{"id":20310,"date":"2022-02-13T16:22:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T23:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/exodus-32_15-24-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-02-13T16:29:17","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T23:29:17","slug":"exodus-32_25-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/exodus-32_25-35\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When We Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exodus \u00a032:25-35 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Exodus 32:25-35.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Exodus 32:25 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 25:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The great news of the gospel is that although our sins separated us from God’s presence (see\u00a0Exodus\u00a032:33), although God could easily have edited us out of His book, instead in love God sent Jesus Christ to receive all the punishment for our sins. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid for all our sins (past, present and future) and restored us to God’s presence.\u00a0 That indeed is the best news ever. \u00a0But remember this: when we sin, especially in public ways, we still affect two types of people.<\/p>\n

First,\u00a0w<\/strong>hen we sin in public, we become a stumbling block to other believers. \u00a0<\/strong>Verse\u00a025\u00a0says that because of Aaron and the Israelites’ sin, God’s people were “running wild” and “out of control” (v25).\u00a0 Whenever we sin in public ways, we confuse other Christians, discourage their faith, and tempt them to sin in the same ways. \u00a0 So let’s be careful.\u00a0 Like Paul said to Timothy, let’s “set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity\u201d (1 Timothy 4:12).<\/p>\n

Second,\u00a0when we sin in public, we become a laughing stock to non-believers<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Verse\u00a025\u00a0also says that because of Aaron and the Israelites’ sin, they became \u201ca laughing stock\u201d to their enemies (v25).\u00a0 A reason non-Christians often cite for not believing in Jesus is “because I see so much hypocrisy among Christians”.\u00a0 To be fair, sometimes I need to remind my non-Christian friends that the common denominator among Christians is not perfect behaviour, but the need for a Saviour. \u00a0 Until the day we reach heaven, we will never follow Christ perfectly because we’re all works in progress. \u00a0Even so, unchurched people expect Christians to live upright and moral lives.\u00a0 So when we sin in public ways, we give our non-Christian friends one more reason not to believe in Jesus.\u00a0 So let’s “[b]e careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God…” (1 Peter 2:12 (NLT))<\/p>\n

Let’s not be a stumbling block to other Christians or a laughing stock to non-Christians because we sin. Instead of driving people away from Him, may our words and actions lead people to see their need for the Saviour as well.<\/p>\n

Exodus 32:26-27 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the\u00a0LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he said to them, “This is what the\u00a0LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 26-27:\u00a0\u00a0You might ask, \u201cHow could Moses authorize the killing of His own people this way, even if they were worshiping an idol?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In Exodus 22:20, as part of His law, God warned the Israelites that,\u00a0\u201cWhoever sacrifices to any god other than the\u00a0LORD\u00a0must be destroyed.\u201d\u00a0Then in Exodus 24:7, Moses took the law and read it to the people, who responded,\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe will do everything the\u00a0LORD\u00a0has said; we will obey.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Moses was holding the people accountable to God\u2019s law and their own promise, effectively administering the law of God concerning those who had sacrificed to the golden calf.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a reminder for us that\u00a0the wages of our sin \u2013 in other words, the consequence of us turning away from God and worshiping something else (usually ourselves) \u2013 is death, that is, eternal separation from God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the LORD says in verse 33, \u201cWhoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Praise God that in the New Testament,\u00a0when we had sinned against God, Jesus came and took on the death that we were supposed to die for our sins<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus was killed so that we could be spared.<\/p>\n

Exodus 32:28 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 28:\u00a0\u00a0As Pastor Jon Courson points out, Moses came down with the law and 3,000 people died.\u00a0\u00a0Later in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit would come down and 3,000 were saved.\u00a0\u00a0The letter of God\u2019s law kills, but the Spirit of God gives life.\u00a0\u00a0(2 Corinthians 3:6).<\/p>\n

Exodus 32:29 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 29:\u00a0\u00a0Moses commended and God blessed the Levites who decided to put following God\u2019s commands above their own families.\u00a0\u00a0Centuries later, Jesus would say:<\/p>\n

Matthew 10:37 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;<\/em><\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

Luke 14:26 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that we need to destroy our families in order to follow Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Rather,\u00a0God wants to make sure that in our hearts He retains the number one place and centre stage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exodus 32:30-32 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the\u00a0LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Moses went back to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold.
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But now, please forgive their sin–but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 30-32:\u00a0\u00a0Moses goes back up the mountain to the LORD to plead that He would forgive the sins of the Israelites. Moses even offers that his own name be blotted out instead of the Israelites.\u00a0\u00a0Paul would say something similar in Romans 9:3-4: \u201cFor I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Jesus would go one step further, actually dying on the cross to pay for our sins and telling the Father, \u201cForgive them for they do not know what they do.\u201d (Luke 23:34).\u00a0\u00a0Who are the people that God uses the most?\u00a0\u00a0The ones who are unselfishly put themselves in danger if it means sparing or helping the lives of those he or she loves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exodus 32:33-35 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 33-35:\u00a0\u00a0Responding to Moses\u2019 plea, God forgives the people for their sin.\u00a0\u00a0However, the people are still struck with a plague.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a reminder that even though there is forgiveness from God, there are also natural consequences that will flow from our sin: broken relationships, bruised reputations, wasted resources, to name just a few.\u00a0\u00a0Though God is merciful and works in all things for our good, we are always better off following the LORD than sinning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You for showing me how wide-reaching the effects of sin can be.\u00a0 Thank You for sending Jesus Christ to pay for my sins.\u00a0 I realize today that given all the negative effects that sin brings, I\u2019m always better off following You than living in sin.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Exodus 32:25-35.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Exodus 32:25 (NIV)
\n25\u00a0\u00a0Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.<\/p>\n

On verse 25:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The great news of the gospel is that although our sins separated us from God’s presence (see\u00a0Exodus\u00a032:33), although God could easily have edited us out of His book, instead in love God sent Jesus Christ to receive all the punishment for our sins. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid for all our sins (past, present and future) and restored us to God’s presence.\u00a0 That indeed is the best news ever. \u00a0But remember this: when we sin, especially in public ways, we still affect two types of people.<\/p>\n

First,\u00a0when we sin in public, we become a stumbling block to other believers. \u00a0Verse\u00a025\u00a0says that because of Aaron and the Israelites’ sin, God’s people were “running wild” and “out of control” (v25).\u00a0 Whenever we sin in public ways, we confuse other Christians, discourage their faith, and tempt them to sin in the same ways. \u00a0 So let’s be careful.\u00a0 Like Paul said to Timothy, let’s “set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity\u201d (1 Timothy 4:12).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20312,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20310\/revisions\/20312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}