Chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32. This morning we heard Jesus call His disciples in His farewell discourse to abide in Him. Abide in His love that His joy might be in them that they might have a greater love for the Lord and a love for one another. And we're going to heed that tonight. That's what we're going to do. We're going to heed that particular call. We want to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to abide in His love. That might seem a A strange thing to say when we're coming to the Old Testament Scriptures, but we will recall from Hebrews chapter 3 that these things testify of the Lord Jesus Christ and indeed Jesus says that himself in the Gospel of John chapter 5, 39. So we want to see some patterns here tonight. I love seeing patterns in the Old Testament scripture that are picked up in the New Testament and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. See if you can detect them in here. We're going to enter into the passage. We're kind of right in the middle of the narrative. The giving of the covenant is complete, but the people have rebelled in the meantime. And Moses heads down the mountain and we begin reading in verse 17, Exodus 32, beginning to read at verse 17, these words of the living God. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear. 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. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know the people that they are set on evil, for 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 become of him. So I said to them, let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose to the derision of their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp. And each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about 3,000 men of the people fell. And Moses said, today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day. The next day, Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold, but now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book, but now go lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angels shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf the one that Aaron made. This is God's word and we praise him for it. Let's pray one more time together. Heavenly Father, we want our lives to be sacrifices of praise to you. We want people to mark it. For moms and dads here this evening, we want our kids to mark it. We want our kids to say, these parents of ours, they love Jesus. We want everybody who looks on us to mark it. And so we pray that you would produce worship in us as we see you in this text and as we see particularly you in the face of your son the Lord Jesus Christ and his great work on our behalf. Sinners who deserve nothing but hell and damnation, recipients of your mercy and your grace. Help us to see all this. May we leave this place worshiping and rejoicing, having abided in you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, lots of kids here tonight. So we're going to start off with the kids because I know they're going to start to fade in a little bit. So, we need to define some terms because we need to understand a particular term if we're going to understand how loving God is toward us. So, sin. You've all heard that word, right? How would you define sin? Little word, S-I-N. How would you define that? Anybody? Any of the kids? Any of the bigger kids? Oh, okay. We got Joshua speaking up. You gotta pray about sin, but how would you actually... What is sin? Disobeying God. Good definition, class? That's a really good definition. That's kind of where we actually start. In fact, 1 John 3, 4 says that. Sin is lawlessness. It's breaking the law of God. It's helpful to go a little bit deeper at times. Romans 3.23 does this, That's profound. So we could define sin in this way. Sin is just not wanting God. We don't want Him. We want other things instead of God. We fall short of His glory. You ever think about sin in that way? I don't want God. That's my problem. That's my big problem. We've been made for God, but we don't want Him. We want other things. We go after other things, and including going after those other things is breaking the very commands of God. We treasure other things about Him. And sometimes we don't take our sin very seriously. And you kids might like this story, but I used to run a kids club a long, long time ago. I think I've told this story before. And these kids didn't know much about Jesus or the Bible or anything like that. And so on that particular evening of Kids Club, I brought in some Plaster Scene. And I asked one of the kids to come to the front of the class and build a little man. So the little kid came to the front of the class. He volunteered, built a little man, and quite pleased with himself in doing that. You could see the pleasure on his face in creating this particular thing. I said, now, I want you to imagine something. I want you to imagine that that little man that you've just made at the Plaster Scene comes alive. And you could see the kid's wheels turning. and kind of great joy in his face. And I said, okay, just hold that thought for a moment. I go, now imagine that that little man that you created actually spits in your face. What would you do? And immediately the hand came down and he crushed the little man. Sometimes kids understand what our sin deserves better than we do. And we make really light of our sin. We've got a display of sin in our text, and we've got God responding to that in his mediator. Now Moses is a fantastic character in scripture, and we see some likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ, but Jesus is so much better. So I want us to see that in the text. So Exodus, again, is all about a rescue story, the rescue of Israel out of Egypt through God's mediator, Moses. And then God doing an extraordinary thing in the second part of the book, basically saying, I want to live with this people. And these are the provisions that I'm going to make to live with this people. He's a holy God. They're a sinful people. So provisions have to be made. And all this is given to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai where the people are down below. It's all initiated by him. We saw last time written with the finger of God. He made provision for it. He initiated it. And he's doing all this, and while he's doing all this, the people are thumbing their noses at him. They're saying, we don't want him. It's amazing. So then we might be wondering, okay, they've really blown it. What's God going to do in reaction to that? What's going to happen next? And we get the display now. The people have actually said all that God has said we will do. Moses goes up the mountain. God gives them all the things to do. And while that's happening, they've already broken it. So what's going to happen next? And that's where we enter into the story. And Moses is sent back down the mountain by God to look into this. Moses is the mediator. And you'll Quite some time ago, in chapter 24, verse 13, that Joshua was kind of left behind. Probably what happens is Moses meets him partway down the mountain. Joshua's been there. And Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted. And he said to Moses, verse 17, there's a noise of war in the camp. But Moses said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear. And the account is all about how Moses interacts with the sin of the people. The mediator of God interacting with the sin of the people. And we can divide the account, this is where we begin to see the pattern, into two parts. Moses goes down the mountain and then Moses the mediator goes up the mountain. Does that sound familiar at all to you? Who goes down and who goes up? Jesus Christ as a meteor. He condescends and He ascends. But of course the story of the Lord Jesus Christ is so much greater. So let's see that. The account is easily divided into those two points. We're going to see the mediator in his descent interacting with the sin of the people, see what he does, see what his actions are, his words are, his attitude is. And then we're going to see the mediator in his ascent and see what he tries to achieve on behalf of the people and see what that avails. And we're going to compare it all to the Lord Jesus Christ. So, in Descent, chapter 32, verses 19 to 29, point number one, and then sub-point number one after that, Moses' attitude towards sin. What should our attitude be towards sin? It should be God's attitude, right? We should hate sin. We should hate it when we see it in ourselves. We read in verse 19, and as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot. Now the language that the inspired writer, who is in fact Moses, is using here is exactly the same kind of language that's used of God. Back in verse 10, we read this on the part of the Lord, Him saying, So Moses' attitude of heart as mediator is exactly the same of God's, totally in line with that. So we think about that. There's an application to be made to us. I'm going to do that in a moment. But then you think about that other mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is exactly the same in his attitude towards sin. You see it all over the place. I'll give you a couple of instances of this. Remember when Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day and there was a man with a withered hand. Can't do any healing on the Sabbath, the religious leaders would say. And Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, come here. And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? But they were silent. Mark 3, verses 3 and following. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. Jesus, the Son of the living God, Fully God in flesh demonstrates anger towards sin. And even more so, we just saw this not too long ago in the Gospel of John, in a very pronounced way outside the tomb of Lazarus. And a combination of attitudes going on there. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Why is he greatly troubled in spirit? Not because there's been the death of his friend, but the consequences of sin. Greatly troubled in spirit, angry with a righteous anger, mingled with a profound sadness as well. We see this in Moses the mediator, we see it in Jesus the mediator, and even more so, and then of course the application is what of us? What is our attitude towards sin? What's our attitude towards sin when we commit it? Do we make light of it? Do we actually see our sin as that which nailed the Savior who loved us to the cross? Do we see it in that way? Does righteous anger feature? What about when we see it in others? Well, there ought to be righteous anger there as well, but sadness as well. We need to pray to the Spirit of the living God, even the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, to help us to have the attitude of God, even the attitude of Jesus Christ. Now that's not the only thing that we see here in Moses. We're going to go back to him and then we're going to compare him to Jesus. Not only in his attitude, but in his actions. What does he do? Look at verse 19, second part. And he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it. Two things he does. He broke the tablets. Another translation, he smashed them. He did it in full view of the people. He did it at the foot of the mountain, not halfway down, at the foot of the mountain. I want you to see what I'm doing here. Because of your sin this is not one writer said it's not a he's not throwing a temper tantrum here It's not kind of an anger that doesn't have any rootedness in righteousness or the honor of God it is completely rooted in righteousness and the honor of God and Basically what he is demonstrating to the Israelites you have broken the covenant. It's obliterated and These people who had said, all the words of the Lord is spoken, we will do. Moses recounts this in Deuteronomy 9 verses 16 to 17. And I looked and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. No kidding. So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. The second thing that he does is he takes that calf that they had made, we don't have a great idea of how big it was, but you can imagine this golden calf and he pulls it all apart and he crushes the gold down and he mixes it together in the water in the stream and he makes the people drink it. He recounts it this way in Deuteronomy 9.21, that I took the sinful thing That's an interesting description. What a weird thing to do and then to make the people drink it. What a strange thing to do. I don't know exactly know why that happened, but we do get a clue, we do get some insight, I think, into what it actually is symbolizing. I'm not going to ask you to turn there, but sometimes, maybe you've gotten lost in some of the Old Testament laws, but do you remember that strange passage in Numbers chapter 5, verses 11 and following, where you have a husband who suspects his wife of infidelity? Do you remember that passage? Go to the priest, you know, the priest is going to make a concoction, mixing water and dust, and if her belly swells after having consumed that, and if her thigh falls away, she's going to be made a curse. That's going to prove her infidelity. I go, that's really interesting. I think there's a link there between these two passages. It's as if here, in this action, God, through his mediator, is pronouncing his wife unfaithful. You have been unfaithful and you are cursed. But that's not the end of the story. Not the end of the story, praise be to God. There's going to be a renewal of the covenant in Exodus 34, but it's going to take a little while to get there. So you think about all those things, what Moses did, and then you think about the Lord Jesus Christ and how much better he is. The mediator of the new covenant comes into the world and by his life he secures all the righteousness that God demands of us that we might have life with God. The days are coming declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely and this is the name by which he will be called the Lord is our righteousness. So Jesus comes into the world And He does not break the covenant, but He upholds it all for our sake. That was Jeremiah 23, 5 to 6. Extraordinary. Jesus has obtained all the righteousness that God demands of us in His life. What a glorious gospel is ours. righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe Romans 3 21 to 22 not only that not only that Jesus as the mediator of a new covenant He comes not only into the world to live but also to die and drink the bitter cup of our infidelity down to its very dregs and suffered the curse of our infidelity and in that he actually exhausts the wrath of God that we might be blessed. He drinks the cup Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22, 42. We see Moses making Israel drink the cup of their infidelity. Jesus Christ comes into the world. He drinks the cup of our infidelity. What a glorious Savior we have. attitude, actions, and now the words of the mediator in verses 21 to 29. First of all, Moses addresses some words to the leadership, and then he addresses some words to the people, and we see some correspondence between Moses and Jesus in this. First of all, to the leadership, and Aaron is in view here in verses 21 to 23, what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And Aaron answers and it at first appears he's playing the part of the intercessor as Moses did with God when he asked, why does your anger burn hot? Look at verse 11. But you recall Moses roots his question in God's promises, in God's covenant. Aaron is just making that particular point and he's grounding it in excuses. It's the people's fault. They're bent toward evil, verses 22 to 23. And then basically, isn't that funny? It even reads funny in the English. A calf popped out. No, I didn't have anything to do with it. Miracle! The devil did it. Right? And I thought about Aaron. I go, man, we're so much like him. We sometimes don't own our sin. And Aaron doesn't own his sin. Of course, that's a pattern that we need to avoid if we would know peace and communion with God. Back to Moses, not only does he call out the sin of this leader, but he intercedes for him. We don't discover that here, but we discover it in Deuteronomy 9.20. The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. When you come to Jesus, we see Jesus also addresses the sin of the leadership of his day. You Pharisees, you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you're full of greed and wickedness. Luke 11 39. And even from the cross, Jesus intercedes. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they cast lots to divide his garments. Luke 23, 34. So we're seeing Moses and what he's doing here with the leadership. We see a correspondence with the mediator, the greater mediator in our Lord Jesus Christ doing similar things. But then we have this address to the people in verses 25 to 29. The people are described as having broken loose. That is a great description of people that are involved in sinful patterns of behavior. It's unconstrained behavior is the idea. They've also become a derision or a laughingstock. It's a very unique word in the Hebrew. I think it's only used here in the Old Testament. To their enemies. So God's name is at stake. God's people are not hallowing his name and therefore making the world laugh at them. And Moses, as the mediator, he is so exercised about this. The honor and glory of the Lord is at stake. So he speaks. What does he say? Well, what does he do? Well, first of all, he calls the people to himself. And secondly, what he does is he cleans house. Mediator calling people to himself. Mediator cleaning house. Those are two categories again. Makes you think of Jesus. You'll be thinking about those. But first of all, Moses calling people to himself. Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? That great hymn, who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the king? That hymn writer making a link to this Old Testament passage, I'm sure, but bringing it through the lens of the New Testament. Because we're not about killing people, are we? We're about rescuing people. There's another difference. But still the call is there. We see the call, the mediator in the Old Covenant, but also in the New. who is on the Lord's side come to me and all the sons of Levi gathered around him and he said to them thus says the Lord God of Israel put your sword on your side each of you and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor whoever is for the Lord come to me So we could talk about a lot of things here, but what's really striking is the call of the Lord brings division, and that division even happens among close family members. I can't imagine that happening. Your own sons and daughters being killed because of their rebellion against the Lord, and yet that's exactly what happened in the text. And when Jesus calls us to himself, that we might be witnesses of him and testifying of him, that people might have life, it also brings that same division, even with those in our close family. Jesus says, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, Matthew 10, 37. And some of you may have experienced this. You don't have much in the way of relationship with your blood family because of your allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if that is the case, remember what Jesus says in Mark 10 29 to 30. Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. Jesus encourages But in the call of the mediator, it brings division even in our blood-bought families. And Jesus says, you must prioritize me above all else. Again, the second thing that the mediator does is he cleans house. Now, the way he does it here is by slaughter. And presumably, although we don't see this expressly said in the text, there must be interviewing going on. It's not just willy-nilly. One commentator brings that out, but there is a purging that is going on, a purifying that's going on. The sons of Levi, verse 28, did according to the word of Moses. And that day about 3,000 men of the people fell. And Moses said, today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord. You've been ordained for the service of the Lord. The choice of the Levites had already been made by God, said one writer. We saw that back in chapter 27 and chapter 28. But their faithfulness at this juncture served as confirmation of their priestly role. Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, verse 29, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day. So through the Levites, the mediator cleans house. Jesus does that as well, but He's so much better, isn't He? We get a preview of it. You remember when He goes up to the temple, what does He do there? He cleans house. In the New Covenant, who is the temple? We are the temple, and He cleans house, praise be to God. He cleans us, inside and out, through His sacrifice on the cross. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19.30. So in descent, Jesus is like and is greater than Moses. John puts it this way in John 3.17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. So following along kids, we've got sin and we've got a mediator dealing with it. Moses, great mediator, not as great as the Lord Jesus. We've seen Moses going down and now we're going to see Moses going up. We've seen Jesus coming down and what he did to deal with sin, praise be to God, and now we're going to see him going up as well. So second point in the ascent. How does the mediator interact with sin? How does Moses interact with the sin? What does he go back to God with? What are his expectations? And then comparing that all to Jesus. Point number two, verses 30 to 35. Verse 30 we read, the next day Moses said to the people, you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps, perhaps, I can make atonement for your sin. That word perhaps is very very important and that word will help you distinguish between Moses who's a great mediator with Jesus who's the greatest mediator of all. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Why does he say perhaps? He knows that a man cannot make atonement for sin. Truly no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice that he should live on forever and never see the pit. Psalm 49, 7-9. But Moses, Moses, seeing through a glass darkly, he knows God is both just and merciful. And he hopes, he has expectation that it can come about. He doesn't know quite how it's going to come about, and that's why he says, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So he goes up. In sub-point number one, under point number two, the meat-eater presents himself to God. We find some interesting things here in verses 31 to 32. So Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas, the people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now if you will forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me out of or erase me from your book that you have written. Just as an aside, this idea of a book with names written in it, you find all throughout the scriptures. Psalm 69, 28. Psalm 139, verse 16. Particularly in Revelation 3, 5. Revelation 13, 8. And Revelation 20, verse 12. The Lamb's book of what? Life. You want to be written there. And Moses goes up to God and he says, if you can't forgive their sin, blot me out. Who does that put you in mind of? We're going to get to Jesus in a second. But it's very similar to what Paul says. Remember what Paul says in Romans chapter 9 when he's thinking about the Jews? I wish, I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Romans 9, 3. Wow. That passage and the passage with Moses, I'm not there. I'll just admit it. I don't want to give up my life like that for others. Not that I could, and that's kind of the point that's being made here. We cannot give our life as a ransom for another. No man can do that. No man can atone for another man's sin. But Jesus can. The question that I have to ask you is why can he do it? Because, of course, he is a man. We do read he is the propitiation for our sins. He is the sacrifice of atonement that assuages the wrath of God and turns his wrath away from us, making him pro-us. He has the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. The whole world being the world without distinction according to ethnicity. So why can Jesus make atonement? Why is it? Jesus is a man, but Jesus is also what? Let's hear it, kids. Jesus is not only man, but also God, right? Excellent! And because He is God, the work that He does has infinite worth because God is infinite. So His life, this one righteous life, that righteousness can be credited to any one of you who put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that death that He died, Infinite worth there, such that if you put your faith and trust in Him, your sins are taken care of and removed from you as far as the east is from the west. That's who He is. He is the God-man. And because He is the God-man, He can save us to the uttermost. The second point here, under point number two, the Lord Himself responds to the mediation. Verses 33 to 35, the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book, but now go. Well, there's some promise here. Lead the people to the place about which I've spoken to you. Behold, pay attention. My angels shall go before you. Oh, that's, um, that's less. than what we were expecting in the covenant before. Moses is going to take that up. We're going to see that next week. Just an angel? Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, the idea of visiting sin, injustice, I will visit their sin upon them. Verse 35, then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. There is some reassurance here, but Moses needs to do some more mediation, which we're going to see. In fact, I think in this, the Lord is calling Moses to do some mediation that we might be expectant of the kind of mediation that the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater mediator, will do in the New Covenant. We're going to see more of that next week. The one thing that becomes very clear here is that the living God can't just say, oh, it's OK that you sinned. I'm just going to sweep it under the carpet. He can't do that and be true to himself. He is the holy God. He is perfectly just, and he must deal with sin. He must be seen as just. Other translations put the second part of verse 34 this way, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin. Or how about this one? On the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin. And indeed the Lord did settle accounts. There's a little bit of a preview of it. in sending a plague, verse 35, not to be thought of what the Levites did. That's not what's being talked about here. We don't know exactly what this is. It could have been some kind of sickness. Interestingly, any guesses as to that word plague? Not any guesses, but do you see a connection between what happened before in the book of Exodus and what's happening here? Who did God send plagues on before? Egyptians. Ten of them. And now a plague is coming on the Israelites. It's a bad thing. So there is a partial settling of accounts there. If you go along in Israel's history, there is a settling of accounts in terms of the Old Covenant in the exile. But even beyond that, God will settle accounts, not only for them, but also for us. And how does He do that? How does He do that? Well, in the end, He's going to settle the accounts, and the payment for sin for every single human being who has ever lived will come down in one of two ways. either it will be paid for by the sinner in an eternal hell or will be paid for by Jesus in his death on the cross. God's gonna make good on his word. I will settle accounts. Not only for them, in Jesus or outside of Jesus, by extension for everybody else. including the Gentiles, in Jesus, outside of Jesus. That's how it's going to come down. And if that's the case, every single one of you here tonight needs to reckon with this. Has my sin been settled in Jesus or not? Because God's going to settle accounts. You're going to stand before the living God And the only reason he's going to let you into his heaven is if you're in Jesus or not. If your sin has been dealt with in Jesus, he'll let you in. If not, you will deal with your sins and the accounts will be settled in hell. And hell is forever. So in the ascent, Moses Moses is a great mediator, but Jesus is so much greater. And that word, perhaps, with the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no perhaps with the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? No perhaps. Perhaps I can make atonement. There's none of that language with the Lord Jesus Christ. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way in chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. thus securing an eternal redemption. So that ought to bring assurance. Remind yourself of that. We all have doubts. We all have fears. Fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. I love Charles Wesley's hymn. Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands. My name is written on his hands. Jesus is greater than Moses. Praise God for our wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses was indeed faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house, if indeed We hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Some translations firm to the end. I would encourage you once again as we thought about these things to continue to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ and so know the joy of Jesus and peace and so that love might be produced for him for others and all to the praise of God. Let's pray together. Thank you for this account, Heavenly Father, where we see so much of the Lord Jesus Christ. The contrasts are very helpful for us, and we're so thankful for that. They bring about clarity to the greatness of our Savior's work. We just pray again that you would help us to be thinking about these things dwelling upon these things We pray that you would use that by your spirit to just empower us to live those God-honoring and holy lives We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen Let's sing