We turn in the word of God this evening to Exodus chapter 32. Exodus 32, and the text for this sermon will be verses 30 through 35, the conclusion of the chapter. This is the word of the Lord. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we what not that what is become of him? And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of 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 fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten calf and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of them, make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thy own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. And Moses turned and went down from the mount. And the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. And the tables were written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. And he said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing, do I hear. And it came to pass as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses' anger waxed hot. And he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me. Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord. even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord. Peradventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron made. There ends our reading of God's holy and inspired word. May he add his blessing to it. Beloved congregation, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in my own congregation, I am preaching a series on Exodus 32 through 34. This is the fourth sermon in that series. In the first sermon, we treated the actual history of the making of the golden calf and saw the seriousness of that sin. And the seriousness of that sin is captured in the rest of the chapter when Moses took the whole law of God and when he had come down and seen the sin, He shattered them at the base of the mount, Deuteronomy 9 telling us that he did that in the sight of the people so that they would understand that they have broken God's law, broken the book of the covenant, in a sense of severely and grossly violating it. And that's why in this text, in verse 30 and verse 31, Moses says that they have sinned a great sin. In the second part of the series, we considered the wrath of God against Israel. While Moses was still up in the mount, he was unaware of what was going on for the 40 days and 40 nights, but God revealed to him what was happening, and God revealed his wrath and his judgment against this stiff-necked people, that he would consume them, destroy them, wipe them out, and instead make of Moses a nation greater than even Israel. And Moses, according to Psalm 106, stood in the breach. Stood in the breach. God had said to Moses, let me now alone. Leave me, Moses, that I may destroy this people. And Moses stood in the breach, remained there, so that God, according to his own covenant promises, could not destroy his people. God repented of the evil which he thought to do against them. The third part of this chapter deals with the judgment that Moses carried out in returning to the camp. Moses was in the mount, and then Moses came down out of the mount to visit them, and when he came back, he executed judgment. He executed judgment against the golden image, the calf, destroyed it, and caused the people to drink it as it was scattered on the water that they drank. He confronted Aaron as the one who was responsible as a leader for this sin. And he also executed judgment or discipline among the people saying, who is on the Lord's side, come unto me. And that calling to separate themselves And in separating themselves from the defiled camp and coming to Moses signifies the gospel that there is salvation and reconciliation with God only through his appointed mediator. And those who would not repent were slain by the faithful sons of Levi consecrated to the task. What remains in this chapter, the text for the sermon, is that there's still a problem. Moses has stood in the breach before God and pleaded with him for his own namesake to turn away his wrath from Israel and spare them the judgment that they deserve. Moses has gone down into the camp and he has called the people to repentance. Those who repented and came unto Him, we may safely assume, those are those who were spared. Those who persisted in that sin and would not be known as on the Lord's side, they were slain. But there's still a problem. There's still a breach. And the problem was that they still had to deal with the guilt of their sin. That sin, that great sin still separated them from their God. So we consider this passage, and as I've been going through this series, the theme of the series has been the mediator in the mount. In this history, we learn to see Jesus Christ as he's in the presence of God ministering for our advantage. He's also the mediator in our midst when Moses comes down from the mount. And that's one of the weaknesses of Moses, that he can't be in both places at the same time. We need a better mediator who's in the mount before the face of God, interceding for us, and also supplies us with his own spirit to minister among us. But the question that we want to answer tonight is, how is it that God may continue his covenant with a people guilty of a great sin? That's the question. How can God continue his covenant and fulfill his covenant promises with a people that's guilty of a great sin? And as Moses faces this problem and tries to answer this question, we'll see his faithfulness and his insufficiency. We'll start with looking at an overview of the six verses in the text. This is the day after Moses' judgment when 3,000 men were slain. Moses arises the next day and declares the problem. Ye have sinned a great sin. There are sins that are greater than others. There are sins that are greater than others because they are a development of sin. Whereas you might be introduced to a sin and sin to a degree and that even that first sin and that first degree it makes us worthy of hell and damnation. We can and Sadly, we do persist in our sins and develop in sins and commit gross sins. Those may be called great sins. The great sin that's committed here was great, not only account of it being a gross sin, as they worshipped another, worshipped an image, and applied the name of Jehovah to that image and used the worship prescribed by God for their pagan worship and gave themselves over to nakedness and fornication in the process. But it was also a great sin because they sinned as God's covenant people. The Egyptians were committing these same sins. Israel doing these same sinful activities were even more guilty, were liable to receive a greater judgment because they knew better. And they knew the God who had revealed himself to them as their God. Having identified the problem, you have sinned a great sin, Moses is a faithful mediator. He is not deterred from doing his duty. He's willing to go back up into the mount, to stand in the breach, and he tells them that he will try, effectively, to make an atonement for your sin. Peradventure, perhaps. I shall make an atonement for your sin. That means that somehow, someway, Moses was going to stand before God so that the sin might be covered, washed away, or blotted out, so that the breach might be removed. So then Moses did as he said, and he returned unto the Lord. And just as he had declared the great sin of the people to the people, the mediator was faithful in confessing that sin before God. Verse 31, when he says, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. It's not as though God needed to be told that. God had already told Moses that. But Moses now represents the people. and he's making a confession and acknowledging their responsibility for that sin. Verse 32 is the very familiar prayer of Moses, yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Moses, brings up the possibility of forgiveness, but then he cuts himself off. He doesn't even finish his sentence. And he transitions to a new proposal along the same lines, that if God cannot forgive, then perhaps God could execute justice by blotting Moses out of God's book. This is the book of life, not the book of earthly life, not the book of the living. This is the book which God has written from before the foundation of the world. This is the book that contains the names of those who are members of his church and kingdom and covenant. This is the book That when we are written in it, we enjoy all the blessings that flow to us through Jesus Christ. And if we were to be blotted out of it, we would be cast into outer darkness of hell and know nothing of the goodness of God. God gives an answer to Moses, though it's not the answer that he would have wanted or that we would have expected. Jehovah said, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. And then God gives Moses a renewed commission to lead the people on and to bring them to the place that has been spoken of, the land flowing with milk and honey. And he assures Moses that my angel shall go before thee. and then declares that nevertheless, though I'm telling you to go on and though I'll send my angel, yet there's still a day of visitation. There's still going to be a day of judgment. What we have here is an unsatisfactory answer from the part of Moses and from the part of Israel. And it's good if you feel that way too. This is not the satisfactory answer that's going to deal with the problem. And that's to say nothing of any weakness in God, but a weakness in Moses. We'll save that insufficiency and weakness for later on, but Moses is a faithful mediator in this passage. When Moses confronted the people with their sin, he was direct with them. He declared to them, you have sinned a great sin. He didn't beat around the bush. He didn't make for them any excuses. He didn't try to point to circumstances. And though he had already confronted Aaron with his responsibility, he did not make that an excuse for Israel with their role in the sin. And then when Moses approaches God, he is consistent. And who can be anything but fully transparent with the all-seeing, all-knowing, just God? But as the one appointed to represent the people, Moses brings God this great sin as their sin. He stands in the breach. He stands between a holy God who is a righteous judge and a stiff-necked people, guilty. And when he stands in the breach, he is addressing this great chasm. He is addressing this massive barrier which separates them, this great sin. There's no way for reconciliation until he deals with this great sin. So Moses begins to plead for forgiveness. If thou wilt forgive their sin. That's to take this barrier, this burden of guilt, to lift it up and carry it away. That's the solution. The guilt of Israel, great for a great sin, lifted up and carried away. But Moses understands that God is a just God. He understands that God cannot ignore sin or leave sin unpunished. And so he says, if not blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Moses is willing to be extinguished, wiped away, destroyed, consumed, so that Israel might be spared the judgment they deserve. Moses was willing to take the penalty for the great sin. Moses is suggesting as the mediator a substitutionary atonement. And he's pleading for it. Not a mere suggestion really, not even a request, but he's pleading. Blot me, I pray thee, I pray thee, blot me out of thy book. He's expressing a sincere and fervent desire to lay down his life, manifesting a great love for this people, for Israel of all people, for stiff-necked Israel. Even though they cause all this trouble, even though God said they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I have commanded them, even though they have fallen so far in such a short amount of time, and how often they stumble and murmur and complain, Moses is willing to be blotted out for them. The primary significance of this plea that Moses makes is that he reveals the coming mediator, the true mediator. Not only as he brings the fullness of Israel's sin, understanding the great seriousness of it, and as he continues to labor for their forgiveness in light of this great barrier that stands between God and them. and seeking forgiveness for Israel at the cost of his own life and his own blessedness. Moses is a faithful type of Jesus Christ, manifesting Christ-like love. And not only did he reveal something of his love for the people, but Moses is chiefly interested in the glory of God. Earlier in the chapter, Moses pleaded for God to turn away his wrath, not because he loved the people so much, though he did. But his reasoning in pleading for God to turn away his wrath was that God's name might be glorified among the nations, among the Egyptians. And that God might be known as one who is faithful to his word and his people. Moses is a fitting type of Jesus Christ in his love and in his heart. You can hear how he is bound up in love with these people, and how he is set on doing all that he can do in love for this people in accord with the glory of God's name. Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written. Moses reveals Jesus. Moses is also an example for those who hold the office of believer. to our prophets, priests, and kings. For ministers and office bearers who have a special calling to stand in the breach between God and those who are put under their care, that they should labor at great personal cost for the salvation of those whom God has given to them. This morning I preached the sermon on the occasion of baptism and made application to parents. Parents have a weighty responsibility for their children, for the spiritual lives of their children. And our children, like us, are stiff-necked people. And like us, they commit great sins. Moses was willing to be blotted out for such a people. The Apostle Paul wished himself accursed for his brethren who were this stiff-necked people. Christ was indeed effectually blotted out for this stiff-necked people. And we have the privilege of serving the Lord Jesus. So in our offices, in our own station and calling, There's the burden of our service to lay down our lives for the salvation and welfare of our fellow believers. The insufficiency of Moses sounds foreboding. But we need to see Moses' insufficiency so that the sufficiency of Christ can be magnified. When God answered Moses, there are some beautiful, positive, reassuring elements of his answer. It is no small thing that when God replied to Moses, he said, He's still going to give them the promised land. And Moses is commissioned to lead them. It's no small thing when God says to Moses, behold, mine angel shall go before thee. And in my personal judgment, though there's disagreement on this among commentators, when the King James Version capitalizes angel here, It is a correct judgment that this is the angel of Jehovah, the pre-incarnate Christ, who will go with the people of Israel into the promised land. But there are also reasons, and there is evidence in this passage that Moses is insufficient as a mediator. I'll start with identifying three pieces of evidence for his insufficiency. The first is that Moses' proposal is rejected. Moses says to God, forgive, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book. And when we read Moses' fervent, loving plea, We would have almost assumed, if we hadn't read this history before, that God's answer must be, Moses, I forgive them. But that's not what we read. Instead we read, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. God points Moses to the immovable, unchangeable principle of justice. And Moses must have felt that first and foremost in his own heart. Moses wants to be blotted out as a substitutionary savior for Israel. And God says to Moses, Moses, this is my justice. I will blot out whosoever sins. A second piece of evidence of Moses' insufficiency is that there's a judgment that remains. The judgment that remains is that the Lord will visit their sin upon them. A day of visitation is coming and he is going to visit their sin with a plague. The Lord plagued the people because they made the calf. And God is dealing with Israel organically here. And so, of course, as the plague comes upon Israel, it comes upon His elect people for whom Jesus will die in love and for their advantage as the chastening of a father to his children. But there is yet a judgment, a punishing judgment, that falls upon the carnal seed of Israel. They must be consumed and he will visit Israel for their sin, making and worshiping this golden calf. Even a more chilling judgment is coming in the next chapter when God says in verse 3, I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way. There was still a judgment that was coming, though the pilgrimage would continue despite Moses' best efforts. And the third evidence of Moses' insufficiency is his own implied acknowledgment of it in the unfinished sentence. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, then what? Moses doesn't even continue. Why not? Where's the boldness and the confidence that there is forgiveness with God? We'll explain that in a moment. I want to pause and apply Moses' insufficiency directly to ourselves and to our pastors, to myself, to our elders, and to parents. We all share, in a different sense than Moses, a calling to stand in the breach. We share a responsibility for our fellow believers in the congregation. We as parents have a special responsibility toward our children. Elders and pastors have a responsibility towards the congregation. We need to recognize our own insufficiency. A pastor may not be, may not try to be, and a congregation may not imagine any pastor to be the mediator that we need. We represent him, we serve him, we are not him. Parents, though they have a great responsibility for their children and they have a duty like Job to intercede for their children and to pray for them, but the burden of the salvation of your children is not in your hands. We and our children need an all-sufficient mediator, one greater than Moses. Now why did Moses cut himself off? He lacked boldness, it seems, as he pleaded for forgiveness and for dealing with this breach. And he lacked boldness because he lacked a basis. God cannot simply ignore sin or forgive sin or pass by sin without dealing with the guilt of sin. And so if Moses, though it's hard to believe that he would have been thinking of a forgiveness without justice, if he were to be suggesting a forgiveness without a basis, he could not go on anymore. And when he changes his request. If not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. That shows that he understood what he needed. He needed a basis. He needed a way to deal with the guilt of Israel's sin. But Moses, his blood was not precious. His blood was guilty like all of Israel's was. His blood does not have that value and that power to purge away and wash away all of our sins. What kind of mediator do we seek? The Heidelberg Catechism teaches us one who is very man, Moses could check that box, but not the other two. One who is very God and perfectly righteous. Moses was a faithful mediator, but he was not the son of God. He did not have the power to sustain the full burden of God's wrath, so to deliver others from it. And he was not unblemished and unstained before God so that he could bear the sins of others. He had his own sins to bear. Whosoever sins against me, him will I blot out of my book. Moses is not the answer for Israel. So where does this leave them? Moses, though he is insufficient, God is faithful. And though it may not be the answer that we were looking for in the way that we were looking for, or Moses or Israel, God gives a word of great mercy to the people of Israel. When he gives Moses that renewed commission, that says to Moses, and it would say to Israel, God is not forsaking us. He is not turning his back on his promises. And although God in the next chapter says, I will not go up in the midst of thee, when he says, behold, mine angel shall go before thee, that's the answer we need. The angel. the angel of Jehovah. Before he had taken on the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, yet while he was eternally the Son of God and perfectly righteous, he was with Israel. And for his sake, God was going to spare this people Israel. God does not nullify his promise. God does not break his covenant, even when his people sin a great sin. In wrath, he remembers mercy. What this tells us, we have to put these things together now, Moses is insufficient. And yet God continues his covenant. What this tells us is that God's covenant is not dependent on Moses' sufficiency. God's covenant is not continuing because Moses is the perfect mediator. But it is continued for the sake of Jesus Christ, whom God had promised and who was certainly coming. It was continued on the basis of the one who would shed his precious blood for this great sin that his people had committed, even Moses and Aaron and the elect children of Israel. And then we can come back to our own selves as parents and as believers when we who serve God and who aim to serve God faithfully, who serve in love for those whom God has put in our care, when we fall short, we do not throw up our hands in despair, but we lift up our hands in prayer. We plead in the name of Jesus Christ. It is to our own detriment if we put our trust in men. Reading through this history, if you get the chance to do it again soon, the whole history of the Exodus, and see how Moses depended on, or how Israel depended on Moses. They relied on him. When he was there, they were okay. When he goes up in the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, they fall away. They needed his presence. They needed his ministry. And insofar as he pictures Jesus Christ in his perfect ministry, in his unchanging presence, we praise God and we're edified. But insofar as Israel was relying beyond measure on a mere man, we have a warning. not to trust in men. A pastor, elders, they serve God. You have a calling towards them, but your trust is in God. There is one who has ascended into the mountain of God and who pleads boldly for forgiveness. He presents his own blood as the basis, and he is the propitiation for our sins. If any man sins, if any man has committed a great sin, if any congregation is guilty of a great sin, we have an advocate in heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the one who turns away God's wrath. and his blood is what cleanses us from all our sins, blotting them out so that we might remain in the book of life. And he does not faint from making this request in love, even for a stiff-necked people. Even as the stiff-necked people hang him on the cross, still he prays with boldness to the Father, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And then in his name, we can sing together as we did earlier, let the Lord, our gracious God, forever blessed be. Why? He has not turned my prayer from him, nor yet his grace from me. And we can sing as we will in just a moment from Psalter number 185. In full assurance of thy grace, to thee my prayers ascend. In thy abounding love and truth, O God, salvation send. We're not going to sing or say as Moses did, we have sinned a great sin. Peradventure, perhaps there is an atonement for us. We're confident that our sins are washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ and that there is forgiveness with our God. Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, we plead with thee in the name of Jesus Christ alone and on the basis of his righteousness, that thou wilt not mark the iniquities we have committed. Whether small or great in our eyes, they are all provoking. They all are worthy of sending us to hell. But with thee there is mercy. Thou art a God who delights in mercy, and so we pray that thou wilt grant that mercy to us for Jesus' sake. Amen.