Good morning and a very Happy Sabbath to each and every one of you this morning who are joining us for Sacramento central's "central study hour." Whether you're joining us on the radio this morning, on our website at saccentral.org, or on the various television networks, we welcome you. And we're going to sing your favorite songs this morning. The first one, we have a very special guest who's going to join us. This is william. And it was exactly one year ago that he made his debut as a little tiny spiky-haired baby.
And he just had his first birthday. And we're going to sing, "Jesus loves me." Turn in your hymnals to 190. We will sing all three stanzas. This is from Daniel in brazil; rumen in bulgaria; sam in California; sherace in england; harmony and damar in grenada; heder in guatemala; Josephine in ireland; kelvyn, myriam, aurelie, and janice in mauritius; haley in Minnesota; tina and katharine in Montana; the latu girls in new zealand; peace, obarido, and blessing in nigeria; jamie and jenny in North Carolina; wallace in Oklahoma; kenny, thelma, and baby Micah in the seychelles; subin in south korea; laila in tonga; and jeffrey in Washington. 190, "Jesus loves me.
.." Thank you, william. I'm going to give you to daddy now. You can go to Sabbath school. Our next song this morning is 191, "love divine," all love's excelling. You don't have to turn very far, 'cause it's right there.
I thought I'd make it really easy for you. This is from Josephine and althea and James in hong kong; elsie and jasmine in the Philippines; pastor chan in saint vincent and the grenadines; lovely in south korea; malou and joeper in thailand. We're going to sing the first, second, and fourth stanza, "love divine..." Father in Heaven, may your love fill us this morning so that we will be ready for that day when we can cast our crowns at your feet, and live in your wonder, your love, and your grace. Father, it is a privilege for us to be here on this holy Sabbath day to worship you. Many people don't have the freedoms that we currently have.
And we know that in this country, we're not going to have those forever. And I just pray that we will be ready to stand firm no matter what comes our way. Give us the strength. Give us the courage. And just give us that love in our hearts for you, that we would never give you up for anything.
Be with us as we open up Your Word and we study together. In Jesus' Name, amen. At this time our lesson study is going to be brought to us by our senior pastor here at central church, Pastor Doug Batchelor. Morning. How is everybody? Happy Sabbath.
It's a beautiful day here in Sacramento. And we're excited. We've just begun an evangelistic series with a special group of the gyc, youth for Jesus group, working with the life program and had good experience last night. And we're having another meeting tonight, and we hope those who are watching live will keep that program in prayer. I want to welcome our Sabbath school class studying with us.
We're going through our lesson dealing with the subject of worship. And in just a moment we'll get to lesson number five in our quarterly. We have a free offer that we'd like to make available. Part of today's lesson deals with the subject of the sanctuary. And so we have a book, a study guide, that we'll send you for free.
And all you have to do is call the number. That number is 866-study-more. The lesson is called, "God drew the plans," 866-study-more, and we'll send you a free copy of that. Before we delve into the lesson, we've got something exciting that's happening soon in the Sacramento area that deals with learning how to share your faith. And we have a very special program.
And we have some leaders involved from around North America and the world. And I'd like to invite wes peppers is the director of our international afcoe program. And he's going to tell us a little bit about what's happening soon here at the central church and in the Sacramento area. Thanks Pastor Doug. Good morning everyone.
Happy Sabbath. It's a blessing to be here with you. And I just want to ask you a question this morning. How many of you feel like you need to have revival in your life? A few of you. I was hoping for most of you.
Let's try that again. How many of you feel like you need revival in your life? Amen. How many of you feel like you could be more effective in reaching out to your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends for Jesus? And we're going to have an exciting week planned out right after the asi weekend, right here at Sacramento central. And it's afcoe to go. And you'll have the opportunity to learn how to share your faith, how to give Bible studies, how to reach out to those around you for Jesus, how to be a witness for him anytime, anywhere, to any person.
Does that sound exciting? And we're going to focus also on how you can have revival in your life, how you can have a deeper walk with Jesus. And so we have some exciting guest speakers that are coming. General conference president ted wilson, anybody know who he is? He's going to be here and teaching some classes. Pastor Mark finley will be here as well. Pastor Doug will be teaching classes.
And we just have a whole host of folks, and also including the afcoe team. And as Pastor Doug said, afcoe is expanding around the world, so we're actually going to have our global directors from various schools around the world here teaching some classes as well. So get online, get registered, and we hope to see you there. God bless you, and we'll see you then. Amen.
Thank you very much, wes. That's going to be exciting. We're going to have probably one of the best assortments of teachers teaching soul-winning I think we've ever had. Wes will be teaching there as well as derek morris, jerry page, don mackintosh. It's just going to be a wonderful group and for this concentrated one-week program.
I hope anyone in the Sacramento area that wants to be a better soul-winner will take advantage of that. Okay, to our lesson: lesson number five, "happy are you, o Israel!" And wow, we got a lot of material to cover today. It's going to be difficult, because we're talking about everything from nadab and abihu, Moses and aaron, hannah, David, Saul and more. So going to talk about these different elements of worship. Our memory verse is from Isaiah 5:20-21 in the new king James version if you could join me in saying that.
One more time, it's Isaiah 5:20-21. Are you ready? "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" That verse is there because in this lesson today, we're going to talk about the dangers of using our judgment and our ideas about what worship is as opposed to what God says, and putting darkness for light; calling sweet bitter, bitter sweet. And sometimes we say, "well, you know, everyone's doing this; it must be alright." When we decide why God should be worshipped, and how he should be worshipped, who dictates that? God does, the object of worship. You know there's a very famous verse that we deal with, especially in the adventist church, in the three angel's message there in Revelation 14. It says, "fear God and worship him, for he is the one who created all things.
" "True worship," and it says this in the lesson, "true worship must always spring from the character of God as revealed in history," how he deals with us. "Authentic worship should be the Christian's heartfelt response to God's mighty acts in creation and redemption. Now I want to start right out with a very famous verse on worship that we gave to somebody. John 4:23, who has that? "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship The Father in spirit and in truth: for The Father seeketh such to worship him." Notice the word "worship" is mentioned three times in this verse. Any of you have a red-letter edition in your Bible? What color are those words? Red.
These are the words of Christ. Three times, "worship," "worship," "worship;" and notice, "true," "true." When he says, "the true worshippers," what does that imply? Are there others who worship that might not be true worshippers? Which would make them what? False. There is a counterfeit for every truth of God, including a counterfeit form of worship. So just wanted to establish that. Alright, now we're going to jump from there to the old testament.
Go to Leviticus 9, and maybe I should just tell you real quick what's happening in Leviticus 8. After they've spent a year building the sanctuary, and they established the priesthood, and the levites are chosen, they go through a one-week dedication service. Now even when Jesus ordained the apostles, he prayed all night and then he ordained them in one day. But after building the sanctuary and choosing aaron and his sons to be priests, they basically have a one-week consecration, ordination, dedication, service. Moses goes through the sanctuary, and he anoints, and he touches, and he--i don't want to use the word Christen.
That's where the word Christen comes from the word cristos, which is Greek for Messiah, or maybe it's latin, I'm sorry. Whereas you got the word Messiah, which is anointed. They both mean anointed. So Moses goes through and he anoints, he Christens, everything in the sanctuary and everybody in the sanctuary with oil and with blood. It is the ultimate consecration service.
The priests are not allowed to leave for 7 days. How'd you like to go to an ordination service where you can't leave the church for 7 days? And so I mean they were really impressing them that they were the property of God and this was a special consecration service. So they do it the way God says. I would find that a little bit difficult, but they did it the way God said. And then, you read in Leviticus 9:6-7, "then Moses said, 'this is the thing which the Lord commanded that you should do: and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you.
'" Notice the connection. You do what God has commanded , and the glory of the Lord will appear to you. How many of you want to see the glory of God? Has God's Word changed? Or is it still true that if we do what God says, the way God says, that we will experience the glory of God? That's very important. And Moses said to aaron, "go unto the altar and offer thy sin offering and the burnt offering and make an atone for thyself and for the people, and offer the offering of the people and make an atonement for them, as the Lord commanded." Do it the way the Lord commanded. This is after that week of consecration that's a culmination of this ordination service that they have.
Same chapter, go to verse 16. "And he brought the burnt offering, and he offered it according to the manner," the way God commanded, according to the manner. Verse 23 and 24--matter of fact, before i--before I read that, I want to just get ready here. Matthew 3:11, who has that verse? Matthew 3:11, I gave that to somebody. You got that, James? Alright, we'll get you a microphone.
Just be ready, 'cause I'm gonna come to you in a moment here. In the meantime, I told you Leviticus 9:23-24, "and Moses and aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and they came out, they blessed the people." This is after this one week, final ordination, sacrifice. "And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people." Had he promised that at the beginning of this chapter this would happen? "And there came a fire out from before the Lord and it consumed on the altar the burnt offering and the fat. When all the people saw it, they shouted and they fell on their faces." Now this is the kind of shout-- it's not the kind of shout where they shout on command because they've blown the trumpets and the walls of Jericho are going to come down. This is the kind of shout where someone surprises you and you just let out a yelp of fear.
They saw it and they went, "whaaa!" You ever have somebody kind of surprise you and you let out a yelp? When they saw the glory of the Lord come out like that, they shouted in fear and they fell down on their faces. It's like they had been shocked, 'cause they saw the glory of God. And the glory of God, what could be brighter and more powerful than the glory of God? He promised that they'd see it. Oh by the way, this is a little different than some places in the Bible it says, "the fire of God came down from heaven." Here, and they're not sure exactly, but I've heard some commentators say that the glory of the Lord, it said it came out from the presence of the Lord. They're wondering, did it come out of the tabernacle where the ark was this time? The curtains were open, the door was open, Moses and aaron had come out.
It could be that the glory actually came right out from the ark and it would have had a line of sight to the altar and burned up the sacrifice showing God was now in the holy place. So you could probably argue that either way, but bottom line is that God manifested his glory, that same glory that will devour the wicked. For them it was a sign of God's approval that he would burn up the sacrifice. After they worshipped--this is the sum of what I've been saying. After they worshipped and dedicated themselves and their sanctuary the way God had said, he promised, "if you do what I say the way I say, I will reveal myself to you.
You will see my glory. They obeyed, and he did. He kept his promise. Is that truth still relevant today? If we worship and obey the way God says, will God reveal himself to us? Okay, James, you're going to read for us now Matthew 3:11. Are we ready for that? I think we are.
Go ahead. "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than i, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the holy ghost, and with fire." That's a new testament promise about being baptized with the glory of God. Of course John the baptist baptized with water. Children of Israel went through the red sea, but then they were also baptized in the presence of God in that pillar of fire, a visible presence of God. The glory of God was in that fire.
And here, they saw it also in the sanctuary. How important is it to have that glory of the Lord revealed in us? How important is water baptism? Doesn't Jesus say, "unless you are born of the water in the Spirit," and the Spirit, "you cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven"? We need water baptism. That's that cleansing on the outside. And we need that glory baptism, the Spirit of God on the inside. We got the water on the outside; glory of God on the inside.
We need both, don't we? Both baptisms. Romans 12:1, Paul said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable." What was it that the fire of God burnt up in the sanctuary? They put something on the altar. They put a sacrifice on the altar. The glory of God came and accepted that sacrifice. When abel put his sacrifice on the altar, and cain put his sacrifice on the altar, they both came to worship God.
The glory of God accepted one sacrifice. That fire came on abel's sacrifice. Right? 'Cause he worshipped the way God had said. Both claim to worship the same God, but they were doing it different ways. One did it the way God prescribed; one did not.
The fire of God accepted one. Let's talk a minute about the fire of God. Acts 2:2. When the apostles humbled themselves before the Lord and they put their hearts and lives on the altar, presented themselves as a living sacrifice, in that upper room they were praying for ten days, they sacrificed everything inappropriate in their lives. Then it says, "and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them like cloven tongues of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit." This is the glory of God being revealed. And so they presented themselves as a living sacrifice. And the Holy Spirit came down, and they began to speak with other tongues. Can there be a counterfeit baptism of the Holy Spirit? Does the devil have a counterfeit for every truth of God? He does.
Revelation 13:13, "and he does great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." Now that fire that comes down, if you're in the temple, and that fire comes down, that's a good thing. You remember after Moses built the sanctuary and they consecrated it? Fire of God came down. We talked about this a little last week. They were only supposed to use that sacred fire whenever they burned incense, whenever they did anything that was sacred, they took that original fire that God kindled. If they were lighting lamps in the sanctuary, they were never supposed to go out.
That fire in the altar was never supposed to go out. They were always supposed to use those original coals. And that was a good fire. Solomon built his temple. It took 7 years.
Had a wonderful dedication prayer. You ever read that prayer of Solomon? None like it. At the end of that prayer, fire came down from God, entered that temple. David had prepared for that temple and helped design it. Solomon built it.
The Son of David built that temple. Jesus is The Son of David. He said, "destroy this temple made with hands, and I'll build another one," his body, his church, to be filled with that fire from God. It's what happens in acts 2. You see what I'm saying? Does that make sense? Fire comes down in Solomon's temple, The Son of David.
God had told David, "your son will build a house for me that will last forever." It's all a type of Christ, but it's to be filled with his divine fire. Does Jesus want his church today filled with that divine fire? When we worship, when we consecrate our temples, when we cleanse our temples, the glory of God will fill our temples and our church again. It will. We're talking a lot in the church about revival, and it's not a mystery about what's going to bring revival. When we follow what God said, and we surrender ourselves to God, and we worship God the way he said, and we put aside our sins, accept the sacrifice of Christ, Holy Spirit, they anointed everything with oil, Holy Spirit came in, then the glory of God was revealed.
And it happened again. Now you got an example of some people that say, "well, it doesn't matter if we make a little change in God's prescribed manner of how to worship." You've got nadab and abihu. Leviticus 10, this is the next chapter of course after Leviticus 9, where the glory of God is revealed; good fire, now we got bad fire. You got fire of blessing; then you got fire of judgment. Notice.
"And nadab and abihu," I'm in Leviticus 10:1-2, "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." They had taken their incense censors, these little containers that have, metal containers that have windows in them. And you would put incense in them and coals in them, and they would have this beautiful fragrance that would come out. And they'd swing them back and forth. You've probably seen either orthodox or catholic priests doing that. That actually comes from the way the priests did it.
Many religions do that, a censer, they carry around this incense and it's supposed to represent the prayers and the presence of God. But they took it from their campfire or something. They didn't take the sacred fire off the altar. They thought, "fire is fire, what difference does it make?" And evidently they had been drinking back at their tent too. I'll get to that in just a minute.
So they came inebriated into the presence of God, disobeyed. And it says, "and there went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." They were the right priests. Only The Sons of aaron were supposed to be the ones. They were from the right tribes, tribe of levite. They were wearing the right uniforms.
They were in the right place, worshipping the right God, but they changed something, didn't they? They did some things the wrong way with the wrong spirit. And but they were worshipping. As long as you worship, everyone can do it their own way. Have you heard this argument before? Does God care that we do it his way? "Fire went out from the Lord and devoured them," cause "to whom much is given much is required." They knew better. The presence of God, the glory of God was still in the sanctuary.
We're talking one chapter later. They had seen the glory of God. He expects a lot. Why did God smite ananias and sapphira, where they drop dead before Peter? Just because they told a little lie, just a--they did make an offering, they did sell some property, but they didn't really give it all. Just a little compromise, he dealt with them pretty severely.
Why? 'Cause the fire had just come down at pentecost. They knew better. They were seeing the power and miracles of God. His presence was in the church that day. "To whom much is given, much is required," right? They knew better back then.
Now someone read for me Leviticus 10:8-9. Who did I give that to? Got a hand here somewhere? Right here. "Then the Lord spoke to aaron, saying, 'do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of the meeting, lest you die; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations." Eh, what's wrong with a little bit of wine? I mean everyone argues Jesus turned the water into wine, so if Jesus did it, it must be okay for the priests to do it. First of all, Jesus turned water into pure new wine, the same kind of new wine he said he'll drink with us in the Kingdom. He said I won't drink it again until I drink it with you new in my father's kingdom.
He didn't make booze for a party for people to get drunk. That's not like Jesus. He saved the best for last. In America, we think the best means the high octane. You can get fermented wine all year long in Israel; you could only get new wine during the harvest.
He surprised everybody in springtime. This is right after he began his ministry by having this new wine. And so it was the best. Actually, I said that wrong. It wasn't in springtime; it was in the fall, 'cause he was baptized 3 years after his birthday and he was born in the fall.
He died in the springtime. Alright, so they are not supposed to be drinking. Why not drink even a little bit? You know what the blood alcohol level is for you to be able to legally drive in California? Anyone know? .08. Can people drink where they have a whole lot more than that in their bloodstream? Sure you can. Yeah, you can get where you're almost 50%.
Ha, ha. Well, not that bad, but you can get way beyond that. That's a very small amount. You know why? 'Cause they found out that even a small amount affects your judgment and your ability to make decisions and your reflexes. And it makes you dangerous.
Why would a Christian want to tamper in a world filled with temptation, why would we want to do anything that is going to lower our ability to resist temptation? Why would we want to fog our minds before we worship God? Doesn't make sense. And because we are a nation of priests, isn't that what we are today? Aren't Christians a royal priesthood? Aren't we Kings? Bible says, "it is not right, o lemuel, for Kings to drink alcohol," in Proverbs. It's not right; it's not wise. So since we are spiritually priests, and spiritually Kings and queens, should we be drinking at all, since it causes so much misery in our culture, and we're that last generation that are teaching the world how to worship God? Why would any Bible Christian argue in favor of a drug that makes your mind foggy and makes you more susceptible to temptation? "Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink." I still am just--i know what I'm talking about. I drank.
I mean I know what I'm talking about, friends. Why a Christian would argue in favor of someone, of a Christian, drinking alcohol is beyond me. I mean, you know, it's just a drug. It's the most devastating drug in our culture. And he said, "don't do it.
Tell your sons this." Not only did fire come out and destroy nadab and abihu, but with dathan and abiram, when they rebelled against Moses, they said, "you know, you maybe have been chosen by God, but you're probably not the only one." And they began to resent the authority that God had given Moses. "A fire came out from the Lord," this is number 16:35, "and consumed 250 men that offered incense." Counterfeit priests, they were putting themselves in the position of Moses and aaron. You remember that rebellion? You've got another example of the fire coming down of judgment. You can read about that in psalm 106:17-18, if you have any doubts about what happened there in Numbers. It says, "the earth opened and swallowed dathan, and covered the company of abiram.
" Notice, "and a fire was kindled in their company; and the flame burned up the wicked." Now God has allowed these judgments to happen in the Bible because people have called darkness light. They said, "oh we're illuminated; we know a lot. We're now enlightened." And they're mixing up darkness and light. If we ever have any doubt about how God wants us to worship us, go by what the Bible says. We've got to go with the Word of God, Moses and the prophets.
2 Kings, someone's going to read this for me, 1:10. Who has that, 2 Kings 1:10? 2 Kings 1:10, "so Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, 'if I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.' And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty." Another example of worship being perverted. the King had sent his messengers to inquire of beelzebub, the God of ekron, the King of Israel who was sick. And Elijah said, "a judgment is coming because you are corrupting the worship of the people of Israel. And those 50 soldiers that came to arrest Elijah were burnt up.
And then another 50 came, and they were burnt up. And a third 50 came from--the King was just really stubborn. And the third 50 at least asked for mercy, and God showed 'em mercy. But this was all connected again with them corrupting the worship of God's people. Alright, go with me now to 2 Samuel 6.
This is the story about the ark being brought back to Jerusalem. And this is also in your lesson. 2 Samuel 6:1, "and again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. And they arose and they went with all the people who were with them from baale judah to bring up the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the ark of God on a new cart.
" Is that how they're supposed to transport the ark of God? "And they brought it out of the house of abinadab." Now the ark, do you remember when it was captured in the days of Samuel by the philistines? And then finally the philistines, not knowing better, they put the ark on an ox cart. And they said, "look, if all these judgments that came upon us are from the God of Israel," if they're not just, you know, bad luck, "we'll take two milking cows, we'll hook them to the ox cart. We'll pin up their calves. Milking cows will always go towards their calves, they're naturally yearning towards their calves, but if this is for the Lord, they will go towards Israel." So on the main highway that went towards Israel, they put the cows and they put the ark of God on an ox cart. And they let go to see what the cows would do.
And instead of the cows going back to their calves, they went mooing and lowing towards Israel. And they knew it was from the Lord then, 'cause that was totally unnatural for them. And the ark came back. And God did not punish the philistines for putting the ark on an ox cart, 'cause they did not have the Word of God that told them it was to be on the shoulders of the priests. They didn't know! When the philistines opened the ark and put some offerings inside, they weren't stricken dead for doing that.
They didn't know. But when it got to Israel, and the men of jabesh-gilead opened up the ark, they were struck with a plague because they did know. And so some people are worshipping wrong, and they may appear to be blessed, because they don't know. But those of us who have the Word of God, and we do know, and then we decide to change the worship of God the way he describes, that's serious business. Now isn't that what the Bible's telling us here? I'll give you some more verses here.
So they're not carrying it on the shoulders of the priest; they put it on an ox cart. David is--he thinks this is okay. He says, "the philistines did it." And they brought him out of the house of abinidab. You know what shocks me? It had been there through the remaining reign of Samuel, from the time it was captured by the philistines, through the 40 years of king Saul, and the first couple of years of David's reign. Why had they left the ark of God in the house of abinidab, who may have been a levite, it was a very common name, abinidab, why had they left it there for somewhere between 50 and 80 years? Not--and here they got the tent still set up.
I mean even--it was strange. Anyway, so finally David said--David was right, "we need to put it in Jerusalem." And abinadab drove this new ox cart. "And they brought it out of the house of abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and ahio went before the ark. And then David and all the house of Israel played music," they're celebrating, it was wonderful, "before the Lord with all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, and stringed instruments, and tambourines, and sistrums, and cymbals. And when they came to nachon's threshing floor, uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.
" The cart was rocking a little bit on the cobble stone of this threshing floor, and uzzah put out his hand and put it on maybe one of the horns of the altar. He reached out and touched the ark, which as a priest, he knew he was not supposed to do. And when he did that, "the anger of the Lord was aroused against uzzah, and God struck him there for his error." Error means what? He did something wrong he knew he wasn't supposed to do. "And he died there by the ark of God. And David became angry," you know, part of grieving is sometimes anger, "because of the Lord's outbreak against uzzah; and he called the name of the place perez uzzah to this day.
" Because uzzah was slain there because what he had done. Now look at what happens. Jump to 1 Chronicles 15:2. David is bewildered by what has happened. He doesn't understand.
And he then does a little Bible study. Maybe the priests come to David. Maybe the prophet, nathan, comes to him and says, "David, you should have known better. We're not supposed to transport the ark like that. We can't do it like the philistines do it.
" You listening, friends? Just because the philistines worship their God and move their Gods sacred objects around a certain way, doesn't mean that we can do it the way they do it. And sometimes in our church we look around and say, "well, they seem to be prospering. They seem to be successful. Let's look at their technique. Let's borrow from their technique.
" Well that might be fine and well if their technique doesn't conflict with the Word of God. But if we are taking things from other churches, or from the pagans, because we say, "well, it seems to make them happy. It seems popular. Look how many of them there are." And then we start to employ those things in the worship of God, that's serious business, friends. Now is this a relevant study today? Can you think of examples, without raising your hand, where that might be happening even in our church? Where we are incorporating techniques and methods and worship styles that really are being borrowed from Egypt and paganism and the new age movement and everything else, because it seems popular and attracts a crowd, or whatever the reasons might be.
If it doesn't go along with the Word of God, then God is not pleased with that worship. If we want the glory of God to enter into our services, then we need to consecrate ourselves and do things the way God says. Now look here, what David does. Someone went and said, "David, this is the way it's supposed to be done." 1 Chronicles 15:2, "and David said, 'no one ought to carry the ark of God except the levites, for God has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister to him forever." "For because you did not do it," I'm in verse 13 now, sorry, 1 Chronicles 15:13, "for because you did not do it at the first, jehovah our God made a break on us," that was the breech of uzzah, "since we did not seek him in due order." Now is that clear? We were punished because we did not study and do it the way that God had outlined. God means what he says.
And if we want to know how to worship God, if we want to know how to serve God, find out what he says in His Word, do it the way he says. Right? Say, "amen." You still with me? It matters how we worship God. That ought to make--makes me tremble as a pastor. It does. You think, "Lord," even as I read this before you, I think, "have mercy if we're doing things that are not in harmony with Your Word.
" Then we ought to--every man ought to examine himself and say, "let's bring our lives, let's bring our churches in order and worship the way God says." Not only because of fear of the wrong kind of fire, of judgment, but because we want the right kind of fire: of his presence and glory. Right? So we've got every reason to want to do that. One more, verse 15, I'm in 1 Chronicles 15:15 now, "and the children of the levites bear the ark of God upon their shoulders, with staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord." They finally said, "let's do it like Moses said, according to the Word of God." And then ultimately the blessing of God came and fell upon the temple when it was consecrated. Alright, now let's talk about Moses for a moment. Sometimes you can get it right and then get it wrong and then get it right again.
That's what Moses did. "Happy are you, o Israel," our lesson is titled after this section. Numbers 20, got to read this sad story here, verse 8 to 12, God told Moses, "take the rod--" that was the rod that had been so famous in striking the waters of Egypt and going with them through the wilderness. I mean if you ever had a magic wand, not that that rod was magic, but I mean, if you could ever think of something that was a supernatural staff, is a rod of Moses, right? It says take not a rod; it says, "take the rod." That's a specific one. "Gather the assembly together, thou, and aaron they brother, and speak unto the rock before their eyes.
" All you need to do is hold it in your hand. Your authority is from holding that rod in your hand. "And it will give forth its water. " What was he supposed to do to that rock? "Speak to the rock before their eyes," they'll be watching, "and it will give forth water." There was a whole lesson that God wanted there in the way that he was to do that. "And you'll bring forth to them water out of the rock.
So you shall give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him." Why does it say he took the rod from before the Lord? Where was that rod? Hadn't they placed it at one point in the ark? So he went, they took the rod out of the ark "from before the Lord." Remember where they kept the sword of Goliath? When David finally collected the sword of Goliath, it had been placed before the Lord, right? "And they gathered the congregation together before the rock; and he said to them, 'hear now this, ye rebels! Must we fetch water for you out of the rock?'" Who's giving them water out of the rock, Moses and aaron; or God? And he sounds like he's losing his temper, "ye rebels!" Had Moses ever lost his temper before? Was there an Egyptian killed once? "And Moses lifted up his hand and he smote the rock twice," whack, whack! Lost his temper in front of the people. "And water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank." God honored his promise to give them water even though Moses did not do it the way that he had been told. "And the Lord spoke to Moses and to aaron, said, "because you believe me not--" what is all disobedience? A lack of faith. "Because you believe me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land that I have given them.
" "You failed. You did not do what I said the way I said it. You could have sanctified me, and worshipped me in front of the people. I could have been glorified in this." There was a lesson there. And it was all lost.
That rock that was struck once represented Christ. He wasn't supposed to be struck three times. And the whole image was destroyed because Moses became impatient. Now you know, I probably would have lost my temper a lot sooner. Moses had a lot of patience.
He was the meekest man that ever lived. But still, he failed God. And even though he was told he wasn't going to lead them into the promised land, God ultimately let him see it. God also raised him from the dead so he visually could see from heaven them entering the promised land. But he personally couldn't lead them in; Joshua did.
In spite of all that, Moses didn't become bitter. Someone read for us Deuteronomy--this is the last chapter of Moses' life, the last message of Moses. What was his attitude? Deuteronomy 33:29. Who has that verse? Right over here. Deuteronomy 33:29.
And this was Moses' message. Go ahead, read that for us. "Happy art thou, o Israel! Who is like unto thee, o people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help. And who is the sword of thy excEllency! And thine enemies should be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places." "Happy are thou, o Israel! And who is like unto thee!" God is in your midst. What people is there that has God in their midst? And what people is there that has the presence of the Lord in their midst the way they did.
And so Moses, in spite of that, he was not bitter. But he realized the most important thing was to have God in your midst. "Happy are you, o Israel!" Now in spite of their ups and downs and failures, what was the evidence that God was in their midst? Middle of the temple was the ark. And in the ark was the Word of God. They were the people of God, because they were the keepers of the word.
Does the Lord have a people in the world today to whom he has committed present truth? Is there a church in the world today that has the truth of God's Word. I believe that church is the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I think that we are a movement into which all people are being called. Does that mean that the Seventh-day Adventists don't fail the Lord as much, more or less, as the Israelites did in the old testament? So being the people of God, or the church of God, does not mean that they are faultless. It means there is a very high responsibility.
In our history, have we had a couple of times where fire of God came down and burned up printing presses and things because--and sanitariums--because we weren't doing what we were supposed to do? Doesn't mean we're not the people of God; it means you are. And he expects more. So just some lessons for us that--in the days of Jesus, were God's misinterpreting some of the Scriptures, even about the Messiah? Were they his people? Did Christ say to the woman at the well, when he's talking about worship, he said, "salvation is of the jews." Didn't beat around the bush when she said, "should it be Jerusalem? Should it be mount gerizim? One religion is as good as another. He said, "let's settle this right now. Salvation is of the jews.
It comes from their oracles of truth. The Bible was given through the Jewish nation, Israel." Right? Let's just settle that. But that doesn't mean they didn't have problems, does it? It doesn't mean they didn't have ups and downs, they didn't sometimes do things wrong. They were judged for that. Modern Israel, spiritual Israel today, is the same people that obey the book that have the Word of God.
I believe it's the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Amen? Just wondered here in a Seventh-day Adventist Church if I had any support for that. I was hoping. Alright, I got time for maybe one more here. "An attitude of surrender in worship.
" You've got the story of hannah. She goes in to worship God. Here you've got this woman who is being persecuted because she doesn't have that child. And she doesn't eat; she's fasting. Peninnah, her husband's, elkanah's other wife, she's got a whole gaggle of kids.
And she torments hannah because she knows elkanah really loves hannah, and what she really wants is her husband's love, but she's got kids and hannah doesn't, so she makes the most of that and she torments her. Whenever they go to the house of God, she torments her. So finally hannah takes her problem to God, and she prays with all of her heart. And God tells her that she's going to have a child, through the high priest. There she is worshipping God, and praying.
And because she's praying with all of her heart and soul, God speaks through eli. Eli doesn't even know he's answering her prayer. He says, "God gives you the petition of your heart." And she believes it because she's praying sincerely. And God answers her prayer. Even though eli, his house is messed up, his family is messed up, he doesn't know what she's praying about.
He's just misjudged her. The power was not in him, but in his office. As the high priest, he makes a statement, she respects his office, God honors her faith. She gets pregnant. Then after she has that baby, she comes back.
1 Samuel 1:19--oh actually even before she has the baby, after she gets the promise, "so hannah arose after they finished eating and drinking in shiloh." Now you notice she didn't eat at first. When it says, "they ate," it's talking about elkanah and the family and peninnah. "Now eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Lord. She was in bitterness of soul, and she prayed to the Lord and she wept in anguish. Then she made a vow and said, 'Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, no razor will come upon his head.
'" He'd be a nasserite. She is saying, and this is a high form of worship, "I will consecrate, whatever you give to me, I will consecrate to you." Shouldn't that be at the heart of all worship? Whenever we make a promise or pray before God, don't we ask God to answer our prayers for his glory, for his service? And when you ask God to give to you, are you asking God to give to you just for you, or are you asking God to give to you so you can give back? Wouldn't that be the purest motive? And that's what she's saying. When she prayed and worshipped God with that motive: "bless me that I might give back to you." Why do you want Christ to be born in you? How many of you want a new birth, a supernatural birth? Isn't that what hannah is praying for? She's barren. She's praying for a supernatural birth in her to take place, 'cause it wasn't happening the other way. God answered her prayer.
Why? So she could consecrate that child to God. Samuel ended up being a type of Christ. Someone read 2 Corinthians 5:17. Who'd we give that to? Right here. Talking about this miraculous birth.
2 Corinthians 5:17, why don't you go ahead and when you get a chance, read that for us. "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Amen. You know one more verse that goes with that is Galatians 4:19, "my little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you." Paul was laboring for a miraculous birth to take place in the lives of his children, the people in the church. And then there's a whole section I didn't get to dealing with Saul. I apologize, friends.
Anyway, I think that we sort of got some of the idea about there being appropriate worship, true worship. And the devil's always trying to introduce counterfeits. Amen? So we want to pray that we can stick to the word and the truth. God bless you, friends. We're out of time for today's study.
But we trust, God willing, we'll study again together next Sabbath. Journey back through time to the center of the universe. Discover how a perfect angel transformed into satan, the arch villain; the birth of evil, a rebellion in heaven, a mutiny that moved to earth, the whole, the creation of a beautiful new planet, and the first humans. Witness the temptation in eden. Discover God's amazing plan to save his children.
This is a story that involves every life on earth, every life. The "cosmic conflict," if God is good, if God is all-powerful, if God is love, then what went wrong? Available now on dvd. Thank you for joining us for this broadcast. If you've missed any of our Amazing Facts programs, visit our website at amazingfacts.org. There you'll find an archive of all our television and radio programs, including "Amazing Facts presents," "central study hour," "everlasting Gospel," "Bible answers live," and "wonders in the word.
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