 Well for our time in a call to worship this morning, please turn with me. Your Bible is the Leviticus chapter 10 Leviticus chapter 10 You're visiting with us this morning. We want to center our worship of the living God on his word revealed it to us God the living God has spoken amen, and he's spoken to us through his word So we want to spend time in his word. There'll be a call to worship or we'll spend time preparing Orienting our hearts and minds toward the worship of God There'll be a call to repentance because on this side of eternity We still have our sin to deal with and God would have us worship him in spirit And in truth repenting of sin in humility And then there will be a call to worship the Lord through giving and we expressed our faith and trust in him through the giving of our tithes and offerings and then there will be the ministry of God's word together where we hear a sermon From God's word a message from God to the people of God We begin our time this morning with a call to worship our text is Leviticus chapter 10 Beginning in verse 1 reading down through verse 7 and hear the word of God Then not of an avihu the sons of Aaron each took his sensor and put fire in it put incense on it and Offered profane fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord And Moses said to Aaron This is what the Lord spoke saying By those who come near to me. I must be regarded as Holy and before all the people I must be glorified and this was a very serious object lesson in the worship of God So the universe 3 Aaron held his peace Then Moses called Miss Shio and Elsa fan the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron and he said to them Come near carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp as Moses had said Moses said to Aaron to Eleazar and if them are his sons Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes lest you die and wrath come upon all the people But let your brethren the whole house of Israel be wail the burning which the Lord has kindled You shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting lest you die For the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you and they did according to the word of Moses From our text, this is the word This is what the Lord had spoke to them saying by those who come near to me I must be regarded as holy and before all the people I must be Glorified well not of an avi who failed They failed in that basic tenet of worship and God struck them dead there outside the tabernacle fire went out from the Lord and Devoured them and we have to ask the question from the text. Why did they die? Well, the text says that it was because they offered profane fire the word profane there means strange It means unauthorized Foreign and it refers specifically here to the the service of incense in the tabernacle the incense that they brought this service that they did Was not Commanded by God in other words There is the issue of the matter of their worship and the manner of their worship at issue here The matter of the incense was not something that God had commanded We don't know exactly what that means or what that was it could have been that they got the incense from the wrong place it could have been that they prepared the incense in a wrong manner or It could have been dealing with the manner of their worship. They could have brought the incense in an unworthy or an inappropriate Manor no reason is given for why they did so. We don't know their motivation for doing such a thing What we do know is that that in the surrounding Context God has told them exactly how he is to be worshiped and God is serious Deathly serious about his own glory his own worship So in some way not of an obvious have been careless in the way that they approached God in the matter or in the manner of their Worship and the severity of God's punishment here in the text shows us how serious of a sin This was God struck them dead in Leviticus chapter 10 here Now someone might be tempted to think That's the Old Testament right in the Old Testament. God was an angry ogre Our worship is in the new covenant in the context of the church our worship is in the spirit the spirit gives life But the letter kills. Well the author of Hebrews Would beg to differ with your twisting of the scriptures? He would say in chapter 10 verse 28 anyone who has rejected Moses's law That's what we're dealing with in Leviticus chapter 10 Anyone who has rejected Moses's law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses of How much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the son of God under foot? Counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace he's speaking of the manner of our worship For we know him who said vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord and again the Lord will judge his people It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Our God who is the same yesterday today and forever has said By those who come near to me. I must be regarded. I must be counted as Holy and before all the people I must be glorified Well the response of Aaron to the death of his sons is very instructive Aaron must prioritize his responsibility to the worship of God even above morning for his own sons now Who have died look at verse 6? Moses said to Aaron Eleazar if them are his sons Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes lest you die and wrath come upon all the people Let your brethren the whole house of Israel bewail the burning which the Lord has kindled You shall note not go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting lest you die For the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you and Aaron his sons did according to the word of Moses Well, let us do according to the word of God this morning. Amen as we come to worship him Let's concern ourselves with both the matter and the manner of our worship and as we draw near to the living God Let's draw near to him to regard him as Holy now, what does that mean? Well, that means Concern yourself with a manner of your worship We must come before him in humility repenting of sin as Coming before him who is of pure eyes and even to behold evil and cannot look upon wickedness Turn from your sin put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Don't harbor sin. Don't give it any quarter We must come as it were With the anointing oil of the Lord upon us that anointing oil in the Old Testament was a picture of the Spirit of God in the New Covenant were to come in the power of the Spirit yielded to the Spirit asking for the Spirit's help in our worship To worship him in spirit and in truth and most importantly most importantly We're to come before him through the person and work of his son our Lord the Lord Jesus Christ It's through the Lord Jesus Christ alone that we can come boldly before the throne of grace Where others may fear to tread because God is a consuming fire We can come with boldness because of the work of Jesus Christ We can obtain mercy there and grace to help in our time of need So let's worship the Lord as he desires to be worshiped. Amen. Pray with me Father in heaven we Lord regard you as holy And it is the desire of our heart in union with the Lord Jesus Christ turning from our own sin in the power of your spirit To glorify your great name this morning. Thank you Lord for the blessed privilege of being called children of God Thank you Lord for the blessed privilege of being able to come to you in worship Thank you Lord for the blessed privilege of looking forward to our eternal rest where we will worship you Unfettered by sin for all eternity. I pray now that our worship of you would be a foretaste of that glory divine And that you would be honored and praised as we praise you in Jesus name. Amen