[0:00] So we're going to look at Leviticus 9 tonight. We will read it in its entirety and then we'll look at inaugurated corporate worship or the beginning here of the corporate worship in specific with the tabernacle, but really God calling his people to his presence.
[0:16] So we'll read together in Leviticus chapter 9. The word of God says, Now it came about on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. And he said to Aaron, Take for yourself a calf, a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without defect and offer them before the Lord.
[0:34] Then to the sons of Israel, you shall speak saying, Take a male goat for a sin offering and a calf and a lamb, both one year old without defect for a burnt offering and an ox and a ram for peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord and a grain offering mixed with oil for today the Lord will appear to you.
[0:51] So they took what Moses had commanded to the front of the tent of meeting and the whole congregation came near and stood before the Lord. And Moses said, This is a thing which the Lord has commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.
[1:04] Moses then said to Aaron, Come near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people. Then make the offering for the people, that you may make atonement for them just as the Lord has commanded.
[1:18] So Aaron came near to the altar and soldered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. And Aaron's sons presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood, and he put some on the horns of the altar and poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.
[1:34] The fat and the kidneys and the lobe of the liver for the sin offering, he then offered up in smoke on the altar just as the Lord had commanded Moses. The flesh and the skin, however, he burned with fire outside the camp.
[1:45] Then he slaughtered the burnt offering, and Aaron's sons handed the blood to him, and he sprinkled it around on the altar, and they handed the burnt offering to him in pieces with the head, and he offered them up in smoke on the altar.
[1:57] He also washed the entrails and the legs and offered them up in the smoke with the burnt offering on the altar. Then he presented the people as offering and took the goat of the sin offering, which was for the people, and he slaughtered it and offered it for sin like the first.
[2:11] And he also presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the ordinance. Next he presented the grain offering, and he filled his hand with some of it and offered it up in smoke on the altar besides the burnt offering of the morning.
[2:23] Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram and the sacrifice of peace offerings, which was for the people. And Aaron's sons handed the blood to him, and he sprinkled it around on the altar. And as for the portions of fat from the ox and from the ram, the fat tail and the fat covering, and the kidneys and the lobe of the liver, they now placed the portions of fat on the breast, and he offered them up in smoke on the altar.
[2:44] But the breast and the right thigh Aaron presented as a wave offering before the Lord, just as Moses had commanded. Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people, and he blessed them, and he stepped down after making the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.
[2:59] Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar.
[3:13] When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Leviticus chapter 9. What we have recorded for us in Leviticus chapter 9 really is an inaugurated worship.
[3:24] This is what we found in Leviticus 8, the ordination of the priest. If you remember, Moses commanded all of the people to come together, so the entire multitude of the Jewish nation was gathered together outside the doorway of the tent of meeting.
[3:38] And it was there that Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and he went through the ordination process, through the offering of the sacrifices, the laying on of the hands, the blood being put on the earlobe of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the big toe of the right foot.
[3:52] And he went through all this ordination process. And then he told, at the end of Leviticus 8, Aaron and his sons, that they could not leave the tent of meeting or the doorway for seven days. And that each of these seven days, they would offer again these same sacrifices.
[4:07] It would be this ongoing sacrificial picture day in and day out. And it was more than just a personal exercise between Aaron and his sons, but rather it was a corporate exercise of the entire body of God's people coming together and God presenting to his people, these are the mediators or these are the priests that will stand in your place before my presence.
[4:31] Leviticus 9 now brings us to that eighth day. So they are completely ordained. They have fulfilled their obligation. And now they will come together as a corporate body once again, and they will worship.
[4:41] And it will be a grand worship service because this is a God-ordained, God-led, God-ordered worship service. When God's people come together, we have seen worship through these people.
[4:54] We have seen them celebrate his goodness at their deliverance of the Exodus event. We have seen them rejoice at the parting of the Red Sea. We've seen them come together and worship because God fed them manna, and he made the bitter waters better.
[5:09] He made them clean. He made them pure. He provided water from the rock. They have had shouts and declarations of praise and worship. But this really is the beginning of the worship service.
[5:21] And I don't want us to get lost in how they worshiped, that is, the order and the ritual and the modes and the sacrifices. We don't want to focus so much on that. Because while it is important, because these sacrifices all have meaning, we have taken time and we've looked at the meaning of these sacrifices, and we've seen the types and the pictures they are of Jesus Christ.
[5:44] But rather, I want us to look at this corporate worship service and really what happened there and how we can take these truths and apply them today. I ask you just to think about what's the most powerful worship service you've ever been a part of.
[6:00] I mean, just the most powerful time of worship. You know, worship is a command of God's people. It is not an option. Worship is not something we have the ability to choose to do.
[6:13] Rather, God commands us to worship Him. It is really our created design. He created us to worship Him. It is the most natural thing that we as mankind can do, and that is to worship.
[6:28] This is why we see so many people, really all people in all places, worshiping something because man was created to worship. But too often, that is the thing that we consign to a part of the service, or we consign to a type of service, or we consign to a type of music even.
[6:50] We consider worship music, or a worship time, or a worship season, or a worship event, rather than something that we are joining together to do as the people of God and set our hearts and minds upon Him.
[7:04] And we see this throughout Scripture, that God's people are commanded to worship, and we are to come before Him and worship Him. It is a clear command given to us in Scripture, and it is something that we begin to see the framework of it laid out for us in Leviticus 9.
[7:18] And what does it look like when corporate worship takes place? And really, what is this corporate worship? I know that is a deep subject, and it would take us a long time to get there through this.
[7:29] They call it the theology of worship, that is, breaking down what the Bible has to say. But when someone talks about worship, what do you think about? Because that really determines how we respond.
[7:41] Is it something that we have a time to do? We have a worship time? Do we have a worship leader? Do we have a worship event or worship music? I remember I was in one...
[7:53] I can't remember what it was. I was in one of my pastor classes. No, I wasn't. I was reading a book one time, and I was reading these lectures to the students, to this Bible college, and the...
[8:07] I take that back. Let me go back. I was right the first time. See, in my mind, sometimes my Rolodex gets into a blur between readings and listenings, right? I was listening to a lecture of one of my professors when I was going through Bible college, and he was discussing with the students there of three-hour worship services and four-hour worship services, and the reality that in the 1800s and even earlier than that, especially in England, there was very little music involved in those services.
[8:35] As a matter of fact, most of our hymns today, our hymnology, was considered devil's music in that day. I remember when D.L. Moody went with Ira Sankey, who had been his...
[8:47] That was the George Beverly Shea of Billy Graham, okay? Ira Sankey was to D.L. Moody what George Beverly Shea was to Billy Graham. In other words, he was his traveling music leader, okay?
[8:58] So Ira Sankey, who had come out of the Civil War, was there, and he would come, and people would flee in those European countries. When he'd get up and sing, they would pull out this foldable organ, and they would get to plant on it, and people would run out of the tent because of the devil music that was going on, because Ira Sankey sent a lot of these hymns to the choruses that were in the bars at that time.
[9:16] Why? Because the people that were coming to the tent knew those tunes, and rather to replace them with things that praised God, as opposed to things that praised drink, and he would set them to the workplace, right?
[9:29] It's pretty intentional, right? It's kind of like what Paul said. It almost sounds biblical. I become all things to all men that I may win the more. But that would just upset the church people, and anyway, I go again off course now.
[9:40] But anyway, so the professor was talking about how they would have these three-hour-long sermons, and somebody said, and during that said, Wow, what about the worship? And he said, My friend, you misunderstand. At that time, the Word of God was the worship.
[9:54] That was the worship. It was the gathering together and people worshiping. So worship has been confined and even consigned, assigned to different aspects throughout the ages, but it is something that we are called to do.
[10:09] And what we see in Leviticus 19 is, at least for the Jewish people, the inauguration of this corporate worship proper. With the tent, the tabernacle being completed, they've done everything God has called them to do.
[10:21] Number one, we see that it is a call to personal preparation. It is a call to personal preparation. We're not going to take time and go through each of these verses and break them down. But what we see here is that as that eighth day approaches, now is the day to worship.
[10:36] Because the inauguration or the ordination service is over now, it's time to worship. Aaron and his sons have been prepared, and Moses comes, and he talks to Aaron, and he tells Aaron, Get for yourself a bull and a calf, right?
[10:47] Get your sacrifice. And then he says, And tell the people to get their sacrifice. The only thing I want you to see here is that each individual was responsible to get their sacrifice. And he tells them, Get these items together.
[11:00] Which means it wasn't a spontaneous worship, because he gave them notice. We're going to gather together. We're going to worship. It's a time that is coming up. So get ready. Make preparations. Think about Old Testament worship.
[11:12] Think about the Old Testament corporate worship. To rightfully worship, you had to make preparations. As a matter of fact, many of the laws that we have in the Old Testament are about those preparations, because God would say that if you live too far away from the place that I choose to put my name, and it's so far away that you can't bring your animal, then sell your animal, take the money in your hand, travel to my place, and buy another animal, right?
[11:37] Now think of all the planning that had to go in to worship. You would have to say, Well, if I lived in Bethlehem, and I wanted to worship in Jerusalem, it wouldn't take that long, because I was just a little bit outside of it.
[11:49] But what if I was in Nazareth, right? We know that's a long journey. We get that from the story of Mary and Joseph. But what if I lived in Nazareth, and I wanted to go down and worship in Jerusalem, because that's where I was supposed to worship?
[12:02] You should have corrected me, because I said something wrong. I said down, because even though geographically you'd be going down, you always what? You go up. You go up in Scripture. So if I wanted to go up to the presence of God in Jerusalem, then I would have to sell my animal, take my money in my hand, travel, and then when I get to Jerusalem, then I would purchase a new animal.
[12:21] And this is the thing that Jesus found when he overturned the tables inside the temple, because they were selling and buying. And you say, Well, God told them they could do that. Right. But what he found is, the market value in Jerusalem was a lot higher than what they were selling them for in Nazareth.
[12:35] People were profiting, because they knew you couldn't come. That's what Jesus got upset about. Not the fact that they were doing it, the fact that they were profiting from doing it. The market should have been the same way.
[12:46] But what I'm trying to say is, the same thing that Moses told them, Get ready to worship. Go get your animal. Get ready for your sacrifices. Bring it here. We're going to come together and worship.
[12:58] One Bible commentator says it like this. What does your worship service usually look like? You wake up. You stay up late on Saturday night. You get up early on Sunday morning. You spend some time on Sunday morning reading through the Sunday morning comics.
[13:10] You may watch a little bit of television to catch up on what you didn't see. Most of the time, especially families that have young children, come on, we understand this. You argue all the way to church. You come into church, and you're still fuming over the argument you had right before you came into the doors of the church.
[13:24] You sit through the service, and halfway through the service, you're more concerned about what you are arguing about than you are about what you think is going on. And then you leave the service and say, well, I didn't get much from the pastor today. The reality is, is you weren't, as this commentator said, and this isn't coming from me, because I've been in that position as well, you weren't prepared to get much from anything that day.
[13:49] Because corporate worship is always an overflow of personal preparation. Prepare to meet the Lord your God. which means we may have to set aside and do things a little bit differently.
[14:03] We may have to do things a little bit. This is why Carrie has always been so gracious to me. There are very, very, very few Sundays in which we ride together. Now, I love that. I love when we can go away, and we get out of town, and we go to church together.
[14:16] It's a pretty amazing thing. I want to tell you, husbands and wives, don't ever, ever, ever, discount the blessing of walking into church as a family together. Don't do it.
[14:27] Because I've only been in the ministry for a little bit under 15 years. We're right at 15 years now, and I can count probably on two hands a number of times I've walked into church with my family at the same time.
[14:40] Usually, it's when we're away and we're on the conference, and it's so sweet to walk in together, but it's something that Carrie decided to do, because when I started preaching, all of our kids were very young, and she said, listen, you ride in a vehicle with us.
[14:51] At that time, we lived a little further than two miles away from the church where I was pastoring at, she said, you ride in a vehicle with us, the last thing you're going to be ready to do when you get to church is preach. We had three small children, right?
[15:04] And at that time, I mean, Holly was very small. She would have been a baby crying and two boys arguing. She said, the last thing you're going to be ready to do, so she took that weight up on her. I know she stepped out, but she said, I got the kids.
[15:15] You go get ready. You go prepare. And that's just the thing, but we ought to all have that mindset, and I know as parents and, well, even beyond parents, in life, it's hard at times to do that, but we need to understand that worship is a direct result of personal preparation.
[15:32] We don't have to go get our animal. We don't have to bring our sacrifices in, but we ought to be ready to worship. We ought to be ready. We understand this because the Bible tells us even in the New Testament that if we come before the Lord and we realize that we are having a fence with a brother or sister in Christ, that someone has something against us, to first be reconciled with our brother, right?
[15:52] To first be reconciled with one another, that we cannot rightfully worship until we are in a right relationship with other people. I know there have been a number of times over the years that I've had in the middle of a worship service, before I was pastoring, after I was pastoring, well, I had to make sure I was reconciled with someone.
[16:11] God just put conviction upon my heart, and he would not let me worship the rest of that day until I went and asked that individual face-to-face, are we good? Are we okay? And there's nothing, because the Bible says, I can't worship until I'm prepared, and if there's something in the way of that, then I need to remove that, suddenly go to worship, and I also need to prepare myself for that worship.
[16:33] Worship is always an overflow of personal preparation. As a matter of fact, corporate worship is a very special thing, but corporate worship will always reflect your private worship.
[16:47] Corporate worship will always be a direct reflection of your private worship. This is why when you come to church and you gather together with the body of believers, some people, it seems like God is just all over them, right? And it's like the spirit is just really moving, and someone can sit right next to them and not feel any of that.
[17:03] And the question is why? Well, it's a direct result of preparation. It is a call to personal preparation. Moses said, get ready. Even today, we ought to be ready.
[17:14] This is why at times, and I know I disrupt some when I do that, but I like changing the order of services sometimes at the last moment. For one, I'm a spontaneous guy.
[17:26] Miss Lynn got onto me this morning. She said, I did not realize we were taking the Lord's Supper. I said, Miss Lynn, I didn't realize until about 30 minutes ago when I said, wow, Lord, that's a good idea. That's awesome. I think that would be great.
[17:36] We need to do that. We have everything here. We can do that. And so we did it because it disrupts my order. It makes me think through things more. Now, I am a believer in preparation and planning.
[17:49] I get that. And we're talking about preparing to worship, but I don't like it at times when we get in the rut of that and we don't expect God to do something different and we're not preparing for God to interrupt our lives.
[18:03] What they were doing is they said, God, we're going to take time and we're going to stop. We're going to get this best animal we have and we're going to worship you. So it's a call to personal preparation. Number two, it's a focus on the forgiveness of sins.
[18:14] It's a focus on the forgiveness of sins. Before anyone did any kind of worshiping or as a part of their worship, the very first thing we see is Aaron offering his sin of sacrifice, right?
[18:25] Offering his sacrificial offering for the forgiveness of his sins. As Hebrews said that the priest of that day, the author of the book of Hebrews said, they had to get up and offer atonement for their own sins.
[18:37] They had to make a sacrifice for their sins. And we see this with Aaron. Moses says, Aaron, get your sacrifice ready and first offer your sacrifice for your sins and then offer the sacrifice for the people.
[18:51] Aaron had to make atonement for his sins first. Now, what is amazing to me about this is that Aaron and his sons had been in the temple or in the tabernacle for seven days doing nothing but offering sacrifices.
[19:05] They weren't stained by the world in any way, form or fashion, at least for the last seven days because at this point there had been an ordination service and there had been an atonement through those sacrifices which Moses offered and then there's this everyday, this repetition of sacrifices, this ordination service going on again and all of these sacrifices being offered.
[19:26] Yet the first thing Aaron had to do was atone for his own sin. Why? That shows us at least in the Old Testament theology. Yesterday's sacrifice is not good enough to atone for today's sin.
[19:38] Right? He had to deal with his sin that day. He had to deal with his problem that day. And then the first thing he had to do was deal with the sin problem of the people. Once he atoned for his sin and he atoned for the sins of his sons, then he could offer the sacrifice for the sins of the people.
[19:53] And there's this image and I know when we read the Old Testament sometimes we're just overwhelmed. It's not a beautiful picture, right? The tabernacle would have been beautiful. The temple would have been beautiful. But when you begin to notice how much blood is involved, they handed him the blood and he took the blood and he smeared it here and he poured it out there and all the carcasses and the pieces of this.
[20:12] Every one of these would have been a vivid visual reminder of the price of their sin. God is saying, I want you to worship me. Now what is all these things happening for? Why are they preparing?
[20:23] Why are they sacrificing? Because Moses told them, the Lord will meet with you today. He gave them this promise. He said, do this because you want to offer this, the Lord will appear to you so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.
[20:37] See, this is the promise. They want to worship and God's going to show up. And what they have to do is they have to prepare and then they have to sacrifice and they have to be reminded. I can't just rush headlong into the presence of God.
[20:52] Charles Spurgeon used to say that everywhere you're at in scripture, dig a trench straight to the cross. No matter where you're at in scripture, dig a trench straight to the cross and find the flow of the blood of the Lamb at the cross.
[21:06] What was he saying? He said, no matter where we're at in scripture, no matter where we're at in our worship, we need to be reminded of the forgiveness which we enjoy because of what took place on the cross.
[21:17] Because see, when the corporate body came together, there was a focus on the forgiveness of their sins. They're wanting to worship but they need to have their sins redeemed. They need to have their sins reconciled with the Holy God so there's these sacrifices that are being offered.
[21:31] Friend, listen, we don't have to come today and bring a lamb or a bull and we don't have to offer this sacrifice for our sins but we also need to be very careful that when we gather together in worship that we are focusing on the fact that we are forgiven.
[21:43] because as Jesus said, the one that is forgiven much loves much and when we love much, we worship much. We don't need to get over and I like to say this, we should never get over our salvation.
[21:57] I don't care how long we've been saved, I don't care how long we've been redeemed, I don't care if it's been for a couple of minutes or for a couple of centuries, we should never get over our salvation.
[22:08] We need to be reminded constantly of the price of our forgiveness and we need to focus, worship is driven by the fact that we are redeemed, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, right?
[22:20] We have to declare the fact that we have been forgiven and when we focus on the forgiveness that has been extended to us because of the blood, then oh, how much more sincere would the worship be?
[22:33] It is a focus on the forgiveness of sins and we need to be reminded of that constantly. One of the greatest ways that we can prepare ourselves to worship is to remind ourselves we are forgiven.
[22:45] We are forgiven and we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Number three, there is a dependence on the mediator which is exactly what this passage is primarily about. The dependency on a mediator.
[22:58] They're coming together, we don't need to miss this, it's not that just Aaron and his sons are having a worship service, right? The entire nation is having a worship service. God has said, call all the sons of Israel, call the whole body together.
[23:09] So the corporate bodies come together and they're worshiping. But did you notice in this passage, and I'm not going to take time to reread it, there's only one person doing all the work, right?
[23:21] Moses told Aaron what to get and he told Aaron what to tell the people to get, but after that, Aaron's doing all the work. Do you see what I mean? Aaron is the priest, he's the high priest. So Aaron offers his sacrifice.
[23:33] He said, well his sons hand him the bowls, well, it would have been a really good time for a father of sons to make a comment, but I'm going to leave that alone. His sons are standing there handing him bowls, but who's doing all the work, right?
[23:45] Aaron is the high priest. He is the one offering the sacrifices. He is the one slaughtering the animals. He is the one cutting up the animals. He is the one putting the animals on the altar. He is the one not only for himself, then he does it for the nation.
[23:56] The nation brought their animals, but they can't offer their animals, so now he's doing it. He is doing every bit of their work, and this is so that the glory of the Lord may appear to them but all the work falls on him, right?
[24:10] It falls on this one individual. Think about this. The nation was completely dependent upon Aaron because someone had to stand in the gap between the people that were worshiping or longing to worship and the holy God that wants to be worshiped or is calling them to worship.
[24:27] Someone had to stand in the gap. Someone had to be the mediator. Someone had to be able to put a hand upon God and to put a hand upon man. Job says it's the umpire who can touch God and touch man and can reconcile the two.
[24:40] Someone had to be the one who could bridge the gap, and that one is Aaron. Now, don't sit there and say, yes, that's exactly why we have a pastor. He's the one who's to do all the work. No, because the Bible says in the book of Hebrews today, we have a greater high priest, and that high priest is according to the order of Melchizedek, not according to the order of Aaron, and that high priest is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who daily stands in the temple that is built without hands rather than a temple that was built with hands to daily intercede on our behalf.
[25:09] Aaron is showing forth as an example that we cannot worship without a mediator, and that mediator is not found in mankind because as the book of Hebrews said, Aaron had to offer sacrifices for his own sin, and then he had to offer sacrifice for the sins of others, but our high priest does not daily offer sacrifices.
[25:27] He offered one sacrifice for all time, for all people, and then sat down. That's good. There's one thing you don't see in the temple, by the way. One piece of furniture you don't see.
[25:39] Remember when we went through the articles of the tabernacle and the same things are found in the temple? One piece of furniture you don't see. It's the thing that got Eli, the priest, in the book of Samuel in trouble. Anybody know what it is?
[25:51] It's a chair. There are no chairs in the tabernacle. There are no chairs in the temple. None. God didn't say and build a chair 36 inches high and make its back this high.
[26:02] God didn't say that. Why? Because the priest was constantly being worried. He said, how did that get Eli in trouble? Remember when Eli was there in Samuel? Eli was a healthy man. Remember that? Eli's sons, we like to blame Eli and I'm going to give you this little bit of biblical trivia here.
[26:17] We like to blame Eli's sons. Eli's sons had this gig going. If you wanted to bring in a sacrifice, hey, the price of beef and the price of mutton must have been pretty high at that time too because they would say bring in the best but whatever our fork sticks into we're going to keep for ourselves and they would take out the best cuts of meat and they would eat it for themselves.
[26:35] Well, before we're just too quick to throw his sons under the bus, let's see where they learned that because the Bible says Eli was a healthy man. As a matter of fact, it says he was fat. He was exceedingly fat so he had ate pretty well off of the sacrifices of the people but you remember when his sons went off to war and they both died.
[26:52] This is when Ichbod was written across the temple and the glory of the Lord has departed. Something happened to Eli. He fell off of his stool backwards and because he was so fat he broke his neck and died.
[27:04] Now the very first question we ask is how did he get so big? The second thing we have to ask is why in the world was the high priest sitting down in the temple? Because God didn't say to put a chair in the temple. His work wasn't through.
[27:16] But when we read of our high priest Jesus Christ he entered into the temple not made with hands and he sat down at the right hand of the Father while his work is through. Finished. That's the high priest we have.
[27:27] See these things matter. They make a difference. Eli had no right sitting down. Jesus has every right sitting down. He doesn't have to offer any more sacrifices. He offered himself. We have a high priest.
[27:38] What Aaron is showing us is we can't worship without a mediator and friend we have a mediator who has finished his work and he is there. It's not me. It's not you. It's not another priest.
[27:49] It's not it is Jesus Christ the high priest who lives eternally to intercede for the saints and we cannot worship without a dependency upon the mediator. Do not try to run into the presence of a holy God unless you come to the presence of the Lamb of God.
[28:04] Hebrews also says we come boldly before the throne of grace through what? The blood of the Lamb. You don't just run boldly into the presence of God you have to run through Jesus Christ to the throne and we see this picture here this dependency upon a mediator in corporate worship.
[28:20] If Jesus doesn't show up we don't worship. That's the reality. If he's not there and he's not present we're not worshiping. I don't care what we're doing we're not worshiping.
[28:31] Now we see fourth and finally in this inaugurated corporate worship this anticipation of God's manifest presence. There was an anticipation of God's manifest presence. I want to ask you what was the worship?
[28:44] Did they worship because they offered a bunch of sacrifices? Did they worship because they did God told them to offer these sacrifices right? God told them to do these things. Was that to worship?
[28:55] Because if it was really quick question for you. Say we're all gathered together and Aaron's up there offering the sacrifices well say I get ahead of you in line and we're waiting and Aaron can only do one sacrifice at a time and we see this that when he had finished and he turned around and blessed the people there why wouldn't as soon as I saw my animal being sacrificed when my worship's over I'm going to go back home.
[29:19] See it wasn't the ritual it wasn't even the event that was the worship they were waiting to worship these things were all preparation for worship because it's not worship until God shows up.
[29:34] Okay it's not worship until God shows up and what we see is they were going through all these things and the deeds they were doing were not their worship they were the preparation to worship they were the steps that God had commanded them to do to worship they were the things that God was leading them to as they worship but one thing you notice is everybody's sacrifices are offered and Aaron turns around and blesses them comes down from the brazen altar and he goes into the tent of meeting with Moses has a meeting with the Lord that's pretty cool right has a meeting with the Lord he comes out everybody's still there it blew me away when I realized that they're all just standing because worship isn't done just because they went through the order of service because God hasn't shown up yet all we've done is done a bunch of rituals all we've done is killed a bunch of animals we haven't worshipped yet we have just done what God has told us to do because what they were told is that the glory of the Lord would appear to them and they hadn't seen it yet so they were waiting and they were waiting and they were waiting I don't know how long they had to wait but Aaron went into the tent of meeting it says
[30:34] Aaron and Moses came out and then he blessed them again and then it says here's this beautiful picture that Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting I'm in verse 23 and when they came out and blessed the people the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people then fire came down or came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of the fat on the altar what are we saying the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people then fire fell fire is just a picture of God accepting their sacrifices right when fire falls it's a picture of God's acceptance and then we see the worship and when all the people saw it they shouted and fell on their faces they shouted there is the worship and fell on their faces I don't know if they were screams of fear or screams of excitement but either way they were shouts of worship and they fell on their faces because God was there there was this anticipation they were waiting for that they were waiting for that that's what they wanted to see they wanted to be there they were called to worship and God was calling them to worship them and they would not leave until he showed up unfortunately in today's time
[31:48] God's people are too content to go through the motions to fulfill the order of service and it doesn't matter if God shows up or not we call it worship and go home I'm not saying that all of us individually I'm just saying God's people as a whole I remember listening not too long ago to someone who served on the international mission field and they talked about the fact that their services there would go on for hours and hours in particular I remember David Platt sharing many years ago about how he was leading a Bible study and he had these things presented he was in what was considered a closed gospel community and he was there and he had this group of individuals together a small group and they were in this house together and he had wanted to take them through some portions of the Old Testament and he did and he said I had finished doing now how many of you ever heard David Platt preach David Platt if you think I'm long winded he's a lot more long winded even in person he is about an hour and 15 minutes solid you know it's good so he said
[32:51] I got through with what I had prepared he said nobody left and they said now in America everybody like about time to go right and he said these people had walked for about three or four hours he said nobody left and they said we want to hear more he said so I did another sermon they said we want to hear more essentially I think that he said he preached for like 13 hours solid and they turned around and did it the next day and then the next day and then the next day and then the next day because what they wanted was they wanted more and more and more and more of the presence of God and he was there and they were worshiping and he said you know what it wore me out it was too much but they wouldn't leave they were hungry for the presence of God and we see this in other places but here where we've got too many schedules and too many activities if God doesn't show up well that's okay maybe next time well friend listen to me then we have it worshiped there's an anticipation of God's manifest presence and when we respond to the reality of his presence then we are worshiping when we respond to the reality of his presence then we worship this morning we saw just a little bit of that
[34:16] I don't say anything to praise anybody or lift anybody up the order and there are some pastors that would really get bent out of shape about it things get we're supposed to sing a final hymn right and that would really upset people we didn't do that we need to do that we need to do that someone was responding to the reality of God being present and changed something which made all of us think and that's okay we need to understand that the people were waiting on God to show up and they responded they shouted out fell on their faces and they responded to the present reality then they worshiped this is what corporate worship is all about we need to be prepared we need to invest our efforts to prepare ourselves we need to understand that even after we prepare we need to focus on our forgiveness we are dependent upon the mediator who is Jesus Christ but friend the reality is all of those things can be true and if God doesn't show up we still have not worshiped we've met together this is why
[35:21] I say you really don't schedule worship services and you really can't schedule revivals if you ever want to say something and I know maybe I'm a little hardcore in this and forgive me for some of you that have been around church a lot longer than me and it's a wording and I don't mean to be rude in this but one thing you'll never hear me say and one thing is kind of we're going to have a revival no because a revival is when God shows up and awakens his people and we don't schedule that we can say we're praying for or we're hoping to have or we're crying out for but we cannot tell God what he's going to do and we need to be anticipating of those things then then we will worship let's pray together and then we'll sing Lord thank you so much for this evening thank you Lord for allowing us to look at your word and we pray Lord that it has drawn us closer to you we thank you oh God for your grace and your mercy that has allowed us to come together and study the word of God together
[36:28] I pray that we would increase in our relationship with you that we would grow together with one another for your glory and honor and truly oh God our heart cries that we would worship you in sincerity and truth that we would lift you on high we'd magnify your name and we ask it all in Jesus name amen daddy Thank you.
[38:05] Thank you.
[38:35] Thank you.
[39:05] Thank you.
[39:35] Thank you.
[40:05] Thank you.
[40:35] Thank you.