The history of our race is a
history that should be written in tears, a history that should
be read with weeping eyes. The slime of the serpent covers
every page of human history. Ours is a history of rebellion,
of sin, and of apostasy from God. Sin ruined man. And ruined man spoils everything. Put him in the position of highest
dignity and he will quickly degrade himself. You read about the politicians
of the world. and you see it demonstrated largely.
And the same is true of you and me. Put man in a position of
highest dignity, he will quickly degrade himself. Endow him with
the greatest possible privileges, he'll abuse them. Shower blessings
on him without limit, and he'll prove ungrateful. Put him in
the most impressive environment, and he'll corrupt it. Those outward
things that you think would be advantageous because of man's
sin, his rebellion, his apostasy from God, are only used for further
corruption. Honesty compels anyone who reads
the history of the human race to acknowledge that what I've
said is so. Painful and shameful, but true nonetheless. Everything
touched by our foul, leprous hands is quickly defiled. The nature of man, in its fairest
forms, under the most favorable circumstances, is corruption
and sin, nothing else. Corruption and sin, nothing else. I know that preachers, like politicians,
want to get you a vote for everything they do and try to make you feel
good about yourself. If you've come here hoping to
feel good about yourself, you've come to the wrong place. There's
nothing about you, nothing about me, nothing about your sons and
daughters, nothing about your parents or your neighbors, nothing
about humanity by nature except corruption and sin. That's all. That's the way it's been since
the sin and fall of our father Adam, and that's the way it will
continue. Adam, when he was placed in the
Garden of Eden, had everything around him that was perfect,
and he ruined it all, revolting against his wise and good creator. Noah came off the boat after
God had saved Noah and his family, those eight souls. All the rest
of the world swept away in the wrath of God. They came off the
boat on a clean earth and he was soon found in a drunken stupor.
Israel, by God's outstretched arm and mighty power, was brought
out of the land of Egypt. They were brought across the
Red Sea. They saw Pharaoh and his armies drowned in the sea
by the hand of God. And they were no longer fled
from Egypt. Then they began to lust after
the leeks of darkness in Egypt. Fed by manna, they lusted after
leeks. When the Lord God brought them
into the land of Canaan, we read in the book of Judges that they
forsook the Lord and served Baal and Astaroth. Solomon, what a
man Solomon was, the wisest of our race. That man used of God
by inspiration to write for us the books of wisdom, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and the sweet book of love, the Song of Solomon.
Solomon. had all power and earth to the
glory a man could imagine having on this earth. Untold wealth
at his feet, the resources of the whole world at his command.
And yet Solomon, we read, that his wives turned away his heart
after other gods. No sooner had the early church
Known the great blessings of the gospel in this, the beginning
of this gospel age, that it became necessary for God the Holy Ghost
to warn and guard his church against grievous wolves. The
grievous wolves of freewill works religion. the apostasy of the
professed church from the gospel of God's free grace and glory
in Christ Jesus, and the corrupting of the Word of God by religious
custom and tradition. Those are the things that take
up a great part of the epistles, warning us again and again and
again of departing from the faith. of the corruption of the word
of God, of wolves rising up from our own midst who would deceive
us and destroy our souls. According to the book of Revelation,
as the vision was given to John, the history of our race will
be concluded with greater shame than we've yet seen or imagined.
Once Satan is loosed from his prison for a little season to
wreak havoc in the world. That's hard to grasp. But shame
that greater than we can yet imagine is the shame with which
this world shall be ended. Man is a fallen creature. You
and I are fallen creatures who will continue to fall until we
fall into hell, unless God himself stops us from our fall. and lifts
us by his grace, giving us life and faith in Christ. Those facts
will, in some degree, prepare the way for us to read the book
of Leviticus in the 10th chapter, in these opening words of our
text, Leviticus chapter 10. And You back up to chapter nine,
the last part of that chapter, the Lord had just received the
sacrifice that God commanded Moses to bring, typifying our
Lord Jesus. And when the sacrifice was received,
the glory of God was manifest. And the next day, the very next
day, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, these men who were
priests, The sons of Aaron took either of them his censer and
put fire therein and put incense their own and offered strange
fire before the Lord. What was that fire? I don't have
a clue. Nobody else does either, except this, which he commanded
them not. They came to God, not with what
he required, but that which he did not require. They came to
God not in a way that he specified, but in a way he did not specify.
They came to God with that which he commanded them not. And when
they did, they went out of fire from the Lord and devoured them,
and they died before the Lord. They died in the holy place,
right before the veil. They died at the altar. They
died as you come into the door of the tabernacle. There they
died with their strange fire in their hands. Died by the fire
of God's wrath. Then Moses said unto Aaron, this
is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh me. And before all the people, I
will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. What a contrast we have here
with what we read in chapter nine. In that chapter, everything
was done as the Lord commanded. And the result was the manifestation,
the revelation of the glory of God. Here something is done which
the Lord commanded not, and it results in judgment. It was done
in the house of God. It was done by people gathered
to worship God. It was done by men who led them
in worship by God's priest. The echo of the shout of victory
had hardly died away before the elements of apostasy and spurious
worship were prepared by Nadab and Abihu. They walked right away from that
great revelation of God's glory, portraying Christ and Him crucified
and the glory of God in the crucified Redeemer by which God saves sinners. They walked away from it in prepared
elements of apostasy and spurious worship. No sooner were the sons
of Aaron consecrated as the priest of God, then they deliberately
abandon the worship and the service of God. It was not accidental. Now listen to me, listen to me. If you abandon the worship of
God, it will not be accidental. It'll be by your deliberate purpose
and choice. Aaron's sons abandoned the worship
of God, choosing their own way rather than God's way. No sooner
were these priests inaugurated than they grievously failed in
the discharge of their duties. Nadab and Abihu offered strange
fire before the Lord and perished under the manifest wrath of God.
What great wonders these two sons of Aaron had seen. What
great miraculous things. I'm talking about miraculous
things. I'm not talking about fake miracles like you see on
television. I'm not talking about fake miracles like you see at
revival meetings. I'm not talking about fake miracles
like you see with this Pentecostal nonsense going on in the name
of religion today. I'm talking about miracles. They had seen
the wonders of God in the land of Ham. They had seen God turn
water into blood. They had seen God send plague
after plague after plague on the nation of Egypt while preserving
the land of Goshen. They had seen wonders performed
by God's hand. They came with Moses and the
children of Israel with Pharaoh's armies breathing down their necks
and they stood at the Red Sea as Moses put his foot in the
sea and God parted the sea so that they walked through on dry
ground. They walked through the Red Sea.
These sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were with Aaron and Moses
in the Mount Sinai when God gave his law. These men had seen great
things performed by God. And the glory of the Lord was
revealed when he came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice
in chapter nine. They saw it, and yet they perished
under the wrath of God. Now learn from them this lesson.
A lesson that needs to be sounded around the world today and sounded
constantly. Miracles never produce faith. Wonders never work grace, never,
never. Signs never give sinners repentance,
never, never. That was not their intent nor
their purpose. Our Lord Jesus and his apostles
performed wonders and miracles, showing his great work of grace
in the soul of men, making man whole again. But men and women
are not converted by signs and wonders and miracles. In fact,
many of those who ate the loaves and fishes that our Lord divided
before thousands and fed thousands with a few loaves and fishes,
many of them, the vast majority of them, perished under the wrath
of God. If real miracles, if real wonders
don't give faith, don't call sinners to believe, don't grant
repentance, you can be dead sure that all of the tomfoolery that
goes on in the charismatic Pentecostal blasphemy of this age has nothing
to do with God, grace, and salvation. Now, let's look at these three
verses of Leviticus 10. The title of my message is Strange
Fire. Counterfeit religion. Strange
fire. Counterfeit religion. That's
what nade dab in a bayou brought to God. Counterfeit religion. That's what most people bring
to God. Counterfeit religion. I try with
great purpose not to form an opinion, and when I form the
opinion, which is wrong on my part, and I acknowledge that
I do, I try not to express an opinion, saying I think so-and-so's
saved, so-and-so's lost. I just don't do it. I just don't
do it because it's wrong. It's wrong. You and I like to
make ourselves judges of others. And many times folks say, well,
Fortner says my daddy's lost. No, I didn't. No, I didn't. I
did not say that. You've not heard me say that.
I told you what the gospel is, and concluding from what I told
you the gospel is, you said your daddy was lost, not me, not me.
It is our business to tell folks the truth, to preach the gospel
to folks. and it is your business to hear
it, and hear it you will only if God the Holy Ghost gives you
hearing ears, seeing eyes, and a believing heart. Most religion
is like that of Aaron's sons, they dab in a bayou, counterfeit
religion, deliberately chosen, in opposition to the worship
of God. Let's look at three things in
these three verses. Their sin, their judgment, and
their lesson. First, their sin. What was it? What was the failure of these
two men? What was their crime? What was
their sin? Were they spurious priests? Oh,
no. They were genuine priests. They were not mere pretenders.
These were Aaron's sons. Made priest by the command of
God, by the word of God, by the order of God. They were true
members of the priestly family. Their vessels of ministry and
their priestly garments were exactly what God had required.
What then was their sin? Did they stain the curtains in
the tabernacle with human blood or pollute the sacred precincts
with some crime that shocks moral decency? Not at all. Their sin
was just this. They offered strange fire before
the Lord, which he commanded them not. Nadab and Abihu offered
fire of their own making before God. They offered that which
the Lord commanded them not, that which the Lord had expressly
forbidden. Now, how can you get that? It
just says the Lord commanded them not. Now hear me, I'm gonna
repeat to you some things I told you Tuesday night. In all matters
of doctrine, in all matters of faith, in all matters of worship,
that which God commands not God strictly forbids. We will either
worship God in spirit and in truth, worship him with new hearts,
hearts made new by his grace, that is new hearts implanted
in us by his grace, by spirit and truth, or we will not worship
him by the truth revealed in his word. The sacrifice of Nadab
and Abihu, their strange fire was like the sacrifice of Cain.
It may have impressed them, and it may have impressed other folks.
It may have been one blue ribbon at the state fair, but it was
a sacrifice of their own making. They didn't bring God what God
required. It was like the prayer of the
Pharisee. That's act of self-righteous will worship that's called worship.
That contempt of God. God, I thank you I'm not his
other man. that trampling under the foot
the blood of the Son of God, making the covenant of grace
an open shame. I'm a good man. I've made some mistakes, but
I'm a good man. Everybody makes mistakes. Yes, I've committed
some sins. Everybody commits sins. I'm basically
a good man. I fast twice a week. I give tithes
of everything I have. I'm a good man. I'm a good man.
Whereas the publican came. and cried, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. God, look on the blood of your
son and be propitiated. That's what the word merciful
is, propitious. God, be propitious to me, the
sinner, this man who's nothing but sin. Because their sacrifice was but
the despising of the gift of God, the despising of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the despising of that sacrifice that God did require. And this is what it portrayed.
It portrayed the gift of God, Jesus Christ, the Lord. It portrayed
that which God gives to sinners, Jesus Christ crucified. And they
brought something else instead. Don't need him. Who needs a sacrifice? Who needs pardon? Who needs forgiveness? Who needs free justification?
Who needs a substitute? Who needs a representative? Who
needs somebody else's righteousness? God will accept me or I won't
have him. That's how they came to God.
That's how they came to God. God required the fire that he
provided. Nadab and Abihu thought their
fire was good enough. God requires perfection, and
only God can give it. God requires the sacrifice of
his son, his righteousness, and his blood to satisfy his law
and his justice, and only God can give it. God requires that
which God alone provides, Jesus Christ our Lord. Like many in
Paul's day, those Jews, and like some of you, like many in our
day, nay dabbled it by you, followed after righteousness, but did
not obtain righteousness for one reason, because they sought
it not by faith, but rather they sought to make themselves righteous
by their own works. Let me show you that, Romans
chapter nine, Romans nine. I want you to look at it for
yourself. Romans nine, verse 31. Israel, which followed after
the law. You remember the rich young ruler?
He was following the law. You remember the Pharisees? They
were following the law. They were good men, men thought,
and good men, they thought. They were following the law.
They followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained
to the law of righteousness. They've not come up to it. They've
not gotten it. They've not laid hold on it.
Wherefore? One reason, because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For
they stumbled at that stumbling stone. They tripped over Christ
Jesus the Lord. They tripped over Christ crucified.
They tripped over God's sacrifice. As it is written, behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Verse three of chapter
10. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. What does that mean? There's
nobody here and nobody in the world who is ignorant of the
fact that God is righteous. There's no such an animal. God
stamped consciousness of God on your hearts by nature and
you can't escape it. The youngest child grows and
has a consciousness that God is righteous and he's sinful,
therefore he's got to have something to present to God in his stead. And that's where the whole thing's
messed up. Men think they can bring that
which God requires. They are ignorant of God's righteousness. Ignorant of the righteousness,
Mark, that God established, the righteousness God performed,
the righteousness God gives Christ Jesus the Lord. Ignorant that
Christ has fulfilled all righteousness on the behalf of chosen sinners.
And so being ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about
to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. No, I will not trust Christ,
period. That's the message of every rebel
heart. That's the message of every sinner
who refuses to believe on the Son of God. No, I won't come
to God that way. I've got to have some feeling.
I've got to have some repentance. I've got to have some works.
I've got to have something, something of my own that God will accept
or I won't worship him. I know you can mix Christ with
it, I'll take that. You can mix blood with it, I'll
take that. You can mix his righteousness with it, I'll take that. You
can mix his obedience with it, I'll take that. But I will not
worship God trusting a substitute alone. They've not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end. He's the fulfilling. He's the
termination of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. What
was their sin? They dabbled by you, went into
the great harlot Babylon. Babylon. That's the confusion
of men. Babylon, that is all forms of
false religion throughout the ages. Doesn't matter whether
you're talking about Rome, or whether you're talking about
Islam. Doesn't matter whether you're talking about Judaism
or Baptist. Free will works religion. Any
religion that teaches you that you can save yourself by your
decision, or save yourself by your works, is Babylon. They
dabbing it by you, went into the great harlot, Babylon. presuming
that they could come to God and worship him as they pleased. The wise man, Solomon, warns
us. Harken unto me now, therefore,
O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not
thine heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her paths. For
she hath cast down many wounded. Yea, many strong men have been
slain by her. Her house is the way to hell. Her house is the way to hell. Drive around town. Drive through
the county. Drive around the state. Drive
around the country. And you see synagogues of Satan
everywhere. wearing all kinds of names, but
I'm telling you, I'm telling, no, I'm not telling you, God
told you, Proverbs chapter 7. God told you, wherever men worship
themselves, Wherever men think themselves able by their decision,
by their will, by their saying a prayer, by their doing righteousness,
by their doing good, they bring themselves to God. That's the
path to hell. That's the path to hell. Be wise
and stay away. All right, look at verse two.
Here's the second thing. The Spirit of God tells us of
the judgment of God upon Aaron's sons. They went out fire from
the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. How solemn. The Lord God dwelt
in the midst of his people. He dwelt in their midst to govern
them, to act for them, according to the claims of his nature,
in mercy and truth, in grace and righteousness, in love and
justice. That's how God always acts. I
remind you at the end of chapter nine, we read there came out
a fire from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt
offering and the fat, consumed that sacrifice that portrayed
Christ Jesus. That was God's acceptance of
the Savior. But here, that same fire, the
fire of God's wrath and judgment is upon two self-righteous priests
who despised his sacrifice. The burnt offering that went
up as a sweet odor is Christ. Their strange fire was rejected
as an obnoxious, abominable thing. I know I'm looked upon as hard
and bigoted and divisive and all those things, but I'm 68
years old now, soon to be 69, if I breathe another few times. I'm just too old to care much
what men say, except for you to hear what God says. The strange
fire of works religion. The strange fire of man-made
religion, the strange fire of will worship is as obnoxious
to God as the smell of a rotting dead corpse is to you, infinitely
more so, infinitely more so. God was glorified in the burnt
offering. God was despised by the strange
fire. Holiness and justice. Righteousness
and truth. Accepted and delighted in. Those
are the things that portray our Savior in those sacrifices. But
that which was the fruit of man's corrupt will, a will never more
hideous and abominable than when it's engaged in the pretense
of worshiping God, was rejected. Nay, dab in a bayou, perish by
the hand of God, like Ananias and Sapphira, in the very house
of God. They brought their sacrifices.
They brought their sacrifices. Jimmy, they brought half of everything
they had. I've never known anybody do that.
They brought half of everything they had and laid it at the apostles'
feet, pretending they'd brought all. Most folks do that spiritually.
They bring half of what they've got and pretend to bring all. They bring a little time, a little
devotion, a little service, and pretend to give themselves. And
for it, they perished. So it was with Nadab and Abihu.
They perished and were consumed, not by zeal without knowledge,
but they were consumed in the fire of God's wrath because they
presumed to come to God without the fear of God. without reverence
for God, without the sacrifice of God. Nadab and Abihu were
killed and sent to hell. Now listen, by the very thing
they despised, the fire that God made. The fire that God required,
the fire that God accepted. They said, no, we'll have our
own fire and God will have it too. And for that, God took his
fire and consumed them in his wrath. Hear me, you who despise
Christ and will not trust him. The very sacrifice that is despised
shall be the judge who cast you into hell. The stone which the builders
rejected, our savior said, the same has become the head of the
corner. Whosoever shall fall on that
stone shall be broken. Oh, God give you grace now, fall
on that stone. throw yourself flat down on that
foundation stone. Christ Jesus, cast yourself headlong
on that stone and you will be broken. But if you refuse, that
stone will grind you to powder. That very same Christ who was
offered upon God's altar as the sacrifice for sin shall sit in
judgment upon men who despise him. Nadab and Abihu died before
the Lord. Mark, I can't think of more astonishing place or a place that's more painful
to observe than to see men and women go to hell sitting where
you're sitting. They died before the Lord. They
died before the Lord. The scripture says, blessed are
they that die in the Lord. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. Die in Christ. Die in grace. Die in faith. But Nadab and Abihu
died before the Lord without Christ, without grace, without
a sacrifice, without faith, without hope. They were carried from
the presence of God out of the camp of Israel. and cast away
in the place of darkness that they might eat the fruit of their
own way. They were filled with their own
devices. Would you mind turning one more
time to Proverbs chapter one? Let me show you what the book
says. Brother Hubert Montgomery quoted
Proverbs 29.1 to me, I suppose, as often as he did any other
portion of scripture. He that being often reproved,
hardeneth his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed, and that
without remedy. The fact is, God will deal with
you on the ground you choose. God will deal with you on the
ground you choose. Your own ground or his. Your
own righteousness or his. Your own sacrifice or his. Proverbs
chapter one, verse 23. Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you. You turn, I'll pour out my spirit
to you. I will make known my words unto you. Because I have
called and you refused. I stretched out my hand and no
man regarded. But you said it not, all my counsel,
and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh,
when your fear cometh as desolation, when your desolation cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated
knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would
none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof. Therefore, therefore,
I told you God will deal with you on the ground you choose.
They shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their
own devices. For the turning away of the simple
shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall
be quiet from the fear of evil. Nay, David, abide you. were carried
away from the presence of the Lord, carried away from the holy
place, carried away from the house of God in the garments
of the priesthood. Wearing those clothes, every
stitch of which was a portrayal of Christ. In the garments of
the priesthood, They had nothing but the outer garments. Inside
they were unclothed and naked. All I can give you is the outer
garments of religion. I can't set Christ in your heart. I call on you to believe on him.
But I don't lie to you and tell you you can anytime you choose. That's a lie. That's blasphemy. That's making you God and God
your servant. I've been praying that God would
be pleased to put Christ in your heart. And that God will be pleased
to cause you to believe his son. Oh, may he do that for Christ's
sake. lest you be carried to hell just in the garments of
the religion we practice here in this place together. One last
thing, verse three. What is the lesson God the Spirit
teaches us by these two men? If we would live, if we would
come to God and be accepted of Him, If we would live and not
die, we must come to God through the merits of Christ's blood,
through his righteousness alone. We must come to him in a way
that sanctifies and glorifies God in all his attributes. Then Moses said unto Aaron, this
is it that the Lord spake. This is what God said when he
gave his law back to Sinai. This is it, which the Lord spake. I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh me. And before all the people, I
will be glorified. God says, I will be sanctified. The word is set apart, or holy,
or hallowed, or distinguished. I will be set apart, hallowed,
and distinguished as God alone by everybody who comes to me.
I will be distinguished and glorified before all the people by one
sacrifice, by the fulfilling of every demand of my law, my
justice, and my truth. and there's only one sacrifice
that does that. That's Jesus Christ the Lord. God is glorified in his Son. God is glorified in his Son,
only in his Son. You can't make yourself righteous,
that is you can't justify yourself. You can't even make yourself
a little more righteous. All your righteousnesses are
just filthy rags. You can't make yourself holy.
You cannot sanctify yourself by your works. Our righteousness,
our sanctification is Jesus Christ alone. Now, if God's pleased
to put you in Christ, oh, if God now gives you faith in his
son, Can you do that? My God, I trust
Christ alone. My sin, I confess. From the depths
of my inmost soul, I've nothing but sin. The black chambers of
my heart I throw open to you. There's nothing there but sin.
The best thoughts, the best deeds I've ever had, nothing but sin. I have nothing to offer you,
God. Here I am, naked, dirty, corrupt. I trust your son. I trust your son. And I'm confident
that God accepts his son. He accepts me in his son. I know
he does, because I trust his son. I trust him. Not very well. My faith is marred with what
I am by nature. I don't have any confidence in
my faith. I don't have any confidence in
my experience. I don't have any confidence in
anything I know, anything I've learned. My confidence is in
God, my savior. Now let me tell you about him. If right now, Jerry Sadler trusts
his son, if you trust him, of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now one more thing. Look at the last line. And Aaron held his peace. He didn't argue with God. He
didn't get mad at God. He didn't fuss with God. He didn't
object to God's judgment. Aaron just kept his mouth shut. He held his peace. God has done
right. God is doing right. And God will
do right. He won't do anything else. Amen.