Hi, my name is Angela Min. I'm a fourth year at Cal studying molecular and cell biology, with an emphasis on cell developmental biology. And I went to Taiwan this past summer with the 2006 Taiwan Missions team, and this is my testimony. Okay, I feel like I'm nervous. Okay. Faithfulness. That was my hope coming into the 2006 summer missions trip. I was determined to be faithful to the cause of Christ throughout my short four weeks in Taiwan. I was, after all, a veteran and had gone through two whole years of sanctification since my last trip. The prospect of not being hindered with the worries of the world and expending myself entirely for his namesake was extremely exciting. But as soon as I got to Taiwan, God immediately revealed the full heartiness in my heart to think that by my sheer willpower, I could be faithful to the Lord and accomplish great things. Instead of my previous confidence, I found myself in a perpetual state of, Lord, help me, and Lord, have mercy on me. What a sheer contrast from what I expected. Yet throughout the weeks, God allowed me to experience a spectrum of opportunities to be obedient to him and to learn things I did not even imagine. Out of the many things I learned in Taiwan, I will focus on four main things. Number one, thou must save and thou alone. The third stanza of the hymn, Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, reads this. Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. When I share the gospel, I tend to get very emotionally involved with the one receiving the good news as if their salvation were somehow contingent on my ministry to them. However, I realize more than ever on this trip that no amount of human rhetoric or emotion or passion has the ability to change man's cold heart. What a great reminder that salvation belongs to our God, that the Lord is in control of extending his grace and unveiling the eyes of those he loves. For example, there was a girl named Lucia who Soren and I met at Tea Chat and had the opportunity to share the gospel with many times. We even met daily to study the gospel of John together. Day after day, she was able to read directly from the word of God and learn about the duty of Christ, who he was, and what he had done. I wanted more than anything for her to be able to see the truth. Almost in desperation, I would ask her, Lucia, why don't you believe? Can't you see this is true? Yet her heart remained hardened to the gospel. God finally helped me realize that I could only let go and stop depending on my puny efforts to convince her to trust in him. In his timing, to his greatest glory, he would orchestrate Lucia's life for her to receive the gift of repentance, if he so tarries. My job was simply to get on my knees and pray for her. Number two, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17, nine. As I mentioned earlier, I had a dauntless attitude into the trip. I pictured it all in my mind, handing out tea to scores of skeptics, wowing them with an incredible gospel presentation, exploiting each minute of the day, meeting with contacts, and doing all this while waking up at 5 a.m. to go running and do my devotionals. As long as I was faithful to God and did my part, He would do His. underestimated the wickedness of my heart and the impureness of my motives. As the weeks waned on, I became increasingly man-centered as I started to focus so much on what I could do for the Lord and what I can do or say to encourage others. How often I found my good intentions of faithfulness muddled with wicked pride and self-glorification. But praise God He did not leave me in that state of foolishness, but instead disciplined me Through a harsh realization that I inclined naturally to be uncaring, lazy, selfish, prideful, jealous, among other things, I will never be exempt from struggling with sinfulness on the side of eternity. Once again, getting on my knees in repentance and utter dependency of His grace was the only way. Number three, help me to number my days. I brought to Taiwan with me many worries, particularly regarding my health and the health of my sister. Praying that I would not be hindered on this trip, I hoped that I would not have to face the concerns I faced back at home. But God had other plans. He forced me to face my trials head on, even halfway across the world, and to test, to see if I could obey his call for Christians to count all things as joy. Do you trust me with your life, he asked. Although I battled with anxiety as each day passed, God granted me supernatural peace knowing that all things were in his hands. Every morning when I woke up, it dawned on me that I did not even deserve to take that first breath. But he had sustained me through the night and had been gracious to allow me to experience another day in his grace. No matter what happened to me or my family, I knew it was better than what I deserved. Not only my spiritual, but my physical sustenance was the Lord's. It was a loving prayer and support of teammates and ultimately God's word that gave me tremendous peace. In Psalm 39, four through seven, David says, O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting I am. Behold, you made my days a few hand breaths and my life is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath. Surely a man goes about as a shadow. And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. This passage really resonated in my soul and was such a sweet reminder of the ephemeral nature of our lives on earth. Yet, instead of ending on a cynical note, it informs us that despite our transience, our magnificent hope is in God. What an awesome privilege that we can wait on the Lord and that our hope lies entirely on the finished work of Jesus Christ. Not on family, nor possessions, nor good health, but entirely on Christ our Savior. Thus the only natural response in light of this transience was to transform the private cries of my heart into a public worship that would point others to our eternal God. And number four, Philippians 1.6 says, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Lastly, I was able to witness more than anything the relentless faithfulness of God to his children. Two years ago, Leo, a brother at EBCT who many of you may have heard of, used to bring his sister Linda, brother Ben, and girlfriend Lisa diligently to English camp. Every day, they heard the gospel and studied the Bible with other brothers and sisters. By the end of the trip, Ben and Linda desired to commit their lives to the Lord, but Lisa was still hardened to the gospel. Since then, I received updates from Taiwan that Linda and Ben not only were baptized, but became members of UBCT and were serving the body faithfully. Then a few months later, I got a joyous update that Lisa repented and decided to follow Christ Then even more news, Leah, Lisa, and Ben's mother had committed her life to Christ. Returning to Taiwan, I was able to reunite with these dear sisters and share with them individually how the Lord worked in their lives to allow them to place their trust in Him. Hearing directly from their mouths about their conversion and the goodness of God in their lives was the most a soul-uplifting experience for me in Taiwan. It was definitely a fruition of many prayers. I was so encouraged by their sober-mindedness and genuine, dependent faith they had on their Savior, despite hardships and much persecution. They really clung to Jesus for every aspect of their lives, not only the big things, but even the mundane things. Each time I met with them, I departed with more of an appreciation of God's grace and sovereignty. God is the same God here at East Bay, in Taiwan, the whole world. I left Taiwan with such confidence for EBCT because I knew it was in good hands. So these were some of the things that I learned from the four short weeks I spent in Taiwan this summer. The more I reflected while writing this, the more I realized I don't even deserve to be writing these words on this page. But I thank God for using me despite my weaknesses. to proclaim the gospel. I pray that the Great Commission would be at the center of my life no matter where I am, and that God would create in me a heart of a sojourner as I never looked to the earthly things of this world, but look forward to my home in heaven. From him, through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Um, due to technical difficulties, if it's okay with Pastor John, can we do it after help study? Okay. So here's the reading of the word, Pastor John. What a blessing to hear those wonderful words of encouragement and how the Lord is working in not only Angela's life, but in the lives of many people who have been touched personally there by what God is doing. It dawned on us after a while that it takes young Taiwanese people about one and a half to two years to finally come to a full realization of who Christ is. Even in their initial verbal commitments, there's a lot of uncertainty. And we realize that they take quite a while. But because they take longer deliberation of really weighing out what it means to be a Christian, I think there's a greater joy and perhaps a greater weight to their personal walk with Christ. As we think about our EBCT and our winter short-term missions, we certainly need to lift this up to the Lord in prayer. So why don't we go to the Lord in prayer before we go into the teaching of the word. Father, we come before you with thanksgiving in our hearts as we rejoice along with Angela and her testimony of what you have done in her life and through her in the lives of others. We thank you for many of the saints at EBCT. We thank you especially for the male servants who are there, Leo and Jeff. And we thank you, Lord, for their personal commitment to the Church and their service to the body. We thank you for our brother, Matt, who is diligently preparing messages and proclaiming the Word and sharing the Gospel and being good witnesses and testimony of your eternal purpose is there in Taiwan. We thank you for our sister, Sani. We continue to lift them up and ask that you would strengthen them and give them the courage and conviction with joy and peace, with tenacity and perseverance to minister to your people and even to the lost. We thank you for our brother's who are there who are serving in the background. We thank you for Greg and even as he gets ready to go back to Taiwan, we ask for your protection and your encouragement and help him to go back and encourage the brothers and sisters there. We thank you for Kevin and his service to the body. We pray for Estella and Lisa, Linda, Ben and many others who are there serving you that they will not grow weary but they will continue to love the Saints and be diligent. We thank you for our tent makers, our sister Jen, who is just getting ready to return. We ask for a safe journey there. We pray for Clara and Gina as they live and work together, that they would encourage one another to be a great encouragement to the saints. And we give you praise, Lord, and thanksgiving for our brothers in seminary, Brother James, And our brother Ben, we give you thanks for their faithfulness, learning and growing so that they would impart your grace to the saints here. And we pray that you would continue to give them safety on their journey to and fro from Southern California and the deepening of their relationships and friendships while they travel and study together. Lord, we give you praise and thanksgiving for our brother J.M. and the ministry of equipping evangelism that you have given to him. Pray that you would keep him constantly joyful in the great salvation you have granted to him and how he ministers and teaches others and how he continues to labor as he equips the saints for the work of service. We pray for our CM teachers and pray especially for our brother Jonathan that you would strengthen him and give him the joy as he ministers. And we continue to pray for an effective and vibrant children's ministry as well as a youth ministry that has just gotten started. Lord, it is a humble beginning, but we know that you will do marvelous things as you bring more and more youngsters to know you and to serve you. And so we commit the teachers and our youth group and our children's ministry to you and ask for your rich blessings upon those efforts to minister to them. Father, we thank you for our Covenant Flock group servants who are laboring and who have begun this two weeks now and ministering the Word and encouraging the different classes on the campus and also here at Singles and Couples Ministries. We ask that you would encourage them and allow them to be good ministers of your love and that they would be able to make time for availability of their personal energies and resources to be used by you to encourage the saints. And we ask that you would bless them in their service. We thank you, Lord, for Hong and Tammy and the gift of a baby girl. We give you praise and thanksgiving for the joy and the excitement that we share with the Kims. And we ask that you would continue to watch over the health of the mother and the baby. And we ask that you would glorify yourself as you bring new life into this world to the Kims. We pray for the You's too, that you would be with Kathy as she continues her pregnancy. We pray that you would protect the child in Kathy's womb and give Andy and Kathy much joy as they hold the little one in their arms. Lord, we give you thanks and praise for the recent news with James and Annie and their engagement. We give you thanks and praise for the great joy that we share. We thank you, Lord, for the great joy that you've given to all of us and our whole church family through our brother Jeremy, as the elders unanimously saw his preparation and his understanding of your word, the wisdom that you have given to him and the character that you have molded in him. And we ask that you would bless the Ang family, bless Audrey, little Elijah, and help the Angs to be a great blessing, a rich blessing as Jeremy and I serve and labor and pray and minister to the body here, would you grant us deep love and friendship with one another and mutuality of spirit, kindred spirits, and that you would allow us to exercise our God-given gifts and talents in different ways so that we may be of most effective service to your people whom you love so much that you sent your son to redeem. Father, we thank you now for the rich blessings that we have received in so many different ways. We thank you for the brothers and sisters who are here tonight desiring that they would not smell as if they were to smell a perfume or had they come to look at a fancy painting or to hear a fine orchestral piece. for they come as hungry people desiring to eat meat and bread. And so, Lord, we come to your word, not as a perfume or flower to smell, not as a musical piece to hear, nor a painting to admire, but we come to it as for what it is, spiritual food and nourishment to our soul. We're in great need of your transcendent word tonight. And we ask that you would fill our soul with your eternal truth and send us away happy and satisfied. And therefore, would you hide your servant behind the cross and use him as a mouthpiece for your truth and the proclamation of your richness? And would your people Feast on the goodness of Your Word, and will they be fed and satisfied? Will they go forth and live the truth that they will be the salt and the light You call them to be? Now we give ourselves to You, and it is in Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Church, would you stand with me as you have your Bibles opened to Exodus chapter 32. And tonight we will be looking at the first 14 verses of Exodus chapter 32. And this is the reading of God's Word. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a God who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Aaron said to them, Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me." Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf. And they said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them, and they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then, let me alone, that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of you a great nation. Then Moses entreated the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people? whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, With evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger, and change your mind about doing harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, whom you swore by yourself and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever." So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people. Amen. Please be seated. You can't escape the irony that is dripping in this passage because the previous passage we've just studied how God poured out his Holy Spirit upon a skilled craftsman and gave elaborate details on how to build a tabernacle. Prior to that, they had built the altar and they have sanctified themselves. They have slain the bulls and so forth, the animals for sacrifice and made a verbal covenant with the Lord. And Moses went up and down, up and down the mountain. to take the message to God and take God's message to the people. And this he is up there for the final 40 days where he's getting detailed instruction on how to create elaborate workings of the tabernacle. So while he is receiving these glorious insights, this is happening at the same time. Down the hill, down the mountain in Sinai at the base camp, Israelites are engaging in idolatry. Just a few days prior, they said, all that the Lord asks us to do, we will do. We shall keep. They joyfully concurred that they would abide by God's covenant. And yet, before the ink is dried on the covenant paper, if you will, they're already committing idolatry. Now, it should take us by surprise that so quickly they are departing from the covenant with God. But I want you to understand that such is sinful human nature. What we have here is basically God showing us what we're really made out of. Our sister Angela quoted Jeremiah 17 9. And that is the heinousness of sin that is embedded into every one of us. Our human disease. That is that sin deceives. Heart is deceitful above all things and it's desperately sick. It's wicked beyond human understanding. And what we have here is a glimpse of that wicked heart that says, on the one side, Lord, we will obey, just like Judas Iscariot. He had the confession, but he didn't have the heart of faith, did he? He gave the feigned kiss and the profession, and yet he was betraying with his wicked heart. It's like David, who strolled up on a cool day in the rooftop Just a stroll, an innocent stroll, so he thought, until he began to glance and glance. It doesn't really bother, but he kept looking, kept looking. Little did he know that sinful act, so innocent as it seemed in the beginning, would end up causing him to be an adulterer and a murderer. Sin rarely appears in the beginning, as heinous as it does. What we have here is a a nation full of people, of millions of people who said, we will be with God. And then the next moment commit the most heinous idolatry and immoral lifestyle that goes with it. So it's critical to recognize that these simultaneous events are happening, which are described in chapters 25 to 31 with that of chapters 32 to 34. And it is an incredible ironic contrast. God is revealing the intimate details of the tabernacle, poured His Spirit upon men who are ready to build and establish and put all these things into work and action. While all this is happening, here is Aaron. Who does he think he is? You know, he just put some metal together, gold together. He doesn't have any skill. He doesn't have the Holy Spirit guiding him. That's what he has. It's a dumb, goofy looking idle calf that he thinks will substitute for the Almighty God while God is giving a grand picture of heaven and tell Moses to build according to the pattern he has shown. What an incredible contrast. So before we can understand this passage, we need to go back to Exodus 24. and read some passages there so we can catch up, so we can understand what's going on. Exodus 24. The full context is verses 1 to 17. But I want us to take a look at verses 3 and 7 as a sample. of what the Israelites covenanted with God to do. Verse 3, Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord, and all the ordinances, and all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do. Look at verse 7, Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. Liars! Deceived! desperately sick. And if you're shocked by the blatant lie and disregard of the covenant, then I want you to see human nature there, which you and I have. And that's why we as preachers and teachers keep saying to God's people, do not trust your spirituality. Do not trust the proclamations of your heart. Distrust it, and there you will find solid footing for what you must do next. And that is, you must go to a sound source, the Word of God, and you must trust it firmly. We're puzzled when we look at this. things are so quickly spinning out of control that Aaron doesn't even seem to offer so much as one word and one moment of hesitation. We don't understand why things are so rapidly progressing toward great transgression. How can those who have enthusiastically committed themselves and saying, we will keep the covenant, we will obey everything, and suddenly reject it? Well, that brings us to our first passage in chapter 32. And that is that I want us to see four plus one, five ingredients which contributed to Israel's idolatry. And from it, I want us to learn some important lessons. Why people who have the profession reject God and worship a substitute God. As a matter of fact, I think the closest parallel to where most Christians today struggle, is what we want to follow. You see, an idol is something that you not only worship, but you obey and you follow. It dictates. So the first ingredient is the absence of leadership. Look at verse 1. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, that's the scenario, isn't it? Moses delayed. They were expecting him to come probably right away. He wasn't coming. And what did the people do? They saw that the leader was gone. And that was an opportune moment that contributed to Israel's idolatry. Aaron was present, but lacked leadership. Aaron and Hur were appointed to handle legal disputes, but they lacked spiritual discernment at this point. The 70 elders no doubt were present, but they weren't able to do anything to stop this. The scripture says that there was mass revelry going on. That means that millions of people decided, all of a sudden, through diverse network of verbal and oral communication, to basically do this. There's no doubt there were few leaders, charismatic individuals that incited the masses. And every one of us know who've been following others and who now are in the positions of leadership, that we have a herd mentality. You only need few leadership types, charismatic individuals, people who are sure of themselves, to step up in the front of the line, to directly denounce the things of God and promote their own agenda, and the masses will follow. That's what Hitler used to call useful idiots. Useful idiots. There are those who will follow. They're useful. They're dumb. They'll do whatever you say. Absence of leadership. Perhaps even more interesting thing is that no leaders are named in this group here. In number 16, you see another great rebellion and the leaders are named there. Here, the only designation is the people. the people. So the absence of leadership plays a significant role in the idolatry of Israel. This tells us something, that any leader of any church among God's people must be of men of courage and of strength to make sure that the groupthink, the mass mentality will not overtake what God wants the church to do. In today's ministry setting, it is often the case that many people say, tickle our ears, tell us some fun stories, interesting anecdotes, give us messages that we need because we have felt needs. And so there are a whole bunch of ministries that are geared toward meeting the mass needs of people. And you know something? The people didn't know what their true need was. Neither did Aaron. It's sad when leadership does not know what God's people really need. Absence of leadership. We must praise God when there are godly men who have the courage to lead people to what God wants them to do and not lead people to where people want them to go. The second ingredient in this contributing factor to Israel's idolatry is the aggressiveness of the crowd. The aggressiveness of the crowd. These were unruly people. They were not humble. They were not obedient people at all. The second part of verse 1 says, And the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a God who will go before us. The word come there, it really means get up. Kum is the Hebrew word. Here, and only one other place in the entire book of Exodus, it is used as an imperative, a command. In chapter 2, Pharaoh uses this word and he says, get up, get out, out of my sight. And there you see his authority with anger telling Moses and Aaron to get out of his face. Here it is also an imperative. Here is a mob forcing Aaron to do what they want him to do. And so that's what's really interesting about this passage here. In Numbers chapter 16 verse 3, they assembled together, it says, and against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst, so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? Now here are some people bringing the crowds against God's chosen leadership, Moses and Aaron, and now they are challenging the leadership. The same aggressive group is assembled here. It's the same kind of mentality. It's a mentality that hates the authority of God, but makes itself its own authority. And that's what we have here. So what we have here is not a friendly request. Hey Aaron, how about making a God for us? That's not it. You better make a God right now or else, buddy. That's the tone. And that's the sense of the imperative here. It is a demand. No, rather it's a command. Aaron built the golden calf under pressure, even probably at the danger of losing his own life if he didn't do it. Yes, he was cowardly, but the people were aggressive as well. Well, I find in this setting, is that it just takes more than good leadership. It takes more than just humble, serving, diligent leadership. It takes an obedient people to do God's work, to do God's will. You can't have people who thwart God's authority and insert their own human authority to get things done. It will backfire. It will end up in sin. Now what is it that they wanted Aaron to do? And why did they want him to do this? Well, the answer is given in verse 2. It was for the cause of advancement among the nations. It was for the cause of advancement among the nations. You see, Egypt was defeated before them and they had defeated Amalek at Rephidim, the Amalekites. Now they are about to enter Canaan. They don't have their leader with them. They have abandoned him. Now, some people want to take charge, and they want a God, and notice the wording, let us make a God who will go before us. That phrase, to go before us, is the idea of leadership, especially in battle. We need some leadership here, Aaron. We need a God. We need some supernatural leadership that would guide us into Canaan. Get it done. That was the command of the mob. So the abandonment of the true leadership also contributed to Israel's idolatry. They wanted to advance and they wanted to conquer other nations. It's their political self-agenda. On the other hand, they couldn't care less about their faithful leader, God-appointed leader, Moses. The abandonment. And then look at the second part of verse 2. Notice the sentence is dripping with contempt. Ask for this, Moses? the servant of God. This is the same Moses that God used to do mighty wonders. Who are they? The question. Look at the contemptuous words. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. He is delaying. Who knows? So while this is going on, smoke, fire, God is speaking with Moses. And in the base, this disloyal, contemptuous abandonment of their faithful servant who is now interceding on behalf of these ungrateful people. A bunch of ingrates. What a contrast. If you can understand how we betray God through our disobedience, and how our Lord Jesus Christ as our great intercessor intercedes for us, you can appreciate a little bit from this scene here. Do not look for loyalty from an ungrateful crowd. People are vessels of love and people are vessels for ministry. They are not vessels of trust. They are not vessels for dependence. If you ever desire to be used by God in servant leadership, don't trust people because they will let you down a hundred times out of one hundred times. Love them. Minister to them. But don't trust them and don't depend on them. They'll drop you on a dime. Why? Because they're sinful. The heart is deceitful above all else. And yet it takes a loving, committed servant leader to continue to lead. And that's what we find here. Another ingredient that contributed to Israel's idolatry. The last two, advancement and abandonment. That's a sub-point, so don't get that confused with the major points. The absence of leadership is the first ingredient. Aggressiveness of the crowd is the second ingredient. Here's the third one. The acquiescence of the delegated. The acquiescence of the delegated. Look at verses 2 to 5. Aaron said to them, tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me. Now, why would he say something like that? Is he being creative? No, if you follow through what Aaron does, the language is uncanny. What he asks the Israelites to do is actually a basic carbon copy, a copycat of what God told Moses to do. You'll see Aaron building an altar after he builds the golden calf, and he offers sacrifices. He, in effect, elected himself to be the high priest without Moses. without the sanctioning of God. He built an altar to sacrifice. Now he's going to try to pacify his conscience, his guilty conscience, and slap religion on top of that, and use this idol in the name of Yahweh, the one true God, and try to sanctify the whole thing. I mean, you talk about a sly, cowardly action, that's what you have here. You know, once you don't have true, committed, convicted leadership, then what you have is people who will acquiesce under pressure. And notice what happens as you see the similarity of activity between chapters 24 and chapters 32. In chapters 24 verse 4 scripture says, Moses built an altar and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel. There was a worship of consecration. Here in Exodus 32 verse 5 Aaron builds an altar. Now when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it and Aaron made proclamation and said tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. That's interesting isn't it? Because in Exodus 24 verse 11 there was a covenant meal at Mount Sinai after the leaders of Israel had an encounter with God. Verse 11 of Exodus 24 says, Yet he did not stretch out his hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel, and they beheld God, and they ate and drank. There was a feast before God, a covenant meal. Now Aaron is replicating that. Now he's giving a feast in the name of this idol, in the name of the Lord, and a zealous worship the next day. Isn't that amazing? There's no room for creativity. This is basically Aaron seeing Moses' leadership trying to replicate it by protecting his high and not confronting the evil of the people. He is under great pressure, no doubt. But he is acquiescing to people's demands rather than doing what he ought to have been doing. is being a good substitute for Moses and telling them this ought not to be so you must repent over my dead body you will that's what his position should have been but he allowed a hostile takeover from the mob this is exactly what will happen people church listen up this is what exactly has happened in most mainline denominational churches that were founded by godly people and today are full of unbelievers and instruments of Satan. They do not promote the truth, nor do they worship the one true God. I heard a horrible story on the radio today that there was an Episcopal church and the leadership of the Episcopal church did not want one Christian man to speak because he was invited to speak in honor of the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps had a chapel worship. He did not want a Christian conservative Christian man to speak because of his conservative Christian values, but buckled under pressure because the Marine General would not have it. And then, just a short time later, they allowed an Iranian ex-president from Iran to come and speak in their chapel. It was just amazing. What was once a mainline evangelical denomination and fellowship at one time in America's history and now it's just basically a left-wing political and liberally driven instrument of Satan. No life there. It's just an amazing thing that we find is that you leave people alone and they will demand that God's law accommodate their immoral and ungodly humanistic worldview and lifestyle. And that's what's going to happen if God-appointed leaders, men of courage and conviction of the Word of God, do not stand for the things of God. In a temporary absence, all this is happening. Well, let's look at the fourth ingredient. Well, it's not just the false worship and the acquiescence of the one who had been delegated the authority, but really it's the advancement of immorality among the people that contributed to Israel's idolatry. You know, the reason why Israel wanted a calf worship, a idol worship, is because they did not want to submit to the holy standards of God. They knew God was holy. They saw what He was doing. They saw what He is capable of. They say He is a holy God and He wanted them to be holy people. But they didn't want to. They didn't want to live out their sinful pleasures. Look at verse 6. So the next day they rose early. Interesting, isn't it? How people are eager to work out their sin and offer burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. How they love to sugarcoat their immorality with religion. And people sat down to eat and to drink. They only care about their physical, oftentimes, not about God. It's just a religious motion, isn't it? You know, that kind of religious motion playing, you know, game playing, that'll never convince our next generation. Our children will never go for this cold, stale, ritualistic religion. They'll abandon it in a heartbeat. If you expect your children to adopt your religious motion playing, you'll be sorely mistaken. and you will regret in tears, my friends, when they abandon your faith. No, they need a face-to-face encounter with God. They need to see a holy God and see His holy demands and they need to be gripped by their own sin and yield completely on the altar of His grace and His glory and majesty. When they are moved to the heights, then they will follow Christ. They sat down to eat and drink And then look at the next phrase, and they rose up to play. That word play here is used elsewhere to talk about sexual relationships. There is no doubt that they have abandoned and desecrated God's commandment. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Well, today it was free for all. Imagine the scene of incredible evil. Those who had fervently vowed to keep God's covenants and His commandments, blatantly violating them. They're in drunken frenzy, worshipping an idol, engaging in sexual orgies and indecencies en masse. Israel's idolatry is more insidious and more dangerous because it basically was a substitute, a syncretized worship of the one true God. See, they did all this in the name of the one true God. Here's your God, O Israel, Aaron said. This is the God, that calf, That bull, young bull, signifying strength. This is the God that brought you out of Egypt and caused you to be victorious before Amalekites? Here's your God. That suits their needs. Aaron just whipped it up. Interestingly enough, in 1 Kings chapter 12, Jeroboam, the wicked king who seceded from the nation of Israel, albeit through the foolishness of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, to try to get Israel away from following after Judah and worshiping the one true God, set up two golden calves, one in the north and one in the south, one at Dan and Bethel. In 1 Kings 12, verse 28, it says, So the king consulted, that is Jeroboam, and made two golden calves, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt." Exact identical phrasing. Same wording. Here's your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from out of Egypt. The syncretistic confusion masquerading as true worship is by far the most dangerous and the most prevalent among Christian circles in our day. It looks and sounds so pious, doesn't it? But it's misdirected. Apostle Paul warned Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, verse 5, that there are men out there in the end times who will hold to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. And Paul warns Timothy, avoid such men as these. Don't have anything to do with them. Don't fellowship with them. Don't even try to go near working with them. Stay away. That's the warning. And while the Israelites are supposing that they have the presence of God among them, God is handing down the plans for the tabernacle by means of which God will manifest His presence among His people. And that's just ironic, isn't it? One other ingredient that set up the idolatry for Israel, that's not found in this passage, but it's clearly referred to in this passage, actually by Joshua. In Joshua 24, verse 14, this is what Joshua says in the Holy Spirit-inspired commentary regarding Israel and their ancestors, which brings to us the fifth ingredient in Israel's idolatry, ancestral patterns that contribute to Israel's idolatry. Joshua 24, verse 14 says, Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth. and put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord." Notice what it says. Put away the gods which your father served beyond the river. What's beyond the river? That's Euphrates. Well, who's there? Oh, we know who he's talking about. He's talking about Abraham. He's the only ancestor of the Jews who served idols beyond the river. Terah was an idol maker, according to Jewish tradition. Abraham worshipped idols, according to all of the Hebrew teaching. Abraham was not a God-fearing man until the true God appeared to Abraham and made a covenant promise with him. Joshua is reminding something, that this idolatry is nothing new. This has always been part of the family disease that passed down from generation to generation. The Word of God doesn't mince words when it comes to our common fallenness and our sinful disposition. We have inherited not only a sinful nature from our forefathers, but according to 1 Peter 1, verse 18 and 19, we have inherited a futile way of life and a futile way of worship. 1 Peter 1 verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. Peter is talking about true, genuine salvation and redemption that comes through Christ and not by futile idolatry and worship. The amazing truth of God's grace is that He chooses to work with people like us. That's simply fantastic news. That's good news. And that's the Gospel truth. Before we continue on, may I remind us where we inherited most of our idolatrous passions. We got it from the futile ways of life from our parents. Especially if you're a first-generation Christian, your parents are still idolaters. They worship money, materialism. They worship themselves as if they are so admirable of worship, so amiable, worthy of worship. They surmise that they are so important of worship. They're selfish people because they're self-oriented, because they made themselves gods. worthy of all devotion and honor. And they have given some of that as your cultural and spiritual inheritance. It is what we must shed. As Jacob, before he became a true worshipper of God, had to get rid of all the idols, the Tefillin. We must get rid of all of our sinful idolatry of our forefathers, who have transmitted it to us in saying, Live for yourself and for your glory. Live for the things of the world and not for God. Think worldly, not heavenly. Ancestral patterns. I'm afraid that we're no better than these Israelites. We're basically knee-jerk idolaters too, just like them. As soon as their visible leader Moses is not there, they revert right back into their sinful, past. The amazing thing about it is that God's grace was still available to them. The rest of this passage is the passage about God's grace. He had every right to judge them. He had every right to reject them. He had every justification to not to bless them, but to curse them. But he doesn't. That's what the rest of the passage is about. Now, he's angry. And so we're going to see some of the reasons why he's angry. He's angry at idolatry. He can't stand idolatry. He said, you will have no other gods before me. You will not make anything. They just blatantly disobeyed that. The first two commandments. So let's look at the verses 7 to 10. Now the indignation of the holy God against idolatry. We've seen the ingredients, the five ingredients which contributed to Israel's idolatry. Now I want you to see the indignation of the Holy God against idolatry. Now I want you to see three reasons why God is so angry and wrathful. And then, verse 10, we're going to see His confirmation. In the midst of His anger, He confirms His servant, Moses, as the one who stands before His wrath and the vessels of His wrath, Moses. is now the mediatory intercessor. He is sovereignly placed there by God, pointed out by God, graciously given the power and the means to appease God's wrath and to protect God's people. It's a fantastic passage. So let's take a look. Verse 7. In this passage we have to look carefully, not only to what is being said, but what is not being said by God. about israel first god gives the three full reasons why he's so angry and toward israel's idolatry the first one is in verse seven he says i'm angry because of their corruption then the lord spoke to moses go down at once for your people notice what it says your people there is a purposeful distancing by god with israel you see this whom you brought up from the land of egypt well got i thought it was god who sent moses and God brought them up. No, no, no, no. God doesn't want to have anything to do with them. Your people, you brought them up, have corrupted themselves. There is a deliberate distancing. It is because God is angry and He doesn't want to associate Himself with Israel. And yet, there's something else going on here. Something important. Notice God's admonition to Moses. Go down at once. Now, if God were preparing to judge Israel, Why does he even need to bring Moses into this? If he needs to say anything to Moses, he should say, I'm going to judge them. And that's that. But he involves Moses in it. He tells them, you go down and you check it out for yourself. Why doesn't God simply judge? Hmm. There's something else going on here. It's clear that God is angry at Israel's spiritual and moral corruption. But there's a lot more than what meets the eye. Let's look at verse 8. God is angry at Israel's corruption. God is also angry at their contradiction. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have quickly turned aside. That's another reason for God's anger. Even before the ink is dry in the covenant, Israel is breaking it. Israel is blatantly contradicting their words and their covenant promises to God before they made to God the awesome God, the holy God, as if God's word is so little that they could just ignore it. They could contradict it. God is angry. And God says, They have made for themselves a molten calf, and worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. That is just a blatant contradiction. What is a calf? A golden calf only represents an animal. What did God do to the animals during the ten plagues? What did He do? Did He not judge them? Why? Because the Egyptians worshipped the animals. They worshipped the calf. There were polytheists. They had over 50 gods that were institutionalized nationally, plus hundreds of others that are worshipped locally. There were major polytheists. God destroyed the livestock by sending hail from the heavens because He was punishing all their gods. That is a blatant contradiction of what they already know. God is angry. You know, God is angry when we use His name and use that as a licentious way, as an antinomian, to live any way we want. God is angry when we take God's truth and twist it and bend it and bring illogic into it, irrationality into it, and suppose somehow that makes sense in the world. Israel was blatantly contradicting themselves, and they were basically calling God. He's not that mighty. He doesn't judge. Oh, the other idols of Egypt He judged, but He won't judge this. This is God. Blatant contradiction. What led to their idolatry? One of the things that God hates and He is angry at is the callousness of their hearts. Look at verse 9. Not only their corruption, not only their contradiction, but their callousness. The Lord said to Moses, verse 9, I have seen this people. I have checked them out, He says. And behold, they are an obstinate people. God is angry because Israel is stubborn and they are unteachable and their hearts are hardened. and they turn their backs against God. They're so quick and bound down to this dumb, mute idol. They're so quick in idolatry. They're so slow in obedience and learning of God. It's because they have a callous heart. God is angry because they harden their own hearts against the truth of God. And yet at the same time, look at this beautiful passage in verse 10, how God confirms His servant, the confirmation. Now, then let me alone. What is God saying? Let me alone, Moses. Is Moses in God's way? Can Moses, little puny Moses, do anything? Has God set His heart against destroying His people? No. This is a subtle form of a test. It is a test to show that Moses, is the ordained and the confirmed servant who is now to serve as God's mediatory intercessor. Firestone Company once had a commercial for their 40,000 mile tire. They took the tire on an 80,000 mile run. And after 80,000 miles they show, see, it still runs fine. And it's rated at 40,000. Their 40,000 mile tire is good and will outlast even 80,000 miles of wear. God is showing Moses by testing him and confirming him by saying, Moses, I'm about to burn against Israel in my anger. Stand back. I'm going to judge them and I'm going to exalt you. Very subtle, isn't it? Look at verse 10. Now then, let me alone, that my anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of you a great nation." You see, a lesser of a man, a lesser of a leader, would jump all over that and say, OK, God, I'm ready. Yeah, those people, they're just no good boneheads anyways. I have been faithful to you from the very beginning. Go ahead, bless me. Curse them. But not Moses. Not him. Even though God has every right to punish Israel for their apostasy, and He has every right to make a new covenant with Moses, and yet the Lord confirms His faithfulness to His servant, and how He incites His servant to have the heart that He has, of long-suffering and patience, and of mercy and forgiveness, and yet Moses, He doesn't understand where this is coming from, but somehow, someway, this is not the same Moses who doubted, who was a major skeptic and agnostic before the burning bush when God said, I want you to go and deliver my people. He said, I'll go send somebody else. I'm kind of really a lame speaker. Send somebody else, not me. Just anybody, but not me. And God burned in anger against Moses. He was so unsure of himself. Now look at Moses. He is interceding on behalf of his people. Moses' love for God's people and his solidarity with them is unfailing. If you notice what Moses does next, from verses 11 to 13. And now we see the third major component of this passage, the intervention and the intercession of the mediator. The intercession of the mediator. That's Moses. And if you can see the New Testament parallel of Moses' role here before God toward his people, then you can clearly see Jesus' high priestly role for us before our Heavenly Father. We have the same God. He is still today blazingly holy. He hates sin for all it is. And we have a greater high priest than Moses ever had. And yet God instilled into Moses a heart of an intercessor, God built into Him the spiritual muscles of love and solidarity for His people. Our Lord Jesus Christ, if you remember His sermon last week, loves us for all of eternity. And He has, once and for all, dived into an eternal solidarity with us by becoming the eternal man, even though He is eternally God. And He will never ever separate Himself from us. Jesus had the opportunity to bypass the cross and receive all the kingdoms of the world had He succumbed. When Satan said, bow down just to me just once and worship me and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world, to bypass the cross. You don't have to go through the cross. You can go around the cross. You can still have all the kingdoms. Your Father said, all these kingdoms you will reign over. Well, you're going to have it now. That's the temptation. That's a great temptation, by the way. It's the same temptation, perhaps, that Moses could have had if this is temptation at all. It's a promise of God. I'm going to destroy them, and I'm going to make a new covenant with you. Now, a lot of people, most of us, will scratch our heads and say, well, God can't do that, theologically, because there are covenantal promises that come all the way from the book of Genesis. I mean, Scripture says that that the scepter will not depart from Judah, and that's way before, way before Moses. God promised that through Jacob, the scepter will not depart from Judah. God made a covenant with Abraham, and that tribe of Judah is recognized. If God gets rid of all of these people, Moses from the tribe of Levi, how is God going to keep His promises? Lest we undermine God's omniscience and His omnipotence, Remember the words of Jesus who said, He is able to from these rocks raise up children of Abraham. God has no problems with theological difficulties that we have. He can do whatever He can do. And He can raise up people and keep those promises. But will He? No. We know He won't. What we see here is not what the Bible describes, but it's clearly the message of this passage, and that is that God, being so ungracious and is ready to just blow in fury to wipe out Israel, which was exactly His heart, has also at the same time graciously provided Moses. He has revealed himself in such a way that he has imparted his heart to Moses. And now Moses is the great mediator and intercessor. Moses is there because of God's sovereign grace. At the same time, God's law, his justice must be upheld. His wrath, his grace is perfectly balanced, ready to check that and provide redemption and forgiveness and substitution for the people. It's an amazing portrayal of the grace that we have experienced through Christ. Now let's take a look at the intervention and the intercessory role of the mediator in verses 11-13. Here God seems so unmerciful, I'm going to wipe him out he says, but it is the same God who mercifully prepares Moses. You see that? Verse 11, Moses then appeals to God's power. He appeals to God's power. Verse 11. Then Moses entreated the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people? See that pronoun change again? God purposely distanced himself with using a pronoun, your people, Moses. They. You brought them up. Now he says, no, no, God. They're your people. Whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt. with great power and with great mighty hand. Notice Moses' intercession, reminding God, if you will, as if God could forget. But notice what Moses is doing. He is appealing to God's might and His power. Because God, by His own words, said in Exodus chapter 3, way before when He called Moses, verse 10, Therefore come now, I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. Moses remembered that. Moses remembered God's promises. Moses knew something about God's character that God would never take back His promise. And God did it out of His mighty power. Moses was very concerned about God's reputation. And that's why he says what he says next in verse 12. He appeals to God's prestige. Here Moses appeals to God's power. God, You're a mighty God. You did mighty things. Don't let people think you're a puny God. That these people just came out of Egypt by accident or by good fortune. They're your people, God. I am your person. I belong to you. I'm your man. They're your people. Moses appeals to God's power. Then he appeals to God's prestige in verse 12. Moses is so concerned about God's honor and his reputation. This is what he says, Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, With evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth? Why would you give the unbelieving heathen people that you destroyed, that you subdued, any reason for them to slander your character? There's a deep theological message here. Egypt stands for sin, Satan, The dominion of darkness? You know, there's a lot of people in the world today that don't believe in an all-powerful, all-loving God because of the presence of evil. That's why the cross of Jesus Christ and His powerful resurrection is such a thorny theological problem for such wicked people. They want to use the presence of evil to discount, deny God. Moses is saying, God, if you kill them, These heathen, pagan people who have been defeated before you, they will have reasons to malign your character. Turn from your burning anger and change your mind about doing harm to your people. And Moses intercedes. But his intercession is because he is so passionate about God's glory and his prestige. Moses is intensely interested in making sure that God preserves his prestige and his honor. So Moses appeals to God's power, he appeals to God's prestige, and then thirdly, he appeals to God's promises. Verse 13, Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself no greater authority than God, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, they shall inherit it forever. Moses appeals to God's unchanging and unfailing covenant with the patriarchs. God's covenant promises are at stake. Again, his reputation, his honor, his word is at stake. That's why God cannot forsake Israel. Ever. Malachi 3, verse 6. The prophet Malachi speaks forth the words of God. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed." How many times have we read the Old Testament and said, these people need zapping? How can they turn against their God when He has delivered them so many times? Remember during the periods of judges and the kings? He sent them prophet after prophet, judge after judge, truth after truth, miracle after miracle, and yet stiffened, hardened their hearts, stiffened their necks. And yet the scripture says God doesn't change. His basic character, His eternal purposes and His decrees cannot change and will not change. Moses reminds God, if you can use these words, of His unfailing character, His promises and His glory. That's what's at stake. Now, we can understand something about the content of our Lord's intercession for us from this. Because our Lord Jesus Christ, He is intensely interested in the Father's character glory. Not for our sake, but for God's sake first, and then for our sake. The reason why He does such a powerful and passionate job as an intercessor, as our Great High Priest, is because God's glory and His Word is at stake. If He says, All who would come to Me, I will in no less cast them aside, if that's what Jesus promised, Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, and they come to a personal saving relationship with Christ. How can God give up on him? If God saved you, who can damn you when Christ our Lord is for us? Who can be against us? You know, if Jesus slept just for a moment on his job, if he could ever sleep, if he just took a short break, If he can never take a break, then we would lose our salvation. But the reason why we won't lose our salvation is because he will never sleep, never takes a break, and he passionately pleads our cause before the Father. And he says, Father, I died for him. I died for her. My blood is applied. They're sinless. You imputed my perfect work and my perfect life and righteousness to him or her. He or she belongs to you. They're yours. And the Father is pleased by that. And he withholds his judgment. And he looks upon his Son with great favor and through our Lord Jesus Christ to us with great favor. We, in our sinful nature, are horribly offensive to God. It's like these people of Israel, they deserve death and condemnation right there. And yet, we saw the appeal to God's promises that Moses made, the appeal to God's prestige and God's power. Now, finally, I want you to look at verse 14, the appeal that made God pause. the appeal that made God pause from His anger. So, the Lord changes mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people. The Lord changes mind. What an incredible phrase that is, right? The Lord changing His mind. That's not a contradiction. That is called accommodation. for our sake. Do you know what accommodation is? It's when your parents, when you were a little boy or a little girl or a baby, accommodated to your field of vocabulary and knowledge, and used baby talk to communicate his or her love and affection for you. Baby talk. Do you know what baby talk is? Goo-goo, ga-ga, baby want to pee-pee? That's baby talk. Or they can say, is your bladder full? Shall I take you to the bathroom so that you may urinate?" That's not the language. This is accommodation. Our God is telling us something about His loving, merciful character and the basis by which His purpose of wrath and anger must be resolved. Somehow, in God's economy, somebody has to pay. But the reason why God placated is because there was a sufficient mediator. There was an intercessor. The fact that the Scriptures can say that God changed His mind, it means that God did not follow through with His righteous judgments and acts that He must exact upon the sinful creatures. But He didn't do that because God mercifully provided a mediator. And God mercifully provided the heart of the mediator to intercede, and through prayer God turned away his wrath." That's what we find here. God didn't technically change his mind at all. He cannot change his basic nature and his perfect disposition. He cannot change his eternal decrees. But the grounds for such, quote-unquote, change, anthropomorphic accommodation is that this intercession, repentance and God's great compassion was all at work here. So God sends his servant back to indict Israel of their flagrant sins. That's the first thing that we will understand about forgiveness is that there must be a deep guilt and a sense of knowing what sin is and how much it offended a holy God. and there must be genuine repentance. Without it, there is no forgiveness, as you will see next week in the next passage. There must be a proper intermediary, intercessor. And we know that that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our perfect mediator. There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. Without Christ's intercessory work, we will lose our salvation in a heartbeat. God is so wrathful and angry at our sin, He cannot stand a single moment of it. And we know that we can never ever work up to God by our own fleshly efforts. Never. We can never appease God on our own. We can never satisfy His wrath and His justice against sin. The Word of God clearly tells us so. Galatians 2.16, Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. You cannot swim unaided from here to Hawaii and survive. You cannot do it. But you can get on a yacht, a nice cruise boat, and you can get there. Through Christ, salvation is attainable. Without Him, we'll perish. The Mosaic Covenant was given to show our sin for what it is and show how desperately, desperately, we fall short of God's perfect standards. We need a mediator. We need a Savior. We need a Redeemer. So did Israel. And you know what? God provided that. And God provided Moses for Israel graciously. He provided Christ. The perfect Lamb of God. God's Son. The Son of God. We have Him. May the church forever worship God because of God's provision of a perfect mediator between God and man. The man, Jesus Christ. And may we understand that our basic sinful tendency of idolatry inherited from our forefathers should teach us sufficiently that we can never ever meet up to God's standards. What are we going to transmit to our children as we think about what we learn today? What are we going to transmit to our children? We need to transmit that they have a mediator, the truth and the introduction to their Savior, Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We need to get them to cling to Jesus Christ, to beg God for His mercy and grace, and watch God lavishly provide the way for them to inherit eternal life. And then we need to let them loose to be what they are called to be, kingly, royal priests before the world, a holy nation unto God. to help them to see that they can be a servant leader, like Moses was, and intercede on behalf of others. We have a lot of work to do. And we have a great motivation to do it. Our Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us. We must intercede also on behalf of others. And we must intercede on behalf of our next generation. It's not enough that our spiritual life is good and well, that Lord Jesus blesses us and we follow Him and do His work. It's not enough. It's important that we transmit that. And may the Lord bless you as you commit these things to heart, as you begin to worship God for your great intercessor who abides in heaven forever, who is there, still now, working on your behalf, that all your sin and unrighteousness, yes, even idolatry, your fickle heart is forgiven. And then you may have a renewed access to the throne of grace through Christ. And that's why we can worship God. May the Lord bless you as you realize that. Let's pray. Father, thank you for giving us our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that He is a perfect mediator and intercessor far greater and better than Moses ever was. But we thank you that you've given us an Old Testament picture of what you do through Christ on our behalf. Just as you have provided the mediator and intercessor in the moment of your greatest wrath against a sinful nation, a fickle nation, who had profession but not practice, whose neck was stiff, whose heart was hardened, and was quick to sin, to bow down to idols, and yet slow to obey. And yet you still kept your promise that a remnant of Israel has been preserved and is still being preserved, even to the very end. And we know that your end-time purposes will be fulfilled. before Christ returns. And as your bride in the New Testament Church, we see that you are a holy God. Your character is unchanging. Father, teach us never to be presumptuous. Help us to fear and tremble before your holy throne. Help us not to presume because of our Lord is interceding on our behalf that we can sin indiscriminately. Teach us, Lord, turn to You and hate the things that You hate and love the things that You love. Build into us a great joy and motivation to live for You and to please You, not by keeping some sort of moral code that we can never keep, but by trusting in Jesus Christ alone and taking His yoke upon us, learning of Him and desiring to be more like Him. May we encourage one another to live for you. As you are holy, may we also be holy. May we desire the things that you do. And Lord, use us in this day, in this generation, as intercessors, as people who lift up fallen men and women before your throne, that we too can bow in prayer with sincerity of heart in our seat on behalf of those who desperately need the great mediatory intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, who needs salvation. So we come before you and we give you thanks and praise for the word that we have received Now would You cause the Word to germinate and bear fruit, a fruit of great joy, of great satisfaction in You, worship that overflows with gratitude, and love that overflows to our brethren. For Your sake we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. Have a wonderful time of discussion.