Turn with me again to Exodus
chapter 29. Exodus 29. The consecration of the priest
being made hallowed or being made holy and sanctified was
so significant that God, the Holy Spirit, dedicates a whole
chapter here in Exodus to this dedication ceremony. It's what
it is. This consecration of the priest
included a series of sacrifices, three to be exact. First, there
was the Bullock without blemish, who was sacrificed for a sin
offering. And we saw how that pictured
Christ, the spotless lamb of God who bore the sin and the
curse of his people. Well, I'll tell you, if you're
one of his, that means something to you. He took my sin and my
sorrow and he bore the curse of my sin in his own body on
the tree. And it's by his blood that we're
justified. Secondly, we have the first ram
that we looked at last week and it was sacrificed as a burnt
offering. Christ not only took our sins,
but we saw that he took our place. He not only justified us, but
He made us accepted, accepted in Christ. And again, that's
another beautiful truth that the child of God loves. I'm accepted
in Him. God considers me the same as
He does His Son in whom He's well-pleased. God the Son in
perfect obedience bore the heat of the fire of God's judgment,
that judgment that you and I deserve. And it went up to God as a sweet
smelling savor. Christ was accepted of God and
us being in Him, we're accepted of God too. When this second
ram that we're gonna look at tonight was sacrificed, it was
sacrificed for what verse 27 calls a wave offering or a heave
offering. Basically it's a peace offering.
And it's here that we see that Christ's blood must be and shall
be applied to each of God's elect personally. It's also, as I said,
called a peace offering. Now the burnt offering of the
first ram pictured Christ giving his father the sweet smelling
savor of acceptance. And here, the second ram, a sacrifice,
giving his people peace, peace with God. Oh, I want peace with
God, I do. And he gives this as a benefit
of his blood. And by the priest placing their
hands on the animal's head, on the ram's head, the priest symbolically
acknowledged their own sin and the need of cleansing. And that's
what God told Moses in Leviticus chapter 17, 11. He said, for
the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to
you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul. For
it is the blood, it's the blood that maketh an atonement for
the soul. We know, and we'll read the verse
again tonight, that without the shedding of blood, there is no
remission. Now, again, in verse 27, this
second ram is called the ram of consecration. Christ is our
ram of consecration. It's the blood of Christ that
sanctifies the believer, making them holy and setting them apart
for God's use. That's the whole purpose of this
ceremony here of the high priest. And it's Christ's blood that
gives us peace with God. And it's Christ's blood that
makes us personally devoted to him. And it's by Christ's blood
that we can enjoy worship without fear. I told Teresa this afternoon,
I said, I don't know if I'm able to convey these studies to where
anybody gets anything out of them or not. I sure hope so. But I tell you personally, this
study has been so profitable to me. I've learned so much concerning
the priesthood, the sacrifices. And the thing that I see and
that I keep telling you is that it all points to Christ. It all
points to him. And for that, I'm thankful. Now
look at verse 19. It says, And thou shalt take
the other ram, and Aaron and his son shall put their hands
upon the head of the ram, then shalt thou kill the ram. Now
three times in this chapter the priest put their hands on the
head of the sacrifice, and each time it typified the specific
thing in which that sacrifice pictured. In other words, the
sin offering of the bullet pictured Christ putting away our sin and
the putting of the priest's hands upon the head of that bullet
typified the sins of God's elect being transferred to Christ.
If our sin is not put on Him, we're in big trouble. And that's
what substitution is. Christ taking our sin and giving
us His perfect righteousness. Our sins being transferred to
Christ. And it was then After they put
their hand upon the head of that bullock, that the bullock was
slain. And after Christ was made to
bear the sin of his people, it was then that he, as our substitute
and sacrifice, was slain in our room instead, according to the
perfect holy justice of God. The burnt offering and that first
round typified Christ making his people accepted by his obedience
to God's law as he bore the fire of God's wrath in our place.
The putting of the priest's hand on the head of that ram typified
our persons being transferred to him. We truly become one with
Christ by his sacrifice, not by anything that we sacrifice,
but what he sacrificed to God for us and by his substitution
in our place. And Christ literally, and I know
this takes a divine revelation from God to understand, but Christ
literally became each one that he shed his blood for. His people
became him. Christ himself is before God,
each person that he died for. That's the only hope that you
have, Lou Anne, that I have. And that is that Christ is my
sacrifice. And when God looks at me, he
sees him. If we never truly see that, I'm
just convinced that we'll never have any confidence that we're
perfectly holy and righteous before God. Now, the ram of consecration
typifies Christ's blood, sanctifying and consecrating us to God through
faith. The putting on of the priest's
hands on this third or the second ram, the third sacrifice, typifies
the believer's faith in Christ. We're trusting in Him to do for
us what we could not do for ourselves. And that's keeping God's law
perfectly. That's satisfying God's justice
perfectly. We trust in Him to do that. We
can't do it. When we hear the gospel preached,
the Holy Spirit, by divine power, begins to make a sinner hear
and have faith in Christ's accomplished work. for them personally. When
a sinner is made to see that Christ's blood really put away
their sin, the blood of Christ, we're told, purges their conscience
from sin. They begin to realize, they begin
to understand and to know that there is really no more sacrifice
for sin. There's nothing that we can offer
God that's acceptable unto Him because God only accepts that
which is perfect and we've never done a perfect thing in our life.
Never. Christ really did put our sins
away. And I can say that to the cows
come home. But if God didn't reveal it to
us and show it to us, it'll never profit us a thing. But that's
what these three sacrifices so beautifully picture. Christ is
our burnt offering in whom we're accepted and in whom we are righteous. We're righteous in the blood
of the Lord Jesus. He was made to be sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And we really
are made the righteousness of God in Him. Lord, I believe,
but help thou my unbelief. And it's then that we have no
more consciousness of sin. I'm gonna be talking about that
a lot tonight. Consciousness of sin, no more
guilt before God. That brings real peace when we
see that, that I have no guilt before God. He truly makes us
to know and understand that there is no condemnation to those that
are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that what he said in Romans
8 verse 1? There is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. That should make us the happiest
people on planet earth. There's no condemnation to those
that trust and believe in Him, in Christ. He truly makes us
to know that. And when He does, we cease trying
to make ourselves righteous and we quit trying to make ourselves
holy and God purifies His people's hearts by faith in Christ alone.
This is when the Spirit of God has applied the blood of Christ
to his children personally. Try to put yourself in these
priests' place. After they put their hands on
the head of those sacrifices, they saw that ram and that bullock,
those rams and that bullock slain. They saw the blood of that ram
poured out for them. then the blood was applied to
them, as we'll see tonight. And all of this pictures what
the Spirit of God does for the child of God. When God gives
us faith to behold Christ slain for each of us personally. Christ
is the place of mercy where God meets chosen sinners. No other
place, no other person. Salvation is of the Lord and
it's in the Lord. Without the shedding of blood,
no remission. The word remission means that
apart from Christ's blood, there is no freedom. There is no pardon. There is no forgiveness. There's no liberty. But when
you truly see that you have no condemnation, that your sin is
really gone, and I know that's near impossible because of our
sin nature, but you can know that. You can know it. God reveals
it to His people. He said, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. That's what this is all about.
His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins. Sins
that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this
time, His righteousness. That's what we preach. Men that
are always talking about their righteousness and what they do
for God don't know God. And it's not the gospel. We declare
His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus Christ. Romans 3, 24 through
26. Let's again quickly review. Remember these things were written
before time for our learning. That's why we studied the Old
Testament scriptures. I'm just convinced you can't
preach the gospel without the Old Testament. It's just everything
that we see in the New Testament confirms what God showed us in
picture and type in the Old Testament. So Christ is the sin offering
that put our sin away. Aren't you happy about that?
Christ is the burn offering that made us accepted by God. Oh,
I'm happy about that. I wouldn't be accepted any other
way. And Christ, our ram of consecration, sanctifies us and purges our
conscience personally. Friends, when we truly see the
blood of Christ and what it's done for us, we can be honest
with God. We can worship and serve Him
as we ought. It's because we're constrained
by the love of Christ through faith in His blood. We see the
sacrifice that Christ made for His people. The wages of sin
is death. Yes, the soul that sins, it shall
die. But He shed His blood for our
sin. He died in our place. Those wages
have been dealt with. Our acceptance is for certain. These things were only possible
through the application of the Lord Jesus's blood. How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? There's no need for
me to try to work some filthy rags work of righteousness to
God when Christ has already put my sin away and I'm accepted
in Him, the beloved. Now, look at verse 20. Then thou
shalt kill the ram and take of his blood and put it upon the
tip of the right ear of Aaron and upon the tip of the right
ear of his sons. and upon the thumb of their right
hand and upon the great toe of their right foot and sprinkle
the blood upon the altar round about." Now, the first thing
that I would point out here is the fact that it was not Aaron
or his sons that applied the blood to themselves. God told
Moses to do this. How clearly that shows and teaches
us that no sinner can apply Christ's blood to themselves. The application
of the blood is the work of God alone. Only God can do that. Moses applied this blood. You
take the night of the Passover there in the land of Egypt, it
was the head of the house that applied the blood to the doorpost
of the house. pictured and typified our Lord,
the Lord Jesus, our head, that pictured Him applying His blood
to each member of His house. He's the head, we're the body.
Only God the Son can apply the blood of Himself to the ones
that He died for. The blood was first applied here
to the right ear. This is how we're made to hear. This is how we are made to delight
in the gospel. You know, you can preach the
gospel and some hear it, all hear it physically, but some
really hear it and some don't. What's the difference? Who's
the difference? It's the blood. The blood is
the difference. This is how we're sanctified.
This is how we're set apart to hear the word of God. And I'll
tell you something else, a true believer cannot bear to hear
the Lord Jesus blasphemed. cannot stand to hear a false
gospel. Oh, it'll just crawl all over
them. You're lying on my Savior. I don't want to hear it. Why
do some hear and some don't? The blood of Christ is applied
to their hearing. And then this blood was applied
to the thumb of the right hand. You see, by the power of Christ's
blood, we're enabled by faith to lay hold of Christ. Some are
able to lay hold of Christ and some aren't. What's the difference?
The blood. the blood applied. That's the
difference. That's how we are enabled with
our physical hands to serve the cause of Christ. God then applies
the blood upon the toe of the right foot. Our feet are no longer
swift to shed blood. They are now shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. By His blood applied to our feet,
now we follow that straight path, that straight and narrow path
and we don't turn to the left or the right. It's the blood
that makes the difference. That'd be a good title for this.
It's the blood that makes the difference. Now look again at
the last part of verse 20. It says, and sprinkle the blood
upon the altar round about. You know, I've read that and
read it again and read it again. There's a real blessing in those
few words there. And sprinkle the blood The same
blood, the same blood upon the altar round about. The blood
of Christ that is applied to his people as his priest. That's what God's people are
made unto him, priests. When this blood is applied to
his people, the same blood is also the blood that Christ himself
offered to God. Isn't that something? You think
about that. I'm telling you, it's the same
blood that God accepts Same blood is applied to the priest personally.
Christ's sin-atoning blood before God is the same blood that purges
our conscience within. Now, I want to turn you now to
Hebrews chapter nine. Keep your marker in Exodus 29.
You knew we'd be going to Hebrews. I've already seen that our study
in Exodus is pretty much a parallel study in the book of Hebrews.
We refer to it just about every single study. But in Hebrews
chapter nine, turn there with me if you would, I wanna read
a few verses here in light of what we're talking about. Hebrews
chapter nine, we'll begin reading in verse eight. Verse eight,
the Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest
of all, that's where Aaron the high priest went, into the holy
of holy. Only the high priest could go
there. The Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present in
which were offered both gifts, and that word simply means offerings,
and sacrifices that could not make him, speaking of the sinner,
that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Conscience. Now, the sinner is
perfect in God's mind, but not in their own. And these Old Testament
sacrifices could not remove the guilt of sin from their conscience. They couldn't remove the power
of the guilt of sin. Boy, it's a powerful thing, sin
is, the guilt of sin. The sinner was still under the
bondage of sin and under the power of sin inwardly, which
included the fear and terror of death in sin. People don't
wanna die because they're fearful, fearful of the unknown. But we
know what death brings, don't we? The child of God does. Sin is the reason men and women
fear death. But when you understand that
to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,
you will not fear what death can do to you. You'll say to
die is gain, is a promotion, going home, going to be with
my Lord, my Savior. Now look at verse 11, but Christ
being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about his sinless body. He says, not made with
hands. Wasn't made with hands. That
is to say, not of this building. You see, his body wasn't like
our body. Our body is racked with sin. We fell in Adam, but not his. Our buildings are dilapidated,
they're falling down, but not his. His body wasn't made from
the seed of flesh, but from the Spirit of God. Verse 12, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now that's precious, that's precious. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God." Look at this, purge your conscience. There it is
again. What are you purging your conscience from? From dead works. And that's what works are, they're
just, they're dead work. To serve the living God. A sinner
that God has revealed to be perfect will not keep trying to do something
to be saved. Why? Because they know they are
saved. They know that their sin is gone.
They don't feel the guilt of sin because Christ truly put
it away and they don't have any. They'll serve God with free conscious
of mind, being free from the guilt and shame of sin. Look
down at verse 22. It says, And almost all things
are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Now look at this. It was therefore
necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should
be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifice than these." Well, what are these? Well, he
tells us, for Christ is not entered into the holy places made with
hands, not like the priest of old were, which are the figures,
pictures, patterns, and types of the truth. That's what we're
learning in Exodus here. We're just seeing pictures and
patterns and types of the real thing, the good things to come. Speaking of Christ and what He's
done. Better sacrifices, better sacrifices. which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us." Aaron going into that holiest of holies was just
a picture of Christ going into heaven before the throne of God
and pleading, you're in my case, and saying, I've done for them
what they couldn't do for themselves. They're perfect. God says, I
accept it. Look at Hebrews 10 here, verse
one. For the law having a shadow of
good things to come and not the very image of the things can
never with those sacrifices, speaking of the sacrifice of
animals, the sacrifice of bullocks and the rams, which they offered
year by year, they cannot continually make the comers there unto perfect. And that's what we have to be.
Verse two, for then would they have not ceased to be offered
because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more
conscience. There it is again of sin. But
in those sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made. I was thinking about that today.
In those sacrifice, every time they made these sacrifices, constantly
conscious, being constantly conscious of sins every year, it says there. And then he says, for it's not
possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
You see, a perfect man had to die for that to take place. A
perfect man had to die. Not just any man, and definitely
not animals, not bullocks and goats. They just pictured this
perfect man who was to come. It's not possible that the blood
of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he
cometh into the world, We know who that's talking about. He
said, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body,
a body hast thou prepared me. And burn offerings and sacrifices
for sin. That's what we're looking at
in Exodus 29. Thou hast had no pleasure. God found no pleasure. God found no satisfaction. God found no forgiveness in the
sacrifices of bulls and goats. But what did he find? What did
he find satisfaction in? Verse seven. Then said I, lo,
I come. Lo, I come. Who? God the Son. I come in the volume of the book
it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Now look down at
verse 10. By the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins." Now, listen, here's the good news. The one
sacrifice for sin that Christ made, God accepted. You know
what that means? That means my sin's gone, but
this man, Verse 12, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, he sat down on the right hand of God. And we know why
he sat down, because his work was finished. Nothing more to
be done. Those priests didn't have a chair, any chairs to sit
down in, because their work was never done. But Christ is now
sitting on the throne of God, at the right hand of God, making
intercession for him. Everything is all right for the
child of God. Verse 13, from henceforth expect
until his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now there
you go. The offering of Christ perfected forever them that are
sanctified. We're consecrated forever. How? Because the same blood, the same
blood that was sprinkled upon the altar that God accepted is
now applied to us. not only takes away our sin,
but it also takes away the guilt of our sin in our conscience.
That's what we see in verse 30 of Exodus 29. Turn back there
with me. Verse 20, the same blood that
was poured upon the altar was also put and applied to the priest. You know what? That makes Christ
our justification, that makes him our sanctification, and that
makes him our consecration. Our sin is put away. We're made
perfectly holy. And we're perfectly consecrated
to God, not having any guilt of sin, making us able to truly
rest. Let's rest. Let's rest. We should have no fear of death
because we have no sin. And we should have no guilt of
sin because Christ has put our sin away. Look at verse 21. I told you 20, but 21. And thou
shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar and of the
anointing oil and sprinkle it upon Aaron and upon his garments
and upon his sons and upon the garments of his sons with him.
And he shall be hallowed. He shall be holy and his garments
and his sons and his son's garments with him. Now the blood of Christ
is applied by the Holy Spirit to make us holy. And the blood
of the ram upon the altar pictures our Lord's justifying blood. And the anointing oil here typifies
the Holy Spirit, whom the blood is applied by to us. It's the Holy Spirit that applies
the blood of Christ to the believer. When the Spirit of God applies
Christ's blood to God's elect, then they're hallowed or they're
made holy. And that's the only way that
they are. But they really are made holy in the eyes of God. And that's the only one that
matters. So we have here a two-fold sprinkling
with blood and with oil. denotes the necessity of a twofold
holiness. Justification is by the atoning
blood of Christ, and sanctification is by the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit. That's what this picture. Now,
if you can, in your mind's eye, see the priest of God, and they're
arrayed with those beautiful garments that we've already studied,
and they've got them on, and then try to picture The blood
and the oil being sprinkled all over those priests and their
garments. Think about how stained and how spotted those priests
and their priestly garments must have looked. To the natural eye,
it might appear ugly. The beautiful garments might
have appeared ruined and sold, but au contraire, it's just the
opposite. God's ways and thoughts are not
our ways. Ceremonially speaking, the blood
and the oil made the priests spotless before God. What did
the Lord tell the people of Israel? When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. That's what John's talking about
in Revelation chapter seven, verse 14, when he says, these
are they which have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the lamb. Now, how do you wash something
in the blood of the lamb, which is crimson red, and at the same
time, make them white as snow? Well, you can't think of this
naturally. That's what the blood of Christ
does, though. It makes us white as snow. That's
how our robes of righteousness are made white. They're washed
in the blood. The priest and their garments
covered in this blood and oil typifies what the scripture calls
the beauty of holiness. Several times in the scriptures,
if you look up that term, beauty of holiness, you'll see that
we're told to worship and praise the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Really, that's the only way that we can. That sweet-smelling savor
unto God, that has a lot to do with our praise and our worship
to God. Hebrews chapter 13. That's why
Paul said in Galatians 2 verse 20, he said, I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I'm living in this flesh. but the life that I am
now living in this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Not my faith, not my works, but
in his faith and what the work that he did for me. That's how
we've got to live. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He died for me. He shed his blood for me. My
sins put away and my conscience is free from the guilt of sin
because he really did it. Dying with Christ before the
law, our old man is crucified and our judgment is settled.
You can't extract judgment and justice from a dead man or woman.
You just try. You gonna throw him in jail?
but we also rose with Christ. Therefore, the Spirit of God
has taken a bold within us that we live by Christ living in us. Christ liveth in me. That's how
we're made new. That's how we're born again.
That's how we're made new creatures in Christ. Christ living in us. That's why old things are passed
away. They're gone. All things have
become new. God has enabled and made us to
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. We've been made partakers of
Christ's death and His life. Now we can go forth doing His
will and the strength of His risen life, living by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Boy,
I love that term, loved us and gave Himself for us. You're talking
about real love. And it's Christ in me that makes
me perfect within. It's Christ in me that makes
me perfect before God. What makes this so difficult
for us to grasp is the sin nature that we still live with. That's
what outwardly makes our personal consecration seem to fall extremely
short of perfection. Because we live with ourselves
and we know how we are, we know how we think, but the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by His faith, not mine, right? We fail, we sin, and we hate
it. We mourn over our sin because
we know all that our Savior has done for us. We look forward
to that day in which we'll be fully and completely conformed
to Christ. Oh, I do. When these corruptible
bodies shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on
immortality, and when we see the Lord, when we see Him as
He really is, we'll be just like Him. We'll see it then with eyes
without sin. I don't know how else to say
it. I was thinking about this today. Our glorification is the
last stop on our way to perfection. God knew us, God chose us, God
predetermined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. God
called us, God justified us, but until we die, we will not
be glorified. It's the last stop on the way
to glory. God help us not to be sad when
a child of God passes. I know we are because we miss
them, but they're in glory. They've got that glorified body,
that sinless body. And they truly can see Christ
in the perfection He is, and they'll see that they're just
like Him. One day, very soon, we're gonna
lay these bodies down in death and be glorified forever. God,
give me the grace to go happily, because it's a promotion, and
it's the sacrifice of Christ that made it so. It was His blood
that was shed that makes our calling an election show. How
do we make our calling and election sure? We think on these things. I thank God that he has showed
us from the beginning of scripture, just exactly how his people will
be perfected forever. That's what these pictures are
of the sacrifice. And it's in and by and only through
God's beloved son that we're accepted because he's perfect. And he's perfected us by the
sacrifice and offering of himself. I never grow tired of hearing
about it. God accepted his sacrifice, and by his substitution, we're
accepted in him. And that's why substitution is
the most glorious thing a believer's ever heard. Oh, thank you, Lord,
for opening our eyes and giving us glimpses of these wonderful
truths that you have for us and that you've revealed to us. And
that's why by the mercies of God that we present our bodies
a living sacrifice, not to obtain salvation, but we try to live
honorably before God out of thanksgiving and praise for what he's done
for us. Holy and acceptable we try to live, which is our reasonable
service. It is most reasonable to not
bring dishonor to his name. May God help us to do so. May
God be pleased to make it so for Christ's sake.