At the turn of the century, there was an Iowa singing group named the Cherry Sisters.
Following one of their concerts a reporter for The Des Moines Register ran a scathing review He wrote that "Their long skinny arms, equipped with talons at the extremities... waved frantically at the suffering audience. The mouths of their rancid features opened like caverns, and sounds like the wailing of condemned souls issued therefrom."
The sisters sued the paper for libel.
The Judge asked the sisters to perform their act for him in court... and then ruled in favor of the newspaper.
(Uncle John's 4th Bathroom Reader, p. 39)
The Cherry sisters obviously didn’t sing very well.
Their concert was not a pleasant experience.
Their singing was little more than mere NOISE.
In our text this morning we have Moses coming back down from the Mountain. He’s just been given the 10 commandments and he’s only about half way down when he and Joshua hear something.
We’re told that “When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, ‘There is a noise of war in the camp.’” Exodus 32:17
Now, Joshua didn’t realize what was happening. He thought an enemy had fallen on the camp during the night and battle had broken out. What he didn’t know that the people had grown tired of waiting for Moses. I mean Moses had been gone for more than a month and as far as they knew – he wasn’t coming back!!
They’re frustrated
They’re upset.
And they intend to take matters into their own hands.
So they confront Aaron and they demand, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. 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.’ Exodus 32:23
And once Aaron makes the idol for them we’re told “they rose up … and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” Exodus 32:6
They were making noise alright… but it wasn’t the noise of war.
It was the noise of a people having a GOOD time.
But they weren’t having a GODLY good time.
They were making burnt offerings and peace offerings to a golden calf, and then they ate and drank and had themselves a PARTY. They felt they owed it to themselves after suffering in the desert for 50 days and now being abandoned by Moses for another 40. They intended to enjoy themselves. And so… they partied. And they were having a good time.
But there was someone that day who was NOT having a good time.
Do you know who was not having a good time?
God.
God was ticked.
Moses hadn’t been gone for a mere 40 days and these folks were already breaking the 1st commandment. Forty days earlier, God had come down on the mountain before Moses had gone up and He had spoken the Law in the hearing of all the people. And the very 1st commandment was this:
“You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God…” Exodus 20:3-5a
Forty days earlier they heard that very command – and now that was the very thing they were doing… bowing down to a golden calf.
So when Moses came down the Mountain and HEARD the noise they were making and SAW the evil they were committing he was furious - and he broke the tablets of stone (10 Commandments) ground up the golden calf – mixed it in the drinking water and commanded the people to drink!
Now when Joshua heard the commotion in the camp he thought he heard the noise of war. But Moses was more discerning:
“It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” Exodus 32:18
(PAUSE)
Now think about this for a moment.
These people were up offering sacrifices and peace offerings, and they’re singing.
What does that sound they’re doing??? (Worship)
To make things even more interesting here Exodus 32:3-5 tells us who they were worshiping:
“… then all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”
Aaron fashioned a calf out of the gold jewelry they brought him.
Then he builds an altar for the calf and says:
Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD!!!
You see that word LORD?
Did you notice it was in all capital letters?
Do you know what it means in our English Bibles when we see Lord or God in all caps?
It means this is God’s personal name.
Jehovah or Yahweh.
Israel wanted to worship, but they wanted to combine a pagan god with the Real God… just to cover all their bets and make sure they got the best of both worlds.
There’s a fancy $20 word for that. It’s called pluralism.
Pluralism is when you try to combine the God of Scripture with any other religion.
Pluralism is the smorgasbord kind of faith where folks cherry pick this group or that group and form a kind of hybrid faith.
In our age, that’s what “enlightened” folks do.
ILLUS: This last week in Washington, they had a “Prayer gathering” that practiced that kind of nonsense. They apparently had brought together representatives of Hindu, Buddhist and other faiths to pray for the incoming President.
Have you ever heard of Tina Turner?
She once told her fans:
“I’m a Buddhist/Baptist. My training is Baptist, and I can still relate to the Ten Commandments. It’s all very close, as long as you contact the subconscious mind. That’s where the coin of the Almighty is.”
Tina Turner was into Pluralism… but God isn’t.
In the Bible God, tells us: “I am a jealous God.” Exodus 20:5
HE has NO intention of sharing you with any other god or any other religion.
ILLUS: Years ago I ran across this comparison of various world religions:
Eastern Religions (like Buddhism and Confucianism) – technically don’t have a god, and there is no concept of an afterlife.
Hinduism – has a whole pantheon of gods, but they’re all impersonal and uncaring. Hindus also believe in reincarnation (that’s the idea that keep coming back and back and back until you get it right).
Islam – believes in Allah, an impersonal god and uncaring God, and it teaches that eternal life is earned. Essentially you have to do enough good things to outweigh the bad things you’ve done in life in the hope that you’ll get into heaven.
And, of course, there’s Christianity – there’s only one God, and He cared enough for you that He sent His only begotten Son to pay the price for your sins. And eternal life is a gift. There aren’t enough good things that you could do to ever earn or deserve salvation.
If God reveals himself through ALL the world religions, then we’re left with two options concerning his character. If pluralism is true, God is either a liar or a schizophrenic.
He’s a liar, telling one group "This is the way" and another group "That is the way."
Or he’s schizophrenic. He has a multiple personality disorder. One day he’s Shiva, the destroyer. The next day he’s Brahma an impersonal force pervading the universe.
The god you get depends on what day you bump into him.
(From a sermon by Joel Smith; Wellspring Community Church)
That’s pure insanity.
It makes absolutely no sense.
And if you want to be a Christian – it’s dishonest.
Because being a Christian means that you are totally sold out to Jesus. You cannot combine Jesus with anything. You either accept Him as He is… or you don’t accept Him at all
There is no middle ground.
Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father EXCEPT through me.” John 14:6
Peter said: “… there is salvation in NO ONE ELSE, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
And it goes on and on throughout the New Testament. Again and again we’re told that you cannot be an honest Christian and accept any other god or religion. You can’t build a golden calf in the wilderness and call him Jehovah!
God won’t sit still for it – He is a jealous God.
But the Israelites weren’t just worshiping other gods… they were “partying”.
Exodus 32:6 says “… the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”
Now I’ve got nothing against “playing” or even “partying” but I suspect this playing (in Exodus 32) was not a PG rated activity.
Exodus 32:25 tells us “… Moses saw that the people had broken loose…”
The idea behind the Hebrew term is that they were unrestrained in their behavior.
The KJV translates it “Moses saw that the people were naked…”
Well, I don’t know how much clothing they were wearing, but whatever they were doing… it wasn’t a family friendly atmosphere.
(PAUSE)
There are people in this world who “worship God” like that.
They offer up prayers and sing songs of praise to God but don’t restrain themselves very much outside of church. They claim the title of Christian but behave like pagans throughout the week.
They think it’s “OK” to live like that. They think that it doesn’t matter how they put in their time at church and mind their P and Qs at worship they can do whatever they like the rest of the time.
ILLUS: One of my friends named Gregg Nydegger tells of the time when he and his brother were young boys and his father took them to the barbershop. They had to wait because it was crowded so he and his brother sat over in the corner reading a comic book.
“It wasn’t long until the door to the barber shop opened again and a guy walked in and just started cussing and swearing. And to my surprise, it was one of the guys from our church. This man never saw me or my brother, but he soon sat down on the other side of the room.
This guy told one dirty story after another, kept using curse words and the Lord’s name in vain.
Now this man wasn’t an elder or deacon, BUT he would have been considered a stalwart in the church. He was someone my brother and I looked up to and respected. This very same man had also gone up front before the church just the previous Sunday and sang a very touching special.
He had a beautiful voice… but a corrupt mouth. When he finally realized my brother and I were there, he apologized; but I never thought the same of him ever again after that.”
Ephesians 5:1-5
“… be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”
In other words… this is serious stuff.
How we behave on Sunday at church should be how we behave the rest of the week.
Even worldly folk understand that. When non-Christians see church goers behaving badly, they have a word for that. Do you know what that word is? That’s right – hypocrite.
God tells us not to play fast and loose with our faith, because otherwise we might just be endangering our salvation.
It doesn’t get much more serious than that.
One last thought – have you ever thought about how weird it must have been for these folks to worship a golden calf? I mean, it was nothing more than a statue made of metal.
Psalm 115:2-8 mocks that kind of thinking
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”
It is insanity to worship inanimate objects!
They’re just objects of wood and stone and metal.
They can’t speak, see, hear, smell, feel, walk… they can’t do nothing
They’re not like our God.
SO WHY WORSHIP THEM?
Silly Israelites.
We wouldn’t be like them!!!
(Pause)
Well, yeah – we would.
A lot of Christians worship inanimate objects.
ILLUS: Some time back I spoke with a lady from another church (not part of our brotherhood) and told me that someone had had the audacity to take a soft drink up on stage during their mid-week choir practice.
How dare they?
ILLUS: At the First church I served we had a Sunday night youth group that met downstairs. Some of the church leaders were upset that the carpet downstairs was getting worn out.
Terrible!
You know what these folks all had in common?
They worshiped the building.
They were worshiping inanimate objects.
(PAUSE) I preached on this 3 years ago, just before we moved into this new sanctuary. I warned us about falling in love with the new worship area. Now I’m not preaching on it again because you’ve done anything wrong… it’s just worth remembering.
Over the past 3 years I’ve repeatedly walked into this sanctuary area in the middle of the week, and I’ve looked around and thought… “Wow! This is impressive.” Because it is impressive.
But here’s how we should think about this room
(I went over to the wall and knocked on it).
What is this? Yeah, it’s just a wall. It’s painted plasterboard with 2*4s and conduit and wires inside. I’ve got one of these in my house!
(I reached down and touched the carpet)
What is this? That’s right, it’s carpet. I’ve got carpet in my house too! And you sometimes I’ll even take a plate into that room and eat there while watching a little TV.
And what’s this (I touched one of the padded chairs the people sit on)? It’s a padded chair. I’ve got padded chairs in my house too. And there are times when I’ve sat on them, and drank a soda pop or chocolate milk.
Back here we have the sound booth. I don’t have anything in my house that’s expensive as what’s back in this booth… but you know what? Everything back here is just a tool to be used for God.
Just like everything else in this room.
Now, if I come to your home I’ll treat your stuff with respect… but it’s still just stuff.
And everything in this room we should treat with a certain amount of respect – but it’s still just stuff.
ILLUS: Over here we have a communion table.
Do you know what this table is made out of? Hollow wooden doors.
Someone made it for the congregation when we were just getting started.
There’s been times I’ve even sat on this table, and nobody complains. Do you know why no one complains? Because it’s just a table made out of hollow wooden doors. Nobody cares.
But now, in some churches, they’ve got those elegant tables made of polished walnut and engraved with special words on the front. And you had better never ever sit on one of those tables, or the church will have your hide! It’s almost like they’re worshipping that piece of furniture.
(I knelt down beside the table) “Oh wonderful table, how righteous you are to hold the special emblems of our communion. You are beautiful beyond description and there is no table quite as holy as you are.”
Now isn’t that just about the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard?
To pray to an inanimate object. To honor a piece of wood with reverence that should be only given to God?
I’m going to tell you something - if we ever get to the point where we have a table you can’t sit on… we need to grind it up and put it in the water supply and make people drink of it, because we’ll have gotten to the point of worshiping a TABLE!!! And that’s just not right!
(Pause)
CLOSE: You remember what Joshua said when he heard the commotion down in the camp?
“There is a noise of war in the camp.” Exodus 32:17
And, you know – he was right.
There WAS the noise of war in the camp
It was the noise of declaring war against God.
It was the noise of declaring war against righteousness.
The people had directly disobeyed His command and essentially spat in His eye
They had declared war… and the sounds they made were rallying cry of defiance.
(PAUSE)
But we don’t want to go there.
We want to make that kind of “noise”.
We want to make a different noise, a different SOUND.
About 250 years ago, a man named John Newton wrote about that kind of sound.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the SOUND that saved a wretch like me.”
It’s when we understand the power of THAT SOUND… that we please God.
ILLUS: I once read the story about a preacher of a large church who had a dream one night. He dreamed that he could see the church people at the worship service on Sunday morning. But there was something very strange happening.
The choir was on stage. Their mouths were open… no sound was heard.
The congregation opened their mouths to sing. But nothing came from their mouths either.
The preacher himself got up to preach. And He opened his mouth… but nothing came out.
There was absolutely no sound at all in the entire worship time.
But then, the preacher heard the voice of a little girl up in the balcony.
(Sing to the congregation)
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I am found.
I was blind, but now I see.”
The preacher was confused and suddenly woke up. And he got out of bed and down on his knees and he asked God "Lord, what was I dreaming? It doesn’t make sense to me."
The Lord spoke to his heart and said,
“Preacher, you just saw a picture of what I see in your at your church every Sunday morning. The people are singing and you are preaching.......but I don’t hear anything. Your heart is not focused on me. You’re all focused on yourselves.
The only one I heard in your church last Sunday was the little girl in the balcony. I heard her because she came to church today with the right motive: to love me with all of her heart!”
The question this morning – what kind of noise are you making/ what kind of sound?
• Is it the sound of worship of a Real God… and are you worshiping Him alone
• Is it the sound of worship that is purity and holy before His throne
• Is it the sound of someone who refuses to worship anything/anyone else
It’s the sound of His AMAZING GRACE.
INVITATION
