Speaker 1: Hello everyone, this is Pastor Damian.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando.
Speaker 1: At New City we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life.
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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Today's scripture reading is taken from portions of Leviticus.
Speaker 1: If you are able, please stand.
Speaker 1: And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord commanded by Moses.
Speaker 1: And Moses said this is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.
Speaker 1: Then Moses said to Aaron draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people, and bring the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded.
Speaker 1: Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.
Speaker 1: And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting and when they came out they blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
Speaker 1: Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord.
Speaker 1: Then Moses said to Aaron this is what the Lord has said Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified and before all the people I will be glorified.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: My name is Jason and I am one of the pastors here at New City and I pray that everybody is doing well.
Speaker 2: After the storm I talked to a few people.
Speaker 2: We ourselves we lost power, had a couple leaks in our roof, but overall it seems like we kind of avoided the worst of the storm.
Speaker 2: But what I love is that we have a tendency when storms come, we have a tendency to show up and pray.
Speaker 2: And we pray because God is a God.
Speaker 2: We just we just sung about this in Psalm 88.
Speaker 2: He's a God who will hear and incline his ear to our cries.
Speaker 2: Why does God do that?
Speaker 2: God loves to hear our prayers because he is a lover.
Speaker 2: He is relational, which brings me to our series in Leviticus.
Speaker 2: Leviticus is for lovers.
Speaker 2: I was out sick last week and I heard that Ben, wherever he went, only preached on one verse.
Speaker 2: Well done, ben, well done.
Speaker 2: And I heard that was actually a shorter sermon for him too.
Speaker 2: So that helps when you limit the text.
Speaker 2: What we're going to try to do today, what I'm going to try to do, is go through three chapters chapters 8, 9, and 10.
Speaker 2: And well, in Ben's verse.
Speaker 2: Last week was all about a fire, there wasn't much blood, but this week there is going to be lots of blood and there's a lot and a lot more.
Speaker 2: So our text today really is about the word consecration.
Speaker 2: The events in our three chapters they're also.
Speaker 2: It's not only about consecration, but it's a consecration for an inauguration of worship.
Speaker 2: Something new happens in chapter 9.
Speaker 2: God's presence comes down and consumes the offering.
Speaker 2: God's people are in relational contact with God himself in a new way, which this is cause for consecration.
Speaker 2: This is cause for celebrating, which I kind of interpret what happens there in the verses that we read.
Speaker 2: They had shouts, and I always like to do.
Speaker 2: They had shouts of joy, but maybe they were fear too, mixed in with all of that awe, perhaps.
Speaker 2: So what do you think of when I say the word inauguration?
Speaker 2: Well, because we just did that series of following Jesus in politics and we're in this season, we're in you might think of the presidential inauguration, but you know my mind.
Speaker 2: As I was preparing for the text and I was reading through the inauguration of worship in chapter 9 of Leviticus, my mind goes to weddings.
Speaker 2: Weddings are an inaugural event.
Speaker 2: If you're married, you probably have a coffee cup or a t-shirt or some wall art or a cheese cutter that has the year of your marriage and it says something on there that this was the year that you all were established.
Speaker 2: At weddings something new happens, and actually not just at the weddings, but there's this great anticipation for the ceremony, for what's going to come, for all the goodness.
Speaker 2: In the wedding ceremony and the day of the wedding people get dressed up more normally than they would.
Speaker 2: The bride she wears white, kind of representing purity, her set apartness, her consecration for the groom and you could say that the bridal party themselves.
Speaker 2: They are kind of set-apart right, with all wearing similar attire.
Speaker 2: That's different from the rest of the wedding party.
Speaker 2: People have different roles right at the wedding.
Speaker 2: There's the bride, there's the groom, there's the bridal party, there are the parents of the bride, there's parents of the groom, there's probably a pastor there, right For Katie and I.
Speaker 2: We wanted to cover all our bases, so we had one priest, two Presbyterian pastors and a bishop at our wedding.
Speaker 2: So we're covering all of the bases there.
Speaker 2: But at a wedding there is ritual, there is ceremony, there is a format, there is a liturgy to follow, there are pronouncements that are said and blessings to be given, and it leads to what it leads to a purposeful outcome.
Speaker 2: Two people at a wedding are joined together as one flesh.
Speaker 2: But what happens?
Speaker 2: Let's just say what happens when the bride doesn't show up to the wedding?
Speaker 2: It doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: The bride must show up.
Speaker 2: The bride must be consecrated, must be set apart for the wedding.
Speaker 2: This is the picture of the people of God in Leviticus, but it's also the picture of us.
Speaker 2: We are the bride, god is the groom.
Speaker 2: Will we show up as he has commanded?
Speaker 2: Will we consecrate, set ourselves apart to God?
Speaker 2: In our text we will explore consecration through these points.
Speaker 2: What is consecration, who is consecrated and why we need consecration?
Speaker 2: If you have your Bibles, please open them to our text or your devices to Leviticus.
Speaker 2: 8, verse 36.
Speaker 2: And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord commanded by Moses.
Speaker 2: If you were to read, if you flip through chapter 8 and you read real carefully, after each ritual sequence there is a phrase the Lord, as the Lord has commanded.
Speaker 2: It's in verses 4, in verse 9, it's in verse 13, 17, 21, 29, and in our verse, verse 36.
Speaker 2: This happens anybody catch that Seven times in our chapter and this number is significant, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Speaker 2: So what is consecration or what is the aim of our consecration.
Speaker 2: Let me give you a definition on the outset.
Speaker 2: Consecration here is something that the Lord commands.
Speaker 2: One, we see that, but here's the definition is something that the Lord commands.
Speaker 2: One, we see that, but here's the definition.
Speaker 2: Consecration is to be set apart to a person and for a purpose.
Speaker 2: So what was the big deal?
Speaker 2: Why did they have to do all that the Lord commanded?
Speaker 2: If we put our text here chapters eight, nine and 10 of Leviticus in the larger context and larger narrative, it kind of it rolls on in from the book of exodus and consecration of the priests in chapter 8 and the worship service of 9.
Speaker 2: This is the culmination of all of that and with their increased personal interaction with their god, the chapters, especially chapter 9, as we read the last couple verses there in chapter 9, it's both the resolution and the climax of the story in Exodus, chapter 40, verses 34 and 35.
Speaker 2: If you want to turn with there, just go back a few pages to Exodus, chapter 40, verses 34 through 35.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read these real quick.
Speaker 2: Then the cloud covered the tent meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Speaker 2: Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because of the compromise of the people of God.
Speaker 2: If you just go back a few more pages in the book of Exodus you can remember the golden calf incident.
Speaker 2: It's not that far back.
Speaker 2: So the people of God are compromised before a holy God.
Speaker 2: The question is how can an unholy people show up to a holy God?
Speaker 2: The answer is consecration.
Speaker 2: It's to be set apart to a person for a purpose.
Speaker 2: Our text calls us to be a consecrated people, set apart to a person and for a purpose.
Speaker 2: A people that is distinct.
Speaker 2: It's different than the culture that they are heading into in the promised land.
Speaker 2: But the problem is we don't often show up where God commands us to.
Speaker 2: And if we do show up, we show up in our own way, through our own power, through our own work and through our own flesh.
Speaker 2: The culture around us is full of compromise, right, we can point to that all too easily.
Speaker 2: It's even hard for me to watch a football game without having to mute the commercials for my daughter and maybe even for myself.
Speaker 2: But the problem here in our text shows us that the compromise is not outside the church but is within the church.
Speaker 2: It's not out there, it's in here.
Speaker 2: John Tyson, a pastor in New York City, in talking about concentration in the time of compromise, says the bride of Christ is compromised in three different ways.
Speaker 2: He speaks to the broader church here, not just New City or not just the PCA, but he speaks to the broader church.
Speaker 2: But I think these are ways that we also can err, ways that we are led into areas of compromise, into areas of carelessness, into areas of fear before a holy God.
Speaker 2: The first error is theological compromise.
Speaker 2: We are moved by desire-driven doctrine more than we are by the word of God, and you can especially see that in the broader church, in areas of sexuality, in areas of finance, in justice, just to name a few.
Speaker 2: 2 Timothy 4 speaks to this error, speaks to this temptation.
Speaker 2: 2 Timothy 4 says For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but they will have itching ears.
Speaker 2: They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Speaker 2: There is a temptation to avoid sound teaching, to turn from the truth rather than to follow the sound doctrine that we find in God's word.
Speaker 2: How about the doctrine of forgiveness that is taught in Colossians 3, where the Lord has forgiven us, so we must also forgive others.
Speaker 2: That's what the scriptures say clearly, unless there's too much water that goes under the bridge.
Speaker 2: No, we are called to forgiveness.
Speaker 2: It's not about our desires, and sure you have to work through pain and suffering in ways that people have offended you, but we are still called to the doctrine of forgiveness.
Speaker 2: That doctrine holds true.
Speaker 2: That's a theological compromise we can't give up on.
Speaker 2: The second error is moral compromise, and that's probably where our minds go right away, or, on the most, on the front of it.
Speaker 2: We're in the midst of moral compromise, and we've said this here, this quote there's three marks of a moral revolution that we're in right.
Speaker 2: One mark is that what is universally condemned is now celebrated.
Speaker 2: The second mark is what was universally celebrated is now condemned.
Speaker 2: And the third mark of a moral revolution is those who refuse to celebrate are condemned, and so you can just take that for what it's worth.
Speaker 2: That's from Theo Hobson.
Speaker 2: He's a British theologian and he talks about church and the secularism and how it's affecting where we are.
Speaker 2: We're in this moral revolution and we can point to sexuality as a leading area where we see moral compromise and how it represents these marks of the moral revolution.
Speaker 2: But what about ourselves?
Speaker 2: These marks of the moral revolution?
Speaker 2: But what about ourselves?
Speaker 2: Do we linger too long on social media posts?
Speaker 2: Do we compromise in the way which we watch, what we watch on our streaming devices?
Speaker 2: Do we have too many drinks just because it really doesn't matter?
Speaker 2: So that is the second era, moral compromise.
Speaker 2: The third era is the leadership compromise within the church, and this is the failure within.
Speaker 2: We see this in so many different ways.
Speaker 2: It's actually quite sad that the bride of Christ is marred in this way by the failure of leaders.
Speaker 2: That's actually why we favor here.
Speaker 2: The polity of our church is a plurality of leaders.
Speaker 2: There is a group of men, a session, that is to lead our church and we regularly, in that session, we hold out a culture of repentance and reconciliation instead of a culture of hiding.
Speaker 2: We are representatives of you all.
Speaker 2: We are not above you all.
Speaker 2: You are allowed to look in, you're allowed to ask us questions, you are allowed to see who we are.
Speaker 2: So, indeed, we live in a time of compromise.
Speaker 2: We live in a time where we are broken, where we are marred, where we are unholy.
Speaker 2: But what Leviticus holds out to us in chapters eight, nine and 10?
Speaker 2: Here it holds out a different path, a path of consecration for consummation with our ultimate lover, jesus.
Speaker 2: Chapter nine it shows the inauguration of worship for God's people, with.
Speaker 2: The outcome is what?
Speaker 2: Aaron and Moses are able to come into the tent of meeting and the people all see the glory of God.
Speaker 2: There is communion.
Speaker 2: Now, after the fall, they are consecrated with the presence with God.
Speaker 2: So what is consecration?
Speaker 2: Consecration is to be set apart to a person and for a purpose.
Speaker 2: Let me show you how I get that in our text over the three chapters.
Speaker 2: First, consecration is to a person.
Speaker 2: Look at me with chapter nine, skip over to chapter nine, verse six.
Speaker 2: And Moses said this is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you, the priests.
Speaker 2: They have set themselves apart, offering sacrifices not just for themselves but also for the people.
Speaker 2: And they did in chapter 8, what the Lord, and in chapter 9, what the Lord had commanded.
Speaker 2: So that, why did they do those things?
Speaker 2: So that the glory of the Lord may appear to them.
Speaker 2: They no longer need to stand far off like they did in Mount Sinai, but they're able to come close to God, come to the place of God's presence and not be consumed when the fire comes down in chapter 9.
Speaker 2: They can come to God in relationship.
Speaker 2: Consecration is to a person, it is relational.
Speaker 2: Second, consecration is for a purpose.
Speaker 2: We are set apart for good works.
Speaker 2: If you skip over to chapter 10, verses 10 and 11, I didn't read this, we didn't have this read.
Speaker 2: But we obey the commands of the Lord so that we are able to what Distinguish between what is holy and the common, between what is unclean and clean, and teach those all around us about the statues of God.
Speaker 2: So what we see here is that consecration is to a person, is to our Lord and it is for a purpose.
Speaker 2: But we also get here is the process of consecration, specifically in chapter 8.
Speaker 2: This is from John Tyson as well and I couldn't help but share this because I love math and I love equations.
Speaker 2: So the process of consecration is cleansing plus sacrifice plus dedication equals consecration.
Speaker 2: Let me jump through the text real quickly and show where I see that Cleansing we see that right In the washing of Aaron and his sons and the ways they were dressed.
Speaker 2: Sacrifice we see that in the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings, both for the priests and for the people.
Speaker 2: Dedication how long did this ceremony take?
Speaker 2: For consecration, it took seven days.
Speaker 2: The span of seven days, so they were dedicated to the work of the Lord.
Speaker 2: So cleansing plus sacrifice, plus dedication equals consecration.
Speaker 2: And for me this is really helpful because it gives you know, it gives handles how we are to consecrate ourselves with maybe non-temple language, right, non-religious language.
Speaker 2: Think with me about the journey of an Olympic athlete.
Speaker 2: Right, we just had the Olympics not too long ago.
Speaker 2: The road to the Olympics is very demanding.
Speaker 2: It requires total commitment.
Speaker 2: The athlete just doesn't show up and win a race, but they have to consecrate themselves.
Speaker 2: They set themselves apart for the work that's ahead.
Speaker 2: Cleansing think about it Before competing.
Speaker 2: Athletes must cleanse their bodies.
Speaker 2: They remove anything that hinders them in their performance.
Speaker 2: They take away sugar, probably a lot.
Speaker 2: They commit to a strict regimen of nutrition and fitness and they rid themselves all of unhealthy habits.
Speaker 2: Sacrifice Do Olympic athletes sacrifice.
Speaker 2: Yes, they give up personal comfort, social engagements, right, when we go out to the movies on Friday, they're probably not going out to the movies, but they're going to the gym.
Speaker 2: And they often sacrifice relationships over the goal of winning at the Olympics.
Speaker 2: And the last thing with the last part of the equation is dedication.
Speaker 2: Day in and day out, their lives are centered around one goal, one purpose.
Speaker 2: Right, they don't veer off one way or another, but they are dedicated.
Speaker 2: So we see here that they've answered the call to be set apart.
Speaker 2: They've answered the call to be separated by cleansing themselves, by sacrificing for things and by dedicating themselves to that.
Speaker 2: So the question then becomes what is your aim?
Speaker 2: What is my aim?
Speaker 2: How are we setting ourselves apart?
Speaker 2: How is consecration working itself out in our lives?
Speaker 2: I find Wendell Berry's poem here really helpful.
Speaker 2: Just one stanza from how to Be a Poet.
Speaker 2: He says this there are no unsacred places, there are only sacred places and desecrated places.
Speaker 2: This means that the call to a person for a purpose isn't just some religious realm, it's for all of life.
Speaker 2: There are no unsacred places and there is no neutrality.
Speaker 2: There is only sacred places and desecrated places.
Speaker 2: Are we moving to consecration or are we moving to desecration?
Speaker 2: It's a binary answer.
Speaker 2: You're moving one way or another.
Speaker 2: The Olympics athlete's aim is typically winning for their own glory, and we saw that in the summer in a couple different ways, but we also saw the glory of the Lord, I think, displayed by some athletes too.
Speaker 2: Our aim is setting ourselves apart should be right for relationship to God and for a purpose.
Speaker 2: So here's some diagnostic questions to ask yourself how are you doing with consecration?
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna put them in the categories of cleansing, sacrifice and dedication.
Speaker 2: What areas do I need cleansing from Control?
Speaker 2: Bitterness, unforgiveness, greed, power, sexual desire, self-sufficiency.
Speaker 2: Where do I need actually?
Speaker 2: What do I sacrifice for?
Speaker 2: Where do I spend my time?
Speaker 2: Who and what gets my attention?
Speaker 2: Where do I spend money?
Speaker 2: How dedicated am I to the call of God in my life?
Speaker 2: Am I dedicated to hearing God's voice in scripture before all others?
Speaker 2: Am I dedicated to rest, to set aside one day a week from everything that I know is work, so that I can show up in my various callings?
Speaker 2: We can use these questions to mark out where we are in our consecration to the Lord.
Speaker 2: So what is consecration?
Speaker 2: Consecration is a call to be set apart to a person for a purpose, but who are the priests?
Speaker 2: Is consecration only for me, damian and Ben, or for Kenny and Ryan, who will be ordained upcoming?
Speaker 2: No, let's consider who consecration is for, and this point is going to go a lot more quickly because you all, you know the answer.
Speaker 2: This is the water that we swim in here at New City.
Speaker 2: Look down with me in chapter 9, verse 22.
Speaker 2: Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them and he came down from the offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offering and Moses and Aaron went Verse 24.
Speaker 2: And when all the people saw it, they saw it, they shouted and they fell on their faces.
Speaker 2: The point is this we are all priests and so thus we are all called to consecration.
Speaker 2: Now, if you were to go through all of chapter nine, my gal was wondering why I picked so few verses between here and there and I was trying to hide something.
Speaker 2: But I'm asking you guys to go, maybe later this afternoon.
Speaker 2: Go through all three chapters, 8 through 10.
Speaker 2: But if you were to go slowly through chapter 9, you could count the phrase the people 10 different times, four times alone in our text.
Speaker 2: That I just read, and just like there was significance, the seven times that the Lord commanded in chapter eight, there is significance, I think, in the 10 times that the writer of Leviticus, moses, is using here with the people.
Speaker 2: There's something important for us to understand here.
Speaker 2: One commentator says while Moses and Aaron are given entrance into the divine abode, clearly the purpose of their doing so was for the sake of the people.
Speaker 2: Their entrance sanctions, their entrance consecrates all the people to see the glory of the Lord.
Speaker 2: So consecration doesn't stop at the priests, but the emphasis here is upon the corporate experience.
Speaker 2: This is the idea that the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 9, where he says you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession you hear that A consecration to a person for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies, his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies.
Speaker 2: There's a purpose that you may proclaim his excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Speaker 2: Martin Luther says it this way we are not all called to be pastors, but we are all called to be priests.
Speaker 2: All of us are priests.
Speaker 2: We're all called, then, to consecration, and around here we underline the beauty of the priesthood of all believers with this quote from Mark Green.
Speaker 2: There are two strategies, quote there are two strategies to reach the world.
Speaker 2: One, to recruit the people of God to use some of their leisure time to join the missionary initiatives of church paid workers.
Speaker 2: Or two, the second strategy, to equip the people of God for the fruitful mission in all of their life.
Speaker 2: This is what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 4 that we often quote around here as well, when he says he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, the church paid staff members to equip the saints.
Speaker 2: That's all.
Speaker 2: Global executive director for the Lausanne movement wrote an article back in 2019.
Speaker 2: It was titled director for the Lausanne movement wrote an article back in 2019.
Speaker 2: It was titled An Apology to the Christian 99% from the 1%.
Speaker 2: He was speaking to this reality and he states that, missionaries and pastors, we don't exist to help.
Speaker 2: We don't exist to fulfill the Great Commission, but we exist to help you fill the Great Commission.
Speaker 2: His letter was one of repentance and I'm so thankful that around here at New City we are largely gone with option two from Mark Green's strategies you all are the 99%, you all are the saints that we are equipping for the works of ministry.
Speaker 2: Now, just a little side note, because I love missions and I love the unreached we still need missionaries, we still need sent ones.
Speaker 2: We still need pastors who will cross cultures and languages for the sake of reaching the unreached.
Speaker 2: We still need missionaries, we still need sent ones.
Speaker 2: We still need pastors who will cross cultures and languages for the sake of reaching the unreached.
Speaker 2: There's no other way.
Speaker 2: There are sent ones that need to be sent to do that work.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the works of ministry and building of the body, hurricane Milton gave our diaconate, our diaconate and people who are involved in a group on the app called what's it called?
Speaker 2: Hurricane Cleanup an amazing opportunity to kind of spread the love of Christ, to build up the body, as Ephesians says.
Speaker 2: So they're on the app.
Speaker 2: Both our diaconate but also just members start to join the app.
Speaker 2: We send a communication out beforehand.
Speaker 2: You could jump on there before the hurricane and you all the priests could say I have these needs and then you all the priests could respond and say I can fulfill those needs.
Speaker 2: And I saw that happen through many different interactions and messages on the app.
Speaker 2: And the beautiful thing, it was not.
Speaker 2: Nothing was about it.
Speaker 2: Was the church paid staff doing anything?
Speaker 2: In fact, I think some of the church paid staff actually received help by you all who are the priests.
Speaker 2: New City's mission is to equip and inform you for your callings, for your vocations, and it is our intention that you are sent into mission in the spaces where you live, work and play.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 2: Because consecration is a call to be set apart to a person, to God, for a purpose.
Speaker 2: You all are the royal priesthood.
Speaker 2: You all are consecrated for the work of God.
Speaker 2: You are called to be formed and you are formed to be sent.
Speaker 2: So how do you get formed here at New City for your vocation, for where you are sent?
Speaker 2: Well, there are two ways.
Speaker 2: There are probably other ways, but these are the main two ways.
Speaker 2: One take us up on the common rhythm.
Speaker 2: It's the eight practices we try to corporately practice together to love God and to love neighbors.
Speaker 2: For example, try the bless practice for your neighbors.
Speaker 2: For example, try the bless practice for your neighbors Don't let the hurricane fever pass you by, but pause, pray, which is another common rhythm practice, and see how you can engage your neighbors to bless them with the blessing that you have received as a consecrated priest.
Speaker 2: Two, the other way that you are formed or equipped here at New City is to engage our formative environments of congregations here we are, communities and circles.
Speaker 2: These places are places of equipping for your callings as the royal priesthood.
Speaker 2: So if you come to worship sometimes not all the time start coming more.
Speaker 2: If you're not in a community, join a community.
Speaker 2: If you're not in a circle, reach out.
Speaker 2: There's a form on the app.
Speaker 2: Let's get you in a circle so you can be formed for your callings.
Speaker 2: So we've talked about what consecration is and who is consecrated.
Speaker 2: And our last point is why we need consecration.
Speaker 2: Or, to put it in the form of a question why do we need consecration?
Speaker 2: Are we, as a community, more consecrated or are we more compromised?
Speaker 2: How are we being formed in New City?
Speaker 2: How are we setting ourselves apart, consecrating ourselves completely to the Lord and His purposes?
Speaker 2: Are we failing in the areas that I mentioned earlier at the beginning, where we're falling into compromise in our thinking, in our doing, in our fears, in the ways that we deal with our isolation?
Speaker 2: Do we move toward carelessness about our sin and cowardness to defend the truth?
Speaker 2: Think about those questions and let's look again in our text in chapter 10.
Speaker 2: Starting in verse 1, now nadab and abihu, the sons of aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the lord, which he had not commanded them.
Speaker 2: So what do you think is happening here?
Speaker 2: For one, this is why in our house, I stopped burning incense.
Speaker 2: But really, another thing is pretty obvious right, they did something that the lord had commanded them not to do.
Speaker 2: This is pretty clear in the text, and this is in stark contrast to chapters 8 and chapters 9, where they all did as the lord had commanded them to do.
Speaker 2: It looks like they were doing something right.
Speaker 2: It looks like they were taking an offering and going in there with something right.
Speaker 2: Right, they weren't killing their neighbor, they weren't lying about their neighbor, they weren't doing stuff that we weren't supposed to do.
Speaker 2: But my contention here is that they were actually doing the Lord's work in the power of the flesh On the staff.
Speaker 2: We read yearly that the Lord's work in the Lord's way by Francis Schaeffer.
Speaker 2: And Schaeffer says the problem isn't outside the church.
Speaker 2: In our compromise.
Speaker 2: The real problem quote he says is this that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Individually, that's you, and corporately, that's us together, tending to do the Lord's work in the power of the flesh rather than of the spirit.
Speaker 2: The central problem is always, he says, always in our midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.
Speaker 2: Or, to say it differently, as we said today, the people of God compromising in doing the work of the Lord.
Speaker 2: It is the people offering consecration in their own way, not in the way that the Lord has commanded, offering unauthorized fire before the Lord.
Speaker 2: The temptation is to bring our own fire right.
Speaker 2: This is a play from Ben's sermon last week.
Speaker 2: Instead of doing the job of building our altars, as we heard, we must build the altars.
Speaker 2: God is the one who brings the fire.
Speaker 2: John Mark Homer says this the temptation for most of us is to syncretism, to a kind of DIY faith that is a mix of Jesus and Sabbath and contemplative prayer and progressive sex ethics and Western individualism and consumerism.
Speaker 2: We say I want a little of Jesus, a little of Buddha, a little mindfulness, a little neuroscience, and a little of mindfulness, a little of neuroscience, and we put it all together and we do our own thing.
Speaker 2: That is the great temptation for us is to do the Lord's work in our own way.
Speaker 2: So then, what is our hope?
Speaker 2: In compromise, in our failed consecration?
Speaker 2: Our only hope is that the glory of the Lord appears, like it did in chapter nine 9, and blesses the people.
Speaker 2: Look down with me at the last verse in chapter 10 that we read corporately together, verse 3 of chapter 10.
Speaker 2: This is what the Lord has said among those who are near me, I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.
Speaker 2: And Aaron held his peace.
Speaker 2: This message from the Lord is not only to Aaron, it's to us.
Speaker 2: God's fire, which we learned about last week, is God's presence.
Speaker 2: It comes down in chapter 9 in blessing, but here in chapter 10,.
Speaker 2: It comes down in chapter 9 in blessing, but here in chapter 10 it comes down in judgment.
Speaker 2: God's presence is either blessing or judgment.
Speaker 2: There is no middle ground.
Speaker 2: Doing the work in the flesh will lead to our death and judgment.
Speaker 2: We will be consumed.
Speaker 2: All of us know this feeling of striving and trying to do it all in the flesh.
Speaker 2: It's an isolated feeling and defeating way to live the life that God has called us to.
Speaker 2: God's presence here is never neutral.
Speaker 2: The result of engaging him must either be for blessing or judgment.
Speaker 2: Meeting with God through the way he has opened, for the way that he has commanded it, leads to blessing.
Speaker 2: But approaching God through a way that he has not commanded it, leads to judgment.
Speaker 2: So how are we to approach God?
Speaker 2: What are the means of approach?
Speaker 2: As we draw near to the glory of the Lord, we must be sanctified by the means he has commanded.
Speaker 2: We must be consecrated by the means he has ordained.
Speaker 2: John's gospel talks about also the glory of the Lord.
Speaker 2: It says this in the end of verse 14.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the glory of the Lord that has appeared.
Speaker 2: We are called to draw near to him for our consecration.
Speaker 2: In him, our need for consecration is met.
Speaker 2: We are transformed from common use to sacred use as royal priests.
Speaker 2: Jesus says in the final discourse in John's gospel, in John, chapter 17, verse 19,.
Speaker 2: He says this For their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in the truth.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the way that God has established for us to come near to him.
Speaker 2: Jesus lived in complete consecration to a person, to the Father, in relationship, and he lived in complete consecration to the Father's purpose, to the Father's will.
Speaker 2: Jesus obeyed the Father's purpose even to the point of death on the cross, enduring the consuming fire, right on the cross, of God's judgment that we all deserve, so that we can enjoy the consuming fire of God's blessing in consecrating relationship with him.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the one we must draw near to.
Speaker 2: He is the one who will consecrate or sanctify us in his presence.
Speaker 2: God says in our text those who are near me, I will be sanctified, those who draw near Jesus will be sanctified.
Speaker 2: But what if the bride doesn't show up to the wedding?
Speaker 2: Well, this groom in Jesus, he leaves heaven and seeks her right.
Speaker 2: What if the bride shows up impure, broken and dirty, like we all are?
Speaker 2: Well, this groom Jesus.
Speaker 2: He consecrates himself so that we might present the church to himself in splendor.
Speaker 2: And it says in Ephesians 5 that he might present us in splendor, without spot, without wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the one who makes us holy, he's the one who sanctifies us.
Speaker 2: He's the one who gets the bride ready for the wedding feast.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the one who brings resolution.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the climax to our need for consecration.
Speaker 2: Jesus was set apart to his father on the cross, so that we could be set apart to Jesus in our callings.
Speaker 2: He is the only way Draw near to him.
Speaker 2: Let us pray, father.
Speaker 2: We are grateful for the ways that you love us.
Speaker 2: In particular, we are grateful that you sent your son, who is the glory of the, to sanctify and consecrate us, your people, a people from all nations who can come to worship and give you glory.
Speaker 2: Jesus, in you there is life, and we behold not only the groom who marries us, but we behold the one who consecrates and sanctifies us.
Speaker 2: Spirit, fill us and help us to love and behold you in praise.
Speaker 2: Help us to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way.
Speaker 2: We give you the glory in the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit.
Speaker 2: Amen.