Worshiping the Golden Calf - 6/1/08pm

Sin at Sinai
Exodus 32 -Israel and the golden calf

Had Taken the blessings of God and used them to oppose God
God had given much to Israel during the Exodus, and see what they do with the blessings God had given them?
Exodus 12:33-36 -Israelites plunder Egypt
Galatians 5:13 -Don’t use liberty as an occasion to the flesh
How often do we take what God has given us and twist it into what we shouldn’t? How often do we use God’s blessings and utterly fail to glorify God with our use of them?

Had decided to make their own rules of worship
Were they worshiping God? Verses 4 and 5 indicate that they seem to think so. But is God pleased? Of course not!
Galatians 1:6-9 -Another gospel

Jeroboam’s Sin
I Kings 12:25-33 -Jeroboam sets up golden calves

Again, the claim is that they are worshiping the Lord
In verse 28, Jerboam makes the claim that these represent the Lord. In God’s eyes, however, they are not.
Deuteronomy 5:32-33 -Do not turn aside to the left or to the right
Romans 12:1-2 -Our lives are our worship
Leviticus 10:1-3 -Nadab and Abihu’s wrong worship

They failed to learn from examples
They failed to look at the history of Israel and learn.
I Corinthians 10:6-11 -Israel’s example of what not to do

Modern Golden Calves
How often do you hear someone say, “Well, we all follow the same God, just in different ways?” Or perhaps you hear, “We believe in the same God and Jesus, so we’re both ok.”
Ephesians 4:3-6 -ONE
John 14:5-7 -THE way, THE truth, THE light
I John 1:5-7 -Unity with the light, unity with each other
Just because someone tells you that it is all the same God, just different ways of serving Him, or that they are just following a different road to heaven, think of the golden calves! The only way is to follow Christ completely and accurately.

The Bible helps us avoid the golden calf
The Bible tells us what we need to believe, and what we need to do to follow the Lord, and not turn aside to golden calves.
John 20:30-31 -Written that you may believe and have life
I Timothy 3:14-15 -Written to know how to conduct ourselves
If we know how to believe and obey, and follow through with it, then we can avoid worshiping the golden calves.