Alamo Drive
Church of Christ

Whose Side are You On?

Exodus 32:26

April 11, 2021 Morning Service

I. Background to this Question in Exodus

• The people commit a great sin by violating God’s holiness (32:1-6; Ex. 20:3-4; Ex. 24:4)

• God’s anger “burns hot” against this violation, as God’s anger burns hot against every sin (Ex. 32:7-10)

• The people are saved from the wrath of God by the mercy of an intercessor (v. 11-14)

• Moses however, still shares God’s anger (v. 15-20)

• Aaron’s false and hypocritical answer, but understandable position (v. 21-24)

• The question: “Who is on the Lord’s side?” & the destruction that followed (v. 25-35)
   

II. No Neutrality in a Spiritual War

• We are engaged in spiritual conflict. You are either on Team The Lord, or Team The Powers of Darkness. (Matt. 6:24; Romans 6:16-19)

• But we know that being on The Lord’s side is more than just saying we are. Jesus said “He who is not with me is against me.” But he also said, “He who is not against me is with me.” (Matt. 12:30; Mark 9:38-41)

• So being on the Lord’s side is deeper than appearances. It is also deeper than mere obedience, for we are told many who have done wonderful works in Jesus name were never known by Jesus. (Matt. 7:21-23)

• The Pharisees of Jesus day were quite obedient to God in their works, and yet Jesus condemned them. (Matt. 23:23-24)

• Christ called his disciples to follow him, or “walk after” him. He said those who are in Him will be known by their fruit (Matt. 7:15-20)

• We confirm we are “on his side” by not just DOING the things Christ commanded but developing his qualities in our inner-self, and watching for increase, so that we might not be ineffective or unfruitful. This is the natural product of receiving the grace of God! (2 Peter 1:5-11)
   

III. The Bad News

• There is some bad news though: not all who think they are on the side of the Lord really are. The rulers of Jesus’s day believed in Jesus’s power (because they had seen it firsthand) but they still denied him (John 12:42; Matt. 10:33)

• So this is also more than just ere nominal belief, saying “Yep, I believe in Jesus.” No, true faith is a working, loving faith. (James 2:26; Galatians 5:6)

• There are many good and moral people who do many wonderful good works. But being a nice or “good” or mostly morally upright person is not the same as being cleansed from your sins. We all have sins to be cleansed from, and if you haven’t been made clean by Jesus Christ, you are lost. (Acts 10:2; 11:14)

• There are any in the religious world and even many within what we have named the Churches of Christ who are not on the Lord’s side. There are false teachers (II Peter 2:1-3), blind guides (Matt. 15:13-14), vain worshipers (Matt. 15:9), yes even among our number. There are churches across this nation which are actually Satan’s synagogues (Rev. 2:9; 3:9) and there are many ministers who are really Satan’s ministers (II Cor. 11:14-15). Yes, EVEN AMONG THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST.

• Too often, we fall back on heritage and our linage like those Pharisees of old, and say “We have Abraham as our father.” Except we will say, “We have Alexander Campbell as our father. This is the wisdom we have received. We will not deviate from it.” But friends remember, if God is able to raise up rocks to be his Children as John the Baptist told those Pharisees (Matt. 3:9), then if we have grown cold and lost the Gospel, God will raise up his children from elsewhere, as is his right!

• None of that is meant to denigrate or disrespect the great men who have gone before us. But it is to say that those men and those manners of teaching and preaching and understanding Scripture, WAS NOT what we were converted to, or it better not have been.    We’d better have been converted to Christ and him crucified, and that’s where we’d better be placing our trust. He is the only one who has ever lived who is worthy of our complete and total trust and surrender.            
   

IV. The Good News

• The Levites were on the Lord’s side. Some have suggested this means they did not participate as a tribe in the idolatry that happens in Exodus 32. I’m not so sure. But what I do know is that when Moses asked them whose side they were on, they responded.

• Not only did they come to the call, they were prepared to take drastic action, in killing 3,000, to ensure the camp remained loyal in their time to the Lord.

• It may seem brutal and violent to us today, but remember that it is Christ, and the grace of Christ, and the impact that has had on the world which GIVES US our modern aversion to such violence.

• And it paints a picture for us of what we must do. Only the camp we must cleanse is not the world, or the nation, or even the church, but is our own hearts, our own inner lives. Cut down and eradicate every fickle and unfaithful member of yourself, so that you may enter whole in spirit into the Kingdom, as Christ instructed us. (Matt. 18:7-9)

• Jesus said we are his friends if we do the things he commanded us. (John 15:14)

• And that is true and beautiful. And even more, in Christ’s grace, John also tells us, we are not just friends of Christ, but true children of the Most High God. (1 John 2:28-3:3)

• To be a child of the Most High, you must come to Christ and trust in him, as a child. As a child who has a good father always trusts that all is well when his father is near, so you must put your trust in Christ, and the sacred words with which he has taught you. That simple trust, will open a well of wonderful works for the world to see, and spring of inner renewal for you to see, and hold close to your heart.

• H. If you haven’t made the choice yet, we beg you, do not wait another day. In simple, child-like faith, choose the Lord’s side today, and claim your crown—eternal life and eternal preservation in Him. (Philippians 3:12-16)