Moment of Truth: Are You With God Or the Golden Calf?

Shared on March 30, 2025

Introduction

Have you heard the saying, “You can talk to talk, but can you walk the walk?”  That’s what is being asked of believers today by the world and by God Himself.  After spending the past couple of weeks preaching about true worship and being vigilant in our faith, we have reached a moment of truth.  We must answer the question – will we walk the walk of faith in this moment of truth?  Are you with God or not?

God’s Moment of Truth

I am going to focus my message from Exodus 32 this week.  I feel that Exodus 32 reveals a parallel between the children of Israel and today’s believer as they were faced with a moment of truth.  

To understand what takes place in Exodus 32, we must understand what led up to that chapter.  The children of Israel had found themselves living in the land of Egypt due to a severe drought during the days of Joseph.  At that time, Joseph was second in command in Egypt and Israel brought his family to dwell in the land of Egypt.

However, Exodus 1 shows that after the days of Joseph, a new Pharaoh rose who feared what the children of Israel could become.  So, scripture tells us that Pharaoh put taskmasters of the children of Israel and enslaved them (Ex. 1:11).  The children of Israel spent quite some time living in bondage but God was with them; He heard their every cry.

Because the Lord knew their grief and heard their every cry, God sent Moses to Egypt.  God sent Moses to stand before Pharaoh and to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go (Ex. 3:10; 5:1).  After God plagued the land of Egypt and the Egyptians, Pharaoh finally relented and let the children of Israel go.

After being set free, the children of Israel ran into a blockade – the Red Sea.  With Pharaoh at their back, God parted the Red Sea and the children of Israel crossed on dry ground.  So, to be clear, God showed Himself to be faithful and to be a deliverer.  God delivered the children of Israel from bondage and the Red Sea as well.

The Moment of Truth

After the Red Sea, Moses brought the children of Israel to Mount Sinai.  It is at Mount Sinai where the Lord desired to enter into a covenant with the children of Israel and give them His law (Ex. 19:1-8).  After hearing of God’s desires, the children of Israel chose to enter into the covenant with the Lord.  So, the children of Israel promised the Lord that they would be faithful (loyal) to Him.

After entering into the covenant, God called Moses to come up into Mount Sinai to receive the law that God wrote on two stone tablets.  The children of Israel were left at the base of the mountain where they were supposed to faithfully wait for Moses to return to them.  

Now, this is where the parallel with sincere believers really shows itself.  The children of Israel, we will find represent us in this parallel.  You and I who are of sincere faith, like them, have entered into a covenant with the Lord.  The covenant we have entered into is found in John 3:16.  Jesus told Nicodemus that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

With the confession of faith in your heart, you have, like the children of Israel, told God that you will be faithful (loyal) to keep your promise.  Now, Jesus confirmed the covenant when He gave His life on the cross and rose from the grave.  After His resurrection, Jesus ascended to the top of the highest of moments – He ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9-11).

Though He ascended to heaven, Jesus promised to one day descend and receive the sincere believer unto Himself (John 14:3).  We the sincere believers are living in a waiting period, just as the children of Israel at the base of Mount Sinai.  

Our moment of truth is just like them – are you waiting faithfully for Jesus to return?  It has been a 2,000-year wait with believers being born, living full lives, and passing away.  It has been a long wait but are you waiting faithfully?  Do you believe Jesus is coming again?  Are you still with God?

Patience Is a Virtue

Now, waiting for Moses proved to be a test that many of the children of Israel failed.  Exodus 32:1 shows us that the children of Israel began to grow impatient waiting for Moses to come back down the mountain.  In fact, they expressed their doubts that he would ever return as they spoke of not knowing what had become of him.

You would think that Moses in the mountain for 2,000 years, the way they began to speak!  Scripture repeatedly tells us that Moses was only in the mountain for a total of forty days and forty nights (Ex. 24:18; 32:38; Deut 9:9; 10:10).  I suppose the children of Israel were like how we get when we have to wait a few days for a package to be delivered!

Patience, however, is a virtue that the child of God must learn.  As the prophet Isaiah said, those who wait on the Lord will have their strength renewed (Is. 40:31).  As James wrote, when we let patience have its perfect work, it makes us perfect and complete (Jas. 1:4).  Paul wrote that God rewards those continue in patience, doing good, with the reward of eternal life.

Impatience, however, leads the heart into sin, as we see with the children of Israel.  Within just forty days, impatience led the children of Israel to say to Aaron, “Make us gods that shall go before us.”  In the moment of truth where they were supposed to wait faithfully, their thoughts and desires were failing them!  

In this moment of truth, are your thoughts and desires taking you away from God?  Do you believe Jesus is coming again?  Are still with God and are you waiting faithfully on the Lord?

Failing to Meet the Moment

I want to point out that it wasn’t just the children of Israel being tested in this moment of truth.  This was also a moment of truth for Aaron as well.  

Aaron’s failure at Mount Sinai

This was a moment for Aaron to be faithful to himself, his promise, and to his office.  You see, Aaron and his sons had been consecrated to minister to God as priests.  Even more, Aaron was set to be the high priest – a most holy spiritual leader.  In Aaron, we find another parallel with us believers.  You see, if anyone was supposed to be faithful to God and setting an example at that moment, it should have been Aaron.

When the children of Israel came to Aaron with their desire, I want you to pay attention to Aaron’s response.  Exodus 32:2 shows us that Aaron instructed the people to break off their golden earrings and bring them to him.  So, did Aaron move in faith?  Aaron should have stopped the people, right?  Did Aaron stop the people in their wicked desire?

After he received all of their gold, Exodus 32:4 shows us that Aaron made a molded calf and fashioned it with the gold he had received from the people.  Let’s be clear about this:  the people desired to commit idolatry and Aaron was helping them to do so!  The one who was set aside to be the high priest was helping the people to sin!

Aaron was failing to meet the moment!  To make matters worse, the people said that the golden calf was the god that had brought them out of the land of Egypt!  Aaron didn’t hold up his hands to stop the people!  In fact, Aaron made a proclamation that the next day they would have a feast to God before the calf of gold (Ex. 32:5)!  

Again, Aaron was not being faithful to his office nor to the Lord!  Aaron was not being faithful to his promise!  The people woke up the next day, took part in the feast, and then rose up to play around the golden calf, worshiping it (Ex. 32:6).  What did Aaron do?  He did not stop them from committing their great sin of idolatry!  Aaron failed to meet the moment!

Believer’s facing the same moment today

Do you realize that we are facing the same moment today as sincere believers?  Again, we are waiting for Christ to descend from the mountain – heaven.  Because it’s been so long, minds have gone idle to Jesus’ coming again.  How many of us have heard the saying:  “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop”?  

There is a great sin taking place in the world today, especially in America, and that sin is idolatry.  The devil is in his workshop and he is having a grand time in this moment.  The scoffers, mockers, doubters, and deniers are out in full force in their words and in their deeds.  They proudly boast that it’s been 2,000 years and that Jesus isn’t coming back.

Like the children of Israel, the people of today have made themselves a golden calf that they dance around and worship.  For some, their golden calf is wealth, the dollar bill, power, and celebrity.  For some, their golden calf is the game of politics and what it has become.  Yes, there are many today who worship sinful politicians and presidents who don’t care about them!  For others, their golden calf is the worship of all that is immoral and set against godliness.

In this moment, the scoffer, mocker, doubter, and denier come to the believer and ask why do we still stand with God.  They come to us as the sinners came to Aaron, with the desire for us to party with them in their idolatrous worship.  In this moment of truth, we are having our patience tested.  Will you respond as Aaron or will you put up a fight?

How to Meet the Moment of Truth

The last way that any of us should respond in this moment is as Aaron did.  Aaron didn’t put up a fight against sin!  Aaron rolled overto sin.

In Mount Sinai, Moses had received God’s law, however, the Lord instructed Moses to immediately return to the people because they were sinning (Ex. 32:7).  So, Moses descended back down the mountain carrying God’s law in his arms.  When Moses came to the people, he saw the golden calf and their dancing (Ex. 32:19).

Exodus 32:20 tells us that Moses’ anger became hot and he threw the stone tablets to the ground, breaking them into pieces.  Moses didn’t join in with the people in their sin as Aaron, his brother, had done.  In fact, Moses didn’t even let the calf stand as he went and burned it in fire and ground it into powder.

Moses didn’t permit their sin!  You see, this was a moment of truth for Moses to be faithful to his promise, to his office, and to the Lord!  Moses sets the example that the believer should strive to follow in order to meet our moment of truth!

Moses looked to his brother and asked him, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”  Aaron was supposed to prevent their sin and stand against them, but he didn’t have the backbone to do it!

In his response to Moses, Aaron tried to shift all of the blame on the people.  Aaron said to Moses, “You know the people, that they are set on evil (Ex. 32:22).”  Even if that was the case, Aaron should have had it set in his heart to stand against them, not roll over for them!  One must have a backbone when it comes to people doing what is evil, not just roll over!

After being truthful about what the people had said to him, Aaron then told Moses a bald-faced lie.  Aaron said to Moses, “The gave [gold] to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out (Ex. 32:24).”  This was a lie because we know that Aaron made and fashioned the golden calf!

Stand With God At All Times

Aaron didn’t even have the backbone to hold himself accountable for the actions that he had taken.  God is going to hold us accountable for how we have met this moment one day and shifting blame won’t help you!  We as sincere believer’s have a responsibility to stand in truth at all times.  We have a responsibility to stand faithfully with God at all times!

Again, Moses had a backbone to meet the moment, and you must have a backbone as well.  God didn’t give us a spirit of fear and cowardice!  God has given us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.  God didn’t give us a give-up and a quitter’s spirit!  God gave us the spirit that overcomes the testing of this day!

Moses showed disdain towards the sin of the people and we should show the same kind of disdain towards wickedness and evil.  Psalm 97:10, the psalmist said, “You who love the Lord, hate evil!”  The psalmist spoke to how God preserves the souls of His saints and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.  For this very reason we should always stand with God!

Romans 12:9, Paul said, “Abhor what is evil.  Cling to what is good.”  To abhor means to feel hatred or to loathe.  In this case, we, the sincere believers, should hate what is wicked and evil; we should hate the actions of the wicked and evil and stand against it.

So, it sickens me today to see believers not meeting the moment!  We have gone lukewarm to a sinful nation.  As God told the Laodicean church because it had grown lukewarm due to its wealth, He tells us we need to burn hot today (Rev. 3:14-18)!

In my key verse, we will see that Moses made the people declare on whose side would they stand.  Moses said to them, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!”  As Moses said to the people, I believe the Lord is saying the same thing to everybody today!  Will you stand with God or will you go and dance with those who are dancing around their golden calf?

I Choose God

The mocker, scoffer, and doubter will wonder why you choose to believe in God and that Christ will come again.  Let me give you my answer.

I choose to stand with God because of what He has done for me and mine.  I still choose God today because I remember where I was in June 2016, when I went to urgent care and they couldn’t even get a blood pressure reading because my blood pressure was sky high.  When I went to the emergency room, they were surprised that I was even standing before them.

My kidneys were failing me but God had kept me.  God never gave up on me and I will never give up on Him!  Does this mean I am perfect?  No, I am far from that.  Yet, my heart is still for Him and I strive to do my best.  I do my best to keep Him.  I cannot abandon someone who has never abandoned me.  I am faithful and I am loyal.  What about you?