I'm going to deal with these
first five verses here, God willing. And it says this,
And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them
his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and
offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded not.
There went fire out from the Lord and devoured them, and they
died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This
is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh, and before all the people I will be glorified.
And Aaron held his peace. God just killed two of his sons,
and he never said a word. Imagine, I fell in his heart,
but he never said anything. And Moses called Machael and
Elzaphan, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said,
Come unto them, come near, carry your brethren from before the
sanctuary out of the camp. So they went near and carried
them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. I know this about the human race
and men and women, that miracles, miracles, I don't see a cure.
How many do they see? How many are they involved in? They're not sufficient to convince
men of their sin and to put them in the right attitude for worshiping
God and coming acceptably before the Lord in His appointed way.
How many times has that been proven in our Lord's ministry?
multitude followed him and he said I know why you follow me
you follow me because I gave you something to eat I fed you
with bread and that's the only reason you follow me for bread
for meat and there's lots of people that the preachers that's
all they're preaching that God will feed you Take care of your
meat, and all of those things. And they, our Lord Jesus Christ,
in performing some of His miracles, not only did they not get anything
out of them, but they actually despised Him for them. Because
He would do things on the Sabbath day, and the Jews thought that
was the horriblest thing in the world, is to do something for
a sinner, a person that was in horrible condition, and do it
for him on the Sabbath day, they thought, in fact, one time he
says, he hath Beelzebub. He does these miracles, he does
these mighty works through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And
our Lord Jesus Christ said, I'll tell you this, everything a man
says in this world can be forgiven him, but if he ever attributes
anything I do to the devil, and any work I do to the devil, then
there ain't never no forgiveness of him in this world and the
world to come. And I tell you, these brothers,
Nadab and Abihu, both of them were priests. They had just a
little while before seen the glory of God. Seen the glory
of God. Saw fire fall from heaven. They
saw it consume the sacrifice upon the altar. And they were
among those who shouted and fell down in worship before Him. Ain't
that what it says there? In verse 23, and Moses and Aaron
went into the tabernacle, 923. Moses and Aaron went into the
tabernacle, the congregation came out and blessed the people,
and listen, the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And when it talks about the glory
of God, it was like a cloud had come down. And they could see
it with their eyes. And there came a fire out from
before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering
and the fat. And all the people saw that and
they shouted and fell on their faces. So these men saw these
things happen. Saw them happen. And yet, yet,
after seeing that, yet after working around the
tabernacle day and night with their father. Because of their
pride, their presumption, their irreverence that they had for
God, God smote them with the judgment of God and killed them
both. And these things were written
for our learning, for our admonition. Just because God done it then,
that don't mean, you know, cause He don't do it right now when
somebody does something. That don't mean that it's not
gonna happen. These things are written for us to understand.
Now here's some solid warnings here for all of us this morning.
These two brothers, these two men, they had great, great privileges. They were called the sons of
Aaron. They were sons of Aaron. You
know who Aaron was? He was the very first high priest. He was Aaron's, he was Moses'
brother. He was Moses' spokesman when
he went down into Egypt because Moses was a timid man and he
didn't speak very well so he had Aaron to speak for him. He
is the sons of Aaron. Look back over here in verse
30 of chapter 9. See what happens to these men.
They had such great privileges. Their father was a godly man.
Their father was the first high priest. The first one to enter
into the tabernacle and offer sacrifices. And Moses took of
the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar,
and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments. And listen
to this, and upon his sons, and upon his son's garments with
him. And sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and
his son's garments. So these men had great, great
privileges. And a man or a woman may be the
son of a person that has all that God has blessed them with
an abundance of grace, blessed them to believe, blessed them
to worship the Lord, blessed them to praise God, blessed them
to trust Christ and His righteousness. And yet they may Be so close
to them and yet they may not know God and may end up in the
judgment of God and be destroyed of God. And I'll show you what,
if you keep this and look with me over in 1 Samuel just a moment. Here's another man who was a
priest. Look over in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 2. just because you're acquainted
with somebody and know somebody and have a godly father and a
godly mother and have somebody that's believers and it's obvious
that they're believers and you may know that they're believers
but that does not mean and you have all these great privileges
sitting under the gospel and seeing the sacrifice and hearing
about the sacrifice and seeing the fire and judgment of God
fall on that sacrifice And yet, perish. Look what happens here
in 1 Samuel 2.12. Now the sons of Eli were the
sons of Belial. That means they were sons of
the Lord's sword. And they knew not the Lord. And
the priest's custom with the people was that when any man
offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came while the flesh
was seething with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand. And
he struck it in the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot, all that
the flesh had brought up of the priest took for himself. So they
did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came there. Also before
they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came and said to the
man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest, for
he will not have sodden flesh of thee but raw. And if any man
said unto him, Let him not fail to burn the fat presently, and
then take as much as thy soul desired, then he would answer
him, Nay, but thou shalt give it him now, and if not, I'll
take it by force. Wherefore, the sin of the young
men was great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering
of the Lord. Well, God had a, there was a
young man there named Samuel, and God blessed Samuel to understand
what was going on. And look what he says here in
verse, now back over here in chapter 3 in verse 11. And the Lord said to Samuel,
Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears
of everyone here at this shall tingle. And that day I will perform
against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning the
house. When I begin, I will also make an end. Those two priests,
those sons of Eli, Took something from everybody that came in there.
Everybody offered sacrifice. They bribed them. And they said,
if you don't give it to me, we're going to take it by force. You're
going to give me what sold me. I'm somebody around here. I'm
running this outfit. You're going to give me what's
coming to me. And if you don't give me what's coming to me,
I'll have my servants take it by force. And so men abhorred
the sacrifice of the Lord. They did not care for it. Why
take it up there? When God ain't getting it, the
priest is getting it. And look what he says, for in
verse 13, 5 told him I'll judge his house forever for the iniquity
which he knoweth because his son made themselves vile and
he restrained them not. And therefore I swore unto the
house of Eli, the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged
with sacrifice and offering forever. Verse 16, Then Eli called Samuel,
and said, Samuel, my son. He answered and said, Here am
I. And he said, What is the thing that the Lord has said unto thee?
I pray thee, hide it not from me. God do so to thee and me
more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that
he said unto thee. And Samuel told him, Ever with, and hid
nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord.
Let him do what seemeth good. What do you know? There's a man. There's a man. Both of them had two sons. God
killed both of them. Why? One of them was vile and
the other one presumed to come into the presence of God with
something which God commanded him not. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. Men are born not of the will
of man. If it was with the will of man,
Man, free will would be the thing to do. And if it was the will
of man, I could will somebody to be saved. And it's not of
blood. It's not because we have from
one generation to the other. The only thing we pass through
our blood is our sin and our depraved nature to our children.
And thirdly, it's not by the will of man, it's not by blood,
and it's not by the will of the flesh. The flesh can will all
it want to, but the flesh cannot stop being flesh. That that's
born of the flesh is flesh. And I tell you, religious worship,
that's what these men are. Their daddy was the first time
priest. They were religious and they had religious upbringing.
They was around Moses. They was around Aaron. They was
around the elders of Israel. And from the time there's little
boys. They watched these things and they were familiar with the
holy things. They were familiar with the tabernacle.
Familiar with how they were to dress. Familiar with how God's
to be worshipped. Familiar with how God was to
be talked to. And all, I tell you something
else, they had a good profession. These two men had a good profession.
They were recognized by others as the servants of God. How many
times do you go through here and you read about Aaron and
his sons before the Lord? Aaron and his sons served the
Lord 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And then somebody else would
come in. They were recognized by others as the servants of
God, sons of Aaron. And a person may bear the name
of being a believer. A person may bear the name of
being a Christian. A person may take part in Christian
work and yet be a stranger to the Spirit of God, to the holiness
of God, and be a stranger to the awfulness of sin. One thing
a man cannot do if he is saved. He cannot see the holiness of
God and he cannot see his own sinfulness. If he ever sees the
holiness of God, he'll see the awfulness of his sin. And the
older he goes, the longer he lives, the worse his sin will
become to him. And if a man don't know something
about his sinfulness, he certainly don't know nothing about the
holiness of God. And that's what these fellas
did. They had a good profession. Raised by a fine father. Raised, their uncle was Moses
who went up the mountain. And yet, God brought judgment
on them and they perished. And oh my, what an awful, awful
privilege they had. And yet, yet, God judged them, brought judgment
on them. And let me show you something
else back over here in this. Look at this awful presumptuous
act that they did. In verse 1 it says, they either
of them took his censer and put fire therein and put incense
therein and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded
them not. You're talking about presumptuous.
You know what presumption is? Presumptuous. That's why David
said, keep thy servant back from presumptuous sins. Presumption
means that you're overduly confident. Over-duly bold. Bolder than you
ought to be. More confident than you ought
to be. And you take real confidence in your boldness and you do things
by what you think is confidently right and what you think is true. So presumption. Presumption. And they offered fire of their
own making. And God forbade that. You know,
God had fire put on the altar. And that fire was kept on that
altar 24 hours a day from the time it was started all the way
through until God wiped this thing out. And every time they
needed a fire, they would take coals off of that altar in their
censer. And they would take that censer
and take it in the holiest of holies and use that fire. It
had to come off of God's altar. It had to come off the fire that
God ordained to be offered. It had to come from the place
of God. You remember when Isaiah, when he saw the Lord high and
lifted up, and he said, Oh, I'm undone, and I dwell in the midst,
and I'm unclean, and I dwell in the midst of an unclean people.
And then there was a seraphim came, and he took with thorns,
a fire, a coal from off of the altar. and touched my lips with
that fire. But he did bring it off of God's
altar. These men decided I'm going to
go over here and build me a fire. Our fire is as good as God's
fire. A fire is a fire. It don't come down. It don't
make any difference where it comes from. It don't make any
difference. We just go over here and we'll
build a fire and we'll put it in our censer and when we come
into the holy place we'll have our own fire. We don't have to
go over to the altar and get it. They said, I'll tell you
what, you know, fire is a fire. No, it ain't. Not if it's not
God's fire. If it's not what God ordained
to do. And I tell you, go through this and you see we're God. He
said Himself. He said, I sanctified my altar
and the fire thereon. He said, you go look at that
and you look at that for yourself. And their offering was like that
prayer of the Pharisee who stood and prayed thus with himself.
I thank you, Lord, that I'm not as other men are. I thank you
that I'm not an adulterer, I'm not a liar, I'm not a cheat,
I'm honest. I pay tithes of everything I
possess. I fast twice in the week. Oh,
I'm really somebody. And he prayed thus with himself.
But I'll tell you the difference. That publican, he smote his breast
and he looked at that altar up there where the fire was and
the sacrifice and said, Lord, be merciful, be propitiated toward
me the cause of that sacrifice. And be merciful to me. And he
didn't say a sinner, the sinner. And that's what these fellas
done. They were just like Cain. The old Cain said, I'll bring
this up. Abel, you go ahead and bring blood if you want to. I
don't like blood. I'm not going to worship on the
basis of blood. I'm a hardworking man. I'm an honest man. And I know
how to raise things. And I'll bring the very best
of God. I'll bring my goodness. I'll bring my morality. I'll
bring my sincerity. I'll bring my honesty. I'll bring
being a good mama. I'll bring being this. I'll bring
it all to the Lord. And I'll lay it before Him. And
God said, fire is going to come down and destroy you. And oh, I tell you what, all
this was was a manifestation of their self-conceived, their
production and their rebellion. And I tell you what they did,
they rejected the gift of God. They rejected what God Himself
provided. The fire that burned on that
altar was God's gift. God said you make that fire.
That's God's. You look over here in Leviticus
16.12 with me for a minute and I'll show you what I'm talking
about. Look in Leviticus 16.12. This is what they should have
used. Look at verse 12 here. And he
shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar
before the Lord. And his hands full of sweet incense,
being small, and bring it within the veil. And he shall put the
incense upon the fire before the Lord. You see, God had a
fire of His ordaining. God had a fire that said, this
is my making. This is what I do. And they rejected
what God Himself provided. And they despised it. Said, I
don't want to go up there and get that fire. That may be good
enough for my dad, but it's not good enough for me. And I tell
you what, beloved, there's one gift that God gave to sinners,
there's one gift that God gave to His people, and that's the
gift of our Lord Jesus Christ and His blood and His righteousness. There ain't but one, one Savior.
There's only one Redeemer. Only one offering. Only one person
that can take the fire of God and consume it as a sacrifice,
and that's our Lord Jesus Christ. God gave Him gave Him to be smitten,
gave Him to be under the judgment of God, the wrath of God, the
law of God. God gave His Son, and then He
gives men righteousness. Because of what our Lord Jesus
Christ done. And I tell you, the only righteousness
that's acceptable for God is the righteousness of Christ given
to you, imparted to you, imputed to you. And I tell you, if you don't
have the righteousness of Christ, you're standing right now before
God as a filthy rag, and all your righteousness are as a filthy
rag. And God said, oh, I've got a
righteousness for you. But these fellas said, I don't
care about God's gift. Don't talk to me about how I'm
supposed to do. He said, I know what I'm supposed
to do. And that's why he says this, he says, oh listen, Paul
says, my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
They have a zeal of God. These fellas have zeal. They
was working for God is that little old thing said there. They was
occupied. They was working for God. But
they was working on their terms. Working on what they will to
do. And I tell you what, he says, and that's why he says, they
have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
If you want God to accept you, you want God to have any dealings
with you, the only deal He'll have with you is on the basis
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He won't speak to you nor be
spoken to you apart from His Son. And I like it like that. I love it. I love it. I'm not going to bring no strange
fire today. There's going to be a lot of men get up and bring
a lot of strange fire. They're going to bring their
censor. And they're going to get up and they're going to talk
about every sin that everybody's ever committed. They're going
to talk about how horrible America is and what it was like back
in their young days. And all that's true. But they're
not going to talk about Christ. They're not going to talk about
His righteousness. They're not going to talk about His sacrifice.
They're not going to talk about Him as being a sin bearer. They're
not going to talk about Him being the only way to God. They're
not going to talk about what He does and His justification. And oh, listen. Don't presume. Don't you presume to call on
God. People say, well, you know, me
and this even unconverted say, I know the Lord, His prayers.
He heard my prayer. No. He does not hear anybody apart
from His Son. I'm telling you that. He doesn't. You say, I know the Lord heard
my prayer. He gave me peace over this. He gave me peace over that.
I tell you what, you felt good. I tell you what that was. As
you felt good about praying, Feel good about yourself. And
you had confidence that something was going to happen. But I tell
you what, if you don't call on God in Jesus Christ's name and
come to God in Christ, in Christ alone, God will not have anything
to do with you or anybody else. Now these was Aaron's sons. They
had been laboring at that tabernacle for a long, long time. And then
they said, well, I tell you what, I'm tired of that. I just will
build us a fire of our own making. And whoa, listen, look what else
happens to them in verse two. And then look at this, oh, what
an awful thing that God, what happens here? And there went
fire out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the
Lord. Can you imagine how everyone
felt after what took place when the glory of the Lord appeared?
When Aaron stood and blessed all of Israel and blessed the
people? And all he lifted up his hands and they went into
the tabernacle and came out and blessed the people. And the glory
of the Lord appeared unto all of them. Fire come out and consumed
the sacrifice on the altar. And they saw all that, saw all
these people, saw all this glory. And all of a sudden, they see
another fire come out. Two men die like that. And this fire, lightning,
bam! You're talking about how do you
reckon they failed? How do you reckon Aaron failed? How do you
reckon Moses failed? All them other people have seen
that. They said, oh my. Them's two of the finest boys
I ever knew. Oh, what fine young men. I couldn't
believe this could happen. Totally unexpected. It's like the ten virgins. Five of them was wise, ten of
them was foolish. And they heard the cry of the
bridegroom. And the bridegroom said, oh, here he comes. And
the five wise, they got up and they was ready to go. And the
five foolish, they said, give us up your all that we may. But
he said, oh, no, we can't. We can't. And the door was shut. The five went in, the five others
stayed out. Door was shut. Our Lord says,
many will say unto men that day, Lord, Lord, have we not? Have we not? And how many, they
said three times, in your name. Priest in your name, cast out
devils in your name, done many thunderful works in your name.
Three times they said in his name. You know what our Lord
said? Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew. And that's what
these fellows was doing. They were workers of iniquity.
And I'll tell you something, you know, they perished at the
hands of whom they proposed to serve. And professed to serve. It's like Ananias and Sapphire. Oh, they lied to God. Lied to
everybody, you know. Simon Magus. He offered money
for the gifts of God and he perished for it. It's not so much that
they had zeal with that knowledge. They had presumption without
any fear. They had no fear of God, no reverence
for God. And they perished by the very
thing that they rejected. They rejected the fire of the
Lord from off his altar and the fire of the Lord is exactly what
destroyed them. And I tell you something, beloved,
our Lord Jesus Christ, right now, God appointed Him to be
judge of all this earth. Bless His holy name. God has
appointed Him to be judge over everything in this world. He's
committed all judgments into the hands of the Son. And right
now, Right now, you and I, and everybody here, and everybody
in our families, and all of our extended families, and everybody
we know wherever they are, everybody, is at the hands of Jesus Christ. And He's the one who will judge.
And He makes the judgments. And what would, what, what, what,
what would, what would ought to happen to a person? When God
provides such a wonderful, gracious, blessed gift, the son of His
love, His blood to put away sin, His body as an offering. His
sacrifice consumed. The wrath of God fell on Him.
The judgment of God fell. And yet God raised Him from the
dead, set Him at His right hand, and there He sits to give His
righteousness, to give to His work, everything about Him. What
ought to happen to a person who says, I don't want that, I don't
need that, that's fine for you, but I don't want it and I don't
need it. What should happen to a person
that rejects what God Himself has provided? That terrifies me. Scares me. To think about it. to say, that's fine for you.
I've had family, my people, my friends, that's fine for you.
That's fine for you. That's what, if that's the way
you want it, I'll do it my way. My little brother, Jimmy, five years younger than me. Seven years younger. Anyway, he's younger than me.
I know he was born on March 17, St. Patrick's Day. I believe
he was 55. Yeah, he's five years younger
than me. But him and I, we was, him and my
other brother, we was out fishing one time on Caesar's Lake, Caesar's
Creek. We were down there fishing. We got talking about God, Christ,
things of the Lord. My brother Jimmy said, well,
he said, I believe in a supreme being. And I know that, what's that
prayer that they use in AA and all that, you know, the serenity
prayer. He said, that's what I pray.
I said, Jimmy, That's not enough. I said, there ain't but one God.
There ain't but one Savior. There ain't but one way you'll
be accepted of God. That's through Jesus Christ.
And he gritted his teeth and says, no, that's not so. I know there's a supreme being
and I'll pray to the God I want to. He's 57 years old, got out
of bed, walking across his living room floor, dropped dead just
like that. Do you reckon he believes in
God now? You reckon he believes I told
him the truth now? Told my dad the same thing? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Oh, my. One of these days, people
will pray. You know what our Lord Jesus
Christ said? He went over in Revelations.
He says, men will pray. Hide us from the wrath of the
face of that Lamb. Let the hills, the mountains,
the rocks fall on us. Just let, brother, have mountains
fall on us. Rocks fall on us. As to see that
wrath of that Lamb and His face. Right now, right now. It's the
face of mercy. It's the face of compassion.
It's the face of grace. It's the face of love. It's the
face of pity. It's the face that will look
on you with great smile and approval and acceptance. Right now, that's the way He
is. Oh, see His blessed face? See that beautiful, glorious
face? I was just beaming with love.
I was just beaming with compassion. I was just bursting with mercy.
I was just bursting with pity. And oh, He looks at you. And
He looks right into your heart. And He looks there and sees nothing
but sin. He said, I'll take care of that.
I'll wash you from that. I'll be gracious to you. I'll
forgive you. I'll justify you. I'll wash you
in my blood. Oh, he looks at us now with those
eyes of pity and compassion and mercy and grace and love. So don't wait and say, oh, Rob,
follow me. Oh, listen, let me give you another
thing here in this verse. Look what happens there in verse
2 again. Look at this awful, awful sight.
There went fire out from the Lord and devoured them, and they
died, died before the Lord. Died before the Lord? Huh? Died before the Lord? Let me show you something. God's judgment fell on them and
they died before the Lord. Not in the Lord. Not for the
glory of God. Not trusting in Christ. They
died before the Lord. But look with me in Revelation
14 and verse 13. Let me show you something. I thought of this last night. I thought, oh my, what it would
be like to be in the presence of the Lord, to enjoy His presence
and the peace and joy that would be in it. And I thought of Mary
being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, enjoying His
great glory and His compassion, never ever having to think of
this world or anything that's ever in it again. Sitting right there right now.
You know why? Because look what it says in
Revelation 14, 13. And I heard a voice from heaven
saying, Right, blessed are they which die in the Lord. I feel like I ought to shout. Oh, blessed are they which die
in the Lord. And look what else it says. Yeah,
the Spirit says they'll rest from their labor. And their works,
they come after them. What works come after them? Whatever
Christ done in them. Here they died before the Lord.
There we're going to die in the Lord. Paul said, I want to be
found in Christ. I want to win Christ. And I want
to die in the Lord. And then oh look what else happens
down here In verse 4 it says Aaron said Moses
called them to me and says come near and carry your brethren
out from before Sanctuary the camp so they went near and carried
them out Verse 5 they carried them out of the camp. Carried them out from among the
people of God. Carried them out. They were able
to come in by themselves but is unable to come back out by
themselves. There's no atonement for the sin of presumption. You
know what? For a man to presume that everything's
all right and not do it and believe God's way. And I'm going to show
you that in Numbers. Look over in Numbers. Numbers
is the next book over, right after Leviticus. Look in Numbers
15 with me just a minute. No atonement, no sacrifice for
the sin of presumption. Numbers 15.30. This is something that always
troubled me. It's always troubled me and you
know it and I've said it for years. Everyone who dies somehow
or another gets to go to heaven. Somehow or another the preacher
figures out some way. But look what he said here in
Numbers 1530. But the soul that doeth aught
or anything presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger,
the same reproaches the Lord. And that soul shall be cut off
from among his people, because he hath despised the word of
the Lord, and hath broken his commandment. That soul shall
be utterly cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. And they were carried out in
their clothes. You know what that means? They
were carried out in their priestly garments. They still had their
priestly garments on. It didn't protect them. It didn't
protect them at all. That house built on the sand,
it has to fall. It's got to perish. And I know
this, if our religion is only in our coats, it will be buried with us. It's
not God's coat that He provides. It's like that prodigal. When
he came to himself and he went home, he told his father, the
first thing he said, he said, Father, I'm not worried that
you'll be called your son. Don't even call me your son anymore.
I've so dishonored you. I've so sinned against you. Oh,
I've just treated you awful. He said, Don't even call me your
son. And he said, I'll just be a servant. I'll be like one of
your hard servants around here. And you know what that father
did? He retched and got that boy, hugged him up to him, and
he reached over and kissed him. Oh, he kissed him and kissed
him and kissed him. And he said, Oh, son, son, you
was dead. Now you're alive. You was lost
and now you found. And then he said, He said, bring
here, bring here the best robe, the best robe. And he didn't
say hand it to him and help him, let him put it on himself. He
says, no, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. And then I want you to put a
ring on his finger. I want him to know that I love
him eternally. I want him to know that I love
him enough to put gold on his finger. And I'll put shoes on
his feet because I want him to walk and I want him to walk the
way I want him. I want him to walk in new shoes,
gospel shoes. And he said, I'll tell you what
else we're going to do. We're going to kill a big old
cat and we're going to have a feast. And one of these days, our Lord
Jesus Christ is going to gird Himself, and we're going to sit
down, and there's going to be wine on the table in God's Kingdom,
and our Lord Jesus Christ is going to sit us all down and
set the table. And I don't have any idea what
it's going to be, but it's going to be the best God's God. I do
know that. Oh, put on the best. That's what
you get. You get the very best from God. And then let me hurry
on. I got to hurry on. Look at an
important lesson here. God, in His grace, purposed a
way for us to approach Him. And we've got to come his way
or we've got to perish. Look what he said in verse 3
here, chapter 10. Now I'll hurry on here. God, he said, Moses said unto
Aaron, this is that that the Lord spake. God said this, I
will be sanctified him that come before me. I'll be sanctified
in them that come before me." What is it to be sanctified?
Peter said, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready
always to give an answer. What is it to be sanctified God? We don't mean we can make Him
holy. But what it means is to set Him apart in our thinking,
in our nature, in our will, in our hearts, in our worship, in
our attitude, in our emotion, in our affection. Set Him before
us and praise Him and honor Him and bless Him for being God. For being holy. Huh? And we come and worship Him,
understanding that He's holy. that He's righteous. And everything
we have to do with is God who is spotless purity from all eternity. And we understand that and that's
what it is to set Him sanctified. We don't never use the Lord's
name in vain. We know a lot of people running
around saying, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord. And we don't
use Jesus Christ's name as a byword the way a lot of people do. No,
no. We set Him apart in our mind,
in our will, in our affection. To sanctify Him is to glorify
Him for His holiness, to glorify Him for His glory. And to glorify Him and sanctify
Him is with sincerity and fervency. Adore Him. and stand and reverence
Him and rely upon Him and bless Him for His faithfulness. Submit
to His wisdom and His will. Give Him the glory. Do His name. That's what it means to sanctify
the Lord God. That's what it means. And then
look what else it says. And then I'm done. I will be
sanctified them to come nigh me. You're going to come nigh
me. You're going to come before me as I am. as I am, not like
you think I am, as I am. And then he said, and I will
be glorified. And before all the people, I
will be glorified. Oh, but God's going to be glorified
before all the people. He was glorified before the people
in His dealing with Ananias and Sapphire Herd and Nadab and Abihu. He was glorified in them before
all the people as they saw His judgments. And He's going to
be glorified in us one way or another either in grace or in
justice. But He's going to be glorified
in us. He's going to be glorified in saving you or He's going to
bring glory to His justice in leaving you to yourself. No middle
ground. And you know what David said
about that? Aaron, when he heard that, he
held his peace. That's the same thing as David
said, be still and know that I am God. And that's what we'll
do. Lord, glorify your son in me,
in us. Oh, our Father, our blessed,
blessed God in heaven. Oh, your gospel, your blessed
word. Lord, keep your servants back
from presumptuous sins. Don't let us presume on you. Let us always, by your grace,
come the way you've taught us, the way you've laid before us. Come in the blessed Savior. Come
in His blood. Come in His righteousness. Come
in His merit. Come, trust in Him who did the
work. Trust in Him for my life here,
for my life hereafter. Trust in Him, O Lord, for our
children, grandchildren. Trust in Him with our very souls,
that when we take our last breath, that He'll take us to be with
Himself. Oh, Lord. Oh, God, how glorious You are.
Oh, blessed Lord Jesus, how precious you are, how wondrous you are.
Oh, to give such a salvation, to give such grace, to give such
hope and such peace. Oh, blessed be your name. Blessed be your name. Amen. Let's get the songbook. Turn
to number 125. Stand together. I must never, never get tired
of this song. Never. He say that to you He told us
that look what we find out Oh There's something else we find
out too. For by thy grace, I'll wash my
garments white. I love this verse here more than
the rest of them because, oh, when you hear him say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, find in me thine all in all. And when we learn all these
things, look where we end up. Oh