This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day two together of week seven of our look through the book of Exodus,
Exodus chapter 32 today. And as we approach this chapter, I want to take a
moment to remind you of the great principles of freedom that we've seen as we've
walked through the book of Exodus, because there is another of those great
principles in this chapter. As we began the book of Exodus and we saw Moses
placed in a basket by his mother, we were reminded of this principle of freedom.

Someone has to take the risk to trust God. In order to be set free, someone has
to take the risk to trust God. When we saw Moses fleeing into the desert in
fear, we were reminded, I cannot do this on my own power.

When Moses met with God at the burning bush, we were reminded of a third
principle of freedom. I am in desperate need of God's power. In Moses' facing of
Pharaoh, we saw this principle of freedom.

I must come face to face with my biggest problem. The fifth principle of freedom
we saw at the Red Sea, and that principle is God is able to do what I cannot do.
God is able and willing to do what I cannot do.

A sixth principle of freedom we've seen again and again and again these last
several weeks as we've walked with Moses and the people of Israel through the
desert. That principle is you have to watch out for the little things. You have
to live freedom in the routine, ordinary, everyday deserts of life.

And now in Exodus chapter 32, we see a seventh major principle of freedom. As
Moses encounters the sin of the people with the golden calf, we learn together
that in order to be set free, I will have to forgive the people who have let me
down. To be set free, I have to forgive the people who've let me down.

If I hold unforgiveness in my heart, I will never be set free. Let's walk
through what happened in this chapter. The sin that Moses needed to forgive in
this chapter is so obvious, it's famous.

In verses one to six, listen to what happened. When the people saw that Moses
was so long and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and
said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. For this fellow Moses, who
brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.

" Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons,
and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me. " So all the people took
off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. And he took what they handed him
and made it into an idol cast into the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a
tool.

And then he said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of
Egypt. " When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and
announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord. " So the next day the
people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship
offerings.

Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
There's a lot we could say about the sin of the people here. But I want to focus
on Moses in this chapter and his need to forgive.

Moses finds out about this sin in a very unusual way. He finds out from the Lord
himself in verses seven and eight. Moses is up on the mountain with the Lord.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up
out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I
commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.
They have bound down to it and have sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are
your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

'" Now as you read what the Lord says to Moses, what strikes all of us is this
phrase, "Your people, who you brought up out of Egypt. " It's one of those
situations almost where one parent says to the other, "Oh, that's your son.
That's your daughter," when they're acting in a way that they don't want them to
act.

God says to Moses, "Oh, your people have committed this sin. " Moses is involved
in it and he hears about it from the Lord and he goes down to talk with the
people. And where does he start?

He starts with anger. When he first meets with the people and talks with them,
listen to what happens beginning in verse 19. When Moses approached the camp and
saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned.

And he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them into pieces at the foot
of the mountain. And he took the calf that they had made and he burned it in the
fire and he ground it into powder and he scattered it on the water and he made
the Israelites drink it. That's a lot of anger.

So the first response to this sin is Moses' first response in front of the
people is this response of anger. Now Aaron, Aaron who had brought this all
about, who had allowed it to happen, his leadership had allowed it to happen,
Aaron just gave excuses. Verses 21 to 24, "Moses said to Aaron, 'What did these
people do to you that you led them into such a great sin?

' 'Do not be angry, my Lord,' Aaron answered, 'You know how prone these people
are to evil. They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this
fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to
him.

' So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off. ' And they gave me
the gold and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. " What an excuse.

Aaron will not take responsibility for what he did. They told me I had to do it.
I threw it into the fire and somehow this calf just sort of popped out.

When the Bible tells us clearly he fashioned it and he made it. Now there's a
whole message in why Israel would make a golden calf. Essentially it's a god
they thought they could control.

And on the devastation this false god brought into their lives. And on the
devastation that Aaron's failure to take ownership for what he'd done brought
into the people's lives. But here I want to focus on Moses in this chapter, his
choice to forgive.

Moses doesn't run from this problem. He confronts the problem. He confronts the
people and he confronts his own brother Aaron.

And that confrontation led him to a place of forgiveness. If you've wronged
someone else, you need to confess it to them and then seek forgiveness. If
someone has wronged you, which is what happened to Moses here, you need to
confront it with them and then offer forgiveness.

In both cases it ends with forgiveness. And in this case Moses had to confront
it. Moses had to confront Aaron, the ringleader, and I do mean the pun there.

He told him to take the earrings off and put them in the fire. He's the
ringleader of this calf making and he wouldn't take responsibility. If he had
taken responsibility, 3,000 people might not have died.

But he was certainly made fully aware of his wrong. If you're going to get down
off of a golden calf, you've got to confront that which got you on it. If it's a
person, you've got to confront that.

Now you may not be able to meet with that person. It may not be appropriate for
you to talk to that person any longer. Usually it is.

But it may be a situation where they've died or where it's not going to go
anywhere. But with someone else you need to sit down and talk the situation
through. Confront what happened.

Don't pretend it didn't happen. You have to confront it. If it's a habit or an
attitude in your own life, you pray for the strength to confront it.

If it's a bitterness in your life, you pray for the strength to confront it. If
it's something someone else did to you, then you have to confront it. Why?

Because you don't confront it just to express your anger. You confront it in
order to let it go. You confront it in order to come to a place of forgiveness.

And that's where Moses ended up. The major reason that the people of Israel were
able to move forward from this point was because of the love of Moses and
forgiveness of Moses. That love was a love which first of all prayed for the
people.

Verses 9 to 12, "I have seen these people," the Lord said to Moses, "and they
are stiff neck people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them
and that I may destroy them, and then I will make you into a great nation. " But
Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God.

"O Lord," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people whom you
brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the
Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in
the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth? Learn from your fierce
anger.

Relent and do not bring disaster on your people. " This is an amazing prayer,
this prayer of Moses. God says, "Moses, I'm giving you an offer.

I'll start over just with you. " Now I think God was partially testing Moses
here. And Moses' prayer is a prayer of forgiveness.

Relent from your anger. Save these people. Forgive them.

If there's a hurt that's in your life and you're not sure you can forgive
someone, where do you start? You start by praying for them. You may think, "I
can't even pray for them.

" Start by talking to God about them at least. Make it a conversation with God
and then you'll be able to pray for them and then eventually you'll be able to
forgive them. "I don't want to forgive them," you say.

If you don't forgive them, that bitterness is going to keep you enslaved the
rest of your life. Moses found the strength to forgive in his conversation with
God about the people. He found even more than that.

He prayed for them, but he also had a sacrificial love for them, a love which
was willing to give his very self for these people. This is above and beyond
what you think you might even be able to do. Listen to what happens in verses 30
to 35.

The next day Moses said to the people, "You've committed a great sin, but now I
will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. " So Moses
went back to the Lord and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have
committed.

They've made themselves gods of gold, but now please forgive their sin. But if
not, then blot me out of the book you have written. " The Lord replied to Moses,
"Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before
you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their
sin. " The Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did and the
calf that Aaron had made.

So there were still physical consequences for this sin and the people of Israel.
But the nation was saved because of this prayer of Moses, this willingness of
Moses. With all of the struggles and even mistakes that Moses has as a leader,
and we've seen them as we've walked through this book, it is deeply evident that
he loves the people that God's given him to lead.

He prayed for them to be rescued. He offered himself instead of them. He loved
them with a sacrificial love.

It takes someone's love like that to help someone else escape false worship. At
that time when you most want to give up on someone sometimes is the time when
you most need to love them. It's our love for one another in the fellowship of
Christ that pulls us away from the destructiveness of golden calves.

And for Moses it meant forgiveness. Moses ends with forgiveness. So the question
for me, the question for you is, who do you need to forgive?

Who do you need to confront? And who do you need to forgive? Where does it
start?

It starts in your heart. It starts with forgiveness in your heart. Right now, in
a prayer of faith, right now, would you offer to God a prayer of forgiveness?

And just say, "God, I forgive him. This example of Moses has challenged my
heart. And so I don't know all that it means even, but I forgive them.

I let it go to you. I put the judgment in your hands, not in my hands. " Father,
some of you might need to pray, "Father, I don't know that I can forgive them,
but I'm willing to be made willing.

Would you make me willing to forgive? " Take that first step into forgiveness.
Jesus, thank you for forgiving us.

Jesus, we do not want to live in prisons of our own making, our own bitterness.
And so give us the strength, we pray, through your forgiveness of us to forgive.
In your name we pray, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to see together an amazing experience of the presence of
God.