Worship is hindered by self-will, which intrudes into God's presence and seeks to glorify man rather than God. The sermon draws lessons from the Old Testament account of Nadab and Abihu offering "strange fire" and the New Testament account of Ananias and Sapphira lying about their offering, both of which resulted in divine judgment. These examples illustrate that worship must strictly adhere to God's instructions in His Word, as self-will, even if accepted by people, will ultimately be rejected by God. Therefore, believers must be discerning and approach God's presence in His appointed way, recognizing that true worship is focused on God's glory and accomplished through Christ's redemptive work.
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There's a great verse in the hundred seventh psalm. It's the second verse. It says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. And it's always a delight to meet new people. It's a delight to find out, because I usually ask how the Lord saved us. And it's our privilege to have David and his roommate in our home. And Peter Richards, who is his roommate, I got the talking with him this afternoon and asked him how I was saved. And he told me, I'm not going to tell you, but I'm going to let him tell you.
Because I asked him, I said, I wish you'd tell the saints how God saved you. Peter just come up here and tell us. We want to put it on tape soon. He didn't hurt his leg, by the way, playing tennis with David. You wouldn't hurt yourself, please. That was with David. I'm from Detroit originally, although many people might say that nothing good has come out of Detroit. I saw some pretty good basketball this afternoon. I went to the Roman Catholic Church as a child growing up.
And I was born and raised as a Catholic and really was a religious person. I attended church faithfully and was serious about it, but I felt something missing there and started searching, I guess, when I was in high school and in college also. And in college, I was at the University of Michigan and really went through some hard times because I was a student of literature and was reading some literature that was, well, it was a big deal to me to be reading this stuff and I took it seriously.
And a lot of the writers of the twentieth century have kind of taken a very bleak outlook on life and my position I was I didn't really have any firm foundation and I was searching and literature kind of led me to a dead end and I was really at the point of despair and I was just by the it was just by the grace of God that I was able to get into the fellowship there with some intervarsity Christian people and It was through that group that I really came to know, in a personal way, what Jesus had done for me.
And it was something that, you know, I had certainly been exposed to before in the Catholic Church, but it was only in a very ritualistic kind of outward way that really didn't touch my heart. And in college, I really had to... This was really life and death kind of stuff. It was very serious. And I really turned to the Lord then because there was nowhere else to turn. And I thank God for the interversity group and for the direction that they gave me while I was in college. And I really want to say that the universities and colleges are really in need of Christ.
And there are a lot of people. a lot of young students who are growing up today in homes that are broken and they don't really have any direction and they're getting exposed to a lot of strange ideas at college and they just need direction and so there's a real need for Christ in these universities and I thank God for the people who were there when I was there and that has been a real the groups that I've been involved with and the fellowship I've had there have always been a real source of support and strength for me.
I guess as I was coming to the Lord, the Book of Romans was a really important foundation for me in terms of just learning what the Christian doctrine is all about. And I just want to close with a passage that kind of culminates the first portion of Romans in the last part of chapter eight, where Paul is talking about the love of Christ. And he says, I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.
No height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God for passages like that. It's really give us hope in Christ and as a demon. And thank you for your fellowship today. You know, there's another young man here. I've heard him preach, but I've never heard him tell us how he got saved. David, come on up here and tell us how God saved you. Yes, you. I told you I had a surprise for you, but I didn't tell you what.
But, you know, it's a delight to fellowship with these fathers. And there's one thing we should do. We need to pray for colleges and the work that he's done and the college and the universities. And by the way, this young man who came out of Roman Catholicism, his family got saved as well. God is gracious. God is able to save. He's able to save all kinds of people, even fathers like David, who delights in beating a certain fellow that I know well in Canada. Tell us why he's not saved, Dave. As many of you know, my friends are missionaries in Italy.
They went there in And I was five years old when I was playing with my toys in Italy in my room. And it occurred to me that at the breakfast table, something had been said about going to heaven. And I scratched my head and I can't remember what it was. And so I went to my mom in the sewing room and asked her, well, now how do you get to heaven anyway? And she explained it to me and I said, okay, fine. So I went back to my toys. Curiosity satisfied. You go back to what you like to do best. Well, I assumed that people were praying for me that night.
I am sure my parents were. The next day I was playing with my boys again. Favorite activity of a five-year-old. And it struck me, well, if that's how one gets to heaven and I haven't done anything about it, maybe I should. So I went to my mom and asked her, well, Can you help me not only understand, but actually walk me through the steps? And so we went to the bedroom and we knelt down and she prayed and I prayed after her. Kind of like taking a bill to the office. But I can never forget the feeling that came over me at the end as we finished praying and it dawned on me all of a sudden that all of us in our family were born-again Christians.
I was the youngest in a family of five, and my two sisters had already accepted Christ. And so it just became clear to me all of a sudden that I was the only one who had not made that decision. Now, it's funny how memory can fool you sometimes, and you look back from the past and you wonder, well, I wonder if what I did... In fact, at that early age was really what I thought I was doing. And so I remember one time that I was eight years old or is there about, I had done something wrong, you can't remember what. Besides getting a good looking for it, I had a lot of bad feelings about myself and I thought, well, if I could do such a terrible thing, maybe I'm really not a Christian.
And so, And I thought, well, maybe I'd better get this thing straightened out and make sure. So I prayed again. And I just wanted to make sure that the first decision had really been true. And at the end, it's better to do it again than not to do it at all. Or I suspect that you were too young the first time to believe. Now there are a lot of people who say that when you're so young, you really don't understand what you're doing. But I'm convinced that in Scripture where it says that God has hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to the age, those aren't just words.
My younger sister Lori came to know Christ when she was three years old. And I know of other believers who've come to know the Lord at that early age. And I think one of the most wonderful things in my life has been to work with children because they can understand the truth of the gospel. The truths of the gospel are very simple and you come right down to it. The implications are very complex because the effects themselves are very simple. And so... When you think of the young people in this church, I hope that we'll remember to pray for them, too, for those who haven't made a decision for Christ, who will be led by His Spirit to do so.
Thank you. It's always delightful to learn how God graciously brings sinners to himself, whether they're in college when they trust the Lord, or whether they're at home playing with toys when the Spirit of God reminds them of their needs. How gracious of our God. And we can expect God to work in the lives of our children when we faithfully present the gospel to them and pray with them and live a consistent life before them. We can expect God to graciously call them to himself. He is the faithful God. He said, Suffer, the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
I thank God for everyone who is born of him. I'm always glad when I see David in fellowship with us and coming along and helping us. I'm certainly happy to meet our brother Peter today. He's going to be taking the bar examination shortly in North Carolina, so we need to remember him in our prayers as well. What did he like to pray one for another? So let's just look to the Lord in thanksgiving. Our Father, we thank you that the prayers of a righteous man avail much, and thou hast made us righteous through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And you have declared us righteous through faith. We have the privilege of praying one for another. Our hearts are delighted when we hear of those who have trusted thee as Lord and Savior and of your gracious workings in their lives. And we ask you, O God, to continue to remember those who attend the colleges and universities, that they who know thee may let their light so shine before men that others may see their good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. We thank you for intervarsity.
We thank you for campus crusade. We thank you for the other groups that are working on the college campus to proclaim the gospel and to faithfully magnify the name of our God. And now tonight, as we open thy precious word together, we ask thee to graciously work in us and through us, and give us an understanding of what it means to draw nigh to thee, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. May it interest you to know that when we had our reunion two weeks ago in Lebanon, our class reunion.
The husband of one of the girls that graduated with me as well as the girl, they're both now retired and they've given themselves to working on the campus of Penn State University with international students and students that are going to go back to the and They're going back to the homeland, the land of their birth. And they're going to bear a testimony, a clear testimony to the grace of God. And what a delight to talk to the husband. And he was telling me about various people that have come to know the Lord through coming into their home, having a meal with them.
They open their home and have international students in. and they don't force quote the gospel down their throat but they fellowship with them and get them to feel at home with them and see how they operate in the home how Christ is manifest in their daily life around the table what the conversation is about and God has used it to save some of the sons of Jacob Jewish people and he has used them in other ways people who are going to go back to various parts of the world and bear a witness to him I remember one day that I was very discouraged as a Christian and I didn't think that God was using anything that I did to bear witness to him and Richard Barlow took me aside and he said Remember this person and remember that person.
He said, you know, a lot of Christians come through life and no one that's out in the service of the Lord in full-time work has ever come through their binab because of their ministry. He said, just take your ministry with a student nurses at West Reading Hospital. A number from that class have gone out into the Lord's work. Let us not be weary and well-doing. In due season we shall reap if we faint not. And I'm encouraged by these testimonies tonight. Now, maybe I'll call on somebody else another night. I want you to turn with me tonight to Exodus chapter twenty-eight.
Exodus chapter twenty-eight. Last week we examined the foundation for worship from Romans chapter eight and verse thirty-four. In Romans chapter eight and verse thirty four, amidst all the questions that are asked, is this one who we see that condemn us? And in answer to that, we read those things. It is Christ who died. And when we think of the death of Christ, we think of redemption. That's what he accomplished. And the foundation for worship is redemption. It's only a redeemed person who can worship. It is Christ that died, but who has rather risen from the dead.
And that brings us relationship. For now, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are begotten again unto a living hope. There's a relationship. We have now been born of God because of it. And then, who is even at the right hand of God, who also make up intercession for us. That is representation. But since worship... is that which is the most important thing that a believer can ever be occupied with. There's nothing more important in the life of a believer than worship, and worship is that which blesses the heart of God, and the purpose for which our Lord Jesus came to the earth was to transform non-worshippers into worshipers, And since that is the most important thing we can ever be occupied with, we as believers must be conscious and assured that the enemy is going to seek to hinder our worship.
And I want to look, not only tonight, but probably another night, at hindrances to worship. Every person who has been born of God has three enemies. Enemy number one is the devil. He's an internal enemy. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Then there is an external enemy, the world, with all its allurements. And then we have an internal enemy, the flesh. And these three things, the devil, the world, and the flesh, they combine their activity to hinder any believer who seeks.
to worship God. Now, these hindrances will not only be experienced privately as we worship God daily, in our quiet times, in our times of prayer, in our times of meditation. These things will hinder us at those times, and I must remember that I have an enemy. But they will also seek to hinder us in our corporate worship as an assembly of the saints. Therefore, anything that would tend to hinder the spiritual worship of the believer, and anything that would seek to hinder the spiritual worship of a church should be avoided.
Now, the first of these hindrances that we want to dwell on is that of will worship or self-will in worship. And I invite you to Exodus chapter twenty-eight, and we want to begin reading at verse thirty-six. In Exodus chapter thirty-eight, we have the garment of Israel's high priest, the garment that Aaron wore in the place of worship. And those garments that Aaron wore as he became the go-between between a holy God, the mediator, between a holy God and a sinful people.
And these things have something to say to us. And there is an expression here that we need to examine. Verse thirty-six. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it like the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord. And I shall put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre, upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy thing, which the children of Israel shall hallow in their holy gift.
And it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. Now we turn over to the book of Leviticus chapter ten. Leviticus chapter ten and verse one. Where we read, 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 them not. And there went out fire 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 near me, and before all the people will I be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. Moses called Mishiel and El Zephan, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, and 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 head. 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 has 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. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Do not drink wine, nor strong drink.
Thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generation that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean, and clean, and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. Now may the Lord speak through his word to our hearts. Self-will in all its very forms will ever seek to intrude itself into the presence of God.
Exodus chapter twenty-eight that we read together, give us the description of the mitre, which Aaron, Israel's high priest, wore when he ministered on behalf of the people of God. The description of their making of it is precious to the child of God, but engraved upon it, and it was upon the forehead of Aaron, attached to the turban upon his head. And it said, holiness unto the Lord. But connected with the holiness that Aaron represented when he went before God, he bore the iniquity, the scripture says, of holy things.
Now I ask you tonight, how can iniquity be connected with that which is holy? How can the iniquity of holy things What does this mean? For it's most important. It has to do with the approach of man to a holy God. It means this, first of all, that everything that man touches, he contaminates. Everything that man touches, he contaminates. No matter where we are at our most Holy time, iniquity, is present.
Let me illustrate that. Remember the sixteenth of Matthew. We dwelt on Matthew sixteen, and I barely mentioned this this morning. In Matthew sixteen, the Lord asked the question, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And you remember there were various answers that men said, He's Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But the Lord said, but who do you say that I am? And Peter made that memorable confession. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And then our Lord began to tell them, our Lord commended Peter. He said, you're blessed, Peter. Simon, son of Jonah, flesh and blood have not revealed that to you.
But my father, who is in heaven, somebody didn't whisper the right answer in his ear. But the Father had revealed it to him. And that's what salvation is all about. And the essence of that testimony that was that Peter was a genuine child of God. God had revealed who he was and who Christ was to his heart. Now, our word then goes on to tell how he's going to go up to Jerusalem, and he's going to be crucified, though Peter took him, and he said, no, Lord, you're not going to do that. That was a holy moment for Peter. He just confessed who Christ was.
And he was commended by God for us. And our Lord said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. One moment in fellowship with God, the next moment, he was the tool of the enemy. The iniquity of holy things. But I believe the most classic example of this. in the Old Testament is in the book of the Old Testament worship of the Lord, the book of Leviticus. Here we see what self-will is. It intrudes itself into the worship of the Lord in the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and they offered strange fire before God.
Now when you study and read this whole tenth chapter of Leviticus, it appears from verse nine that these two boys probably were under the influence of liquor. For God puts up a prohibition. He says in this chapter, Do not drink wine nor strong drink. Thou nor thy sons with thee, when thou go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. It shall be a statute forever. When it comes to worship, God demands holiness. For God wants us to think straight.
Don't be under the influence of anything else when you come into my presence. Why? I want you, he says, to put a difference between that which is holy and that which is unholy. I want you to be able to have right thinking that you put a difference between that which is clean and that which is unclean. And that's why he made the prohibition. Now, what did the two sons of Aaron do? Well, first of all, they took fire of their own making. Now, in order to be able to make that kind of a statement, you have to consider what happened when they placed the first offering on the altar.
The fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the sacrifice, which proved that it was accepted by God and acceptable to God. And usually they took the fire that was from the altar, but they made strange fire, and they took incense that they manufactured and offered it to God. And God's activity was swift and sure. He dealt with a disobedience readily. You see, God's reaction was quick.
Fire went out from the presence of the Lord and devoured them. And the scripture says that they died before the Lord. Now, if anything like that happened today, what would the reaction of people be? Unless Aaron, who was a father, might say something about it. For certainly you would expect the father or the boy to be quite upset. I believe I would be, wouldn't you?
Moses couldn't be blamed. No one else in Israel could be blamed. It would be easily blamed God. And Moses had something to say very definitely in verse three. Notice that third verse of Leviticus ten. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord's faith saying, I will be sanctified in them that come near me. And before all the people will I be glorified. Worship is not intended to glorify a man. Worship is not intended.
to make much of man. Worship is intended to be occupied with God and the glory by God. And self-will brings forth the judgment of God. Now it's very interesting when you come to the New Testament, to the book of Acts, chapter five. Giving, by the way, is a part of worship. In the fifth chapter of the Acts, There's that young couple, Ananias and Sapphira. Barnabas, who was called in the ending of chapter four of the Acts, the son of consolation, he was named Barnabas, but that wasn't his given name.
He was a good old Joe, for that was his name. His name was Joseph. But they named him Barnabas because of his generosity. So Ananias and Sapphira thought they'd get in on the act. And what Ananias and Sapphira did was simply self-will. It was self-will in the presence of God. And of course you know that they sold a piece of property and they wanted to sing in God's presence before God's people. I surrender all. but they only had surrendered part. They wanted the people to think they gave everything to God.
When they didn't give everything to God, they had kept back part, and they had done it on purpose. They had done it to deceive. It's an amazing thing, how self-will will intrude in the holy thing. They wanted the people to think one thing, but they actually did something else. This is what Ananias and Sapphira did. Now, there was nothing wrong with keeping back part. If they had only mentioned it. Look, this isn't everything. We kept part of this. Don't get the wrong idea when you consider what we gave.
And I believe that in reference to what our Lord taught in the Sermon on the Mount on giving. Let not your right hand know what your left hand does. And when I think of all the publicity that is given to people, and it disturbs me, I'll be honest with you, when I find someone who wants to talk about what other people give, don't rob somebody else of their blessing. Don't do it. Beloved, what we give should be in secret. Thy Father, who seeeth in secret shall reward the open living.
There are certain lessons that we can learn from the history of Nadab and Abihu and from the history of Ananias and Sapphira. And I think the lessons are four. And they're very practical. Lesson number one. Worship must be in accordance with the instructions God has given in his word. It must be according to the word of God. In everything, he must have the preeminence, not me. When I give out of him at the Lord's Supper, is it for me to give out of him, or is it for the purpose of God having the preeminence?
When I give thanks, it's my heart occupied with the greatness of God and what God has done for me in Christ. The instructions of the word of God. And when God dealt with Israel of old in the Old Testament, he said, you must make a difference between that which is holy and that which is not holy. Intruding into the presence of God. When we come, we must come according to the word of God. The second lesson, I think, is this. The strange fire of self-will will never be tolerated by God.
Not even for a moment. Now, just because God doesn't smite somebody dead, like he did Nadab and Abihu's, and like he did Ananias and Sapphira. God is gracious. God gave a warning in the beginning of the Levitical priesthood. He gave a warning in the beginning of the church in Ananias and Sapphira. And he expects these warnings to be before us who would come into his presence daily as we worship the Lord.
and also corporately as the people of God. The strange fire of self-will will not be tolerated by God. And just because God hasn't operated as he did in Leviticus ten, and as he did in Acts chapter five, does not mean that we are automatically accepted by God when we come. I believe that we as God's people must examine ourselves in this matter of worship of drawing nearer to God. We can become very flippant in what we think God will accept.
When it comes to worship, God is not playing games. We draw nearer. to a holy God. The third lesson is this. No person can worship God as he pleases. No one can act in defiance of the will of God as revealed in the word of God and eventually prosper. This is a lesson for us who withdraw near to God in worship. we must come God's way now I've always been disturbed by the expression of some who worship like we do at the Lord's Supper when they tell the Lord that they're so thankful we come to God in his own appointed way as though others do not come to God.
You see, that don't draw near just the same way we do. God has never given us the privilege, nor the prerogative to sit in judgment on others who worship. But we must be sure that when we approach, we are coming God's way. And I enjoy meeting with God's people. at the Lord's Supper. And while God has appointed, and he says, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do so for the Lord's death till he comes. I remember when I was quite young in the things of God, I was walking one afternoon with a warrior friend of mine.
And I made this statement to him. That young man, by the way, is with the Lord now. He died of cancer. But he, I said to him, I want you to remember something. We're gathered to the name of the Lord. He said, you are? He said, yeah. He said, tell me something. There's a church down the road that has a sign that says, over the door. He said, so who do you think they gather? Oh, what a rebuke. Oh, I got a good rebuke. I learned a lesson that day. God's people, saved by God's grace, they're gathered to whom?
The person of God's dear son. And I must ever keep that before me. When we come before God, we must remember what he taught Peter in Acts chapter ten. Don't you call what I have cleansed common or unclean? And beloved, anyone who's saved by the grace of God is not common. And they're not unclean. They are cleansed everywhere. They're saved by the blood of the crucified one. One more lesson. And that is this. Now you and I can cunningly concoct strange fire and incense.
It may meet the approval of man, and we may get man's applause. But I'll tell you this, it will be rejected by God. And that's our lesson. Do you realize that no one in Israel had not God intervened, would have thought that Nadab and Abihu did anything wrong. No one in the church that was gathered in Acts chapter five had not God intervened, would have ever thought that Ananias and Sapphira did anything wrong.
But they did. There is the iniquity of holy things. beloved you and I are living in an age that is not given the holiness and you and I have to be discreet in discerning what is really of God and what is it there are hindrances to worship there is a flesh within And you know what God says about the flesh.
It should be cruciform. There is Satan, an awful foe without. And he knows us better than we know ourselves. And of course there is a world with all its allurements. And when we bring the ways of the world into the worship of God, God will always be gentle. And there are hindrances to worship. God would have us draw near. God has invited us to draw near. He's made the provision to draw near. There is redemption in Christ. There is relationship with Christ.
And there is representation by Christ at the throne of God. This is a foundation.