Who’s Side Are You On?
Exod 32:26

 

 

Introduction: We don’t like to choose sides. (ex. Family Conflicts, Religious Conflicts i.e. Delivery guy, Christian/Muslim.

 

 

This is not like being picked to play basketball in the gym when you’re in high school. You don’t choose to sit this one out and no one will dictate to you whether you’re on the losing side. You don’t have to be picked last, because nobody’s any more worthy than anyone else to serve under the Captain of the winning team, but everyone has the same invitation.

 

When it comes to serving God, the lines are drawn, the sides defined, and so I believe the Lord Jesus beckons us tonight, even as Moses did these Israelites 3500 years ago, Who is on the Lord’s Side?

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Background: Moses has been in the mount, according to chapter 24, for 40 days and 40 nights and he has been in the direct presence of God receiving the law on behalf of the Children of Israel, who had earlier requested that God not speak to them directly, but through the prophet Moses. And after Moses had been missing in the mount for a little over a month these people began to get a bit antsy. (Notice this entire mess that Israel winds up in nationally stems from their desire not to hear the word of God, and a refusal to continue looking for the return of their prophet and king.)

 

1.      Our Common Problem. (v.1 “the people gathered themselves together”) The entire scene is kicked off with a direct and open rebellion against the known will of God. (That’s exactly what sin is, isn’t it. It’s when you decide that God’s way of doing things isn’t the best way for you to do a thing, so you just do whatever you want to do.) Our hearts rebellion, just like that of the Israelites eventually plunges us into wickedness and lasciviousness, our refusal to worship the Creator results in worshiping the created, and we are before God, naked with no satisfactory righteousness of our own. (v. 25 says that Moses found them naked) They weren’t naked in the sense of being in the complete nude, the Bible uses it in this way many times. They’re naked in the same way the average teenage girl is naked whenever she gets dressed up to go to a high school graduation, a wedding, or church in many cases. They were naked in the same way that Adam and Eve were naked before God in spite of the fact they had sewn fig leaves together to cover their nakedness.  (Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags)

 

2.      The Characterization of the Problem. Some of this crowd was getting drunk, others were dancing naked around that golden calf, others were gorging themselves with the sacrificial meat, and some were just consenting by their silence, but Moses describes the condition of the whole lot when he comes down from mount, sees the debauchery and dashes the tablets of the law to pieces on the ground. We tend to like to justify some sin, and vilify others, but in the site of God every bit of it puts us all in the same bracket of humans. We’re sinners. For whosoever keepeth the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (Jas 2:10) See Rom 3:10, 23.

 

3.      The Common Punishment. Our common problem has qualified each and every one of us for a common wrath outside of Jesus Christ. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36) In verse 10 the LORD says to Moses, Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them. That’s what he had done to the cities of the plain of Sodom, that’s what he’ll do to this planet in the future, and that’s what he would have done to my sinful soul for eternity in a literal lake of fire if hadn’t been for the prophet like unto Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

4.      The Case Pleaded. The only thing that kept the LORD from letting the consuming fire of God fall on the whole nation of Israel was His servant Moses pleading their case in the Mount. I’m so glad that while I was in the valley living like hell I had an intercessor up on the mount pleading my case. I’m so glad my Saviour went to Calvary, bore my sin and my shame in my place, and spared me from eternal judgment giving me brand new life.

 

Transition: At the close of this ordeal, while the nation has been spared there is still judgment to be executed, work to be done, and Moses asks one of the most pressing questions in all of scripture, from which we’ve taken our text.

 

Who is on the LORD’S side? Let him come unto me.

This is not the call to salvation, which has been secured by partaking of a solution that we’ll mention in a moment; this is a call to service. Who’s on the LORD’S side?

 

Joshua 24:15

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

 

1 Kings 18:21

21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

 

Luke 16:13

13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

  • What is the desire of your heart?

Psalms 119:20

My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

Matthew 6:22

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

  • Where do your loyalties lie?

Matthew 10:37

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 6:21

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

  • What cost are you willing to pay?
    • The Lord’s side is against the world.
    • Being on the Lord’s side places you in a minority.
    • Being on the Lord’s side at times will be controversial
    • It can even cause you to be despised and rejected.

 

The Most Important Part:

 

The destruction of the calf: (Exod 32:20/Deut 9:21)

  1. He melted it.
  2. He stamped it.
  3. He ground it into powder.
  4. He put it into the brook.
  5. He made the children of Israel drink it.

 

Gold is much heavier than water, which makes it insoluble in water. But when you go through the steps that Moses went through and reduce the gold to a powder it takes on what’s called in Chemistry a colloidal condition. When colloidal gold is placed into water, it doesn’t dissolve, because it is still insoluble, but it is suspended, and incidentally it turns the water into a deep blood red color. It is non-toxic having had all the impurities burnt off of the gold, and it would even possess purifying qualities. It is a perfect picture of the blood of Christ.

 

What can take away my sin?

What can make me whole again?

 

There is a strong indication from this passage that the 3,000 that were killed refused the cleansing made available to them by the blood red brook flowing from the mountain where the presence of God dwelt.

The only way to avoid eternal death, and to qualify to stand on the Lord’s side, is to first appropriate the precious blood of Christ, shed on Calvary nearly 2,000 years ago.