Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Just like to read a portion in Leviticus chapter 10. Leviticus chapter 10.
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 it 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 held his peace. And Moses called Meshiel and Alzaphon, the sons of Uzziol, 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. And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar, and unto Ithamar. His sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people. But let their brethren the whole House of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled.
And you 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. They did according to the word of the Moses. 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.
And it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that ye may put 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 Eleazar, and unto Ithamar his sons that were left. Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.
And eat it without leaven.
And beside the altar, for it is most holy, and ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy view and thy Son's due of the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire. For so I am commanded.
And the wave brass and the heaved shoulder shall he eat in a clean place, thou and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee, for they be thy due, and thy son's due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace. Offerings of the children of Israel.
And the heaved shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lord. And it shall be thine and thy sons with thee by a statute forever, as the Lord hath commanded.
And Moses diligently sought the gold of the sin offering, and behold, it was burnt. And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, which were left alive, saying, Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord. Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place, and you should indeed have eaten it in the holy.
Place as I commanded.
And Aaron said unto Moses, Behold this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, And such things have befallen me. And if I had eaten the sin offering today, should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord? And when Moses heard that, he was content. Well, it's very precious, brethren, how God can bring together so many wonderful thoughts to us.
In a very short space, praying before us.
How man is always a failure, but also bringing before us the faithfulness of God and His ability and His desire to bless His people. Perhaps many of us are aware that in the first chapters of Leviticus we have the different offerings brought before us, and these different offerings are various aspects of the work of Christ. Burnt offering brings before us what the work of Christ is to the heart of God.
That blessed One who glorifies.
God about the whole question of sin and then we have the meat offering that your brother mentioned the Lord Jesus as the perfect man down here in this world. Oh what a blessed pathway of obedience and submission to his father's will and there was the peace offering. That's the communion offering. How wonderful it through the work of Christ we can actually have fellowship with God as it says we have fellowship with the Father and with.
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Son, Jesus Christ, is that a marvelous thing? It's only through what Christ has done. But to think that we can actually enter into and enjoy the very thoughts of God, what's in his heart.
Then we have the sin offering and the trespass offering, meeting our need in the fullest possible sense as to all that we were as sinners and in our nature before God. So these various offerings, I say, bring before us various aspects of that one glorious work accomplished by our blessed, precious Savior. He accomplished the work, and He would bring us into the blessing of it.
But here we find, no sooner has responsibility been brought into the hands of man, that immediately he breaks down. I might also say that in the chapter before, we have a beautiful millennial picture brought before us, showing how God in His purposes is going to bring Israel into the fullest blessing founded upon the work of Christ. For we always have purpose.
Before responsibility, God's purpose.
Bless, and then how man breaks down in responsibility. That's what cheers us, brethren, isn't it? As our brother has brought before us, God has purposes to bless. When we're placed in responsibility, we fail. And then we see the provision He makes even in spite of this.
Well, we see, I say, a responsibility.
Native and Abihu, sons of Aaron who were given the office of the priesthood. We see immediately failure comes in and when we think of all that Christ is how our hearts rejoice as we have a view before us of the coming scene of glory. How our hearts rejoice because we're no vision is the people perish. But when we think of ourselves, we truly have to hang our heads and shame.
How the church has failed.
And this taking an offering. Strange fire. What does this expression mean? Strange fire? Well, if we were to read carefully in the instruction given to God's people, the fire for this incense was to come from the altar of burnt offering. No other fire would be acceptable for the incense that was to be offered before the Lord. Perhaps, to put it in a very simple way.
It isn't how well we can sing.
Isn't how well we can express ourselves, it's the enjoyment of Christ in the heart produced by the Spirit of God overflowing in praise, that is alone acceptable to God. We may have the very finest singer, but unless it flows from a heart in communion with God in connection with the work of His beloved Son, where there's no true sacrifice to God and there's much.
Strange fire.
There's much, shall I say, in Christendom that we might say is carried on almost to the form of entertainment, as though there would be something pleasing to God through all the efforts of the natural man. Well, we see God showed his mind about this. For God always shows His mind about a thing at the beginning may and does bear with failure, but He always shows his mind about something immediately he sets it up.
And saw this offering of strange fire that may be a voice to us. We all like to be entertained. I suppose we enjoy going and listening to fine music and good singers and all that kind of thing, but no heart but of the spirit taught makes melody to thee. What the Lord wants, they say again, is that overflow of our hearts, and it may be that the poorest singer in this room this afternoon.
Has more acceptable praise to the Lord.
Than the one who can sing the best because he is looking at the heart, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord and to There may be some fine preaching, but does it spring from does it exalt Christ? I read a comment I rather enjoy the other day. It said never sit down where Christ is not lifted up. Isn't that true brethren? We want Christ to be lifted up. We can't sit down. We can't find our rest where he isn't exalted.
Not exalting a fine or a tree, or good singing, but exalting Christ. Well, Nadab and Abihu were smitten dead. God made known his mind well. This was a very sad thing for the people of God. They might indeed have been bowed down and crushed under this sorrow sorrows that come in among the people of God. The failure of the church is a Candlestick is enough to crush any heart.
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Any of us who?
Just think of ourselves and think of the common failure of the Church of God. If we dwell upon that, we truly could be crushed too. We really could give up and say why everything breaks down. Man is such a failure. But here we're told that.
God must be glorified, it says, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me, and before all the people I will be glorified. God's purpose, I say, is the glory of his beloved Son. And if things happen because flesh has exalted itself, or self has exalted itself, remember.
God is going to show his mind He is going to be glorified.
And it's a very solemn thing to have to do with him. Our brother has just pointed out what a solemn thing it was for Jehoshaphat. A man like that, to get into an unequal yoke. Well, God dealt in this way.
And now there's a little message here.
In the sixth verse. And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar, and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die.
And wrath lest wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren the whole House of Israel bewail of burning which the Lord hath kindled, and ye shall not go out of the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.
Well, perhaps here is a little word of encouragement.
Sometimes one is observed, a brother gets greatly crushed under a sorrow that perhaps has come in the assembly or the family, something that has really bowed his heart down. And he says, I give up, I give up. Well, I believe there's a word here that although they were indeed mourning over what had taken place, here is a word to Eliezer and Ithamar.
And Aaron, the service was to go on. God's people needed to be blessed, and God desired to bless them. And Moses told Aaron and Eleazar and Ithamar they were to continue. And let me say to anyone who's discouraged here this afternoon, perhaps you say there's been so much failure, so much trial, I don't think it's any use trying to go on.
Oh, don't give up.
The Lord Jesus said Occupy till I come. So while he felt this and felt it properly, it's not right that we should be without feeling. The Lord Jesus felt things. He said, Reproach hath broken my heart. I am full of heaviness. He felt things, we feel things. But they were not to give up their service to the Lord, they were to go on with it and go on with it according to the mind of God.
And according to his word.
Towards ever follow the word of God, never to depart from it, no matter what failure comes in among the people of God.
And then the next thing here it tells us, 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, and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes. I believe this would bring before us that we are not to resort to something.
Else to cover up the lack of spirituality. Failure. There's always a tendency when weakness and failure comes in to try and cover it up with other things. And so wine and strong drink, I believe, represents to us that which would excite nature. And isn't it very easy, when there's a low tone among the people of God, to have to try to introduce something to keep things going?
Something else to sort of boast.
Our spirits, oh, you say, we get so discouraged, we have to have a little bit of entertainment, something like this, so that we can even continue on. But here we find that when they went into the Tabernacle of the congregation, there was not to be that which excites nature. Again, I say, but God seeks to produce is that which is by the Spirit, the energy of the Spirit of God.
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And that is the only thing that really.
Sustains us in days like this. We're living in Laodicean days. We all have to hang our heads in shame and acknowledge our part of the common failure that has come in among the people of God. But are we going to depart from the path of obedience? I trust not. Are we going to introduce something else just to keep things going?
Well, here's the warning not to drink wine or strong drink.
And that they would still put difference between holy and unholy does failure among the people of God lower the standard, brethren, never failure never lowers the standard. God's standard is ever the same sin is still sin in God's sight and it doesn't matter whether we're living in 1978 or whether we were living in.
AD 30. It still would be solved. God.
Standard is ever the same. Are you and I going to say, well, we sort of have to change standards? We're living in a different way, a different day. Now, he said they were to put difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean. How would they know public opinion? No, they shall may teach the children of Israel.
All the statutes which the Lord has spoken unto.
Them by the hand of Moses. It wasn't just that they were to accept the lowering standards. No, when they taught, they were to teach according to that which God had given to his people. And the word for us is to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints, not something that's new for this present, what the world calls a new morality or something. No, the IT says would earnestly contend for the faith.
Once delivered to the Saints, so here we see that they were to be watchful about these things and put a difference between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean, and then they were to teach these things in Israel. Well, it's very important for us first of all to walk in the truth ourselves speaks about the Lord Jesus, it says.
All that Jesus began both to do.
And to teach, yes, he he did it. And then he taught it. His life was the perfect example of all that he taught.
Now there's something else to encourage us in this 12TH verse.
And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar, and unto Ithamar his sons that were laughed, Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar, for it is most holy.
Well, our brother mentioned about the meat offering, how it brings before us the pathway of our blessed Savior. It was read to us this morning in First Timothy chapter 3 without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. What is the mystery of godliness? It tells us in what follows, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit.
As seen of angels preached unto the Gentiles, received up in glory.
What is the secret of godliness, brethren? The pathway of the Lord Jesus here in this world. That's the secret of godliness, and we trace that blessed pathway.
He ever manifested the character of God. He could say He that has seen me have seen the Father. The angels looked down and they saw a perfect man going through this world. When he was rejected by His people, Grace reached out to the Gentiles. Oh, what a perfect pathway. When you and I are rejected, do we give up with Him? He went on in that pathway of love. What a secret of godliness. And so they were.
To eat the meat offering and without leaven. Oh, how precious this is. Are we to feed on all the failures of the church? No, brethren, feed on Christ. Feed on Him, the perfect One, the one who glorified God in every step of his pathway. There was no leaven in Him. There was no failure in that Blessed One. Do we get occupied with what we see in ourselves and in others? Oh, let's feed upon Christ.
He's the one.
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Who is the same yesterday and today and forever?
And then there's something more it says here.
In the 13th verse. And ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy due, and of thy son's Jew the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire. And then the 14th verse And the wave breast, and the heaved shoulders, shall he eat in a clean place thou and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee, for they be thy dew, and thy son's due, which are given thee out of the sacrifice.
Devices of peace. Offerings of the Children of Israel.
Notice this, we mentioned a few moments ago that the peace offering represents the communion offering. Does failure in the Church of God mean that we must get out of communion with the Lord? Oh no, we can still seek to go on. We can still be occupied with the one who is ever perfect in all that he did without leaven. Oh, what a blessed thing. And then what about?
The affections, Oz Lovely, the wave breast, all that speaks to us, The breast of the affections. Isn't it wonderful to feed upon His love? Does the Lord's love to His people change because of failure? Having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. When was God's message given to Israel about His everlasting love?
Right at the point where they had failed so badly they were going to be carried into captivity.
He sends this beautiful message by Jeremiah. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. O brethren, are we feeding upon the wave breast? Are we enjoying the affections of Christ? Oh, you said, I find it hard to love that brother or sister the way they acted. Oh, let's feed upon His love. It never changes that love. That's the same right to the very.
The end. And so here. And isn't this beautiful? It's for the sons and for the daughters. So it took just everybody in.
How we know it was the sons who were occupied in the more public aspect of their service, But the sons and the daughters, Oh, isn't this nice? Doesn't this bring in something, perhaps of the home of the daughters? And so how lovely that we can in our homes to enjoy that wonderful love, that unchanging love that is ever toward us, that nothing.
Can separate us from the love of God which is in.
Christ Jesus our Lord.
And then what about the heaved shoulder? Oh, you say I just don't have the strength for that. It's all right for you to talk that way, brother Hayhole, but it's not so easy as you think. There's also the shoulder. What are those shoulders for? Oh, the shepherd picked up the sheep and placed it upon his shoulders and carried it home. Is he going to let us down along the way? No. Isn't there something for us to?
Upon in days like this and the way breast and the heaved shoulder and the expression is so wonderful. It doesn't say you're allowed to do this. This is thy due. It's something that's due to us. Somebody owes you something. You say well it was due to me. Isn't it wonderful that our precious Lord and Savior says this is due to you. How could it be due to us because of what Christ did brethren, not because of us it's.
Because of what He did, He accomplished that glorious and blessed work on Calvary's cross, and it's due to us now. There's no limit to the blessing that flows out because of the work that Christ had accomplished. And then there's also something else that's encouraging, and ye shall eat it in a clean place.
You know, if we think of ourselves and we think of the testimony, we certainly could be discouraged.
But God is faithful, and he has asked us. According to First Corinthians 11, it says as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. How is he asking us to remember him in a place that's not according to his Word?
No, He told them, in spite of this failure, that they could enjoy these precious things in a clean place. And I believe not because of any faithfulness on our part, that God in His faithfulness, in His matchless goodness, will preserve a clean place, that which will be according to His Word, which could be spoken of as having the desire to keep His Word and not.
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Deny his name, and so it says in the 15th verse. And the heaved shoulder and the wave breast shall he bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lord. And it shall be thine and thy sons with thee by a statute forever, as the Lord commanded. I like that little word about the wave offering, you know.
When you go someplace and you're not.
Sure that you're going to be accepted and you have a pass. Well, you just have a tendency to waive the pass. You can't reject me. Here's my pass. And so I like to think of it in that way, that when we come before the Lord, we don't say, well, I'm something. But what do we wave before the Lord for our acceptance? Christ, Christ, that's what we wave before the Lord. We say there's nothing in me but.
I come in the rights and because of that Blessed One.
Saul was not only something they fared upon, but which they ever presented to God as the ground of their acceptance. That's all we can do, brethren. We have to present Christ as the ground of our acceptance, and it was a statute forever, as the Lord commanded will not have a better title in heaven than we have now.
Little Hymn says I stand upon his.
I know no safer sand, not even where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. You will not have a better title in heaven than you have now. You have Christ, and that's what He would have us to enjoy.
Now we have spoken about the failure of Native and Abihu, but perhaps there's something for us here. Could we say failure in regard to Eleazar and Ithomar? Weren't they the faithful ones? Weren't they the ones who hadn't been involved in this? Now let's see what we read here. And Moses diligently sought the gold of the sin offering, and behold, it was burnt. And he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, which were left.
Saying, Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make an atonement for them before the Lord. Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place. He should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded.
Well, we might say, well, surely Eleazar and Ithamar were faithful. But perhaps, brethren, we see here something in which they failed, and we might get occupied with the fact or with the idea, perhaps I should say that we had been faithful, that we had sought to walk in the path, that we had sought to keep His word and not deny His name. We might get occupied with our own faithfulness.
But what was the failure of Eliezer and Ithomesmar?
They had placed themselves above the rest of the people. They had really placed themselves above the ones who had failed because the responsibility of the priest in the sin offering, when it was when the blood was not brought into the sanctuary, it was their responsibility to eat the sin offering in a holy place, but they hadn't done it.
May God grant that if in any measure He has given to us the desire to walk in His ways in obedience to Him and to His truth, will not think that we're any better, that will not get any occupied, and think, well, we're the faithful few. Let the Lord say that about us. Let's not say it about ourselves. What can we do?
Well, when they the sin offering in the holy place, it was really identical.
Themselves with the failure that had come in and I believe that's our place, brethren. I believe if we were really conscious that we are but a part of the Church of God through grace gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus. But what have we got to boast about? Only in the Lord can we say, oh, there's no failure among us. Oh no, we need to have our heads down too. We need to.
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Do what?
They should have done, They should have eaten the sin offering in the holy place. They should have identified themselves as in that way with the failure that had come in.
It's true, they have done part of what was proper and right for them to do.
And I was very commendable and we find something very lovely in the end of the chapter.
The 19th verse I want you to notice now.
Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, but notice who answers the 19th verse. And Aaron said, Why did Aaron speak? Why didn't Eleazar Nithamar speak? Why Aaron Here it was to Eleazar and Ithamar that Moses was speaking. But Aaron answered, Ozness, blessed brethren, we have a high priest. We have one there.
And it tells us that he bears the iniquity of our holy things.
Isn't it very precious to see here that in spite of the failure there was that which came unto the solemn hand of God with Nadab and Abihu, there was that which Moses had to rebuke in Eleazar and Ithamar? But who does the answering? It's Aaron. And as our brother read to us, we have an high priest over the House of God. We'd never, never be able to go on if it wasn't for that high priest over the House of God.
God and tells us. Let's turn, just for a moment, to Exodus 28, Exodus chapter 28.
Verse 36. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre. Upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always upon his forehead.
That they may be accepted before the Lord.
So an Aaron answered. Moses was content. Isn't that precious, brethren? And so here we find one who is there. Has God Lord his standard? No, the plate over his forehead said holiness to the Lord. He hadn't lowered his standard. But there's one there who paid for the whole, the whole debt of sin. There's one who's there in the presence of God for us, our great high priest. Isn't it precious?
I am there. Oh, you say I'm afraid to undertake anything because I'm afraid self might get mixed with it. Well, there's an equity in all our holy things. You'll never do anything for the Lord that there won't be something of self that intrudes. And if it wasn't for our great High priest, we would never be accepted. But he's there on our behalf. He is the one who is in the presence of God.
For us.
What an encouragement then to our hearts. Well may the Lord grant that as we meditate on a chapter like this, that our hearts may be solemnized, realizing what true worship is. But also to that, if we do seek by grace to go on in that path that God has marked out in His Word, let us be in that position humbly intercessors.
Seeking the good and blessing of the people of God.
And ever occupied with that Blessed One, feeding upon him, and ever enjoying what was the dew of those who were left. And it's our Jew, brethren, the way the, the wave shoulder, I mean the, the wave breast and the heave shoulder. Thus enjoy his affections, his unchanging love toward his people. Let us enjoy also His strength to carry us through.
And if we have failed, let us reach.
That we have an advocate, we have a high priest, one who is there in the presence of God for us so that we can be restored. But above all, in these lasting closing days, let us not give up. Let us go on before the people.