Well, good evening. Thank you to my brother Ryan for that warm introduction and welcome and allowing me for taking up the pulpit here in this church. We enjoyed our fellowship here when we were with you for a short stint in the summer. And we are enjoying our time up in Northern Virginia as I'm doing the pastoral internship with Delray Baptist Church currently. But it's a wonderful occasion for me to be able to be back in the block, as so to call, to stand up here and to deliver the Word of God. I miss it from our home church back in South Africa. It's been since February, since I last preached, so hopefully the old cobwebs will loosen up quickly enough. I was going to say to my brother that he should thank me after only and not before for those who have never heard someone preach before but may the Lord be glorified in this evening. We will turn to Exodus chapter 32 and we will read together from God's Word through the first 14 verses. Exodus chapter 32 from verse 1 through to verse 14. Hear now the word of God. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.' So all the people broke off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. And they said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Then they rose early in the next day, offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get down, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf and worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, this is your God of Israel that brought you out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and indeed it is a stiff neck people. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation.' Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God and said, The Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak and say, He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven, and all this land that I have spoken I have given to your descendants. and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. Let us pray to God. Our Heavenly Father, now, may this text, your word, speak to our hearts by your spirit, and may we be transformed more into the likeness of Christ. May we heed the warning that is presented here, and may we turn from our idols to worship the one true God. May we come to you in repentance and faith this night in Christ's name. Amen. I heartily prepared from the catechism on question 112 this week. I enjoyed it. And then I sat in the pew this morning and I realized that catechism 112 is of a different catechism. A later catechism of Benjamin Keech, the same Benjamin, but a different number. And so we are back to the first petition of the Lord's Prayer this evening. The first petition of the Lord's Prayer is this, O Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. What does the word hallow mean? Well, it means but to hold and regard as holy. In other words, to respect, to honor, to glory as holy the name of the Lord. The Catechism instructs us that, in this first petition, we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify Him and all that whereby He makes Himself known. Do you hear that? To glorify Him and all that whereby He makes Himself known, and that He would dispose all things to His own glory. That's what it means to hallow the name of the Lord. In other words, we are instructed to stick very close to what God has revealed about himself. Why? Well, Calvin has so aptly taught us that the human heart is a factory of idols. We will develop idols from every imagination possible and we will attribute to things glory that ought not to receive glory. And our text here this evening illustrates this point so well. Here in Exodus chapter 32, describes in sad detail the demise of a people at the footstool of God. Here at the foot of Mount Sinai, as Moses is meeting with the one true God, the Israelites incite Aaron to fashion for them a golden calf. Listen to their words in Exodus 32 verse 1. up make us gods who shall go before us as for this Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt we do not know what has become of him and so Aaron the spokesman of Moses commands the Israelites to give him all their gold and jewelry and fashions a calf and then says these astonishing words in verses four and five These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Tomorrow shall be a feast. To whom? The Lord. Syncretism. The merging of true worship with false worship. It is with this backdrop that we observe the exchange between Moses and the Lord regarding Israel's idolatry. Here we find Moses interceding for the people, as the mediator, as the one who will stand in their stead. And we will observe, through this intercession with Moses, between Moses and the Lord, from Exodus 32 verse 11 to 14, three things that we can consider that will teach us how to hallow the name of the Lord. The Lord's name is to be hallowed for, one, He alone delivers. Two, He relents from disaster. and three, He remembers His covenant. The first of these, the Lord's name is to be hallowed for He alone delivers. Now the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt by God and brought to Mount Sinai to worship Him. That is the purpose. Can you imagine that they had witnessed the ten plagues? They had been shepherded through the Red Sea. They had been given manna in the desert. They had been led by a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. They had come to Mount Sinai where God himself had descended in cloud and shaking the mountain with his presence as his throne was established. In Exodus chapter 19 verse 4, the Lord said to the Israelites, You have witnessed, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. The tender care of a shepherd. In this very act, he demonstrated who he was. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And yet, they had air and fashion for themselves a golden calf right here before the very mountain. Moses has ascended, and right here, in the presence of the Lord, right before his very throne, they fashion his golden cuffs, and they have the audacity to say these words. These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. For anyone who thinks that an experience is good enough to keep him going for the rest of their life, one should just turn to this text. Experiences in themselves mean nothing. memory of the humanity fades. It has been no longer that they were delivered and that they had said we will do everything that is written in the covenant no sooner and they are the ones that are fashioning a golden calf and attributing to this calf the powers that God alone has. Now the Lord's response to Moses in verse 7 is devastating. He says to Moses, go, get down. Go down to your people. For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden, molden calf, and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. were to feel the tension in these words. Just days before, in Exodus chapter 19 verse 8, the Israelites have said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do. And now, they're dancing around in idle while Moses is interceding for them before the throne of God. Moses' intercession here is remarkable. It's with great boldness that Moses speaks to the Lord these words in Exodus 32 verse 11. But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? A bolder conversation in scripture I don't think there is between man and God. But there are two things that we learn from Moses' intercession from these verses. Firstly, Moses knew who delivered them. Moses knew to whom he's speaking. He hadn't forgotten. The Israelites, on the other hand, had a golden calf and claimed that this idol, this molten image, had delivered them from the hands of the Egyptians. On the one hand, we see the folly of idolatry. And on the other hand, we see the value of a mediator. One who knows who delivered us. You see, we might ourselves say that if only it was us there standing in the place of the Israelites, if we had experienced everything in Egypt that we had undergone, being slaves for 400 years, then delivered by the series of 10 plagues, being led through the Red Sea, having been brought to Mount Sinai, if we were the ones to experience that, we would do differently. Or would we? How many golden calves do we create throughout a week? We leave the church, and we go into the world, and we forget quickly what we have learned. We say yes and amen here at the place of covenant, and we leave and depart, and the next thing we are, delving into all sorts of sins and errors. The human nature hasn't changed, and we are no different. Therefore, we need a mediator. Moses knows who delivered them. Secondly, Moses' concern was primarily for God's name. Do you see that concern that Moses has, primarily for God's name? You see, Moses' intercession for the people is all about the glorious name of God. Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent, to bring them out, to kill them in the mountains, to consume them from the face of the earth? Moses is totally concerned for the fame of God's name here. He's not concerned about the people primarily. We're going to see just a little bit later on, if you read the text further, that he goes down the mountain, and here's Rother's Kindle, and he has the Levites and all of their brothers grab swords, and 3,000 are slain on that very day. It's the name of God, His reputation before the nations that Moses is concerned for. You see, Moses is genuinely hallowing the name of the Lord. He's holding up the Lord's reputation above all things. I wonder how many of us look back at our deliverance, and has that inspired us to hallow the name of the Lord during the week? Our weeks are generally filled with emotional shifts to and fro. Ups and downs. Good days and bad days. You see friends, do we look back on our deliverance from darkness and does it make us desire to live in such a way that the Lord's name isn't blasphemed among the nations? Or do we live in such a way before our colleagues at work, our family members, our friends at the country clubs or the social gatherings, that the Lord's name is really brought into disrepute? If we don't take this seriously, how do we gather on a Sunday? Second, The Lord's name is to be hallowed for he relents from disaster. Now the second part of verse 12, we have the most astonishing phrase in all of this interaction. Turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your people. I mean, how do we possibly make sense of this request? And then in verse 14, so the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people. Can you imagine how Moses must have felt? Just try and put yourself in his shoes. The Lord says he is going to draw his sword against his people and he's going to wipe them out. Moses intercedes and says, Lord, no, for your great name, don't do this. Relent from this disaster and the Lord relents. He puts his sword back. How do you think Moses would have felt? See, here we have the people of God redeemed from Egypt by an act of pure mercy. And then they turn to a molded calf and declare that this idol, this thing that we fashioned with our own hands has delivered us from Egypt. Moses would have just received the second command. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. That would have been fresh in Moses' mind. Carrying the tablets down with him as he descends on the mountain with that engraved on it. And while Moses is receiving this command, the people are doing exactly this. See, Moses knew that the Lord was justified in his wrath and that his action towards these people must meet his just requirements. Moses knows this and yet Moses pleads for mercy and mercy is granted. Can you imagine how Moses must have felt the moment the Lord repented? There are a few things we should observe from this. You can just tell them that I'm busy. A few observations. Firstly, before having any discussion about the nature of God, we should first recognize the mercy we, as his creatures, have received. That God relents is good news. Why? Because it would have been just for God to destroy Adam and his rebellion. Yet he spared both Adam and Eve and made a promise that someone would deliver them from the evil they had committed. It would have been just for God to remove all humanity from the earth at the flood. And yet he spared Noah and his family from whom we are all descended. It certainly would have been just for the Lord to wipe out all these Israelites in the wilderness. And yet the Lord spares them for their benefit and ours. Because without them the Messiah wouldn't come. And it would have been just of the Lord to leave each and every single one of us in our sin. And not to lead us to repentance. So that we may store up for the day of wrath. judgment that will have eternal consequences. He's perfectly just, but he doesn't. He shows mercy. He relents. Secondly, the foundation of the Lord's relenting on this passage is His mercy, which is an attribute of His nature. You see, when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses further in Exodus 34, verse 6 and 7, that famous passage when the Lord asked, Can I see your glory? And the Lord said, You can't look at me and live, but I will hide you in the cleft of a rock, and my goodness will pass before you. And in that very moment, when the Lord passed before Moses, He says in Exodus 34, verse 6 and 7, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. This is part of who He is. You see, what happens here in Exodus 32 verse 12 and 14 is very consistent with His character. In this sense, He doesn't change His nature. I mean, it is consistent with His justice that His wrath is kindled against sin because that is who He is. And it is also consistent with His mercy that He relents from disaster. It's the beauty of God's character held in balance. Thirdly, the Lord's relenting here only makes sense in the light of the cross of Christ. You see, the Lord also reveals in Exodus 34 verse 7 that He will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. How do we reconcile God's justice with his mercy? How can God equip the guilty as he does here? The question is answered for us very clearly in Romans chapter 3 verse 21 to 26 when Paul writes, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate what? His righteousness. Because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. You see, Exodus 32 cannot make sense outside of the plan of redemption. But the plan of redemption reminds us that God knew what Moses The plan of redemption shows us that God relents from His fierce wrath toward us only because His just demands are met when He pours out His wrath on His Son and our Mediator, Jesus at the cross, in our place. Condemned He stood. We get the mercy. God gets the glory. Now this ought to cause us to hallow His name even more. There are so many objections to God in our time, from philosophical thinkers right through to the common man, all objecting to God's actions in the Old Testament or His anger and His wrath. How could a God create the world in which such horrible things happen? And yet, when you take a look at the Gospel, when you take a look at what God does here, we can only but marvel at His mercy and His justice. It's a beautiful picture that exists in no other philosophical thinking known to man. Three, the Lord's name is to be hallowed for he remembers his covenant. Another reason for us to hallow the name of the Lord is because he's trustworthy. He's trustworthy. You see, Moses recalls the covenant in Exodus 32 verse 13, which the Lord made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when he says, Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. Notice how the covenant of God is grounded in the character of God. Moses says, remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel to whom you saw by your own self. Two observations of this. Firstly, if God's character was as unstable as ours, the covenant would be unstable too. But God's nature doesn't change. And so the covenant that established on his own self is as stable as he is. This gives us a great deal of confidence that even though the situation looks really dire, our hope is certain. We move from South Africa. in March of this year. I'm living outside of Washington, DC. We're moving into election year. It's quite remarkable to watch from an outsider how people can place all of their hope in the wrong places, in the shifting tides of human innovation, in the false promises of politicians, There's a great golden calf right over there for us to put our hope in the wrong place and be disappointed. Here is an unshifting promise given to us in the hope of the gospel. The covenant is as steadfast and certain as God himself is. And Moses appeals to this covenant because it's enacted on certain promises. Second observation. If the old covenant was established on such a sure foundation, as we see Moses appealing to, consider these words from Hebrews 8, verse 6. But now Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also a mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. You see, the Old Covenant was an actual covenant grounded on certain promises from God. But the substance of it was a foreshadowing. It was a picture intended to show forth to something greater to come. The promises of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were real. A real land with real people. They were really established. But they were but a picture of a greater kingdom to come. A greater king that was going to ascend on a greater throne. In other words, the promises that Moses appealed to were of temporal nature. But the promises given to Christ are the substance of the promises given in the Old Covenant and they are eternal by nature. See, Moses was the mediator of a temporal covenant, but Christ is the mediator of an eternal covenant. Why are these promises in the New Covenant so much better? A. They are better because they are enacted between better parties. They are enacted between God the Father and God the Son. As opposed to here between God the Father and fallen man. I mean this is what Hebrews chapter 8 goes on to expound. Goes on to expound the contrast between what happened here at Sinai and the people that just couldn't keep the covenant. They kept on failing. To that of Jesus who keeps it for us. And secondly. B. They surpass the promises in the old covenant and that the new covenant promises a transformed heart. See, that's the real issue here at the Golden Calf Incident. You have these people that experience all of these wonderful external sights that we would perhaps sometimes in our hearts long to see, but yet the authors of the New Testament are insistent we have received something far greater by the Holy Spirit that indwells each and every single one of us and that regenerates us and transforms us to become like Christ. Of course, all of God's people have always been regenerated by the Spirit. But the Old Covenant was a mixed covenant. Believers and unbelievers alike, the New Covenant, for all of its members are promised to attain eternal life. It's a secure covenant. Every single one who belongs to the New Covenant has the law written on their hearts by God Himself. No longer on tablets of stone, but internally by the Spirit of God. As we conclude, and we are coming to a time of prayer, we should reflect on three ways in which we can hallow the name of the Lord in our prayers here tonight. Firstly, we can reflect on the fact that the Lord, He alone delivers. And I mean the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who is revealed fully in Jesus, the God of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the real and true and genuine God. We have so much religious talk today. You go out and you can speak to anyone about God, and everyone would say, oh God, yes, right, God this and God that. But which God are they speaking about? There's only one who delivers. You see, allowing our thoughts to be consumed by this God who delivers in Jesus is a way that we hallow His name. Second, reflect on the fact that the Lord relents from disaster. Forget all the theological discussions about the change in His nature and see the good news from this. None of us deserve his mercy. None of us deserve his mercy. But in Christ we have received abundant mercy. God relents because Jesus carries the weight of our sin, not because he lets the guilty go free. His justice is served, but his mercy is lavished upon his people. and reflect on the God who keeps covenant. His character is trustworthy and stable. His promises are sure and can be counted on. He delivers us from sin, relents from disaster against us because of Christ, and brings us into a new covenant by the blood of Jesus. In Romans 8 verse 38, Paul asked this question. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, How shall they not with him also freely give us all things? I do not know where you are this evening, which God it is that you trust in, what golden calf you will go home to, or whether you have truly repented and believed in the one true God. But I sincerely hope that as we go into a time of prayer now, that you'll allow these words and this warning from Exodus 32 penetrate your hearts. If you're not a believer, consider these words. Consider the severity of God's judgment, but also consider the mercy that He grants and holds out in Christ. If you are a believer, allow this once again to be reminded that we are but fickle human beings. And we need a mediator, and we have one, the man Jesus Christ. Let us pray. High Heavenly Father, in great and glorious is your holy name. You are enthroned above the children, and yet you have descended in Christ your Son, in whom we find redemption and hope. And you have raised him to your right hand through his death and resurrection and ascension. And he will return to judge and to vindicate his people. But you have left your spirit in the present to teach us all things and to guide us to the truth and regenerate our hearts. For all of these, we thank you and honor you. In Christ's name, amen.