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Welcome to the Grace Church Messages Podcast! These are the weekly Sunday messages from Grace Church in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. Listen to biblical teaching from our weekend services to help you understand Scripture, follow Jesus in your everyday life, and grow in your faith. Perfect for the morning commute, the treadmill, or wherever life happens.
His praise shall continually be on my lips. I sense an atmosphere of worship in here this morning or this afternoon. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We. Yeah, Well, let's get it in then. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Kareem Smith. I'm the pastor of senior adults here at Grace Church, and it is an honor and a privilege to serve from the pulpit this morning.
But before I do, I just want to take a minute to thank those of you who reached out to me with your kind words and encouragement over the last few weeks. A few weeks ago, I preach the message and it was a very personal message. And I was sharing my testimony about some things that went on in my life and and some of you were so touched by that you sent me word and encouraged me.
So thank you for your kind words that said, y'all might want to take them back after this message, because we're going to talk about a tough subject. And the subject is on the topic of our worship, false worship, to be exact. So at any rate, why don't we pray and then get in the God's word? Father, thank you so much for another time of devotion in your Word.
Well, I thank you for this church and thank you for Christ who was exalted at Grace Church. I thank you that your Word promises that if Jesus be lifted up, you withdraw all people to him. And this is a place that does that well. And so thank you for that. And now, Lord, today I ask that you would just give me this afternoon a fresh anointing, spiritual enablement to speak forth your word clearly and Lord, that someone here might hear from you the whisper of the Holy Spirit, and decide that today is the day that they want to surrender their life to Jesus, who is the perfect sacrifice.
Peace in Jesus name, I pray a man. Well, this week has been a week of loss. Unfortunately, we've lost a couple of people from our forever young senior adult ministry. Santosh, a charge you went home to be with the Lord this past week, and as well as Patricia McDonnell, who are just wonderful saints and the Lord. And so I just would ask that you would pray for both of these wonderful saints and pray for their families in particular, that they might grieve appropriate with the help that they need from the Holy Spirit and from us, the church.
Amen. I'm going to be inviting your attention to Leviticus Chapter ten, Leviticus Chapter ten. We're in the second week of of I believe it's a three or four week series from Book of Leviticus, and we're going to pick up the reading in verse chapter ten, verse one, chapter ten verse one. Those of you who don't have your Bibles, the words will be conveniently located on the screen in front of you.
And we're going to pick up the reading in verse one, Aaron sons, Nay, Deb and Abi, who took their sensors and put fire in them and they added incense and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his commands. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Moses then said to Aaron, This is what the Lord spoke when he said, Among those who approached me, I will show myself wholly in the sight of all the people I will be honored. And Aaron remained silent. Aaron held his peace. I want to speak to you from the subject this morning. Three ways to Avoid Vain Worship. Three Ways to Avoid Vain Worship.
You ever known a person who was super smart intellectually but lacked good common sense? Chances are you're thinking of them right now. Perhaps you even drove to church this afternoon with them. Just look straight ahead, don't worry. But the fact of the matter is, too much self-confidence can sometimes prove. Just a few years ago, fire broke out in a neighborhood in upstate New York and this fire went on to destroy three city blocks.
As the mayor of the city declared it a state of emergency, he ended up saying, you know, this is the worst disaster the city has ever known. But what struck people by surprise with this fire was not the fact that it was so ravenous. And this has destroyed three city blocks. What struck people by surprise was was how the fire actually started in the first place.
See, the fire was started because an amateur blade Smith was trying to imitate a stunt that he saw on TV. And the name of the television show was a show called Forged in Fire. It's a show on the History Channel. And on this network, they put different blades, Smiths against one another in the steep competition in order to recreate historical weapons from out of fire.
And apparently, John Gomez was his name, thought he belonged on the show. And so what he did was he mimicked the stuff that he saw on TV and in the process burned down a whole neighborhood. Well, as we look back at this scene in Leviticus chapter ten, we see another dubious and dangerous stunt. And the lesson we learn in both is this carelessness can sometimes be catastrophic, such the case with Nadav and Abi, who who was too smart for their own good.
A little background into Leviticus will reveal that the book of Leviticus is a book of regulations whose aim is to instruct the Leviticus priesthood as well as the Israelite community in ways that they were to properly worship God. Now they would need to have this level of understanding about worship because they were so discerning on a quest to possess the promised land.
And as they were so journeying on this this quest to enter into the promised land, they were surrounded by other pagan nations who worshiped a pagan god of their own understanding. And it was a result of their their worship of these false gods that led to some ungodly thinking and some corrupt practices, so on and so forth. And so in the midst of this, God decides to provide a guide or a detail for how this community, the Israelite community at least, was to not only conduct themselves, but ways that they were to properly worship God.
Now, why does God do this? Well, it's because God wanted to distinguish himself from the pagan gods and the pagan nations around them, and he would primarily distinguish himself by way of the people's worship. You see how you worship God impacts what people think about the God that you worship. Believe it or not, I'll say that again. How you worship God literally impacts what people think about the God that you worship.
For instance, if you call yourself a Christian on Sunday, yet live careless lives of rebellion on Monday, people are going to wonder which God do you worship? Surely your God ain't holy because you live in a life looks just like me. How you worship God impacts what people think about the God that you worship. Our lives should be radiating Jesus every minute of the day because God's using the worship of your life to be an attractive sent to the loss.
And that's going to either spell one of two things. Either you're going to repel people away from Christ or are you going to draw people to Christ by way of your worship and obedience of Him in your daily life? And this is what he was doing with the Israelite community. He was using their worship and their lives to attract other people, to raise awareness of God, Jehovah God.
And so God thought it important to provide details for not only how they should conduct themselves, but how they should worship him. Exactly. Now, we don't necessarily adhere to the details of the Mosaic Law anymore, all the regulations of the Leviticus priesthood, so on and so all of these rituals and all of these ceremonials, we don't necessarily adhere to that anymore.
However, there are some enduring truth principles that you and I can glean from this passage that we just read. And one of them kind of leaps off the page at us, and that's this God don't play when it comes to worship. He ain't plan. He doesn't play when it comes to His Holiness. There's a popular saying out there, and I believe it's attributed to Pastor trucks, Wendell from a pastor from Dallas, Texas, the Dallas area and he says this lamenting the busyness of the Christian life.
He says this He says, As believers, we are often so caught up with our own activities that we tend to worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship. When it comes to worship, God is not playing games and no amount of vanity nor pride and no approach to worship that is self-directed or self-willed can ever invoke his pleasure nor his presence.
Rather, it invokes his displeasure. And I would even add in some cases, his wrath. And that's what we see taking place in this text. And I'll explain a little bit more on that later. But suffice to say, here's a question I want to raise this morning. How can sinful human beings like you and me ever approach a holy God in worship?
How can we do this thing? I mean, is there really a proper way to approach a holy God? How can we do this thing and get it right? Well, this text illustrates for us at least three ways. And the first is this The way we worship must be governed by God's commands. The way we worship must be governed by God's commands.
His instructions. Notice in verse one, Aaron sons need to have an A by who? They both took their sensors, they put fire in them and they added and they offered unauthorized fire. Somebody say unauthorized? Yeah. Some of your versions say strange fire before the Lord. And they offered all of these unauthorized this unauthorized fire. You see now, Deb and Abi, who were part of an elite group of priests in the Old Testament, they were second in command behind Moses and Aaron.
In fact, they happened to be Aaron's two oldest sons. And so as such, they would have had some prior exposure to the manifest presence of God, the glory of God in astounding ways. They had experiences with God that were simply beyond the norm. For instance, just a chapter before we read about the inauguration of the whole sacrificial system of worship.
And in that chapter, Chapter nine, Moses is laying out meticulous details for all how this community set not only not only worship God, not just a form of worship, but the shape in which that worship was to take place and the function of worship all together. You might be surprised to know that worship could take on many different shapes, many different forms, but it only really has one primary function governing it, one primary purpose.
And that purpose is to invoke the manifest presence of God is to invite God's presence is to invite His nearness, His activity in our midst. For instance, Leviticus chapter nine, verse four, as Moses is preparing the sacrifices and the offering, this is what he tells the Israelite community that they can look forward to. In verse four, he says this to day The Lord will appear to you verse six.
He goes on to say in Chapter nine, This is the thing the Lord commanded you to do. Why that the glory of the Lord might appear to you. And then after the burnt offering was made, after the sacrifices, after the guilt offering was made, the grain offering Moses and Aaron pretty much lifted up their hands and they blessed the consecrated people of God.
And here's how Chapter nine ends. Chapter nine concludes With this, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from before the Lord consuming the burnt offerings and pieces of fat on the altar. And when all the people it they shouted and fell on their faces. Now why did they shout? Why did they fall on their faces?
It's because God showed up. God showed up in the form of fire, manifesting His presence as a result of their sacrifice that was acceptable to him. He showed up in the form of this fire and the people couldn't help but to praise it they couldn't help but to worship him. And this, my friends, is the backdrop of Leviticus Chapter ten.
Keep in mind, whereas on hand, this community had just gone from jubilant joy and celebration for a sacrifice that was acceptable to God. But joy turns to gloom real quick for what seemed to be a casual mistake in worship. Here you have these two amateur priests who, by all appearances meant well, but it was something about the form of their worship which contradicted with the purpose of worship and the holiness of God.
Follow me to the text in verse one as it says again here, Aaron, sons need to have an A by who they took their census, they put fire in it and they added incense and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord. Notice how it says they took their sensors and fire in it. This is a very important point that you don't want to miss.
Now, I'm not one this big on sermon AIDS and stuff like that, but I had to bring one for you all today. And the reason for that is because I could see the puzzled looks on your faces. And you want to know what in the world is a censor? You do want to know that right? Well, a censor in the Old Testament was a long metal rod.
At the end of this long metal rod was a pan. In fact, it's often called a fire pan in the Old Testament. Now, this is the best I can do, Ya. This. This is my little fireplace. You ten. So I brought it from home. Don't ask me why. I got a fireplace when it's gas, why I got this utensil when it's a gas fireplace.
But I brought it anyway. Maybe it was just for you. But what the priest would often do with this censor is that they would often march over to what's called the brazen altar during the Tabernacle worship. The brazen altar are where all sacrifices in the Old Testament took place. This is where the Bulls were offered the ghost, the Lambs, All of the sacrifices that would be acceptable to God would take place on this altar right here.
If it was acceptable to God, he would rein his presence down in the form of fire to consume the sacrifice beneath this brazen altar over here were live coals that was set on fire from the Lord's presence in the form of fire. What the priests would often do with the censor is he would walk over to the brazen altar, carefully scoop out those burning coals, turn around and transfer these hot, burning coals into what's called the holy of holies.
Within the holy of holies, where incense the priest would light those incense on fire with the coals that came from the altar. The smoke that rose from the incense were symbolic of the people's prayers and the people's praise to God. Now stick with me because I'm going somewhere with this. What needs to happen to be who likely went wrong was this Rather than gathering fire from the brazen altar like they were supposed to, they'd likely deviate it to another source.
Now, we don't know what that source was. All we know is it was a strange source it was an unauthorized source and it was a source that encroached upon the holiness of God. Here's a side point not intended as a main point of this message, but we need to be careful not to let the integrity of our worship ever be compromised by fleshly ambitions.
Be careful. Be careful not to let how you go about worshiping God become a compromise by fleshly ambitions. So many of us, we really mean well when we come in here to worship God on Sunday morning. But our motives can at times be questionable. Now, I don't mean to go into meddling in all that. I'm not one of those types of preachers.
You know, we got preachers out there like to gripe and complain all the time. I used to work out at a place was Planet Fitness, and it was a preacher that used to come in all the time. And he knew I was a preacher and all he did was complain, y'all. I mean, every time you see me, all he wanted to do was rag on the church and talk about how bad the church is.
And he would just knock pastors every time you see me. He just felt the need to complain. He was like the Katt Williams of preachers or something. Put everybody under the bus. It's awesome, man. One day I told him, I said, Hey, man, you shouldn't complain so much because that's actually a sin. Well, he stopped talking to me after that, but.
Well, look, I'm not one of those types of preachers that complain, but if I'm honest, we can have questionable, questionable motives at times for attending Grace Church. I don't know about you, but I love Grace Church, and some of you love Grace Church as well. Most of us should love Grace Church. In fact, most of us in here.
We woke up this afternoon with a pep in our step because we couldn't wait to come in to Grace Church. You walk up into this place, this beautiful sanctuary. So nice. The edifice is beautiful. You look to your right and you see a coffee shop that's bustling, and then you hurry and rush your kids downstairs to the safe and secure childcare.
00:19:07:07 - 00:19:38:18
Speaker 5
And you drop your kids off at the safe and secure childcare. And then you hurry back up into the sanctuary and sit down in your favorite seat. It was the same favorite comfortable seat that you sat in last Sunday during the worship, and you prepare yourself for the worship service because you really the worship you love, the songs sang at the worship, you loved the preaching during the worship, and you really enjoy the comfortable and convenient coffee You can get on your way out from the worship.
But if we careful, if we if we're honest with ourselves, some of these conveniences can cater to our comforts. And here's the point when my worship only caters to my comforts, then my comforts become the object of my worship. And that at the end of the day, my friends, is a fire before the Lord, someone was once said, There's a difference between coming for a worship service and coming to worship the Lord.
come on somebody, Come on, somebody you can't say man. Say ouch. We can go on and on with this thing. When I approached us with fire, that comes from maybe a mindless ritual of any sort that in the eyes of God, is a strange fire before the Lord. When I approach God with that comes from a religious routine or my own sense of self righteousness.
That is a strange fire before the Lord. Any time I approach with sort of flesh inspired, phony or fictitious form, at the end of the day, God says, Nope, that ain't going to cut it. That's a strange fire before the Lord. Suffice to say, the way we worship must be governed by God's commands. Can I ask you a question this afternoon?
Where did your worship originate from as you dawn the doors of this church? Is it coming from a heart that longs for a transformative encounter with Almighty God through his son, Jesus Christ? Is it coming from a place of brokenness over sin and deep affection for the LAMB of God? Or is it coming from a self-directed desire to please flesh?
That's the question. That's the question. The way we worship must be governed by God's commands. Secondly, our approach to worship generates a response. Did you know that God responds to our worship? Notice in verse two need to have an A by who didn't get the response they was looking for, did they? Because fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord.
Quite the dramatic scene here. You have these two priests who are supposed to be offering a sacrifice and God was supposed to consume the sacrifice with his fire. But rather than God consuming the sacrifice, God consumed the false worshipers to the shock, horror and dismay of all the community. Make no mistake about it, this was a national tragedy because mean you talk in the Leviticus priest, this is as high as it gets to God at times.
I used to read this passage in the past, and if you're anything like me, it feels almost like, you know, God was being a little harsh, don't you think? I used to think, Gosh, surely you could have given him leprosy or something. I mean, I mean, why did you have to smolder them to a crisp? I mean, surely you could have done something different.
But don't miss the point, because God had a point to prove. You see, the sacrifices that took place on the brazen altar in the Old Testament foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Trying to approach God with residue from any other source is an abomination to God, and he won't stand for it. And so he reigned as fire down justly to preserve His Holiness, because he will not accept residue from any other than what he has prescribed.
You see examples of this where God breaks out against false worship all throughout the Old Testament. If you look through the Bible, you'll notice in numbers. Chapter 16, it tells the story where God struck down 250 people at once for an inappropriate of worship. There's another story in Second Samuel Chapter six, where Uzo was struck dead for touching the arc of the Lord as the of the Lord burned against him.
Even in the New Testament, we see examples of discipline, at least in First Corinthians Chapter 11, where Paul rebukes the Corinthian Church for dishonoring the Lord's Supper. And how many of you know that the Lord's Supper is a form of our worship? And what Paul says about this dishonoring of the Lord's Supper is that when you dishonor another, you're dishonoring one one all dishonoring the Lord.
00:24:03:08 - 00:24:28:15
Speaker 5
And so Paul was pretty much saying that when we approached the table of the Lord with disrespect, the disunity in the body of Christ, then we invoked God's judgment rather than invoking God's pleasure blessings when we take community got, when we take communion, God, our worship closely so as to respond to our worship personally. He responds to our worship personally.
Now, obviously, thank God he ain't raining down fire no more. That case. Half of us be burn up this morning. Thank God for the Book of Lamentations. It says, Because of the Lord's great love for us, we are not consumed. Thank God for His grace. Hey, man. But we need to be careful not to misunderstand this, ladies and gentlemen, Just because God exercises grace and kindness on our behalf never diminishes how he feels about vain acts of worship.
God watches our worship closely so as to respond to our worship accordingly. Some of you may be familiar with the hit television show called Undercover Boss, and on this show they put different CEOs from different companies. They all step out from their normal course of business in a routine of running their own businesses, all to go deep undercover and spy on workplace performance.
Now, I'll never forget this one episode where the owner of the company went deep undercover. He was in disguise, disguise himself as entry level employee, and he worked for the company, but he couldn't stand what he was seeing. In fact, he got so mad and so upset at the manager's treatment of everybody that he just broke character. He took his mask off and took his mustache off and he grabbed the manager and he takes them out back, literally fired manager on the spot.
Then he runs back in and he shuts the whole place down. And I thought about this. I'm like, you know, God, in many ways is sort of like an undercover observer in our worship services. And he's asking itself the question over and over again, What is the source of these people's worship of me? Is it coming from a heart that longs to be transformed by Jesus?
Is it coming from flesh or is it coming from the spirit of truth is it coming from true affection for the LAMB of God slain from the foundation of the world? Or is it coming from a self-centered, self-willed, hedonistic desire just simply to be entertained? Some of us, if we're honest with ourselves, we just here for the show.
We just here to spectate and God says, No, that's a vain worship. There's a proper way to worship God. We'll show you that in a few minutes. And so what I want to do right now, before we show you the proper way is I want to illustrate for you three ways in which God actually responds to vain worship.
Today. And the first way is this He simply withdraws his manifest presence. He withdraws his manifest presence. Now, keep in mind, when we talk about God's manifest presence, that's a little bit different than God's omnipresence. The fact that God is omnipresent means that he's here and he's there and he's everywhere. At the same time, God's manifest presence is a little bit different.
The manifest presence is pretty much the activity of God in our It's when stuff takes place that you can't take credit for. But when you hear about it and you see it, you say that right there was God, that's that's an example of manifest presence. And I don't know if you know it or not, but God longs to show off his manifest presence.
He loves to make known in our midst. He loves to perform on your behalf. In fact, the Bible backs that up. In Second Chronicles Chapter 16, verse nine, it says this For the eyes of the Lord, run to and fro throughout the whole Earth. Why? To so himself strong on our behalf, on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.
Isaiah 64 four. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived no, I has seen a god beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Psalm 37 five Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will do what He. He will act. He will act. And so there is this desire and this this proclivity of God to not just simply provide us with his presence, but to provide proof of that presence in the form of his activity in our midst.
Do you realize that every answer to prayer you get, every every personal breakthrough and experience that you have, every healing, every deliverance, every experience of God's grace and salvation is an example of God's glory being made manifest in your life. It's an example of his manifest presence, his actions, his activity. Every time we gather, worship and we lift high the name of Jesus, the Bible says that he actually inhabits the praises of his people, meaning God makes himself at home wherever feels welcome with true worship.
But whenever we begin to substitute the supernatural for superficial forms of vanity, God always withdraws his activity, leaving us to our own agendas. He withdraws his manifest presence. Secondly, he withholds his blessings. I mean, can we really expect to be blessed by the Lord if we're harboring bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness towards our brother and sister in Christ? Well, the Bible says emphatically, No, you can't expect to be blessed.
Matthew, Chapter five. Jesus says this First, leave your gift there. Speaking of worship in offerings that were taking place in the temple and then the sanctuary, he says, Leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled. Your brother or your sister. Then come and offer your gift. You see, Jesus is saying you can't expect to worship me if you're harboring hate in your heart.
I won't bless that. And so he withholds his blessings for that type of vain worship last way. That's what Jesus does, is he. He withholds his rewards Matthew six. Jesus is talking about a hypocritical type of worship, and the hypocritical type of worship gets no reward from the Lord. In fact, Jesus says this Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
For then you have no reward from your father who was in heaven. And there it is right there. At least three ways that God responds even today, to false vain acts of worship. He withholds his manifest presence. He withholds his eternal rewards, and he withholds his blessings. And ladies and gentlemen, this is why worship is so critical to God.
It's so critical. It's so critical. We approach him and his presence in worship is so critical that we approach him with humility and with reverence and with all literally makes the difference between a casual, nonchalant, boring routine where you're disconnected and an experience with the supernatural manifest presence. God, that's why it's so critical. And so worship should be governed by God's commands.
Our approach to worship generates a response. Thirdly, way we worship must convey respect for God's holiness. Look at verse three. This is the crux of the matter right here. Moses says to Aaron, This is what the Lord said when he said this. Among those who approach me, I will show myself wholly in the sight of the people I will be honored.
And Aaron pretty much held his peace because he had to, because he did not want to oppose the holiness of God. This is probably the most important point in this entire passage, because it pretty much illustrates for us that it was Aaron, it was it was Nadav and whose approach to worship that made all the difference for them.
And you can see it right here, Nadav and Abi, who by this time in their practice of worship as priests, they had developed a careless and cavalier approach to worship. In a nutshell, that's what this whole problem was. And I can imagine how this kind of thing could have happened for them. I mean, maybe by this time in their life they had just simply become indifferent to it all.
And it can happen to us as well. I mean, maybe worship for them became too routine, it became too boring. And so they just simply they just simply checked out from it all lost all desire for worship. Just like the guy named George. George woke up one morning and he says, You know what, honey? I'm Never going to church anymore.
She says, Well, why? He says, Well, first of all, I'm tired. Second of all, the people there don't like me. And third of all the sermons are long and boring. Well, she says, Well, honey, we got to go to church. He says, Why? She says, Well, first of all, we always worship on Sunday. Second of all, it don't matter what the people think about you.
And third of all, you, the pastor, you can't afford this thing. You can't just simply check out. But they do have an A by who they checked out before, and I could imagine how this could happen. Their worship by this time became too laborious. It was too boring. It wasn't fun. And when you consider all of the details that went into a sacrificial system of worship, I mean, that was intense, y'all.
I mean, firstly, I had to run over here and gather a bunch of bulls and they had to get a bunch of rams and and they had to carefully select these things because they couldn't have a blemish. And so that meant for a long, exhaustive search. And then that was just for the burnt offerings, let alone the other offerings, the peace offerings, which required them to run out and get more animals in.
And then they would slaughter these animals. And and by the time they were done with all these sacrifices, these these priests were a filthy mess. I mean, there covered from head to toe with nothing but blood. And so I could just imagine they just simply said, you know what, I'm tired of this mess. I don't enjoy it anymore.
They probably even got tired of waiting on God's fire so we can fake it till we make it. Who knows? Nobody will ever know. We can make our own fire. Nobody will ever know. You seen one fire? You've seen them all. And so their worship at the end of the day was careless. It was cavalier, it was disingenuous.
But no matter what you call it, at the end of the day God called it profane because they thought that they could somehow skate past the holiness of God in a cavalier without offending them. And that's what made this so problematic. And so what did God do? Well, he fired on the spot. On the spot? I couldn't resist your Jesus.
He fired them Among those who approached me, I was so myself. Holy, he says in the sight of all the people, I will be honored. And Aaron couldn't do nothing but sit there and take it. Let God be true. And every man alive. Earlier I ask the question How can sinful human beings like you and me and this, the sinful body of ours and sinful humanity, how can we offer a sincere and holy worship to God?
And is there an acceptable way to approach a holy God from flesh? And I kind sexual up for that because there's honestly no way the question is really self-defeating because you cannot worship God nor interact with this holiness from flesh, because the flesh is too vain, it's too.
Corrupt.
It's too strange to God. The Bible says, You and I need a substitute, my friends. And this substitute must be an acceptable substitute. This acceptable substitute must be acceptable by. God. And you and I are just simply too vain. We're too corrupt. We're too tainted by sin in order to do so. And if we try to escape past God's holiness in a cavalier way and approach him on our own good works, on our own good measure in merit, guess what?
At the end the day, all of us get fired because we invoke not his manifest presence for our good. We invoke his manifest wrath for sin. The Bible says that all is sinned and fallen short of the glorious standard of perfection that God is. And the Bible goes on to say that no flesh so ever glory in God's presence.
So what this means, my friends, is that we need an acceptable sacrifice to stand in the gap and absorb wrath of God. We need an acceptable high priest, one who was perfect and one who was holy. And I'm here to tell you that the sacrifices that took place in the Old Testament were deficient and insufficient because they could only satisfy God's wrath temporarily.
What you and I need is a substitute that is not only holy, but is eternal, not just pure, but is perfect. And thank God for sending Jesus Christ his son because he is that perfect sacrifice. Yes, indeed he is the LAMB of God. Jesus offers his blood on another altar. The Cross. And what this means, my friends, is that now you and I can now retrieve from this cross the coals of our worship, and we can now offer them as incense of praise and incense of prayer to a holy God.
And now we are accepted on Christ's behalf. Hallelujah. Thank you, God, for the sacrifice. LAMB of God. Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, yes. Thank You, Jesus, for the lamb who was sacrificed on the altar of the cross, allowing us to now come into his presence with the coals of our worship and offer acceptable worship to God. Bottom line, to this message may the coals of our worship always come from the cross of Jesus Christ, because through Jesus therefore, let us offer continually the sacrifices of praise, the fruit of lips that openly confess His name.
This is what it's all about. You see, in order for our worship to cease to be vain, we must always draw our worship from the cross. And so next time you come to Grace Church and you dawn this beautiful edifice you should have on the forefront of your thinking, the cross. Because that's who you come to worship. Jesus, who was sacrifice.
You didn't come to be entertain. You didn't come to be a spectator. You've come to worship a God who has accepted.
You.
Through Jesus. A sacrifice on the cross. Amen. Amen. Praise God. Praise God. Yes, yes, yes. Lord, Thank you for the sacrifice. Thank you for the cross. Hallelujah. Thank you for the LAMB of God slain from the foundation of the world. Thank you for the blood that makes sinners clean. Sinners like me. Sinners like those of us in this church this morning.
Thank you. That we can now receive everlasting forgiveness once and for all. The sacrifice was made on our behalf so that we can have the eternal life. Thank you, God, for making a way. The cross. In Jesus name, I pray a man, a man.