Sermon Tone Analysis

I.       Lost confidence in God because of delays.

(32:1)

A.     They had only recently witnessed the awesome presence of God at Mt. Sinai!

B.     They were blinded to what God was preparing for them.

§  On the mount, a tabernacle design was being unveiled to Moses through which God Himself would come down and dwell with them.

§  God was about to bring Israel to a place of peace & rest, giving them houses they didn’t build and gardens they didn’t plant; a land of milk and honey.

§  Yet while God was focused on their every need, they were crying, “Where is God?

Where is His direction?

Why is there no further progress?

There is only silence.”

§  The conclusion of the human heart that is impatient with God: “God is no longer with us!”

§  The next conclusion: let’s do something.

Illustration: Saul waiting on Samuel.

C.     How exciting the world’s ways look to those who have tired in waiting on God.

§  “Make us gods.”

The world in which they had lived held a powerful pull on their lives.

a.   Their background was pagan polytheistic worship.

b.

We all tend to run to the past when the present seems fearful.

c.

At a time when God wants us to choose faith, we choose familiar.

§  When you lose sight of what God is really doing in your life, you misinterpret your circumstances.

They had lost sight of God delivering them from Egypt, and wrongly believed Moses had delivered them.

Never attribute spiritual success to any man, but always to God.

§  “Run, don’t walk” is motto of those who are bored with serving God.

They cannot seem to indulge in the world’s pleasures soon enough.

II.

Making the Best of a Bad Situation?

A.     Aaron thought he could make the best of a bad situation.

§  Take a pagan lifestyle, and use it to honor Jehovah!

§  Like taking the world’s greatest idol, television, and letting it become your church service.

§  Like being a Christian witness at the fraternity!

How many times have I heard that hopeful plan unveiled by an incoming freshman!

B.     Or living the life of unsaved pagan during the week, but never missing Sunday church!

§  I’ve got an idea!

Instead of making the best of a pagan lifestyle, why not get out of that pagan lifestyle!

§  We have seen some larger denominations in S.A. mix the local voodoo customs in their Christian church services.

“A little Christianity is better than none at all”.

Well, a little Christianity IS NONE at all.

§  Some will say, “You can worship God in many ways.”

Sounds wonderful.

It’s a wonderful lie.

There is only one way to worship God, in spirit and in truth!

§  “Aren’t you arrogant?

Do you think you have all the right answers?” no, not at all.

I must never allow myself or this church to think we have all the right practices, procedures or doctrines.

That would be complaceny, and God vomits that kind of stuff out of his mouth.

We must be ever diligent to seek the truth of God, to search the scriptures, to see if we are worshipping in spirit and in truth, to reject mere tradition, while at the same time upholding that truth once delivered to the saints.

III.

Playing the Victim.

(21-24)

A.     Aaron was called on the carpet by an indignant brother.

Caught in the middle of the act.

§  What was he to say?

§  “Not my fault.”

The people made me do it.

I just put in the gold and out popped this idol.

§  “How was I to know that this would be the result of my actions?”

§  It’s time we quit blaming our jobs, our wives, our teachers, our circumstances, our dysfunctional parents, for the mess we’re in and face it for what it is: the result of our choice to sin against God!

IV.  Dancing naked before the enemy.

(32:25)

A.     The great sin of the camp was that their unrestrained living put them to shame before their enemies.

§  These enemies who had feared and respected the witness of this tiny nation, now laughed with scorn as they became NO DIFFERENT than anyone else.

§  Let me say this carefully.

You may enjoy the company of a good many drinking buddies, you may have the attention of a gaggle of fellow gossipers, smoking dope may have made you popular with some schoolmates, committing adultery may have made you feel wanted and attractive to someone, BUT when you do these things with these people, you SHAME YOURSELF before them.

B.     You lose the most valuable quality you have: your witness and your name.

§  And you stand naked before them.

V.     Who is on the Lord’s Side? (32:27-29)

A.     God’s people do not stand naked before the enemy.

§  They stand armed for battle with the enemy.

And our enemy is not the Amalekites, not flesh and blood, but our enemy is a spiritual battle with sin, and Satan and his demons.

B.     The question today is who is on the Lord’s side?

§  Who will stand up, even to their own family, and declare NO FURTHER!

§  Sin will not be a part of this household.

§  I will not mix paganism with my Christian life.

§  I will be a separated person, consecrated to God everyday of my life.

§  I may have to work in the world, but I don’t have to be a part of the world!

§  I will be like Moses, who chose to be identified with God’s people, and /“refused be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”/

(Hebrews 11:24-26)