Speaking of Brother Walter, I'm
reminded of well over 50 years ago, I guess by now, at least
50 years ago, Walter, along with his wife, Betty, and five children,
moved to Mexico to be a missionary. After he'd been there for a while,
and he had struggled. In the beginning, he had very
little support. And after the groomers had been
in Mexico for a while, someone asked him if he was happy. I've
told you this story before. Walter's answer was, it doesn't
have anything to do with happiness. I've thought about that a great
deal over the years, and I would say that Brother Walter knew
then what many today still don't know. There are many people who
get the idea in their mind that religion brings happiness, and
a lot of times it does just the opposite. Now, the truth, the
gospel, brings peace, and true peace in the end brings forth
happiness, no doubt. A man or a woman that serves
God for the purpose of simply being happy will probably never
truly be happy. A true happiness is to have peace
with God. It's to know that everything
with me and God is all right. That he's not any longer angry
with me, the wicked sinner that I am. And as I spoke with Walter's
family a little the other day, and as you know, Walter's dying
and he knows that he's dying. He's looking forward to death.
And only a believer does that. Like so many before him that
knew and trusted Christ. Many that I can point right now
to where they sit in this building who are now with Christ. And
like those brothers and sisters in Christ that have gone before
us, Brother Walter has great peace right now with God. And
it's for one reason only, it's because of his offering and his
sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. His peace does not come because
he was a faithful missionary for over 50 years, but because
he's still trusting in the Lord Jesus, his sacrifice and his
offering before God. Jesus Christ is our peace, according
to Ephesians 2.14. And I hope that our study tonight
will help you to realize that even more. Now in Exodus chapter
29, you can go ahead and turn there with me if you haven't
already. We see three requirements that must be met in order for
a sinner to have peace with God. The first is our old man of sin
must die. Our sins are not merely forgiven,
forgotten, and swept under a rug. Our sins must be punished and
we must die. This we saw in the sin offering,
which typified Christ being made sin for his people, being put
in Christ by God. There's no other way you will
be. God's going to put you there if you're one of his. The child
of God is crucified with Christ. That's what Paul said. I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, but the
life that I now live in this flesh, in this body, I live by
the faith of the son of God. I live by Christ's faith, what
he's done for me, how he appeased God in my place. That's how we
live. We're dead with him. We're crucified
with him. Sin has no claim on us any longer. The believer bore the wrath of
God unto death in Christ. It's 100% by substitution, being
in Christ, our sins are put away forever by his one sacrifice. And that's what all these sacrifices
that we're studying here in the book of Exodus pictured and pointed
to, that one sacrifice that would put away sin forever and make
the comers there unto perfect. Two, we must give to God complete
obedience in order to be accepted of God. God will not accept disobedience. God gave Adam one thing to do
and Adam couldn't do it. He died spiritually, though he
lived 930 years, but he died spiritually. And every man and
woman, born of woman, born in Adam, is born dead and trespasses
in sin. That's the problem with the world
today. Most folks don't really believe that they're dead in
sin. And we saw in the burnt offering that that offering unto
God was a sweet-smelling savor unto God, which simply means
that God accepted it. He accepted our sacrifice and
it was to Him a sweet savor. That just simply means it pleased
God. This offering, as we've said time and time again, typified
Christ giving God, our Father, complete obedience. In Christ,
I have totally, 100% obeyed the law, crossed every T and dotted
every I of the law, and the law has no claim on me. I've never
kept the one title of the law, but Christ kept it for me. And
there again, I depend upon Him, my substitute, my sacrifice,
and my offering. There's no other way to be saved.
Three, we must by sanctification and consecration be made willing
to come to God in Christ alone. Now I tell you, it's something
to be able to trust in Christ alone and not to look to yourself,
not to trust in yourself and not to depend upon anything that
you personally do to be saved. Matter of fact, it's impossible
apart from the mercy and grace of God. It's not enough for Christ
to simply do a work for us, Christ through the Holy Spirit must
do a work in us. And this was pictured and this
was typified in the ram of consecration. After that ram was slain in the
place of the priest, its blood was shed and along with the anointing
oil, it was applied to the priest. And this points to Christ, whose
blood is applied by the Holy Spirit to every elect child of
God, every believer. It's that precious blood that
the priests of God were sanctified by and consecrated to God, set
aside for his service. And in that sense, we're all
priests unto God. Friends, Christ alone is our
peace offering to God. He's the one offering that God
will receive. He's the one offering. that God
will accept. It's only when we come to Christ
that we find peace with God. Three different times, the priests
laid their hands upon the heads of the sacrifice. Ceremonially,
on each occurrence, it pictured the transfer of sin, the transfer
of acceptance, and the transfer of obedience or the consecration. And Christ is the reason and
Christ is the result of our communion and our fellowship and our rest
and our peace with God. The child of God is enabled to
truly rest when they come to the Lord Jesus. I mean, come
to Him in desperate need. Christ is the peace of God that
passes all understanding. We can't understand the peace
that God gives us in Christ. You can't understand it. It goes
beyond understanding. It passes understanding. Now,
in Exodus 29, verse 22, we read, also thou shall take of the ram
the fat. "'and the rump and the fat that
covereth the inwards, "'and the call above the litter and the
two kidneys, "'and the fat that is upon them, "'and the right
shoulder, for it is a ram of consecration, "'and one loaf
of bread," verse 23, "'one loaf of bread and one cake of old
bread, "'and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened
bread "'that is before the loaf.'" Now, if you remember in our study
of the burnt offering, the entire animal was consumed in the fire. All of it was offered unto the
Lord God, every bit of it. But here in this peace offering,
part went to God and part went to the priest. I'm sure you noticed
that word fat mentioned three different times in verse 22.
Now in our culture, the word fat is looked upon negatively.
But in the days of Moses and the prophets, fat was a sign
of prosperity. If a man had children that were
skinny, they were considered to be poor and they were pitied.
But if a man's children were fat, it signified prosperity. And in Old Testament days, I
guess I would have been considered a prosperous man. In the Old
Testament, the word fat represents the absolute best, the best. We see that in Genesis chapter
four, when Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of
the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect into
Abel and to his offering. In Genesis chapter 45, Pharaoh,
loving Joseph, wanting, desiring to be merciful to Joseph, said,
take your father and your households and come unto me, and I'll give
you the good of the land, and ye shall eat the fat, the best
of the land. And they did for many years.
In Numbers chapter 18, verse 12, the Lord said unto Aaron,
the high priest, all the best of the oil and all the best of
the wine and all of the wheat and all the first fruits of them,
which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. Now I mentioned that verse because
it's very important for us to understand that everything that
we give to the Lord or that we offer to the Lord, he first gave
to us. Nothing is ours originally, God
gave it all to us. All that we have belongs to the
Lord and it's his gift to us. So for the simple reason out
of gratitude and thanksgiving and praise, God requires us to
offer to him the best of what he gives us. God required the
fat with these inward parts of this sacrifice to be his. and
they were to be burned upon the altar. And that represents Christ,
who is the absolute best. And he is that sacrifice and
offering that God himself provided for us. We didn't obtain the
righteousness of Christ by works of righteousness that we've done.
It was a gift. How are you saved, brother David?
By grace through faith. And that's not a myself. It's
the gift of God. It's not by works, lest any of
us should bow. It's his perfection through and
through. And it's in him that we have
peace with God. Now in verse 22, it makes mention
of the right shoulder and the right shoulder here represents
the power and the glory of God. Christ is the power and the glory
of God. And then it speaks of the unleavened
bread, which later is referred to as the meat offering. And
it portrays sinners made perfect in the sight of God by the merits
of Christ. Now, apart from him, apart from
the Lord Jesus, you and I are leavened. Even though the unleavened
bread was not a bloody sacrifice, it was to be offered in connection
with the blood sacrifice. And that's the very reason that
Cain's sacrifice wasn't, his offering wasn't accepted of God.
There was no blood involved, no blood with his meat offering.
Basically that was the same as Cain saying that he had no need
to be justified by Christ's blood. He knew, he had been taught by
his father, the same as Abel had, that God must and God requires
a blood sacrifice. And even though what he brought
was the best that he could produce with his own hands, God didn't
accept it because there was no blood. And that pretty much goes
along with what we looked at in detail Sunday, without the
shedding of blood, no remission of sins. It's with Christ's blood
that atonement is made for the soul. This unleavened bread,
this meat offering, was bread that was made with fine flour. And it was thoroughly sifted
so that there was nothing in that flour that was rough or
uneven. Oh, what a picture that is of
Christ, our sanctification. Now, one part was baked of unleavened
bread. And as you know, and as I said,
leaven is a symbol of evil and hypocrisy. Christ was without
sin. He was unleavened in every sense
of the word. Anytime you read something about
unleavened bread, your mind should go straight to Christ, the one
who within was no sin, no thought of sin. He knew no sin. And then
this other cake was anointed with oil, and that too pictures
the Lord Jesus, the anointed one of God, the anointed of the
Holy Spirit above all his fellows, according to Psalm 45 verse seven. But also in this unleavened bread,
we see Christ, our bread from heaven, holy, righteous, just,
and without sin. Nothing altered, nothing deterred
Christ from his purpose. Satan tempting him didn't alter
his purpose. Neither did men's rejection of
him alter his purpose. The Lord Jesus would not nor
could not be sidetracked from the work of redemption that he
came to accomplish. Circumstances didn't have any
effect on him. Sorrow couldn't bring him down.
Praise didn't puff him up. And this couldn't be said of
any other man that ever lived because he's the God man. No
matter how we deem a brother or a sister, they are just like
us, full of infirmities and weaknesses. There's no one else for us to
turn to but to Christ. I think most of you have figured
that out by now. Only Christ always did those
things that pleased the Father. He's the only one. God confirmed
that on two different occasions when he said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. Now, the glorious thing about
that is, and we've said so many times, is that the sinner who's
found in Christ, God speaks the same thing concerning them. God
looks at Linda Welber and says, this is my beloved child in whom
I'm well pleased. The fat of the inward parts,
this is talking about, and that included the right shoulder and
the meat offering of unleavened bread, it speaks of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the absolute best. the best. He is the holiness
and he is the righteousness of those sanctified by the free
and sovereign grace of God. Christ is the power and Christ
is the glory of God. Christ is the bread of life.
That one offering that God will receive from a sinner. Now look
at verse 24. God speaking to Moses here said,
and thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron and in the hands
of his son. Now, all of what? What's he talking
about there? He's talking about all the inward
parts here that he mentioned. The best parts of the sacrifice
called the fat. That's what he's talking about.
He says, you take all of that and you put it in the hands of
Aaron and in the hands of his sons and shalt waive them for
a waive offering before the Lord. Verse 25, and thou shalt receive
them of their hands. We'll talk more about that in
a moment. And burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering
for a sweet savor before the Lord. It is an offering made
by fire unto the Lord. Now in this, we see very clearly
that Moses typifies Christ, our mediator. Well, he pretty much
did from the time that he showed back up in Egypt after 40 years.
It was Moses who went between God and the children of Israel. It was Moses that pled the people's
case between Pharaoh and the people. Moses here went before
the priest and the Lord. That's what a mediator is. He's
a go-between. What a pitcher he is of Christ,
the one and only mediator between God and His chosen Israel. Now Moses filled the hands of
the priest with the offering that God required. And Christ
fills the hands of his people with himself. That's what this
picture is. How are sinners made willing
to come to God? It's only in the person of Christ
and the work of his righteousness alone. Therefore, Christ is that
offering in our hands. Christ is the fat. He's the excellence
of the inward parts. He's the best sacrifice and the
only offering that could ever be made because He's the only
sacrifice and offering that God would and could accept. Why? Because our offering and sacrifice
has got to be perfect to be accepted. Christ is that perfect sacrifice. And our hands are filled with
Christ, our offering. And we hold and we wave Him before
the Lord. is our only hope of forgiveness
and means of righteousness. That's what we do in preaching.
That's what we do in worship. We exalt Christ. We lift Him
up. We direct the attention of sinners
to look to Him. By nature in our fallen state,
naturally speaking, our hands are full of sin. Therefore by
nature and because of that sin, All of us by nature will conjure
up in our carnal minds anything and everything that we can get
our sinful hands on. And that's what we'll offer to
God for acceptance. That's just the truth. Whether
it be our so-called good works or whether it be our imagined
righteousness, whether it be our self-diagnosed morality,
or whether it be our delusional goodness, man by nature will
come with every sacrifice imaginable, everything that they can find
to trust in, except the one and the only offering that God will
receive and accept. And unless God turns us around
and gives us life and gives us eyes to see, that's what we'll
do. And to some he does. So He divinely
intervenes and He shows them that there's only one offering
and only one sacrifice that He'll accept. And child of God, thank
Him for revealing that to you. Praise and worship Him who's
worthy of your praise and worship for showing you that blessed
truth. By nature, we won't have Christ
to rule over us. It's only when God makes us willing
in the day of His power that we submit to His Lordship. And
when our hands have been emptied of everything else, and God has
shown us that none of those things can redeem us, God makes us willing
to lay hold of Christ and lay hold of Him alone. And as He
enables us, we lift Him up. Moses put his hands upon the
hands of the priest. I thought about that. Christ
puts his hands on our hands and he, with us, waves that perfect
sacrifice in our hands to the east and to the west and up and
down, signifying that this offering alone came from God. That's what
we're doing. We're saying, God, this sacrifice
that you give me, it come from you. It's yours. It's your gift
to me. We acknowledge that. There's
nothing good that comes from within us. Anything that we have
in the way of goodness is God's gift to us in Christ. All saving
goodness, all eternal goodness, all providential goodness. It all comes from God in Christ.
Every bit of it. If we buy something, yes, we
purchase it. If we work for something, yes,
we earn it. If we merit something, then we deserved it. But when
we receive it, Especially when we receive something from God,
it's a gift. It's a gift. It's a free gift.
For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou
that thou didst not receive? And now if thou didst receive
it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? Why
do we act like it's something that we did or something that
we offered when all along we know that it was God's gift to
us? Again, verse 25, the Lord speaking to Moses. Now look at
this. He says, and thou shalt receive them. He's talking about
those inward parts, that fat, that good part. Thou shalt receive
them of their hands. Now, what is in the priest's
hand? What's in your hands tonight?
Let me ask it that way. What is your offering and your
sacrifice to God? Is it a work of righteousness
that you yourself are gonna do? Is it the same as what was in
the priest's hands? Is it the sacrifice? Is it the
offering without blemish? Is it the Lord Jesus Christ?
I'd also draw your attention to the fact that Aaron and his
sons did not make this offering. They did not put the inward parts
of the sacrifice on the altar. Moses did. Moses as God's mediator
did. And friends, Christ, our mediator,
did. God said in the beginning of
verse 25, and thou shalt receive them, speaking, as I said, of
the fat of the sacrifice of their hands. And it's Moses here, picturing
Christ, that puts them upon the altar and burns them upon the
altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savor before the Lord. It's Moses that makes this an
offering by fire unto the Lord. Not the priest. We don't do that. Christ does it for us. Christ
offers himself unto God in our place. Isn't that an amazing
thing? Why, we'll even take credit in Christ as our sacrifice if
God doesn't keep us from doing so. Aaron and his sons did not
give the offering. Moses, the mediator, offered
the offering. And I know you know what that
picture's. I know you see what that's telling us. Christ is
the sacrifice and the offering, and Christ is the mediator who
offers it. It's Christ who puts Christ in
our hands. and God accepts him and him alone
as the perfect sacrifice that Christ is our high priest offers. Now this offering was made by
fire and that simply pictures the fiery indignation, the fiery
wrath, judgment, and justice of God's law, yet we see that
it's accepted as a sweet savor, a sweet fragrance before the
Lord. Christ is our mediator, put himself
in our hands only for the purpose of our waving, our presenting
and offering him before his heavenly father. And yet he takes that
sacrifice from us and offers it to God for us. And this was
God's way of showing Israel that Christ is the believer's only
hope of acceptance, rest and peace with God. And that only
being because of who he was that sanctified and sacrificed himself
for and sanctified us. God the Son was sacrificed for
us. God the Father accepted God the
Son's sacrifice because it was a perfect sacrifice. And what proof this was that
Christ was and would be able to provide himself a lamp or
a burnt offering. He did it before the foundation
of the world. He did it for Abraham on Mount
Moriah, and he did it for his elect on the cross of Mount Calvary,
and he's still doing it today for those who profess faith in
Christ. And God not only provides for
himself the land for burnt offering, but he provides himself as the
land for burnt offering. Salvation's of the Lord, friends.
Salvation is of Christ. Now look at verse 26 and I'll
try to finish this up. Still got a few verses I want
to cover. Verse 26, and thou shall take the breast of the
ram of Aaron's consecration and wave it for a wave offering before
the Lord and it shall be thy part. "'And thou shalt sanctify
the breast of the wave offering "'and the shoulder of the heave
offering, "'which is waved and which is heaved up, "'of the
ram of the consecration, "'even of that which is for Aaron "'and
of that which is for his sons. "'And it shall be Aaron's and
his sons by statute forever, "'from the children of Israel.
"'For it is an heave offering, "'and it shall be an heave offering
"'from the children of Israel, "'of the sacrifice of their peace
offerings, their heave offering unto the Lord. Now there's a
wonderful lesson to learn here. Christ who is our peace shall
never be taken from us. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. But when the children of Israel
brought this wave offering to the Lord, from this point on,
the breast and the shoulder would be God's priests forever. Now
keep in mind that if you're a child of God, you're a priest of God.
This is picturing and pointing to what God's doing for you.
Every single time the children of Israel brought their peace
offering, Aaron and his sons, as the priest of God, were to
be given the breast and the shoulder for their part. What do we see
in that? But we see that every sanctified
child of God shall forever have the love of Christ's heart, pictured
by the breast. Christ loves his people with
all his heart. And we also see that all the
elect of God will have the power of Christ, pictured by the shoulder,
and the glory of Christ, pictured by the shoulder. And as the breast
and the shoulder were upon the priest, were the priest portion
forever, so Christ, dear friends, is our portion forever. Look
at verse 31. And thou shalt take the ram of
the consecration and seethe, and that word means boil, his
flesh in the holy place. And Aaron and his son shall eat
the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket by
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And the picture
here is that God the Father and each of His sanctified children
are, by Christ, the sacrifice and the offering brought back
together in communion and fellowship in, by, and through Him. God
the Father's part was burnt on the altar, and God was satisfied
with the sweet Savior. Oh, that ought to cause us to
rejoice. But I tell you what should cause
us to rejoice even more, that the priest part was eaten by
the door, that door being Christ. And this shared feast between
the father and his priest typifies the fellowship and the communion
that Christ, our peace offering, gives us with God. Being at the
door pitches the believer living upon Christ in whom we have access
and we have communion and we have fellowship with God. He's
the door in which we go in to find favor with God. and blessings
of God. Verse 33, and they shall eat
those things wherewith the atonement was made to consecrate and to
sanctify them. But a stranger shall not eat
thereof because they are holy. And if all of the flesh of the
consecrations or of the bread remain until the morning, then
thou shalt burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten
because it's holy. You see the fellowship and communion
is strictly for God's elect people. Christ is holy. Christ is set
apart for his people. And his people are also set apart
and made holy for him. And a stranger shall not eat
of these things. It's for God and His people.
Since Christ is holy and living upon Him is a holy thing, none
of this shall be left for tomorrow. We've got to partake of Christ
today. We're not promised tomorrow. And then tomorrow, we got to
partake of Christ for then. Today's the day of salvation.
Tomorrow may never come. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. There may be no tomorrow. He gives us bread for today.
He gives us grace for today. How long was that manna that
fell from heaven in the wilderness? How long was it good for? You
remember? One day, one day. We should daily
feast upon Christ. Christ is delightful to God. And listen, he's delightful to
his people. Therefore we must feed on him
in holy communion with God in the place of holy fellowship,
which is Christ the tabernacle and Christ the door. Verse 35. And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron
and to his sons according to all things which I have commanded
thee, seven days shalt thou consecrate them. number of completion and
thou shalt offer every day a bullet for a sin offering for atonement
and thou shalt cleanse the altar when thou hast made an atonement
for all and thou shalt anoint it to sanctify it seven days
thou shall make an atonement for the altar and sanctify it
and it shall be an altar most holy whatsoever touches the altar
shall be holy You know, I was thinking about that passage in
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 10, which says, we have an altar
whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle.
And then in verse 15 of Hebrews 13, we're told by him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That's the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. We ought to be praising Him continually.
I am convinced that if we truly saw what Christ has done for
us, we'd be on our knees right now, praising and worshiping
Him. Verse 38, and I'll finish. Now this is that which thou shalt
offer upon the altar, two lambs of the first year, day by day
continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer
in the morning and the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening
or in the evening. And with the one lamb a tenth
deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of a hen, or beaten
oil, and the fourth part of a hen of wine for a drink offering.
And the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening, and shalt do
thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and
according to the drink offering thereof for a sweet savor. "'an
offering made by fire unto the Lord, "'and this shall be a continual
burnt offering "'throughout your generations "'at the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation "'before the Lord, where I will
meet you "'to speak there unto thee. "'And there I will meet
with the children of Israel, "'and the tabernacle shall be
sanctified by my glory.'" Now, what does all that mean, Brother
David? Well, let me just narrow that down to you the best I can.
It means that Christ is our continual sin atoning sacrifice. It means
that Christ is our continual peace offering. Christ is our
continual meet offering in whom we have communion and fellowship
with God. It's only in Christ that a holy
God will meet with a sinner and speak to them. The saved sinner
is sanctified by Christ Jesus, the son. So again, we come full
circle, don't we? We see that our salvation, we
see that our sanctification, that our consecration, that our
obedience and our dedication to God is all of Christ. Without Him, none of it would
be possible whatsoever. God gets all the glory. Look at verse 44, I've got it
written down here. and I'll sanctify the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar and I'll sanctify also both Aaron
and his sons to minister to me in the priest office and I'll
dwell among the children of Israel and I will be their God. Our
only acceptance with God is the sacrifice and the sin offering
and the burn offering and the peace offering of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I believe that I'll cling to
him. How about you? I'm beginning to understand what
Brother Walter meant when he said it didn't have anything
to do with happiness. It has everything to do with
peace. It has everything to do with rest. And that's why that
dear brother is dying a happy man, because he's got his eyes
on Christ. Lord, help me keep my eyes on
Christ. May God be pleased to enable
us to do just that.