that that moment that those 74 men were looking upon the Almighty God, I'm pretty sure it was unforgettable. Don't you think that that kind of stuck with them? I mean, it put the Red Sea way off and made it really small compared to what they saw. I think that that was the spiritual mountaintop, the highest one they were ever gonna see. So, you know, that didn't take much faith, does it? I mean, they saw God. What is faith? It's not the same things. What is hope? Hope is not what we see. We hope in God who we have not seen. We have faith in God who we have not seen, and that takes greater faith. But these men, I just want you to get this picture in your mind, because we're going to go to chapter 32 next. You go ahead and start turning over there. I'll see if I can find it. I just want you to get the picture that those men had just seen. The Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, they got a good square on view. I mean the highest point of their life, 74 of them. Now, in the distance, the millions who were not there with the 74, the millions were seeing the mountain as a devouring fire. They were seeing some fireworks too, they just weren't looking on God. They were seeing God's presence around the mountain. That had to be pretty awe-inspiring. But when they came down, God called Moses to come back up and take the Ten Commandments. To take the writing of God. And it took a while. Now listen. Moses was not on a vacation. He was 40 days and 40 nights without water and without food. Look what it says in verse 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount. Really? I mean, you're already complaining about the preacher. You just saw God. You saw him on the mount if you weren't in there in person. Look what they said. They said, the people gathered themselves unto Aaron and said unto him, make us gods. We shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land, duh, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt. We want not what has become of him. Now wait, right there, there should have been 73 guys go, are you kidding me? Are you out of your ever-loving mind? You know what we saw and you want us to make you a god out of gold? But I don't see that in the verse. Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives and of your sons and your daughters and bring them unto me. By the way, I don't see where it says men, husbands, take the earrings out of your ear. I'm just saying, it's not in there. So I'm assuming they weren't wearing earrings. It was a sign of slavery, by the way. And Aaron said to them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand. And Fattenah, wait a minute, look what Aaron did. He says, and fashioned them, it fashioned it with a graving tool. So he's got some iron working tools. After he had made it a golden calf. Now we're gonna see that Aaron denies this later, but we see it right here that he did do it by hand himself. The very guy that stood with Moses looking at God just a short amount of time before. And they said, These be thy gods, plural. So most likely, there were two calves. And most likely, because of where they came from, the Egyptians, their two gods are Hapi and Hethor, a bull and a heifer. I mean, I'm just going by what history says the Egyptian gods were. and what the calves were, and then here it says plural. Canaanites, they called him Baal. But here we have, you know, Nimrod and Semiramis, we don't want him to preach through Genesis again. These be thy gods, Aaron said, O Israel. Which, now well look what Aaron gave him credit for. These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up. out of the land of Egypt. Isn't that unbelievable? I mean, for the common everyday, I don't care if you were a goat herder in the tribe of Israel, you knew better than this. There's no fire above those two calves. There's no there's nothing there. Wait a minute. It wasn't. I mean, the preacher's gone. He's not on vacation. He's he's trying to get direction from God so that he could lead his people. And the people get impatient in 40 days. They're already saying, where is God and our timing? That's me. God, where are you at? Well, he's not left. He's everywhere, by the way. And he hasn't forgot about me. But in my timing, I get ahead of him sometimes. And you be careful because getting ahead of God costs dearly sometimes. They demanded that Aaron make them a god. And I say, what? But it's easy to be dumbfounded by their ignorance. But how does, how do we do it? You know, they made those a calf, which they reminded them a home they'd all grown up in Egypt. Now, I would think that, I don't know, you know, you see all the paintings and you see a great big golden calf and whatever, and I don't know if it was that big or if it was that big or if it was that big. However much gold they got out of their earrings, a couple million people. However big that calf was, how disappointing for the children of Israel, for the man of God to stand back and go, there's your God. That's what he did. I know, stupid, but that's what he did. He said, these be thy gods that brought you out of Egypt. Why don't the people stone him to death right there? Because they're the ones that asked for it. they asked for these goods. Now, I don't know what they were expecting Aaron to do with it, but when it was over with, that had to be a little disappointing, having seen the mountain on fire. Having, if you're the 73 other guys, you had to be turning your back and walking away because you knew that's not God. When Aaron said, these be thy gods, that had to be a vile, vile taste in his mouth. Because just 40 days earlier, he had seen the real thing. He had seen God. I mean, that's what our text said. They saw God. Get that in your head. They saw God, and yet they still did this within 40 days. Now, in verse 24, Aaron is given excuses to Moses after he coming down off of the Mount. Look at what he says in verse 24. And I said unto them, Whosoever any of hath gold, let them break it off. And so they gave it to me, gave it me. And then I just cast it into the fire. I cast it in the fire and there came out these calves, or this calf. I mean, Moses really, I mean, I just, it was a miracle of God. Had to be. but we know what he did. It says he actually had a tool and he made a graven image and he made the calves. He physically did it. He's a dirty rotten liar. He should have been struck dead right there. But God is merciful, amen? I don't know how many times that I've turned and looked at stuff and made a God out of it that there's no God. But what? In verse 21 it says, And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? Now he's talking to the man of God, second in charge, whatever you want to call Aaron. And he said, What could they possibly have done to you? For you You Aaron, the man of God, what could they have done to you after seeing God 40 days ago? What could they have done to you to make you do such a great sin unto them? Be careful what you pray your preacher does. Sometimes we even push and push and push, come on, come on, come on, do it my way, do it my way, do it my way. And if they give in, what happens if it's not God's will? Be careful and pray. Be careful and pray. Careful what you try to talk your preacher into. Careful of impatience with a preacher. Listen, he isn't tarrying. Moses isn't delaying because he's at Disneyland. He's going without food and water for 40 days. You know that your preacher may be fasting and praying for God's hand of blessing on you. He may be praying about your prayer request. Are you going to cut that one short? Are you going to cut his prayer time short? Because it might be the one he's praying for you. As a pastor, I was far, far busier in the ministry than the people ever knew. They had no idea. I mean, when they had a problem, though, it did not matter. I want you to drop everything and take care of my problem right now. I don't care if it's midnight, come to my house. Have we been there? We have, haven't we? We don't understand why maybe we didn't get the visit. Maybe he was in prayer for you while that was taking place. Or what if there was somebody that was in more need and we're trying to drag him away. I wonder how forgetful we are. I mean, I've had men I thought were my best friend stab me in the back, curse me around town, try to destroy a church. I thought were my best friend. Men I've led to Christ, baptized. My wife taught their children in church. and nursery till the time they were old enough to read and sit in a pew and take notes and turn around and try to cut my throat. You know how hard that is on a pastor? That's heartbreaking. But I'm telling you, it happens over and over and over and over because the devil never quits. So how forgetful are we after we have seen God's hand? I mean, I'm thinking about this thing with my mom, and I think, how many things have I turned over to Dennis instead of turned over to God? And I forgot that, oh yeah, God's the one that delivered my mom. Not the doctor, and not Dennis. How forgetful are we sometimes on who we're delivering our prayers to? You want to deliver it to some little golden calf or fat Buddha or whatever it is that you're delivering your prayers to? Or do you want to that one that his feet are a sapphire of stone and I can't even describe? the brightness and the devouring. I mean, isn't that who you want to pray to? Isn't that who we want? I mean, after seeing who God really is, how forgetful are we? After seeing his greatness and his miracles? Listen, if salvation wasn't enough, God shows himself real in our lives every single day. If you're saved here, Christ's miracle of salvation is not diminished one bit. since the day, you don't know how excited you were the day you got saved? I don't care whether you're five or whether you're fifty. I mean, if you got saved, you oughta got excited a little bit about it. Remember that? That's the same God today. He's still the same God that you got excited about trusting. He's still the same God. The same God, the same Savior that What he's done in our lives, he's the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. And I'll say this tonight. Our lack of faithfulness or our lack of faith does not diminish his power one bit. The God on the mountain was not the God down there. Not in that calf. The God on the mountain in the fire, that was the God of heaven and earth. Israel's foolishness did not insert God into the calf. Their idiocy did not insert God. Their wish for, let's get this train on the road, come on. We can't wait for Moses any longer. We can't wait for the man of God any longer. We gotta get going, come on, come on, come on, come on. That didn't insert God into the calf. God was still on the mount in the fire. talking to the man of God. But you and I, and every other man, woman likes to bottle God up, don't we? I like to bottle him up and set him aside when it's not convenient for us to have him, and maybe, you know, take him out of the genie bottle once in a while and say a prayer to him, or give him a wish. Listen, you know what, my God, didn't limit me to three wishes, by the way. My God says, I want you to come to me daily and petition me right to the throne of grace and lay whatever you want on the altar. And what would I deny my children? God said. See that, that little rabbit foot that you carry around? You got one, probably. I mean, we probably all got one. By the way, I don't have one. It could be something as simple as my checkbook. Whatever your rabbit's foot is that you just, you know, in really dark times, you just, you gotta get a hold of that. You know how insulting that is to the God on the mountain? You got that little bobble-headed Mary and you want to thump her, don't you, when you get in the car and think that you got good luck driving down the road? Imagine, imagine this. The God that they saw. Imagine how insulting that is to believe for one second that some little plastic bobblehead on your dashboard is what's keeping you safe. Imagine how insulting to the God in heaven that is still the same as the God that they saw is the same God. We put God in these places and we insult the holy, omnipotent God. God doesn't wanna be my rabbit's foot. He wants to be my God every second of every day of every year till I go. And I wonder what a disappointment and letdown it was when these men looked at that thing for a while. God, where do we go from here? God, what's your will for today? God, are you gonna Is Moses coming, I mean, you're not talking back, what's the problem here? Especially for 73 other guys who physically saw God. I don't think they were sitting there questioning that stupid calf. I think they were probably in shame hiding from a holy God that they knew existed and they were wondering why they were still alive. Now, can you imagine the disappointment of those who have seen the goodness of God and turned back to the world and went, man, I just thought if I just went back to the world just for a moment, I could take a breather from being a Christian. Really? I could take a breather from being a child of God and be a child of the devil? I mean, that's your only other option. Child of God, child of the devil. If you've been a saved, born again Christian, I mean, that's got to be disappointing. Yeah. No, that's really not what I was looking for. God, I'm sorry. And we come to an altar. Praise the Lord. That's what the altar is made for. Say, God, I've strayed like a dumb sheep. And God, forgive me. There's nothing to compare to you. There's nothing to compare. There's no other God like you. We sing some great songs tonight. To God be the glory, not to some dumb calf. To God be the glory. Why? Because he's the one. But how quickly do we run back to a calf? Here's the big question is how disappointing is it to a holy heavenly father? when he sent his only begotten son to die on a cross for a wicked sinner like me, and then I turn back to some stupid golden calf and ask for something, anything, whether it's the breath in my lungs or whatever, turn back to the world for one second and expect It's them to be able to deliver something that God cannot. What could God not deliver? Nothing. The Bible says nothing is impossible with God. How disappointing to my Heavenly Father, and I am guilty every single day, that I disappoint my Father in Heaven who sent His Son to die for me. How dare I? Moses came down off the mountain, chapter 32, and he got things back in order. Now, Ida wouldn't want to have been an Israelite at the time because they were fixing to eat that golden calf, literally ate the golden calf. He got things in order. And when the preacher got things in order, listen to what he said. In verse 26, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. I mean, God still says the same thing. Who's on my side? Who of you? After getting things right now, and praise the Lord, we have an altar to get things right. Moses was trying to, he needed to remind the people of who they had just seen 40 days earlier, what they've seen for the last days and weeks of traveling. And then he says, by the way, you remember all that stuff? Now, we ground up the golden calf, we made soup and y'all drank it. You feel like you got God inside of you? No, you probably got indigestion. Now, your God that you made is swirling around in about 40 feet of intestine. Now, who's on my side? Who's on the real God's side? Who's on the God of heaven? The God on the mountain? The fire on the mountain? Yeah, who's on that side? Because this guy didn't do nothing for you but make a nasty soup. Moses said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And I'd say the Lord would say the same thing today, that if we have taken our eyes off the Lord, and if we have taken our eyes off the real God, we've been disappointed, if you have. You've been disappointed. We're all probably guilty of it. But have we disappointed a holy God, been impatient with Him, unbelief? What's not of faith is sin, unfaithfulness. After He's shown us a miracle, You know what? You know when my most difficult time following the Lord is? Is immediately after he's done something great. Isn't that the stupidest thing you've ever heard of? He does something great and you let your guard down and the devil's right there waiting for you. It's when God does something really wonderful in our lives, beware. Because that's when the devil's, he's sitting there waiting for you to let your guard down. And I disappoint the Lord, and you probably have been in the same place, right after he's shown us a miracle. It's time we decide who's on the Lord's side and follow him, we'll stand. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this day. God, we thank you for being the God on the mountain and not the God in that silly calf. Thank you for being the God that is unimaginable and undescribable. Thank you for being the God that actually is alive and well and doesn't have to be made by a man's hand. You're the God that created everything. Thank you for being that God. Lord, remind us tonight. We serve a risen Savior. We serve a God of creation. We serve the only God. And everything else is a false God. Lord, remind us tonight, help us to be reminded, maybe we're being impatient with you and got ahead of you. Maybe we have put too much pressure on leadership or we're expecting too much out of men. Lord, help us to put our faith and trust in you. trusting you that you are the God that those 74 men saw with their own two eyes. That God, that's our God. Remind us of that tonight. As we go through the rest of the week, we have loved ones that are sick and afflicted. Remind us that you're that God. Maybe we're sick and afflicted. You're that God. We're having difficulties, whether it be financially, or jobs, or whatever the case might be, and you're still that God. I thank you, Lord, for not being that calf. Oh, what a terrible thought. Thank you, God, for being the God on the mountain. In Christ's name, I pray, Lord. Amen. You're dismissed.