What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything
to God in prayer ? Often forfeit ? ? Oh, what needless
pain we bear ? ? Oh, because we do not carry ? ? Everything
to God in prayer ? ? Have we trials and temptations ? ? Their trouble anywhere ? We should
never be discouraged ? Take it to the Lord in prayer ? Can we
find a prince so faithful ? Who will all our sorrows ? Jesus knows our every weakness
? Taken to in prayer ? Are we weak and heavy laden ? Comfort
with a load of care ? Precious Savior still our refuge ? To thy friends despise forsake
thee ? ? Take it to the Lord in prayer ? ? In his arms he'll
take and cheer thee ? ? Thou will find a solace there ? Hymn
number 17, come thou fount of every blessing. ? Come thou fount of every blessing
? ? Tune my heart to sing thy grace ? ? Streams of mercy never
ceasing ? ? Call for songs of loudest praise ? ? Teach me some
melodious sonnet ? ? Sung by flaming tongues above ? Praise
of mount, I'm fixed upon it ? Mount of thy redeeming love ? Here
I raise mine Ebenezer ? Hither by thy help I'm coming safely to arrive at home. Jesus saw me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger,
interposed constrained to thee. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Take and seal
it, seal it for thy courts above. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus
chapter 29. I'm gonna read the first three verses. The title
of my message tonight is Hallowed The Lord, speaking to Moses,
said, This is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow
them, speaking of the priesthood, to minister to me in the priest's
office. Take one young bullock and two
rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened,
tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened, anointed with oil,
of wheat and flour shalt thou make them. Thou shalt put them
in one basket, and bring them in the basket. with the bullock
and the two rams. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we bless you and thank you that we can approach into your presence
to speak to you from our hearts. We know, Father, thou knowest
what we ought to pray before we pray. You know what words
are upon our tongues before we speak them. But you have bid
your children to pray in the name of Jesus Christ, to come
boldly to the throne of grace, to seek help in time of need,
Father, we ask tonight that you might meet with us in the presence
of your Holy Spirit to take the things of Christ and show them
unto us. We pray, Father, for those who are sick and going
through trials, for the Sanuk family that lost a loved one.
Pray for Cliff as he's suffering with his cancer and his family
as they minister to him. Pray, Father, for the others
who requested prayer for which do you like jennifer she's uh...
looking peace test tomorrow find out her heart situation is worse
yes lord in each one of these cases should be pleased to give
peace and comfort in jesus christ we ask ourselves father we gathered
here that you might be pleased to on us with your presence we
remember our shut ins pray for the lambert family the loss of
peggy we pray to continue to be with Brother Wayne and Sister
Ethel help us Lord to remember each other in prayer and call
each other's names out to heaven. We know we pass from death to
life because we love the brethren and we know we love them because
you first loved us. We're able to love them. Father
we're thankful for that truth that we can see our brothers
and sisters in Christ as holy without blame and spotless before
you because of the work of Christ on Calvary's tree. Give us ever
a view of that as we look at each other and live together
that we are your children and we are without sin before thee.
What a thought and what a blessing to know that. Help us, Lord,
to remember it. Now, Father, as we gather around
your word, we pray you'd enlighten us, open our minds and hearts
to receive and believe Help us, Lord, now to worship you as you
ought to be worshiped, to give all glory and honor to your name
for what you have done for us. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Now, the 29th of Exodus is dedicated
to the hallowing of the priest, the entire chapter is. The priest,
the high priest, and the sons of Aaron that make up the priesthood
that minister in the temple of God, or the tabernacle, Now the
word HALLOW means to anoint, to sanctify, or to consecrate,
and to regard as holy unto the Lord. So when it speaks in verse
1 of HALLOWING the ministers, that s what He s doing, consecrating
anointing, sanctifying, and regarding them as holy before God. Now this was set forth in the
41st verse of the previous chapter when it said, And thou shalt
put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, and shalt
anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they
may minister unto me in the priest's office. It says in verse one
of chapter twenty-nine, And this is the thing thou shalt do to
them, to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office.
And then he takes the elements that we'll look at in a moment.
The first thing to be noticed is this act of ministering to
the Lord is what is to be done by the priesthood. They are to
minister to me, the Lord said in verse one. Now this is extremely
important and a very important precept throughout scripture
and that is that it sets things in the proper order in the matter
of worship. First and preeminent in every
facet of the existence of the child of God ought to be the
worship of God. counting him as worthy of worship
and worshiping him this is the purpose of the priesthood it
says do this hallow them sanctify consecrate anoint them to minister
to me So the priesthood was not about those people that were
outside the tabernacle. It was not about those people
that were inside the tabernacle. The priesthood was about one
thing, and that was ministering to God, ministering to God. This is the ministry of the gospel,
though the entire world benefits from the fact that the Church
is in the world and all of humanity is in the hands of Him who has
authority over all flesh, the ministry is not about the benefit
of the world. That's where religion has gone
wrong in this day. Worship is all about you and
not about what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be about
God Almighty. The ministry is about the worship
of God, the honoring and glorifying of His holy name. This is the
glory and beauty spoken of in chapter 28 and verse 40. Now
when the Lord speaks of ministering to him, it does not speak as
to him having need of something. For our Lord said, I came not
to minister, but not to be ministered to, but to minister and give
my life a ransom for many. What it speaks of when it talks
about ministering to God, it means giving him or attributing
to him that which he's due. that which belongs only to Him. Over in Psalm 29, verses 1 and
2, it says, Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord
glory and strength. That don't mean we somehow imbue
glory and strength. We say that He's the only one
who has glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due His name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. So we are to give the Lord what
is due His Name, that is what it is to MINISTER to the Lord,
that is what it is to WORSHIP the Lord. Remember when it talks
about the PRIESTHOOD here according to 1 Peter chapter 2, YOU, the
Church of the Living God, is the ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. a holy
nation, and a royal priesthood to offer sacrifices unto God
by Jesus Christ, acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ. So worship,
so called in this day, has been relegated to the pits of carnal
entertainment and pleasing the flesh. Its design and intent
is to exalt man to put pretty clothes on the putrefying carcasses
of fallen humanity. It is to delicately season the
vomit to which dogs return and put plastic flowers and apply
aromatherapy to the pig's wallow, yet the pig still wallows in
the mire. It is a religion of self-help and centered in the
interest of man and his possessions and his progress and his power
and things like that. That's not worship on any level. It is not worship. The believer
comes to the house of God to worship Him through the preaching
of the gospel. What does that do? The preaching
of the gospel reminds him and reiterates in his mind and heart
that God is to be praised with thanksgiving for what He has
done. We meet to glorify His name for
the great things that He has done. Turn over to the book of
Job. In Job chapter 5 verse 8 and
9, it says this, I would seek unto God, and unto God would
I commit my cause, which doeth great things and unsearchable,
marvelous things without number. Marvelous things. This is what
it is to worship God, is to attribute that to Him. Over in chapter
9 of Job, that great chapter in chapter 9, verses 1-10 says,
Then Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth, but how
should a man be just with God? One of the greatest questions
asked anywhere in Scripture. If he will contend with Him,
that is, if man will contend with God, man cannot answer Him
one for a thousand. If he comes up with one thing
that he thinks he might attribute holiness and righteousness to
himself, God can come up with a thousand things that He doesn't.
That is what he is saying. He is wise in heart. and mighty
in strength, who hath hearted himself against him and hath
prospered, which removeth the mountains, and they know not,
which overturneth them in his anger, which shaketh the earth
out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble, which commandeth
the sun, and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars, which alone
spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the
sea, which maketh Arcturus, and Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers
of the South, which doeth great things, past finding out, yea,
and wonders without number." This is the language of worship,
the great things that God has done. The priesthood is hallowed,
that it is sanctified, consecrated, anointed for the singular purpose
of ministering to God. That's your and my purpose here
on this earth, to worship God and enjoy Him forever. That was
what the old catechism used to say. What's the purpose of man?
It's to worship God and enjoy Him forever. That's what it is. We meet in this house to worship. This is our ministry. This is
what we do, we come to minister to the Lord that which is due
His Name. Now the elements employed in
hallowing the priesthood are found in the latter phrase of
verse 1 and in verse 2. The last phrase says, Take one
young bullock and two rams without blemish and unleavened bread,
and cakes unleavened, tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened,
anointed with oil, of wheat and flour shalt thou make them. These are the elements. First
mentioned are three beasts, a bullock, that is a young steer, a young
bull, usually from two to four years old and without blemish,
and two rams. These are to be without blemish,
and what does that picture? We picture the Lamb of God, slain
from the foundation of the world, who is without spot or blemish,
who knew no sin, is without sin, and did no sin, and it was the
suitable sacrifice to answer the demands of God's justice.
These animals are here for sacrifice. or sacrifice there to be used.
The bullock was to be used as we will see later as a sin offering. What was a sin offering? A sin
offering was the offering offered by a man unto the Lord and he
put his hands upon the head of the beast and confessed his sin
on the head of the beast and the beast was then slain. picturing
God forgiving our sins. The rams were for burnt offerings.
Now, the burnt offering was different. The hands were laid on the burnt
offering, but no sin was confessed because the offering itself was
made sin. It was a picture of Christ being
made sin for us, and then it was completely consumed, and
the burnt offering pictured the finished work of Christ after
He had finished the work of salvation, he went and sat at the right
hand of the Father. They were also used for a wave
offering, which is one of the offerings which represented thanksgiving. Part of the beast was eaten and
part of it was lifted up before the Lord, and it was a praise
and thanksgiving and honoring to God in the sacrifice. And the blood was used for the
consecration of priests. He put it on his thumb, and his
big toe, and his ear, representing his works, his walk, and what
he hears, or what he heeds, the Word of God. So this is how these
animals were used. Also, portions of these were
food for the priests. Portions of the Bullock were
food for the priests. Second mentioned are three types
of unleavened bread. Unleavened bread was the bread
of the Passover. It was interesting to note the
last two verses of this very chapter speaks of that time. And the Lord says in verse 45,
I will dwell among the children of Israel and I will be their
God. Now that's not, there's no if and a but there. a contingent,
if they ll do this, I ll do this, because that s what s going to
happen. He said, They shall know that I am the Lord their God
that brought them forth out of Egypt, that I may dwell among
them, and I am the Lord their God. And remember in Exodus here
in chapter 29, it s not been long since they come out. They've
been in the desert for a while, but it's not been that long since
they've come out, and our Lord reminds them of that fact over
and over again. Bread without leaven, what does
that mean? It pictures the perfection of Jesus Christ and the perfection
of those whom He has perfected forever by His one sacrifice
for sin. Leaven is symbolic of sin, especially
the sin of self-righteousness. because it's attributed to the
Pharisee. Our Lord said in Matthew 16,
6, Beware the leaven of the Pharisee. Now who was the Pharisee? The
Pharisee was a law keeper who held sway over people by preaching
the law to them and keeping them in bondage, but he would never
lift a finger to help them. The Pharisee was an enemy of
the Gospel. We are thankful for the Pharisee
in one sense, that during the Maccabean Wars these Pharisees
actually kept the Word of God safe, the Old Bible safe and
that's how we have the bible today. They hid it and copied
it and put it in different places so it wouldn't be captured and
destroyed. But the pharisees, once that was over, in the four
hundred years of silence that followed Malachi, the pharisees
began to think that this word was actually their word. That
they were little gods. Our Lord even said to the pharisees,
you're as little gods. little gods. And they believed
that this was their word. This is the problem with legalists.
They use the Bible as the blunt instrument to bludgeon people
with. And so the Pharisees did that.
You read Matthew chapter 23 and see what our Lord says about
the Pharisees. It is nothing pleasant. He calls
them vipers. He calls them pit vipers, snakes,
vultures. He calls them Why did sepulchers,
caskets with dead men's bones in them, he calls them filthy
on the inside and clean on the outside. All those things are
attributed to the Pharisees. He says they call them the killers
of the prophets. This was the Pharisee. And their
chief thing was that they were self-righteous. You remember
the Pharisee and the publican when they went into the temple
to pray? The Pharisee prayed thus with himself, and proceeding
to that prayer, or that parable of that prayer, it says of the
Pharisee that he trusted in his own righteousness and despised
others. And I'll guarantee this about
you, if you trust in your own righteousness, you will despise
others. And in 1 Corinthians chapter
5 and verse 7, the Lord says, Purge out the old leaven and
make a new lump for Christ is our Passover or our Paschal Lamb
slain for us. Christ is the manna from heaven. Christ is the bread from heaven.
Christ is the unleavened bread that if a person eats thereof,
he will never hunger again. The bread is to take three forms.
One is a loaf, another is a cake, like a pancake, and the one like
a wafer, thin like a tortilla. The loaf is not tempered or anointed
with oil. That speaks of the fullness of
Christ. The fullness of Christ, no mixture in Him whatsoever.
The cakes were mixed with oil or tempered with oil for baking
and the wafers were basted with oil to be crispy when they were
baked, kind of like fried bread. And it's been said by the historians
that the wafers were the tastiest ones of all, because they were
like fried, and everybody likes fried things. This was the food
for the priests, that's what it says, and represents the glory
and beauty of their office, untainted with the leaven of sin, the feast
of the gospel. The Christ, the anointed, that's
what the word Christ means. the greek word christ comes from
the old testament word anointed so he's the anointed one he's
the christ the anointed one he's the subject and substance and
sum of the ministry of the child of god john the baptist said
the same thing basically that he's he's everything he said
in john chapter three in verse thirty five god loves his son
and has put all things in his hands put all things his hand. It is the Feast of the Gospel.
It also says in Matthew 11 and 27 that you do not know God,
you do not know the Father unless the Son reveals Him to you. In John chapter 17 and verse
3 it says He has given Christ authority over all flesh to give
eternal life to as many as He has given Him. In Psalm 24 and
verse 1 it says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof
and all that dwell therein. So the earth is the Lord's, it's
not ours, and we are not its. We don't belong to the earth.
The earth belongs to the Lord. The fullness thereof, whatever
is upon the earth, all that's upon the earth belongs to the
Lord, and everyone that dwells upon the earth belongs to the
Lord. Now he's going to do with them
exactly as he sees fit. But that's what this is talking
about in these types of bread. And it says this, interestingly
enough, and thou shalt put them into one basket. One basket. I like that. And bring them to
basket with the bulletin of the two rams. The basket declares
the singularity of Christ and his gospel. It's preaching Christ
to him crucified, the way of life. When I read those words,
the first thing I thought about was Scott Richardson. He used
to say, God has put all his eggs in one basket. And he has. The love of God is in Christ.
So you don't have the love of God if you don't have Christ.
It says that in Romans 8 and verse 39. The love of God that
is in Jesus Christ. The grace of God is in Christ.
the mercy of God is in Christ the spiritual blessings from
God they're all in Christ and you are in Christ by God God
has put you in Christ before the foundation of the world everything
is in Christ all things have to do with Him and all that minister
all that the minister has in this life is in one basket. What is it? It's Christ and Him
crucified. It is the gospel efficient and
effectual to the salvation of the elect. Why do I preach the
gospel over and over and over again? Because all my eggs are
in one basket. All the bread is in one basket
whether it be the loaf or the cake or the fritter all of it's
in one basket all the gospel and that's why Peter when he
was preaching in Acts chapter four said there is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved
remember I used to say might be saved you know Wayne corrected
me on that I was up there and he said, you said it might be
saved and deserved. That's what it says. It says
it must be saved. I said, okay, I'm sorry about
that. That's right. The only name under heaven given
among men. That's that one basket with all
the bread in it. And that's how the priests are
hallowed. And they're hallowed for one reason, no other reason,
to minister unto God, to worship him. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right. Oh, by the way, next Sunday's
Christmas Eve.