Okay, why don't you take your Bible, let's go to Exodus and we're going to, I'm not going to rehearse everything because it's way too much. We are just gonna jump in where we left off. We took the children of Israel on the other side of the Red Sea. And then three days after the crossing of the Red Sea, we find them at Mara with bitter waters, and they complain. Then, I'm not repeating everything, I'm just giving you this morning, okay? Then, after Mara, they complain, but they don't complain with an attitude, it's more of a, what are we gonna do? So Moses goes to God, God tells Moses, take the branch, throw it in, I'll make the water sweet. God gives them water. Just after giving them the water, the Bible says they move on just a little ways down and they come to a place that has multiple wells, plenty of water. And not only does God prove that He can provide water in the timeframes of difficulty, but then He can give abundance of what is needed. Once they place their faith and obedience in Him, He can supply abundantly as well. And so they go to that area with the abundance of water, then they leave that area and they end up at another place called the wilderness of sin. And there, it's only six days now after the Red Sea crossing, and there they begin to murmur against Moses. Again, I understand, you've got to know the background. When they murmur, the Bible says they murmur against Moses and against Aaron. And Moses always has to remind them, don't think you're getting away with it because you're murmuring at me. I'm not the focus of your true problem. You're trying to blame me when in actuality you're blaming God. And so Moses reminds them over and over again, you can name me as the problem, but you and I both know your problem is with the Lord. You're murmuring against him, not me. And the second time they are caught murmuring is because they're hungry. They don't have the kind of food that they thought they were gonna get. They don't have the kind of food they thought, I don't know what they really thought, but maybe they thought once we get out from underneath Egypt, we'll have everything everybody else has. We're being withheld because of Egypt. We get out of Egypt, it's all gonna end up being gravy from here on out. We're gonna see that error here in a moment. They begin to complain that there's no meat. They begin to complain that they don't have bread like they used to have. And so now in that complaint, they don't just complain and say, what are we gonna do? At that point, their attitude changes and then they actually get not just the murmuring, but they begin to make accusation. It would be better that we died in Egypt. than to come out here and, I'm paraphrasing, come out here and let you kill us in the wilderness. And so their attitude changes. It's not just a, what are we gonna do? Now it's a, what did you do to us? By the way, that becomes the mantra of the children of Israel from this point forward. Every time they murmur and complain, it's always gonna be from this point forward, it's always gonna be to the extent of it would be better that we had died in Egypt than to come out here and be killed of you in the wilderness. Okay, so the attitude changes. By the way, that is what frustrates God. That is what frustrates Moses. And someone said that if God and Moses ever got on the same page, the children of Israel were finished. Because God said, Moses, stand back, I'm gonna kill him, and I'll start over again with you. And Moses said, but God, Lord, you promised, and you brought him out with a mighty hand, and what are the enemies of the Lord gonna say that the individuals that God spared from Egypt and brought them out with a mighty hand, he turned around and slaughtered? What's that gonna say, Lord? What kind of testimony is that gonna be like? Not that God had to be reminded of those things, but Moses had a very good point to make and he actually did a very, very solid delivery because several times God had to say, you know what? For your sake, you're right. I'm gonna withhold, but I'm still gonna bring some judgment. So one moment God's saying I'm gonna kill him Moses said is reminding Lord. You remember your promises remember your promises hmm, and then the next minute Moses saying Lord kill him and God's saying Moses remember I made a promise if they ever got together they were dead all right, but They murmur and complain, God sends them quail and sends them the first of the manna that would never end, okay? At least until they got into the promised land. The manna never ended. Now, let's remind ourselves, the children of Israel were never meant to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. That was not God's plan. That was not what was designed for them. It is what they forced upon the Lord to have to do as a result of disobedience. And it's a very good possibility we'll be looking at that for Old-Fashioned Sunday. You say, how are you gonna, that's kind of, that's not old-fashioned. Yeah, it is. Two major old-fashioned things. Old-fashioned faith and old-fashioned obedience. We're gonna see how they failed on both accounts. But, Up to the point they haven't even gotten to the opportunity to go on the promised land, God gives them manna and is going to give them that manna all the way until he gets them to where he promised them to be. Unfortunately, he has to give it to them for another 40 years because of their stubbornness. But he continues to provide. And that's where we left them with the quail and the manna in the wilderness of sin. But then they leave that area and they go to an area called Rephidim. If you're in Exodus, go to actually Exodus 17. That's what we're gonna pick up. And all of this is referred to and kind of focused where we started off the very, very beginning of these messages. A couple of Sundays ago, 1 Corinthians 10, five through six, Paul mentions it, that all this is recorded as they might be an example to us. And all that we see shows us something, teaches us something. And then the fact that you see it in the book of Psalms as well, Psalm 106, as the psalmist begins to focus on the children of Israel, what took place. And so we see here they come three days murmuring at Mara, six days from the Red Sea murmuring for quail and manna. Now we're going to reach 17 days from the Red Sea. Okay, 17 days from crossing over the Red Sea. and they're at Rephidim. Chapter 17, verse number one says, all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord and pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses. They're not just murmuring now, now they're just getting ugly. Okay, they're chiding with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. Well, now they're commanding. People get brazen when they get in a wrong mindset. I mean, they can just get individuals, I'll put it this way, whether saved or not, when they are in a wrong mindset that's not of a godly nature, but it is of the flesh, you and I, all of us sitting here, can get very snappy, very demanding, high expectations, and nothing to us is unreasonable, even though to everyone else it might be. Why? Because when we get, like the children of Israel got in this moment, It's not about what makes sense. It's not about what is right. It's not about what they should have learned. It's all about what they want. Give me. You brought us out here. You owe us. Now think about it. They're in Egypt. They're dying in Egypt. They're being killed and beaten and brutalized in Egypt. They're slaves. Now they get out in the wilderness, they're free. Things go a little rough and now they're looking at Moses saying, give us water, you owe it to us for doing this to us. Doing what, freeing you? Which of course, keep in mind, they always look at Moses as the one who freed them and Moses has always reminded them, I didn't bring you out of anything. I just followed God and you followed me as I followed God. God's the one who delivered. Which is why if you complain, you are complaining against God, because I didn't do it. He did. And so they're chiding with him. They're saying, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? There's his reminder. And the people thirsted there for water and the people murmured against Moses and said, wherefore is this that thou has brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? Now they're throwing their animals in the mix. It's not bad enough that you're killing us and you're killing our children, you're killing our animals too. Moses, you're just a murderer. Cold-hearted, you don't care. I mean, as my pastor always said, and it really only sank in after a few years being in full-time ministry, trying to deal with people and their anger issues. Hurting people hurt people. But it's because hurting people are only focused on their own hurt and they don't care who they hurt. They just want people to know they're hurting. And a lot of times they think they gotta stomp your toes so you know that theirs is hurting. That's just the way, unfortunately, the flesh reacts to sorrow if the spirit is not in control. And so children of Israel are hurting, children of Israel are thirsty, children of Israel are angry, and Moses is the target. And it says in verse number four, and Moses cried unto the Lord saying, what shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. That tells you how far they've gone. Just how their attitude, I mean, they're physical. And the Lord said unto Moses, go on before the people and take with thee the elders of Israel and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb and thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of all the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massa and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not? Now, you see a little bit more insight in that last statement. They are not just murmuring and chiding, but they are willfully acknowledging their frustration. Is God really with us? Is God really taking care of us? Look what a good job he's doing. Can you see the attitude that could be coming from this? There's no water. God did not, he's not gonna let them die of thirst. Why would he waste his time bringing them out just to let them die in the wilderness? But he'd already told them, you need to trust me. You need to follow me. They are, again, a picture of a brand new individual who has received Christ as their Savior, who has come out of the world through salvation in a picture of salvation, yes, but then also open declaration through baptism in the Red Sea is what the picture of that is. And then they come to the other side, which is now A dividing, the Red Sea becomes the dividing line. You have the new life that they have in freedom with God, and you have the old life that they have been removed from. A picture of salvation. There is no going back. A new man has been created. The old man is gone, supposed to be. Now the remnants of the knowledge of the old man can stick around for a while, and so these children of Israel in their early days struggled with some serious issues as they were learning what faith in Christ or faith in their God is all about. These struggles began to increase with time. I want you to go with me to Exodus 19. And let me show you one more. There are some events that take place in the remainder of chapter 17 into chapter 18. And I'm not gonna go into those right now. We might come back and visit some of that. But in chapter 19, I want to come back because there is, in chapter 17, there's the fighting with Amalek. And that's a very powerful picture of what happens in the life of a brand new child of God as he's beginning, he or she is beginning to move forward with the Lord. Satan's not about to just stop coming after you. It's what Amalek represents. Matter of fact, he's a chicken. He likes to attack the weak areas. You find out about Amalek and he was attacking the hinder parts as they traveled. He was coming by and he was killing the stragglers. He's killing off the weak ones. God said, go take care of them. And they went and battled with Amalek. We'll look at that later. But right now I wanna go, we're dealing with the forgetfulness of the children of Israel. God brought them to the Red Sea. After he brought them to the Red Sea, they absolutely worship and praise God, sing and have a time. Once Pharaoh's armies have been drowned and his strength is gone and there's no more chance of Egypt coming after them, it has been settled, it is done, it is over. They are free and they celebrate. And three days later, they're murmuring. And six days later, they're murmuring with accusations and attitude. And then 17 days later, they're murmuring with accusations, attitude, and physical violence. Then we come 25 days. later, right around 25 days later, you now have the children of Israel coming to Mount Sinai. And they're gonna be here for a little while because Moses spends 40 days and nights in the thick cloud, in the mountain, with the Lord receiving the tablets of commandments. And by the way, another error of teaching and mentality today is that there are 10 commandments. You say, there were 10 commandments. It was the 10 commandments. Did you not watch the movie? There were 10 major yes. but that was just like the categorizations of the vast commandments that God gave. Moses spent 40 days and nights up there and it was 40 days and nights of God giving him instructions to take back to the children of Israel. That's a lot of instructions. There's instructions about how they're to handle themselves and their tents. There's instructions of how they are to set about the camp. There's instructions of how they are to worship. There's instructions of setting up the tabernacle. There's instructions of how to handle the Levitical priesthood. There's instructions of how to deal with illnesses and with disease. There's instructions of how to deal with rebellion in the camp. There's instructions of how to deal with a stranger who might visit or who might want to stay and join you. I mean, there's instructions that are instructions. You think Ten Commandments is a whole bunch of rules. You haven't even touched the surface of the rules that God gave them to follow so that they can live in accordance with the will of God. You say, well, that's impossible. That's kind of the point, but at the same time, he didn't give them the inability to follow. He gave them instructions that could be followed. They must be heeded, they must be recorded, they must be rehearsed on a regular basis. It's going to take a purposeful desire to share these instructions, to share what God has said, to remind their children, their children's children, their children's children's children. I mean, they're going to have to generation after generation, they're going to have to rehearse what God has said. They're going to have to remind them what God has said. By the way, you say, well, I've read through my Bible once. And I'm sure you're able to remember everything that God instructed and how it all applies after one reading in God's word. You are an absolute genius. Now I know there are some people who can remember stuff like that. but they tend to be kind of weird also. So, but I just, I mean, honestly, when one area of your life works really well, the others seem to slip. I just, it's one that, you know, the greatest geniuses you've ever seen have no personal hygiene. You ever noticed that? Yeah, well, okay. Whoo, and then there are those who are just insane. Okay, but as a whole, the purpose was, yeah, listen, Trusting God with your eternity is a simple choice of do I receive Christ as my Savior? It is not hard to receive the forgiveness offered. But as a child of God, it does take purposeful work for me to walk with God the way I ought to. Well, I got saved. It all should be gravy from here on out, baby. No. No, it's going to get tough. It's going to get hard. Things might get a little lean. The mountains might get a little high. The valley's going to get a little low. I mean, it's going to be a difficult route. But there is a map through it all that helps me know how to stay on the path of safety. And it's in here. but I can't remember all of it all the time. So I need to rehearse it on a regular basis. I need to be in it on a regular basis. I need to be reminded of it, not just in my own time, but I need to be reminded by individuals. The Lord can bring my way to preach and to teach and to help me because sometimes I get into a rut of things I see and God brings somebody that can show a whole nother light to it and get me out of my rut. of just the certain things I'm seeing, and God says, there's so much more you're missing. I'm gonna help you out. I'm gonna give somebody to challenge you to dig deeper than just the rut you've gotten yourself into. Now, if y'all don't know what that was, all of that was a commercial break, okay? Now, back into our 15-minute quarter. All right? Ask Brother Butch and a few others what that means. Give me a hard time. I know how this works. 15 minute quarters or hour and a half part of the game, all right? So, as they're going now, Mount Sinai, they are there, it's 25 days, Exodus 19, it says, in the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. and for they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if, here's the command, here's the conditions again, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Boy, they're really good at sounding really good. Does that not sound familiar today? They're really good at sounding real spiritual. All that got, yet they've had a really good track record thus far. And it's only been 25 days. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord, saying, you thought I wasn't gonna tell him? You know, he already knew. But watch verse number nine, the Lord said unto Moses, lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud that the people, now, mm. Here's what we miss, and I don't want you to miss it. He said, lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with thee and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words unto the people, and the Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes and be ready against the third day. For the third day, the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people unto Mount Sinai. Now, here is Well, I'll just make it simple. We get our theology from Hollywood. We watch Charlton Heston as Moses and we watch him challenge the people and then he goes up into the mountain. Now, I can't remember, y'all help me out if y'all seen it. In the movie, did God ever speak in the people here? Or did Moses go up and meet with God immediately and the people never heard God speak? Now here's the truth. I can't quite remember clearly, so I'm not gonna blame them completely until I can verify my remembrance. But here is the truth of Scripture. The truth of Scripture is the first time God gives the 10 commandments, everyone hears it. Let me show you. It's not just Moses. Everyone hears. They're told to prepare for the third day, and so they prepare. Look at verse number 16. Chapter 19, verse number 16. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether with a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up. Now, here's the mistake. They think Moses went up, nobody hears God anymore. No. At first, God's talking to Moses, and everybody's witnessing what God, because God, he doesn't need a microphone. God talks to Moses, Moses hears God, and so does everybody else in the camp. Moses goes up and gets closer to meet with God, but everybody hears what God has to say. And the Lord said unto Moses, go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. There is a, by the way, there was a division point. There was a point at which they could not cross. By the way, we can go before the throne of God in prayer. But you and I at this point are not able to pass from here to the presence of a holy God and then come back to this life and live and go back and forth and back and forth at this point. We don't have access to see the Father face to face. No man has seen the Father face to face and lived. Now there'll come a time when we will see him face to face. but we will be in completely eternal scenario and not in this physical life any longer, captivated by this material vessel. And so, as he talks, Verse number 23, and Moses said unto the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for thou charges us saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I missed some. Where was I at? oh, verse number 22, and let the priest also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. And Moses said unto the Lord, the people cannot come up to the Mount Sinai, for thou charges us, saying, set bounds about the Mount and sanctify it. And the Lord said unto him, away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with them, but let not the priest and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them." So Moses went down unto the people and spake unto them. And then now we have the people hearing. Verse 20, I'm just going to read one, I'm just going to read a few verses here and I can't read all of it. But it says, and God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Oh, that's an interesting one right there. Let's repeat that one because they're about to break it. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. And he keeps going and going and going and going and going all the way through verse number 17. He lays out the major aspects, verse number 12. Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. These sound familiar? These are what we call the major 10 commandments. and all of Israel hears God give these commands. I mean, if you were there, the mountain was on fire, the smoke was going up, the whole place was shaking, there was a voice like thunder, there was a trumpeting of voices, and I mean, all of this happening like a bad nightmare. I mean, all of this is happening, and you're hearing very clearly commands. Wouldn't you believe that God exists? People say today, well, if God would just show himself, if he would just speak, I would know he exists and I would believe in him. Really? You would? The children of Israel did for a very short time. But as soon as it was out of sight, it was out of mind again. The wonders of the Red Sea, the wonders of what's happening here, the water, right? Think about this, they just got through a few days ago, Moses hitting a rock and water gushing out and millions of people drinking all they could possibly drink along with all of their animals from a rock in the desert. Well, there must have been some kind of little spring underneath that rock, and when it cracked, all of a sudden it released it, okay? Man is always coming with some kind of an answer that it wasn't a miracle, it was just something that was there that just happened to happen just right. Old hogwash. They see the miracles, they see the miracles, they see the miracles. Now they hear God and can feel his presence in the thunder and the quake and the smoke. It's clear that Almighty God, Jehovah God exists and he is giving them direct commands. And the second thing he says, thou shalt make no graven image. Well, the people have a hard time with this. See, they're not used to actually communing with God. They can't handle it. So in verse 18 through verse number 21, look what the people say, chapter 20 there. The people say, here's what the Bible records for us, and all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they were moved and stood afar off, and they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. It was so life-changing, they thought it was gonna kill them. They thought if we hear any more God himself speak, we are gonna die. So they say, they tell Moses, Moses, you be the mediator between us and God. You can handle it, we can't. You, you let God speak to you and then you come tell us and we'll listen to whatever you say God said. But please don't let God speak anymore to us directly. We just can't handle, we can't stomach it. By the way, that is very much in a resemblance of a young Christian. when God begins to move in a very powerful way, they go, maybe they're in a service and the preaching is good, but more than that, the Holy Spirit begins to move and people begin to hit the altar. People begin to cry and pray together. Next thing you know, people are coming down and getting saved. Next thing you know, somebody's on the altar, just raise their hands and say, thank you, Lord. And things in a very genuine, Spirit-led time began to move, and here's this individual who's never been there before, never seen it before, never seen God moving like this. They understand salvation, but they don't know all this hocus-pocus stuff is going on around here. And they're sitting there like a calf looking at a new gate, like an owl, and I'm, whoa, what is this? I mean, they're wide-eyed, and they don't know what to think of this. And they're like, you know, I don't know if I can take this directly. Y'all tell me how it ends. I mean, or better yet, God's calling and God's calling and God's calling, they're like, I don't know how to handle this. And so instead of getting closer to God, they want somebody to get there in between for them so that they can, I need a man to kind of be a buffer because I don't know that I'm ready to have all of God right now. I need my preacher to be my buffer because I don't know if I can just handle that direct God stuff right now in my life. It's just too much to handle. I need my preacher to kind of Listen, I'm all for that, don't get me wrong. I'm all for being there and being a guide and directing, but listen, you cannot rely on man to be your access to a holy God. You have access because of Jesus Christ. Every child of God must learn to be able to go boldly before the throne of grace on their own and not always asking others to do it for them because I just can't handle that. That's where they're at. They don't wanna hear from God directly. They wanna, oh, by the way, when you don't hear from God directly, it's real easy and real quick to be able to blame the person who taught you the truth. Well, I'm just not gonna follow what men say. Well, I'm not listening to that preacher anymore because he says a lot of things and I just don't know. That's probably just his opinion. Why don't you get along with God, then, and let God show you whether or not it's opinion? Well, I just don't know. No, don't be afraid to get along with God. You might actually find that the preacher is actually being very gentle with what God has shown him, and God might just go ahead and give you full throttle. Okay, that went over like a lead brick, all right. But that's the way people get. Because it's real easy. Let the preacher teach me. And that's not bad. That's part of things. That's why there are preachers. That's why there are teachers. But if that's what we're relying on, may I say, more than likely the reason people rely on wanting everyone else to teach them instead of saying, Lord, I'm gonna also dig in myself and I want the Holy Spirit to show me some things. I want to walk with God, me and you, God, me and you. I don't need a buffer every time. Sometimes I just need me and you, God. But the reason a lot of people won't do that is because they need someone to blame if things don't go well, or things aren't going the way expected, or they put their faith and trust in something that's been taught from the scriptures, and then it doesn't quite pan out the way they were interpreting in their mind how it was to go, and then all of a sudden, it's the fault of the teacher. It's the fault of the preacher. Well, I followed this, and look what happened. Well, I followed what that person said. How about this? How about you just follow God? it'll fix all of it. Because then you can just go to God and you can tell him how awful he is for being wrong. I'm being facetious, yes, okay? But that's why people fear to hear from God because they need somebody to be able to blame and they know that they can't effectively blame God. So the children of Israel said, Moses, you go speak to God and then you come tell us what God said and we'll follow it. I don't have a lot of time to go on much further with that, so I'm just gonna give you this. Moses goes, and you can write down these passages and look it up. But Moses does go, the people are, they're faint and fearful. So they send Moses as their mediator to go hear from God. Moses goes to hear from God, and the Bible says in verse 18 to 21 of chapter 20 there, about the people's heart concerning this. And then in verse 22 of chapter 20, all the way through chapter 31, verse 18, Moses goes and meets with God. and he has gone for 40 days and nights. Go with me very quickly to chapter 32, and this is where we're gonna close for tonight. Chapter 32. Now we're skipping all the timeframe of God's instructions to Moses that he is gonna go back and he is gonna be responsible to rehearse in the ears of the people and to teach consistently the truths that have been shared with him. But while he is gone, we now see verse number 32, and that is the people forget God and forsake him in the 40 days of Moses' absence. Here it is, this is now a point of about 68 days from the Red Sea. So you add all the days up to the point they're at Sinai, and they tell Moses, you go speak, then add 40 extra days and nights there to that number, you're somewhere around 68 days from the point they crossed over the Red Sea. The Bible says, and when the people, verse number one of 32, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together under Aaron and said unto him, up, make us, they're making commands again, up, make us gods which shall go before us. Broke number one. Thou shalt have no other god before me. Make us gods. that shall go up before us. For as for this Moses, the man that thou brought us up out of the land, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. They have forgotten God altogether. It's all about Moses. Moses did this, Moses did this, Moses did this. We don't know where he's at, so we gotta find our own way now. It has nothing to do with Moses. It has all to do with God, but they have forgotten the one who delivered them. And now they're gonna make a God which is breaking rule number one that God gave them and they heard audibly for themselves. You say, well, hold on a second, they haven't received the Ten Commandments. Yes, they did. Moses has not come back, but they've already received it from God themselves. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives and of your sons and your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings, which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten stone. and they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Broke number two. Looking for other gods? Make a graven image and worship it. I'm not gonna go any further with that, because we've already, I preached from it before about Aaron saw and built an altar, and I really believe, I believe with all my heart that Aaron did not build an altar unto that God. I believe Aaron built an altar because he thought if I can appease them, then they will see their error and this won't go any further. And when all of a sudden they took what he did and they ran with it, Aaron built an altar unto the Lord, trying to reign this thing back in. But it was too late. They forgot God. They forsook God. They rose up and played. By the way, when they played like the old days of the old life they used to know, when they rose up and went into their party lifestyle like they used to know, it was declared from a distance by those who heard and saw Joshua. Namely, it sounded like the noise of war. By the way, that would be great confusion. God's not the author of confusion. Nothing they were doing was holy. Nothing they were doing was righteous. Nothing they were doing was being a representation of what had been done for them. from deliverance through the Red Sea and now into new life. None of what they're doing is a reflection of the new life that they've been given. It's all looking back and acting like the old man. By the way, that is a big pitfall in the life of young Christians who don't get grounded. they can be easily swayed to play with the world and think they're gonna be okay. Can I give you this and we're finished? I need to be done. Two major issues, this is why it happened. They ignored the obvious presence of God in their troubles. Every time there was trouble, they forgot God. They ignored God's presence in their troubles. And they misunderstood the concept of freedom. They mistakenly believed freedom meant no problems. They mistakenly believed that freedom meant no rules. And they mistakenly believed that freedom meant no responsibilities. You say, how do you know that? Just look at their attitude and look what they're doing. They thought they wouldn't have a problem and yet they don't have water, they don't have food, they mumble, grumble, complain and want to kill somebody. They're given rules and then they break the rules. They don't care. And then when it all comes right down to it, they think that life is just one free game to do whatever I want to. And so they have a big party as though God doesn't exist. Galatians 5.13 says, For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Freedom does not mean the absence of problems, does not mean the absence of needs, or of cost, or of sacrifice, or of grief, or of pain, or of responsibility, or of accountability. Freedom means the ability to keep pressing forward during and after all those things are going on with the option to continue rather than be crushed and discarded. Freedom. You say, what is this whole picture of? Go back to the main point. It is a picture of salvation. Salvation does not offer us no problems, no issues, no hurts, no pain, no cost, no sacrifice, no responsibilities, no accountabilities, no. Salvation is the opportunity That now that I used to be the old man without Christ, I am now a new man in Christ. And what would have destroyed me Without Christ, I now have the ability freed from sin. I have the ability to trust God in everything. I have the ability to know that He's always with me in everything. I have the confidence to believe that He'll never leave me nor forsake me. Why? Because He promised He never would. I have the ability now to push on through the hardships. I have the ability to push beyond the hurts and the pains and the backstabbings. I have the ability to go forward in the midst of the struggle. I have the ability to face the mountain that seems too high and deal with the valley that is honestly just so low. I now have, through Christ, the ability to do what I never could do without Him. because he's changed everything. But if I'm not careful, I'll forget him. I don't lose the fact that I'm free, but I'll lose sight of the one who freed me. And I can easily turn my back in rebellion against his will and his way. and his desire for me, and the blessings he wants to be able to give me through obedience, and I can end up dying in the wilderness. Children of Israel delivered mightily, but forgetful. And that became their greatest undoing generation after generation after generation. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us