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Please turn with me in your Bibles 
to Acts chapter 7, as we continue our exposition through the book 
of Acts. We find ourselves in Stephen's 
defense before the Sanhedrin or religious council. Remember, 
they've brought him up on false charges. Those false charges 
are indicated in chapter 6, that he spoke blasphemous words concerning 
Moses and the law, and that he spoke blasphemous words concerning 
the temple of God. And so, essentially, Stephen 
is answering those charges, and the way that he chooses to do 
it is with their history, with their scripture, so that they 
will see that his emphasis is correct, and they are the ones 
that are wrong. Now, unfortunately, they don't 
see that, and they ultimately want to kill him, and they do 
kill him. He is a martyr for the cause of Jesus Christ, but 
that's how his defense is functioning. He traces the history of Israel, 
focusing on primary persons, and here specifically Moses. 
So we'll look at verse 37, read to verse 43. This is that Moses 
who said to the children of Israel, the Lord your God will raise 
up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, him you shall 
hear. This is he who was in the congregation 
in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, 
and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles 
to give to us, whom our fathers would not obey but reject it. 
And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, 
Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses who brought 
us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become 
of him. And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices 
to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 
And God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, 
as it is written in the book of the prophets. Did you offer 
me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during 40 years in the wilderness, 
O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle 
of Moloch and the star of your god, Ramphan, images which you 
made to worship, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father 
in heaven, we thank you for this defense by Stephen to the religious 
council. We pray that we would see not 
only the way that he answers the charges, but we would see 
the glory of Jesus Christ, because he is the subject matter of the 
Old Testament. He is the one of whom Moses wrote, 
the one of whom Moses testified, and that these men rejected that 
meant they rejected Moses. God, help us not to make that 
same mistake. Help us to see that all Scripture 
points to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Again, forgive us for 
our sins and our transgressions and the darkening influence that 
it casts over our minds, and fill us with the Holy Spirit 
now. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, 
as I said, Stephen is giving this defense, and it's quite 
robust. It's the lengthiest speech recorded 
in the book of Acts, focusing again on the primary persons 
involved in redemptive history in Israel, because Stephen doesn't 
want to just say to those charges, those aren't true. He wants to 
show from their own scriptures that those charges against him 
are not true. So this morning, we're looking 
at the third section concerning Moses. And I want to look first 
at the Moses they rejected. And I'll explain why I titled 
the point that way. The Moses they rejected in verses 
37 and 38, and then the idols they pursued in verses 39 to 
43. But notice, in verse 35, Stephen says, this Moses. And then again, he says, is the 
one sent to be ruler. And then in verse 37, he says, 
this is that Moses. Verse 38, this is he. And then 
in verse 38 at the end, the one who received the living oracles 
to give to us. So what Stephen is doing is clarifying 
the Moses that God sent to be both ruler and deliverer and 
the way that he was rejected by his contemporaries. And the 
point or the parallel is, is that Moses wrote of Christ, and 
that the council rejecting Christ is actually rejecting Moses. 
It's not Stephen that is anti-Moses, it's the religious people that 
he's speaking to that are anti-Moses. Jesus makes the same point in 
John 5 when he tells his contemporaries, the religious leaders of his 
day, that you like Moses, but it's Moses that wrote about me. 
If you believe Moses, then you would certainly believe me, but 
that you don't believe me reflects your rejection of Moses. So, 
Stephen takes the same tact, and he's highlighting this Moses 
they rejected. Now, notice in the first place, 
under this point in verses 37 and 38, the link with Christ. Stephen has already linked Moses 
with Christ. Stephen has already said, not 
in so many words, but in the concept, that Moses was a type 
of Christ. Moses was a ruler and a deliverer, 
just like Jesus. Moses did signs and wonders, 
just like Jesus. And Moses was rejected by a lot 
of his contemporaries, just like Jesus. And now Stephen cites 
a prophetic statement from Moses from Deuteronomy 18 to say that 
Stephen hasn't made this link or this connection on his own, 
but rather Moses himself makes the link. Moses himself says 
that there will be a prophet raised up like me. So Moses anticipated 
a time of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the point 
of his now turning them to Deuteronomy chapter 18. He appeals to that 
in verse 37. Notice, this is that Moses who 
said to the children of Israel, the Lord your God will raise 
up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, him you shall 
hear. Now turn back to Deuteronomy 
chapter 18. One of the reasons that we're 
going slow through Stephen's defense is so that we can use 
this particular defense as a means by which to further investigate 
the Old Testament. I'm not convinced that every 
New Covenant believer is as familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures 
as they ought to be. Now, I don't want to make that 
about any of the present company here, but if the shoe fits, wear 
it. It's good for us to understand the Old Testament Scriptures. 
The apostles, the evangelists, the preachers, the teachers in 
the New Testament always cited Old Testament Scripture in support 
of what they were declaring and what they were saying. Now, Peter 
has already cited this particular passage before the Sanhedrin 
in Acts chapter 3 in verse 22. So, Stephen now cites it to show 
the link between Moses and Jesus. Notice in Deuteronomy 18 at verse 
15, Now, in the context, it's very important that we understand what's happening 
in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is basically an exposition 
of, amplification of, explanation of God's law. And what Moses 
is doing here on the plains of Moab is cautioning the people 
of Israel from pursuing the sorts of things that the pagans around 
them do. In other words, they're not supposed 
to seek out the occult. They're not supposed to to go 
for fortune tellers. They're not supposed to pursue 
witches. Rather, Israel as a nation has prophets and the prophet 
of God speaks the word of the living God as well. The nation 
of Israel has priests. And those priests can't live 
on love and fresh air. First part of Deuteronomy chapter 
18 indicates that you need to pay the priest, you need to support 
the priest. So it was a nation with priests and prophets. And 
in this particular manner, Moses is saying, have no truck with 
the nations around you. Do not listen to those things. 
Do not go for those sorts of things. Rather, listen to the 
true prophet of God Almighty. And then he gives them a caution 
specifically concerning false prophecy. And there's a test. 
If a prophet says he's speaking in the name of God and it doesn't 
come to pass, then that prophet is to be put to death because 
he's false. But here, specifically, Moses 
speaks of a time when God is going to raise up another prophet. Verse 15, the Lord your God will 
raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your 
brethren, him you shall hear. One commentator said, having 
forbidden certain illegitimate methods of attempted communication 
with the supernatural world, in verses 9 to 14, the Sermon 
on the Law now turns to prophecy, the true and legitimate means 
by which God's Word would be delivered to His people. So there 
was in Israel an expectation of a prophet like Moses. Now, 
this certainly gave birth to a succession of prophets. There 
were a whole host of prophets in the line of the prophetic 
ministry in the Old Covenant. But it all led ultimately to 
Jesus Christ. We turn to the New Testament, 
we see that He's identified as that prophet. Remember, in the 
Mount of Transfiguration, the Lord God Most High, the Father 
says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And 
then He says, hear Him. Well, that hear Him, I think, 
is an accurate reflection of Deuteronomy 18.15. Him you shall 
hear. In Matthew 21, at the triumphal 
entry, when Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem, there's 
people praising and worshiping and glorifying him. And the Jerusalemite 
say, who is this? And the men of Galilee says, 
this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And then 
in John's gospel, there was this big, big question concerning 
John the Baptist. Are you the prophet? There was 
this expectation based on Deuteronomy 18, 15, that God would raise 
up a prophet that would be like Moses. And now Stephen, in Acts 
7, is saying that Moses himself made this link. Moses himself 
specified, Moses himself indicated that he was, in fact, writing 
of Christ. Matthew Poole says St. Stephen 
would show that he was so far from speaking against Moses, 
as they falsely imagined, that he is recommending none but him 
whom Moses had so long before spoken of. I've told you that 
as I've worked through this particular passage, some of the commentators 
actually suggest that Stephen does not answer the charges. 
That's all Stephen does. Stephen is doing that not simply 
to vindicate himself in being anti-Temple, or not being anti-Temple 
and not being anti-Moses, but he's pointing the finger at them. They are the ones that are anti-temple, 
they are the ones that are anti-Moses, and Stephen wants them to see 
that. In their rejection of Jesus, 
they're rejecting both the temple that existed or pointed forward 
to Jesus, and they're resisting and rejecting Moses, who pointed 
forward to Jesus. That's the nature of his defense 
in this instance. J. A. Alexander says Moses was 
not only a type of the Messiah, but the author of one of the 
most striking testimonies of him. It's a beautiful thing that 
we find in redemptive history. The Bible is not sort of this 
hodgepodge, this mess of things just thrown together. It is consistent. All the parts consent. All of 
them give glory to God. All of them have as the scope 
of Scripture our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a cohesiveness and a 
cohesion that obtains in the Word of God. And that's why I've 
always encouraged you to know the Old Testament. You're not 
reading the Old Testament. You're not understanding the 
Old Testament. You're missing Jesus Christ. If you do not avail 
yourself of what the apostles and Jesus himself have veiled 
themselves up with reference to the Old Testament testimony, 
you're going to be lopsided. You're going to be sort of, you 
know, half-hearted. You're going to be not really in tune with 
the glorious revelation of God as it pertains to the person 
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stephen doesn't want the council 
to make that mistake, and so Stephen cites Deuteronomy 18, 
and Stephen says that Moses himself made the link. It's not simply 
something Stephen and Peter are doing, but it's something rather 
that Moses himself did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now notice, he cites Moses' leadership 
in the wilderness. Verse 38, this is he who is in 
the congregation, literally who is in the church in the wilderness, 
with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our 
fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to 
us. Now the church here reflects the Hebrew word kahal, which 
simply means assembly, convocation, or congregation. And I suspect 
that what Stephen is doing here is, again, furthering the link 
or showing more typology between Moses and Jesus. Moses was the 
leader of the church in the wilderness. Jesus is the leader of the church 
in the New Covenant. There is this parallel between 
the two men. And with reference to Moses, 
he did the job that God had called him to do. He did what the Lord 
had specified. Notice again the text. This is 
he who was in the church, in the wilderness, with the angel, 
probably the selfsame angel. Verse 30, the angel of the Lord, 
which is in fact the Lord, the angel of His presence, So the 
angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, Exodus 19 and 20, and 
with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to 
give to us. Now, here's what Stephen's doing. 
He's saying that Moses spoke for God. Moses spoke with God, 
he received the word from God on the mountain, and then he 
in turn spoke that word to them. So what is Stephen saying? Their 
problem ultimately was with God. Yes, they didn't like Moses. 
Yes, they rejected Moses. Yes, they had the audacity to 
ask the question, who made you a ruler and a deliverer or a 
ruler and a judge over us? They had that audacity. But when 
Moses speaks to them, it is the word of the living God. So their 
rejection isn't just Moses, their rejection is God. So if Stephen's 
link is accurate, he is saying to the council that Jesus is 
that Moses like prophet of Deuteronomy 18. For you to reject Jesus is 
for you to reject God. See, again, he's not giving them 
this instruction or this history because they were ignorant of 
the Old Testament. He's not coming to the typical 
evangelical church in the 21st century having to educate them 
about the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. They knew these 
books. Stephen's function here is theological. Stephen's function here is apologetical. Stephen's function here is to 
tell them, I'm not anti-Moses, you are. And he's doing it in 
a very powerful way. And he is telling them that in 
Moses' day, a rejection of Moses was a rejection of the Word of 
God. in the same way that a rejection of Jesus is a rejection of the 
Word of God. Calvin says, moreover, he purchases 
authority for the doctrine of Moses in these words, because 
Moses uttered nothing but that which proceeded from God. This 
is an important link in his argument here. This is he who was in the 
church, in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on 
Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received the living 
oracles to give to us. And the reference to our fathers, 
I think furthers the typology even more because Moses was a 
mediator. God spoke through Moses to the 
people. Well, Jesus is a mediator as 
well. In other words, at the end of 
this sermon, the Sanhedrin should have confessed their wickedness, 
and their rebellion, and their rejection of Jesus, and confessed 
Him as Lord and Savior. But instead, they stop up their 
ears, they gnash at Him with their tongues, and they drive 
Him out of the city, and they murder Him. So they understood 
the implications of what Stephen was saying, they just didn't 
receive the truth that Stephen was saying. And in this particular 
instance, this is that evidence that they rejected. And then 
Calvin again says, whereupon it follows that they did not 
so much rebel against Moses as against God, whereby their stubbornness 
is more discovered. You see the specific link here. Brethren, Stephen gives us an 
example of really how we ought to defend ourselves. It's worth 
the Word of God. It's worth it with the testimony 
of Holy Scripture. It's worth an understanding of 
the Bible. And if, as we continue in this 
secular age, there's more and more pressure put upon the people 
of God, I think it's imperative for us to know that Word of God. 
Your little experience, or your little heart, or your little 
feelings isn't going to stand up. You've got to know Scripture. 
In Acts chapter 6, this is what predicated the animosity to Stephen 
in the first place, because they couldn't best him in debate. 
They couldn't win him in terms of an appeal to Scripture. And 
so then they've got to drum up false charges. Then they've got 
to bring him up to the Sanhedrin. Then they have to promote him 
as a blasphemer culpable of death. See, brethren, Stephen is a great 
example, and I don't want to get exemplary or moralistic, 
but we ought to make the observation that if you're serious about 
evangelism and you're serious about apologetics in our day, 
you better be serious about the study of Scripture. You better 
know the truth of God as it is in Jesus. Sometimes people ask 
me, do you think every Christian should go door-to-door, go downtown 
to witness? Not necessarily. Not necessarily. I think the heartbeat and the 
desire ought to be in every Christian. But when you go to somebody's 
door and they ask you about the genocidal God of the Old Testament 
who told Israel to go in and utterly destroy all the Canaanites, 
how are you going to deal with that? You better be ready and 
prepared. Don't ever go out to evangelize 
and engage in apologetics without knowing at least the basics. We are failing when it comes 
to the basics. We have persons that can't give 
a basic description of the doctrine of the Trinity. We've got persons 
that can't give a basic description of the doctrine of justification, 
a basic understanding of Christology, the person of our Lord Jesus. 
Now, again, general company or the specific company excluded 
here, but this is happening all over the world. Our little feelings 
and our little experiences aren't enough to stand before the religious 
council and say, you guys are the ones that are anti-temple. 
You guys are the ones that are anti-Moses. You guys are the 
ones that have rejected God. Stephen could do this because 
he was saturated with the scripture. Now, notice the idols they pursued 
in verses 39 to 43. This has always been a part of 
the argument that I've set forth, that one of the things that Stephen 
is doing in terms of defending himself with reference to being 
anti-Temple is to show them that God doesn't need Temple to reveal 
Himself. In fact, here, where's God? Mount 
Sinai, apart from the land of Israel, apart from the temple. 
Where did God appear to Abraham, according to the first part of 
Stephen's speech? In Mesopotamia. God was with Joseph in Egypt. See, they had made an idol out 
of the temple. The temple, insofar as it had 
been purposed by God, was a good thing. It was the visible representation 
of the presence of God. but it wasn't God. And they got 
to the point where as long as the temple stood, everything 
was hunky-dory, everything was okay. And so now Stephen wants 
to show them that in that situation with Moses, they had idolatry 
in their heart and things hadn't changed. This was still the case, 
present company included, with reference to the council that 
Stephen is addressing. He is telling them that they 
are idolaters. Notice, First of all, with reference 
to the idols they pursued, their unwillingness to obey. Now, it's 
always difficult when we jump on passages like this because 
I think it can rise up in us to go, oh, those dirty rotten 
scoundrels. This is us, brethren. We do the exact same thing. We 
disobey God, we disobey His choice servant Moses, we disobey Jesus. In fact, many of us did for many, 
many years, right? This is what Paul says in Romans 
3, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who seeks 
after God. There's no fear of God before 
their eyes. Was it our wisdom? Was it our 
ingenuity? Was it our decision? You know, when every head was 
bowed and every eye was closed and we shot up our hand, was 
that owing to our better, superior moral life or religiosity? No. We were God-hating rebels 
that the Lord and mercy reached down and saved. And so let's 
not get proud when we work our way through the history of Israel. 
Let's not say, oh, I can't believe they did what they did. We do 
the same things. In fact, as believers, we often 
do the same thing. As Christians, right? Oh, you're looking suspiciously 
at me. Yeah, the good that I wish to 
do, I don't do. The evil I don't want to do, 
I find myself doing. If Paul said that, I'd like to 
think we'd all at least say, well, yeah, I see the potential. 
Galatians 5, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit 
against the flesh. And these two are contrary to one another so 
that you don't do the things that you want. Brethren, let's 
not Monday morning quarterback, but rather let's understand the 
very nature of sin. And I think it's exhibited here 
for us in spades. Notice what he says. They had 
an unwillingness to obey. They wouldn't obey Moses. So 
Moses receives the living oracles to give to us, and then verse 
39, whom our fathers would not obey, but reject it. Notice how 
Stephen, again, he knows the Bible, he knows their history, 
he knows the sacred testimony, and he also knows how not to 
unnecessarily offend people. I mean, later on, he's going 
to say, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart, you always 
resist the Holy Spirit. But here he's still speaking 
of our fathers, right? This is our shared history. The 
problem that we are facing here, counsel, is over this man, Jesus. This man that you rejected, this 
man that you crucified, this man that you destroyed. But it's 
this man that Moses wrote about. And our fathers had received 
the word from the Moses who wrote about him. And they wouldn't 
obey him. They rejected him. And that's 
not something they could say, well, what do you mean, Stephen? 
We mused this morning in our study in the Confession of Faith 
in John chapter 8, when Jesus essentially tells the religious 
leaders that they are slaves. He's talking about slavery to 
sin. And they say, we are Abraham's descendants or seed, and we've 
never been in bondage to anyone. Are you nuts? What was the 400 
years in Egypt? What was their present condition 
in the Roman Empire? They weren't free in the Roman 
Empire. I mean, they just totally missed 
it. I don't think these guys could do that at this point. 
When Stephen says they rejected Moses, or they didn't obey Moses, 
and they rejected him, they would have to concede the point. You 
can't read the book of Exodus, especially where Stephen is going 
to go and say, oh, no, you're just inaccurate. You're incorrect. 
You're wrong. Of course, they didn't obey Moses. 
And of course, they rejected them, rejected him for his having 
declared unto them the word of God. Turn back for just a moment 
to the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter nine. It's going to be 
important later. It's important now, but I just 
want to kind of get it before us initially here. Nehemiah chapter 
9 is sort of or is similar to what Stephen is doing before 
the Sanhedrin. It's sort of a trace through 
redemptive history of Israel to show the low points and to 
show the high points. The high points always God, the 
low points always men. But notice in Nehemiah chapter 
9 verse 16. But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened 
their necks, and did not heed your commandments. They refused 
to obey, and they were not mindful of your wonders that you did 
among them. And they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion 
they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. Turn to the 
prophet Ezekiel. The prophet Ezekiel, you'll see 
that later prophets reflect upon the history of Israel, and they 
do so to make points with reference to their contemporaries, just 
like Stephen will do when he highlights the prophet Amos. 
But if you look at Ezekiel chapter 20, specifically at verse 8, 
But they rebelled against me and would not obey me. They did 
not all cast away the abominations which were before their eyes, 
nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said, I will 
pour out my fury on them and fulfill my anger against them 
in the midst of the land of Egypt. And then notice in verse 13, 
yet the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. 
They did not walk in my statutes. They despised my judgments, which 
if a man does, he shall live by them. They greatly defiled 
my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out 
my fury on them in the wilderness to consume them. See, this wasn't 
new information. The prophets, the religious reformers, 
commented on the situation of Israel at the time of Moses, 
and Stephen is doing that very thing in verse 39, "...whom our 
fathers would not obey, but rejected." And then he says, "...and in 
their hearts they turned back to Egypt." Now, this is where 
I will moralize a little bit or do a bit of exemplary preaching. 
Isn't this the nature of our sin? We turn from God in our 
hearts, don't we? So I don't think it's the case 
that apostates wake up and say, I'm just going to go out and 
be the devil. There's a series of steps. There's a pattern. 
There's neglect of the means. There's a not shaving or not 
dealing with their sins. And in their hearts, they defect, 
long before they do bodily, long before they do confessionally. 
There's this heart animosity or this tendency to reject God 
and in our hearts to turn back to the way things used to be. 
Well, you see that in the history of Israel. And there are specific 
instances where they wanted to go back to Egypt for creature 
comforts. They didn't like the manna. They 
didn't like the quail. They didn't like the sorts of 
things that God had chosen to sustain them. And they longed 
for the garlic and the leeks and the melons. They longed for 
those things that they had when they were slaves in Egypt. Now, think about that. They would 
prefer comfortable slavery over a little uncomfortable liberty. 
I think they are very representative of man in the Western world today. 
We want the government to provide everything for us. We want comfortable 
slavery versus a bit of uncomfortable liberty. That's what happened 
to them in terms of creature comforts. They're eating manna 
and they're thinking about what they had when they were in Egypt. 
But you were slaves in Egypt. Doesn't matter. We really like 
garlic. We really like leeks. We really enjoy melons. They 
had a wonderful way to prepare all these things together in 
Egypt that was just very enticing to us. Are you crazy? But that's 
not Stephen's point. Stephen's point is that they 
return to the gods of Egypt. Oh yeah, they liked the creature 
comforts, but they loved the gods. They loved what they had 
in Egypt. In their hearts, they returned 
to Egypt. Stephen doesn't care about the 
creature comforts here. Stephen is going to point to 
their idolatry. They wanted something. They wanted 
a plethora. They wanted polytheism. They 
wanted a God for every particular eventuality in our lives. They 
wanted the sorts of gods that you could touch, see, and feel. 
They wanted the sorts of gods that were tangible. They wanted 
the gods that they ultimately had control over. It's the nature 
of idolatry, isn't it? We don't want God the Lord, the 
Creator, telling us what to do. Isn't idolatry ultimately a trying 
to get rid of that yoke? It's like Psalm 2. Why do the 
nations rage at the people's plot of vain things? Why do they 
do that? It's against Yahweh and against 
his Christ. Basically, they're raising their fists saying, we 
will not have you to rule over us. That's idolatry. That's the nature of it. And 
that's what Stephen says happens in the wilderness era. So verse 
39, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their 
hearts, they turned back to Egypt. Now notice their desire for idols 
in verses 40 and 41. They said to Aaron, make us gods 
to go before us. As for this Moses who brought 
us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become 
of him. Now this was a desire to manufacture 
gods like the heathen around them. Psalms 115 and 135 tells 
us that the nations, the pagans, they manufacture gods. These 
gods have ears, but they can't hear. These gods have noses, 
but they can't smell. These gods have mouths, but they 
can't talk. And also he says that all those 
who make them will become like them. We're going to do a little 
more on this idolatry theme tonight, the Lord willing. if we're all 
back together. But just now, suffice to say 
that Stephen is highlighting the very nature of their rebellion. 
It wasn't that they wanted garlic and leeks, it's that they wanted 
gods. According to them, Yahweh didn't 
do for them as they thought he should have. This is always a 
very dangerous place for persons to be. I mean, it doesn't say 
that, that I know of. They sought out these other gods 
because they didn't think God was performing for them as they 
ought. But I think that's underlying. Sometimes we get distressed or 
discouraged because God isn't answering our prayers the way 
that we think he should. Well, see, if you live in Israel 
and you were surrounded by Canaanites, this is God's prohibition against 
them. Don't have any truck with the Baalists. Baal looks like 
he offers results. Baal looks like he's for his 
people. If it rains, you give glory to 
Baal. Well, the Israelite living next door to the Canaanite, who 
they didn't dispossess from the land, would see the rain and 
see the Canaanite out there praising Baal. He'd say, wait a minute, 
maybe this Baal has something to offer. Brethren, we don't 
serve God for what he offers us. I mean, in one sense, we 
do. Jesus said, I came that they 
might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. 
But if you're a mercenary with reference to your relationship 
to the Lord, you're going to fail. In other words, if God 
doesn't give us great things each and every day, are we going 
to try bail? Is that the mindset? I think it's actually the mindset 
among the health, wealth, and prosperity crew. If you don't 
get more money, you don't get more beautiful wives, you don't 
get more cars, you don't get more summer homes, well then, 
you've got big problems. That ought not to be our attitude 
with reference to the Christian faith. I don't even know why 
we have to address that attitude other than foolish people continue 
to gravitate toward it. Can I just put this to rest once 
and for all? The health, wealth, and prosperity 
gospel is no gospel. It's a lie from the pit of hell. 
That's all there is to it. Your chief goal now shouldn't 
be more money, more houses, more this, more that. It should be, 
I want to be faithful to the Lord God Most High who saved 
me. The God who said, I am your shield, your exceedingly great 
reward. My desire is to see God more as a reward than to see 
the sins or the sorts of things that bind us to this earth. If 
we value and prize God for who God is, not what he gives, but 
if we value and prize God for who he is, perhaps it'll help 
us to be more balanced in our approach to all things biblical. 
These people wanted gods, they wanted something, they wanted 
the tangibility. The fact that they say, we don't 
know what's become of this Moses, of course they knew what became 
of this Moses. He's on the mountain conversing 
with God. He said, we don't know what happened. It's an intriguing thing, because 
when God comes to deal with Moses about this, He says they have 
corrupted themselves quickly. It didn't take long for this 
to sort of settle in. I mean, look at the book of Exodus, 
for instance. When is the giving of the law? Exodus chapters 20 
to 24. It's an amazing thing. Exodus 20 is the Decalogue, the 
Ten Commandments, the very foundation. 21 to 23 is an amplification 
or explanation of that law and how it applies to the body politic 
when they go and live in the land. Exodus 24 is the ratification 
of the covenant by God through his mediator Moses. And then 
25 and following is instructions for the tabernacle. You don't 
even get to the end. You get to chapter 32, and they're 
coming to Aaron and saying, please make us a god. Please manufacture 
us a god. Please do this right now. We 
want to worship. We want to dance. We want to 
sing. We want to offer up sacrifices. And it's a very intriguing thing. 
In fact, you ought to turn to Exodus 32 for just a moment. I think we need to appreciate 
something concerning this particular text. Exodus chapter 32. Verse one, 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. Then of course we have Aaron's 
foolishness there, but then notice in verse, at the end of verse 
four, then they said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought 
you out of the land of Egypt. I think it's very important for 
us to understand what is happening here. They are ascribing something 
true of God to the idol. Do you get that? I know that 
sounds profound, doesn't it? Cutting edge. Listen. they ascribe to the idol something 
true that the God of Israel had done. They don't say, make us 
a calf because we like calves. Now, Egypt had a whole bunch 
of idols. The calf probably fared, you 
know, predominantly, the ox, the calf of the ox. It was something 
they just loved. They loved to worship that. So 
no doubt Israel, struck by or influenced by that, asked Aaron 
to make this calf. But they ascribed something true 
to the idol. And I think this gets at something 
concerning the first and second commandments. The first commandment 
demands that we worship the true and living God. The second commandment 
demands that we worship the true and the living God in the way 
that the true and living God commands. That's an important 
distinction that I think has gotten lost somewhere along the 
way. We not only have to worship the 
true and living God, commandment number one, but we must worship 
the true and living God in the way that he specifies, commandment 
number two. So that if you take a true thing 
about Yahweh, but you apply it to an idol, that's not true worship. Say, well, you know, they got 
it right in terms of what Yahweh had accomplished, but Yahweh 
never sanctioned that kind of an approach to the worship of 
Yahweh. Let me cite Calvin, because his 
treatment here is masterful. He says, but because they forsook 
the true God by making an idol, whatsoever follows after it is 
judged to be given to the idol. In other words, what they do, 
in some sense, is correct. Don't throw things at me. But 
look what they do in their religious worship. They offer sacrifice. 
They rejoice. Those are all consistent with 
the true worship of the living God. See, what Calvin is saying 
in messing up and ascribing to the idol the things that are 
true of only God, everything they do subsequent is wrong. 
It's vile. It's an offense. It's profane 
fire offered up to Yahweh. So back to Calvin, because they 
forsook the true God by making an idol, whatsoever follows afterward 
is judged to be given to the idol. Because God refuses, I 
love this, all wicked worshiping. Let that settle into us in the 
21st century in North America. God refuses all wicked worshiping. If we ask the question, what 
is wicked worshiping? The Bible is very clear. Whatever 
God hasn't commanded. In other words, the worship of 
God is regulated by the God we worship. It's a beautiful principle 
that I'd like for us to just get our minds wrapped around. 
He goes on to say, for it is not meet to account that as bestowed 
upon him which he has not commanded, and because he forbids them expressly 
to erect any visible image unto him, that is mere sacrilege whatsoever 
is done afterward in honor thereof. In other words, if we are worshipping 
the Creator via the creature, we are sinning against God at 
the point of the second commandment. This is what these people did. 
Make us a calf, make us an idol. We don't know what's become of 
Moses, but we will ascribe a true thing from God to the idol. Isn't that what Jeroboam, the 
son of Nebat, does as well? What happens at the division 
of the kingdom? Jeroboam goes north. Jeroboam has a real practical 
conundrum. He says, at feast time, it's 
going to happen that people from the north are going to want to 
go down to Jerusalem, the central sanctuary, where they're supposed 
to worship God. So Jeroboam says, I'm going to 
make a couple of calves, and I'm going to set up a couple 
shrines in the north, and I'm going to tell the people under 
my rule, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of 
Egypt. It's ascribing something true of the living and true God 
to an idol. So it's not, well, they just 
missed it by a little bit. No, to do that is to miss it 
by everything. And that's what Stephen's point 
here is in Acts chapter 7. So going back to Acts 7. It says, 
they made a calf in those days, they offered sacrifices to the 
idol, and they rejoiced in the works of their own hands. They 
rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Isn't that, again, 
the nature of idolatry? We're proud people for the most 
part. We like to be in control. And that's not necessarily bad. 
It's nice to put your seat belt on so you don't go flinging through 
the windshield. You like to clean your house. 
There's a degree of control that's obviously appropriate. We like 
to be in control of the big stuff, too. We like to be in control 
of the gods that we worship. The prophet Isaiah is upbraiding 
the children of Israel at the time, you know, that they're 
worshiping gods from Babylon. And basically, he's chiding them 
for having to pick their gods up and put them on the carts. 
I've always said, if you have to pick your god up, you've got 
the wrong god. The glory of the true and living 
God is that he picks us up. The glory of the true and living 
God is that He calls us out of darkness into marvelous light. 
The glory of the true and living God is that He forgives our sins, 
that He gives us a righteousness that avails with Him. The glory 
of the true and living God is that He sustains us. The glory 
of the true and living God is that He's there with us in the 
midst of affliction. So that when we walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil. Why? Because 
thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort 
me. If you have to pick your God up, if you have to put your 
God back together, if you have to sort of coach your God, you've 
missed out with reference to the whole blessing of having 
a God. Now, the prophet, again, Isaiah specifically from 40 on, 
really takes a shot at Israel for having engaged in that kind 
of idolatry. He mocks the man, and goes out 
into the woods, and he cuts down a tree. And he takes that tree, 
and with some of it, he builds a fire, so that he can warm his 
hands, and so that he can cook his food. But with the rest of 
that tree, he makes an idol, so that he can bow down to it. 
See, Isaiah's not saying, this is a good thing, Israel. He's 
saying, this is folly. It's foolish. It's foolish for 
you to want some other god, some calf. Even if you're ascribing 
good things to it, it's not the true and living God. Israel's 
religion, Christianity, has never been about what do we see, what 
do we feel, what do we experience. It's what do we hear from the 
mouth of God Most High. That's what's important for us. 
You saw no form when you went up to Horeb, but you heard the 
word. Christianity is about the Word 
of God. You don't have to grieve our hearts that experience and 
feeling and all this mysticism and all this ecstatic oddity 
has usurped the role of God's Word. Brethren, I'm not suggesting 
there's never emotional response, there's never heartfelt response, 
there's no delight whatsoever in our religion, but that ain't 
the end. The end is faithfulness to the 
Word. Now notice back in our text, 
as we bring this to a conclusion. He says they are judged as a 
result of what they've done. They are judged as a result for 
what they've done. Notice in verse 41, they made 
a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced 
in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them 
up to worship the host of heaven. Now, here's a very important 
principle for anybody here that's not a believer in Jesus Christ. 
The rejection of God by you will ultimately end in the rejection 
by God of you. You reject Him now, and there's 
a day coming. I don't know when that is, but 
He will reject you. You say, well, Pastor Butler, 
that's just so unbiblical. No, that's exactly what Scripture 
teaches. The Bible does not teach universalism. The Bible does 
not teach that every single human being ever without exception 
is going to be in heaven. There's a heaven and there's 
a hell. And if you continue down the path of rejecting God, there 
will be a time when God will reject you. That's exactly what 
Stephen says happens in Israel's history as a result of their 
idolatry. Then God turned and gave them 
up to worship the host of heaven. Now, this is the language oftentimes 
used in the Old Testament, this host of heaven, probably influenced 
by Assyria. They worship sun, they worship 
moon, they worship stars, they worship the host of heaven. So 
God says, if you want what the Assyrians want or got, you got 
it. Now, this is obviously a theme 
replicated in the New Testament in Romans chapter 1. Again, this 
is the passage we're going to look at in more detail tonight, 
God willing. But three times it tells us what 
God does to Gentiles when they don't seek God. He gives them 
up. He gives them over. Verse 24, 
verse 26, verse 28. Such that when you look at a 
society like ours, you don't need to ask the question, is 
God going to judge us? There's every evidence, every 
marker, every characteristic that God is judging us. Gross 
sexual perversion is not an indicator of liberty or freedom. It is 
an indicator of the judgment and the wrath and the fury of 
God Almighty. That's what it is. God made man 
to function as God said. He didn't condemn sexual activity. He regulated it. And when persons 
think, oh, we're just doing all these good things now, and this 
is the sign or the marker of liberty, that's when we pray 
with the prophet in wrath, remember mercy. Because that is the indicator. God gave them over three times. 
John Gill explains the significance of verse 42a, away from them, 
withdrew his presence and his favors from them. God in righteous 
judgment in a judicial way gave them up to a reprobate mind to 
commit all the idolatry of the Gentiles as a punishment of their 
former sin in making and worshiping the calf. He does that. So if 
you continue to reject God or a rejection of God ultimately 
leads to a rejection by God, Jesus Christ speaks of this in 
terms of the sheep and the goats in Matthew chapter 25. It's so 
clear in the teaching of Jesus. Someone's pointed out Jesus spoke 
more about hell than he spoke about heaven in his earthly ministry. 
It's an amazing thing that we want to deny that. We want to 
say, well, that just doesn't seem conducive to this God of 
love. Yeah, but he's a God of justice, 
a God of righteousness. Perfections are multitudinous. Not just love, it's everything 
else. All that is in God is God. And 
God continued to be rejected will ultimately give you over. 
That's why with kids or young people, we try to encourage you 
to flee the wrath to come, to look unto Jesus Christ and live. 
Don't engage in a pattern of rejection. Don't engage in a 
pattern like these people exemplify, that in their hearts they want 
to go back to Egypt. In their hearts, they grumble. 
In their hearts, they ultimately go out to the physical actions, 
and they tell the brother of Moses, their very deliverer, 
hey, make us an idol. Make us an idol so we can bow 
to it, so we can sacrifice to it, so we can dance around before 
it. This is a terrible trajectory for any sinner to be on. I suspect 
there are some in this room that hear this message from their 
parents, they hear it from their friends, they hear it in this 
church, they hear it in whatever church they typically go to. 
Come to Christ! Believe the gospel. Why would 
you continue to reject? Why would you continue to tarry? 
Why would you continue to say no? Saying no to this God will 
ultimately have him saying no to you. Depart from me. I never 
knew you, Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven. Depart from me. The worst words I can ever imagine 
anybody ever hearing. I mean, you're fired is a pretty 
bad one. You've got this terrible disease, pretty bad. Your child 
has this issue, bad. But depart from me, from the 
living Christ, into the hell that is prepared for the devil 
and his angels? Could there be anything worse? 
I don't think so. I don't think you could possibly 
conceive of anything ever as bad as hearing the blessed Lord 
Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, say to you, depart 
from me. Terrible stuff now notice his 
appeal to the prophet Amos. I don't want to spend a whole 
lot of time here But suffice it to say that Amos was a prophet 
prophet to the northern kingdom in a time when they were wicked 
He prophesied about 760 BC in the northern kingdom. Remember 
the fall of the northern kingdom comes in 722 BC God ultimately 
cut them off via the Assyrian army and God said he would do 
that. Deuteronomy 28, go into the land, 
live properly, you'll be blessed. Go into the land, reject me, 
go into the land, worship idols, and I will cut you off. It was 
all specified very clearly. Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26. 
So this is happening. It's going to happen. So Amos 
comes and he preaches to the people. And they're idolaters. 
But Amos traces their idolatry back to the wilderness generation. 
In other words, this has exemplified the nation of Israel from the 
very beginning, from Exodus 32, when they cried out for this 
calf, all the way through their history, up until 760. But then, lo and behold, they 
didn't even learn the lesson after the fall of the Northern 
Kingdom. This is Jeremiah's point in Jeremiah 
chapter 3. Jeremiah comes to the people 
in 2 and 3, and he says, look, you should have learned. from 
what happened in the Northern Kingdom. Not only did you not 
learn, but you continued to reject and rebel against God. And as 
a result, the prophet Jeremiah is prophesying right before the 
collapse of the Southern Kingdom via Babylon. Now you look at 
that and you say, man, those were an incredibly obstinate, 
hard-hearted people. Let me ask you the question, 
where are you this morning? You see what God did to Israel, 
the North. You see what he does to the South. 
And this is precisely what Stephen is saying. As a result of their 
idolatry, the prophet Amos tells them in his time, look at the 
text, verse 42. Did you offer me slaughtered 
animals and sacrifices during 40 years in the wilderness, O 
house of Israel? Now, the question is designed 
to evoke a no answer. We do this sometimes. You don't 
want this great big piece of pie, do you? You're hoping they 
say no, so you get to eat the big piece of pie. We have a way 
of asking questions that's supposed to promote a no answer. You don't 
really want to go to the park today, do you, five-year-old? 
You're trying to make them say no. Well, here specifically, 
the answer is no. Did you offer me slaughtered 
animals and sacrifices during 40 years in the wilderness, O 
house of Israel? Now, some will say, but they 
had the tabernacle. They did offer up these sacrifices. I'd say there's two ways to answer 
that. In the first place, not to the true and living God. They 
didn't do it to the true and living God. You say, wait a minute, 
Butler, that's just not consistent. Well, this is what God through 
Moses says in Deuteronomy. God through Moses says in Deuteronomy 
32, 17, they sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did 
not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. 
So just because they were going through the motions didn't necessarily 
mean they had the heart. It's the whole point of the book 
of Malachi. What are they doing in Malachi? 
The prophet comes to upbraid them. Why? Oh, well, we go to 
the temple. We worship. Yeah, but you bring 
the worst sacrifice. You bring the lame, or the maimed, 
or the blind, or the defect. The one that's not going to get 
you as much money in the marketplace, we'll give that one to God. Or 
worse yet, you steal them. On the way to the temple, you 
steal the sacrifice. Again, if that's your concept 
of sacrifice, you have no idea whatsoever is involved. This 
is what happened in Israel's history. Though they went through 
the motions, it didn't mean it was for the true and living God. 
Think about Stephen's defense. Think about what Stephen's saying 
to these men that go every Saturday to the temple. They're idolaters. In rejecting Jesus Christ, they've 
made an idol out of the temple. They've made an idol out of whatever 
it is, so that if they go through the sacrificial system, if they 
bring the required meat, if they do the required thing, it doesn't 
mean it's legit any more than it meant it was legit there in 
the wilderness days in Israel's history. Might also just mean, 
yeah, they brought it. They may not have had another 
god in mind, but they certainly didn't have their god in mind. And then notice this reference 
to Moloch, Remphon, and the images they made to worship in Amos' 
day. If you look back in your New 
King James, the wording is a little bit different. There's a whole 
lot of reasons for that. Some of it has to do with the 
Greek translation of the Old Testament that most likely Stephen 
is working with. Others have to do with particular 
textual issues going on there in Amos chapter 5. But the point 
is, is that Amos is commenting on their worship of Moloch and 
Remphon and the images that they had constructed. And he says, 
this isn't a new thing with you. This began in the wilderness. 
There's a long trajectory and a long history. And I think Stephen's 
point is the same. That long trajectory and that 
long history hasn't ended now, because in your rejection of 
Jesus, you might as well be worshiping Moloch. or Remfen, or the images 
that were constructed. F.F. Bruce says, the long history 
of Israel's lapsing into idolatry, which called forth the remonstrance 
of one prophet after another, and at last brought them into 
exile, had its beginnings in the wilderness when they paid 
sacrificial homage to the golden calf and held high festival in 
honor of their own handiwork. That's it. That's Stephen's point. 
He says, I'm on trial here for being anti-Moses. I'm on trial 
here for being anti-Temple. Have you read your history? Have 
you read your scriptures? Have you seen how they treated 
Moses? Have you seen how they treated God? And you, council 
members, are doing the same as your forefathers did in your 
betrayal and rejection of Jesus Christ. He's going to make that 
very crystal clear in verses 51 and following. That's the 
point. And then the judgment. Again, 
if you compare Amos, you'll see that Amos uses the word Damascus. 
The very end, I will carry you away beyond Babylon. I will carry 
you beyond Babylon, is what Stephen says. And I think it's a good 
way to understand this. Sometimes Stephen takes a couple 
of events and reads them together. It's called telescoping. And 
I think he's saying here not only what happens to the north, 
but what happens to the south. They were ones that were taken 
off to Babylon. So that's how Stephen functions 
in this particular context with reference to his defense in his 
invocation of Moses. We're done with the Moses section. 
God willing, next Sunday we'll take up the tabernacle and temple 
and bring this to a conclusion. Stephen's defense is a proper 
understanding of the Old Testament. Stephen's defense shows us, highlights 
for us, and indicates very clearly that Temple and Moses pointed 
forward to the Lord Jesus. And that these men, in their 
rejection of the Lord Jesus, were actually the ones who missed 
the point of the Temple and who missed the point of the books 
written by Moses. In terms of some practical observation, 
we ought to appreciate the wickedness of idolatry. Not appreciate it 
like, wow, I'm really taken by that. I really gravitate toward 
that. Idolatry is terrible. When you 
look at the Bible and you ask the question, what does God hate? 
Solomon tells us in Proverbs 6, there are six things that 
Yahweh hates. Yet seven are an abomination 
to Him. And you won't find idolatry. 
Well, wait a minute, Butler, you said God hates idolatry. 
Well, that's just a catalog of a particular set of vices that 
Solomon is exhorting his son to avoid there in Proverbs 6. 
God hates adultery. God hates Sabbath-breaking. If you look at that passage there 
in Exodus 20, verse 13, one of the things that he was upset 
with Israel about was their failure to reckon with the Sabbath day, 
to give God one day. This is an amazing thing. Oh, 
no. Oh, no. Come on. A whole day? 
You want a whole day, God? How dare us? God gives us this 
gift, calls it the Sabbath, and we complain. Imagine that. You give your kid a nice gift. 
It's a beautiful thing. And he complains. What do you 
want to do with it? You want to take the gift away from him 
and say, go to your room. I'd like for you to learn what 
good gifts are all about. This is what the Sabbath says. God's 
against insubordination to authority. Children, obey your parents and 
the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. 
Humans, not humans, as if children aren't humans, but older humans, 
submit to governing authority. Not complain about them, not 
whine about them, just submit. Now, if you have the ability 
to write letters and vote and do all that, you're supposed 
to submit to governing authorities. God obviously hates murder, doesn't 
he? Hates murder. These six things 
Yahweh hates. He hates seven are an abomination 
to him. One of them is hands that shed innocent blood. God 
abominates, I already said adultery, theft, lies, covetousness. There's 
two commandments at the very beginning, and I think there's 
a specific order, conspicuous order, if you will, in the Decalogue 
where God comes first. You shall have no other gods 
before me, and you shall not make for yourself an idol. Idolatry 
continues to come up all throughout scripture as something that God 
just abominates. It's a terrible, terrible thing. 
And our hearts are naturally inclined to go that way. As Calvin 
said, our hearts are idol factories. We'll worship anything except 
the true and living God. We'll worship everything except 
the true and living God. will give allegiance to any doctrine, 
to anything whatsoever, except the truth of the living God. 
We need to appreciate that in this idolatry, specifically seen 
in Israel's history, it was a rejection of God's messenger. They didn't 
want Moses. Why? Because God sent him. It 
was a rejection of the message. They didn't obey him. They rejected 
him. And in their hearts, they turned 
back. And that's another very important point with reference 
to idolatry. It's not just the heathen bowing to his pole. It's you bowing to your money. 
It's you bowing to your comfort. It's you bowing to whatever it 
is that's not God. You see, it's very obvious to 
see idolatry out there, and yet we miss it right here. Jesus 
says mammon is an idol. Money is an idol. C.S. Lewis says sometimes men are 
saying that they're making their way in the world, but it's really 
the other way around. The world is making its way into 
their hearts. We need to be on guard. We need 
to watch and pray. There's a whole host of ways 
that we can engage in idolatry. What's John, the beloved disciple, 
what's the emphasis in 1 John? Truth, righteousness, obedience. How does John end his epistle? 
My little children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5.21, my little 
children, keep yourselves from idols. You mean the apostle of 
love, the man who's encouraging us to engage in love and truth 
and obedience and all that sort of thing? He thinks that we might 
have a propensity to idolatry? Absolutely. That's written to 
Christians, that's written to believers. Say, well, I'm a believer, 
this could never happen to me. Oh, yes, it can. Who's Jesus 
speaking to in the Sermon on the Mount? Certainly the multitudes 
as a means of pedagogue, bringing them the law, but to his disciples. He can't serve God and man. He's 
not saying get rid of everything, go shave your head, go to the 
airport, wear an orange robe and bang a tambourine. That's 
not what he's saying. He's saying, do not be mastered by money. 
It's a tool, it's a blessing, but you are not to be subdued 
by it. And in terms of this actual practice, 
they come to Aaron. And Aaron is a sad and pathetic 
man in that passage, isn't he? When Moses comes to him, he says, 
you know, these people, they wanted this, and I threw it in, 
out popped this calf. Out popped this calf? What do 
you mean out popped this calf? Calfs don't just pop out. They're 
forged, they're shaped, they're made. Aaron was involved in this. And then in terms of the actual 
worship of the idol, they're bowing to it. This calf, they 
ascribe the calf as having brought them out of the land of Egypt. 
You see it in Jeroboam, son of Nebat. I mean, people didn't 
go to Jerusalem because they were actually captivated by the 
reality or the idea that these calves were the means by which 
they came out of Egypt. It's a terrible and a vicious 
sin, and one that ultimately leads to the judgment of God. 
I do want to end on a high note. Go back to Nehemiah 9. I want 
us to see something in terms of gospel, in terms of goodness 
from God, in terms of compassion, in terms of grace, in terms of 
things that I think we as idolaters or those with the propensity 
to idolatry need to hear. Not so that we'll go out and 
continue in idolatry that grace may abound, but so that we may 
understand something of the nature of the God with whom we have 
to do. Again, if you're here this morning 
and you're not a believer, God hates idolatry. You are an idolater. You may not recognize it, you 
may not realize it, but anything you worship that is not God is 
idolatry. You may say, well, I don't have 
sticks, I don't have a lot of money, I don't have Baal, I don't 
have Molech, but you have you. One of the designs of the gospel 
according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is that Christ's death results 
in the reality that those who live for themselves will no longer 
live for themselves, but for him who died for them. In other 
words, one of the effects of the gospel is to wean us from 
the chief idol in our lives, namely us. But notice the nature, 
the mercy, the goodness, the kindness of God in Nehemiah 9. I'll reread verse 17 from the 
beginning. They refused to obey and they 
were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them. But 
they hardened their necks and in their rebellion they appointed 
a leader to return to their bondage. But you are God, ready to pardon, 
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness and 
did not forsake that. Again, I'm not saying this to 
you to sort of comfort you or encourage you to continue in 
a pattern of rebellion against God. I'm not saying that at all. 
But I am telling you that this God is a God of mercy, a God 
of grace. If you have violated His law, 
if you have transgressed against Him, if you have lacked conformity, 
then go to Him for forgiveness, because He's the God here and 
described by the prophet or by the governor. Even when they 
made a molded calf, verse 18, for themselves and said, this 
is your God that brought you out of Egypt and worked great 
provocations. Yet in your manifold mercies, 
you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the 
cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, 
nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way 
they should go. You also gave your good spirit 
to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their 
mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you 
sustained them in the wilderness, they lacked nothing, their clothes 
did not wear out, and their feet did not swell." Do you see there? Grace, compassion, mercy, kindness. See, Exodus 32 isn't the end 
of the story for Israel. They do that. They fashion a 
calf. They bow to it. They make sacrifices 
and offer it up. They dance before it. You'd think 
that'd be the end of Israel, wouldn't you? That's it. Book 
of Exodus, done. That's not it. Oh, there's judgment. Certainly there's judgment, but 
that's not it. They continue. The North gets 
all the way to 722 BC. The South gets all the way to 
586 BC. You talk about the patience of 
God, the long suffering of God, the forbearance of God. Read 
your Old Testament, because it's all over the place. Turn to Psalm 
106, where these same things are brought forth. Psalm 106. 
Again, it's sort of like Stephen's defense in Acts chapter 7. It's 
a redemptive history of Israel, sort of highlighting the highs 
and the lows. And the lows are obviously the 
same sorts of things that we've seen in Acts 7. Verse 19, Psalm 
106, they made a calf in Horeb and worshiped the molded image. 
Thus they changed their glory into the image of an ox that 
eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great 
things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, awesome things 
by the Red Sea. And then notice he goes through 
more of their particular offenses. And then in verse 40, it says, 
therefore, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people 
so that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand 
of the Gentiles and those who hated them ruled over them. Their 
enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection 
under their hand. Many times he delivered them, 
but they rebelled in their counsel and were brought low for their 
iniquity. Notice in verse 44, nevertheless, he regarded their 
affliction. Here's your Ephesians 2.4. But 
God, nevertheless, he regarded their affliction when he heard 
their cry. And for their sake, he remembered his covenant and 
relented according to the multitude of his mercies. He also made 
them to be pitied by all those who carried them away captive. 
Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among the Gentiles 
to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise. Blessed 
be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And 
let all the people say amen. Praise the Lord. You've sinned 
against God. You've rejected God. You haven't 
obeyed God. This God will give you over, 
but it hasn't happened yet. And as my dear beloved likes 
to say, while there's breath in your lungs, there's hope. 
And this is the God of hope. This is the God who pardons. 
This is the God who forgives. This is the God who takes our 
iniquities and casts them into the depths of the sea. There's 
no better God. There's no greater God. There's 
no more glorious than God. That's what evokes the response 
from the psalmist. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel 
from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord. It's God. Come to Him through Jesus Christ. 
Faith in Christ. Believe on Him. Look to Him and 
you will live. Well, let us close in a word 
of prayer. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you 
for its clarity. for its consistency, we thank 
you for the consent of all the parts, we thank you that in it 
you receive glory, and in it you show us that redemptive work 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, how we praise you for that, how we 
thank you that you saved us, idolaters, wretches, rebels, 
those who despised you, those who despised your law, and nevertheless 
you reached down in mercy and delivered us by grace through 
faith in Jesus. Do that here for those who are 
unsaved. Do that elsewhere for those who 
are unsaved. Bless the preaching of the gospel 
and save a multitude that no man can number. And we pray through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.