Pulled Into The Heart Of God // Exodus 32:7–14

In this sermon from Exodus 32:7–14, Pastor Josh Thompson teaches how God pulled Moses into His heart through intercession after Israel’s sin with the golden calf. Moses stands in the gap, prays God’s own covenant mercy back to Him, and shows us what it means to carry God’s burden for guilty people.

This passage ultimately points to Jesus, the greater Mediator, who intercedes for His people and gave His life to save them.

Series: Leaving the Darkness - Legacy City Church

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We're going to be in Exodus chapter 32 in our Bibles. If you want to turn there, Exodus chapter 32. We're going to cover verses 7 to 14 through the text. This is sermon number 81 through the book of Exodus. Title The Message Pulled Into the Heart of God, if you're taking notes. Pulled into the Heart of God. We've been working through a series I've titled Leaving the Darkness. Where we watch Moses lead the people out of Egypt, out from under the hand of Pharaoh, out of slavery, out of the world, out of darkness, into freedom, into a relationship with God, into the wilderness, into the light, through the Red Sea, ultimately to the promised land, trying to lead them to heaven, trying to lead them to the kingdom. And we have been chipping away verse by verse, chapter by chapter. When are you going to finish, Pastor Josh? I don't know. But we're close. We're getting close. Heard of a story, maybe you heard of this one. A backwoods preacher was baptizing folks down at the river one Sunday afternoon when a fellow who'd clearly spent the morning at the tavern came stumbling along the bank. Filled with zeal, the preacher waddled over to him and grabbed him and plunged him under the water. Pulling him up, he asked her, Brother, have you found Jesus? And the man said, No, I have not. The preacher dunked him again longer this time. He says, Now have you found Jesus? The man said, No, I sure haven't. The preacher determined to push him down a third time and hold him under a good while longer. Finally, he hauled him up again and said, Brother, have you found Jesus yet? And the man wheezed, he wiped the water from his eyes. He looked at the preacher dead in the face and said, Are you sure this is where he fell in? Sorry. Not sure if you've realized this, but some of the most loving things ever said to you probably didn't sound loving at all at the time. You ever been there? You know, it's the coach who benched you, right? Uh it's the friend who told you the truth that maybe you weren't ready to hear. You know, it's the father who said no when you wanted him to say yes. He was looking out for you. And the moment it felt like rejection, it stung. And it was only later, sometimes years later, that you realize that the hard word was the most loving thing anyone could have ever done for you. And this morning we're we're going to listen in on a conversation between God and Moses. And at first glance, it sounds like God is pushing Moses away. He says, in effect, these are your people now, Moses. You deal with them. Now let me alone. And that sounds cool, doesn't it? It's like a slam door. But I want to show you something this morning that, of course, I couldn't see at first glance. But underneath those hard words might be one of the tender tenderest things God ever said for a human being. He wasn't pushing Moses away at all. He was pulling him in. He was actually pulling him closer to his own heart than Moses had ever been. He was doing something, he was pressing Moses in such a way that would actually open his eyes and his ears and draw him nearer to God's heart, pulling him into God's heart more than he's ever been. We're in Exodus chapter 32. We're going to start in verse 7. Can we stand for the reading of God's word? We always stand for the reading of God's word here at Legacy to pay honor to him, to remember whose word of reading, not my words, not my story, not my ways. They truly belong to him. It is my job to try to deliver the mail, to try to deliver the message from God, to try to deliver his story, and we he has said, his opinion, his ways, his mindsets. And as we receive it, it would transform our hearts and minds and align with him. That's the goal. That's what we're here for today. Exodus chapter 32, verse 7, take a look at the text. It says, Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, Go, go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. And Yahweh said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. Now let me alone, that my anger may burn against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make you a great nation. Then Moses entreated the favor of Yahweh, his God, and said, O Yahweh, why does your anger burn against your people whom you have bought brought out of the land of Egypt and with great power and with a strong hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, with evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your anger, your burning anger, and relent concerning doing harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your servants to whom you swore by yourself, and you said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land which I ever spoke, I will give to your speech seed, and they shall inherit it forever. So Yahweh relented concerning the harm which he said he would do to his people. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this story. We thank you for this picture. And we pray, God, now that you would reveal your heart and your ultimate plan all along, what you were up to, what you were pulling Moses into, how you were changing his heart, changing his mind through the situation. Lord, would you help us to see it? We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. Let me set the scene because the contrast here really is staggering. Moses has been on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, meeting with Almighty God. He has heard the law. He has been handed the very pattern of the tabernacle. Remember, we walked through that. He has been standing in the brightness of the glory of God. Can you imagine the joy in that man's heart as he's getting ready to come down? Two tablets in his hand, written by the finger of God, ready to deliver the will of heaven to the people of God. And while Moses is up on the mountain drawing up the blueprints for worship, the people down at the base of the same mountain are inventing their own God, inventing their own ways of practice. And this is under the watch of his own brother Aaron. They've melted down their gold rings, you remember, taking them even from their children, that God gave to them. And they have formed a calf and bowed to it and shouted, These are your gods, O Israel. This cow led you out of Egypt. It's barely been six weeks, six weeks since the Red Sea split, six weeks since the pillar of fire, and already they've traded the living God for livestock. We talked about it extensively last week, if you'd like to take a look at it. A forgetful people, a faithful God. So when our passion opens, God breaks the news, and what he says and how Moses answers is going to teach us something we desperately need to learn about prayer, about the mercy of God, and about the ultimate heart of God. Point number one, if you're taking notes, God pulls Moses in. This is verses 7 to 10. Look at verse 7. He says, Go, Moses, go down at once. For your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have corrupted themselves. Interesting term there. Yes, it's true. This is what people do away from God. We corrupt ourselves. Do you have to teach a child to do right or wrong? Gotta teach them to do right, huh? Kids very naturally will figure out how to do wrong. Do we have to train ourselves to do right or to do wrong? We have to train ourselves to do right. It is very easy to find wrong in our hearts. And a people left to themselves will corrupt themselves. And that is the point of the gospel. Christ has come down to the earth to save us from ourselves, to save us from our sins, our corruptness. But did you catch the pronoun change in verse 7? Up until this moment in Exodus, God has called Israel his people. Let my people go. I have surely seen the affliction of my people over and open. My people, my people, my people. But now, he says, your people. Moses, the people that you brought out of Egypt. You see that? It sounds like God is washing his hands of them and handing them off to Moses. I don't want them, you take them. And it gets more severe. Verse 9 says, I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. Stiff-necked. You ever seen somebody with a stiff neck? Like, how's it gone? You know how they they can't turn, they they they just turn with their shoulders because the neck is locked. No, it's worse than that. A stiff-necked ox is one too stubborn to bend its neck and wear the yoke. It will not be led by the farmer. It will not be led by the shepherd. It will not be led by another. It won't be told what to do. It does what it wants to do. Arkent Hughes had some great insight about this. It says, this stiff-necked people, this is the first time the phrase is used in Exodus, but it becomes the Bible's standard way of referring to the Israelites. This becomes their nickname. A stiff-necked people. What kind of people are they? A stiff-necked people who refuse to lower their heads and wear the obedience of God. This is a dangerous position for anyone to be in. Stiff-necked people always think they are right and never admit they are wrong. They refuse to listen to good spiritual counsel. They say, I'm sorry, that's just the way I am. And then they expect everyone else to deal with it. They ask for advice, but they don't follow it. They go ahead and do what they were planning to do anyways. And when they get into trouble, they are unwilling to be corrected. Yes, they say, but my situation is different. And they offer some kind of excuse. When they go through suffering, they complain about it, but they never seem to learn anything from it. They never change, they never grow. And the saddest thing is all is that they don't even know it. Since they never bow to true submission to God, they don't realize how stiff-necked they are. The hardest thing about stiff-necked people is the pride. And the fastest way to identify that in yourself is you should be quick to point out your wrongdoing. It is so easy for us to point out the other person's wrongdoing, right? Me too. We got all the reasons why it's everybody else's fault. Don't worry, I do it too. And all the things that happened to me, and all the things, and all the excuses why I had just fell into that corruption. No, no, no. The best thing you could ever do is train your heart and mind to confession, to just be able to say it point blank. I was wrong. I was wrong. I'm sorry. To be specific about your wrong is even better. I was wrong in this. And that's something we have to train our hearts to do. This is not natural in the human being at all. But by the Spirit of God, we're able to do these things. And maybe you've had some breakthroughs, maybe you've had some moments. That's real humility, huh? When you can throw yourself under the bus, that's hard to do. Marriage counseling, when people come to me and all they're doing is talking about the other person, you know what my next question is? What did you do? I don't want to hear what they did anymore. I just want to hear what you have done. And if you if you can't tell me 10 things that you have done, then you're blind. You can't see. You're stiff-necked. You're always right. The problem is, is all humans are always wrong. That's what the Bible teaches. And when they get it right, that's a miracle, that's a grace, that's a blessing. And if you somehow have leveled up in life where you're like, actually, Josh, actually. I'm like a nine out of ten most of the time. I'm like, I'm always right. Trust me, I love being right. Ask my wife. But man, am I wrong and always trying to be right? Right? This is not good. We have to be able to self-examine. The people are so blind, they get we we see the obvious. They just built a golden calf, you idiots. They don't see any of it. They're like, this Moses, where is he? He's not around anymore. Where is this Moses? So don't be stiff-stiff-necked. Assume that you might be wrong first. Start there and work your way to right, and man, you will save yourself so much time, so many arguments, so much anger, so much stress and anxiety. Just admit you're wrong. Come clean wrong first. Start at wrong and work your way to right. Watch how that transforms everything. Now it's a hard thing. I know I'm asking you to do a hard thing, but by the grace of God and by the Spirit of God in you, I believe that you can. Assume that you might be wrong, and when you are wrong, just admit it. No beating around the way, just say I'm wrong. And if you ask for counsel for someone in spiritual authority, try to follow it. Verse 10 here's where it gets strange. God says, now then let me alone. Moses, leave me alone. Let me alone my anger, that my anger may burn against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make you a great nation. You see what God did there? It's a test. Let me alone. Watch carefully. Because this is the hinge of the whole passage. Why on earth would God say, Let me alone? Moses hasn't said a word yet. Moses hasn't grabbed God's arm. Moses isn't standing there pleading. So why does God say, Let me alone? As if Moses is already holding him back. Here's why. Because God is putting the door in Moses' hand. He's not slamming it, he's leaving it open on purpose. Leave me alone. It's not the language of a God who can't control his temper. It's the language of a God who is inviting this man to intercede. Think about it. If God truly intended to wipe Israel off the map, he didn't need to tell Moses anything. He could have just done it. He doesn't need to have a conversation with Moses about him. He would have just told him straight what he is going to do. He sends Moses down, he stirs him up, and he says, in effect, the only thing standing between my wrath and this people is you, Moses. What are you going to do, Moses? Are you going to let me destroy the people? What are you going to do? You see what God is doing? He's not pushing Moses away, he's pulling Moses into his own heart. He's teaching a shepherd how to carry a people. He's drawing this man deeper into the very compassion of God more than he has ever been before. And that's a parenting move now, isn't it? Any parent here knows that. You say to the stubborn child, fine, leave your toys all over the floor. I'm just going to throw them all away. Now, are you really going to throw them all away? Of course not. You're trying to rouse the child to act. And you want him to grab these toys and save them. And no child waits around to find out if you're bluffing or not. They start grabbing all the toys that they love. God did the very same thing with Moses. He used the threat to awaken the man, to get him off the sidelines and get his heart into the gap, into the place of mediator. Here's the application. Sometimes the very thing that feels like God is pushing you away is God pulling you in. That burden that God put on your heart for your wayward son, the ache you can't shake for your unbelieving friend, that weight you feel for the people in this church or for this city, those burdens that wake you up at 2 a.m. Is that God pushing you away? No. That's God pulling you into his heart. It's getting you to start thinking like he does, forcing you to start praying like he prays. He's trusting you with his compassion. He's handing you the door and saying, Are you gonna let me throw the toys away? You say, No, Lord, I'm gonna I'm gonna save them for the people. I want to help these people. We have a name for the person who stands in that gap. The Bible calls that person the mediator. God told Ezekiel in Ezekiel 22, 30, I search for a man along them, among them, who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, but I found no one. You hear the heartbreak in that? God is looking for the man, the woman who will stand in the gap. Moses was that man, and the psalmist tells us plainly that this was God's design all along. Psalm 106, 23, therefore he said he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen one, stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath from destroying them. God was pulling Moses into the position, tugging his heart into the position of mediator. Moses, are you gonna let them be destroyed? Or will your heart grow right now in this moment and will you pray for them? I always say God tricked me in the ministry. People always say, Did you grow up wanting to be a pastor? No. Well, you must have like, will you did you do all the things in preparation to just step into the pastorate? No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Um, I did I had other plans. I was going that way, and uh I started serving in the high school ministry, and the kids roped me in. You know, you you you start, you you serve a little bit, and you're like, man, the the look at these kids, they need the Lord, you know, and before you know you get pulled in a little more, and then they're asking you to come on staff for eight bucks an hour, and you're like, I can't live on that, you know, and they're like, and before you know it, you're just doing the thing, and and before you know it, they're asking you to be pastor, and you're like, what, how how how did I get sucked into this thing? How do you get tricked by God? See what he did? A little sleight of hand there. He he burdens your heart with the people, he burdens your heart for the ministry with a situation, he burdens you, he baits you, and then you start to pray because you want the burden to be taken from you, you want it to be lifted, and your heart starts to grow for God. And before you know it, you're entangled in the situation of the people, and now you are the mediator, you are the one chosen by God to help save them and bring them close to Him. James 5, 16, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. The scholar Brevard Childs put it about as well as it can be put. He said that God's voice is uh the severest punishment imaginable, and then suddenly conditions it on Moses' agreement. And he says, Let me alone that I may consume them. And the effort, the effect, Childs says, is that God himself leaves the door open for intercession. He allows himself to be persuaded, and that is what a mediator is for. Charles Spurgeon said, whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom. God doesn't need us, he doesn't need Moses. He could run the whole thing on his own. He pulls the man in, baits him to ask. And of course, he has the Spirit of God, and so the heart of God pushes forth in him, and he asks. And he starts begging God, you can't do this. You can't do this. That just a few weeks back, Moses is probably like literally going to God saying, Would you off these people, please? Just just fire straight down from heaven would be fantastic. God left the door open. God was indirectly saying, Are you going to let the people be destroyed? Or are you going to pray for them, Moses? He was pulling Moses into his own heart. Point number two, Moses praised God's own heart back to him. Point number two, Moses praised God's own heart back to him. Verses 11 to 13. Watch the prophet move. Verse 11. Then Moses entreated the favor of Yahweh his God. Here's the first thing I want you to notice. God dangled an enormous offer in front of Moses. Verse 10 I will make you forget these people, Moses, I will make you a great nation. You understand what that is? That's a do-over. That's Moses, I'll wipe these people out, and you start the whole covenant over again with you. You be the new Abraham. You'll be Father Moses. Head man, he sons. It won't be Abraham, it'll be you, Moses. That's a test. A test of a man's heart because the people deserve judgment. And Moses knew that better than anyone. And who could blame him for taking the offer? But watch, Moses doesn't even flinch. He doesn't pause. He doesn't say, Well, Lord, let me pray about that. He ignores the offer of the crown completely and he throws himself down for a people who have just broken his heart. Everett Fox said it beautifully. Moses is handed a dictator's dream, the chance to clone an entire nation from himself. Instead, he chooses to stand and defend the very people who have caused him nothing but grief. Who last week, who last week in the text were saying, Where is this Moses? Mocking him. The guy who led him out of Egypt. But that sounds like the heart of Jesus, doesn't it? Who would die for the very people who would deny him, and some who even chanted, Crucify Him, crucify him. The Lord Jesus lays down his life for those kind of people. My buddy Phil Grigsby, this guy I lived in Mexico with over 20 years ago. This guy's a poet. He wrote this song called Cold Hearts Melt when we were in Mexico. He wrote these little lyrics. He says, Because if I walked away without turning back, you would love me. You would love me. If I chose to crucify you myself, you would love me. If I meant to hammer in those nails, if I turned away when you cried for help, you would love me. More than life itself. Your love does make our cold hearts melt. Isn't that powerful? It's a complete contradiction in the human mind that Christ would lay down his life for a people who hate him. Like no one. Surely, someone might lay down their life for a good person. Maybe for an okay person, but God demonstrated his own love for us and that while we were sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for us. Why does he do that? Why did Moses do that? It's because Moses had been pulled into the heart of God. He'd been on the mountain with him for 40 days. He's starting to see his face. He is consuming the love of the Almighty, God who is love, God who is light. He's standing in his presence. He's absorbing all of it. He's becoming like him. And that's the only way you become like him. It's not by going to church. That's part of it. It's by being in his presence. You communing with him alone. That's how you change. And look at how he prays. Moses doesn't try to negotiate. He doesn't say, Lord, surely there if there are 50 righteous Israelites down here, the way Abraham bargained over Sodom. Do you remember in Genesis 18? No. Moses starts from the assumption that every last one of them is guilty. He's not pleading for the innocent. He's pleading for the guilty. And he builds his case on five pillars. Every single one of them is something that God already believes about himself. Moses is just praying it back to God. He prays God's heart. First, he appeals to God's fatherly affection. He says, Your people, not mine, Lord, yours. You chose them. Second, he appeals to God's past investment. He says, Whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand, you've already done so much, Lord, don't waste it. So remember, he said, Moses, these are your people. You take care of them. You led them out of Egypt. Moses brings it back to God. Third, he appeals to God's public reputation. Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent, he brought them out to kill them? Lord, your name is on the line. Fourth, he appeals to God's mercy. Turn from your burning anger and relent. And fifth, his best for last. He appeals to God's covenant, the great covenant. Remember Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, Israel, to whom you swore by yourself. Lord, you gave your word, you staked your own name on it. You cannot break it without ceasing to be God. You have to keep this covenant. Now, do you see what's happening? Is Moses twisting God's arm here? Moses is not coming up with clever arguments to talk a reluctant God into something he doesn't want to do. Moses is praying God's own heart right back to him. He's literally saying scripture. Praying scripture. He's been pulled so far into the compassion of God that when he opens his mouth, what comes out is exactly what God was longing to hear. He wants what God wants. He pleads what God already purposed. This is the fruit of being drawn near to the Lord. Your prayers start to sound like God's own desires, God's own heart. A man after God's own heart. So here's a question. When you pray, do you pray your will to God or do you pray God's heart back to Him? Most of our praying is, Lord, here's what I want. Please sign off, right? But the prayer that moves heaven is the prayer of a person who has been pulled so close to the heart of God that they begin to want what God wants and pray what God wants. That's why Jesus taught us to pray, not my will, but yours be done. That's why John says in 1 John 5 14, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And legacy, this is exactly how Jesus prays for you right now. The Bible says he always lives to make intercession for us. Hebrews 7, 25. He stands before the Father, not pleading our righteousness. We don't have any. But pleading his own blood, his covenant, the Father's heart. Christ Jesus is the one who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us. Romans chapter 8, verse 34. Oswald Chambers said, Prayer does not fit us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work. Prayer is not preparing us for the greater work. Prayer is the work. Prayer is the thing. Prayer is the ministry. The priests of Zadok and Ezekiel, unbelievable, these guys. He says, I will set priests apart, and their purpose, these priests of Zadok, will be to minister unto me, God says. That's their whole ministry. To just be with me, to minister to me. We think prayer is what we do before the real work begins. Moses knew better, 40 days and 40 nights, the real work was the prayer. The most important thing happening in the entire camp of Israel was one man on his face who had been pulled into the heart of God. Prayer is not the only thing we do. But we can't do anything until prayer is the first thing we do. Step one, check in with God. Talk to God. Align your heart with God. Prayer is not you giving orders to God. Prayer is you checking in with the captain to get orders. Aligning your heart with his. And it's funny how our prayers start out because they start out like, Lord, give me that Ferrari. I need that thing. Thank you, God. In Jesus' name, I acclaim that thing. You know, Lord, maybe I don't need that. Actually, uh, that's kind of selfish. And uh it's actually kind of sinful now that I think about it. Forgive me, Father. If you want to bring for me Ferrari your will, not my will, but yours be done. Uh actually, I'm I'm thankful for the car I have. Actually, I want to be content, Lord. Thank you, God. I'm content in what I have. Uh you provide for me every single day. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. We start here and end here. The very act of seeking the Lord is is setting the dial to true north. It's aligning us. Point number three, and finally, God relents because that was his heart all along. God relented because that was his heart all along. Verse 14, so Yahweh relented concerning the harm which he said he would do to his people. Now, somebody's gonna read that and say, see, Moses changed God's mind. Oh, really? A human can change the mind of God. God was going to destroy them. Moses talked him out of it. And God reversed course. And there are even scholars who say there's no other way to read it, but we know that is not what happened. And we know it's not because the same Bible says the glory of Israel, 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 29, the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should ever have regret. More reinforcement, Numbers chapter 23, verse 19. And again, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should relent. So, how do you reconcile this? So, what does it mean that Yahweh relented? The Hebrew word does not always mean to change one's mind. It can mean to be moved to pity, to have compassion. And that's exactly what's going on here. God wasn't forced into a new plan because of some flaw or some surprise. God is never surprised. You know that God never learns. How can the infinite one, the one who holds all knowledge and all wisdom, the one who has created it all, how can he ever learn something? Is he deficient? He doesn't look into the future and learn things. He is always known. The reason you can't comprehend that is because we are finite. We have a beginning and an end. He is an infinite being. Try to wrap your mind around that. He has always been. There's never been a moment that he began to exist. There will be never be a moment when he ceases to end. We can't even begin to comprehend that because everything we see and know has a beginning and has an end, now, doesn't it? He doesn't learn. He's always known. He is the all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere, all the time, being that's what the Bible teaches. And I'm so grateful that he is impossible to comprehend. He wouldn't be great enough to worship. So what does this mean that Yahweh relented? The Hebrew word does not mean, again, to change one's mind, but to be moved to pity. It was the Lord Himself who opened the door for the threat to be removed through the prayer of the mediator he himself appointed. Go back and connect the dots. Who sent Moses down? God did. Who said, Let me alone, leaving the door open? God did. Who roused Moses to pray? God did. Who put the very arguments in his heart? God did. Who put the prayers in his heart? God did. Who saved Moses? God did. Who moved his heart to be grown with all of that knowledge and learn the plans of God from the past so that he could even pray that? God did. God simply chose to bring it about through a man he had pulled into his own heart. God was never going to destroy all of the people, and that's exactly the outcome. That was the plan all along. God is playing 4D chess, maybe 5D. He's not like a human, he doesn't think like us. Don't you feel comfort in this though? Your salvation does not hang on whether you can talk a reluctant God into loving you. Could you imagine if our salvation was that fickle? That like one of us has to go and talk to God and like be like, hey, God, what? And try and change his mind. God was never reluctant. He was merciful all along. He drew a mediator near to carry out that mercy. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 14, he chose you before the foundation of the world. This was already mapped out. Philippians 1, 6, he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. If he started the work in you, guess what? It's going to be completed no matter what. God always finishes what he starts. His mercy is not a mood he drifts into. It's who he is. He's not angry like a human and then merciful and forgiving like a human. So we've got to stop trying to earn the mercy that God delights to give. The same God who said, Let me alone was leaning in the whole time, hoping and knowing that Moses' heart would be changed and would ask. Lamentation says that the Lord's loving kindness never ceases. His compassions never fail. Great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3 22. If we are faithless, he remains what? Faithful. For he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2.13. Even when you are stiff-necked, even when you've been bowing to your own golden calves all week, his mercy holds because it rests on his character, not yours. Aren't you grateful? AW Tozer reminds us that the mercy of God is not some passing mood, it is an attribute of God's eternal being, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature. God doesn't become merciful when we pray well enough. He is merciful regardless of our prayers. And he has always been. That's who he's been in eternities past before we ever came along. And that's who he will always be. And Exodus 32, he pulled a man into that mercy and let him carry it down that mountain. Recap. Verses 7 to 10. God didn't push Moses away, he pulled him in. Let me alone was the door left open, the invitation hidden inside the threats. Verses 11 to 13, Moses didn't twist God's arm. He prayed God's own heart back to him, pleading for the guilty because he'd been drawn so near he wanted what God wanted. And verse 14, God didn't change his mind. He carried out the mercy that was planned all along through the prayer of a mediator he'd appointed. So back to the question. Standing in the breach while wrath burned hot turned out to be the moment God drew him closest to his own heart. He got the heart of God in that moment. Moses can only take us so far, though. You and I are not up on the mountain, we're down at the base just like Israel, floundering in the folly of our own rebellion, bowing to our own gods, our success, our comfort, our control. We have corrupted ourselves. We are stiff-necked people. And when the wrath of God comes against us, sin is real and it's just. And we have earned his wrath, the wrath and the death, the judgment of God, every ounce of it. So we need a mediator now, don't we? We need someone to stand in the gap. We need someone to be pulled into the heart of God on our behalf. And here's the gospel. God gave us one, praise God. When God looked down and saw our sin, he didn't say, Let me alone leave us to be consumed here on the earth. He said, In essence, go down, Jesus, my son, go down, because my people, the ones I love with a father's heart, have turned away. And unless you intercede, Jesus, they will surely be destroyed. The wages of sin is what? The earth, the verdict was to put the earth to death. That was the verdict. But what was the ultimate plan of God? Did Jesus change the Father's mind? Oh no, it was the plan all along that Christ would come down to the earth and die for his people and save them from their sins. And Christ will even pray for his people. What a beautiful picture, huh? The connection is unbelievable. You Jesus came down all the way down, and he didn't merely pray in the gap, he died in it. He stood between the wrath of God and a sinful people, and he took the consuming fire into his own body on the cross. Moses pleaded the covenant, but Jesus ultimately completed it in his own blood. Hebrews 13, 20, the blood of the eternal covenant. And he is not finished. Right now, he always lives to make intercession for you and for me. Praise God. Hebrews chapter 7. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2. The greater Moses is on the mountain at this very moment, praying God's own heart back to him over you. Is that awesome? Or what? Jesus standing on the mountain for us, saying, Father, remember your people. Remember that you are gracious, merciful, providing God. You are a compassionate, faithful, true God. And you have committed by your word, by your name, to take care of your people and to save them over and over and over again. And I have proved it through the cross, praise God. So listen, church, all you need to do is come to God. Did you know that? You don't need to bargain your way to God like Abraham. Lord, if if I'm kind of righteous, will you make it? If I help 10 old ladies across the street, will you let me in? You don't have to. The bargaining has already been taken care of. Christ has already done the work. Amen. Stop trying to earn what he delights to give you. Just come guilty and all. You can hide in the mediator of Christ that God has already provided. And one more thing, legacy. Church, listen, if you have been pulled into the heart of God through Christ and He is handing you the door now, there are people in your life floundering at the base of the mountain, a son, a neighbor, a friend who walked away, and God is whispering to you what he whispered to Moses. Are you going to let them be destroyed? You want me to take all the toys and throw them in the trash? No, God. Don't destroy them, please. Let me stand in the gap. Don't just say you'll pray. I encourage you, legacy, to climb in the gap. Pray God's heart back to him for the guilty. Because that is what it means to be pulled into the heart of God. Amen. Let me pray. Father, we we ask now. And I pray, God. I pray for these people, God. I pray for this church. And you've pulled me into the burden of Studio City, into the burden of Los Angeles, and I'm grateful. Thankful. You help me see through your eyes. You help me see through your heart. You help me hear, listen through your ears. And I pray, God, for every person in this place that you would burden us for the people of this world. That they would not be destroyed, that they would not be consumed, that they would not have just wasted away lives of so much rebellion and destruction and pain. But Lord, that you would use us to stand in the gap to start to bring people back to you. That Lord, we would reach our hands down the mountain into the city, and we would pull people into worship. We would pull them into knowing you and walking with you. We would pull them into discipleship. We would pull them into your teaching. We would pull them into a relationship with you. Would you give us that desire? Would you give us that burden for our family and for our friends and for our neighbors? Use us, God, for your glory. Lord, we open our hands to you and we confess. We will not be a stiff-necked people. Oh God, we will not be a stiff-necked people. We will confess. We will say where we are wrong. And we will cry out for your forgiveness. Lord, I pray that you would supernaturally break the stone around the hearts of any of your people in this place now. And that we would be a forgiving, gracious, loving, compassionate people who seek your face and walk with you and display the attributes and the character of our God in our relationships. Lord, would you do that in a special way? We cannot do it apart from you. We need your Holy Spirit to do that supernatural work in us. We give you our lives. We give you all of it. We do it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand up. My job is to pull you into the heart of God. Amen. That's what I'm trying to do. And I hope that the Lord can help you in it. Over here to my left, your right, is Martin and Lucia. We would love to give you a Bible today. We'd love to pray for you. We'd love to answer any questions you might have. Please don't leave without without receiving a Bible if you need one and see a Martin and Lucia. I'll be right up here after the service for a few moments as well before you leave this place. Isn't that a great text? Man, what just you know, I just really enjoying these moments. Thank you for studying the word with us today and for worshiping with us today.