Nadab and Abihu were the sons
of Avon, God's high priest. They had been ceremonially consecrated
as priests unto God. They had been through a week's
service, having the blood of the sacrifice put on their ears,
their thumbs, their toes, being invested with the priestly garments
and priestly set aside for seven days of consecration in the holy
place. They had seen Moses and Aaron
go together into the holy place and they were among the people
upon whom the Lord God by Moses and by Aaron had pronounced his
blessing because of the sacrifice that had been made and accepted.
Nadab and Abihu had seen the visible display of the glory
of God coming out and consuming the sacrifice by a fire sent
down from heaven. You would think that'd last a
little while, wouldn't you? You'd think that fellow wouldn't
soon get over that. The next day. The next day. I mean, first thing next morning,
they dab in a bayou, came to the tabernacle of God with their
priestly garments on, with the sin offering. And they brought
with the sin offering, which portrayed, represented, and typified
our Lord Jesus Christ, by which atonement was made for sin. They brought with it some fire
of their own kindred with incense of their own devices. And they
went with the sacrifice and with the fire and with the incense,
their strange fire, into the court of the Lord's house. And
as they walked in, God killed them on the spot. on the spot in the tabernacle
wearing their priestly garments with their sin offering in their
hand because they offered strange fire unto the Lord. What an astounding way for a
day to begin in public worship. What an astounding way for the
day to begin. But that's exactly how Leviticus
10 opens. I want you to hold your Bibles
open to Leviticus 10 and let's look at these 20 verses together.
Obviously, I won't get done expounding this chapter to you in one or
two messages. We're going to camp here for
a while, the Lord willing. But today I want us to look at
these 20 verses together and learn what God the Holy Spirit
here teaches us. 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, strange
fire before the Lord, common fire, the kind of fire anybody
can get, the kind of fire you can get anywhere, which he commanded
them not. That's a very, very mild translation. If God didn't command it, that
means he forbade it. When it comes to the worship
of God, if God didn't command it, that means he forbade it.
Are you listening to me? When it comes to this business
of worshiping God, if God did not expressly command it, he
does expressly forbid it. And there went out fire from
the Lord. and devoured them, and they died
before the Lord. Now there are many, many things
to be learned from just what we've read there. Some things
are obvious upon the surface, so obvious that you would think
no one could miss them. First, it is obvious, since Nadab
and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, nephews to Moses and Miriam,
We're slain in the house of God by a public display of God's
wrath. Grace does not run in bloodlines. No man has claim upon the grace
of God because he is kin to somebody else. Don't ever imagine it and
certainly don't suggest it to someone else. Let's get glad
we're out in California a couple years ago I walked by and listened
to a young preacher. I just, I wasn't listening. I
just, I walked by trying not to, trying my best not to get
in on the conversation. I wanted to do something else.
I wanted to relax a little bit and think about what I was preaching.
And this young preacher said, well, you know, our children do have a better
hope of salvation than somebody else. After all, we're God's
people. I stopped and I spoke plainly to him. I said, now listen
to me. You listen carefully, that's utter heresy. That's utter
heresy. Grace does not run in bloodlines.
The fact that you believe God does not mean that God owes your
children something or they have a hand on God. The fact that
you serve him most faithfully. I think about Lance and Robin
Heller down in New Guinea. Who wants to go down there? Who
wants to go serve God in those circumstances? That doesn't mean
their children have a blooming thing, an advantage over any
of these boys and girls sitting out here. or any of the sons
and daughters of those prisoners over there at North Point. Grace
does not run in bloodlines. This is what the book says. It
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. This is what the book says. Christ
Jesus saves sinners to whom he reveals himself, which are born
not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,
but of God. A second lesson which is as plain
as the nose on your face, but the religious world just can't
get it. God Almighty does not bestow
grace upon men by religious rituals. You cannot get grace by performing
religious rituals. Sacramentalism is perhaps the
deadliest poison that has ever been invented by religious men,
by which the souls of men perish under the wrath of God. What is sacramentalism? Sacramentalism
is the teaching that these ordinances of the gospel by which we worship
God, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the teaching that by performing
these things, we automatically are putting ourselves in a position
whereby God may confer his grace upon us. Oh no, oh no, oh no. The ordinances of God are not
sacraments, they are not means of grace, but rather they are
ordinances of divine worship. Nadab and Abihu were wearing
the garments of the priesthood that God required. They had been
through the confirmation classes, they just didn't know what it
was to be confirmed to God. They kept the Passover, but they
didn't know the Passover. They wore the garments of priesthood
and functioned in the priestly office, but they didn't know
God's high priest, the Lord Jesus. They went through the ceremonies
of religion, but they had no worship of God in their hearts.
They had been circumcised in their flesh, but not in their
hearts. They worshiped God outwardly, but not inwardly. They knew nothing
about the spiritual things involved in the worship of God, which
obviously their brothers and their father knew. All they knew
was sacramental religion, and they depended on it for acceptance
with God. Multitudes, multitudes tread
the courts of God's house, go through the outward services
of religious devotion, and engage in the service of religion with
great zeal, who yet perish under the wrath of God. How many times
Have you heard people say, or perhaps thought or said yourself,
well, that man's got to be a believer. He's got to know God. Look what
he sacrificed. Look what he's done. What else
would make a person devote themselves to a life of poverty and go live
in squalor in some foreign land and serve people with such humility? Oh, my soul. be warned. These men were priests. They were priests who had been
ordained by Moses. They were in the true church. They were in the tabernacle of
Israel. A mere form of godliness, be
it ever so orthodox, may carry you to hell with a great garb
of impressive garments and pageantry, but it'll still carry you to
hell. There is no grace to be obtained, no salvation to be
had, but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Nothing mixed with it. Nothing mixed with it. We read in verse one, 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 them not." In other
words, by an act of willful, calculated, deliberate rebellion,
they said, we're going to do what we want to. Now, we're not going to just
cast away the whole worship of God. Oh, no, we can't do that. We're God's priests. We can't
do that. Folks would think bad of us if
we did that. We can't do that. Why, what would
the neighbors say if we did that? No, no, we're not going to go
out here and worship a stump. Why only folks down in Africa
do that. We're not going to go out here
and worship the stars. Only the Greeks do that. No,
no, no, no. No, we're going to worship God
right here in his tabernacle with his sin offering exactly
the way we want to. In other words, they said to
hell with God and his word. We're going to do what we want
to. We're going to do what we want to. And they came at the
wrong time. Leviticus 16, God gave specific
command to Aaron after the death of these boys. He said, don't
you come anytime you want to. You come with fire on the day
of Atonement. They came to the wrong place. They came to the
open court of the tabernacle, as we'll see in verse four. Whereas
God required the sacrifice and the incense and the burning of
the fire be brought into the most holy place. And they came
without a priest. You see, these men were not sin
atoning priests. These men functioned in the daily
function of the tabernacle. But the only one who could go
in on the day of atonement and offer the paschal lamb for the
atonement of the people's sins was Aaron, God's high priest. And they'd have him invite you
and say, we're as good as him. He's our daddy, but we're as good
as him. What right does he have? to stand as God's priest over
us. We will not be represented by Aaron. We're wearing the same
garment he's wearing. We'll go with him. They would not trust another,
even though there's one God appointed. They would not trust another.
They would not trust a substitute. They would not trust the mediation
of a representative man. And I'm telling you, my friend,
the only way you will ever come to God, the only way you will
ever be accepted of God is by trusting a man who God has appointed
as your representative, who is Christ, the God man. You can't
come any other way. And when they sought to come,
God killed them. Just like he did Uzzah, putting
his hand to the ark. And God Almighty still kills
men for putting their hand to his arm. He'll send you to hell
for the same reason he did in David and for the same reason
he did Uzzah. And God's people will stand by
silently while he does, just like Aaron and his other two
sons were required to. Be sure you understand what the
Holy Spirit teaches us. If we would come to God, We must
come to him in the way he has prescribed, ordained, and revealed
in his word. We cannot worship God upon an
altar of our own making. We cannot come to God with the
fire of our own kindling. We cannot come to God bringing
the censure of our own incense. Blessed be his name, there is
a way. There is a way by which sinners
may come to God. There is a way by which you and
I may come into the holy presence of the holy God who is himself
a consuming fire and be assured of acceptance. But the only way
we can come is by faith in Jesus Christ through the merits of
his blood and his righteousness alone. Preacher, you mean we
must pray nothing? You mean You mean the way to
come to God is to come without bringing any works of our own? Without bringing any feelings
of our own? Without bringing any emotions
of our own? Without bringing anything of
our own devising? That's exactly it! You can't
come any other way. Can't come any other way. Lay
aside your pedigree, but my daddy had been a Baptist preacher.
He was a son of a Baptist preacher. He was a son of a Baptist preacher.
Why we've been Baptist preachers our whole family history. Just
throw them away. Just throw them away. But preacher,
preacher, now listen, I was raised in church. I've been memorizing
the Bible since I was old enough to talk. Throw it away. But preacher,
I've been, I've been a good upright Moral person I don't I've done
some things wrong, but I never was really bad You can't go You
can't go you can't go God won't have you God won't receive you
God won't accept you. He'll send you to hell with your
rags He'll send you to hell with it Well, how can I go? I don't have anything By which
God almighty can be compelled to look on me. I'm nothing but
a naked, helpless sinner. My religion's just so much idolatry. My morality, just so much contempt
of Christ's righteousness, my own self-righteousness, just
a cloak for the inward corruption of my heart. I'm nothing but
a helpless, rebel sinner in need of mercy. You can come. You can come. Come and welcome! Those are the folks Christ came
to save. You see, Christ alone is our sin offering. He alone
is our high priest. He alone is the sacrifice by
which the burning wrath of God's hot justice is satisfied. He alone has incense. merit, beaten, small, ground
to powder, which God smells and says, I'll take that. Heal up. Look at verse three. And Moses said to Aaron, this
is that the Lord spoke. In other words, he said to Moses,
Aaron, look at your boys laying here consumed in the fire of
God's wrath. This is what God meant back yonder
at Sinai when he said, I will be sanctified in them that come
nigh me. And before all the people, I
will be glorified. Nadab and Abihu may have been very impressive
to men in their religious performances. But what they did in offering
strange fire was spit in God's face. Their religion, they had a very
costly sin offering. They wore very gorgeous garments.
They had the censer, and they had fire, and they had incense,
and everybody would look at them and say, my, oh, look at that. Look at that. They've gone to a lot of trouble.
And they've choreographed that thing. I never saw such a play
put on in my life. But look at that. Well, who can
see anything wrong with that? Who can see anything wrong with
that? How can you find any fault in that? How many times have
you had to deal with that, dealing with folks particularly at Christmas
and Easter time? Well, how can you find anything
wrong with that? That's such an impressive service. The only
thing wrong with it was just spitting in God's face. That's
the only thing wrong with it. That's the only thing wrong with
the religion of our day. The only thing wrong with the religion
around this town and this country. Just spitting in God's face.
That's the only thing wrong with it. You see, the religion was nothing
short of painted blasphemy. Because the religion had nothing
in it with regard to reverence and faith. in Jesus Christ the
Lord. That is exactly what all free
willism is. That is exactly what all works
religion is. That is exactly what all sacramentalism
is. It is utter contempt for God
Almighty. It is the despising of God's
grace, trampling underfoot the blood of God's Son. There's nothing
in it to glorify God. You see, the only way sinners
can sanctify God, set him apart. Set him apart. What is it that
sets God apart from all the gods of the heathen? What is it that
sets him apart from all the notions men have about God? What is it
that sets him apart from every concept man has about God? What is it? justice and mercy. He's a just God and a Savior. And the only way we can sanctify
him, set him apart, fulfill our own prayer, our Father which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Let your name be set apart. The only way we can do it, rats,
is by faith in his Son. That's the only way. That's the
only way. We offer to God nothing of our own, but offer to God
only that which he himself has given, his own darling son, his
own obedience and his own righteousness, his own blood, his own atonement,
his own satisfaction. No other way. Every other concept
of God, every other concept of deity, every thought you have
by nature about God, about justice, about right and wrong, says do
something. That's the thought of man. That's
how all men, what shall I do? What shall I do? What shall I
do? What shall I do? Don't do! Bow down. That's all. How can we glorify God? Yes,
we want to. We who are believers, we want
to glorify God in every thought, in the deeds of our lives, in
every moment of our lives. We want to. We strive to live
in such a manner as reflects God's glory. But Lindsay Campbell,
you and I cannot glorify God by what we do. It can't be done. It can't be done. My daughter can honor me by what
she does. She's a heapsight better person
than I am. My wife can honor me by what she does. She's a
heapsight better than I am. My son-in-law, my grandchildren,
you, my friends, can honor me by your actions, by your behavior,
by your speech. But you and I can't honor God. by anything we think, say, or
do. Not really. Can't be done. Because our thoughts don't come
close to measuring up, much less our deeds. A preacher, how can
we honor God? How can we glorify God? By bowing down to Him, believing
His Son, glorying in Him, as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Isn't that what he said? Hold
your hands here and turn to Jeremiah 9. Jeremiah 9. You see, faith in Christ involves,
at its very heart, in its very essence, it involves the confession
of sin, acknowledging our sin. It involves Repentance turning
from every false way. It involves submission to God's
revelation. It involves trust in Jesus Christ
alone. Jeremiah 9, 23. Thus saith the
Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don't you trust
your wisdom? But I thought Naaman would have
still been a leper if he had done things the way he thought.
I thought. Let not the wise man glory in
his riches. Don't let the mighty man glory
in his might. Don't trust your strength. Well,
I believe I can. I'm a pretty strong fellow. I
have a good constitution. I have a lot of willpower. You'll
go to hell with it. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. But preacher, now you don't know
what I've done. Let me tell you about what I've
done. Let me tell you about the sacrifices I make every year
to poor folks. Let me tell you how I serve.
Let me tell you what I do. Trust it, you'll go to hell. But let him that glorieth glory
in this. He understands and knows me.
Oh my God. He's given me a knowledge of
himself. I understand him. I know him. I know that he's the Lord who
exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth. And God says, I smile on my fellow.
In these things I delight. In these things I delight. Of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has 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. He
that glorieth, he that trusts, let him trust in the Lord. He that boasts, let him boast
in the doing and dying of the Son of God. I'll write back in
our text. These sons of Aaron came to God, into the house of God, brazenly,
with their own inventions. Now you listen to this preacher,
and you who are here listen, anyone who hears this on television
or by tape or by any other means, listen to this preacher. I'm
not making a jump, I'm just telling you exactly what's in this text. All acts of will-worship, all religious inventions are
but acts of open rebellion against God Almighty. I'm not often asked anymore,
sometimes the ant folks get mad. So how do y'all baptize like
you do? Because there's no other way
to baptize. Immersion is baptism. Sprinkling, pouring, sloshing
a little water on your face, that ain't baptism. That's sprinkling,
pouring, sloshing a little water on your face. We baptize by immersion
because that's what baptism is. And to practice the ordinance
in any other way is to lift our fist in God's face and say we
can obtain grace by some means other than the death, the burial,
and the resurrection of a substitute represented in that ordinance.
That's the reason it's important. Somebody says, well, baptism
is a matter of indifference. Not to God it's not. Not to God. We observe the Lord's table.
I recall years ago somebody said, what would you do if you went
to a church where they didn't use unleavened bread and wine? soda crackers
and grape juice. I said the first time I sat at
the table, we'd have unleavened bread and wine. Oh, that would offend
people. I'd rather offend Bob Duff than
offend God Almighty. It's exactly right. You see, that bread represents
the holy humanity of Christ. That wine represents his sinless
sacrifice on our behalf. And to observe the Lord's table
call it observing the Lord's table by any other means than
personally taking the bread and drinking the wine, taking it
ourselves, recognizing hereby we confess our need of a substitute. We discern the Lord's body. His
obedience as a man was my righteousness. His death in my stead is my satisfaction
to justice. To do it any other way is to
say those things were means. He didn't really have to go.
Now look at the last line of verse three, And Aaron held his peace, and stood there silent. Even before Moses gave command,
he stood there silent. So it shall be in the last God had revealed his glory in
consuming the sacrifice in chapter 9. And he revealed his glory
in consuming the rebel in this 10th chapter. And when God has revealed his
glory, fully made known to all who hear,
revealed his justice and his grace, his righteousness and
his truth. When God makes himself known
in the last day, not only will we hold our peace
by then, we'll sing his praise while men are cast into hell.
As the smoke of their torments arise, there won't be one tear
shed. There won't be any trembling,
there won't be any sorrow, there won't be any lamentation. No,
no, we'll have a live. God's right. God's right. Look at chapter 10, verse 4. Moses called Mishael and Elazephan,
the sons of Uzziah, the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, come
near, carry out your brethren from before the sanctuary out
of the camp, get them out of here. So they went near and carried
them in their coats out of the camp. Nobody going to have to guess
about who did this. Well, what happened to them?
Those boys are consumed in the fire of God's wrath. They're
burnt to a crisp and their garments are just exactly like they were
when they went in. carried them out in their coats, so that all
Israel know God did this. God did this. And Moses said,
as Moses had said, and Moses said to Aaron, tell Ezra to hit
them by his sons and cover not your heads, neither red your
clothes, lest you die, lest the wrath come upon the people. But
let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the morning
which the Lord hath kindled. And you shall go out from the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation, or you shall not
go out, rather, lest you die. Now look at this. That seems
so, not just strange, it seems harsh, doesn't it? Don't you
shed a tear? Don't you bow your head? Don't
you mush your hair? Don't you give any indication
of sorrow? And don't you go out of this
tabernacle. You stay right where you are for. Now here's the reason. the anointing of the Lord is
upon you and they did according to the word of Moses you see these men like Ezekiel
in Ezekiel 24 when God told him I'm going to kill your wife and
don't you don't you don't you weep a bit because this is for
a sign this was a sign not only was it prophetic of that day
yet to come but Aaron and his sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, these
two boys and their father were not private men. They were public,
representative men. They were God's priests. They
represented the people before God and they represented God
before the people. You talk about a heavy, heavy
responsibility. Moses says to them, God's anointing
is on you. And there's something more important
than your pain. There's something more important
than what you feel. There's something more important
than your heartache. There's something more important
than your boys. What on earth could that be?
The glory of God. and you represent God before
this people, see that you represent Him well. The souls of men, more important than your pain,
more important than your sons, more important than your family,
more important than your feelings, you see that you make men understand
that God's done right, even when He's taken your boys to hell.
See what you do. How often it is that God uses
seasons of greatness, heaviness, horrible trouble, terrible heartache,
tremendous sorrow to teach us. And so he does here. He teaches
Aaron how to be a better priest, how to better serve God, how
to better honor The Lord spoke to Aaron saying, don't drink
wine or strong drink. Thou and thy sons with thee when
you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations. Now I have to say this because
almost everything written in modern times on this passage
uses this as a great diving board by which they dive into prohibition
and say don't ever use any wine. This is not a prohibition. Now
the scriptures are so plain. Drunkenness is a horrible evil. Very plain. But nowhere does
this book forbid you to have a glass of wine with your meal.
It just doesn't. It just doesn't. Such prohibitions
are contrary to scripture. Good enough for papists but not
for believers. God commanded Aaron not to be
intoxicated when it goes about his business, not to even appear
to be, that you may put difference between holy and unholy, between
unclean and clean, that you may teach the children of Israel
all the statutes which the Lord has spoken unto them by the hand
of Moses. Now, here's the lesson for us.
If we would lead others to know and worship God, We must be calm
and steady serving him, serving him with clear minds, clear understanding,
with clear judgment. We must not be intoxicated with
the wine of Babylon's fornications. If I would lead you in the worship
of God, you must see manifestly that I am absolutely unaffected
by the religious opinions of our day. I'm absolutely unaffected
by what goes on in the religious world. I don't care if the whole
world goes after it. Doesn't matter if the whole world
jumps on the bandwagon. Doesn't matter if the whole world
does it. Doesn't matter if all the religious people I know,
including you, get involved with it. We'll be unaffected. Ain't
gonna happen. Had nothing to do with it. We
must not be drunk with a strong drink of free will, but rather
filled with God's spirit, distinguishing plainly between the clean and
the unclean, between the holy and the profane. Now look at
verse 12. For the sake of time, I won't
read these verses. Verses 12 through 15, Moses goes
to Aaron. And he said, now Aaron, you and
Eleazar and Ithamar eat the sacrifice. And he repeats almost verbatim,
almost verbatim, what he already told him about eating the sacrifice
back in chapter six. Why? Why? I'll tell you why. I can almost picture Aaron, Eliezer, Nethemar, as they watch
their cousins drag their brothers outside the camp and throw them
away. I can almost hear what they think. What am I doing in here? Nobody's
going to pay attention to me again. I can't serve God. I can't do that. Why? My sons, my brothers, they blaspheme God publicly. God's judgment upon them is public. Everybody in the camp is going
to be laughing at me while I go about this business. I can't tell you how often I've had to deal with
similar circumstances. I've had preachers call me, dear
friends of mine, their sons, daughters, get involved in something
to shame the family. Brother Don, what'll I do? Should
I resign? Folks tell me I ought to quit.
That's exactly what's going through Aaron's mind. And so the Lord God sent Moses.
with a sweet word of consolation. And he said, you stay right here.
Don't you go out of this tabernacle and you eat the sacrifice and
bring your daughters and your wives in here and eat the sacrifice
because this is still your due. This is where I put you. This
is where I put you. And this is what I've given you.
Oh, sweet consolation is this. Aaron and his sons in their saddest
hour were reminded that the mercy, love and grace of God is immutable. They were given the sweet assurance
of unbroken, unbreakable acceptance before God Almighty. And thus
the Lord graciously bound up the wounds of their hearts. My soul through many changes
goes. His love no variation knows. God's wrath on your boys doesn't
mean God's angry with you. God's judgment on your brothers
doesn't mean God's angry with you. Verses 16, 17, and 18. diligently sought to go to the
sin offers. And behold, it was burnt. And
Moses was mad. He wasn't just teased, he was
mad. He was angry. He said, Amen. What have you
done? I told you to eat the sin offering.
God told you to eat the sin offering. God requires it. But you burned
it. How could you do that? How could
you do that? Violate the word plainly given
just like Abiathar, just like Nadab and Abihu. He's ignoring
God's word. And then Aaron gave a reply,
which demonstrated that Moses was wrong. He judged wrongfully. Unlike Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's
disobedience to the letter of the law was an act of faith and
reference. Now watch it. Look at verse 19.
Aaron said to Moses, Behold, this day have they, Nadab and
Abihu, offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before
the Lord. And such things have befallen me. You know what I've seen today.
God killed those boys of mine. If I had eaten the sin offering
today, if I had eaten that which they brought with their strange
fire today, should it have been accepted in the sight of the
Lord? They would have said, Moses, hang on a second. Now listen to this. If I had
eaten the sacrifice that Nadab and Abihu brought with their
strange fire. I would have been saying to all
the congregation of Israel, this is all right. This is acceptable. It's okay. As long as you don't
just out and out say, I hate God. It's okay to come worship
God any way you want to. It's okay. He said, God would
have killed me too. And it would have been right. And when Moses heard that, he
was content. You see, the letter of the law,
that which kills was broken. But the spirit of the law, that
which was required, essentially was fulfilled perfectly. Aaron
worshiped God in spirit and in truth and refused to compromise. even for the honor of his own
rebel sons.