Good morning and God bless you. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Exodus. Exodus in the 24th chapter. If you would stand for the reading of God's Word. It's going to be a title that may seem like, wow, okay. But we'll explain it as we go through this. Title being, The Idolatry of Experience. Your experiences do not exempt you or entitle you from doing things the way that God has laid out in His Word. You can't get some dream or some anything else that tells you something that goes against God's Word. And sometimes we have these incredible experiences, but then we still do stupid stuff. Why is that? What's going on with that? What can we do about that? We'll talk about that today. Exodus 24, I'll read verses 9 through verse 18. 18 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went up, and they saw the God of Israel. 19 There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 20 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. 21 They beheld God, and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and wait there that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction. So Moses rose up with his assistant Joshua. And Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. 47 Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them. 48 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 49 The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. 50 And on the seventh day he called Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 51 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire 52 on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 53 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. 54 And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. We do want more. In our search for more, let it actually be you and not because we feel good about it, it automatically means. Because Lord you have us through the valley of the shadow of death. You have us beside the still waters. You restore our soul. There are enemies and you make a table. in our presence right there. Our cup does run over. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life, and we will be in the house of the Lord forever. And yet, Lord, even as your children, sometimes we do childish things and presume upon your grace and mercy. Help us not to do that today, but to see you as you really are, to know you as you would have us know you, and to do all those things. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. and told them the Ten Commandments then after that then Moses and the elders went up and Moses himself finally all the way up and then he wrote it on his fingers and then of course he smashed those and wrote it again there's a lot more going on there that people don't know about and this is one of those events that's surrounding that the before during and after the giving of what's known as the law in case you've never heard that term the law the Ten Commandments is vital for Christians to know And the lessons to be learned and what it means for us today must not be ignored. Now in the shadow of these experiences comes another text that you need to see as a defining truth about life, worship, and the fear of God. And it is a terrible text. It is found in the book of Leviticus and chapter 10, if you would turn there. It's about how you live your life, how you approach God in worship, and what we will call the idolatry of experience, where people become too familiar with their ideas of God, and they lose a healthy fear of God. Not a fear just as in, oh no, oh no, but a healthy fear of God, reverence and awe. So we begin there. So let me turn, Genesis, Exodus. Leviticus chapter 10 it's called Leviticus because it's after Levi right and the priestly tribe and it's instructions and things like that and Nadab and Abihu you already saw they were already up in the mountain they saw which I will tell you ahead of time is was Jesus before he was born the sapphire and all these things it sounds a lot like the book of Revelation well here's the point these guys have seen everything they've been privileged for everything we'll describe some of that but now listen to what happens in Leviticus chapter 10 verse 1, Now Dane, Abba, and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized, we'll describe that, or strange 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. 36 Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the LORD has said, Among those who are near me I will be sanctified. 37 And before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. 38 So Aaron the brother of Moses was the high priest, and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu were also priests. 39 They knew the instructions for worship in the tabernacle, but they disobeyed God's design. And what they did was such an offense to God that they suffered the death penalty. I mean, it's an amazing thing. And we don't want to shy away from texts like this. We want to see how they actually point to the gospel. We want to see how they point to our life and not just, well, you know, that's Old Testament. Because there's something very vital for us to learn here. Have you ever wondered, though, what the strange fire, the unauthorized fire was? And they have conferences and books, and they have people talking about it in posts and all that. Strange fire, and people want to shoehorn it into what they're trying to manipulate you to do. Don't do this. That would be strange fire. Well, the issue here is it's very simple. You're supposed to get fire off the brazen altar. They didn't. They had their bick light or a piece of wood or whatever they had. It wasn't where they're supposed to. excuse me, and they were entering into the most holy place, which they weren't allowed to do. So they were doing things they weren't supposed to do, and it presumed upon their relationship with God. They said, well, we saw the fire even get lit. We saw Jesus Himself, not even knowing that it was Jesus. Right? And so they got a little casual. And God wants to show us, you know, you don't just worship any old way you want to. He prescribes what He wants. And He proscribes, says no to what He doesn't want. And they were very clear, and it's in the book of Leviticus, and we won't turn there today, but it's very clear, you get the fire from off the altar. That's what you light your censer with, that's what you bring into the holy place, and they didn't do that. They thought, well, it doesn't really matter. Wow. And when you know more about the background to this story, which we gave you some, we'll give you more, you'll wonder even more why they did this. It wasn't an innocent mistake. It was a deliberate disobedience. And they had seen, which we will talk about, they had seen the terrible consequences of ungodly worship before with the golden calf and all these people dying, which we will go into. The death of other people. We're going to explain that again. And it makes it more incredible that these men, of all people, would have done what they did. So again, why did they do this? How could God do this in response? How could these men think that they were good with God and do such an awful thing? You ever had that with a friend or a loved one? You know, they just presume. You know? And I've done it and maybe you've done it and it winds up not working out so well. We think, you know, me and God got our own thing going. We're good. I'm good with God. Don't know much of the Bible. I'm going to do this which is against the Bible. But you know, God and I are good because I'm sincere. Sincerity is no substitute for truth. And your zeal can be misplaced. So why did they do this? How could they think that they were okay? And what about me? How could they be so deceived? What about me? What about you? Even though I'm not involved in the tabernacle worship today with all its particular and exacting specifics and what you're supposed to do, 29. Could I lose my healthy fear of God because of my experiences with God? The answer is yes. Oh, that doesn't sell today. But this is Bible. It's good for us to know. 30. Now the issue stems from the fact that they had been especially privileged to the things of God. They had incredible experiences, which we're going to talk about. But these experiences caused them to be careless and prideful, as if the rules didn't apply to them because they were special. We did a smaller version of this last week in Sunday school. We called it the sins of the special. And it's tragic when people think that their past faithfulness, yes, I said that, or powerful experiences give them a license to carefully, carelessly sin against God and His Word. You don't find that in the Bible. Oh, no, but our heart's right. How would you know? When you don't believe you could be deceived, that's when you already are. But no matter how powerful, wonderful, or even transformative your gifts and your special experiences are, they do not entitle you to be out of order or exempt you from reverencing God before His people and honoring God and His Word. Now David, Nadab, and Abihu used a fire, again, that's called unauthorized or strange. That's because Leviticus 16, verse 12 and 13 says that the censors, the fire was to be taken from the brazen altar. There's a reason for that. But instead of that, they did something else. You see, God had originally lit that fire himself. You find that in Leviticus 9, 24. And you find that Nadab and Abihu were there. So here it is. They set up the altar. Lightning, however it was, fire. Lit that. That's the everlasting fire. That's better than the Olympic fire, let me tell you. And they were supposed to use that to light the censer to go and give praise. But they didn't do that. Instead of using fire from the brazen altar, Nadab and Abihu seem to use some other common bit of fire. It's not important to know what it was. We don't look for something in the Old Testament, New Testament, and say, ooh, we found this. Now we got it. Now we're all good. That would be committing the same error. You know what I'm saying? They'd be committing the same error. And they knew better. I want you to get this down in your heart today because they knew better. And so it's not like, well, as long as I know the bottom line, just tell me what to do, tell me what to do, tell me what to do, and then I'll do it. It reminds me of 1 Samuel 4. And the people went up against the Philistines, and the Philistines were afraid, because they were shaking the ground so much. They were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're going to do it. And they went into battle, and they got annihilated. But the people that were left said, oh, that's right, we forgot to bring the Ark with us. Just put the Ark out front, and then, like it's a pocket Jesus, as I've called it before, like a magic amulet. And they did it, and what happened? Then they lost the Ark. And Eli the high priest died. And you've heard the term Ichabod. The glory has departed. Which was the same thing during the captivity, before the captivity. And you read it in the book of Ezekiel in the Holy Spirit. You can see Ezekiel saw him flying out away. Saw him going partly way out, partly way out, and then he was gone. Yeah, it's tragic. There's so much I could say here. But they knew better. Again, when God originally lit the fire on the altar. This was miraculous. And Nadab and Abihu were there. They were VIPs at this event. They were ones that were doing some of the blood sprinkling and all this right there. 34 Their father Aaron was anointed to serve as the high priest, so they were in the line to be the high priest after that. 35 And they were already ordained as priests themselves. You find that in the book of Numbers chapter 3 verse 3 and 4. 36 They knew the obligations of the priestly office, but they presumed that their office, their father, and their uncle, again Moses, entitled them. 37 They were full of zeal and sincerity, but zeal and sincerity aren't a license for carelessness with God and His word. Now, we're going to be describing this. Stay with us. Now, after such powerful experiences and such detailed instructions, I mean, the whole book of Leviticus, just, oh. It's like every year you're going to read through the Bible. You start with Genesis. You get to Leviticus. It's about March, and you're done. Or Chronicles, maybe. It's June. You know, that's it. they still fail to honor God by directly disobeying His orders. 182 They use their own fire instead of God's fire, a fire they made rather than God made. 183 I think about David and when he was being anointed as king, 184 he's putting the kingdoms back together of Judah and Israel and becoming one again. 185 And he was the unified king and he was anointed here, then he's anointed there. 186 And now they're bringing the cart back to the, you know, to where it belongs, back to the Jerusalem, the city of David. And, you know, he's going crazy and all the people are, again, shaking the ground. They were causing an earthquake of praise. And yet Uzzah took his hand, touched the ark, and died. And for three months David was like, this is not right. I don't like it. I don't know what's going on. Until he realized, God says they carry it on their shoulders, not on a new cart. God's serious about what He says. You need to get, we need to go there. where the law is, 24th chapter of Numbers, verse 1, before the gospel makes its real penetration. Let me just say that to any of you that know where I'm going with this. But here they are. Hmm. Nadab and Abihu meant to worship God. Can you hear me? How many people can be in our services everywhere, all over the place, and they're worshiping a golden calf, as it were? They feel all good about it. I am a friend of God. And no, they aren't. Just because you say it doesn't mean it. I'll never lie to you. And they're lying to you right then. You'll be finding a lot of that this summer and going into November. I'll just leave that alone. They meant to worship God, but instead they profaned the worship of God. They made it common. They were zealous and no doubt sincere, but zeal and sincerity aren't necessarily bad in themselves, but they can mask a presumptuous pride and defile your worship. 19. Nateb and Abihu, the priests of God, showed pride in their zeal, 20. presumption in their sincerity, and disregard for the direct word of God. 21. And they suffered for it. They were killed by God. 22. But there was another powerful experience that almost no one else got to experience that they saw 22. which apparently stoked their pride more than anything else. And that is what we read in Exodus twenty four verse nine to eighteen again it relates to the giving of the Ten Commandments and how God was seen in an audio visual display to all the people. and yet seen in personal form by a select number of people let me give you a timeline here and let me talk about this because the Bible says no man has seen God's form but the son has revealed him and all the way back in the Old Testament people were able to sometimes see like Joshua chapter 5 the angel of the Lord when he says take off your shoes this holy ground he's receiving worship Angels do not receive worship except the one called the angel of the Lord. It doesn't mean he's Michael or any other archangel. This is a title for him, just like he's called the Son of Man. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4. I'm going to turn there real quick and read verses 9 through 13 for you. only take care, Deuteronomy 4, and keep your soul diligently lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. He's talking about the fact that, you know, he spoke to them out of the cloud and spoke the Ten Commandments. And then seventy elders, Aaron and Hur, Nadab and Abihu, Moses and Joshua, got to go up on the mountain. When they got, I don't know, I'm going to say halfway there, however far they got, then they saw Jesus and ate with Him. from the peace offering which we'll talk about and then Joshua and Moses went up even further and then Moses went up to the and then God wrote with his finger those two stone tablets so you know remember okay remember we studied Hebrews 12 verse 18 through 29 a few weeks we did it for four weeks they weren't even allowed to come near that cloud but they heard his voice what would that I heard the voice of God what did it make happen to them oh I heard the voice of God I'm so happy they were afraid And, oh, I saw Jesus. If angels and things like that show up, you have fear. People say, oh, no, no, no, it's not the way it is. That's your feelings. What does the Bible say? It says, when the angel showed up and says, fear not. Where's Dan? It's like if a bear shows up and goes, fear not. What's the first thing that happens? I'm fearing, because not only is this thing way bigger than me, I'm sure it can outrun me. It's definitely stronger than me. Now it's talking. Like when you watch Planet of the Apes, I was watching it with my friend Paul, and then one of the apes finally spoke, and the guy just shouted out some colorful language, because he was like, ah, he didn't know the story. What do you think? Angels show up and all that. Oh, you know, I go to heaven all the time. Sure you do. What does the Bible say about stuff like that? Anyway, let me not get off track here. Let me finish reading here, 9 through 13. He goes, make them known to your children and your children's children. Now on the day you stood before the Lord your God at Oreb the Lord said to you gather the people in me that I may let them hear my words and they may learn to fear me hello all the days of that they live on the earth and they may teach their children so and you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain again this is what it's describing in Exodus 20 wrapped in darkness cloud and gloom That's a little different, isn't it? Yes, but this is the New Testament God. Don't you do that. Don't you blaspheme. It's the same God. Jesus has something to say about that, but let's figure out what God's doing before we just jump to Jesus as if it doesn't matter. Oh, yeah. wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 36 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. Hello! 37 You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form. There was only a voice. 38 And He declared to you His covenant which He demanded to you, that is, the Ten Commandments. 39 And He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 40 So when God gave the Ten Commandments, anybody with me? 41 When God gave the Ten Commandments, He did it in two phases he spoke them and then he wrote them Deuteronomy was talking about when he wrote them but he had already spoken to them out of the cloud now he says come back to the cloud and they were already afraid we read that in Hebrews 12 over the times we studied there they didn't wanna because they he they were told even if a calf even gets near that the cat's gonna die so they were like you know shying away from this event the glory of the Lord they were they were full of gloom and he says come on back and now He says the others come up and He's going to write them, but they did not see His form. You see that? They did not. And yet these others did. So first God spoke the commandments to all the people at Mount Sinai. That's Exodus 20. And Exodus 20, 18 says, When all the people saw the thunder and the flash of lightning, you know, we sing, Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder. I know. I like the song, too, but... I know. Aren't I like that? Because the Bible's like that. He says, when all the people saw the thunder and flashed... See, it's about faith, not about experience. There's the whole lesson. Goodbye. And the trumpet and the mountain smoking... See, I want more, I want more, I want more. You're going to get deceived. The people were afraid and trembled. and trembled at his voice. 42 This was a spectacular display, and God spoke directly to the people. 43 But again, as we read in verse 11 and 12 of Deuteronomy 4, they did not see his personal form. 44 What did he tell Moses? No one could see my personal form, or they'll die. 45 He said, Let me see your glory, and he flashed by them. But here they saw him on a throne. 46 So what's going on? Big theological words, which I'll give you in just a moment. 47 But now you'll understand them. So sometime after that event, Moses went up to the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, and God wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger on two stone tablets. We read that in Exodus 24, Deuteronomy 4. You find it in Exodus 31, Deuteronomy 9. The Israelites themselves as a nation, anybody with me? had seen the visual spectacle of the glory of God, but they had not seen the personal form of God. And they were commanded to not make any physical image like it and attribute it to God. You find that in Deuteronomy 4, 15 through 19, and obviously the first commandment. You shall make no, you know, second, depending on how you look at it, make no graven image. Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel did see God revealed in a personal form. That's what we read in Exodus 24, 9 and 10. So all the people saw the glory cloud, which is called a theophany, an appearance of God in the Old Testament. A theophany. And a special few saw the pre-incarnate Jesus, which is called, you can hang with this, Christophany. Incredible experiences, but costly experiences as well. All right. In Exodus 24, 9 through 11, there's the personal appearance of God, a Christophany to Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, 70 elders of Israel. Now, if you read verse 8, you'll see they've already sprinkled with the blood, which is a type of atonement there, like Isaiah with the coals of fire and Isaiah 6 on his lips, because he said, I'm a man of unclean lips, unclean people. So you see redemption, you see atonement right there. And so then they weren't so terrified to be in the presence of God. Because everybody else didn't even want to go up any closer. And God told them, don't do it. But you guys come on up. I do this little game with my granddaughters. I'll say, no, no, I won't do that. I won't do it. And I'll go, I lied. You know? I'd be afraid of God. Like, OK, he says to do this because he's going to take us out. And then you see these kind of things happen. You think he's going to take us out. But he sprinkled the blood on them. And then it says he did not lay his hand on them. They weren't terrified to be in the presence of God. The group was not harmed by the holiness of God. And the manifest personal presence of God, the presence of the pre-incarnate Jesus, they feasted on the peace offering. They had communion with Christ. This was the remnants of the sacrifices and drink offerings that they had just given. That's Exodus 24 verse 5. Hopefully this is making you want to read the whole, you know, 24th chapter of Exodus there. Now this feast was a prophetic fulfillment of God's promise to dwell with people. It was a look back to the Passover, a look forward to the Lord's Supper, and to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now then in Exodus 24 verse 12-14, Moses and Joshua went further up in the mountain where Moses would be given the written Ten Commandments. Remember, they had already received it. They had already heard it. That's why it makes what they did and making the gold calf even worse. They're waiting on him 40 days and 40 nights or whatever. In just a month, they're going to go and do all this that they did, which we'll look at a little bit. And most of you know the story. So they already had the Ten Commandments, but now Moses was going up to have them written. But Aaron and Herod and the rest of the elders stayed behind. Then in Exodus 24, verse 15 through 18, there's the glory cloud observable by all. What an experience. However, during again, like we read in verse 18 of Exodus 24, those 40 days Moses was up on the mountain, the people grew impatient. They wanted more experience. They couldn't handle it. They didn't have faith. They heard God speak and all this cloud and all this incredible stuff. And you can't get close. Then their friends and their leaders went up. And it just took less than 40 days for them to grow impatient and say that they're not getting what they need. They need more. They need more. I want more, too. I get it. But I want to make sure it's from God first. And I ain't missing nothing. So I missed the move of God because I was too cautious and all that old big deal. I'm still written in the Lamb's book of life, period. Well, you haven't had this, brother. If you had this, then you would sin less. I don't want to be like you. I want to be like Jesus. See, it's an idolatry of experience. You look at other people's experiences and say, I don't have that. You don't need that. God's going to give you what you need. I know it. So they wanted more experience. And they descended into idolatry and worshiped the golden calf, fashioned by Aaron himself. Yeah. Well, it's amazing because they said, 172 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00, You see Jesus walking on the water. It's not about you can walk on the water. It's about Jesus walking on the water. So when he says, where is your faith? Not faith that you can walk on the water. Faith in me. Because I walk on the water. Because the Egyptian hieroglyph for God is someone walking on the water. Joshua split the water. Moses split the water. Elijah split the water. The Jordan. Elisha split the water. Jesus just walks on the water. blaspheme. Greater works shall we do. Oh, it means you're not going to just stay in one area. You're going to go all over the world. Greater works. Greater than raising people from the dead? Greater than saving your sorry butt? And mine? And that's the point of this story is the gospel. I'm telling you, but let's get there. So Exodus 32, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, where is he? Remember chapter 24. He's up there for 40 days and 49. It's getting the finger of God to write it. The people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, up, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the Egypt, the deliverer, we do not know what's become of him. Yeah. You have clear words. And you say, well, is it really? Isn't that the first sin? Has God actually said? Well, the Bible doesn't really mean that. Well, if you look at this, you look at that. Mm-hmm. It's not a worldwide flood. He's wrong. Gavin Orton is wrong. Love him, though. 32 Well, the world's this old or that old. I don't have to worry about that right now. 33 This is what we're looking at. 34 So Aaron said to them, Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. 35 So all the people took off the rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 36 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it into a graving tool and made a golden calf. 37 And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 38 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. and Aaron made a proclamation and said to Marshall, be a feast day to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Oh, he says to the Lord. And the people sat down to eat and rose up to play. And that means adult stuff. So Aaron tried to justify his idolatry by saying, it's a feast day to the Lord. I'm going to eat every bit of Hershey's in Pennsylvania, but I'm doing it as unto the Lord. I might be struck dead within the first day because I have diabetes, but... and I have plenty of faith, so stop that. They had been delivered from Ephesians bondage and parted the Red Sea with Moses the deliverer, the hand of God, but they didn't keep a healthy fear of God. And the rest of Exodus 32 describes the disastrous consequences. Now experience is not the same thing as wisdom, folks. And sincerity is not the same thing as truth. Nadab and Abihu had seen the terrible result of the people's idolatry. They were there for this. And yet they made an idol of their own experience and they became careless and they died because of it. Now going all the way back again to Leviticus 10. And still even after this many people didn't learn the lesson. And they continue to be stubborn. Let's travel one more place here. 1 Corinthians 10. Is it okay to do a little Bible study here? 1 Corinthians 10 relates the wilderness experiences of the children of Israel, including this one, but then a couple of others. And you can use your concordance and you can find out where those are. And it's funny, too, because this ends with this, God will never give you more than you can handle, which is a lie. 1 Corinthians 10, 7 through 10. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. You know what that is. As it is written, in case you don't remember, here's the exact same words, that people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Same situation. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. Another in the book of Numbers there. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents. Which again is also John 3.15, by the way. We must not put Christ to the test nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now see, the tragedy of Exodus 32 and several other events in their lives were described there from Israel's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. We all have to be careful to guard our hearts and flee from idolatry. Let's read verses 11 through 14. Because he says, Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. This is New Testament, right? For our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, because of all I just said, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Then it says, the context, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. It means those type of things there, all those temptations that they had in the wilderness, are the same kind of things. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, still happens today. But you don't have to sin because of it. Stop blaming the things that are on the outside and start looking at what's going on on the inside. OK. So, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. We want to make all kinds of lessons out of this. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. And Nadab and Abihu had an idolatry of their experience because they experienced more than anyone else. They saw the consequences more than anyone else. Right? Maybe some family members had terrible lives because of alcohol. And then maybe you did, and then your children. And it's like, if anybody ought to know, but it happens. Because Eli, remember we talked earlier about Ichabod, all right, in 1 Samuel 4? Well, if you read, is it 2 Samuel 8 or 1 Samuel 8, if anybody knew that you want to be good about your kids and things like that because Eli's sons were bad people. Samuel, you think, would raise them upright. But even when you do that, even when you have done that, they can still make their own choices because they were despicable men. You're responsible to them. You are not responsible for them. By the way, sister, you're doing a fantastic job. It's redemption for you. And if anybody in this building knows what that is, that's me. Hallelujah for redemption. Hallelujah for where we're about to go. So Nadab and Abihu saw Jesus before He was born. What a privilege. And yet they let all this go to their head instead of letting it humble their heart. The more experience you have, the more in awe and with reverence your worship should be. Not less. It doesn't mean you don't yell and scream and have a good time. No, it's not that at all. When you're inventing stuff and say, well, no, no, we love the Lord. Be careful. I'm not talking about being stoic and quiet in your worship. I'm talking about not becoming foolish in your worship. Now there's others that we see in the Bible. I know you don't like this, but you know that you're never going to get challenged if you like everything I say. Don't go to that church. Go to the one that challenges you. I mean, I'm reading the Word of God. There are others that we see in the Bible who thought they were honoring God, but they actually failed to honor God. For example, the great King Uzziah. We talked a little bit ago about Isaiah 6. And he says that when he says, I saw the Lord. It starts by saying, in the same year King Uzziah died, I too saw the Lord. So King Uzziah was one of the great kings of Israel. He reigned for 52 years. And the Bible tells about all his incredible exploits. But as he grew strong, he grew proud. And he entered the temple to burn incense. There that is again. To the Lord. Something only the priests were allowed to do. And he was struck with leprosy for the rest of his life. That was the end of his kingship and he had to live in his own separate house. And never again was able to go into the house of the Lord. You think he wanted to, but you don't want to go to church? So we heard about Aaron and the golden calf. Yeah, I know that was rough, but oh well. And later we read about how Moses in his angry pride. You ever read about that? He's supposed to speak, or he's supposed to strike, and he did the other, right? And he said, oh, when am I going to be done with these people? He put himself on par with God and said, I'm on par with the people. Did not honor God before that. And so the humblest man on earth, that's what Numbers 12.3, which Moses wrote, by the way, But he was the Holy Spirit. He was the humblest man on earth, and yet he lost his humility and lost the promised land. He didn't honor God before the people. He didn't follow the Lord's instruction. And he just did one thing wrong. But because of that, he was forbidden to enter the promised land. And again, Moses was the most humble man on earth. So you think about Uzziah, you think about Aaron, or Moses, or Nadab and Abihu who got the death penalty, and Uzziah who got the leprosy penalty. And you can multiply examples all over the Old Testament. And these people all felt justified. When they were worshiping the golden calf, they weren't calling it Baal. They were calling it Jehovah or Yahweh, whatever they said. So these people all felt justified, but they were all judged. And the Bible multiplies examples of people who loved God, who did great things for God, but who fell into sin against God and were judged by God. With all of these examples, what hope do you have? How can you keep a healthy fear of God? How can you be justified by God instead of being judged by God? I'll never be Moses. Well, there is only one way. Jesus is the only hope you have. And He's all the hope you need. Jesus is the one who will judge you or justify you. Jesus is the only one who ever did everything right. To think anything else is blasphemy. I don't sin anymore. Oh, you just did. You just did. And I'm about to too. He's the standard God expects you to meet. That's the point of the Old Testament. To point you to Jesus to be a schoolmaster does make you a slave until you receive the adoption as sons. But even when you have, you don't get careless. No way. Someone that knows they've got... When I found out I had that special baseball card, I made sure I protected that special baseball card. I sent it to the right person to get it, you know, did, and all, you know what I'm saying? Because you know what you got. And sometimes we don't know what we got. But then God shows us what He's given us, and then shares it with us, and we don't get careless with it anymore, and you're fine. But you get my point, right? We have these things. We think, oh, I could take it or leave it. Oh, that guy, he's always talking. Yay, I got the right job. I get to talk to people. And yell, hallelujah. But you know what I'm saying? When you know what you really have. It's like this, you know, when your children come back to you, they've been at camp, or they've been away, or whatever it is, I mean, you are just dying to hold them again. And they're like, you know, hold you as soon as they get back. Oh, they're crying, but day two. It's like, mommy, I don't like you, or whatever. No, that never happens. With your spouse. I had to do that, didn't I? Jesus is going to judge you. 22. Jesus is going to justify you. We sang it today. 23. May the God who is our Judge rise up and be our Savior also. What a great song. I'm glad we're starting to sing that. Good one. He's the standard. God expects you to meet. Did you know that? But no one does or ever could. Not Moses, not Aaron, not Nadab, not Abihu, not Aaron, not Hur, not any of the elders, not Eleazar, not any of the priests, not even King Josiah, you know, the greatest king, David, Solomon, Moses, the deliverer. The key figure in all the Old Testament is Moses and Abraham. But were they perfect? No. Does God expect them to be perfect to be able to get into heaven? Yes. Period. So no one ever does. No one ever could. So what do you do? You trust in Jesus. He lived a sinless life and died on the cross to pay for your sins. Listen, not so you can live a careless life. So you can live a sanctified life. a life that follows God's word, a life full of prayer, a life that worships with God's people, a life that continues to glorify God by continuing to repent of sins and placing faith in Jesus Christ. That's how you get into the kingdom of God. As you've received Him, so walk in Him, as the book of Colossians 2 says. A life with a healthy, God-honoring fear. Remember Hebrews 12 that we've been studying. We haven't come to some place where we can touch, that we can't touch. We're not coming to all this, but in heaven, all the angels are dressed, all the saints from past, present, and future are there. We can't see it yet, but we are there because your spirit now is there. We are seated at the right hand of God with Jesus, our brother, our savior, our Lord. a life with healthy God honoring fear as Hebrews 12 28 29 which is the end of that chapter which is the end of that passage says therefore because of what's going on because of what we studied let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus you see that's heavy language and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship in any old way we want It says, with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. See how the Bible fits itself over and over again? These pictures are all pictures to point to. You better throw your life down to Jesus. It's not like you can do it any old way you want to. And even when you've done that, hallelujah, still reverence and awe. Don't get so familiar. That you, you know, oh, mom's letting me drive the car. I'm going to run it into a tree, into a tree. Going to run my car into a tree. Yeah. So, finishing up, are you going to make a golden calf out of your experiences? You've had this experience, this experience, amen, hallelujah, God bless you. How's that affecting your life? How's that affecting your worship? How's that affecting your relationships? It's not all Peachy King and everything like that, but it's through the context of Jesus Christ. Is He consuming with His fire that dross that's in you, or are you being consumed by yourself? Are you going to make a golden calf out of your own experience? Are you going to offer up your own fire to God and worship any way that makes you feel good? Or are you going to be obedient to God's word? Again, don't be like a child that just says, okay, well, I know that means, you know, I just gotta be quiet. Wrongo. Reverence and awe means you have a healthy fear of God. You say, well, I don't understand all that. That's why we study the Bible. To begin to understand what that means. So that we can tell when people are just putting on a show. Or when they're putting on God. Heavenly Father. Well, I've been guilty. No question about it. And I try to fake it till I make it. And, well, you know, I was an idiot before I even walked in the door. But now it's going to be all good. Well, yeah, we still want to worship. We still have reverence and all. But Lord, help us to learn that holy fear of God even when we're not in the sanctuary or by ourselves. When that weight drops on our foot by accident. When someone else blasphemes God, we think we're just going to blaspheme them. when they're made in the image of God. 32 Help us, Lord. You are our only hope. 33 We don't have hope without You, but with You we've got all we need. 34 And, Lord, sometimes we don't know that You're all we need until You're all we have. 35 And when we're locked up and bound down, and yet You hold the key and You let us out, 36 to whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Help us to be free in our worship. and yet reverential and all not so much that it's a you know just sounds like a concert and everything's all good and that there's place for that but like everything is all you know all and I just feel good and we're not changed rather let us be changed for your glory and in your name amen let me go ahead and read the benediction and will dismiss