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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-skates/strange-fire/
Let's turn to the book of Exodus please, chapter 40. Exodus chapter 40, let's read at verse 34. Notice the end of verse 33, so Moses finished the work. We've been hearing about a finished work, the finished work of our Lord Jesus in salvation.
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Now come over to Exodus, or sorry, Leviticus chapter 9, the book of Leviticus in chapter 9. Notice verse 1. And it came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.
Now further down that chapter, verse 23. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces.
Chapter 10, verse 1. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron took either of them his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified.
And Aaron, though he was mourning, held his peace. And Moses called Mesiel and Elazephan, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near. Carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.
So they went near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. Moses said unto Aaron and unto Eliezer and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes.
That's the idea of mourning, you see, for the boys that had died. Lest ye die. And lest wrath come upon all the people, but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled.
And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. For the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you, and they did according to the word of Moses. And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die.
It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, and that ye may put a difference between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean, and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.
And Moses spake unto Aaron and unto Eliezer and unto Ithamar, his sons that were left. Now over to 1 Corinthians, please, for a final reading. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16.
Know ye not that ye are the holy of holies of God? That's the word temple is naos, the holy of holies. And the spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defile the holy of holies of God, him shall God destroy.
For the holy of holies of God is holy, which ye, the assembly at Corinth are. Trust the Lord to bless to us the reading of his word. Did you notice that our brother Scott was speaking about strange fire?
He didn't use those words, but that's what he was speaking about. In Exodus chapter 40, the place is Mount Sinai. The tabernacle has been set up. And we read how the awesome glory of the Lord filled that structure.
God was actually owning that place as his dwelling place where he would dwell in the midst of the camp of the children of Israel. And so he placed his fire upon it by night and that cloud by day. We refer to the Shekinah glory of God, the glory of his presence.
When we came to Leviticus chapter 9, these priests, the sons of Aaron, and Aaron himself, have been consecrated. There's been one week of that process has been gone on. And you read about that in chapter 8 of Leviticus.
But now it's the eighth day, and that's where we began to read in chapter 9. The eighth day has come. I take it that chapter 9 and chapter 10, that all takes place on that same day, the eighth day. Aaron and his only sons, these four sons beginning with the eldest, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
They've been inaugurated, if you will, and consecrated as priests. So there's a total, think of it, there's a total of five priests for maybe two million people. Every one of them sinners, conscious of sin and under the law, required to bring sin offerings, trespass offerings, peace offerings, meal offerings, burnt offerings.
And bring them to these five men who had one altar to burn them on. And some were burnt outside the camp, of course. So obviously it was a system that was designed by God, yet it was patently inadequate for all the sins of that nation.
And that was the point, that they might learn that this is not the permanent solution, but that it is pointing forward to the one sacrifice for sins forever that would be made by our Lord Jesus Christ later.
But let's get back to these priests. They have come to the door of the tabernacle. They have been stripped of their clothing. They have been washed all over. We were hearing of the washing of regeneration.
That's what that picture is. Washed all over, once and for all, washed all over. So they've been through that. Then they've been clothed with priest's garments. And for them, sin offerings have been made, burnt offerings, peace offerings, meal offerings have been made for them.
And I take it that that is indicating to us there is already fire upon the altar, the brazen altar there in the court. And these priests have laid their hands upon the heads of those animals. We know all that from other scriptures.
They've actually had their hands filled with the waved breast of the peace offering. And Moses has commanded them to wave that breast before the Lord, to wave it before him. They have done that. They've had their hands filled.
These men have been consecrated. And so when that is accomplished, chapter 9, verse 24, we read,. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, from before the face of the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat.
And when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces. What was God doing? God was showing that not only had he accepted the tabernacle as his dwelling place, but he had accepted them as his priests.
And God demonstrated that by the fire that came out from before the Lord and burnt upon the altar. So it's all set up now and functioning. And the Lord sanctifies them. He sanctifies his tabernacle and the altar and the people indeed as his own.
They belong to him. They belong to him. Now, we come to chapter 10. There are three divisions in the chapter. The first seven verses, it's the Lord's condemnation here on Nadab and Abihu. And then from verse 8 to 11, we have the Lord's commands to Aaron.
And then in the remainder of the chapter, verse 12 on down, it's the Lord's commands to the remaining priests. I'm just going to occupy our thoughts for a moment on the first two sections of that chapter and then we'll sit down.
So the Lord's condemnation of Nadab and Abihu. Nadab was the firstborn. Abihu was the second son. So these are not just children. These men have maturity on their side. They're of the tribe of Levi. They're of the right tribe.
And they are of the family of Aaron. They are of the right family. They have been consecrated as priests without once for all washing and the priest's clothing has been put upon them and they have been functioning as priests.
And they've been with Moses on Mount Sinai. These men are privileged and they're knowledgeable in the things that God has been giving to Moses. In chapter 8, verse 14, they placed their hands upon the head of the bullock of the sin offering.
Verse 18, they placed their hands on the head of the ram of the burnt offering. Verse 22, they placed their hands on the head of the ram of consecration. And this has all gone down already. Blood has actually been placed on the right thumb of these men, on the tip of the right ear, and on the big toe of the right foot.
And God has been putting his claim, his blood-bought claim upon them. We're getting the picture, aren't we? They will serve God in holy priesthood in that tabernacle. And they had every right to function for God.
But it doesn't end well. There's a problem. In spite of all of that in the background, and all that was in accordance with the mind of God, these men bring strange fire before the Lord. They had so much going for them.
Commencing in Exodus chapter 25, we get the instructions given regarding the various items of the tabernacle. I just want to review this very quickly with you. The Lord begins by giving instructions from the Holy of Holies.
And you get the Ark of the Covenant spoken of, the table of showbread that we've been hearing about, the lampstand. And notice, from there, he goes to the curtains and the coverings and the boards in chapter 26.
Chapter 27, you're out in the court now for the brazen altar. There's the court described, and there's oil for the lamps. Chapter 28, the priest's garments are described. And in chapter 29, instruction for the inauguration of the priests.
And in chapter 30 now, we come back inside the holy place in our thinking, and there is prescribed the golden altar of incense and then the laver at which those priests would wash. So we note then that it's only after you get to the priests, as it were, being set up and functioning, meaning that instructions are given for the golden altar where they will burn incense upon the fire and that incense would be offered before the Lord.
Leviticus 8 and 9 records the actual historic inauguration of those priests, as we've been thinking. Aaron and his sons have been brought through that process. And immediately now in chapter 10, there's this failure in the burning of incense.
They've been doing so well, but now there's a fatal mistake and a sin before the Lord. What does God think of that? Does it not really matter? It's fire, but it was strange fire. They were actually commanded not to do it, but they thought that seemingly it was a good idea and they thought that they could act in that way.
Now what's that got to do with you and me? Well, just this, you and I are a priesthood. In fact, we're a holy priesthood. Every believer here this morning is a part of a holy priesthood. Peter writes about it in 1 Peter 2, verse 5.
He says, He also, as lively stones are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Notice this word, underscore it in your mind. Acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ.
And verse 9, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. So clearly, what Peter is doing there is he's drawing a parallel, isn't he, between the Old Testament that we've been thinking about, and now he's addressing Christians in the New Testament.
And we are a priesthood. What for? To offer up, not just spiritual sacrifices, but we are to offer up what is qualified before God as acceptable to Him. Now, we need to keep that in mind. In the New Testament, when the word priest is in the singular, it is always the Lord Jesus Christ that is being spoken of.
But when it's you and I, then it is plural, and it's a priesthood. We are only priests. Are we only priests, then? You might ask, when we gather together collectively? No. But we do come together collectively because we are a priesthood.
And it is not to form a priesthood that we come together. So you can pray to God privately, I hope you do, 24 -7, 365. And I hope we often do. In the Old Testament, you could hardly do anything for God without reference to a priest.
And in the New Testament, all that we are responsible to do for God is because we are priests. A priest and a priesthood. So that's going to regulate, then, what we do. And all the things that we do for God.
And my point is this. It needs to be acceptable to God and not just what we feel we want to do. God had commanded them not to offer strange things. Chapter 30 of Exodus, regarding the golden altar, ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering, neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.
It's that same word, when you think of that word strange, it's the same word that's used regarding the wicked. You remember, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born.
So these men just could not do what they wanted. It was forbidden to do what they wanted to do unless it was acceptable to God. I hope we're getting the point because that's what we want to stress. Strange fire was forbidden.
It might have seemed like a good idea with the offering of incense, but what they did with their religious intent was in actual direct disobedience in holy things. And this fire comes out from before the face of the Lord and consumes them.
Did you notice, did you notice? That same fire that kindled upon the altar to show God's acceptance and God's approval was the same fire that sanctified himself in taking these men away. God sanctified himself on both occasions with that same fire.
And why? It was because Nadab and Abihu did not sanctify God because they infringed upon God's directives from his word. And so God had to sanctify himself in that solemn way. So again, what's the relevance of that to us today?
Do you and I believe, really, that the assembly is a temple of God? We read about it from 1 Corinthians 3. Is the word of God right? In fact, the word is, as we indicated, it's that word for the inner shrine in tabernacle language, the holy of holies.
And know ye not that ye are the temple of God? And the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. So what I'm learning is this.
I hope this is not too simple. Well, what I'm learning is this, that care is needed with what is linked with God's assembly. So it's not just enough, brethren and sisters, to have good ideas. To have ideas that we think are good and they'll be maybe good for the young people or good for, you know, whatever.
And we can come up with all kinds of reasons. But we need to exercise care when it comes to God's holy assembly. Many things get done sometimes in the name of God's assembly, hoping that, well, in the interests of advancing God's things and things can be introduced.
There's the whole area of religious entertainment. There are places where sisters take part audibly. And I'm sure those dear sisters do so with the intent of bringing spiritual sacrifices to God. But let's apply the test.
Is it acceptable with God? Well, the Word of God does forbid that, doesn't it? With sisters being silent. So not so long as the New Testament forbids public audible participation of sisters in the assembly, all other good intentions regarding it must be left to the one side.
Because the temple of God is holy. Which temple ye are. That scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 goes on to say this in the next verse. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool.
Let him know nothing, that ye may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Now, need to move on. Verse 9. There's this instruction that just seems strange inserted here.
If it wasn't for the very context in which we find it. Verse 9 says, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee. When ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. Now, I take it that it was a normal thing to drink wine in that day.
Not to excess, of course. There's warnings against that. But it is clearly forbidden in the things of God. The suggestion is, perhaps, that Nadab and Abihu were actually inebriated. And they were perhaps carried away with the festive atmosphere and God's approval on the tabernacle and on the priesthood and on the altar and everybody was rejoicing.
And maybe that's in the background there. Verse 10 says, Put a difference between holy and unholy. So what we learn is this. That what might have been normal, maybe in their home, when it came to the tabernacle, it was forbidden.
So there's areas of life that you and I may rightly enjoy. I do like music. I like to listen to it in the car, listen to it at home. But you see, when you come to God's assembly, there's not a mention of it.
Well, you think it might help with singing. I'm sure it probably would sometimes. It can be bad enough sometimes, can't it? But maybe not. Because it does tend, as I understand it, to take over. And certainly the Christian music industry has become a big thing out there.
But not for God's assembly. Because the temple of God is holy. And we can only bring into it what God permits. What God has said. What expresses His character. What expresses His word. That's our responsibility.
To carry that out. Plus nothing. It's strange fire if we do. Strange fire to limit the work of Christ. Strange fire to add to what God has given to us for our gatherings together. Now verse 11. I need to sit down.
They were to teach the children of Israel. Notice, all the statutes. All of them. They weren't to leave anything out. They were to teach all the children of Israel the statutes. You and I have a responsibility too to pass on truth to others.
And to pass it on accurately. And to pass it on clearly and simply. That they might be able to grasp it. Particularly our own children. And family members. And the community in which we live. And the neighbors.
And the place where we meet together in fellowship. It should be a place where people know the truth will be proclaimed and preached. And so they were to pass on truth to us. So by all means, brethren and sisters.
Share your Christian faith. But God's assembly is not a free for all. Where you and I can invent what we want to invent and bring it in in God's name. We can't do that. Let us preserve the holiness of the place where he dwells.
Amongst his people. According to his mind. According to his will. That we might bring delight to him. In the doing of all things that we do for our God. Trust the Lord who will bless. The word to our hearts.