Yeah just before we begin on a very very personal note I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the fellowship uh most of you know I was sideline last year uh undergoing surgery uh radiotherapy and treatment for cancer and um the years ahead are going to be
Full of scans and tests but an and I and the family are really grateful to members of the fellowship who have kept in touch who have assured us of your prayers and that has been absolutely wonderful plus the pledge to keep praying for us uh things are as good as
They can be at the moment according to the last lot of scans but I would like to take this opportunity to give a heartfelt thanks we spoke about cre being a fellowship and I’ve always believed that over the the 130 years or so that have been coming to creef but we
Really felt it acutely over last year that’s how old I look am that’s how old I look but as I say last year was tough treatment loss of my father in the middle of it all but boy did we feel upheld and one of the things I would say
Is that a great tonic a great antidote in difficult times is to have a thankful heart be forever praising God I often say Lord thank you that there may be lives as blessed out there as mine but none more so and we didn’t give give thanks for the fellowship so heartfelt
Thanks and for the ongoing prayers as well we’re going to begin by singing um what is one of my favorite hymns and not just because it has a good base part which well cold at the moment I can’t sing anyway but I always remember listening to that Evangelical
Legend of a man who is Jeff Grogan just shortly before he died after the publication of his last book and among many other sound things he said he said this he said penal substitution is not a do do of the atonement penal substitution is the doctrine of the
Atonement and I would like to think we could give a resounding Amen to that here at grief let’s hear it again amen thank you and the hym that we’re singing reminds us of that great is the gospel of our glorious God Where Mercy met the anger of God’s Rod what we were thinking
About last night a penalty was paid praise God and pardon bought and sinners Lost At Last of him were brought it brings a lump to my throat every time I sing that let’s stand and sing that together thanks GE 178 sorry number number 178 you’re supposed to have the book
Memorized you know all the time we’ve been using it but for those of you who haven’t it’s number 178 some of you may know that I have a very peculiar eating habits partly my own fault and partly because I was diagnosed with Celiac in 2016 so I can’t have gluten or
Happiness they they’re the same thing no it’s really uh of all the maladies it’s there’s no pill to take you just have to be very careful and so I’m very sensitive to those things but that’s only partly to blame I’ve also always been a very picky eater someone showed
Me that it it may I I think it’s even an official diagnosis now selective eating disorder I think it really has a name and I didn’t know all these years of what I was suffering from but I’m I’m hearing about your your exploits in the
Kitchen reminded me of one of the one of the the best pieces of advice that someone gave my wife for which I am always been grateful earlier in our marriage so being very picky and you know people still ask well what what do you do you know how do you you want the
The kids to eat vegetables and I don’t eat any vegetables uh and so they said well what do you do Trisha my wife with Kevin and his diet and all these things and I’m so thankful an older woman in the church said to my wife just remember you’re his wife not his
Mother and that actually gave her a great deal of Freedom you know what I don’t have to fix you you’re broken already and uh it saved it has saved us a lot of so thank you for that and uh my mother it’s not her fault uh she tried
But we did grow up with uh so D young is a Dutch name and we grew up with very how shall we say regular regimented Dutch cooking from the Midwest in the United States it really was like the same thing every Monday night Tuesday night Wednesday night on and on I just
Figured you can say set your clock to it and uh i’ I have five things I like so I don’t need to have any more uh but I do know how to well I don’t even drink coffee so I’m not sure what I’m good for but thank you for the opportunity to
Preach the word perhaps there’s something good that’s helpful for us here and our text as we continue is in Exodus chapter 32 let me read beginning at verse 15 the third of these four expositions as you know making our way through this momentous tragic but then wonderful
Chapter and here we have as Moses has just interceded because he’s heard the Lord has told him what he’s going to do and then Moses prays but Moses has not seen with his own eyes until now the Rebellion that is a foot and he is rightfully angry then
Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand tablets that were written on both sides on the front and on the back they were written the tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved
On the tablets when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted he said to Moses there is a noise of war in the camp but he said it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the Cry of defeats but the sound of singing that I
Hear and as soon as he came near the camp saw the calf and the dancing Moses anger burned hot and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain he took the calf that they had made and burned it
With fire and grounded to powder and Scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it and Moses said to Aaron what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them and Aaron said now this is very
Pathetic let not the anger of my Lord burnart you know the people that they are set on evil for they said to me make us Gods who shall go before us as for this Moses the the man who brought us up out of the the land of Egypt we do not
Know what has become of him so I said to them let any who have gold take it off so they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf yeah you you you’re either going to laugh or you’re going to cry at Aaron’s
Pitiful response they gave me this gold I threw it in the fire bada boom bada bing there’s a calf this is a passage filled with noise now I assume that you’re familiar with the Dr Seuss story The Grinch who stole Christmas and have read the book or there’s now many movie adaptations I
Grew up with the half-hour cartoon version every Christmas all the boys and girls in hville opening their presence and the Grinch there says to himself and all of their clamor noise noise noise and I do admit that at times I have something of a I’d like to think a lovable but Grinchy
Persona around our house because you say what is it like to have nine kids well one of the things there is noise noise noise now I know well-meaning people say to me when I give that sort of tongue and cheek complaint they say with almost a tear trickling down their face someday
It will be so tragically quiet well I believe that for you and I’ll get there someday but for now it’s a cacophony of noise we have in our dining room my mother-in-law’s piano which I think was passed down from her mother and it’s there this lovely upright piano and my
Kids like to play it all the time the problem is not a one of them have had piano lessons but all of them from the threeyear old up to the 20-year-old love to play and some of them have taught themselves little jingles and some of it’s just pounding out that’s one layer
Of noise there’s also especially in the winter months where it might be rainy or cold and everyone’s inside there’s kids running around and wrestling and screaming and crying and St ping and it really is true how boys and girls are different and now I have big boys and
And they frighten me the 18-year-old and the 20-year-old um I’d like to say they’re not taller than me but maybe the 18-year-old were about the same but they’re you know strapping Lads and they get into a scrap because that’s what boys do just to they just fight they
Just play this game they they my son from University was home and up stairs we have sort of a area rug which serves no purpose whatsoever because it’s over carpet all but it’s there and my wife likes it so that’s the purpose but it serves the purpose for my boys of being
Something of a wrestling ring and so it’s I don’t know you know 10t by 10t or something and my son from college came home and he introduced to the other brothers this game called uh sock it’s the sort of things you learn at American University
And it’s very simple you have to try to remove the sock from the other person and so you play this in your socks and you just wrestle and grab one another until you can pin down the other brother and remove one of his socks yeah that’s
What you do when you’re grown boys I remember when I was in college some of my roommates I’d like to say I was smarter than them they played a game called rockf foot what was it you tied your foot together with your friend’s foot and you got a rock and you tried to
Smash the other brother’s foot Rock foot just like it sounds these are these are why scientists have have discovered that the male brain it really doesn’t fully fuse together until about 24 or 25 so our house has noise one son loves to play the guitar and for some foolish
Reason because he asks we even got him an electric guitar for Christmas another one likes to play on this electric drum set everyday noise noise noise so my Grinchy Spirit comes out but of course not all noise is the same and you will even know as parents
You you learn very early you can tell you know a good cry and a bad cry or yes the child is screaming but probably no blood we might want to check that one out you get to you learn to tell even by their cries and their screams is that laughter
Are they wrestling are they building a fort are they tickling are they tearing something down or is somebody genuinely hurt there’s different kinds of sounds in your house in your life I want us to think from this passage and and think about our own Ministry of the different sounds in Christian
Ministry little bit of a metaphorical spin because their literal Sounds here and we’ll trace it to make a connection to the New Testament as well but I want you to think about the different sounds what Ministry and Christian Life Sounds like three different sounds in Ministry here’s the first one the
Sound of singing now right there you think well that’s good we’ve just been singing But Here In this passage you know it’s the sound of sinful singing now I have to say stick with singing Because all the words are going to start with s so you just know how that works
You could call it the sound of sinning but I’ll just call it the sound of sinful sinning or maybe the sound of rry that’s what’s happening in that famous interchange with Joshua is there war in the camp no no no it’s not shouting it’s not a war it’s it’s singing and normally
We think of singing as something very good but of course here it’s this Pagan rry it may be quite literally an an orgy of pagan idolatry if you remember in the book of Exodus the last song that we heard was in Exodus 15 after they come through the Red Sea the
Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation this is my God and I will praise him that was the sound of Joyful singing we find it all throughout scripture at the high points of Redemptive history there is singing But now in chapter 32 the Israelites are
Singing a different song chapter 15 the Lord is my strength and my song he has become my salvation this is my God God and I will praise him that’s the last song this is my God and I will praise him but go back to verse four here’s
What they’re singing These are your Gods o Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt almost the same language but now with an idolatrous twist you see in verse 18 it’s not the sound of shouting the sound of the Cry of defeat but the sound of singing that
I hear there’s some debate on how to translate this but clearly there’s some kind of rry going on in the camp and I think the ESV gets the gist of it Moses comes down he has some idea that something bad is happening because he’s heard from the Lord that the people have
Broken out in Rebellion but it’s not war it’s not Victory it’s singing probably a riotous combination of dancing music drinking C uality a kind of pagan frat house I don’t know if you have fraternities here but often on American campuses they’re not all bad but they’ll have fraternities and it’s men who get
Together and make a kind of oath to each other but the Frat House typically is just a place for drunken parties while they’re on campus well this is one of those you approach and you see the lights are strobing and the music is thumping and the alcohol is flowing and there’s
Dancing now I won’t tell you what you should think about every kind of dancing it’s not all the same but certainly there’s a bad kind of dancing I remember hearing this joke growing up again apologies to our Baptists some of my very best friends are Baptists but the
Ones who grew up in kind of a they they used to to say you know why Baptists don’t allow premarital sex because they’re afraid it will lead to dancing so there you go uh but the the the the dancing here is of a very bad sort it’s
Part of the rry the singing is not the problem in itself but what it represents and in fact dancing itself is not necessarily the problem Miriam and the women danced for the king of the universe in chapter 15 so we’ve seen good singing we’ve actually seen good
Dancing but now the men and the women they sing and they dance for a cow now notice about this this sound of singing if you would have asked those Israelites in that moment were they having a good time they would have almost certainly said absolutely we’re having a good time
Sin rarely makes us miserable in the moment if it did we wouldn’t sin oh I have to sin I hate oh sinning is so miserable no you you don’t jump into it even an addict who hates the sin that he’s about to commit there’s some sort of instantaneous thrill in a gambling
Addiction or some kind of hit that still comes to you in a drug addiction even if he hates what he knows is coming no we sin because in the moment it’s pleasurable John Piper has in his book future Grace and elsewhere talks about this sin makes promises sin promises it
Makes lies but it it promises us something it tells us that that this will be good and one of the ways that we fight sin is not just with sheer willpower don’t do it don’t do it don’t do it you have to fight the promise proes that sin makes with better
Promises because in the moment sin is good it’s one of the things that we need to help younger Generations see especially as they’re hostile to Christianity have no biblical literacy and they’re apt to think that being a Christian means I have a list of really fun things that I like to do that
I don’t get to do anymore well it’s true there is a cost to being a Christian and there are Commandments that may seem that will seem strange to us in our flesh but no the message that we have is to actually make you the happiest person that you
Can be because sin lies to you what is it that the Puritans say that uh sin always Satan always presents the bait and hides the hook you know the fish swimming under the water this looks like a great deal free food that just dropped down from the heavens you don’t see the
Hook if you knew there was a hook in the Sin you wouldn’t do it there’s joy seemingly in this moment with this rry we need to fight promises with promises one of the the the text that is always stuck with me in this regard is Matthew 58 blessed are the
Pure in heart for they shall see God surely all of you have had occasion to talk to men and it may be women in your congregation who struggle with pornography if you’ve never talked to them then you’re probably not doing some of the Pastoral work you should be doing
Because they’re there they’re there the statistics are just absolutely frightening how many men in particular by I say the age of 21 almost all of them have been exposed to pornography it’s an absolutely devastating epidemic well Matthew 58 blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God
How how when we are are tempted pull something up on our phone on our TV screen go somewhere we shouldn’t go on the internet you think this is going to be a moment of some something some happiness some thrill you have to fight with Greater Joy and that verse in particular has
Been the most helpful in my own life to fight Temptations to impurity the pure in heart shall see God do you see what the Lord’s what Jesus is doing there why why why look at that that gives you pleasure for a moment but the pure in heart shall see
God you see you see why it’s called the fight of Faith you have to believe that to see God in this life and in the beatific Vision in the Life to Come is better than any impure thing you can see in this life you have to believe God actually wants to give me
Exceeding Joy But Here In This Moment sin is making them very happy you think of Psalm 73 ASF said his feet had almost stumbled his steps had nearly slipped I was envious of the Arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked they seem healthy they seem happy they don’t seem
To have any troubles they are singing their way through their worship of the golden calf but of course you know then the psalmist says until I entered into the sanctuary beheld God and His glory and I saw the end of the wicked in this moment they’re happy but it is one of the
Enduring marks of idolatry our Idols always let us down and so it is with these golden calves Moses sees their idolatry and he is not a happy camper with the camp verse 9 says his anger burned hot and notice God does not fault Moses for his anger this is one time where
This is a righteous anger Moses is right to be furious you remember the psalmist saying I shed streams of Tears because men disobey your law I think in my own life do I do I weep or whatever weeping looks like for a Dutchman who’s very straight laced do I weep at the
Disobedience to God’s word Moses is rightfully angry the phrase about his anger burning hot is normally used of God it’s the same phrase used later in verse 10 but here in his anger notice with the sound of this sinful singing Moses does two things first he throws down the tablets of the
Law he’s are the tablets of the testimony written on front and back with the very Finger of God were told in chapter 31 and here we know from the end of chapter 24 and from other parts of the Bible like in Hebrews that the tablets contained The Ten Commandments
The decalogue literally the 10 words it says something about the unique and permanent nature of the Ten Commandments that they are written on Stone with the fingers of God some fine Bible scholars try to make the point that there’s really it’s an artificial distinction that Presbyterians in particular make with
The the tripart division of the law the moral law the judicial law in the ceremonial law but really there there though it’s not spelled out in those exact terms there are good reasons to see that basic distinction at work and one of those reasons to set apart the
Ten Commandments is that the these laws God wrote with his own finger and it speaks to their permanence that they are written on tablets of stone you know as you preach through Exodus 20 into 21 that you get really the Constitution and then case law so
Beginning in chapter 21 you have lots of language if if then or when this happens whereas the Ten Commandments are Thou shalt Thou shalt not the Ten Commandments are fixed rules and then the Mosaic Covenant explains well how do these then apply in a variety of situations given these people
In an agrarian culture under God’s rule as his people but here Moses takes these tablets and he smashes them to the ground it’s not just that he’s angry it’s not just that he’s I remember you know my my I have a a Godly father uh but as All fathers do is
Sometimes we lose our temper and uh sometimes we lose our temper over very unimportant things like sports I’m sure you don’t do this in this country but uh so I was born in Chicago and the American football team there are the Bears and they have won the Super Bowl once
1985 was 40 years ago and they generally bad I remember my dad being so frustrated and throwing a paper across the room my kids so one one years ago the Bears had a quarterback his name was uh Jay Cutler I don’t expect you to know anything about
The Bears quarterbacks but I was very frustrated with him I my second son is named Jacob sometimes we just call him Jay for short and I admit I just let out a just a loud Jay I meant the quarterback my young son said what did I
Do I’m sorry I’m sorry my kids have have have stories of and now we don’t live anywhere near Chicago we live you know 13 hours away from Chicago my kids have never once lived in Chicago they’ve never visited in Chicago and they say remind me dad why am I rooting for this
Team I’ve never lived there I live in Charlotte North Carolina their team’s even worse but I say I’m sorry some things just the sins of the fathers get passed on to their to their children so it’s not like that it’s not Moses just ah I’m so frustrated there is a deliberate symbolic Representation you remember in chapter 24 I read from some of the passages earlier that they say to Moses that’s the confirmation of the Covenant in Exodus 24 and they say twice there all that is spoken we will do all that is written down we will obey they are they are swearing to the
Covenant obligations well now that they have in dramatic fashion as an entire nation broken their end of the Covenant what does Moses do symbolically but he breaks the very statutes of the Covenant it’s not just a peak of anger I’m so frustrated with you people it is to
Symbolize what they have already done you have broken the Covenant and so the Covenant tablets because of your Disobedience have been broken in the same spot you see verse 19 in the same spot as soon as he came near the camp saw the calf and the dancing
Moses anger burned hot and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain perhaps the very same spot where he received them now he he breaks them he not only smashed the tablets that’s the first thing but the second
Thing he does in his righteous anger is he smashes the golden calf actually he does it in a series of steps first you he says burn it with fire it may have been wood overlaid with gold or it may have been entirely gold but he burns it
With fire so it melts then he grounds it into powder so he probably takes this stirs it up with Ash and sludge so this is making a very nasty potion and then scatters it on the water so throwing it into whatever water source so this gold idle perhaps wood
Inside burned down Ash and sludge mixes it into a powder throws the powder on the water and he says now drink it again we shouldn’t think that Moses is just flying off in a fit of rage like you might do with your dog Barry here my friend is for some reason
Getting a dog when he returns um I I think if you presented me get a dog or have a tenth child I’d probably just take a tenth child sounds like less work but it will be very cute puppy and he’s reading a book on what to
Do to train up this dog some of you have wonderful dogs I’m sure sure this isn’t like you know the dog has an accident and you put his face in you say bad dog look at what you’ve done it’s not it’s not Moses just saying here
Here take it take it drink it drink it you bad people look what you’ve nasty people have done no no hold your nose drink it down he’s not doing this in a fit of anger but deliberately he is angry but it’s it’s deliberate what is he doing think think
About it this is a way not only of utterly destroying the idol but also humiliating this is your god and again make the connection the last song in Exodus Exodus 15 when they come through the Red Sea what are they singing about you have swallowed up the
Horse and Rider in its sea god in the Red Sea has swallowed up that’s what the real God does this is not a real God you know what you do with this God you can he’s so impotent so puny you can swallow him drink him
Down and if I can say this this is an earthy observation I’ll say it in a in a light way but you are going to drink down your God and he will pass through your system system and you will eventually pass him out that’s that’s the god that saved you from
Egypt that’s the same God as I am no this is very deliberate what Moses is doing to utterly humiliate this so-called God and to prove a point to the people this God of yours that you’re enjoying is no God at all singing the sound of sin will only
Last for a season that’s part of what Moses is teaching them you have this great rry this will not last this God will not save you this party will not last our Idols will not satisfy and in the end they cannot stand and they’re no better than a cup of sludge Laden
Water so that’s the first sound second the sound of singing or sinful singing the second is the sound of Shifting now here I mean Aaron giving a rather blam shifting answer you see it in verses 21- 24 Moses is up upset with Aaron but he gives his brother a chance
To explain himself he says this was a great sin you see that in verse 21 where did this great great sin come from now the term is almost always used for sexual sin Joseph to Piper’s wife the men of Sodom were called great Sinners and when it’s not used for
Physical adultery it’s used for Spiritual adultery so this great sin probably means the combination of those two there was sexual sin and there was also there’s physical adultery and there’s spiritual adultery going on here in Deuteronomy 9:20 we read that Moses prayed for Aaron so he’s coming to his
Big brother with proper frustration but I think Moses is also coming with something of an open mind take Deuteronomy he prayed for him he’s saying all right bro this is a complete disaster can you tell me what happened and Aaron does not acquit himself well instead of is admitting his fault
He does what Sinners normally do he tries to pass the buck that’s why I say it is the sound of Shifting that is blame shifting notice what he does he blames other people he says verse 22 the people are set on Evil all right verse 23 they told me to make them
Gods now notice those are two true statements they are a people set on evil they did tell Moses to make them Gods but are you like this am I like this do you know people like this sadly we all do and sadly we’re like this more
Often than we care to admit when you’re caught in sin you talk to people in Ministry it’s always someone else’s fault I have bad parents I have bad children you don’t know what I’ve been facing at work I’m under a lot of pressures this church never cared for me
No one was ever there no one visited me when I was in the hospital and you know what the person can even be making all true statements we don’t discount people who are sinned against and have bad families and all the rest but it’s still shifting we still
Are free moral agents who make our own decisions what is it that I think David poison once said true people may push your buttons but they’re still your buttons even if people are pushing them Aaron is in effect saying you know what these people are like how could I
Have done any different he blames other people notice then he blames the messenger oh you’ve had that in pastoral Ministry people sort of know I shouldn’t blame God I can blame the one who’s speaking on behalf of God it’s subtle you see what he says in verse
23 they said to me make us Gods we shall go before us as for this Moses it’s very subtle Aaron is putting his complaint in the voice of the other people as for this Moses the man who brought us up we don’t know what has become of him hint
Hint brother where were you what was I supposed to do you’re the leader you’re disappeared you’re you’re not getting any cell coverage up on the mountain I can’t even get a hold of you he blames the messenger you can count on it most often more often than not when
You confront sinful people about their sin they will redirect the conversation to talk about anything other than their sin they will make excuses they will say that sin was unavoidable they will speak of it in generic language they will minimize it and if we’re not careful Brothers we do the same
Things pastoral Ministry is hard and people mistreat us misunderstand us sometimes even betray us and yet may we never become calloused and hardened I’m often challenged by Paul’s language you know 2 Corinthians 6 and 7 he’s dealing with all of the issues in the church and you remember that
Very pregnant phrase there he says my heart is open to you I’ve had to catch myself on that when my heart closes to people my heart is closed off to a part of the church or the whole church My Heart is Open let us not be closed hearted that we can’t receive re
Correction even if someone else may be mainly in the wrong he blames other people Aaron blames the messenger and then he blames his circumstances this is worst of all as we said in verse 24 we don’t know if we should laugh or cry I threw the gold into the
Fire I don’t know how it happened the fire get this Moses you’re not going to believe this the fire just does this thing I’ve never seen it with the fire and it starts shaping the gold all by itself it’s like a Harry Potter wand or something and the and a calf just came
Out note it very well when people want to avoid their own sin they talk in passive constructions and in generalities it’s that famous orwellian line mistakes were made well yes they were who made them and what were they Aaron blames other people he blames the messenger he blames his
Circumstances it’s the same thing that people do every day when they are caught in sin Aaron terms turns himself into a minor character in the sin in his his life when he is in fact the chief actor see when we have triumphs in life main character sin in life just a bit player
I was just basically an extra I was just sort of around in the crowd I was just a caught up in the Machinery he uses all the excuses that you have heard a thousand times it’s not my fault I had no choice it just happened people made me do it you made
Me do it Moses the fire made me do it do you hear the sound of Shifting perhaps in your own life perhaps that’s what the Lord brought you here to creef to do is a a sin that you haven’t dealt with and you’ve made the same excuses like
Aaron or maybe to go back to your congregation and and preach in such a way that speaks to their conscience I I truly believe that that one of the one of the ways we fail our people and we have so much to learn from the Puritans is We Don’t Preach enough to the
Conscience do you ever lean forward in the sermon and say some of you right now if you would just be quiet for a moment the Lord Jesus himself the Sheep know his voice and he is trying to tell you something and you can feel it in your conscience that you’ve been living
A double life what will you do with that that may be the Lord’s word for you here we need to speak that way because people have cauterized consciences seared consciences that don’t work the way they should we make excuses there’s an article we were hearing about theological society and
The these theological societies can do a great benefit for churches and for pastors I was reading an article was in the tendale bulletin in 2019 authors last named Lee and Harper but they wrote a fascinating article about the use of a phrase in the Book of Genesis the Hebrew is mazot Ai
Mazot Ai and translated in English in your Bible it says what have you done or what is this you have done that’s another sermon for another time but the article is is is brilliant traces out this phrase mazot AI in the Book of Genesis is repeated eight times and the
First seven times so it’s there with with Cain and it’s there with Abraham and the Patriarchs it’s there in the garden seven times this is said what is this you have done to someone who has been caught in a lie a transgression a sin and seven times there’s excuses there’s blame shifting there’s
Turning the other way and then the eighth time God’s people finally get it right in Genesis 4415 and this is where Joseph’s brothers are overrun once again and the trap is set in the golden cup and they say what is this you have done and finally Judah puts himself
Forward and for the first time this eight-fold sequence he finally gives an answer and says we have done what is wrong even though they weren’t actually wrong in that particular sin but they’re still smitten in their conscience from what they did earlier and you know the story of Judah who earlier in Genesis
Has done such embarrassing sinful things you don’t even want to preach on that chapter in Genesis with Tamar and Onin and all the rest but now he emerges as one who will own up to the sin of God’s people and you know as The Story Goes On
Judas is well we have to we we can’t let Benjamin die and in fact why don’t you leave me here why don’t you put me in prison and it’s actually the first time anywhere in the Bible that one man offers to give his life as a ransom for
Another and it’s fitting that it would be Judah of course who has been such a scoundrel up to that point but is representing the one who will come from his lineage who will give his life as a ransom for many excuse after excuse the sound of sinning and sin sinful singing the sound
Of Shifting and then finally the sound of sobbing I want to give you a a different text you may say well where’s the the crying here I want to connect connect this to a similar passage but one of the gospels that you know very well because this story doesn’t have all
Of the sounds we hear in Ministry there’s also the sound of sobbing you may know the passage I’m thinking of it’s in Luke chapter 19 so here in in in Exodus as Moses approaches the camp and he looks out and he hears what they’re doing he is furiously angry and righteously so
But you may remember in Luke 1941-44 as Jesus approaches the city there he’s not smashing mad he’s weeping sad and there as he looks at what’s ahead of him on the cross and we read in chapter 19 beginning at verse 41 he drew near near and saw the
City he wept over it saying would that you even you had known on this day the things that make for peace but now they are hidden from your eyes for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and Surround you and hem you in on
Every side and tear you down to the ground you and your children within you and they will not leave one stone upon another and you because you did not know the time of your visitation some Eerie similarities Moses executed the the Judgment immediately smash the idol ground it up tear it down drink
It Jesus says well not this moment but it will come and if you continue on this idolatrous Pursuit your Idols now notice here you know the is the Jewish history what was their Idol it actually become the temple it had become the very thing that God had established to represent his
Presence but it became just another religious artifact the temple the temple the temple they thought they were God’s people because they had the ark and they had the temple and God says no this too has become a kind of idol for you and it too will be thrown
Down but unlike Moses where the accent is on anger here with Jesus the accent is on tears do you ever think of the Son of God weeping over what has become of your land or our land and we must be careful there I do believe in the doctrine of impassibility
That God does not weep but in the Incarnation the miracle of the Incarnation is that in the hypothetic union human and divine nature that now the God man can do the most ungod Godlike thing imaginable he can suffer he can weep he can die and as he weeps over
Jerusalem though he’s in heaven now and in Bliss and perhaps we might say no longer weeping those same tears yet he sympathizes because he knows what it is to see sinful rebellion of his people Jesus of course does more than just sympathize with us that’s sometimes
The picture that we give well your life is hard but Jesus life was harder uh you have sin but look at Jesus he died on the cross let’s feel sorry for Jesus there is a kind of preaching and a kind of Christianity that amounts to you ought to feel sorry for
Jesus Jesus was so unsentimental at times you remember I think it’s John 19 remember the the women as he goes to the Cross they’re weeping and you remember he actually says don’t weep for me weep for yourselves in what’s coming in other words don’t don’t don’t think
If you’re going to be sorry for something don’t feel sorry for me this is not about oh poor Jesus yes grief stricken smitten and Afflicted but if you going to weep weep for your sin because you do not know the Judgment that is coming and so Jesus here
Weeps because he knows that judgment is coming one of the lines I’ve said to my church several times uh and I I I I it’s really channeling Exodus 33 and 34 and the Watchmen on the walls you know if if the Watchmen doesn’t blow the trumpet and
The Army comes then the blood is on his hands but if the Army is coming and the Watchmen does his job and the people still perish then he’s innocent and so I’ve said this to my people many times may it never be that any member of this
Church will stand before God and be able to say no one ever told me a judgment was coming may it never be they may not have ears to hear it they may forget it but may they never be able to stand before God in any one of our churches and say I never
Knew that there was a judgment there is it may come immediately with Moses it may come in 70 AD a generation later as Jesus warns or it may come at the end of the age but it will come sooner or later our sins will be confronted perhaps swiftly or it may be
Delayed but it will happen God cannot be mocked but here’s the good news he can be satisfied it is not too late for any here or those you will preach to this coming Lord’s day and let it be a recurring refrain it is never too late to turn your sobs into
Salvation these tablets were broken at that moment you could have said those tablets were the most valuable material thing on planet Earth Jesus would be pierced through the most valuable thing ever in heaven or on Earth they broke the Covenant their false god was destroyed we break the
Covenant and the true God is put to death we are in such an enviable unimaginably blessed position that they had in Shadows and we know in substance the immediate aftermath of their rebellion and their Covenant breaking was to smash their Idol we break the Covenant and the true God is put to
Death have you ever noticed in preaching through Mark Mark has all of these am sandwiches uh many commentators point this out what I mean by sandwiches there’s many times that there’s a a prime and and B in the middle or you might say the top layer of the bun the
Bottom layer and then the meat in the middle there’s these Mark and sandwiches where Mark is trying to show us this episode this episode and then the very thing in the middle sort of ort of brings it out and shows us what this is all about what is
Happening so there’ll be the the cursing of the Fig Tree there’ll be the cleansing of the temple and then he’ll explain the cursing of the Fig Tree why because the thing in the middle is what the the the Fig Tree represents this this Vine which is supposed to bear fruit and his fruit
Less is going to be cursed and destroyed and then he does that thing by cleansing the Temple so there’s one of those Mark and sandwiches well the maybe the best one is in Mark 14 and I’m sure I first saw it from somebody else so you can go
Ahead and uh claim it for your own when you preach through Mark 14 what was it uh did alisar beg say one time the the first time I say as John stot said and then the second time as commentators have said and then the third time as I always say
But there in Mark 14 Jesus so you have at the end of Mark 14 you have the the Last Supper the institution of the Lord’s Supper have you ever notice what’s right before it and what’s right after it right before it Jesus predicts the Betrayal of Judas
And right after it he predicts the Betrayal of Peter you say well why why are we interrupting the narrative like this Judas one will dip his hand and he will betray me Last Supper Peter you too for the crows three times you will deny me it’s another one of those Mark and
Sandwiches to show Jesus is the Covenant keeping messiah in the midst of Covenant breaking betrayal Judas will betray me and prove to be a covenant breaker to the end Peter he will be restored but he too will prove to be a covenant breaker Covenant disloyalty Covenant disloyalty and in the middle you have
The one who will die for the Covenant Breakers who shows forth this what does he say is the New Covenant in my blood I think it’s very deliberate on Mark’s part to show that Jesus is the one in the midst of all of this betrayal who will prove faithful and in fact you
Could even pull it back even farther if you’ve noticed in Mark’s gospel it’s just a cascading effect of one after another people leaving Jesus it’s like in a in a play where you know that group of dancers exits and those minor characters and finally finally finally there’s just the one
Person left on the stage who’s going to give their song or their Soliloquy well it’s like that in Mark everybody is deserting Jesus you ever wonder why in Mark there’s that strange story of the man who’s running Stark naked through the woods just two verses right there
Have you ever made that your Good Friday message and people think that it’s it’s likely John Mark himself well why is that there it’s there to show that this young man would rather run through the thorn infested Woods dark naked in the middle of the night than be caught next to Jesus
That’s how much they don’t want to be near the son of man everyone will betray him everyone will leave him one after another and there in the middle in that supper Jesus proves that he is the Covenant keeping Messiah and so the Sounds in your ministry though there are sounds of rry
And sinning among your people sounds of blame shifting maybe even in your own heart sounds of weeping over sin and judgment to come yet we know that that’s not the end of the story you might say the fourth sound is the sound of Salvation which over reaches and
Undergirds all of them that there is a way that the sinning and the shifting and the sobbing does not have to be the last sound that we hear because of what Christ did not our Idols being smashed but the object of our true worship crucified for us that we might
Be saved let’s pray Father in heaven we give thanks for your word and help these dear brothers and sisters that you might encourage them that you might deal with us if we have sins surely we do if there’s some we have not been honest with and help us in whatever we’re facing in
Ministry that you would give to us such a sight of Jesus in his Covenant faithfulness in his all surpassing power and sweetness and Grace and Glory that it would be enough in his name we pray amen amen
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