Christ in all the scriptures Aspects of sanctification

 Christ in all the scriptures

Aspects of sanctification   Leviticus 10

The chapter is "book-ended" by the two men Aaron and Moses being humbled before the Lord.  Chapter 10v3 "Aaron held his peace"; chapter 10v20 "And when Moses heard that he was content".   This gives the balance to an aspect of sanctification, as we shall see.  Aaron was feeling very raw, his two sons had been executed before his eyes.  He was in shock, grieving for his two sons, also embarrassed that his sons had brought shame on the congregation.  The temptation to complain was immense, the feeling of discrimination must have been considerable.  Like another man, Job, one of Aaron's contemporaries, who lost everything, his business, his possessions, his children, his health.  Yet the comment is "In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly"-Job1v22.  He had learned in all things to accept the ways of the Lord without question, even in the face of personal loss.  God is God and He has no need to explain Himself, (though often He graciously does).   Aaron was faced with sudden, deep, emotional loss, but when  God declares His majesty through Moses, Aaron kept his peace.    

What follows is a series of sanctifying measures as the priesthood is established.  No pause was allowed in the proceedings even in the face of human tragedy, God's work must go on, there is to be no mourning in the face of Divine judgment.  This continues in the following chapters, we are about to discover the meaning of "I will be sanctified in them that draw nigh unto me".

1)  The swift removal of all defilement    (v4-7)   The two bodies had to be removed from the tabernacle.  Dead bodies are a source of defilement and were carried out of the camp.  This was done by the cousins of the sons of Aaron, so that no defilement would be incurred by the priests in the service of God.  They were "carried in their coats", there was no ceremony, the bodies were carried outside and cremated.  The priests, the sons of Aaron, were to show no emotion, but allow the congregation to mourn in their stead.  Extraordinary qualities are demanded of the priests of the Lord in their singular devotion to Him.  This was an important day in Israel, which had been tarnished by the blatant rebellion of Nadab and Abihu, the honour of God had been compromised.  They were forbidden to remove their bonnets (which would be the normal practise around death); they were not allowed to rnd their garments, a token of public grief; they were warned not to leave the precincts of the tabernacle.  The penalty was death, this was the most severe Divine sanction.  Why was it so serious?  God will not tolerate defilement in His presence, this is how He regards sin before Him.

Modern application   The grace of God does not diminish sin, it condemns it and puts it away.  References to the Lord's people, whether, individuals, churches, or universal, are described as the inner temple, the holy shrine of God-refer 1st Cor 3v17; 1st Cor. 6v19; Eph.2v21-22.   His attitude to sin has never changed, and He has commanded that, in all its forms, whether of people or practices, that it be put away from His sight: readers are encouraged to consult the following scriptures to assess responsibilities today.  He has promised to be with us always but He will not dwell with sin or defilement:

Matthew 18b16-18; 1st Cor. 3v17; 1st Cor. 5v11-13; Colossians 3v5-9; Ephesians 4v22; Titus 3v10-11.  God will have sanctity in His house.  Note the language of these verses, "put away", "put off", "reject", "mortify".  The concept of a "broad church" is not in scripture.  

2)   Personal sobriety    Leviticus 10v8-10.  Strange to see this prohibition here, but it may be Nadab and Abihu were under the influence of strong drink as they corrupted the worship of God.  There are extremes to be avoided in the matter of drinking wine.  There is no prohibition on drinking wine in scripture, otherwise the Lord Jesus would not have turned water into wine at a wedding feast.  We should not be adding human rules which bring God's people into bondage.  However there is a warning against strong drink and drunkenness in scripture.  In the service of God, the priests of the Lord were not to even drink wine, so that they were sober while officiating at the Lord's altar.  Since wine is part of the memorial service, it is part of Christian worship, but symbolically only, not for personal consumption

Modern application   We are encouraged to demonstrate sobriety in Divine service.  Of the various words used to describe sobriety in the N/T (sophron, sophrosune, nepho), all of us in service have to be sober, sound of mind, self controlled, having a balanced and prudent approach to life, watchful:

Romans 12v3  Sobriety in thinking about ourselves, properly assessing our abilities and limitations; 1st Thess. 5v6-8 awareness of the darkness around us and of the end of things; 1st Timothy 3v2-3 with Titus 1v8, elders to avoid winebibbing and to attend to personal character; Titus 2v2-5 Older men and women to teach sobriety to the younger, for which they must be examples themselves; 1st Peter 1v13 Gird up the spiritual loins, by removing all hindrances to progress in Divine things; 1st Peter 4v7, watchfulness in prayer; 1st Peter 5v8, be aware of an adversary stalking you to bring you down.  You have greater resources but you need soundness of mind.   Learn discrimination between good and evil, clean and unclean.

3)  Teaching the statutes of the Lord   Leviticus 10v11.   Priests are usually associated with ceremony and ritual.  However this aspect of their work is more prominent in scripture than thought.  Alongside their duties to maintain ceremonial worship, was the injunction to teach the people of God Divine principles.  Consider the following: Deuteronomy 17v8-11; 33v8-10; Ezra 7v 10 "For Ezra (the priest) had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments"; Ezekiel 44v23-24; Malachi 2v4-7 "...the law of truth was in his mouth (Levi, the priestly family) and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity.  For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts".  

Modern application  There is no longer any priestly caste, separate from the people, for all of God's people are priests by new birth into the family of God (1st Peter 2v5-9) as we have already observed.  In that sense we are all obligated to teach the word of God in our varying capacity: apostles to the entire church, part of the great commission (Matthew 28v20 "...teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"-also 1st Corinthians 12v28-31, teaching local churches).  Local elders feeding the flock of God (Acts 20v28; 1st Peter 5v1-3).  Older women to teach younger women aspects of Christian family life (Titus 2); older men teaching younger men the need for Christian character (also Titus 2).  All of us teaching one another as good stewards of the grace of God (1st Peter 4v10).  The need for teaching the things of God is paramount in the present day, and it is perhaps the lack of it that has led to many of our problems.  Many Christian groups tend to point to Acts 2 as the basis for their gatherings.  So why has the teaching of the apostles doctrine been either discarded, or consigned to secondary status, as it has been in modern churches.  One can hardly find a church today where the teaching of the word is at the top of the agenda as it should be, as it was in the early church??

Compassion to be always the attitude in the service of God   Leviticus 10v12-20

Moses, rightly reiterated what the priests should do in the service of God, how they should share with each other and the Lord in the sacred ceremony.  In the circumstances Aaron and his sons were unable to partake as they were grieving at heart.  Moses remonstrated with them, but Aaron stood firm that they were not in the right frame of mind to carry out the procedure.  If they did, it would only be ritual and not from the heart.  Worship should not be ritualistic but from deep within.  The chapter which began with Aaron accepting God's judgment on his sons, ends with Moses acknowledging the real heart grief of his brother.  The situation brought humility from both of them.  This aspect of sanctification is important, for God is compassionate to the infirmities of His people and this should mark us.  "He knoweth our frame, He remembereth we are but dust"-Psalm 103v14.  We can ill afford hard headed legality, for we are all subject to infirmity 

 

Christ in all the scriptures The awesome persona of God

 Christ in all the scriptures

The awesome persona of God

"I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me, and before all the people I will be glorified"  Leviticus 10v3

This phenomenal assertion of the Divine nature should be emblazoned on every platform and imprinted on every mind.  The reality of it will never be altered and calls for reverential fear of the Lord.  This involves every living human being, describing the only true division of mankind.  There are those who draw nigh to Him, and they are His people.  In them He will be sanctified, that is set apart for sacred service.  There are those who remain aloof from Him,  who ignore Him, or oppose Him, who make gods of lesser things.  In them He will be glorified.  It is necessary therefore to expound the meaning of this remarkable word, which should cause every one of us to sit up and take notice.  

Scriptures are emphatic that there are, in the sight of God, only two classes of people, and we can trace this throughout.  Saints and sinners, godly and ungodly, righteous and lawless, saved and perishing, wise and foolish: this is the terminology of scripture, this is God's view of humanity.  Ultimately, only His estimation will count.  God is God and He will have the last word, there is no middle ground.   Following the punitive removal of the sons of Aaron, the Lord declares through Moses the reality of who He is.  He reminds them of His Holiness in unmistakeable terms.  Note the distinction between God's people and all other people: He says "IN them that draw nigh, He will be sanctified; then He says "BEFORE all the people I will be glorified".  There will be no sanctification for the Godless world, what they will receive is a display of  His compelling Majesty.

"Before all the people I will be glorified"     He is the God "with whom we all have to do"-Hebrews 4v13.  No matter the priesthood and the sacrifices, all of which point to Christ, (God's merciful and gracious provision), yet the ungodly remain aloof from God.  Atheists, Agnostics, False religions, Religious Professors, Foolish, and the like are in abundance in the God-hating world.  They, steadfastly, ignore or reject the Divine approaches in mercy.  There will be a final separation at the last day, but not before every one who ever lived will glorify Him.  God will be glorified in all flesh, no matter their eternal destiny, holy scripture asserts.  God will be vindicated in all things, He will be universally acknowledged to be right: 

"Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father".  Philippians 2v9-11

Note the awesome extent of this: Every knee shall bow...every tongue confess...of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth.  No one omitted from this subservience in whatever sphere they ended, all will accord honour to God through Jesus Christ.  They will bow with their knee and confess with their tongue that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, and this will be to the Glory of God the Father.  Had they done that in life they would be saved and reconciled to God.  Now they must accept their destiny even as they bow before Him.

1st Chronicles 29v11 "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine, thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all".

Psalm 86v9 "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name".

Revelation 5v13 "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying Blessing and honour and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever".

"In them that come nigh unto me, I will be sanctified...".   This is a call to reverential living on the part of those who are His people.  This means doing things His way, respecting His wisdom and His holiness unlike the actions of the sons of Aaron.  Concerning those who are estranged from God, there is no fear of God before their eyes, but it should be different with us.  His word must become our law and purpose of living.  Pleasing Him to become the prime motivation of all that we are.  Peter records "If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear"-1st Peter 1v17.  This is not a cringing, abject fear of someone greater, this is reverential fear of One who is majestic.  His ways and His wisdom are so magnificent we are compelled to follow Him.   The early church, quickly realised this: Acts 2v43 "Fear came upon every soul...".  This respectful attitude was accentuated in the wake of the sudden, and very public execution of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.  The result of that reverberated throughout the Acts.

Acts 5v11 "And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things".

Acts 9v31 "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied".

God is holy and those who approach Him in worship must be holy, as it says in Peter "Be ye holy for I am holy".  This is not religious hypocrisy, or sanctimonious jargon but a real sanctity imputed to us leading to progressive sanctification and ultimately practical holiness in His presence.  This demands of us reverential fear of the Lord as we grow in the Christian life.  In personal life and in corporate testimony we must proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us.  

The apostles were in accord with the standards given Moses: Paul's word to the Corinthians was (2nd Cor. 7v1) "Having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God".  Each of us will be able to assess before the Lord, as to what that means to us.  Peter said "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?"-1st Peter 4v17-18.

Christ in all the scriptures Strange fire

 Christ in all the scriptures

Strange fire   Leviticus 10

"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".

How typical of humanity to mar the most sacred of occasions.  Disobedience is essentially the human problem.  The eldest sons of Aaron, promoted to highest ceremonial office, following seven days of meticulous preparation, decided they knew better than God.  Such is the shocking nature of this event, we must take time to digest the issues involved.  Their timing could not have been worse; it is the commencement of a new worship, the beginning of a new phase in world history, and these men disobeyed the will of the Lord whom they were to lead in worship!  Who contradicts the object of worship, yet that is precisely what they did!?

These men first appear, in scripture, on Mount Sinai, with Moses and Aaron with the seventy elders of Israel, when they were the guests of Almighty God-Exodus 24v1-2 and 9-10.  They were then witnesses over approx. nine months of the construction of the tabernacle.  They witnessed the glory of God descend on the sacred structure in Exodus 40. They were exalted to priesthood in Exodus 28, initiated as priests of the Lord in Leviticus 8 (note the repetition of "Aaron and his sons", 8v2v6v13v14v18v22v24v27v30v31v36).  They were instructed in all the commandments of the Lord pertaining to ceremonial worship.  In Leviticus 9 they had spent seven whole days in preparation for this most exalted public service.  They had just witnessed the approval of the Lord in the kindling of the fire on the altar to consume the sacrifice.  The whole nation rejoiced in the spectacle, man and God in harmony.  After all that, Nadab and Abihu decided to do it differently.  They had been instructed that the fire for the censers for the burning of incense must be taken from the altar, it must be the fire from God-refer Exodus 30v7-9 and Leviticus 16v12.  They kindled a fire from another source and brought the strange incense to the Lord.  What possessed them to do this, we can only wonder, but the response of God was swift and terminal, as it was also shocking.  Suddenly the whole camp of Israel knew that it must be God's way or not at all.  We may read this and criticise the sons of Aaron for their stupidity, but we may well consider our own ways, whether how we are approaching God is the proper, reverential way.  There are many individuals and churches bringing strange fire unto the Lord.  Each of us should consider our practices as we approach Him.

This goes to the heart of the human problem, the inward tendency to rebel against authority, even Divine authority, and in the face of Divine benificence.  "I did it my way" is the favourite principle of the world; the song, popularised by the American singer Sinatra, is now the theme tune at most western funerals. It must be God's way, otherwise we make ourselves God.  It is a problem of attitude to God, which is clearly established in scripture.  From the beginning it has been so:

Romans 5v19 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners...".   Ephesians 5v6 "Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience".   Titus 1v16 "They profess that they know God; but in works deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate".  Even those who profess to know God with their lips, deny Him by their lives.  The day of reckoning will come, according to 2nd Thessalonians 1v7-8 "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ".  Ignoring or rejecting the gospel of Christ will be met with eternal punishment.  To fail to come to God in His way is disobedience.  Faith in Christ is obedience to God; Paul was given apostleship "for the obedience of faith among all nations for His name"-Romans 1v6.  Faith is obedience, it follows lack of it is disobedience.  Peter sums it up in 1st Peter 4v17 "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God"?   At the beginning of the priesthood of Israel, God acted in summary judgment against the sons of Aaron; at the beginning of the church He did the same with Ananias and Sapphira who were struck dead in public for lying to God in the matter of the sale of their land.  This makes sore reading, yet God's people are not immune from disobedience.  He cannot condone in the church what He will condemn in the world.  Failure to abide by the principles of worship will always invite His displeasure.  What brings pleasure to God is that, and only that, which comes from the altar.  This brings us to the correct view of the work of Christ,

In contrast to the rebellion of men, His whole life and death was an act of OBEDIENCE.

Romans 5v19 again "...so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous".  It is not always considered but Jesus entire ethos was to fulfil the will of God.  In the finest detail He fulfilled the law of God-Matthew 5v17-18; John 8v29 John 17v4; John 19v28-30; Hebrews 10v7-9.  From cradle to grave He obeyed God.  He was the perfect servant of God-Isaiah 50v5 "The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back".  In Gethsemane, He said, as He contemplated Calvary, "Not my will but thine be done".  At Calvary He did not utter "finished" until He had fulfilled the last scripture concerning His death-John 19v28-30.  In the servant song of Philippians 2, it is recorded, "He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant...He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross".   Hebrews 5v8 puts it like this "Though     He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things that He suffered".  In heaven He was the Master, everyone obeyed Him, moving swiftly at His every command.  The animals and birds obey Him, the elements of nature obey Him, the swarms of insects.  He was subservient to no one and nothing, yet when He came in flesh He had to learn obedience, and He did so by the things He suffered.  Worship to God is subservience to God and Christ is the Supreme example.

We live in days of constant change, and new alternatives are being foisted upon us under the guise of moral relativism and cultural change.  We serve a God who changes not, why would you change perfection?  Simple obedience in worship is what He demands.  Much that is passing for worship today is strange fire, and we risk the displeasure of the Almighty, and we tarnish His holy name.  Anything that does not emanate from the sacrifice of Christ is unacceptable to the Lord.  Jesus said, God is spirit, and "they that worship must worship in spirit and in truth".  In John 4 He teaches that we can worship God anywhere, but not any how!  

There are notably fewer commandments in Christianity as compared to Judaism, but there are commandments involving church order and worship.  Paul had to say to the Corinthian church that the things he wrote were the commandments of the Lord (1st Corinthians 14v37).  The Lord expects all things in church worship to be done decently and in order.  A summary of the first epistle indicates the scope of this:  Chapters 1-4 Unity; 5-7 Morality; 8-10 Liberty; 11-14 Ministry; 15 Destiny; 16 Piety.  Within all these there are sacred principles developed that we should observe, which properly reflect the God of our salvation.  Nadab and Abihu disobeyed, and suffered Divine government, as others have done since.  Moses said to Aaron concerning this "This is that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me, and before all people I will be glorified"-Leviticus 10v3.  Aaron held his peace, enough said!