The Covenant of God and a Stiff-Necked People | Exodus 34:10-17

Exodus 34:10-17  ·  September 16, 2026  ·  1 hr 3 min

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Exodus 34:10-17 comes immediately after the golden calf, when Israel had broken the covenant in the most flagrant way imaginable, and God says, "Behold, I am going to make a covenant." This sermon asks why God would renew his promise with such a people, and answers that the reason lies not in Israel's worth but in God's character and in the promise he had made to Abraham centuries earlier in Genesis 15.

From there the sermon shows that God's mercy never means indifference to sin. The same God who renews the covenant commands Israel to tear down the altars, smash the pillars, cut down the Asherim, and make no covenant with the people of the land, because those idols will become a snare. Paul makes the same argument to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10, telling believers who already knew doctrine and shared the Lord's table to flee from idolatry and to let Israel's failures in the wilderness serve as a warning.

The application turns personal: work, money, sports, entertainment, comfort, family, and personal preference can all take the place that belongs to God, and the Lord's Day often exposes which of them rules the calendar. But the sermon insists the answer is not trying harder. It is Christ, the rock in the wilderness, the true seed of Abraham, the faithful Israelite and better mediator of a new covenant in his blood.

In this sermon

- Exodus 34 follows the golden calf, Israel's most treacherous act of rebellion

- Genesis 15 and the promise that Abraham's descendants would be enslaved and then delivered

- Israel's redemption from Egypt as the fulfillment of a promise made centuries before

- Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, writing Israel's history during the wilderness journey

- God renews the covenant with a people who could not keep it

- The command to destroy altars, pillars, and Asherim rather than manage them

- Grace in the Old Testament, and the false split between a God of law and a God of grace

- Paul in 1 Corinthians 10: the rock was Christ, and these things were written for our instruction

- The Corinthians' argument that an idol is nothing, and Paul's warning about the table of demons

- Calvin on the heart as an idol factory, and how good things become ultimate things

- The Lord's Day as a means of grace, not a negotiable appointment

- What Christian parents teach their children by what they rearrange

- Christ tempted and obedient where Israel grumbled and failed

- Israel rejecting God at Sinai and rejecting him again at the cross for Barabbas

Chapters

0:00 Introducing a stiff-necked people

2:08 Five things to watch for

3:29 Reading Exodus 34:10-17

6:14 Back to the promise to Abraham

11:16 Israel's redemption fulfills God's promise

12:52 Behold, I am going to make a covenant

15:04 Tear down their altars and idols

19:26 Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 10

28:25 Flee from idolatry

33:25 Where are our golden calves

36:13 The Lord's Day exposes our idols

45:09 God is faithful, we are weak

46:47 Christ the better mediator

55:47 Three closing applications

Scripture: Exodus 34:10-17 · Genesis 15:12-16 · Exodus 34:6-7 · 1 Corinthians 10 · Exodus 32 · John 1 · Acts 3 · Luke 22:20 · Hebrews 9:15 · Galatians 3

Chapters

0:00 Introducing a stiff-necked people

2:08 Five things to watch for

3:29 Reading Exodus 34:10-17

6:14 Back to the promise to Abraham

11:16 Israel's redemption fulfills God's promise

12:52 Behold, I am going to make a covenant

15:04 Tear down their altars and idols

19:26 Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 10

28:25 Flee from idolatry

33:25 Where are our golden calves

36:13 The Lord's Day exposes our idols

45:09 God is faithful, we are weak

46:47 Christ the better mediator

55:47 Three closing applications

Transcript

So as you're getting there, as you're preparing to get there today, I want to open up with a few things about where we're at, what's happening, and maybe even a title, if you would, for today's sermon. I guess you could title it something like the covenant of God and a stiff-necked people. That's what Israel is, right? That's what we're seeing. I want us to see something though and understand today about the character of God I want us to understand his nature and his covenant with his people If you remember, and as we read this morning, we understand that Israel and their salvation began long before the Exodus Where we're at in Exodus 34 Or Israel has just committed one of the most treacherous, horrifying sins and acts of rebellion in all of Scripture. We had the incident with the golden calf. Right? They were delivered from God from Egypt. They watched him divide the Red Sea. They seen God's glory on the mountain. They heard the voice of God from the mountain they entered into this covenant with God and then while Moses was on the mountain receiving the law of God the people did what They turned away from the Lord and they made an idol, a golden calf. They exchanged the worship of the living God for an idol made with human hands. And yet after all of this, God says to Moses, Behold, I'm going to make a covenant. Now that should make us stop and think for a minute and ask a question, why? Why would God renew his covenant with a people who had demonstrated such extraordinary unfaithfulness? And the answer is not going to be found in Israel's worth or their worthiness, right? The answer is going to be found in God's character and in God's promise. So this morning, as we go through Exodus 34, I want you to see five things. First, God remembers his covenant and his promises. Secondly, God shows mercy to an undeserving people. Third, God demands that his redeemed people destroy their idols. And I want to read that one again. God demands that his redeemed people destroy their idols fourth as we see this connection in the New Testament Paul tells the church that Israel wilderness experience what we reading about in Exodus was written as a warning to the church then and as a warning to the church now. And finally, through all of this, my aim and my goal is to point us to Jesus, Christ our Lord, the better mediator, and the fulfillment of God's promises. And so keep some of those things in mind as we go through Exodus 34 this morning, and we get prepared to see God once again in his faithfulness through his word. So we're going to read Exodus 34 today, and like I said, we'll be reading verses 10 through 17. So I invite you, as custom here at Mercy and Grace Church, if you can, if you are willing, and if you are able, please stand with us for the reading of God's word, Exodus chapter 34, verses 10 through 17. Reading to you from the NASB, the New American Standard Bible version. This is the word of our Lord. Then God said, Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations. And all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord For it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day Behold Verse 2 their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim. For you shall not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods. And someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice. And you might take some of his daughters for your sons and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. You shall make for yourself no molten gods. Church, this is the reading of God's word. Please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you again on this Lord's day, acknowledging your word and your speaking to us through it. Lord, we have been exposed to some tremendous and rich truths. Amen. some amazing mysteries, some things that we cannot fully comprehend. But Lord, we trust in your spirit on this Lord's day and through the preaching of your word that we would be rightly convicted, rightly encouraged, in order that we can honor you in all that we do. May your word today equip your saints, and may your saints today be fulfilled spiritually through the hearing of your word. We thank you, Father, and we pray these things in the name of Jesus. and the people of God said. Amen. God bless you, church. You may be seated. Amen. So a lot of things going on here again, but similar, and a lot of it's echoing what we've already been through, right? But I think and I really want to point out today is that God is being very adamant about making idols. Again, in the context, that's fitting, right? They just built this calf to worship, this golden calf. And now God, through Moses' mediation and in prayer to God, God is going to continue to go with Israel to the promised land. And he said, I'm going to do some mighty miraculous things for you. But ultimately, you've got to drive out the idols of the land where you're going because they're going to become a snare and a trap to you. Now, before we move forward in Exodus 34, we need to go backwards this morning. and we need to go all the way back to Abraham because again as I said earlier Moses story or Israel story doesn start in Egypt It begins with the promise that was made to Abraham by God So turn back to Genesis 15 if you would. It was the verse that we opened up with this morning. Our first verse that we read today to open up the service is found in Genesis chapter 15. Now in Genesis chapter 15, this is where God makes the covenant with Abraham. Let's pick it up in verse 12. In Genesis chapter 15, verse 12, it says, Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. but I will also judge the nation whom they will serve and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go with your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. So in Genesis 15, God tells Abraham that his descendants would become strangers in a foreign land, right? That they'd be enslaved, that they would be impressed. But God also promises that he would judge the nation that enslaves him. He would judge the nation whom they will serve is his words right And afterward he said he would bring Abraham descendants out Now think about this for a minute Years pass when God made this promise to Abraham Generations come and go. They pass, right? Abraham dies. Isaac dies. Jacob dies. Joseph dies. If you're with us on Friday nights here in Bible study in Genesis, we're in Joseph. we're starting to see how Israel is actually going to become inhabitants of Egypt. So all these generations in this time is passing. And it's important for us to understand this, you know, because this is how Israel ended up in Egypt. And then God raises up Moses after Egypt enslaves Israel. And then God sends the plagues, and that's what we're reading about in Exodus. God judges Egypt, just like he says here to Abraham that he's going to judge the nation. and then he brings Israel out and remember he brought him out with many possessions just like he said here to Abraham he divides the Red Sea and now Israel in the context of Exodus 34 is standing at Mount Sinai all that time has passed and here are the people standing there and if Moses is writing these things down for the people of Israel well they can look at their own history and they can say look at how significant this is I was thinking about this if Moses is writing these things down and all scholars agree that Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible, if you know your first five books of the Bible Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy often referred to as the Pentateuch or the Pentateuch depending on how you pronounce it or the Torah the law of God All scholars attribute Moses as the author In other words Moses wrote Genesis, given to him, inspired by the Holy Spirit to write it. Moses wasn't around during the Genesis accounts, but he's the author of that book. He's the author of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. There's a portion of Deuteronomy where it says that he died and went into his old age, and so scholars agree that the last portion of his life was recorded by someone else, probably Joshua. But nonetheless, the authorial accounts are credited to Moses for the first five books. And they also believe that Moses was given this revelation to write these words and the laws of God during the Exodus journeys of Israel. While the people were in the wilderness, while Moses was meeting with God on the mountain, God was also revealing the first five books of scripture to Moses to write down. So if you were there, if I was there, we would have been the people who were brought out of Egypt. And as God is revealing his history of Israel, and he's giving Moses the accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Moses is writing down that God's promise and his covenant made with Abraham where your people will be slaves for 400 years in a land that is not their own. The people, you and I, would have stood there and said, hey, that's us. that's us. We were in Egypt enslaved. We were brought out with many possessions. It is, we are the descendants that God spoke about to Abraham, right? We are the people that God judged Egypt for and delivered us. We're the people that God brought out. And the significance of that church is that Israel's redemption from Egypt was a fulfillment of a promise God made centuries before. And that's important for us to understand. They were delivered because of God's promise. I've already said it. Their salvation didn't begin when Moses was raised up. It did not begin when Pharaoh finally let them go. It began with the promise of God. And that's important when we arrive to Exodus 34, because as we get here, Israel has already what? They've already We failed miserably in this covenant with the Lord. And so let's turn back to Exodus 34. If you're in Genesis 15, turn back to Exodus 34 for a moment. Now come back here with me. And now we know the golden calf incidents behind us. We know that Moses interceded for the people. And last week we learned that God revealed his amazing character to the people in Exodus 34, 6 and 7. if you remember in verse 6 it says that then the cloud stood there excuse me then verse six it says then the lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed the lord the lord god compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity transgression and sin yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. Right. The Lord declared himself to be compassionate and gracious. And our brother gave an amazing sermon about that last week. And he touched on that. And then we come down to verse 10. And in verse 10, look what God says immediately. God says, behold, I'm going to make a covenant. Now, do you understand how amazing this is? Israel had just done what to the covenant that they'd been in broken it miserably they had failed that'll be an echo today you'll continually hear how Israel has failed to uphold their end of the covenant with God they've demonstrated that they're stiff-necked right that's what they're referred to rebellious stubborn people they've demonstrated that they're prone to idolatry they demonstrated that they cannot keep God covenant perfectly but yet God remains faithful to his promise Understand that Now we need to be very careful here though and we need to understand something else. God's mercy that he's showing Israel, and he is, God's mercy does not mean that God doesn't care about sin. Okay, that's something we touched on last week as well. Just because God gives mercy and just because God gives grace, that does not mean that God is not concerned with the sin of His people. Look what God tells them immediately after renewing the covenant. In verse 10, He says, Behold, I'm going to make a covenant before all the people. I'll perform the miraculous signs. And then He says that He's going to drive out all of their enemies, right? And then in verse 12, though, He says, Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you're going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather you're to tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their ashram, for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god. Otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods you shall make yourself no molted images So God says I going to make a covenant with you and I going to drive out your enemies But what you're to do is to destroy all the idols in the land where I'm taking you. You are not to make covenants with any other gods. And in order for you to do this, That means you've got to destroy all of those false idols. God knows that the heart of man is prone to what? Put our faith and trust in other things. He knows that we will mess up. He knows that Israel is prone to do that. So he says, instead of allowing them to be there, destroy them. Wipe them out. Destroy the altars. Break down the pillars. Do not worship their gods. Don't make covenants with other nations. He even says don't intermarry with the people of those lands, right? He says don't intermarry in such a way that your hearts are turned over to their gods. That's what he's telling them. In other words, he's saying God's grace does not give Israel permission to what? Continue in idolatry. That's important. I'm going to make a covenant with you even after this golden calf incident. Behold, I'm going to make a covenant. I'm going to do some miraculous works and I'm going to take you into the promised land. I'm going to drive the enemies out of there. But that does not give you permission to what? Continue to chase after idols. Just because I've been gracious to you does not mean that you can go now and continue to practice idolatry expecting my grace. So God's grace calls his people away from the idols. That's what the grace does. Yes, the grace covers us. Yes, the grace forgives us. Amen. But the grace also calls his people away from the idols that entangle them. so and this is common throughout the old testament israel again and again is going to fall into idolatry all you got to do is read the old testament scriptures over and over it's a people who falls and fails god raises up kings for them they fail but yet the grace of god is all over the old testament there's a lot of people who like to separate the old testament from the new testament We talk about this here quite often. You guys probably know this. A lot of times they'll say God of the Old Testament is a mean God, a jealous God, a judgmental God, right? And that the people in the Old Testament were saved if they were obedient to His commands. Well, we know that is not the case here when you read Exodus. They were saved because of His grace, because of His promises. They were disobedient. They were a stiff-necked, obstinate people, stubborn in their rebellion. but God still saved them. And so the Old Testament is the age of grace, just like the New Testament is often called People will say that well the Old Testament God people lived under the law but in the new testament we live under grace i hope that we can see no all of scripture and god people that are redeemed have always lived under and will live under grace but we're still called to be obedient so grace comes before obedience okay and so this brings us directly into also what the new testament teaches. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians. If you're in Exodus 34, stay there because we will come back there towards the end. But turn right now with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, because this is an important point for us and a connection for us to make today. Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, I believe this is probably one of the most important passages for understanding how the New Testament wants Christians to read the history of Israel. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul's writing to the church at Corinth, and he begins by reminding them about what? In chapter 10, he's going to begin to remind them about the Exodus. That's what he's doing. Look at chapter 10, verse 1. He says, For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them and the rock was Christ now Paul was reminding the church in Corinth that what Israel was under the cloud They passed through the sea. They experienced God's provision. They ate spiritual food. They drank spiritual drink. What is that referring to? Exodus. The book of Exodus. Paul's taking them to write to what we've been studying for the past year or so. He's taking them right to the Exodus, and he's saying, I don't want you to be unaware that this is who Israel was, their history as a nation. They had the cloud. They had the sea that was split for them. They ate spiritual food from God. They drank spiritual drink from God. And then he connects and says something astonishing, church. He says, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. Paul sees Christ in the wilderness. That's not something we're throwing in there. That's the Apostle Paul. That's apostolic teaching of the Scriptures. He's saying everything that was happening to them, the grace they were receiving, all the provisions that the people of Israel had in the Exodus, it was Christ there. Christ was the one. Now, Paul is showing us that the Exodus wasn't merely about the story and the ancient story and the history of Israel when he does this. What Paul is saying is that God was accomplishing his redemptive purposes And the way that he was accomplishing those things in the Old Testament was with a moving towards Christ the ultimate redeemer the one who would redeem man from their sin So the Old Testament is moving towards Christ and Paul making this point But Paul then gives this warning. Look at verse 5. He says, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Verse 6 says, now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Verse 11 says the same thing. Verse 11 says, Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction. So Paul is saying, Be careful, church. Remember Israel. Remember what they went through. Remember how they walked before the Lord. We don't want to miss that. Paul is saying that these things happened. They were written down, and they were written down for us. Israel's history in the book of Exodus was preserved by God so that the church in Corinth at this time would learn from it. Now, was it just the church in Corinth that would learn from it? No, we can extend that to the church today to learn from these things. In other words, Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth, and he doesn't want the believers in Corinth looking back at Israel and saying, these foolish Israelites. Right? How could they possibly do all the sin and the failings before God that they did? No, Paul says what? Be careful. Why is Paul telling the church to be careful and to look at the things in Exodus as they're an instruction for us? because Paul knows that the people, and we the people, people in general have what? A sinful heart. By nature, we're sinners. And in verse 12, this is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, he says, Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. this is a warning against presuming that god's grace overlooks sin this is exactly what's going on in exodus 34 god is saying i'm going to make a covenant with you but i'm not going to overlook your sin tear down idols drive out the inhabitants don't intermarry with their people because if you do these things and if you make a covenant with them you are going to fall it's going to be a snare and it's going to be a trap to you. Now, why did Paul have to warn the Corinthians of this? Well, let's look at a little context of this. Remember, who was Paul writing to? Well, first of all, Corinth was a city filled with pagan religion, okay? Idolatry wasn't something they simply read about in the Old Testament. It was all around them. As a matter of fact, after he tells them that those things were written down in verse 6, he says, these things happen as examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also crave. Look at what verse 7 says. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play You know what that verse is That verse comes directly out of the incident of the golden calf in Exodus 32 When they sat down to eat and drink and then they went up and worshiped the golden calf. So Paul is making this connection. He's saying idolatry too for us is a snare. He's telling the Corinthian church, you guys flee from idolatry. Verse 8 says, nor let us act immorally as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in one day. Verse 9, he says, nor let us try the Lord as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents, nor grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they are written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the age have come. Verse 13, he says, no temptation has overtaken you, but such is common to man, and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able but with temptation will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it this was a culture around the corinthians that brought temptation to the church it brought it through its sacrifices its pagan temples it was all around the church of corinth in other words there was a culture in corinth that said come participate come eat come celebrate, come worship. Sounds pretty similar today, huh? In our culture. What does the culture tell us today? Same thing, right? And what's fascinating, why Paul is warning the church at Corinth and why it what we want to look at in Exodus 34 today is because guess what Some of the Christians in Corinth were actually saying an idol is nothing We know there is only one true God Therefore we can participate in these things without them affecting us. That's what the Corinthian church was doing. They were saying, hey, we know there's one true God. Christianese, right? That sounds very Christian. we know there's one true God. We know there's no such thing as an idol because there's only one God. So that piece of wood, that statue, whatever it is, it's meaningless. It doesn't mean nothing. People sacrifice meat to that. It doesn't matter. I'll eat the meat they sacrifice to it because there's only one true God. And God said, all the things I've made are clean, right? So Christians do have a liberty. That is true. But Paul is warning them. And Paul is saying, be careful. and look at verse 14 of first corinthians chapter 10 verse 14 he says therefore my beloved flee from idolatry he's not saying hey brothers manage it see how close you can get to it he's not saying hey you're strong enough to overcome it he's saying flee from it be careful of it. Don't participate in it. And then the next thing Paul says is fascinating. Look at verse 16. He says, is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ Since there is one bread we who are many are of one body for we all partake of the one bread Look at the nation Israel Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Church, these are some strong words today. Paul is saying to the Christians that participate in the Lord's Supper that they're actually participating in Christ. He's saying there's fellowship, there's communion, there's this participation, and he makes a comparison. He says you can't participate in the Lord's Supper, which would be participating in Christ, and also at the same time, knowingly participate in the table of demons. Paul's saying, you cannot say I belong to Christ while deliberately giving yourself over to worship and the practice of idols. This isn't simply about what you eat or what you drink. the issue that Paul's after is who you worship and with whom you are identifying yourself with let me say that again Paul is saying it's about who you worship and who you identify yourself with and that's precisely what God is telling the Israelites in Exodus 34 He's saying, when I take you into the promised land, you need to destroy all of the temples and the false worship and all of the idolatry there because it will be a snare to you. I am the loving, gracious God. I'm the one true God. You cannot worship any other gods or even identify yourself with any other pagan gods. God is serious about that. Paul is making that same connection in the New Testament. where God is saying don't make a covenant with them, don't worship their gods, tear down their altars, destroy their altars. Paul is saying to the church in verse 14, flee from idolatry. Don't get close to it. Don't participate in it. Yes, we know idols are nothing. Yes, we know there's one true God, but still don't identify yourself with those who practice such things. Now this is where I want to slow down a little bit this morning. And I first want to remind you that the Corinthians were Christians, okay? Remember that. They had received the gospel. They were baptized. They were participating and had participated in the Lord's Supper. Verse chapter 12 tells us they had spiritual gifts In other words they knew Christian doctrine They understood it And yet Paul is telling them don think that because you received God blessings you incapable of falling into sin. This is what God is telling Israel in Exodus 34. Just because I'm going to make a covenant and renew a covenant with you, I'm going to forgive you for this golden calf incident. Don't think that when I take you into this promised land that you can keep acting that way. You're a new creation. You need to tear down idols. You need to flee from them. Corinthian church, you're believers. You participate with Christ in the table. You know the doctrines of the Christian church. Don't think you received God's blessing and that you're still incapable of falling into sin. That's a warning to the church today. Don't presume God's grace over us that we could just do whatever we want. There's a fear and a command and a warning to be careful of our sin, to be careful specifically of idolatry. We know Israel experienced great privileges, right? They had the cloud, they had the sea, they had the manna, they had the water from the rock, they had Moses they had God covenant And the Bible says still many of them fell Paul says learn from them now this is where Exodus 34 becomes very uncomfortable for us today church When you preach God's word from chapter to chapter, verse to verse, you can't skip things. You just can't. You have to deal with them. And pastorally, I have to deal with them. With the church and with us. because it's easy to look at Israel and condemn them for making a golden calf. Amen? It's really easy to do that. But perhaps as we look a little more practical today, we need to ask ourselves a personal question, and that is, where's our golden calves? What in our lives replaces our worship? Because Paul was warning the church, don't let something in your life replace the worship of God. And he connected it to Israel in Exodus 34. He's saying God was gracious and he made a covenant. you're christians you're believers you've been baptized but that should mean you should live differently you should respond differently to these blessings that you have from god what are you worshiping apart from god it's a warning to the church it's a warning to us now we may not bow down to a golden calf but the bible teaches us that we make idols john calvin said that the man heart is an idol making factory we make idols out of all kinds of things and an idol is anything that takes place place that belongs to God Sometimes idols are very very obvious Statues and religious relics Those things are obvious But sometimes our idols look perfectly respectable. Sometimes our idols actually look perfectly honorable and noble. Sometimes our idols can be good things, but we've elevated them to ultimate things. That's where we have to be careful. Here's a list. Work can become an idol. Money can become an idol. Our careers can become an idol. Recreation, sports. I said that, sports, right? This is Sunday. Here's a quick little sidetrack. Sunday, right? But Christians know it as the Lord's Day. Many right now are excited because it's football time again, right? NFL Sunday. I'll stand convicted here as God is my witness. Early in my walk with Christ, man, I miss church on Sundays because there is a team that I will not mention its name from the pulpit for they are an anathema to this city. And they went up north. Good riddance. I don't wish any harm on them physically, but wins and losses, I just want to see L's. truth of the matter is at one time there was an idol in my life it was more important for me to watch them and see that score than to go in and hear someone preach the word of God. But I was a great Christian as soon as football season was over. Sundays were once again reserved for the Lord. That's my personal experience, but that's an idol nonetheless, and it's an example of what we all deal with. Entertainment, comfort can be an idol. Here's a couple that are going to hurt. Our children and our families become idols in our lives. one of the most subtle idols in our life and in our culture, church, is personal preference. That's a hard one. Our personal time, our personal preference sometimes can become an idol. Now, God has given us the Lord's Day. Now, let me make this very practical for us right now. He's given His people the Lord's Day. And the Lord's Day is not merely an appointment on our calendar. It should not be, as believers. And as a matter of fact, the Lord's Day is a blessing to the church because I believe the Lord's Day can actually really expose to God's people what it is that they worship and who they worship. It can reveal idols in our lives that we may maybe didn't know that we had. And it's okay to be exposed to an idol that you have. As a matter of fact God says destroy them tear them down because they going to become a snare to you It okay to know that there a snare in our life As a matter of fact that loving for us to know that there something in our life that is keeping us from the worship of the Almighty God. And it's okay to know that, and it's okay to destroy it, and to work to prevent it. And that's what Paul was saying to the church. Know this, brethren. You can fall. You can sin. Flee from idolatry. the Lord's day is not merely an hour that we come to church on Sunday morning. Throughout the history of the church, the Lord's day is a day set apart for the worship of God, for the gathering of His people, for the ministry of the Word, for fellowship, for prayer, for the Lord's Supper, and for the ordinary means of grace by which God strengthens His people. Our worship needs to be seen that way. But yet how easily we find reasons to what? Replace fellowship with the saints for something else. We had a long practical list of doing that. We're all guilty, right? Oh, pastor, I had to work. Pastor, my kids had a tournament. We had a family event. This was the only day that we had that we can go camping. We had a birthday party. Oh, we had tickets to this concert or this game. It the only weekend we have for vacation We been so busy Now let me stop right there because sometimes all of those things are legitimate providential circumstances I not sitting here today saying that you can't miss a Lord's Day service. Listen to me. We need to be gracious here. There are sicknesses, real sicknesses that keep us from gathering. There are real emergencies that keep us from gathering on the Lord's day. There are unavoidable responsibilities sometimes that keep us from gathering on the Lord's day. 100% we recognize those. There are situations where sometimes we just simply can't be present. But brothers and sisters, I want to say something today. There's a big difference between providentially prevented from worshiping and regularly choosing something else over the worship and fellowship of God's people. there's a big difference there sometimes yes we can and you know what it's a good thing to take a family vacation it's a good thing to spend time with family but when it is regularly choosing to miss fellowshipping with God that's where we have to start to examine is this an idol in my life has this become more important than fellowshipping with God people What controls my calendar That a question you got to ask yourself What controls my calendar Now let me speak to the parents here today We love our children. We should love our children. I hope you love your children. Should encourage them. We should support them. We should celebrate their accomplishments. But as Christian parents, we must ask, what are we teaching our children about? What is most important. If every Sunday becomes, let's get in the car, we got a game, we got an event, we got something else other than church, then eventually our children are going to learn that there's something else that's more important than church without us ever saying it. They're going to learn church is optional. They're going to learn worship is negotiable. We can worship God, oh, it just depends on what we have going that weekend. The Lord's Day belongs to us. Sports come first. Entertainment comes first. Family comes first. These are things that we will say and tell ourselves. Church becomes a second. And brothers and sisters, we need to learn a lesson from the Bible and understand that that's not what we want to teach our children. We don't want to teach our children that this is second. We want to teach our children that this is priority, and when we don't come here, it should feel weird that we're not here. It will happen, and it's okay, and there'll be times we take a family break and amen. But it should be like, man, we're not in church today. It shouldn't be, oh, we got to go to church today because we have nothing else on our calendar. That would not be tearing down idols. That would be accepting them. We must be careful that we don't make something good just as children's athletics are, family time is, hanging out with one another all those things are good but they cannot become an idol in our life what about work god created work paul commands us to work diligently but work too can become an idol in our lives when what when we pursue it more than obedience to god if we're willing to rearrange everything in our lives for work but never willing to rearrange our work for god that may be a problem. We have to look at that. It goes for all of us. Recreation, entertainment, all of those things. Ask yourselves how many times you rearrange church so that you can meet a personal need. The other way around should be the other way around, right? We should rearrange our personal preferences to make church priority, the gathering of the saints. The world says that Sunday belongs to us believers say that Sunday belongs to Christ Jesus our Lord that what the bible is saying that what paul is saying right so we have to understand that paul warning is not that you aren christian if you do these things he's not saying that again he's writing to christians he loves them and his warning is designed to preserve them and as a pastor today this pastoral practical conviction is designed to preserve us. Again, as a pastor who holds God's word as the authority of all things, I have to preach through these things. God is telling his people a lot harder than we ever hear it, right? God is telling Israel, I'm taking you there. I have given you a promise. I'm going to do miracles before you. I'm going to drive out enemies right before you. but when you get there you better destroy the temples the asherah poles the the false worship you better destroy that in your lives how often do we hear that as christians we don't because we don't preach god's word fully we don't often look to paul who says hey these things are warnings yes you have christian liberty to participate in all kinds of things but should you Is everything good? Yeah, brother, you can eat the meat that was sacrificed to that isle, but if another brother stumbles because you do that should you do it Absolutely not The call for our Christian walk is a demand as I said earlier that God is saying redeemed believers need to destroy idols in their lives Not compromise them, not work with them, not justify them, but destroy them. And the reason is it's designed to preserve the people. that's why paul says let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall and if he stopped there and if he stopped to follow this right now then this would be a tough sermon right but paul doesn't stop there that's why it's important to read all the scripture and in verse 13 of first corinthians 10 paul tells us that god is faithful and that he will provide a way of escape in temptation notice that again in verse 13 god is faithful that's the same theological foundation that we're seeing in exodus the people aren't faithful who's faithful god the people break the covenant who's faithful to the covenant god why because god has promised these things god is faithful we are weak god is faithful our hope should never be i am strong enough. Our hope should always be God is faithful. That's where we see our hope. Now this brings us ultimately to Christ Some of you may be convicted today Some of you may not But if you leave here today saying, man, I got to do better, you missed the whole point of the sermon. If we leave here today saying, man, I'm not doing a good enough job, or I'm doing a pretty good job. If we walk out of here today looking at ourselves for anything, we have missed the whole point of the sermon. We've even missed Paul's warning. And yeah, Paul's warning is, hey, you guys, you church, do this. But it's in light of something. Right? The response of believers has to be founded and rooted in something else. Not our merits, not our works, not our efforts. You and I cannot kill the idols in our life by mere human strength. by being more responsible, by taking worship more seriously, forget it. We will fail continually. This brings us to the gospel. This is why we need the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the demand there is, destroy those idols. Get them out. But how do we do that, church? You have to look at Exodus. Israel was redeemed from Egypt. They failed in the wilderness. but Paul says that the rock they were drinking from in the wilderness was what? Was Christ. In other words, they were preserved even in the wilderness by the works of Christ. Israel was tempted and they failed. Christ was tempted and what? He succeeded. He was obedient. Israel grumbled. Christ trusted. Israel worshiped idols. Christ worshiped God alone. Israel broke the covenant. Christ perfectly obeyed his father. And then Christ went to the cross. And John chapter 1 tells us, He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. Think about that for a second in light of Exodus 34. Think about that in light of Exodus, what we've been going through. At Sinai, what happened? Israel rejected God for a molten image. And we say, oh, those dirty old Israelites. They were unfaithful. Centuries later, when God came to Israel in human flesh, they did what? They rejected him again. And that rejection becomes even more horrifying because the Bible tells us that the people were given a choice. You remember the story of the crucifixion? God in the flesh, Jesus cloaked in humanity, is presented before the people The people rejected him and chose what A murderer a criminal They had the living God in their midst and they rejected him and instead championed for a criminal and a murderer. That was in the time of Christ. I don't even have to go into our society today to see how similar those things are. We have a society and a culture today championing murderers and criminals over the righteous. They offered Barabbas and they accepted him. Now Peter says in Acts chapter 3 that they disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be released while putting to death the prince of life. They rejected Christ. Israel rejected God. They sent him to the cross. Now this is where the gospel becomes glorious. And if I had one of those old southern preacher accents, I'd get into it now, you know, but this is where the gospel becomes glorious, church. Because the cross was not God's plan failing. The cross was God's plan succeeding. Christ went willingly he became the covenant mediator he bore the wrath that sinners deserve he fulfilled the righteousness that we could never fulfill He established the new covenant in his blood Luke chapter 22 verse 20 says this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. He's the better mediator. He's the better covenant fulfiller. That's what he did. Israel sinned with the golden calf. Moses interceded for them. Amen. But Moses couldn't ultimately solve Israel's sin problem. Moses couldn't deliver God's law, or Moses could deliver the law, but Moses couldn't fulfill it. Moses could lead Israel towards the promised land, but he couldn't bring them to final rest. Jesus is the better mediator. As a matter of fact, Hebrews 9, verse 15 says that the mediator, that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant. Christ intercedes for his people Christ came down from heaven as the word made flesh Christ bore the sins of his people Christ is faithful as the son and church this brings us all the way back to where we started today because Abraham was promised through God that his nations would be blessed they'd be blessed by a seed and Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 3 that this promise ultimately points to Christ. He says the seed that was promised to Abraham is not seeds plural but one seed and he identifies that seed as Jesus In other words the promise of God to be a savior and a redeemer and to show his grace to a multitude of people from every tribe nation and tongue descendants of Abraham as numerous as the stars in the sky all find their root and their foundation in the seed who would come and that seed is Christ So when we are convicted of idols in our lives, when we make work, sports, entertainment, other things in our lives idols, when we know more about something else than what we should be knowing about God's love and His mercy, there's no way that you can change that on your own merits. You can't walk out of here today and say, I can get better, I can be better, unless you understand who Christ is. Paul was pointing the people back to Jesus. Why? Because he knew they couldn't do it on their own. the warning is the same and the warning is the same for you and me today tear down idols in your life what are you making more important than God what is more important to you than worship what is more important to you than knowing God's word you want to know how you know the passions in your life you want to know how you know an idol in your life number one look at your possessions look at what you have look at where your money goes do you equally spend that money on the Lord Look where your time goes. Do you equally put that time on the Lord? Look at all the things that we can passionately describe about our hobbies and our interests and what we love. How quick can you point someone to Christ and show them Scripture? how much Bible knowledge, and that doesn't save you, but what I'm saying, what saves you is your Savior, Christ, and the knowledge of Him. How much of Him do you know? Do you know Him as much as the podcast you're on? Do you know Him as much as the things you scroll through? Because a lot of us in here can hold conversations for days on worldly things and instruct people on all kinds of stuff. But as a believer, can you point them to Christ in Scripture? Can you point them to Christ in the Old Testament? Can you point them to the new covenant believer? Can you express to people how important it is to gather on the Lord's day if you're a believer? So when you walk out of here, you're not looking at yourself. You're looking at the gospel. You're looking at Christ which preserves you. Because you've just been convicted of your sins and you need a savior. That's the whole point. That's how we see the whole story. Abraham received the promise. Israel goes down into Egypt. God delivers Israel. God establishes his covenant with Israel. Israel breaks it. God renews it. Israel continues through the wilderness. They come to the promised land. God sends prophet after prophet to Israel. And then in the fullness of time, he sends Jesus. Jesus comes. He's the true seed of Abraham. The faithful Israelite. That's who Jesus is. He's the faithful servant, better than Moses. He's the true mediator better than Moses He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world He is the one who establishes the new covenant the one who goes to the cross the one who rises from the dead and the one who's gathering his people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. That's who Jesus is. And that's who God was pointing them to. So what does it mean for us? It means a lot. first thing i want you to know as we leave here today the first thing that it teaches us is don't presume god's grace right just because he's been gracious to us doesn't mean that sin is harmless we need to understand that secondly identify the idols in our lives get rid of them what do i refuse to give up for Christ? What gets most of my time? What gets my best time? What gets my best money? What gets my greatest affection? What causes me to say, I can't when it comes to worship. I can't when it comes to discipleship cast. I can't when it comes to Bible study. What is it that those things can be idols in our lives? We have to be careful. What What is it that we consistently do, but we don't consistently make time for God? Thirdly, don't let good things become ultimate things. Your job is good Your career is good Your family is good Your children are good Sports can be good Recreation can be good Entertainment can be good Vacation can be good But none of those things is God. None of those things died for you. None of those things forgave your sin. None of those things reconciled you to the Father. None of those things purchased you with the blood of Christ. The only one that did that is Jesus. And that's why I say, and I reiterate it again today, all of those things that we pursue are good. Because you miss church to go on vacation doesn't mean you lose your salvation. Because you miss church to go to a family event doesn't mean that you are wretched and evil. The point is, again, if we walk out of here today looking at ourselves, we've missed it. the whole thing that draws us to worship the whole thing that reorchestrates our priorities in our lives is not our ambition is not our conviction and saying yeah i gotta get right it's knowing christ it's knowing grace it's receiving the grace of god you and i are stiff neck obstinate rebellious people but yet god says i am renewing my covenant with you because I promised and my promise will be fulfilled. And for Israel, they saw the fulfillment They were the people We those people We the people promised to Abraham We were enslaved for 400 years We were brought out Wow For the Corinthian church, it was fulfilled in Christ. For the church today, for you and I, it's fulfilled in what Jesus has done. So when we leave these doors today, let us be reminded to flee from idolatry, to understand that we're teaching our children who Christ is by our very affections for him, by the things we sacrifice in our life to make God a priority, that teaches our children who Jesus is. We can say it all day long, but it's how we do it. It's how we act. It's how we move. That's what our kids pay attention to. That's how our kids know. And remember, the Bible is filled with when your sons and daughters come and ask you, why do you do this? Be prepared to tell them what? It is because God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob brought you out of the land of Egypt. We are never going to be able to explain things to our kids about Christ unless we are making Christ a priority. I love that our kids are here. I love that our kids are going to see us right now, open this cup, drink this juice, and take this bread. And I love and I pray, and kids here, go home today and ask your mom and dad, why did we just do that? And parents that aren't ready to answer that turn to Christ. Turn to His Word. Trust in Him. We got to preach the word. We got to be convicted of sin. Because it's sin that turns us to our Savior. And that's why we're here today. We're here to worship Christ and know that He has not forsaken us or left us. And He has given us all of His word for correction, reproof, and equipping the man of God so that He has everything for every good work. I stand convicted with you. I do. I preach this word with passion because it hits home. So we don't leave here trying harder. Do not leave here trying harder. Leave here knowing who Christ is, who died for our sins, the one we reject, the one whom we are stubborn and obstinate to, but yet still shows us grace and mercy and is calling us closer and closer to Him through His Word. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this Word today. We thank You, Lord, that You convict us of idols and that You're showing us through Exodus that the golden calf in that moment, Israel was stiff-necked, but You were faithful. Israel was sinful, yet, God, You were always merciful. Israel broke their covenant, but Lord you always remember your promise and hundreds of years later in the New Testament Paul looks back at all those people Lord and he says those things were written as an example for us and for the instruction of the church at that time Lord he convicts the Corinthian church to not be idolaters but he lets them know that it is Christ it only Christ where idolatry can truly be covered up and he points him to Christ and I pray that we pointed to Christ today the rock who was in the wilderness though Christ the mediator of a better covenant Christ the faithful son the true redeemer our Lord and our Savior the one who gathers his people together as his church let us remember these lessons Let us not presume upon our grace. Let us identify our idols and let us tear them down. But let us tear them down in Christ. Let us tear them down with confidence in our Lord. Let us treasure the Lord's day. Let us treasure the preaching of the word. Let us treasure the fellowship of the saints. And Heavenly Father, let us treasure the Lord's table. I pray that we don't treat the gathering of Christ's people as an inconvenience. that can be negotiable or displaced whenever we feel something else is more important. But I pray today that because we gather together, that the world would see your people and that they would see the hearts of people who are saying Christ is worth it. He is worthy of my time. He is worthy of my family. He is worthy of my worship. yeah I may have other things to do but I pray today that we worship Christ first let us remember the people of the wilderness and let us not fall into that snare and that trap of idolatry to you Father through your Son be all honor and glory we thank you and we pray these things in Jesus name and the people of God said Amen God bless you church

Exodus 34:10-17