Pastor Hammack starts off his sermon by warning that it will be controversial (it is) and that most people will not agree with everything he has to say (I didn't). But aside from having some very good things to say, I found it interesting that Pastor Hammack would choose Leviticus 10 for his text. Specifically, Leviticus 10:1-3 says:
"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therin and put incense theron, and offered up 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 Aron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come neigh unto me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aron held his peace."
I think pastor Hammack picked a good text for this sermon. People are getting tired of all the gimmicks the church is using to try to draw people in. This is the basic thrust (as I understood it) of Pastor Hammack's message.
Someone once said: "It can be exalting to belong to a church that is five hundred years behind the times and sublimely indifferent to fashion; it is mortifying to belong to a church that is five minutes behind the times, huffing and puffing to catch up." That is where most churches are today. (See my recent post, The Southern Baptist Convention: A Cauldron of Compromise and Corruption?)
But I was first exposed to this story in Leviticus 10 in a sermon I heard over 30 years ago by Pastor Paul Den Butter. The text for that sermon was John 4:24 ("God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth"), and his topic was True Worship.
In this sermon Pastor Den Butter refers to this passage in Leviticus, and applies it to our worship today. God did not allow the sons of Aron to worship him in any way they please. And he is not pleased with the church today when they try to follow in the sons of Aron's footsteps.
