Revival Conference 2007 - Harold Vaughn - Part 2 — Harold Vaughn

The Corruption of Hothnai and Phinehas in Worship

And abhorred the offering of the Lord. The Ark of God was being carried on unsanctified shoulders. Hothnai and Phinehas had profaned the priesthood. These boys had no respect for proper worship. They were not satisfied with their appointed portions, so they began to arrest and rob the worshipers of the offerings that they had brought to Jehovah God.

The Priests' Appointed Portions and Their Abuse of Worshipers

If you read verses 13 through 16, you'll find it was a custom in those days when people would bring their offerings, they would burn the fat, and they would put the meat in a boiling cauldron. The servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged flesh hook, would reach down into that boiling cauldron, and whatever came up on the flesh hook was the appointed portion of the priest.

But Hothnai and Phinehas were not satisfied with this portion, and they began to arrest the worshipers before they could even offer the offering to God and said, give it to us for all. And they would say, if you don't give it to us, we're going to take it by force.

And because of their wicked, corrupt behavior, it caused men and women to despise the offering of the Lord. It was the corruption of Eli's house that caused men to despise the offering of the Lord. But I want to say that Hothnai and Phinehas were merely the tip of the iceberg.

Eli's Failure to Discipline His Sons

The real problem was granddaddy Eli. Look in chapter 2 and verse 23 as Eli tries to reason with his children. And he said unto them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of all your evil dealings by all this people.

Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear you make the Lord's people to transgress. Now Eli mildly rebuked his children. In essence, he shut his eyes to their sin. Eli was a father, a judge, and a high priest.

Yet he used none of his authority to correct his children. It got so bad that God could not speak directly to his own high priest of his covenant people. And in verse 27 of chapter 2, you'll find that God sent a man of God, a prophet, to warn Eli about his wicked ways.

Judgment on Eli's House and the Failure to Reform

And not only that, God sent a child by the name of Samuel on the very night when he met the Lord to deliver a message of impending doom and judgment. And the Lord told Samuel in the quiet of that night, because Eli's sons had made themselves vile and he restrained them not.

God said, I'm going to judge this house forever for the iniquity that he knows about. Now I want to tell you that Eli, when Samuel came and he forced him to give him the message and he didn't hold anything back and he told him what was going to happen, I want to tell you that the severity of judgment was so bad that both of his sons were going to be killed.

All of his descendants were destined to die a premature death and his own priestly authority was going to be revoked. And yet when Eli got that message, that terrible message, I want to tell you, he didn't punish, he didn't reprove, and he didn't remove his children from leadership.

My friend, there was no attempt to reform, no attempt to set his house in order. And I believe that Eli's example ought to serve as an example on how not to raise a family and as an example on how not to carry on a ministry.

Israel's Abandonment of God's Moral Law

An unfit leadership was in Israel before the glory departed. My brethren, are you walking worthy of the vocation wherewith you have been called? But follow, if you would, in chapter 2 and verse 22, that there was no respect for the moral law of God before the glory departed from Israel.

No respect for the moral law of God. Look in chapter 2 and verse 22. Now Eli was very old and he heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Now notice, if you would, it says they laid with women. It doesn't say they laid with a woman. No, no, they laid with women, plural. This was not a one-night stand. This had become a way of life. Hothnai and Phinehas were committing adultery with the women who had come to bring Jehovah God sacrifices and offerings.

May I say to you, my dear people, that before God abandons a people, they first of all abandon His standards. And God's truth is non-negotiable. Not everything is up for grabs, my friend. There are some absolutes.

There are some black and whiters. And I want to remind you that the Ten Commandments were not written in sand. They were etched in stone. And even when Eli didn't remove his sons from leadership, the people should have stood for the truth and kicked the bums out.

Absolute Truth and Moral Relativism

No respect for the moral law. They tell us today that 77 of the American people do not believe in the concept of absolute truth. I heard now that 50 of evangelicals no longer believe in the concept of absolute truth.

Well, I want to tell you, if you don't believe in absolute truth, you're absolutely unsaved. I mean, there's no way in the world we can dismiss God's moral code and God's moral standards, which are absolutely universal.

Now, my friend, has there not been a wholesale revolt against the moral law of God in our culture? I was at my mother-in-law's some time ago. I was flipping through the cable remote. We're not spiritual enough to have a cable in our home, so I was at her house and I was flipping through.

And I happened on MTV, Moron Television. And as I flipped in, I got there just in time to hear the mission statement of MTV. And here's what they said. The goal of MTV is to rid the world of racism, prejudice, so far so good, but number three, the goal of MTV is to rid the world of intolerance.

Intolerance. You understand that tolerance is the only virtue left in a totally corrupt society. In judges, every man was doing what was right in their own eyes. But the Bible says, woe be unto them that call good evil and evil good.

Lawlessness, Moral Relativism, and Social Consequences

My friend, is there not a spirit of lawlessness in the land when one out of every 13 Americans are in touch with the criminal justice system? One out of 13 in touch with the criminal justice system. My friend, morality is not a matter of personal choice.

Well, the idea is, well, what's right for you is true for you and what's right for me is true for me. I had a fellow that teaches at Oglethorpe University come up and tell me about the students that he's getting from the public schools of America.

How they're absolutely indoctrinated and have sold out to this idea of moral relativism. So he's trying to shake them back into consciousness. And he said to his class one day, he said, it's what Hitler and the Nazi regime did in Germany in seeking to exterminate an entire race, killing 6 million people.

Was it right? And you know the class, to a man responded and said, what Hitler and Germany did was right for them because what's right for you is true for you and what's right for me is true for me. There was a Jewish boy in the class and the professor looked at him and said, son, being of Jewish descent, was what Hitler did in seeking to exterminate the Jews, was it right?

And that Jewish boy said before the class to the professor, what Hitler did and what Nazi Germany did was right. It was right for them. My friend, what the question had been to say that young boy, listen son, if our government came up with a final solution and figured out that the way to rid the world of problems is to ethnically cleanse all people of Jewish descent including you, would that be right for us?

Do you see where we're at, my friend? We've been brainwashed to the point to where there's nothing right and there's nothing wrong. When I went to school, we had the three R's, reading, writing and arithmetic.

Now the three R's are reduce, reuse and recycle. We might have a generation that can't read and write, but they sure can multiply outside of marriage. You know, they tell us that 14 million Americans meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse disorders.

Over 33 million Americans age 12 and older have tried cocaine. 3 .5 million people today in America have used heroin. Nearly 100 million have smoked marijuana. Nearly 12 million have used a date rape drug called ecstasy.

And over 5 million people in the United States are alcoholics.