He had witnessed many other wonders and still will see more. And still He cannot pretend. in the presence of God or his younger brother, Moses. He's saying we just couldn't force ourselves to eat this. There is Disobedience.
But there's not defiance. According to the letter, He's not ignorant. of the rule And he's not defying the rule. He's just human. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Leviticus. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Leviticus chapter 10 is where Pastor Rick will be teaching from today on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Part of this, why they could not.
demonstrate their grief Outwardly, was so that there would be no hint That God was cruel. in his judgment. It wasn't God's fault. In fact, God would have been at fault to let this continue. It was Nadab and Abihu committed the crime in God's house and provoked.
This situation and merited the full punishment. Upholding God's commandments does not make God guilty. And that's the same in the church. When the church makes its decisions on behavior, whether it's a heresy or a moral behavior, They're not guilty for upholding. It could be wrong.
Sometimes, I mean, I know of many stories where, man, what did the pastor say? That's crazy. That's not biblical. Or I think that's poor judgment. But the person that sins is still the guilty party.
And Nadab and Abihu had only themselves to blame, and his family had no right to hint again that God somehow was overbearing in his judgment and it was unduly severe. And so God puts an end to that right away through Moses.
So to be dissatisfied with God's actions. That's one thing. To parade your dissatisfaction is another thing. And I don't use the word parade loosely. I mean, we may voice it, our frustration.
But this is infectious. And it shows up again, Numbers 11, verse 1. They start getting onto that parade about complaining of God. Just today, I was at a store and I heard someone frustrated and said, Medeke did me wrong. Yeah.
Like just voicing their frustration. It's like, I can help you with that. Give me $50. That would have made me a scammer, right? Anyway, anyway, they want.
Going to be allowed to spin this around. He says, But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled.
So the people were permitted to mourn. But the priests were not. Later, the prophet priest, and Ezekiel was a priest. He was restrained. From public signs of Grief, Ezekiel 24.
Now, this is at a time when God is going to judge the Jewish temple. He's going to have it destroyed. And at the same time, Ezekiel's wife is going to die.
So we pick it up Ezekiel twenty four verse fifteen Also, the word of Yahweh came to me. This is Ezekiel writing. saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke. Yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down, sigh in silence. Make no mourning for the dead.
bind your turban on your head, and put your sandals on your feet, Do not cover your lips, and do not eat man's bread of sorrow. What his wife was to him the prophet The temple was to Yahweh, the desire of his eyes. And he's taking the temple away. And he's taking the prophet's wife away. And I don't want to say that as though God has executed her.
That's not. It happened at the same time, and God in His wisdom knew it was going to happen. He's going to do something with it. God works with resources. The prophet's personal feelings, here's the lesson.
are beside the point. The point is that Ezekiel's sorrow was donated to ministry.
Well, you've got to be in ministry long enough. to get a glimpse of these kinds of things. There's sacrifice involved. And for Ezekiel, it was all about. Upholding the righteousness of Yahweh.
He being a priest, knowing a corrupted priesthood means a corrupted people. What does a corrupted church mean? What does it mean when a church has departed from Scripture? And puts their defective rainbow outside for everybody to see. Corrupted.
Priesthood corrupted people. Corrupted society. and everyone's scratching their head, wondering why morals are falling apart.
Well, verse 8, Then Yahweh spoke to Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine, verse 9, or intoxicating drink, you nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
Well, we've come across this dying quite a bit just in this chapter. God is saying, I want to enforce My position with you. on pain of death, Well Closely following the events That just took place with his two sons, Aaron, not Moses, is charged. To have the priests abstain from strong drink in ministry. Look at verse 8 again.
And Yahweh spoke to Aaron. Usually it's Moses. But these were his boys. And the prohibition. Is it random?
Or is it connected? Why is it here in chapter ten? Is it just Moses randomly put it there? Or be did it was it because Does it suggest that Nadab and Abihu were under the influence of alcohol when they grabbed the strange or the profane fire? You would say, well, why would God, after the fact, close the barn door?
The horse is gone.
Well, that doesn't make God wrong. They would have known. The consequences of alcohol. It goes back to the days of Noah. That's recorded in their own scripture.
In the wilderness wine was scarce. and the only place they really could get it would be Through trade with the Local people or trade routes that they came across. Remember, it's two million people, it's a sprawling amount of people. Deuteronomy 29:6, God points out that there was not much wine amongst the people. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine, nor similar drink, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
However, We get to chapter 23, and again, it's not in sequence, Leviticus. It starts out out of sequence with the burnt offering preceding the sin offering when the sequence is actually the other way around. But there's no such thing as getting to the sin offering if there's no devotion to God in the heart.
So in chapter 23. We find out they had wine enough for the drink offering.
So they did have wine. But I don't think anybody was running a still. And I don't think that would have been tolerated. But they did have The priest had it. or else they couldn't do the drink offering.
And that the remainder of this chapter is joined to these events. All of this suggests that they were under the influence of alcohol. You cannot be too dogmatic about it. But I think that that's where all the fingers are pointing. And regardless of Nadab and Abihu, the warning is made clear for all the future.
Servants of God on this level. It's clear, a clear warning to those devoted to sacred service. Don't be under the influence. Alcohol stirs up the lower passions, it clouds the judgments, it removes the inhibitors.
Next thing you know, you're doing things you never would have done. Alcohol or substance. damages the soul's ability to watch against poor judgment. I would strongly Encouraged a youth to go to your grave as an old man or old woman, saying, It never touched my lips. Except that time the thermometer had it on.
They don't even use them anymore. But the older saints, you know, your mom would stick the thermometer in the alcohol and shove it in your lip. Your mouth's gonna take your temperature. Am I the only one? Verse 10.
Or they burn a needle to pick out a splinter, anyhow. Verse 10. That you may distinguish between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean.
Well, that's the very thing they didn't do. And it's the very point of the lesson that you may distinguish.
Now, remember, this does not go away for the New Testament church. Verse 11. And that you may teach the children of Israel all statutes which Yahweh has spoken to them. by the hand of Moses.
Well, their priests should be under Scripture's influence, not alcohols. The priests were to be teachers, the Levites, too. And wine may cheer the heart, but it would dope up the head. Years ago, I remember going to work. I think this was by the Brooklyn, Brooklyn-Queens border.
It was early in the morning. And I'm putting on my overalls over my Jeans out in the street and working out the back of my car, working on the overhead trains there. I know I told the story before, but it's worth telling again. And there were five teens, two boys and three girls, and they were probably sixteen, seventeen. And they're sitting on a porch uh early in the morning, and they all had a jug of something.
And I'm getting dressed and putting on, you know, the straps and my coveralls and is irritating me.
So I walk over to them and I say You know Nobody took the first drink and said today I'm gonna be an alcoholic The day I'm going to start to lose control over my life. It just happened. It started out innocent. I just want to test it. I just want to try it.
So I gave them my speech about what every youth should avoid in their youth And they were so cooperative in their face. They were they all their faces sagged down. It's like, did God send this guy? And they were just devastated. They didn't say anything, and they sort of sulked away with their shoulders down.
Dragging their bottles. I should have followed them and threatened to kill them if they didn't throw the bottles away, but of course that would have been unacceptable. And I always wonder, you know, whatever happened to them. And I always remember the words I said that No one woke up and said, today I'm going to be an alcoholic. And yet, there's no shortage of them.
So, a very serious subject for you youth. I'm talking to you mainly. You older saints have been around to either find out yourself or be a close enough witness to know. That wildfire will burn down everything in its path if left to do so. A clear head.
delivers a clear message.
Okay. We turn to, well I turn to Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. Ezra was a priest. Dynamite man of God, for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of Yahweh and to do it. and to teach statutes.
and ordinances in Israel. And of course, God used Ezra in a very mighty way. Then we fast forward to the New Testament's emphasis. about pastoral sobriety. And the pastors are singled out.
To the deacons, Paul will say, not be given too much wine. But to the pastors. 1 Timothy 3, not given to wine. Titus 1:7, a bishop must be blameless. The bishop is the pastor.
We don't think of it like the Roman Catholic Church's bishops over other pastors. The bishop was the pastor. For the bishop must be blameless. As a steward of God. I'm working on that one.
Not self-willed. Not quick-tempered. Yeah, that the older I get, the easier that one's getting. not given to wine. Doesn't say not given too much wine as it is to the women and servants in the church and the men servants in the church.
The pastors are singled out as no wine. And in this church, the pastors understand that coming into the pastorate. If you're a drinker, you you just you know, I'm sure there are other churches that will accommodate you. I don't know how, you know, in Germany, you know, pastors drink beer over there like it's coffee. I would have a hard time with that.
But I wouldn't get all legalistic over it. I would just feel superior to them. No, I would not. Verse 12.
So Moses spoke to Aaron and Eleazar and Ithmar, His sons, who were laugh, Take the grain offering that remains, the offerings made by fire to Yahweh, and eat it without leaven beside the altar. For it is most holy. Verse 13, you shall eat it in the holy place, because it is your due and your son's due of the sacrifices made by fire. to Yahweh For so I have for so I have been commanded. And so there's Moses telling Aaron.
And the sons that they have to continue with ministry. There was just not much of an interruption, time enough to take the bodies away, and the ministry went on. It continued without Nadab and Abihu. No one is indispensable. The worker may go away, but the work continues.
Now, the grain offering. always accompanied the burnt offerings. The grain offering signifies Thanksgiving. The burnt offering signifies devotion. But there's a sin offering too.
Well, verse 14. the breast of the wave offering, And the thigh of the heave offering you shall eat in a clean place, you and your sons, your daughters with you. They are your due. and your sons do, which are given from the sacrifices of peace offerings. For the children of Israel.
So, payment to you, you can take this home to your families, and your whole family can have this meal. This is payment due for your hard work. And remember, this is hard work. None of these sacrifices were maybe the wave offering. I love to do the wave offering, but I don't want to have to skin another bull in my life.
Anyway, verse 15: the thigh of the heave offering, and the breast offering, the wave offering, they shall bring with the offering of the fat made by fire. to offer as a wave offering before Yahweh and It shall be yours and your sons with you by a statute forever, as the Lord commanded.
Well, there's another one of as the Lord commanded. The wave and the heave offering, again, belong to the peace offering with God. And they could take that home. But verse 16, now it's going to change. This is, well, let's get to it.
Verse 16. Then Moses made careful inquiry about the goat. Of the sin offering. And There it was, burned up. And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, who were left saying Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, since it is most holy?
And God has given it to you to bear the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement. for them before Yahweh.
So, Moses, again, the dread, the dreaded thought that God's going to have another outburst because the priest of being disobedient.
So he launches his investigation. Why are you non-compliant? The standard sin offering was to be eaten by the priest. There was another one that wasn't, but this was a standard one. And I find this paragraph from verse 16 through the end one of the most touching and insightful moments in Scripture.
In an atmosphere of death. of loved ones, not just anyone. Aaron's first two sons and the brothers the older brothers of Eleazar and Ithamar. And that atmosphere of death God's outburst over their disobedience. Moses was afraid of another judgment.
But these brothers were speechless when he confronted them. Why did you not do this?
So then what happens? Aaron inserts himself. Into The inquiry. And he intercedes. And he does it from the bottom of his heart.
Moses is going to yield, knowing the pain. God accepts the exchange. Because violation is not against Moses. It's against Yahweh. Verse 18, continue it.
See its blood was not Brought inside the holy place, indeed, you should have eaten it in a holy place as I commanded.
Well, again, the this sin offering was to be consumed, eaten, not burned. to ashes on the altar. Uh A point we should to keep it Relevant to the New Testament, he says, see its blood was not brought inside the holy place. The priests could not approach God without blood, and neither can the royal priesthood. exist without approaching.
With the blood, Ephesians 2.
Now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near. By the blood of Christ. And we started talking about our approach to God. This is attractive to us to learn about these things. What is the mindset of God and coming to Him?
Well, you're not going to know this automatically, you have to learn it, and you learn it from Scripture. And then hopefully we get to teach it.
Now verse 19, and Aaron said to Moses, This is where it begets touching to me. Look, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh, and such things have befallen me. If I had eaten the sin offering to day, Would it have been accepted in the sight of Yahweh? My heart's not in it. Aaron steps up.
and on behalf of his surviving sons, as well as himself. It's a noble moment for Aaron. He has great grief on the house of Aaron. And this answers Moses' question. Aaron had witnessed the plagues.
on Pharaoh of Egypt. parting of the sea, the destruction of Pharaoh's army and Pharaoh himself, He had witnessed many other wonders and still will see more. And still He cannot pretend. in the presence of God or his younger brother, Moses. He's saying we just couldn't force ourselves to eat this.
There is Disobedience. But there's not defiance. According to the letter. He's not ignorant. of the rule And he's not defying the rule.
It's just human. In verse twenty, and Moses when Moses heard that, he was content. Moses withdrew the pressure. I mean, what's he going to say? His heart's broken too.
He's not an indifferent uncle. The Mosaic law was not always static.
Sometimes Kindness is wiser than the law. We get that in the New Testament. We get it when Jesus says, go and sin no more. The law said she's to be stoned. Yeah, where's the husband?
That doesn't matter. The law says she's been stoned. Romans 7.6 So that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. There are people afraid to quote such a verse because they're so afraid. that it's going to give license to sin.
Well, we've already talked about upholding the scripture. If the anointing of the Spirit is on you and you're born again and you're serious about following the Lord, then. You're not going to give undue pain. Passes? Moses was not going to give an undue pass, and then he found out.
This one was. This one was one that had to. He had to give a pass. The compassion of the law the lawgiver. Lend compassion to the guilty.
Because again, Aaron is guilty. It was God who who dropped the issue. Through Moses. We go back to verse of chapter 10 in Leviticus. Moses said to Aaron, This is what Yahweh spoke, saying, By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people, I must be glorified.
And so the idea is that, well, you're not glorifying him, you're not approaching him the right way. The crime that Aaron and his sons were now committing was that they were. Derelict in Duty. But with a reason. I think um There's a legal term for that.
I don't remember it. I'm not a lawyer, I don't want to pretend to be, nor do you want me to be a lawyer. But um It's on the tip of my tongue. I'll call you up tonight when I get it back. Avoidance and confession, that's it.
The doctrine of avoidance of God. Yes, I did it, but. Here's why, and it turns out to be justifiable.
So let's summarize. The sin offering had not been eaten as commanded in Leviticus 6, chapter 6, verse 26. but it was completely burned up instead. That's a violation. Moses discovers this disobedience, he discovers that they're not having the meal.
And again, with fear and dread, he confronts the two remaining sons of Aaron. He challenges them, not Aaron, incidentally, he's challenging the sons.
Well, those sons would have been under the authority of Aaron, the high priest. And so he says, explain this. And he's pretty hot doing it again because he's he's afraid. Aaron hears this, sees this going on, and he inserts himself. And he says this is under my direction.
We can't eat this. After we're done here today, we're going to go home and sob uncontrollably. He doesn't have to say that, but that's likely what happened, and the grief will follow him for days. And so I could not eat it, and no law can force me. And God is sensitive to that.
God is not cold hearted. He's very serious. But he's not cold-hearted. Moses got it. Moses also would go on to grieve, And all the people would be a little bit more sober-minded.
and the issue was dropped. The disciplining of the priesthood is very serious business. And I don't think the church has a right. To be so comfortable with grace that we can be sloppy with holiness. Let's pray.
Our father Your word, a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. It is like honey on our lips.
So the psalmists. did right.
So we sing and so we pray. Praise you. We thank you for instructing us on how to live. And we ask that you get us all home safely tonight. And we ask a blessing on those who are grieving.
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. But you Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is currently going through the book of Leviticus. We're glad you joined us.
We trust that you're gaining some valuable insights into God's Word as we go through this Old Testament book. Cross-Reference Radio comes to you from Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so by going to your favorite app store and downloading from there. For any additional information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreference radio.com. Make sure to come back again for the upcoming edition in the book of Leviticus, as Pastor Rick has much more to share.
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