Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 26, 2023 | Numbers - Deadly Worship

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March 26, 2023 | Numbers - Deadly Worship · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see everybody.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been with us before, we are in week two going through the book of Numbers, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And last week we uh we talked about the census and the camping arrangements.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently you were not deterred or you didn't come to last week when we talked about the census and the camping arrangements.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you understand that it is good to talk about the book of numbers because it is God's word and we should know it, even if we can't always discern the importance when we read it the first time.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So uh this morning we are going to be looking at numbers three and four.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but before we do that, I want you to imagine for a second that you work at a foundry, okay?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it is your job to supervise the melting of metal.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you're wearing protective clothing because if you weren't, just by being in that environment, you'd basically get cooked.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the furnace that is radiating heat is so intense that you have to wear this clothing to even stand close to it.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But let's imagine for a second that you were careless and you allowed a drop of molten metal to touch you.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you would get third and fourth degree burns and your nerve endings would get singed off.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's say um you're even more careless and you got splashed.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you would get charred, your muscles would detach from your body because of the heat, your internal organs would get scalded, and uh most likely you wouldn't be alive.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, by the way, right?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's happened before.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever they do the the report, this terrible accident, whenever they do the report on why such a thing happened, the reason given is always human error.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is never the fault of the molten iron that melts at around 2,800 degrees that it was hot and it burned you because you touched it accidentally.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, it is the nature of working at a foundry that you are in a dangerous environment.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, and because of the accidents that do happen because of human error, there are now a whole lot of rules and restrictions for how people who really do work in those environments even today are supposed to work and operate safely so that they don't get harmed.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: This morning, when we go to Numbers 3 and 4, we're going to be looking at a group of people called the Levites.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the Levites have a very, very special job, which is that they are to interact with and help transport the elements of the tabernacle as Israel is moving through the desert.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we said that we are kind of the book of Numbers is that 40-year period of time where Israel has been emancipated, they've been freed from slavery in Egypt, and God is taking them to the promised land, and it is all about their journey.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that journey is that God said at the base of Mount Sinai that he was going to have his presence dwell in this particular place called the Tabernacle.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Later on in the Bible, it becomes the temple.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in that tabernacle was something called the Ark of the Covenant.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in your reading, you'll see it be the Ark of the Testimony.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And though God is everywhere, he specifically chose to have his presence dwell in the ark.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: How the Levites were to handle carrying this holy object placed them in the foundry of God's tabernacle, because by touching it, by even looking at it, they could fall dead.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So as we read in chapter 3, and I'm going to bounce around a little bit here, verses 5 through 10, we see first of all, though, simply the role that the Levites had in caring for this tabernacle.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord spoke to Moses, bring the tribe of Levi near and present them to the priest Aaron to assist him.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: They are to perform duties for him and the entire community before the tent of meeting by attending to the service of the tabernacle.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: They are to take excuse me, they are to take care of all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and perform duties for the Israelites by attending to the service of the tabernacle.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: They have been assigned exclusively to him from the Israelites.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: You are to appoint Aaron and his sons to carry out their priestly responsibilities, but any unauthorized person who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So take one step back.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron is the brother of Moses.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron is also, you could say, he kind of got ordained.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't really the thing.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, back in Leviticus, Aaron and his sons were ordained to be the priests over the nation of Israel.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically, Aaron is the high priest, and he is the one who's going to interact and basically be the intermediary between the nation of Israel and God himself.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: That was a lot of the book of Leviticus, all the sacrifices and things like that that they were to carry out.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Aaron and his sons, and he had four sons.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's Nadab and Abihu, and Eliezer and Ithamar.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Two of his sons were killed back in Leviticus 10, because they authored unauthorized fire.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Back in Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu, they bring forth, they did not understand and respect the holiness of God.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: They did not care to follow his commands for how he should be worshipped, and because of that, they were consumed by fire.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So now Aaron and his two remaining sons, his youngest two, Eliezer and Ithamar, are the ones who are the priests over the nation of Israel, and the Levites are specifically designated to them as they are basically kind of lay servants, right?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: You might recall last week we said, when we looked at the census, there are twelve tribes in the nation of Israel.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: One of them, Levi, was left out of the accounting, the military numbers.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And here we see it being picked up in chapter 3 and 4, what happens to them.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't a part of the military, but they have perhaps an even more important role, which is caring for the things of the tabernacle.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: But you might also understand, perhaps, the pain that Aaron would be going through, as he has now been instructed by his brother Moses, that the Levites are supposed to prevent anybody from coming too close to the tabernacle who are unauthorized, lest they would be facing death.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, the Levites are going to be protecting the tabernacle from people like Aaron's sons.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Same kind of word is used for unauthorized.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you look at this and you go, all right, already this is pretty intense.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean the Levites are supposed to put people to death who come close to the tabernacle?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, everybody has been given the instruction about how to relate to God.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody has been told that God is holy, he is set apart, he is different, and because we are sinners, because we have rebelled against him, we cannot come close because God is righteous, and in his presence there is no sin.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the things, one of the reasons why we worship God.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that disparity, the difference between the two, there's a barrier that had to be constructed because God says, I want, I want to walk with you through the desert.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to, he tells Moses, he says, Look, I am a personal God, you are my people, I am your God, and I want to be with you.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: My presence is to dwell within the middle of your camp.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: As you leave and you depart, my presence is to walk with you.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: But in order to do that, there are certain restrictions that have to be placed around me.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Protective clothing, if you will, from this molten iron.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And in so doing, though, people hearing those instructions, if they still did not care to respect the holiness of God and would basically rush the tabernacle trying to get too close, it was the job of the Levites to prevent them from doing it.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why are the Levites here?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: They serve a number of roles, as we've already mentioned, but the tabernacle that is in the middle is holding the Ark of the Covenant, and above the Ark of the Covenant is the mercy seat where God's presence dwells, and above that is where the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night is leading the nation of Israel.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: You hear the Levites, you see these instructions about avoiding death and all of these different things, how important their job is, and you say, Boy, I don't know if I would want that job.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yet at the same time, they are the ones who are able to tread as close as possible, besides Aaron, to the presence of God Himself.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is a highly esteemed and respected job despite the difficulties.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: But if there's one thing, though, you're taking away from chapter three, as we move now into chapter four, it is that we begin to grasp, as we'll look at even more deeply, that God is holy, and his holiness is something that must be remembered and respected.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Going against that is a mortal error.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: As we go into chapter four, we now see that the tribe of Levi is being divided into three separate clans.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Following our genealogy, right?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: We have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jacob had 12 sons.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're the twelve tribes of Israel.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of those tribes is Levi.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Levi, this is all back in Genesis, Levi had three sons, Kohath, Gershon, and Morari.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Baby name books were different back then, right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And those three guys were leaders of their tribes, now divided within Levi.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Over 400 years later, we see their descendants, and here we're going to talk about the Kohathites and their job.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most dangerous of all the jobs for the Levites.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron and his sons are to finish covering the holy objects and all their equipment whenever the camp is to move on.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Kohathites will come and carry them, but they are not to touch the holy objects, or they will die.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: These are the transportation duties of the Kohathites regarding the tent of meeting.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: Do not allow the Kohathite tribal clans to be wiped out from the Levites.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do this for them, so that they may live and not die when they come near the most holy objects.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron and his sons are to go in and assign each man his task and transportation duty.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Kohathites are not to go in and look at the holy objects as they are covered, or they will die.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in chapter four, we see the Kohathites here.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: They are given the, like I said, the most dangerous duty of transporting the ark itself.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: So what would happen is Aaron and his sons is they would go in and they would cover the ark and the most holy elements with these different coverings.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: One of them, by the way, is either porpoise or manatee skin.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about that more in the podcast.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, they would cover the ark, and then it would be the job of the Kohathites to come in and begin transporting it.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the danger, though, was that by touching something they should not touch, or even looking, in fact, that last sentence there, it's literally translated as if they looked more than the length of a swallow, if they looked for even a moment, that they would die.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so you see this amazing sort of contrast being given between those who are doing the most important duty here in carrying the Ark of the Covenant across the desert so that Israel may stay with it, yet they are the ones most at peril of death.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: We are reminded, and we shouldn't be surprised, frankly, that the Ark is something that is dangerous because Indiana Jones told us about it, right?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: When the Nazis are trying to open up the Ark, and if you've seen the movie, you know what happens to those two guys in the top left and top right.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, you can watch the movie.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Ark is something that, even in that, is shown to be dangerous.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you might recall what Indy says to his companion Marion when they are about to open up the ark, he says, Don't look at it, Marion.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, don't look at it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So even Indy was a cohathite, right?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, the type of material that I have to make jokes from in the book of Numbers is shockingly thin.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So Indiana Jones being a Kohathite is about as good as we're gonna get, okay?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I should set your expectations.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it's even part of pop culture that the Ark of the Covenant, that something that belongs to God, that is holy, is something that shouldn't be trifled with.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so it perhaps shouldn't surprise us when we go back and we read this account about the danger that was present for the Kohathites.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: But even still, we have to remember something that is present here.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Following God brings life, and rejecting God brings death.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: You see, the ark needed to travel with the Israelites.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: They were doomed without God's help.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that is reinforced over and over and over again in the Bible, is that Israel cannot stand by themselves, they cannot do anything really without the help and aid of their covenant God.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, those who chose to reject God, those who were against him, positioned against the Lord, would be those who are facing death.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But even now, once we sort of constrain that, we just get to the commands that were given to the Levites, they had to follow God's specific orders in order to find life.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if they went against God's specific commands, even though they were people of his covenant, they would end up dying and facing death because they had rejected and treated as careless his rules.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's so important for us to see this.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to be over dramatic, but if you fail to grasp that following God leads to life and rejecting God leads to death, you will miss one of the core elements of the biblical narrative.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because the whole Bible is working towards this point that says that God is saving us from our own self-destruction.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: We are sinners.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are people who enjoy rebelling against God.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of our hobbies.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as we do it, we invite his holy and righteous judgment upon ourselves because we are not following his commands.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: We are not being people who are dedicated to him.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And even outside of that, right, even outside of just recognizing God, we love to rebel.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so we are constantly inviting this kind of death upon ourselves.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus Christ comes in the New Testament, God Himself, to be the barrier, the thing to protect us, the protective clothing from the holiness of God Himself.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: God is protecting us from his own wrath that is righteous.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if we fail to see that, if we fail to understand God's holiness, the teeth are taken out of the gospel.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because what are we being saved from?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yes.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: But if God is not holy, then what is it that we are being saved from?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're being saved from that sin.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: So in chapter four, we see this here.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: But as you are looking at it, as you are comprehending it, there's still probably some of you who are like, that's pretty intense.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a big fan of all of this life and death stuff.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a big fan of this God who is so holy that they must be careful that they don't even look at the ark.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna fast forward a little bit in our Bible to a story about 400 years after this to see if any of this has changed.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look to King David and see what happens when he interacts with the ark.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: In 2 Samuel 6, David and all his troops set out to bring the Ark of God from Bal Judah.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: The ark bears the name, the name of the Lord of armies, who is enthroned between the cherubim.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: They set the ark of God on a new cart and transported it from Abinadab's house, which was on the hill.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: When they came to Nakon's threshing floor, Uzzah reached out to the Ark of God and took hold of it because the oxen had stumbled.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord's anger burned against Uzzah, and God struck him dead on the spot for his irreverence, and he died there next to the Ark of God.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: David was angry because of the Lord's outburst against Uzzah, so he named the place Outburst Against Uzzah.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Clever, as it is today.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: David feared the Lord that day and said, How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: David, God's anointed king, a man after God's own heart, somebody who was able to speak with God himself, wrote most of our Psalms, and as somebody who had the ear of the one most high, he began to presume upon his relationship with the Lord that he didn't need to treat his ark with the same kind of respect that it had been afforded earlier.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so David, perhaps not even understanding these elements, he goes and he gets what he thinks is fit for the new ark, or for the ark, rather, is a new ox cart.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, that that should probably be good, right?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't want an old ox cart to transport the Ark of the Covenant.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: We need a new ox cart.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so David loads the Ark of the Covenant onto this new ox cart, and as it's traveling, he's wanting to bring it back to Jerusalem, where in the future his son is going to build a permanent temple for this ark, the place where it really belongs, in the city of David, and he's trying to bring it back to there, and it hits a pothole, and the ark begins to tumble out, and Uzzah reaches his hand to steady it, and he is struck dead.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And David's reaction goes through a number of stages.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: At first he's angry.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Lord, what are you doing?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uzzah was just, he didn't want to make sure you fell into the mud here.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then as he considers it, he begins to take a step back and realize what's happening, and he says, Lord, if this is how holy you are, how can the ark ever come to be in Jerusalem?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: How can I ever be close to it?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: You can see it dawns on him.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of this passage here, David feared the Lord that day.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what David does, after realizing that the same ark is just as filled with God's holiness and potent as it ever was before, he goes back to Jerusalem and does some Bible study.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes back and reads the section of Numbers that we are reading, chapters 3 and 4, and he realizes that God had given some instructions for how the ark should be transported.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: After reading this, he decides to set back out to finally bring the ark to Jerusalem, only this time with a different plan.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: In 1 Chronicles 15, David said to them, You are the heads of the Levite families.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves so that you may bring the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord our God burst out in anger against us, because you Levites were not with us the first time, for we didn't inquire of him about the proper procedures.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Levites carried the Ark of the Ark of God the way Moses had commanded, according to the word of the Lord, on their shoulders with the poles.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see the shift here that goes on?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: The shift in David's heart as he comes face to face with the God of all creation, the one in whom he had such a close personal relationship, and realized that even he had begun to presume upon God that, hey, this is fine, right?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like God, you're not.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know we say that you're holy, and I know we talk about it, and I know we, you know, okay, we read these passages, but hey, we're just trying to bring you back to Jerusalem.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: God, this is something you want, isn't it?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you see this transformation from anger, then to understanding, and then to reverence.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: As he says, we do not follow God's commands, and we suffered the consequences.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: See, one of the things about God's holiness that is so hard for us to try and grasp is that it does not matter what our good intentions are when they do not follow the commands that God has given.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uzzah, the fact that he reached out to try and prevent the ark from rolling off the new ox cart, it did not matter because they were not following the commands of the Lord.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Uzzah paid the price that David should have known for treating God's ark with such irreverence.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, David had to be constantly reminded that he should never forget that God is holy.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just because the ark wasn't in the tabernacle anymore, it was kind of basically staying at some farmer's barn and they went to go and retrieve it, they'd begun to sort of lose sight of the The fact that God's holiness is not something that changes.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: God's commands that he had given to the Israelites were not something that had changed.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: David was the one who'd begun to change his perception of God because of that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: He could never forget that the Lord is holy, even though by God's grace he was a part of the covenant people, even though he had been given much mercy, even though he had experienced, right, this fellowship with God, even then God's holiness was a part of that relationship.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to remember that God is holy?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, there are a lot of words that we could use to describe it, but ultimately that falls short a lot of the times.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean that God is holy?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let us go to our last passage this morning, and instead of trying to describe it, let us think of an image in Isaiah chapter 6.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Seraphim, which are a kind of angel, were standing above him.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: They each had six wings, with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And one called to another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies, his glory fills the whole earth.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah the prophet, God didn't even speak.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: He just says, I cast my gaze upon the Lord of armies in his throne room, and I bow at his feet and say, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I am around people of unclean lips.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah understood what, and frankly had the privilege to see, even though it was terrifying to him, the true reality of the God that he was serving.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: When it says, when the angels, the seraphims say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies, that is the same phrase that was used in 2 Samuel 6 before they loaded the ark onto the new ox cart.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: They said, It is the name of the Lord of armies who is enthroned between the cherubim.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same God we're talking about.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: But the difference that they had made is they didn't think of the Isaiah 6 kind of throne room, but they were looking at a gilded box about two and a half by three and a half feet wide.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, they had lost sight of what it meant that they were still worshiping and caring for and touching and looking at the things of God, the things that are holy, the things that must be respected and remembered.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: What is God's holiness?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is everything about him that makes him worthy of our worship.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is everything about him that makes him worthy of worship.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because you might have heard all of these things that I've said, and you say, you know what?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'd really love to worship a God that didn't strike people down who ignorantly touched his ark.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say, No, you don't.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: You want to worship a God that is holy.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: You want to worship a God that is set apart.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: You want to worship a God that can't be constrained into this image that we can think of.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you could put God in a box, he would not be a God at all.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: He is not the God that is worthy of worship if he is one that is not holy.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And his holiness, the same thing that makes him so dangerous, the reason why it's dangerous is because of your sin and my sin.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is not because God, it is human error that has led to us being cast dead when we look at the ark.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of all of these things, I say you want to worship a holy God.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: You want to remember that he is holy, and you want to follow after him, because failing to do so is failing to remember a core element of his essence and being, which is that he is set apart and deserving of respect.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the final opposition you might give, though, is you would say, Well, Connor, that's the Old Testament God.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the New Testament God.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know Jesus.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I would lovingly invite you to read Revelation 4 and get back to me.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's another throne room scene.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's another scene where God, we're in the New Testament, where God is still sitting on his throne, and the people who go before him see that his words bring forth thunder and lightning and smoke.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is still the God right now that is sitting on his throne.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is the God that we still worship today.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: The difference and the variable is Jesus Christ.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: That is what has changed.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, and this goes back to what I said previously: if you misunderstand his holiness, you misunderstand the cross.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because the reason Jesus had to come and God came down, fully man, fully God, to die on the cross for the sins of mankind, the reason he did that is because we were pressing the self-destruct button and he wanted to protect us.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because we were running headlong into his judgment, rebelling against him, and God says, I'm gonna save you from that.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I am holy and I am righteous, and my nature does not change, and therefore your sin is deserving of punishment.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: But because I love you, and because I want to have a relationship with you, and because I'm filled with grace and mercy, I am going to take that punishment.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: The cross is the culmination of God's mercy and his wrath coming together in one moment.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus would not be there if God was not holy and wrathful and zealous to punish sin, and Jesus Christ would not be there if he was not gracious and merciful.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is the variable that changes.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how does this all have to do with the book of Numbers?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Kohathites were daily reminded of the fact that even just looking upon the ark, covered in its porpoise skin, even looking upon the ark was something that could bring death to them.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I and I find myself being conflicted because, on the one hand, obviously, I praise God for Jesus Christ that he died on the cross for our sins, and that if we accept him, we can be saved and forgiven.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, I wonder if there was something in our sanctuary here, in our service in church, where if we looked at it, we would be cast dead.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Might we have a better reminder of God's holiness at all times?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I want it.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not saying I want it.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the Kohathites, the Levites, the Israelites, they were reminded of what it meant to worship this holy God at all times.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Numbers reminds us of this truth when we read it in chapters three and four.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: It reminds us of the restrictions that God placed upon handling his holy elements so that his people would not die, so that they could be protected, and so that the nation of Israel would prosper.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: All of the restrictions that you read about are a grace and a mercy from God that he is showing to people who otherwise would get burned.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: I have two final worries, though, that I want to share with you.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Two things that I think applied to us directly today from this text in chapters three and four, and implications about God's holiness.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is that I am concerned that there are many Christians today who treat their relationship with God a little bit too much like David did in 2 Samuel.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think there are Christians who have accepted the gift of Jesus Christ, who have turned to him as their Savior, so they may be saved and forgiven, seen as a son and daughter of the King, and be with God forever in heaven.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think there are people who fall into that category, though, who presume too much about God and perhaps his lack of holiness when they speak to him.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And though I don't think that God, because of Christ, would handle us the way that he handled the Kohathites, I think there is a level of reverence that we need to maintain in our relationship with him when we think about God, because we recognize he is still on the throne.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is still the God that you send your prayers to at his feet, when you are angry with how your life is going, when you are frustrated with something he didn't do for you, when you are wanting to yell and scream profanities at him because you don't think he has treated you rightly.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that throne room is where your prayers are heading to.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: And let that temper just a little bit the way that you consider the God of all creation, that he is the one that is sitting on that throne.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we have Jesus Christ.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not discounting that.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus Christ, being God Himself, talked about God's holiness more than anybody else.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: When he told us how to pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing we are supposed to say about God who is in heaven is that he is still holy and he is mighty.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a good thing for us to keep in mind.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like David, we can never forget that God is holy.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing, though, that I'm I worry about and I'm concerned about is that there are some here who do not have the covering of the blood of Christ upon them.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And they presume also upon God, but because they don't have Christ, they are heading towards a much different future.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is exemplified in Uzzah, the man who reached out and touched the ark, and good intentions do not get you through the gates of heaven.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about these kinds of things, there are a number of people who have rejected Christ, who have forgotten that following God leads to life and rejecting him leads to death.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: They have rejected the cross of Jesus Christ.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: They say they do not need it, and they are fully expecting that when they get to that throne room, that same throne room, that they have an argument that is going to win over God.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: That they are going to be able to say, Lord, the way you treated me was not right.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Your commands, they weren't just, and your methods I didn't agree with.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let me in.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And just as God will separate the sheep from the goats and the wheat from the chaff, those who have accepted Jesus Christ from those who have not, your good intentions and your good arguments are worth nothing in the throne room of God.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, I want you to understand, though, this variable, this change, is that Jesus Christ has come so that you might be forgiven of your sins.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it is not something that you deserve, but it is something that is given freely to you because we have a merciful God to protect you from his holy wrath that is justified.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to know more about that, come talk with me.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ask somebody next to you.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: We'd be happy because our mission is leading people to life in Christ.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: But if you think that you can get to the end and you're gonna have a debate with the creator of the universe and the Lord of armies, and you're gonna come out on top, you're sorely mistaken.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does that mean, though, for our daily lives?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes the best application is that we remember things.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the best application is not some hack, but it is simply that we adjust our view of the holy God to a more right position that is true.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that when you are praying, you should remember the holiness of God.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think that when you are worshiping and singing, you should remember the holiness of God.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you are listening to sermons, you should remember the holiness of God.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you're reading your Bible, you should remember the holiness of God.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you are dealing with your ailing family members, when you are making dinner, when you are driving to work, when you're out on the golf course, I think you must remember the holiness of God in such a way that you have a proper understanding of who He is.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And as my final argument to you for why this is significant, something I've shared a little bit before, but to the depth that you understand your sin, that is how much you are going to appreciate the grace of Jesus Christ.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: The more deeply you understand, go through the floor, how far we have fallen short of God's commands, that is how much you will appreciate the cross and your relationship with Christ.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: The way that you understand the depth of your sin compared to God is by comprehending and thinking about his holiness.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: That is what drives your floor deeper and therefore your appreciation of Christ higher.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so, if you want a better relationship, a more fulfilling and joyful and thankful relationship with Jesus Christ, consider God's holiness.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the Kohathites had to do every single time that they were about to move.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look, don't touch, remember that he is holy, because if I don't, I'm going to get burned.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that is perfectly righteous of God because he is holy.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is human error when we fail to understand that.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: But God has desired to protect us and has protected us eternally by Jesus Christ.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: God, we come before you in your throne room.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: By the grace of Jesus Christ, we can do this.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we say, Lord, we are people of unclean lips and we live around people of unclean lips, and yet by your grace, you desire to have a relationship with us.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that by your Spirit we might better understand what it means to worship a holy God.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that our relationship with you personally would be influenced, would be measured and tempered by the fact that you are holy and worthy of worship.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray that we would remember these things the next time we seek to curse you for the way that we perceive you have treated us unfairly.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we are thankful for Christ that he died on that cross so that we might be forgiven of our sins if we would accept him as our Savior.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, that on that cross you poured out all of your wrath upon him because you love us.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: God, we do not deserve the cross.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: We do not deserve your grace and your mercy, and yet, Lord, you are good to bring it.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: God, finally, I pray that we would, Lord, you would help us to keep these things in mind as we move forward.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: That we would not presume too much on our relationship with you.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: But because of your holiness, we would appreciate Jesus Christ even more.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in his name that we pray.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for coming this morning.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to get ready for next week's message, we'll be in uh Numbers chapter five.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good week.