Let's ask God's blessing on our time in His Word, please. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us Holy Scripture. We confess that we are in darkness without your special, saving, divine revelation that's verbal and inscripturated in its sacred pages. We pray that you would help us, Lord, to understand it. to receive his truths with faith and love, lay them up on our hearts and practice them in our lives. In Jesus' name we ask, amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32. Taking a brief detour, this will probably last at least two weeks, maybe three. Going to talk about the importance of the regulative principle of worship and worship that is regulated by God's holy word. One of the most important topics really facing the church in our time. Exodus 32, verses 1 through 11. This is God's word. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, come, make us a God who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Aaron said to them, tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. But all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he took them from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molded calf. And they said, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, go down at once for your people who you brought up from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They made for themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let me alone that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them and I will make of you a great nation. And if you please turn over another little bit there in the Old Testament to Leviticus chapter 10. Leviticus 10 verses one through seven. This is our second scripture reading and that'll be it for sermon texts this morning. Leviticus 10 verses one through seven. Leviticus 10. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord, and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, it is what the Lord spoke, saying, by those who come near me, I will be treated as holy. And before all the people, I will be honored. So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphon, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uziel, and said to them, come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp. So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes so that you will not die and that he will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has brought about. You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting or you will die, for the Lord's anointing oil is upon you. So they did according to the word of Moses. May God bless the reading of his infallible word. The Westminster Confession of Faith in Chapter 21.1, the confession states the following. The light of nature showeth that there is a God who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture. Now this morning I'd like to go over two major points and the second point has two sub points. I've given you an outline there. It's at the bottom underneath the declaration of pardon there and your bulletin in the back. The priority of proper worship, number one. And then number two, two great errors in worship. And the first one is doing what God forbids, and that's what the first passage illustrates. And then the second major error, doing what God has not expressly commanded, Leviticus 10, one through seven. So point number one this morning, the priority of proper worship. When we think about who we are as human beings, what is really the heart of our biggest problem? What is man's biggest problem as a sinner? The scripture says in Romans 1, very familiar passage, Romans 1.20, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Even his eternal power and God had said that they are without excuse. No one has an excuse for not worshiping God or knowing God. Verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, listen, and worshipped and served the creature. rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. John Calvin taught us a very memorable phrase. You hear it quoted all the time. He says in Institutes of the Christian Religion, book one, chapter 11.8, man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols. What are men all about who don't know God? We go from one idol to the next, one idol to the next. We are a factory of idolatry. In all evangelism, the goal is not just to save people's souls, but to see people go from idolatry to being worshippers of the true and living God. That's really the end result of evangelism. That's why God saves us, is so he would have real worshippers who worship him, not according to their imaginations or devices, but in the way he has instituted. We want to see true worshippers of God all over the earth. False worship and idolatry are replaced with authentic biblical worship when genuine conversion takes place and local churches are established. Idolatry is the heart of man's rebellion against God. And the kingdom of Jesus Christ marches forward in the world as Christ subdues more and more idolaters and turns them into lovers and worshippers of the one true and living God. There before the grace of God go all of us. Everyone here would be an idolater and happy to be an idolater were it not for the grace of God. We would be worshipers of ourselves. We would worship the creature, things that God made, the thing we see in the mirror every day, our things, our possessions, our gifts, talents. We'd worship everything but God were it not for his grace. Jesus taught the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 that God the Father is seeking worshippers. Worshippers who do what He says to do in worship, to please Him. He said to her at that well in John 4, The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Man exists for God's glory and for the enjoying of God. And God created us for Himself. We exist to worship and adore Him. And the greatest and deepest of longings within our sin-weary souls can only find true and lasting satisfaction in knowing and worshiping God, in first being reconciled to God through Christ, and then doing what He says to do with our lives. That is our reasonable service. in response to His mercy. That's what Paul says in Romans 12 when he says, in view of what God has done to save you from your wretched self, from your sin, from your idolatry, make your whole life a living sacrifice of praise to God. Obey what He says. The church and knowing God is not about God conforming to our desires. It's about us coming to Him and saying, what do you want me to do now? What pleases you in the way that we're supposed to live? That's what I want to do as a redeemed sinner. One of the greatest of human sins is idolatry. It's perhaps the heart of all other sins. Why do husbands mistreat their wives? Idolatry of self. Why do wives mistreat their husbands? Idolatry of self. Why do children disobey their parents? Idolatry of self. Why do parents get sinfully angry at their children? Idolatry of self. How dare you inconvenience me? We're often discontent, lazy, sour moods. Why? Idolatry itself. We think that all of life exists for our comfort. It's not about our comfort. God's not interested in our comfort. He's interested in our character, our godliness, our Godward orientation. Consider the wording of the first two commandments in Exodus chapter 20. The first two of the 10 commandments address the heart of the idolatry issue directly. God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image of any likeness of anything in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. What's at the heart of unbelief? What's at the heart of idolatry? Hatred of God. He says, those who hate me. Idolaters are not trying to do the right thing, but are just lost and confused. God says that their idolatrous worship is a demonstration of the fact that they, in God's own words here, hate me. If people will not repent and believe in Christ and serve God, it is because they hate God. We don't like to think of unbelievers in such harsh terms, do we? But God does. Idolaters demonstrate by their idolatry that they, in fact, hate God. In Romans 1's long list of sinful practices that characterize the lives of unbelievers, they're described by the Greek word theustages, which means God-haters. God-haters. The Sunday morning gathering of God's people who are members of the local church is our act of, listen to me please, it is our act of love to God. Why do we come here? We're not God haters anymore. We love the creator of all this. We look at the mercy he's shown us, the patience that he shows to us, the forgiveness that he's given us in Christ, and we love him now. We come here because we love God. We are His worshippers. We desire to express that love to God by singing His praises, by listening to His Word, the Bible. We no longer hate God. We no longer scoff and mock at His laws, but instead confess our own sinfulness in having broken them all. There is no clearer indication of a person's unconverted state than their taking offense that God holds them to be a sinner because of whatever it is that they do or desire that's contrary to God's law. When God tells us that something we're doing is wrong and our reaction is to get angry at it, there are few stronger indications that we're unconverted than that. We are masters of self-justification in our sin. Everyone's got an excuse. Our culture and society has worked hard to produce an entire generation of victims. We're not responsible for anything we do. Everything is someone else's fault. We're not responsible. It's someone else's fault. But remember the prodigal son? What happened that showed that he really came to his senses? What did he say? What was the speech? I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. No excuses. It's not my upbringing. It's not my society. It's not my parents, my siblings, people at school, my peers, none of that. I have sinned against God. And yes, it is a radical change to go from being a reckless God-hater, a prodigal God-hater, to being a repentant God-lover. And it is our sacred duty, if we have done that, if God has effectually called us and we do see our sin, and we trust in Christ alone, it is our duty and privilege to take our place in a local church and worship this gracious, powerful, and gloriously loving God who made us and redeemed us from our sins while we were yet sinners running from Him and hating Him. The corporate worship of the triune God by His visible gathered church is such an incredible privilege for us. I didn't get that when I was 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years old. My father would kick me out of bed, Get up and get dressed. I didn't see it as a privilege. I was a fool. It is such a privilege to come to church. I'm not an idolater anymore. I'm a worshiper of the living God. I do what pleases the creator of this whole vast, amazing creation. I'm one of his now. It's a privilege we take for granted in this country. Remember folks, why did Jesus give us this? Do this in what? Remembrance of me. How could we forget? How could we need reminding of that? Remember the grace by which God has glorified himself by saving our sin sick souls. Remember the wondrous sound of grace in Jesus Christ gospel hitting our unrepentant ears and the call to repent and believe the gospel. Remember how faithfully God has loved us despite our wanderings, even as Christians, despite our frequent lapses in dissent, our doubt, our worldliness. God deserves for us to worship him only in the ways he has told us to. Because that's what pleases him. Jonathan Edwards in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, made this comment to his congregation. He said, there is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell since you last sat down here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful, wicked manner of attending his solemn worship, end quote. Jonathan Edwards would be unemployable today. Worship is serious business, folks. It's the highest calling and duty and obligation as God's covenanted creatures do Him, as His children who were bought and redeemed by the blood and suffering and agony of Christ. We are called upon to love the one true God, the triune God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is today we are to worship Him. And the law of God and its first two commandments makes it clear that those who are idolaters, who do not take Yahweh as the one true God and as their God, they hate him, he says. Our love for God is communicated primarily by our actions, folks. We all see that. That's a saying everyone agrees with, whether you're a Christian or not. Actions speak louder than words. That is a biblical principle. Proverbs 14, two, he who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord. How do you know if someone fears the Lord? By the way they live their life. Just like James 2 says. How do you, what good is it if a person says they have faith, but their life is not transformed by the grace of God? He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his ways despises him. One of the greatest and most grievous ways we can be perverse is by corrupting worship. By those actions of corrupting worship, we show that we hate God. God alone tells us how we're supposed to worship Him, brothers and sisters. The Sabbath day and the worship of God that takes place on it is a most solemn and important biblical concept. And now our denomination's book of church order also contains an important section called the directory for public worship, which we would do well to listen to. If you listen closely to me talk, you'll notice that I tend to be a creature of habit. I'm not much on novelty or creativity. So I myself have actually noticed I always say the same thing when I get in the pulpit after the welcome. I have a few announcements before we begin what? Our formal service of worship. Now there is a theological reason for saying that. Our book of church order following scripture defines the service of public worship in one of the most memorable and gloriously biblical ways I've ever read. Listen to this. What are we doing here? Why do we come to church on Sundays? Listen, a service of public worship is not merely a gathering of God's children with each other, but before all else, a meeting of the triune God with his chosen people. Are there certain meetings that make it onto your calendar that you would never miss with people? If you had a meeting with a high profile person or a celebrity or the president or whoever, would you make sure you were there on time and that you were ready for that meeting? What is it that we do here? We're meeting with God. It's the triune God meeting with His chosen people. Listen to what it goes on to say. God is present in public worship, not only by virtue of the divine omnipresence, but much more intimately as the faithful covenant Savior. The purpose of public worship is the glory of God. His people should engage in all its several parts with an eye single to His glory, end quote. What is it that we do together on Sundays? It is a meeting of God's people with God. And here is one of the most important questions that the church in America has long forgotten to ask and answer. Who is the audience of worship? Who is the audience of worship? It's not y'all. God is the audience of worship. God is the audience of worship. When a church considers exactly what it is supposed to do on Sundays, when the people gather together, we have forgotten that all important point. Who is worship for? It's not for us. It is a service of worship directed solely and only to the triune covenant God. Worship is not for us. It is for God. And if we really are the children of God, we must make it our great purpose to worship God the way He has prescribed for us to do so. and biblically there is no set form or liturgical form in the New Testament to follow. However, we do see key elements commanded and practiced in the New Testament. Reading scripture, singing of psalms and hymns, the offering of prayer, the preaching of the word, the presentation of offerings, confessing the faith, and observing the sacraments, and on special occasions, taking oaths, just like we had membership oaths just taken in front of you. Those are part of what God expects of us in worship. This is what our Creator and Redeemer has said He wants us to do on the Lord's Day Sabbath. You know what's so wonderful about it? It's so simple. It's so simple. There's no gimmicks. There's no shows or performances. This is what He's asked of us. The gospel is proclaimed and sinners are called to repent so that God would have more and more worshipers who will love, worship, and obey what He says in His Word. And who will be satisfied with that? Remember I wrote a paper when I was in seminary on the importance of biblically ordered worship, having come out of the whole seeker sensitive church growth movement. And one of the books I read, a theologian said, made one of the most amazing understatements talking about the importance of this. And he summarized it by just one little sentence. He says, it is after all his religion. Doesn't that make sense? What are we supposed to do for God? Only what he tells us to do. It's what he has told us. No gimmicks, no performances. When Paul preached to the Athenians, his primary emphasis was repentance from idolatrous worship. In Acts 17, 16, now when Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. And he went on to preach this to them, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life and breath and all things. That was a rebuke to them for their false worship. And then he says, therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. And so coming away from idolatry, first and foremost, we have to worship the correct God. You should have no other gods before me. That's what he says to us. And then I want you to worship me in the right way. You worship the right God and you worship him in the way he says. Many in our day say that as long as you're sincerely worshiping the right God through Christ, God doesn't care what you do, as long as you're sincere. In these two texts before us that we just read, we're going to see that it does matter to God what we do in our formal worship. So if you want to turn back to Exodus 32, please do that. Exodus 32, 1 through 11. And let's just quickly walk through this passage. I want you to see how important this is. Exodus 32, 1 through 5. Here it is again. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god who will go before us. As for this man Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him. Aaron said to them, Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. Then all the people tore off their gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf. And they said, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, listen closely, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord, to Yahweh. John Calvin wrote this about this passage. And this end awaits all those who do not firmly maintain what is right, but who bargain, as it were, and descend to compromise. For after they have vacillated a while, they at length will succumb altogether, so as to shrink from nothing, however unworthy and disgraceful. He seems indeed by his proclamation to uplift their minds to the worship of the true God, but when he is violating the law just given, it is a wretched excuse to shield their offense and degenerate worship under God's sacred name. You hear what Calvin's saying? It accomplished nothing for Aaron to say, okay, well, that's fine. I know y'all used to worship cows. So we'll just say that we're worshiping Yahweh this way. We'll just be creative in the way we're worshiping the one true God. As soon as God's people cut themselves loose from Scripture in the way that they do worship, as Calvin said, please remember this, as soon as you cut yourself loose from Scripture, as Calvin taught us, you will at length succumb altogether, so as to shrink from nothing, no matter how unworthy and disgraceful. Folks, I have seen videos of churches doing the most outrageous things on stages. guys coming out singing songs by Garth Brooks and getting the congregation to sing along with them. And you think that's a worship service? The moment you cut yourself loose from Scripture, there is no end to the nonsense. There is no end to the silliness that people will engage in. And it is an affront to God. This is why the worship of God in churches on Sundays must limit itself to what God has told us in Scripture. If we go beyond what is written in our worship, we offend God and negate the whole purpose of worship. Remember, always ask that question. Who's the audience? Who is the audience of worship? So often people think it's the congregation and we got to meet people where they are and we got to give them what they want. No, we're supposed to give God what He wants. That's what we're here for. In the passage, Aaron seems to have wanted to quiet his own conscience by making an image, which he knew was wrong. He says, hey, but we're worshiping the right God at least. It's a feast to Yahweh. We're worshiping the right God. We're sincere. Look at the rest of the passage. Look at verses six through nine. So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the Lord spoke to Moses, go down at once for your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I've seen those people and behold, they are a obstinate or stiff-necked people. God's command is that all people everywhere repent of idolatry and worship and love Him, and that we worship and love Him as He tells us to, as He commands us to. And part of the reason for this demand that we worship God in the way that He tells us to, please hear me, this is extremely important. Part of the reason He wants us to worship Him in the right way is that He wants to make us more like Him. One of the most important biblical principles to bear in mind is this. You will become like what you worship. You will take on the attributes of whatever's most important to you. That's why God called them stiff-necked. What can a cow do that would make it worthless? Just stand still. A stiff-necked cow, what do you do to it? Well, you can't pick up a 2,000-pound animal and put it on your back and carry it. What would you do with a stiff-necked cow? You leave it in the desert, and what happens? It dies. It won't follow you. He says, you guys want to worship a cow? Fine. I'm going to call you stiff-necked for the rest of your history. He calls them stiff-necked over and over and over and over again because they became like what they worshiped. Psalm 115, three through eight teaches the same thing. Their idols are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses they have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle. Feet they have, but they do not walk, nor do they mutter through their throat. They're blind, deaf, dumb. They can't move or think or walk. Those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them, the scripture says. God's rebuke, I have seen this people indeed. They are an obstinate or stiff necked people. He calls them stiff necked because they were becoming like what they worshiped. Unwilling to submit to the yoke of their master. We take on the attributes of whoever, whatever we worship. When you say that someone is godly, you know someone and say, that is a godly man. That is a godly woman. What is it about them that makes us say that they're like God? They're long-suffering, they're patient, they're holy. They care about people. They put others before themselves. They're self-giving, sacrificial. Those who make idols will be like them. If we love, adore, worship, and value Christ supremely, we won't be able to help it. You'll become more like Him. You'll become like Jesus. If we love, adore, worship, and value ourselves, we will become just more and more and more self-centered and self-focused. And so we need to ask ourselves a question. Think about yourself. What are you like? What am I like? Do an evaluation today. Take a walk today by yourself. What am I like? Those who make it their purpose to study the triune God, to study Jesus Christ, to understand the biblical teachings about His attributes, His actions, His proven character, His gospel, His grace, His slowness to anger, His patience, His faithfulness, you will become like Him. You will begin to change. into what you worship more and more. People who love, live for, study Scripture, desire to know God more and more, they will begin to shed their bad habits. They will begin to take on new habits that reflect Christ more and more to the world. If we value God, if we value His Son, Jesus Christ, if we value the precious God-breathed words of Scripture and make them our meditation, we will begin to take on more and more and more of God's attributes. We will become fruit-bearing trees. We will become more and more of what God intended man to be. We will be patient when wronged, not vengeful, not angry, self-sacrificially loving to the people in our lives, especially our family and our church. And we'll have a quiet peace and contentment that will begin to grow in us in all circumstances. Isn't that how you want to live your life? When we evaluate ourselves as Christians, every month when we come to the Lord's Supper, don't you see your sins so clearly? Don't you see all the ways you want to change? Make God what you worship and meditate on and think about it. Fill your mind and heart with Scripture. You'll start to change in those ways. So if that's the case, and that's what we want to be, and we know how we can become more like them, why do we spend so much time playing games, watching nonsense, indulging lusts, toying with silliness in our minds, toying with sin? Remember what the idols do to us. Those who make them are like them. God said that to us. You make idols and serve them, you become like them. So is everyone who trusts in them. Consider pagans who worshiped bloodthirsty deities like Moloch and Baal Hamun and Asherah and Tenet and other deities in the Moabite and Ammonite peoples and the Carthaginians and ancient cultures, the pre-Israeli Canaanite religions, people who worship those bloodthirsty deities. What did they become like? What were those cultures characterized by? The immorality of those deities, violence, hatred, sexual immorality, all of it. So provoked was God by this act of rebellion of his people in Exodus 32, look at verses 10 and 11. Now then let me alone that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them and I will make of you a great nation, he says to Moses. Wow, so their sincerity didn't count for anything? No, it did not. Look at verse 11. Then Moses entreated the Lord as God. He entreated the Lord as God and said, oh Lord, why does your anger burn against your people whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? And what does Moses do? He intercedes for them and he turns away God's wrath and anger. What is that a foreshadowing of? Christ. We're being taught about not God is fickle and you can change his mind. That's not it at all. This is talking about a foreshadowing of what Jesus will do once and for all for us. Why is God so dreadfully provoked by this incident that he would actually suggest destroying the whole nation of Israel? His entire inheritance whom he had just delivered from Egypt and gave the Ten Commandments to? Because they worshipped him in a way that he had forbidden them to. He said, do not make a graven image. Don't make a graven image. What did they do? They made a graven image. And God is saying to them, you all are hating me by doing that. Why are you hating me for doing that towards me? And so he threatens to destroy them and Moses intercedes. Look at point B there in your outline. We can also provoke God the second great error in worship, doing what God has not expressly commanded. This is the most important point this morning, folks. This is the one I really want you to remember. Remember this. As you disciple and teach your covenant children how to find a church, please make sure they understand this. Please make sure they understand this. The book of Leviticus. It's a book that's not read very often. It should be, because it burned into the minds of the people, all of those sacrificial systems, all those offerings, and sifting through the kidney and the oval that's attached to this, and burning this, and going through the insides of animals and everything else. That burned into their hearts, how sinful their sin really was, and how much they needed a savior to save them from it. But the book of Leviticus is instructions on how to worship. Its purpose is to convey God's guidelines for worship, social and legal life, and aspects of everyday living. 27 chapters long. The first seven chapters deal with various offerings that God commanded his people to offer in various sin situations. And then chapters eight through 10 of Leviticus are the rules for the priests regarding how God is to be worshiped. You want to read three chapters that are not normally read that need to be read? Leviticus 8, 9, and 10. I want to show you something very important about this section of scripture. A key phrase to notice in the passage that we read is the last phrase of verse one. You see Leviticus 10, verse one, the last two phrases, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. He had not commanded them. Now I'd like to read in this section real quick. I just want you to listen to me carefully here. I want you to read to you over and over and over again in Leviticus 8, 9, and 10, a repetition that I want you to notice. And I'll give you the references if you want to write these down. Leviticus 8, 5. And Moses said to the congregation, this is what the Lord commanded to be done. Leviticus 8, 9. And he put the turban on his head and on the turban on its front, he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Leviticus 8, 17. But the bull, it's high, it's flesh, and it's awful. He burned with fire outside the camp as the Lord had commanded Moses. Leviticus 8.21, then he washed the entrails and the legs in water, and Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Leviticus 8.29, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Leviticus 8.34-36, as the Lord commanded Moses, the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses. Leviticus 9.6, this is the thing which the Lord commanded you to do. Leviticus 9.7, as the Lord commanded. Leviticus 9.10, as the Lord commanded Moses. 21, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Leviticus 10.7, and they did according to the word of Moses. Leviticus 10.13, for so I have commanded. Leviticus 10.15, as the Lord commanded. Leviticus 10.18, as I commanded. What did Nadab and Abihu do? They offered something which the Lord had not commanded. See it? Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded. So in the midst of as he commanded, commanded, commanded, commanded, commanded, commanded, commanded, you have one instance of not commanded, followed by commanded, commanded, commanded. And what happened to that one instance? The two guys got killed. God killed them for this. Does that seem like it might be important for us to make a note of that? You know, God had a way of ruining parties. Even when the people throwing them were really, really sincere and having a great time. The last few verses of Leviticus 9, listen to this. Listen to what's going on here when this happened. Aaron lifted his hands towards the people, Leviticus 9.22, blessed them and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. Then 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 fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. In the midst of all this, Nadab and Abihu just had a creative impulse, a creative moment, and decided to offer fire, which the Lord had not commanded. Look at verses two and three of Leviticus 10. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, it is what the Lord spoke, saying, by those who come near me, I will be treated as holy. And before all the people, I will be honored. So Aaron therefore kept silent. Those are his two sons. Those are two of his four sons that just got killed. And the answer is, you treat me as holy. You do what I tell you to do. You don't get creative in the way you worship me. It's a big deal, folks. Joan Warcraft said about this passage here in Leviticus 10. He wrote, Leviticus 5.17 contains a phrase that will clarify the meaning of Leviticus 10.1. Now, if a person sins and does any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, though he was unaware, still he is guilty and shall bear his punishment. You hear that? So even if they didn't know, if he did something wrong, you still would be punished for it. Moorcroft continues, sinning against God by doing things that the Lord has commanded not to be done is different than sinning against God by doing what he has not commanded. In Leviticus 5.17, the sin is in doing what God has expressly forbidden in his law. In Leviticus 10.1, it does not say that Nadab and Abihu were punished for transgressing an express prohibition, but because they were adding to the worship services by doing something for which there was no divine warrant. Therefore, we have before us three forms of sin that people commit against God in worship. One, when they do not do what God has commanded. Two, when they do what he has expressly prohibited, like making the golden calf. And three, when they do what he has not commanded, which is the offering of a strange fire there." End quote. And so we see the Old Testament way of worship was very precisely regulated and guarded. Although the Old Testament way of worship expired with the coming of Christ and our New Testament way of worship is different and much simpler, we must always remember that Commandments 1 and 2 of the Ten Commandments are just as binding upon us now as they always have been. We are to worship the correct God in the correct way. We do not have freedom to do whatever we want here. We don't have freedom to do whatever we want here. And we are biblically and confessionally bound to decline creative ideas, to add new elements to the service. And so we've seen the priority of proper worship. The heart of man's rebellion is false worship. We worship that which is not God, but when we're redeemed and come into the church and are part of God's family, we are now worshipers of the true God and we want to love him by obeying him and doing what he tells us to do in worship. And the two great errors in worship are doing what God forbids. He says, don't make graven images. So don't make graven images and bow down to them or serve them. And secondly, doing what he has not told us to do. In closing, I want you to listen to the wisdom of a great reformed theologian who died not too long ago, Robert Raymond, said this, quote, the worship of God is the most important of all the Christian's tasks. This is the primary reason why the Christian should go to church, to worship God. In today's church climate, this is a radical idea. Isn't that crazy? That's a radical, why do you go to church? Well, to be entertained. to have fun, to hear a pep talk, to feel better, to be encouraged. Raymond says, the Christian goes to church to worship God, and today, that's a radical idea. Nevertheless, Christians should go to church. not to evangelize, not to provide a comfortable consumer-friendly setting for the unchurched, not even primarily for the benefit which fellowship with other Christians provides, and definitely not just for lecturers and devotionals, but in order to engage in the worship of God. I'm just breaking from the quotation. Remember, worship is not something that happens to you when you're in here. It's something you engage. We are here to engage in the worship of God, to participate in the worship of God. Raymond continues, reformed Christians must convince this generation that their traditions, regulative principle regarding worship should be the governing principle of all Christian worship. That is to say that Christians must do and worship only those things which God commands, clearly perceiving that what is not commanded is forbidden. This approach to worship will produce a worship that is biblical, spiritual, simple, weighty, and reverent. When I lived in Fairfield, Ohio, I had a neighbor, he was quite a bit older than me, and he had some issues, and we were friends, and I witnessed to him many times, and I invited him to our church, but our church was too far, he didn't like driving far. And he told me one morning, after he had a brother that died suddenly of a heart attack, and it's really bothered him, I mean, talk about a piece of low-hanging fruit. The guy knocks on my front door. My brother died, and I'm not sure what's going to happen to me when I die. Well, let's talk. And he, one in the morning, told me, I almost cried when he told me this. He's like, yeah, I just decided to go for it, go to church. He said he got up, got himself dressed up, shaved, put on a nice pair of pants, put on a shirt, tie a coat. He said, I went to this church. It's the closest church to where we live over there. And I was more dressed up than anybody there. And it was more like going to a rock concert. I was expecting to hear something about God or something. And I was just sitting there going, Isn't that so sad? Even non-Christians know there ought to be a sense of transcendence here. This ought to be a sanctuary, a place set apart to meet with the holy. Heartbreaking. Robert Raymond says, the regulative principle will produce a worship centered on God, substantial and life transforming. It will prohibit a worship that is superficial in character, complicated by ritual, stimulated by props and flippant in tone. Anyone who will take the time to study the matter will have to conclude that worship in evangelical churches in this generation is, speaking generally, approaching bankruptcy, end quote. He's right. You know, he wrote that 20 years ago. We are to be biblical, folks, not pragmatic. Biblical, not pragmatic. You know what it means to be pragmatic? Well, you just try different stuff until it works. Well, how do you figure out what works? Whatever grows the church. Whatever grows the church. I'm ashamed to say, when I was 22 years old, I took a clipboard and went out into neighborhoods and knocked on doors and asked people, what would you like us to do in our church that would make you come to it? You know, Israel sort of did the same thing with Assyria and Babylon. They went over to them and said, hey, what kind of idols do you guys like? What kind of idolatry do you like? Whatever you want, we got it. We'll give it to you. That's horrendous. We're to be biblical, not pragmatic. Jesus taught us in John six, he would rather have 12 disciples than 5,000 consumers. who stay only as long as the fish and the loaves, or in our day, the latte bar and the skits and the donuts hold out. The church is for the worship of God, and it must resist the pragmatic draw of gimmicks used to get people through its doors. And I want to warn, what you win them with is what you win them to. And if you use props and the Stand-Up Comedy Act and whatever else to get them in there, you better be prepared to sustain it. Because the minute it stops, you will see them go bye-bye. So the thing that I wrote another paper when I was in seminary on the church growth movement, there are always, all in the megachurch movement, there are just as many people going out the back door as there are coming in the front. You know why? Because they're not there to worship God. They're there to consume the gimmicks, and then they move on like locusts to the next church, and the next one, and the next one. You know, there's no reason for anyone to come here unless you want to worship God. So I tell people, I'm a reformed nerd and I'm boring. And when reformed people try to be cool, we just come off looking even more nerdy than we already are. The church is to remain faithful to biblical worship, not the spirit of the age. And I warn you, those who marry the spirit of the age will quickly find themselves a widow. The church is to lead the world away from worldliness to godliness. But for the past 200 years, the world has led the church away from godliness to worldliness. Church is to be a leader, not a follower. And yet there is an almost constant pull upon the hearts of Christians to become more like the world. And ironically, ironically, it is only when the people of God are faithful to God in worship that real evangelism and real discipleship and real church growth actually do happen. Any growth in the church due to unbiblical methods or tactics, while it looks like success to the world, is nothing short of an abomination to God. At this church, we believe in Sola Scriptura. and we believe in the regulative principle of worship. And as long as there's a gospel witness in this place and breath in our lungs, let us all together believe in the power of God working through his preached word to grow the church and disciple the nations as he sees fit. Amen. Let's pray. Our God in heaven, we thank you for your all sufficient word to guide and direct us. Lord, there's such a feeling of incredible joy and satisfaction knowing that we don't have to doubt or wonder, should we be doing this or should we be doing that? It's such a wonderful joy to know. These are the things you've told us to do, to pray, to read scripture, to preach it, to sing your praises, to do offerings, to take the Lord's Supper, to do oaths when needed, baptisms. It's a glorious thing to know that you told us to do this stuff. We have no doubt you're pleased by it. It's such an encouraging thing to be faithful to your word. And Lord, we pray you would help us. No matter what the spiritual climate may ever be like in this country, that we would resist the siren calls of pragmatism and that we would stand upon the authority of scripture and be faithful to you and worship you in a way that pleases you. We ask in Jesus name, amen.