Services | Rebellion and Judgment

Bulletin

Hymn # 67 “Praise Him, Praise Him”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 66:1 - 9
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“In the House”
“Raise a Hallelujah”
“Egypt”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Rebellion and Judgment”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“At the Cross (Love Ran Red)”


Acknowledgements and Announcements

Sermon Notes
Numbers 16:1 – 3 Korah & 250 others rebel against Moses and Aaron
Numbers 16:4 – 7 Moses tells Korah God will make His choice of them
Numbers 16:8 - 11 Moses tells Korah wasn’t enough that God was using them
Numbers 16:12 – 14 Moses summons those who were apart of the rebellion but had not come to him, but they refuse
Numbers 16:15 Moses asks God not to regard Korah
Numbers 16:16 –19 Moses tells Korah how the test of God’s choosing will take place
Numbers 16:20 & 21 God tells Moses to separate from the people because He is going to destroy them
Numbers 16:22 Moses intercedes for the people
Numbers 16:23 – 30 God tells Moses to tell the people to separate themselves from those who rebelled
Numbers 16:31 – 35 God judges the rebellious by the ground opening up and shallowing them alive
Numbers 16:36 – 40 God tells Moses to use the censors of the rebellious, which is holy for a different holy purpose, but also used as a reminder

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

Constantin St. Loskey, a director said, there are no small parts, only small actors. That may be true when it comes to acting, but I know it's true when it comes to ministry. But we're going to take a look today at those who thought they had parts that were way too small and wanted to have a larger part, but in order to do so, they had to replace somebody.

We're going to also take a look at God's response to their actions. Where we get today's message is a time of scaringness, a time of challenge, a time for aspiration, all of those things wrapped up in an event in the scriptures that I'll try to share with you in hope to encourage you in your walk with the Lord. So if you have your Bibles and you should turn to numbers, chapter 16, we're going to start with the first verse. And it says this, now, Korah, the son of Isaac, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Nathan and Abraham, the son of Elab, and on the son of Peluv, Pelith, son of Rubin, took action. Now I want you to notice something here. There's several people who are involved in this situation. One is a Levi, which means he's a part of the priesthood. He's also probably a cousin of Moses, so he's a family member.

And we also have one who's the son of Rubin, who has nothing to do with the priesthood, and yet he has joined forces with these people. And they rose up before Moses together with some of the sons of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation, chosen in the assembly, men of renown. So we have, if you will, a sizable rebellion and people who aren't just followers, these are people who are not only leaders, but they're well respected, they're men of renown. And so this is, if you will, a very critical time in what's happening with the people of God because we have this rebellion happening. And they assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and they're all set to them. You have gone far enough. And for all the congregation are holy.

Every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst. So why do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the Lord? Now I find this a little odd because they consider the entire congregation holy. Well, they are holy in the sense that God set them apart. It's far from holy because every time God says, do something, they don't do it. Take the promised land, oh no, we're not, we can't.

Don't take this promised land. Oh, let's try. They're always backbiting and complaining. They're always bringing charges against Moses. And again, it goes, you know, just a few chapters ago, we saw that Moses was the most humble man, and yet they're accusing him of lauding it over them. So they're making accusations, and oftentimes leaders, whether you're in ministry or whatever, you will often find false accusations that people make against you. And so that's what's happening here. They're saying, why is it that you're lauding it over us?

When in essence, all that's happening is that Moses says, thus sayeth the Lord. So it's the Lord lauding it over them. Moses simply is the conduit in which the people understand what God is saying and doing. And when Moses heard this, he fell on his face. Again, I think he's somewhat kind of crushed, but he goes, and in essence, showing his sorrow that the people have come and brought these charges and rebelling against him. And he spoke to Korah, and all his company's saying, tomorrow morning, the Lord will show who is he, it says, and who is holy, and will bring near to himself, even the one whom he will choose. He will bring near to himself.

So in essence, Moses says, okay, you want a rebellion? You're saying that you're holy, that you can lead these people? Okay, we're going to have a spiritual test.

And we're going to let God decide who he chooses, who is it that God is authorizing for him to draw near and to speak his words? So Moses doesn't say, I'm going to have eloquent to speech and tell you why you should listen to me. He's going, let God make the choice. And so he sets out the test. It's kind of like many centuries later, when there's a test with the gods of Bale versus God and they let the gods of Bale go first, and they do nothing, and God is the one who acts. And so Moses is saying, okay, we'll let God decide. So he says, this is going to be the test. Do this.

Take sensors for yourselves. Caller in your company. Now a sensor is basically a metal device that you have with a chain and you place coal and then you put incense on it, and that's used to go back and forth from the altar to the altar of incense, and it's also used to fill the very places. It ultimately kind of represents the prayers of the saints, and so it's a holy item.

And he says, so I want you because you're your, you are Levites, and so you're in charge of these substance. So, okay, you take your holy instrument and you get them prepared, you and everybody associated with you. And he goes, and put fire in them, and lay incense on them in the presence of the Lord tomorrow. And the men whom the Lord chooses shall be the one who is holy. You have gone far enough, you sons of Levi. So he's saying, I want you to take your sense, incense, and have this, and God is going to choose between us.

But I've had it with you. You keep pushing against God and God's representative, and so this is it. I've had, which is interesting, because Moses is always interseeding for the people. If the word for Moses, none of these people would be alive. Because God is celetype, so I'm going to wipe you out. And Moses, no, no, don't do that.

Other people will say, you can't do things. He's always interseeding for them. And yet, there's accusing Moses and he's going, you would be here if it wasn't for me. And so you've gone far enough, I've had it. And you know, you sons of Levi, the ones who are supposed to be ministering to God and to God's people. You've just gone too far.

Then Moses said to Korah, here now, you sons of Levi, is it not enough for you that God of Israel has inseparated you from the rest of the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? He's going, God called you to do something. Is that so little to you that God has called you to be a minister to him and to his people? And you think of that as nothing.

And so now what you want to do is you want to say that you're better than Moses, that you should replace Moses, and that you should have a bigger role in what happens to the matter. There is a director named Constantin Stenslowski. He said this, there is no part too small, only small actors. He said, it's not the size of your part.

It's what you do with the part to have. And he also said this, and I think this applies to whatever you do, but especially in ministry. All roles are important, and should be performed with equal commitment regardless of the size. If that is true when it comes to acting, which happens and you record in whatever, and you make a movie or you have a play, and the play is over or the movie is over. How much more is that important for us as ministers and people of faith in the ministry? He said, it doesn't matter the size that God has given me to do my ministry.

Maybe a small Sunday school class. It may be, you go out and you do good in the community. It may be that you attend or serve in a small church or a big church that no one notices. It's not the size of your ministry. The fact is God has called you to that ministry.

You should then say, it doesn't matter the size of the ministry. I am going to commit myself to that ministry regardless of the size because it's worth it. Because what God has called us to do, it doesn't last for a few moments or even hundreds of years in black and white film. What God has called us to do is for eternity. And yet we're so worried about, well, does anybody recognize me? Does anybody care? How come it's not bigger? How come whatever?

God called you and commit to that service. Many, many decades ago. Well, when I was 70 years old, I wanted to be a lawyer. I never thought about it doing anything else other than being a lawyer. I got accepted to a couple of law schools.

And while I was awaiting, and I made a choice, and while I was awaiting to go, suddenly I felt the calls to the ministry. Now, at the time of the calls to the ministry, the pastor we had was more of an evangelist. And I got saved already, so kind of what he had to say didn't really apply to me because I already believed in Jesus. So I would either read the passage he was doing or I would read something else and do things. But when I got called the ministry, I fought it and fought it because I go, God, I know you. You'll send me to some place with a bunch of red necks and I won't fit in and whatever, because that's who you are and that's what you'll do.

And I don't want to do that in an argument with him. Now notice, even though I wasn't thrilled with the way the pastor it was happening, I didn't think I would replace the current pastor. God would be sending me somewhere else. And after struggling for several weeks with that, I said, well, if I say I'm a believer, and if I say I follow you, I think it's a really stupid idea for me to be a pastor. But if that's what you want, I'll do it. And then I had a sense of God saying, go ahead and go to law school. We'll talk later.

And many a few years later, when we had a whole different pastor, suddenly I felt the call to the ministry again. Again, I didn't feel called to be, to replace him as the pastor. I thought what God would do, would call me to be like an interim pastor, else places, or to supply for each. It wasn't to replace the guy who was here, but was to do what God had called me to do maybe elsewhere. And then I became ordained and all those types of things.

And then suddenly on one Wednesday night, unbeknownst to me, I then became your pastor. Pray for yourself. Okay. But again, it wasn't to replace him. He decided to go.

Which I'm really grateful for, in the sense of this. I didn't challenge who God was having in place. I let God deal with what was happening. All too often we're very eager, and when things don't go right into the church, we want to replace the guy. Now I hope that sometimes there will be a successor to me. And I'm assuming that I will happen unless Jesus comes beforehand and then who cares.

But I hope there's a successor after me. But I also hope that you don't replace me. But you're a congregation you could do, like these people do, or not. I mean, whatever. But again, at least I won't have to look at the new guy and say, well, I got here because I replaced the former guy. And so now you're just replacing me. You're just doing what I did.

And so we need to be, take care, how we approach people in the church. People in ministry. We may not agree with how they do it, but maybe how they do it is how God is called them to do that thing. And God has called us to do something very different. And maybe the timing isn't perfect for us. There may be God's perfect timing. And so they're unhappy with the fact that they don't think their size of their ministry is as important.

They want to be like Moses. Rather than doing what God had called them to do and do it with every fiber of their being. And that he, being Moses, and that he has brought you near, Hora, and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you. And you are seeking for the priesthood also. It's not good enough that you are priest and that you minister. You want to be an essence to high priest. You want to replace Aaron. So you're not only attacking Moses, you're attacking Aaron.

Because you want to be Aaron rather than Aaron. Therefore, you and all your company are gathered together against the Lord. Notice that Moses understands that they're rebelling against him and Aaron. They're rebelling against God. But as for Aaron, who is he that you grumble against him?

Because what has Aaron done against you, other than to intercede for you and to be a high priest? You may not like my leadership style, but Aaron has been a priest, not me. So why are you attacking Aaron, not just me, because they're attacking God and not just Moses and Aaron?

Then Moses sent a summons to Nathan and Ibrahim, the son of Eliam, but they said, we will not come up. Basically they go, we don't care who you are. We don't care that you're asking us to come. We're not going. Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness but you would also lord it over us?

Now I find this interesting. There again attack to Moses is, we were slaves in Egypt. You took us to the land of milk and honey, but we're also going to die in the wilderness. Well guess what? That was the Moses' plan. Nor was it God's plan. The reason they're not in the Promised Land is because they didn't have faith in God to take the Promised Land.

The reason they're going to die in the wilderness is because God said, I've had it with you and because Moses' interceded, I'm going to let you die in the wilderness and go in them because you were supposedly afraid about your kids. I'm going to let them bow into the Promised Land but they got to wait until you dropped it. It's not Moses' doing. Moses' doing was, you're still alive now. Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey. Nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men?

We will not come. Again they're saying, you didn't deliver us. Moses never was the one who was going to deliver them. He wasn't the deliverer. Moses tried that 40 years earlier. When he tried to free the Egyptians, I mean, free the children of God from the Egyptians and it didn't work out so well so he then spent in 40 years in Midian.

Then God said, now's the time and he sent Moses to perform God's signs and wonders. Not Moses' signs and wonders. And God was the one who separated the seas. And God was the one who provided fire at night in a pillar of cloud by day.

God was the one who fed the men. And God was the one who provided the meat. And God was the one who provided water. And God was the one who brought them to the land and said, I'm going to give it to you and they're saying, no, Moses failed. Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, do not regard their offerings. I have not taken a single docket from them nor I have had done harm to any of them. Moses goes, I haven't gotten rich off these people.

Nothing that I have done has called them any harm. Quite frankly, if you read up to this point, everything he's done has been to protect them from themselves. So Moses had enough, God, don't listen to him. And Moses said to Korah, you and all your company be present before the Lord tomorrow, both you and they along with Aaron.

Each of you take his firepan and put incense on it and each of you bring his censor before the Lord. 250 firepans, also you and Aaron shall each bring his firepan. So again, Moses is reiterating the test. You guys, there's going to be 250 plus the Korah and everybody else on their side and Aaron on one. Is it the majority of God chooses or the one God chose originally? Kind of like the ten who gave the bad report versus the minority who said no we can do it. So God, does God listen to the majority or not? So they took each his own censor and put fire on it and laid incense on it and they stood at the doorway of the tent of the meeting with Moses and Aaron.

These are great movie moments. When you've got, in front of the tabernacle, and you've got one mass of people on one side with censors and smoke and all that, and you've got Aaron and Moses. Thus Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the doorway of the tent of the meeting. Korah said, it's not enough for me to have me and my people and the 250. I'm going to have the entire congregation on my side also. I'm going to have an open rebellion with the entire congregation and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.

Again, this is a great movie. All of a sudden, God in this cloud probably comes down to make his choice known. It's not nothing in the air. God himself is present. The glory of the Lord is there so that everyone can see.

It isn't Moses who makes the choice for God. It isn't God who tells Moses who to choose. God himself is going to confirm his choice. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them instantly. You see, God has had it over and over and over. Let's take him out. Moses says no. Let's take him out.

Moses said no. And then finally God goes, you and Aaron, back up. Before I was just going to keep you. Now I'll keep you and Aaron. Everybody else, you back up from them and I'm going to just wipe them out.

But they fell on their faces and said, oh God, God of the spirits of all flesh. When one man sins, will you be angry with the entire congregation? Well, the entire congregation has been sinning.

But they do have leaders. So they're saying, okay, the leaders are one thing. It's a congregation. You know, they're subject to be lied to in accepting it.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and said, speak to the congregation and say, get back from around the dwellings of Korat, Daithin, and Abraham. So it goes, okay, you don't want to wipe them out. Then those people who listen to your warning who get away from them will be okay. But if they don't get away from them, they're not going to be okay. Then Moses arose and went to Daithin and Abraham with the elders of Israel following him. And he spoke to the congregation saying, depart now from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing that belongs to them or you will be swept away in their sin. So they're saying, make a choice. Follow them and suffer their fate or separate yourselves and truly show that you are holy, that you separate from the sinful.

So finally they got smart. So they backed from around the dwellings of Korat, Daithin, and Abraham. And Daithin and Abraham came out and stood at the doorway of their tents along with their wives and their sons and their little ones. So their family stayed with them. They not have been a good choice. And Moses said, by this you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these deeds. For this is not my doing. Moses understands he is simply the mouthpiece of God.

Thus, say the Lord, and I tell you, thus say the Lord. Moses didn't do any of the things or didn't fail to do any of the things that they're accusing them. It's God who does it and Moses acknowledges, it's not me doing it. It's God. For this is not my doing. If these men die, the death of all men, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. So in essence, he goes, you know, if they die of old age, or they die of some tip, you know, they get hit by something, or they just die typically how all people die, then God isn't with me. God didn't choose me.

I failed the test. But if the Lord brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into shield, then you will understand that these men have spurned the Lord. Now we live in Southern California. We tend to be a little more okay with earthquakes, as we've lived with them. But people from other parts of the country and this like, how can you live in an earthquake area? And my attitude is, when you live in a place like where there are tornadoes, then maybe you should be at this place or that place, because the path of the tornado.

You don't know where the ground is going to shake, so this place is just as good as that place. But in all my years of living in Southern California, there may have been a few cracks, but the world hasn't opened up. That's highly unusual. Now I know there were a few people that say, you could buy oceanfront property in Arizona if you just wait long enough, but I still live in Southern California, so I guess I'm not that smart. And so he said, so he goes, this is what's going to happen. An entirely new thing is going to happen. So earth is going to open up, they're going to fall in alive and die. And as he finished speaking, all these words, the ground that was under them split open.

Again, this is a great movie. Poof! And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and their households and all the men who belonged to Gora with their possessions. Gone. So they, and all they belonged to them, went down alive to shield and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. Now again, even in those times with such a severe earthquake that we have, that the earth splits a little bit, it doesn't then heal itself and go back together. God has done something really new. He split the earth just where these people are and he shut it back.

Maybe you should pay attention to what God is doing. Okay, the separating of this, the red sea, not enough, the pillar of cloud by day the pillar of fire by night, the feeding of the manna, all of these things, maybe, maybe now you pay attention to God is. And all Israel who were around them fled at their outcry for they said, the earth may swallow us up. They have the fear of God put into them. And good.

Fire also came forth from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense. So God not only took care of the ringladers, he took care of the leaders, the men of renown, who participated in the rebellion. Because God is not mocked. God's choice is irrevocable. God chose who he chose. And you don't mess around with God's choice. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, say to Eleazar the son of Aaron, the priest, that he shall take up the censors out of the midst of the blaze for they are holy and you scatter the burning coals abroad. So God says, those censors that those 250 were holding, those are holy items.

Now I want you to take the coals and the incense and all that that were in them, just throw them away. Get rid of them. But I want you to keep the holy instruments and God is going to give, if you will, a new, holy purpose.

As for the censors of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered sheets for a plating of the altar, since they did present them before the Lord and they are holy and they shall be for a sign to the sons of Israel. So God said, what was holy is going to remain holy? And if God has made you holy, you will remain holy. This is awesome.

This is something that goes unnoticed. When God calls us holy, we are holy because God called us holy. So it goes, I want you to take these holy things and do a new purpose for them. I want you to take them and attach after you flatten them out. I want you to attach them as siding to the altar event, the altar, the burnt offering, so that it continues a holy purpose, but it has another holy purpose. To remind Israel not to sin like these people did. And sometimes, when we depart from the pathway, we should make remembrances of where we got off and where we got back on so we don't get off again. Signs of remembrance are very important for us.

So, Elyahes, or the priest, took the bronze insers, which the men who were burned had offered, and they hammered them out as a plating for the altar. As a reminder to the sons of Israel, that no laymen who is not of the descendant of Aaron should come near to the burnt incense before the Lord, so that he will not become like Korah and his company, just as the Lord had spoken to him through Moses. It's a warning. One of the great things about the scriptures. It tells us who God is. It tells us His love for us.

It tells us that we can have a hope of eternal life through His son. It tells us how to minister to one another and what God has commanded for us to do, and how to act and how to behave, and how to minister, but it also provides warnings that there is a devil, and he's real, that there is hell in its place, and we're not to go there. It warns us against such terrible things. As I've said before, the reason heaven is heaven is because it's the dwelling place of God. The reason hell is hell is not the fire and the rimmstone, although that's included. It's the absence of God. You see, Shadrach, Misha, can have been to go, we're put in fire, but they were preserved, not even the smoke affected them, because God Himself protected them.

So even when we think we're in hell, and we are protected by God, we're not there, because He's with us. So, what do we learn from this? One, don't mess with God's people. Two, take seriously the ministry God has given you, and perform it with all the commitment and passion, regardless of what other people think, how important you are, because God thought you were important enough to give you that ministry. Therefore, perform it as unto God.

And all God's people said.

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