Try to imagine the unimaginable. Just suppose the Lord God in
one sudden swift stroke of wrath were to take two of your sons
in judgment into hell today. Two of them, not just rebel sons,
not flagrant, rebelling sons, but sons that you think of as
good, obedient sons, sons who follow their father's steps,
even follow his own career. And then taking those sons commands
you not to weep or mourn, or show publicly any kind of sorrow
or any indication of sorrow for them. You think, impossible. God would never do such a thing.
No one could be expected to endure such a thing. But that's exactly
what happened to Aaron in the 10th chapter of Leviticus. My
text tonight is Leviticus chapters nine, verse one through chapter
10 and verse seven. Before I'm done, I will show
you why God killed Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu. And I hope you will see why those
two young men had to die, justly died, and Aaron was not permitted
to express any sorrow for their death. You recall at the end
of chapter eight, God commanded Aaron and his sons to abide in
the tabernacle for seven days until the days of their consecration
were fulfilled. Chapter nine begins on the eighth
day. This is where we are. Leviticus
chapter nine, verse one. And it came to pass on the eighth
day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. The eighth day is the day of
new beginning. It represents a new life. even the new life that's ours
in Christ Jesus. Being made new creatures by his
grace, old things passed away, all things become new so that
we are accepted of God perfectly in the holy place through Jesus
Christ our Lord. The priests were now ceremonially
perfect. The sacrifices and the things
they experienced did not change their nature, but ceremonially
they were made perfect. The days of their consecration
were ended. They were accepted as the priest of God and accepted
in the holy place before the Lord as representatives of his
people. As such, these priests are great
pictures of Christ, our great high priest, our Lord Jesus. That one who, when he was made
perfect, the scriptures use that very word, made perfect. In Hebrews chapter five and chapter
12, our Lord was made perfect. That is, he was made complete
as our Savior, made complete as our priest, made complete
as our intercessor by his obedience unto death. Being made perfect,
Paul says, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey him. Aaron had four sons. He and Moses with his four sons,
with the elders of Israel, were witnesses of these things, this
ceremonial purifying, this ceremonial completion, this ceremonial consecration
of these priests. They declared to the people that
they could now approach the altar of God with confidence. Now, because God has accepted
the sacrifices, God has accepted your priest, God has accepted
your representative, now you, you can come to God in the holy
place and be accepted of him. They were made to be consecrated
to God. In much the same way, witnesses
of Christ's completion, his perfection, His acceptance as our great high
priest assure us now of acceptance with God. They proclaim being
made perfect, he's become the author of eternal salvation.
God the Father bore witness of him at his baptism. You remember
our Lord's baptism was performed, he said specifically, for the
fulfilling of all righteousness. Now, being washed in water does
not make you righteous. Going through the ceremony of
baptism does not make you righteous. How then did baptism fulfill
all righteousness? It symbolically displays how
righteousness is fulfilled by the death, burial, and resurrection
of our Redeemer, the Lord, our righteousness. And the Father,
when our Savior was baptized, testified that this is his Son. On the holy mount of transfiguration,
he testified again, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased.
When he raised him up from the dead, he testified, I've accepted
him and his sacrifice. And by his ascension and exaltation
into heaven, he has proven and demonstrated clearly his acceptance
of him. Now on this earth, saved sinners
bear witness to him. We bear witness because we have
seen and felt the power of His priesthood. We've taken our sins
to Him, taken our sins to God by Him, confessing our sin and
have been accepted of God through Him. Through Him, by faith in
Him, we have now received the atonement. I just told you Bible's
open here on your laps at Leviticus 9. And let me show you five things
in this portion of scripture through chapter 10, verse 7,
that I think will be blessed of God to you as he enables you
to hear. In verses 2 through 6, we will
look at the sacrifices presented. The sacrifices presented to Jehovah,
the ceremonial sacrifices that God required, God provided, and
God accepted. As you read the passage, you
can't avoid seeing how that in all things, while Aaron was a
picture of Christ, great care was taken that the people should
understand that he was only a picture of Christ. He was not the Savior. He was not the mediator. He was
not the one who gave them acceptance with God. He was a picture of
the Savior, a picture of the mediator, a picture of that one
who gives us acceptance with God. The Lord God showed this
very clearly because everything about him and his work declared
plainly that there must arise another priest, one greater than
Aaron with a greater sacrifice whom God would accept. Neither
Aaron nor his sons could approach God without a sacrifice because
they were sinners. They could only come to God by
a sacrifice, but not by any sacrifice, only by the sacrifice God required. If we would draw near to God,
If we would be accepted of God, we must come to Him continually
by faith in Christ and only trusting the Lord Jesus. We don't come
to God. We don't approach God. We don't
seek God's mercy. We don't ask for God's mercy
on the basis of anything in ourselves, done by ourselves, experienced
by us, or in any way depending on us. We come to God trusting
His Son. Aaron comes to God and draws
near with the blood of a sacrifice representing the blood of God's
dear son. Look at verse 2. And he said
unto Aaron, Take thee a young calf for sin offering, and a
ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before
the Lord. It has been suggested that this
young calf was appointed by God so that Aaron might be reminded
every time he brought a calf to sacrifice it to God, that
he might be reminded with every one of those sacrifices of his
great, great, horrible, evil sin in offering the golden calf,
making the golden calf and offering sacrifices to it unto the Lord. I can imagine every time Aaron
brought his young calf to the altar, he must have remembered
his sin. Every time he brought that calf,
he remembered what he had done, and he remembered God's great
goodness in forgiving his sin. Whether that was the Lord's intention
in making Aaron bring the calf or not, I don't know. But I do
know this, everything in the worship of God, everything God
commands and teaches in this matter of public worship specifically,
causes our hearts to be reminded of our sin. and his great goodness
in the sacrifice of his son for our sins and in saving us by
the blood and righteousness of his son by his free grace. I
don't think I had ever really thought of our ordinances of
worship in just that way until today. Our songs of praise. are designed of God to remind
us of our sin, of his greatness, of his salvation, and of our
rich, rich, rich inheritance by him in Christ Jesus the Lord. Rex just read to us the psalm
that David penned and sang when he brought the ark of God up
to Jerusalem. set the Ark of God in its place.
David understood that Ark represented God's salvation by Christ Jesus
the Lord and gave praise to God. We come to God and in his house,
if we sing songs in his house that ought to be sung, and we
do here, we're reminded of our sin and we're reminded of his
grace. We're reminded of his blood.
We're reminded of our acceptance of God by him. in the hearing
of the word. We're reminded of our sin, of
his grace, of his sacrifice, of our salvation by him. Every
time we had the privilege of observing the baptism being performed,
we are reminded of his grace, his salvation, his great mercy
for all our countless sins. Every Sunday as we take the bread
and wine of the Lord's table, the Lord has fixed it. so that
we go through these ordinances of worship being reminded continually
of our sin and His grace, our sin and His salvation, our sin
and our Savior. Thank God for so fixing our worship. Aaron himself was a sinner. As
such, he had to bring a sin offering for himself. In doing so, he
was like John the Baptist, the voice of one crying at the altar,
prepare the way of the Lord. There's one coming who's shoe-latching. I'm not worthy to bend down and
unloose. That coming one is the holy,
harmless, undefiled Savior, one separate from sinners, our Lord
Jesus. He has no sin. So he needs no
sacrifice for sin. He is the sacrifice. But there's
another picture here. We saw it in chapter eight. We'll
see it again in chapter 16. And we have it here in chapter
nine. It's taught throughout the book of Leviticus. As Aaron
first had to make atonement for his own sins. Our savior. our great substitute, when he
was made sin for us, when he took our sins as his own, when
he was made sin for us, he made atonement first for himself and
then for the people one time by his one sacrifice for sin
and thus put away our sins. Look at verses three and four.
And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, take
ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb,
both of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering.
Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice
before the Lord, and a meat offering mingled with oil, for today the
Lord will appear unto you. Aaron, now consecrated as Israel's
priest, is commissioned to speak to the people, and Moses conveys
the will of God through the mediator, through the priest. Here again,
he stands as a marvelous type of our Lord Jesus, by whom God
in these last days has spoken to us, making known himself and
his will, his purpose and his word. The people had to bring
these offerings required by God. They had to bring each of the
offerings, except for that one specifically named in chapter
five, verse 15, they didn't have to bring the trespass offering,
because up to this point, they had not trespassed in things
concerning the worship of God, but they had to bring the sin
offering, a kid of the goats. They had to bring a burnt offering,
a calf and a lamb of the first year without blemish, and a peace
offering, A bullock and a ram portraying complete reconciliation
by Christ, complete peace with God through Christ Jesus. And
they brought a meat offering mingled with oil by which they
declared now their consecration to God. What? Did they actually come to God
and bring an offering and say to God, we are consecrated now. We are devoted to you. We are
sanctified. We are complete. That's exactly
what God commands them to do. So that you and I, by faith in
Christ, come to him as his holy ones, as sanctified men and women,
consecrated to God by God's own work. Now look at the promise
in verse four. For today, the Lord will appear
unto you. God's way to us and our way to
him is exactly the same. God comes to us by Christ Jesus. And we come to God by Christ
Jesus. No other way. It is as if Moses
had said, come to God with the blood that has been shed for
you this day. And God, the invisible God, who
no man has seen or can see, will this day appear to you. And as
we come to God, When first the sinner, when first the sinner
is given life and faith and he looks to God by Christ Jesus
the Lord, he comes to God in peace and confidence and beholds
God for himself. And when we come to God now,
believing on the Son of God, trusting Jesus Christ our Lord,
we behold God in Christ. We see the face of God in Jesus
Christ in the face of Him who died in our stead. We come near
to God and find acceptance with Him. Now, look at verses 5 and
6. And they brought that which Moses
commanded before the tabernacle of the congregation. And all
the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. And Moses
said, this is the thing which the Lord commanded that you should
do. And the glory of the Lord shall
appear unto you. Now watch this. The congregation
gathered in front of the tabernacle with their offerings and they
stood before the Lord. Then Moses said to them, this
thing which the Lord commanded you to do, do. And in doing it,
expect to see the glory of the Lord. You bring the sacrifice
to God's altar, at God's tabernacle, by God's priest, and expect God
to show you his glory. That's how we come to God, with
expected faith. Oh, God, give us such faith. Inspire such faith in us that
we may ever expect to see His glory as He reveals His Son in
His Word, in our hearts, by His Spirit. In verse 4, we saw that
the Lord appeared as our reconciled God, gracious, when we come to
Him trusting Christ. Here he tells us to expect that. Come to God, believe in Christ,
and expect to see God, and expect to see God's glory. That's not
talking about some charismatic experience. We, oh, God forgive us for leaning
on such things. It's talking about believing
God, seeing how that God shows his righteousness, justice, truth,
mercy, and grace rightly in the sacrifice of his son, coming
to know God as he is. I call you this day, and I call
myself this day, to come to God, and I declare that God will be
found by all who seek Him, trusting His Son. Come to God, trusting
Christ, and expect Him to be gracious. Come to God, trusting
Christ, expecting Him to fulfill His promise. Come to God, trusting
Christ, expecting Him to behave as God in His great goodness
and grace. Now, here's the second thing.
We see the Lord Jesus Christ portrayed as the sinless priest
of his people, verses seven through 14. Aaron is again presented
to us as one who needs atonement, always reminding us that even
in those earliest days of Judaism, back here in the book of Leviticus,
The Lord gave Aaron only as a type of another mediator, of another
priest, the Lord Jesus. Look at verse seven. Moses said
unto Aaron, go into the altar and offer thy sin offering and
thy burnt offering and make an atonement for thyself and for
the people. and offer the offering of the
people and make atonement for them as the Lord commanded. Verse
eight, Aaron therefore went unto the altar and slew the calf of
the sin offering, which was for himself. And the sons of Aaron
brought the blood unto him and he dipped his finger in the blood
and put it upon the doors, the horns of the altar and poured
out the blood at the bottom of the altar. But the fat and the
kidneys and the call above the liver of the sin offering, he
burnt upon the altar as the Lord commanded Moses. And the flesh
and the hide he burnt with fire without the camp. And he slew
the burnt offering. And Aaron and Aaron's sons presented
unto him the blood which he sprinkled round about upon the altar. And
they presented the burnt offering unto him with the pieces thereof
and the head. And he burnt them upon the altar.
And he did wash the inwards and the legs and burnt them upon
the burnt offering on the altar. Now, obviously, all of this points
to one greater than Aaron. It points to our Savior, that
one who must be without sin. And therefore, Aaron, I repeat,
first makes atonement for himself, then for the people, as Christ
Jesus, our great high priest, is a priest without sin, who
knew no sin and did no sin. Though he was made sin, he's
altogether holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. In
verses 15 through 21, Aaron, representing the people of Israel,
brings their sacrifices, and the people are sanctified by
the sacrifices. Look at verse 15. And he brought
the people's offering and took the goat, which was the sin offering
of the people, and slew it. And he offered it for sin as
the first. And he brought the burnt offering
and offered it according to the manner. And he brought the meat
offering and he took a handful thereof and burnt it upon the
altar beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning. He slew also
the bullock and the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings, which was
for the people. And Aaron's sons presented unto
him the blood which he sprinkled upon the altar round about, and
the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump and that which
covereth the inwards, and the kidneys, and the call above the
liver. And they put the fat upon the breast, and he burnt the
fat upon the altar, and the breast in the right shoulder. Aaron
waved for a wave offering before the Lord as Moses commanded. And we've seen these sacrifices
and their significance before. In short, they tell us complete
reconciliation has been accomplished and we are devoted to God by
blood atonement. But let's look at verse 15 a
little bit more closely. He brought the people's offering
and took the goat which was the sin offering for the people and
slew it. and offered it for sin as the
first. The language here stated is remarkable. It's instructive. The words offered
it for sin might better be translated, he took this people's offering
and the goat and sinned it. send it or made it sin. The sin offering was that offering
that distinctly had sin imputed to it. Aaron laying his hands
on the offering imputes ceremonially sin to the victim. This sin offering,
having sin imputed to it, seems to stand here as the reservoir
of all the sins of all the people of Israel at one time. So that
the sin offering is made to be a mass of uncleanness, filth,
and sin. The victim was made the sinner. and being made the sinner was
made to bear all the penalty that sin deserved. Turn to Isaiah
53. Let's read one more time this
most instructive, sweet, sweet, instructive portion of scripture.
I have no doubt at all that this is precisely what both Isaiah
and Paul had in mind when they declared to us the great work
of Christ upon the cross when he was made sin. Isaiah 53 verse
four. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for Don's
transgressions. He was bruised for Don's iniquities. I urge you, read the passage,
applying it to yourself. The chastisement of Don's peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, Don is
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Verse 20. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. It satisfied God. Satisfied his
purpose. Satisfied his design. Satisfied
his righteousness. Satisfied his justice. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He, the Lord God, hath put him
to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, Paul writes that out this way by divine inspiration. When thou shalt make him sin. When thou shalt make him sin. He shall see his seat. He shall
prolong his days. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. Back to Leviticus 9. Our sin offering the Lord Jesus
was treated like this sin offering brought by Aaron and the people
of Israel, being made the reservoir of sin for his people. All the curse we deserved fell
on him. All the flood of God's horrid
wrath swept over him. And he was slain because he was
made sin. And Aram presented the people.
And God accepted the people for his sake. Aaron comes with his
sacrifice, and he brings the people of Israel. He brings them
all. All the children of Israel, they
come to God. And Aaron leads them and brings
them to God. And God says, these are my people.
He accepts them as a consecrated people, all together. because of what God did in a
representative substitute, a sacrifice. And those people stood before
God, accepted, sanctified, and justified, consecrated to God,
holy before God, all because of what Aaron had done. So you and I stand accepted of
God, holy. sanctified, accepted, perfect,
complete, all because of what Christ has done for us. All because of what Christ has
done for us, not what he's doing for us, not what he's doing for
us, because of what Christ has done for us, we're accepted of
God. Therefore, the apostle John writes,
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous, and he's the propitiation for our sins. Now, all of this
tells us two things. There is forgiveness with thee,
and without the shedding of blood is no remission. Now, read verses
22, 23, and 24. and rejoice in the satisfaction
here portrayed. Here's the result of it all.
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Justice is satisfied. Sin's pardoned. All God's wrath is clean gone
forever. Verse 22, Aaron lifted up his
hand toward the people and blessed them and came down from offering
of the sin offering and the burnt offering. and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into
the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the
people. What? Moses and Aaron? Yes, the
law and the sacrifice, the law and the substitute, the law and
the atonement came out and blessed the people. And the glory of
the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire
out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt
offering and the fat, which when all the people saw it, they shouted
and fell on their faces. Let me see if I can give you
a parallel to this or the fulfillment of it. Turn to Luke 24, you'll
remember it. Our Lord has been crucified.
He's risen from the dead. And now he's about to ascend
back into heaven. In Luke 24, verse 50, He led
them out as far as to Bethany and he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. He lifted up his hands and blessed
them. I tried deliberately to take
great care never when I pronounce or read the benedictions or recite
the benedictions of scripture not to lift up my hands I see
it a lot, and I get disgusted with it, as if I had some kind
of power to do something, like that fellow over in Rome, or
like Baptist preachers do when they lift their hands up. But
here, our Lord Jesus, our great high priest, lifts his hands,
those nail-pierced hands. And those hands pull down the
blessings Those hands pulled out the blessings
of God and cast them upon the people without measure. He lifted
his hands and blessed them. He was pardoned from them and
carried up to heaven. And they worshiped him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy. and were continually in the temple
praising and blessing God. Amen. Then Moses and Aaron went
back to the tabernacle. Next, late in the evening on
the eighth day, Aaron and Moses came out like our Lord Jesus,
and blessed the people, pronouncing God's blessings upon the people
in the name of God on the basis of the sacrifice God has accepted. Hear me, children of God. God's
blessings on his people, bestowed on us from eternity. and bestowed
on us day by day in the experience of His grace. Flow to us freely
from the throne of God on the basis of sin's atonement. Justly satisfied. Perfect acceptance
with God in His Son. When the people saw this, they
shouted. fell on their faces, worshiping
God. Fell on their faces, acknowledging
their sin, while at the same time, acknowledging God's all-sufficient
grace. Never is the sinner more honoring
to God than when he acknowledges his sin, acknowledging his sin,
put away, and he's accepted with God in Christ Jesus the Lord. By this, We show forth God's
praise and God's glory. What precious tokens we have
here of God's favor. God answered by fire, consuming
the sacrifice. And God says, I accept the sacrifice. And since I accept the sacrifice,
I accept you who bring me the sacrifice. Then in chapter 10,
we have a very solemn picture. The first seven verses of this
chapter, we read, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either
of them, that is, they came and brought in their censer, and
put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange
fire before the Lord. What was it they offered? Read
the next phrase and you'll find out. Which he commanded them
not. We're not told what they offered.
Lots of folks make guesses. We're told exactly what they
offered. They offered God something other than what he required.
Something other than what he provided. Something other than
what he had specified. Something of their own concocted.
And there went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them and
they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this
is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh me. And before all people, I will
be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. And
Moses called Mishael and Elizaphan, I'm sorry, Elizaphan, the sons
of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said 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. And Moses said unto Aaron, and
unto Eliezer, and unto Ithamar, his sons, uncover not your heads,
neither rend your clothes, lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon
all the people. But let your brethren, the whole
house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled.
And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation, lest ye die. For the anointing oil of the
Lord is upon you. And they did according to the
word of Moses. Come to God, come down to God,
my brother, my sister, come on to God. Come to the throne of
grace with boldness. Come in every time of need that
you may find mercy and grace to help in every time of need.
Come to God by faith in Christ. But don't forget, nay dabbing
about you, anyone who presumes he can come to God some other
way. Anyone who presumes he can come
to God by his works, his morality, his righteousness, his knowledge,
his experience, his holiness, God will consume you. And in
the day of judgment, nobody will pity you. Nobody. This, our Lord Jesus Christ,
is our glorious high priest. He will perfect that which concerns
us. He puts bread on the golden plate
so that we never go hungry. He pours in the olive oil of
his grace so that our lamps are ever burning. He presents his
incense with every petition, with every gift, with every service. He presents every contrite sigh
from every contrite sinner broken before him. as we pour out our
hearts to Him and they find acceptance with God soon. Soon, very soon
He will come again and receive us to Himself and then the work
will be crowned with the perfect completion of everlasting glory
and joy in the holy place with God and the Lamb forever. That's a little bit of the picture
of these sacrifices on the eighth day, this eighth day, the day
of new beginning, the day of new beginning. Oh, how good is
our God, how gracious. He made us new creatures in Christ.
Old things are passed away. All things have become new. And I can't begin to tell you
how I wish I could declare it to you or how I wish I could
declare this to you so that you could go home with your hearts
dancing before God. Brother Claus, this new creation
you can't mess up. This salvation you can't mess
up. This grace you can't mar. I'm warned all the time by men
who don't dare say such things. It'll teach folks to live licentiously. I'm more and more convinced that
anybody who presumes that grace leads to licentiousness just
doesn't know God. They just don't know God. They
are compelled by religious laws to behave in a way they don't
really wish to behave. They turn the grace of our God
into lasciviousness, Jude tells us in verse four of his epistle.
And in doing so, deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. We who are gods, are made new
creatures in Christ with grace and salvation and righteousness
and holiness and consecration and perfection that we cannot
in any way by any means defile, corrupt, or mess up. It's called
perfect salvation. Oh, what it shall be. to enjoy the perfection of that
salvation when our great Savior comes again to receive us to
himself. God make it yours for Christ's
sake. Amen.