Ex 32:26 …then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. 
We began with this passage in terms of the fact that we can not have both the idolatry of this age with all the facades of its temporary riches and fame and honor and still serve the Lord God Almighty. There will come a point, such as the sons of Levi faced, in which a definitive choice is demanded. We will either choose to worship this age or worship God. 
As we read in Ex 32:27-29, the Levites made their decision for the Lord no matter what the cost. Ex 32:27-29, And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.'" So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. Then Moses said, "Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord — for every man has been against his son and against his brother — in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today."
	We also saw the choices presented by Joshua when he made that wonderful declaration in Josh 24:15 that still rings true in our ears …but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He informed the people of what would be the consequences of their decision to follow the ways of the other nations as opposed to the way of the Lord. He let them all know, with clarity and conviction that he would follow the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth, no matter what! 
	The same was true with the Prophet Elijah as he sacrificed unto the Lord before the whole nation. He was alone as the prophet of the Lord while the hundreds of prophets of Baal were doing everything in their power to show that Baal was a real deity. After all their futile striving and crying and self-mutilation, nothing happened. Then Elijah called on the Name of the Lord and the water soaked sacrifice was utterly consumed with the fire from Heaven. 
He, too, offered the people the choice of their decisions to continue to worship the idol and die or the Lord and live. He faced the severity of his stand before the nation is the conviction of the truth that there is no other living God. Yahweh, Alone, reigns and rules and overrules! He has proven Himself over and over again, just as He did before the nation on that mountain.
	The Lord God is the reality of life! There is no life apart from Him. To know Him is to know the course of how He works day in and day out to manifest His Omniscience and His Omnipotence and His Omnipresence in our walk with Him. To deny Him is to choose to deliver ourselves over to death. That death is not merely a cessation of breathing and then nothingness. That is what this world proclaims in the deceitful lies pressed into the minds and imaginations of its entrapped slaves. 
No, the eternal death of this awful decision is that abject horror of perpetually knowing that the choice was put forth and yet human pride and self-will and utter depravity flaunted the glorious salvation of God. It is a personal, deliberate rejection of God’s Only Begotten Son that will forever and forever cause complete abandonment and despair and rejection and all the consequential agony of what could have been and will never ever be. 
It will be abject despair and utter hopelessness and destitution that will never see one iota of relief without any expectation beyond more and more eternal misery and torment and affliction. The choice of life is offered, but is often rejected because, to be on the side of the Lord, costs too much in terms of this age’s enticements with its false, and fleeting, and tawdry delights. 
	Now consider what this choice to serve the Lord brought to the sons of Levi as they were so blessed by God in the stand they took for Him. As a result of their decision to honor the Lord and to put away anything other than what would please Him, God set a special place within the ranks of the tribes of Israel. We read this as we consider the numbering of the nation, the census that is detailed in Numbers 1:47-53, if you would please turn to it. 
Num 1:47-53, The Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their fathers' tribe. For the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying, "Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor shall you take their census among the sons of Israel. But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it; they shall also camp around the tabernacle. So when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But the layman who comes near shall be put to death. And the sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp, and each man by his own standard, according to their armies. "But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony." 
	The sons of Levi were given a particularly blessed place within the nation of the Israelites. They were the ones who had the permission of the Lord to keep the charge over the elements of the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting. They were the ones who could encamp close to the tabernacle; the meeting place of God with man and still live. Any other of the members of the nation, who would dare come into that close proximity faced certain death. It was the Levite’s choice, by God, that gave them the peculiar ability and responsibility of the maintenance and the carrying and the setting up of the holy place within the camp. 
Every time the people set out, it was the duty of the Levites to pack up and go forth with the tabernacle. Every time they encamped, it was the responsibility of the Levites to set the tabernacle up and to keep charge of it. 
And, did you catch the effect this would have within the entire community? "But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel. 
Because of the sons of Levi’s stand for the Lord, the entire nation would be insulated from the wrath of God in their midst. They were the ministers unto the holiness and the righteousness of God in setting aside everything in their fervor and obedience to the Lord. On that basis, the Lord honored their commitment for the sake of the rest of the tribes with their protective barrier surrounding the tabernacle. 
	We see this further reinforced for us in Num 3:5-12, if you would please turn to it. Num 3:5-12, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him. And they shall perform the duties for him and for the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle. "They shall also keep all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, along with the duties of the sons of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. You shall thus give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the sons of Israel. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that they may keep their priesthood, but the layman who comes near shall be put to death." Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Now, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every first-born, the first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine. 
    	Notice how this blessed tribe would be in service unto the Lord and Aaron. And they shall perform the duties for him and for the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle. In being set apart from the rest of the people in their service unto God, the Levites were also performing the necessary duties for the whole nation. They were put into the essential operations of what was needed for the God of Israel to meet with and deal with His people. It was through the Levitical Order that the priesthood of the Law would be performed for centuries until the advent of Jesus Christ Who would fulfill the Law and all its just requirements. Until that time, these Levites would operate as the ones who would do all the diligent service required before God and man. 
	As well, please note how God looked upon this tribe who had very literally chosen Him above all the other people of this nation. Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Now, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every first-born, the first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine. 
This group of Israelites was considered by God as those who were the first born of the nation. They would be the ones who were offered unto the Lord in order to pay the just vows of the nation to the Lord. Every first born was owed to the Lord to this point. Now, the Levites as a whole would be the fulfillment of that requirement as they honored God and served Him and the people. They would be seen as belonging to the Lord throughout the generations leading up, again to the Lord Jesus Christ Who would forever satisfy that necessity. 
	Even with this ordained service, the priestly Levites were still only men, indwelled with the same human nature as the rest of the people. They soon would be warned about their behavior and their attitude of making of themselves something elevated above the rest of the people. We read this dire warning recorded in Mal 2:1-7, if you would please open to it. 
Mal 2:1-7, And now, this commandment is for you, O priests. "If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name," says the Lord of hosts, "then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart. "Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. "Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi," says the Lord of hosts. "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me, and stood in awe of My name. "True instruction was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. "For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 
	The key to this service is held in the last line of this passage. "For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. The priests were to keep this at the forefront of their thoughts and manner of dealing with the people as they served the Lord and the nation.
	This was very much the truth as Jesus Christ ministered to the people during His earthly ministry. As the perfect and eternal High Priest, Jesus is the messenger from God to all men and His message is that all need to seek God through Him. John 14:6, Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. 
	He is also very clear with regard to the same warning that Moses, and Joshua, and Elijah gave the people concerning the choice that is before each one of us. In Matt 6:24, He makes it very evident and precisely known to all. Matt 6:24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 
There is a definitive choice that lies before every one of us. We each have to make the decision, as did the sons of Levi, as to whether we will serve God or serve the idols of this realm. We cannot do both! We cannot have both the adoration and the affection of this age and of God. As much as this world strives to entrap us in its lie that we can have it all with regard to earthly and heavenly riches and honor and satisfaction, it will never be! 
Again listen to The Lord Jesus Christ in Matt 12:30 as He makes abundantly clear the alternative that is set before us. Matt 12:30, "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. We are either with Christ or we are against Him. We are either serving Him as loyal and obedient servants, gathering the harvest as He so directs, or we are deluding ourselves and others with a life that is based on lies and deceit and anguish and strife. 
Even as His redeemed people, we are faced with these two alternatives. Our lives either honor Him in the manner in which we live forth as a testimony of His saving grace and sovereignty, or we present a convoluted picture of confusion and disorder and uncertainty and guilt and shame. In Ex 32:25, the rabble and carousing and confusion of the nation of Israel as they worshipped the golden calf is distinctly detailed. Ex 32:25, Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control — for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies. 
They were acting as a scornful and disdained people, to be ridiculed and mocked and the object of contempt and subject to derision. That was why the Lord took such drastic action to safeguard the testimony of His Name in the people whom He had redeemed. Let us fervently seek to never be found as such objects of scorn and ridicule for trying to serve both the world and the Lord. The choice is always ours and it is before us each and every day! So be it!
…then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. 

This morning’s benediction is Ex 33:19. And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." Amen.