Okay, turn with me again to Exodus
chapter 29 and also, if you would, stick a marker in the book of
Ephesians. Doesn't matter what chapter.
We'll go to chapter 1 first as far as referring to the book
of Ephesians. So Exodus 29 and the book of
Ephesians. There are some basic Bible truths
that we must know and that we must believe if we're ever to
understand the Scriptures and the salvation that God has purposed
for His elect. We're going to have to know first
and foremost that we're sinners in desperate need because no
man or woman has ever had a need of a Savior until they see the
desperate condition of their heart. You have to know that
you need a savior before you'll ever want one. And God has to
reveal to a man and a woman what they are, sin. We need a redeemer. We need one to pay our sin debt. And the reason being that we
must be perfect, perfectly holy and perfectly righteous in order
to be accepted of God. And that's the whole purpose
of our needing a great high priest and a mediator. Our high priest
and our mediator is one and the same. He's our perfect savior
and substitute. And we say all the time that
salvation is God and Christ doing for us what we can't do for ourselves,
and that certainly is the truth. We can't provide the perfect
righteousness and holiness that God requires. And God ordained
the office of the priest and the high priest here in the book
of Exodus to teach us and show us something of Christ, our great
High Priest and Savior. I heard a man recently preaching
and he said that there is some gospel truth in the Old Testament,
but I declare to you that in the Old Testament is full of
gospel truth. My, we've seen so much of that,
haven't we, in our study of Genesis and Exodus. And the Gospel in
the Old Testament is revealed through the pictures and the
types of Christ our substitute. The study and preaching of the
Old Testament is absolutely necessary in understanding the Gospel.
It just is. And in order for us to be redeemed
and accepted of God, as I say to you most every service, in
order to be accepted of God, we must be made perfect. For God accepts nothing less
than perfection. And I know that because God Himself
said that. Leviticus chapter 22 verse 21. It shall be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein. No blemish. Without spot, without
wrinkle, without any such thing. God accepts nothing less. And
I often wonder when or if folks will ever learn that it's not
about us being good. We instill that in our children
where you need to learn to be a good boy, good girl, but that's
not going to take care of our problem before God because God
requires perfection. It's about being perfect. And
our Lord told us that in His dealings with that rich young
man that came to Him desiring to be saved. What good thing
must I do that I might have eternal life was His question. But He
left sorrowful and He left broken hearted because the Lord Jesus
said if thou wilt be perfect, It's not about being good, it's
about being perfect. He said, if you'd be perfect,
go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. Now,
does that mean that everybody should go out and sell all they
have and give it to the poor? No, that's where the Lord met
this man. He meets you and I at different
places. The issue between God and us is not about being good,
but it's about being perfect. And that's something that we
cannot do and we will not do. We don't have the ability nor
the will to do so. The Lord here in the 29th chapter
of Exodus teaches us something about being made perfectly holy
and righteous, and at the same time, He shows us the only way
that we can be. Just one way to be. May God be
pleased to bless our study tonight. Now look again at verse 1 with
me. And this is the thing that thou
shalt do unto them, speaking of Aaron and his sons, to hallow
them, or make them holy, to minister unto me in the priest office.
Take one young bullock and two rams without blemish. Now look
down at verse 15. Tonight we're going to be talking
about one of the two rams. Last week we dealt with the bullock.
In verse 15, it says, thou shalt also take one ram, one of the
two that verse one talks about, and Aaron and his son shall put
their hands upon the head of the ram, and thou shalt slay
the ram, and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it around
about upon the altar, and thou shalt cut the ram in pieces and
wash the inwards of him and his legs, and put them into his pieces
and into his head. And thou shalt burn the whole
ram upon the altar." It's a burnt offering unto the Lord. It's
a sweet savor. An offering made by fire unto
the Lord. Now in our last study, we saw
how the bullock was used for the sin offering. It pictured
Christ giving Himself as the sin-bearing sacrifice to put
away the sins of God's people, the elect of God. Tonight, we'll
see how the one ram, one of the two mentioned, we'll deal with
the second ram the next time, but this one ram, without blemish,
was used for a burnt offering. And I'm certain it'll come of
no surprise to you that this too pictures Christ. As the sin
offering pictures and typifies Christ bearing the sin of His
elect by the transference of God's people's sin to Himself,
to the Lord Jesus, we'll also see that the burnt offering typifies
Christ being made an offering acceptable unto God, making his
elect acceptable unto God. This burnt offering is a transference
of a different kind. It pictures something different
than the sin offering. Here we have the transferring
or transference of our persons. Now, I hope to make that more
clear. Again, verse 15, thou shalt also take one ram, and
Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of
the ram. Now, when the priest put their hands on the head of
that spotless bullock that we looked at last time, it pictured
the sins of God's elect being transferred to Christ. It typified
the Lord laying on Christ the iniquity of all His people. Christ
alone became the sin bearer when God made Him to be sin for us,
and He's the only one who knew no sin. He knew no sin, and He
was made to be sin. Our sin was put upon Him, imputed
to Him, and it became His. And when that was done, Christ
became accountable. Now listen, He became accountable
to the law and the justice of God in our room instead. It was Christ who the law would
now extract holy judgment and justice from. It's substitution
once again. What do you preach brother David?
Substitution. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the message. Someone told
me one time, well, brother, you need to go on into the deeper
things of God. What is more deep than that?
What is deeper than God himself becoming a man and dying in the
place of sinners and putting away their sin? I know what he
meant, but there's nothing more deep than that. No, sir. This
burnt offering typifies us becoming one with Christ our substitute
and federal head. And such is our union with Christ
that He actually became God's elect and God's elect people
actually became Him. Now I know we can't understand
that. We're individuals and we think
that way. It's just like a man and a woman
being one when they're married in the eyes of God, recognizing
God to be their Lord, their Almighty. Teresa and I before God are one.
It's hard for us to understand that. But it's nonetheless true
and it's the same with our union and relationship with the Lord
Jesus. God's elect become Him and He becomes us. And when the
Lord Jesus was made of a woman, made like unto His brethren,
yet without sin, by substitution, He took our place. The sin offering
is Christ bearing our sin. This burn offering pictures and
typifies Christ bearing His people. The sin offering was to justify
His people. The burn offering was to make
His people accepted. And I repeat, God requires, actually
He demands, He demands His people to be perfect, holy, and consecrated. How do I know that? Well, He
said, Be ye holy, for I am holy. That's not a request, it's a
demand. If any sinner is to be saved,
they must be as holy as God is. And that takes holiness to the
highest level. You know, what men think holiness
to be is not. We must be as holy as God is
holy. We must be as holy as God is. He says, be ye holy for I am
holy. I am the Lord your God. Now that's
your standard of holiness. The Lord Jesus said, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you're in trouble.
God requires perfect obedience. He requires perfect love for
sinners to be accepted. And our dilemma, as you well
know, is that we cannot meet that requirement. God accepts
his beloved one way and one way only, in the beloved, in the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. Now, keep your place here in
Exodus, but turn with me to Ephesians 1. Verse 3 tells us that. You can probably quote these
verses, but let's look at them again. I love to read them. Ephesians
1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ. I like that, underline
it, whatever. That's the key to the verse in
Christ. It's the key to the Bible. According
as He hath chosen us, where? In Him. Underline that too. Before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. Now listen, that's talking about
His love. God's love for Him. Verse five, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, that's how you're
gonna be adopted into God's kingdom, into the family of God, by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
not your will, his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted, there it is, in the beloved,
in him. Someone said it this way, the
sin offering typifies our sins being put away in and by and
through Christ. And this burn offering typifies
our rejection being put away in and by and through Christ.
It shows us our acceptance, why God accepts us, how God accepts
us. The burnt offering pictures Christ
offering himself completely to God, and because of his perfect
consecration and his perfect commitment to God, his life,
his obedience, his love, his all, his offering came up unto
God as a sweet savor unto God, wherein all his elect are accepted
in Christ. That's what this burnt offering's
about. And this was no light thing. You see, it required death. Verse 16, back in Exodus 29.
It required death. And thou shalt slay the ram,
and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it round about the
altar. Why did the Lord pass over Israel
in the land of Egypt? Because of the blood. When I
see the blood, I'll pass over you. That lamb had to die. That
Passover lamb had to die. And here we see something of
the dedication and the perfect commitment Christ gave. It was
unto death. When He went to Gethsemane's
garden, He said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Paul wrote in Philippians chapter
2 verse 8, and he said, and being found in fashion as a man, speaking
of Christ, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, not just the death of natural
causes, no, the execution of the crucifixion on the cross.
Death of the cross, oh my, the worst way a man could die and
be executed. And in order to give God's elect
acceptance with God, Christ had to make atonement. His blood
had to be shed. Without the shedding of blood,
there's what? No remission. No forgiveness. No atonement. Christ had to die
in our room instead, because the soul that sins, it shall
die. And remember, our sin was put
upon Him. Somebody had to die for our sin.
And it was Him. So with our sins on Him, Christ
must die to put away our sins. And we've got to be justified
before the law. God's justice has to be satisfied. And only a perfect sacrifice
without blemish could satisfy God. That's what this ram is
picturing. That's what that bullet is picturing.
Christ putting away our sins was pictured in the sin offering.
If we're to be accepted of God, accepted is being perfectly hallowed,
holy, and consecrated to God with unwavering dedication. That's
what it takes. God requires, you know, if we
offend the law in one point, we're guilty of the whole law.
Christ kept it all perfectly. That's unwavering consecration
and dedication. Christ substitutes consecration
in our stead was perfect. Perfect. Everything about him
and everything he did was perfect. what would and could better illustrate
and manifest the perfect consecration and dedication than Christ, the
perfect God-man, than Him willingly and voluntarily laying down His
life, shedding His own blood for God and His brethren. And
I said it that way on purpose because first Christ had to appease
God. And he did it for his people,
but we've talked about that several times. He shed his blood first
and foremost for God the Father. He's the one whom we offended. And as our sacrifice and substitute,
he had to appease his father first and foremost. Oh my Lord,
help us to think about these things. Our Savior was so obedient
and so dedicated to His purpose and calling of saving His people
from their sin that it took the shedding of His own blood unto
death to accomplish it. Nothing manifests Christ's love
and dedication more than that. Christ told us that Himself in
John chapter 15 verse 13. He said, greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. I think, no, I know one of the
things that moves me the most when it comes to our Lord's substitution
and sacrifice for His people is the fact that He voluntarily
laid down His life. He voluntarily did. He said,
my father loves me because I lay down my life. No man takes it
from me, but I lay it down of myself. No one made me. Key words there, I lay it down
of myself. He did so on his own accord. It was out of total obedience
to his father and uncompromising love to his people. That humbles
me. Perfect submission, unselfish
surrender, total dedication and consecration. That's why I'm
accepted. Accepted in the blood, accepted
in Him. Even unto the death of the cross,
as Paul put it there in Philippians 2 that I just told you. Even
unto the death of the cross. Look at verse 17 here in Exodus
29. And thou shalt cut the ram in
pieces and wash the inwards of him and his legs and put them
unto his pieces and unto his head. Now there's a good picture
of how Christ died. You know, it's one thing to pour
out your life and to do so voluntarily, but to be willing to die such
a painful, shameful death, Oh, does that not show Christ's commitment
and dedication to His Father in a way that no mere mortal
can fathom or understand? He knew all along how He was
going to die. He knew the pain that He was
going to suffer. When our Lord took on the likeness
of a man yet without sin, and not just a man but a servant,
He came to be a servant. In order to be accepted of God,
He had to be perfect in body, soul, and in spirit. And the
cutting of the ram in pieces, we see something of the excruciating
torment that Christ endured both inwardly and outwardly, as well
as in the flesh and the soul and spirit. As much as His body
was wracked with pain, And I won't take the time to go through all
of it, but you know what? The scripture, I can sum it up
for you. The scripture says that his visage was so marred that
he didn't even resemble a man. And as much as his body was wracked
with pain, his soul was so far worse. Not only was hell opened
to him, but heaven was closed to him. No one in heaven or earth
was there to help our Savior truly walk or trod the winepress
of God's wrath and fury alone. There was none there with Him.
None. Oh, can you imagine? His words
in Psalm 22 verse 14 reflect that our Lord Jesus was the burnt
offering and that ram that was cut in pieces. His words there
explain his suffering. He cried, I'm poured out like
water. Boy, there's not much left of
you if you can be poured out like water. And all my bones
are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted
in the midst of my bowels. There's nothing left. He continued
by saying, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue
cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into
the dust of death. The dust of death. You can be
assured that as painful as his bodily pain was, it didn't even
come close to the suffering of being brought to the dust of
death. The suffering of soul. You think
about it. You know, Proverbs 8.30, speaking
of our Lord and His relationship with His Father, says, I was
with Him, speaking of God, being with God, as one brought up with
Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. Now you think about that relationship
between God the Father and God the Son. And that just simply
denotes Christ's coexistence with God, His relationship with
God as His Father, His nearness to Him, His equality with Him. He that had always been with
the Father now hung alone on Calvary's cross. And God, His
Father, turned His back on Him. Now you try to imagine that.
You've been with somebody all your life. You enjoy one another. You coexist. Some of you that
have lost loved ones, husbands and wives that you've been with
so many years, you have some idea of that, but not like this.
And God turned His back on him. He had to. He had to since the
sin of God's elect was put on him because God had to remain
just if he was to justly justify the ungodly. So that sins must die. The wages
of sin is death. We say it all the time. God had
to turn his back. But I'm telling you, it hurt. It hurt. And when God turned His back,
the Lord Jesus cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And he got no response. No response from the Father that
he loved. That's being alone. That hurts. He got only the wrath, the judgment,
and the condemnation, and the justice that you and I deserved. Now you think about that. Do we honestly think that the
pain of being forsaken of His heavenly Father was not greater
than the physical pain and suffering that He experienced? But I don't
hear many preachers talking about that. We cannot enter into the
depths of deity and the soul agony of God forsaking God. God forsaking God. You can't
fathom that. So by washing the inward parts
and the legs of this ram, we see the picture of the perfection
of Christ's obedience and the complete and total sacrifice
that he made to his God in the burning judgment of the cross. Look at verse 18, and thou shalt
burn the whole ram upon the altar. It's a burnt offering unto the
Lord. It is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the
Lord. And it's here that we see God's
acceptance and God's delight. Now I want you to think about
this. I thought about it considerably as I looked closely at these
verses. In verse 13, the clean, inward parts of the bullock that
we looked at last time, the sin offering, were burned on the
altar. But in verse 14, God said, but
the flesh of the bullock and his skin and his dung shalt thou
burn with fire without the camp. Without the camp, don't burn
that on the altar. He says it's a sin offering. God required
that the dirtier parts, I don't know how else to describe it,
the filthy parts of the bullock to be burned outside the camp,
without the camp. And interesting enough, the word
burn here means consume. That's important. The word burn there means consume. It typified that Christ, our
sin offering, by burying our sin and suffering on the cross
without the gate. Talking about outside the gates
of Jerusalem on Golgotha's hill. And that Christ consumed the
sin and the curse of his people. But here in verse 18, this was
so interesting to me. God says, thou shalt burn the
whole ram upon the altar. And here the word burn is a different
word in the Hebrew language. Here it doesn't mean to consume.
You know what it means? It means to burn as incense.
Mm, that smells good. It smells good. Why the difference? Well, again, verse 18, it's a
burnt offering unto the Lord. It's a sweet savor, an offering
made by fire unto the Lord. Friends, Christ's perfect obedience,
His perfect love, both to God, for God and for His people, all
which are manifested by Christ laying down His life on the cruel
cross was a burnt offering. And it smelled good to God. It
was meant to come up to God for acceptance. And it did. It was a sweet savor of acceptance
unto God in which He takes infinite delight. And because God accepts
Christ and delights in Christ as the perfectly consecrated,
dedicated servant of God, God also accepts His people in Him. And we're right back to our union
with Christ. We are accepted where? In the
Beloved. Boy, does that verse just new
meaning to me. It's all the same sweet savor.
But this has so many applications, practical and spiritual. People
say, well, what's the practical application in that? Well, it's
got one. You know, that's why we forgive
one another. That's why we must forgive one
another. If God grants us forgiveness
for Christ's sake, then we should forgive one another for Christ's
sake. Right? Well, that's what He said. If
I'm a sweet-smelling saver unto God, then my brother and sister
in Christ, they're a sweet-smelling saver unto Christ too. If that's
not enough reason for me to forgive them and to love them, then there's
something wrong with me. God help me. God help me to forgive. For Christ's sake. Turn with
me to Ephesians chapter 4. You've still got your marker
there, don't you? In Ephesians. Look at Ephesians 4. I'll wrap
this up. Wind it down, as they say. Ephesians
4, look at verse 31. Excuse me. Let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted. Now watch this. forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. You see,
we accept one another because God, for Christ's sake, has accepted
us. All believers are accepted in
Christ. Read on, look at chapter five,
verse one. Be ye therefore followers of
God, his dear children. and walk in love. As Christ also
hath loved us and hath given himself, now watch this, hath
given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet smelling saver. Christ has put away our sins.
God has forgiven us and accepted us and he's done it all for Christ's
sake, no other reason. And the child of God's not trying
to offer God anything to gain His acceptance. You know why? Sure you do. Because in Christ,
and by His perfect obedience and love, we've already been
accepted in Him as the beloved of God. We don't have to offer
anything. Christ has already provided it. Yet I know it's so easy for us
to become critical of brothers and sisters. I'm the worst. We still struggle with this flesh
within till the day we die. Paul said, in me that is in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. It's still easy for us to get
offended and to find fault with those that often offend us because
really, even if we feel like they're not being obedient to
God as they should be, we've got to be careful to avoid judging
them, for when we do, what we're saying in our hearts is that
they're not being obedient like we are. None of us, in and of
ourselves, have been obedient unto God. Right? And we're all so prone to do
this. It's just natural for us to become
bitter and unkind and unforgiving and unloving. I'm so convicted
about that. You hurt my feelings. In Christ,
we've already given to God a perfect life of obedience that's accepted
of God, but it wasn't something we did. Christ did it for us. We need to remember that. And
let us also remember that concerning our brothers and sisters. Our
brothers and sisters in Christ, let me clarify that. Because
God has accepted them also by the same sacrifice and offering
that Christ made for them. Naturally speaking, we're all
in the same boat, aren't we? We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God, all of us. There is none of us. Same boat. There's none of us that are righteous,
no not one. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. We all have gone astray, every
single one of us. Every one of us have gone back,
the scripture said. We're not going forward in and
of ourselves, we're going back. We've all gone out of the way. But by the grace of God, we don't
stay very long on that straight and narrow. We've all gone out
of the way. We're all together become filthy,
individually and collectively. We are all together become unprofitable. So naturally speaking, we're
all in the same boat. Here's something to think about.
Spiritually speaking, we are too. All believers in the same
boat. They're all saved by grace through
faith. Every one of them. It was not
of them. It was not of works. It was the
gift of God, all in the same boat. It was not by any works
of righteousness that we have done, but it was according to
God's mercy that He saved us. No difference. It was by the sacrifice of Christ. It was by the shedding of His
blood. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the
world, before we had done any good or evil that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. Not of Him that
willeth, not of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
He gets all the glory. He gets all the credit. We don't
get any. We don't deserve any. He predestinated us. He called
us. He adopted us. It was according
to the good pleasure of His will and the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, that
being the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this message is about.
That's what Exodus 29 is about. That's what the Old Testament
is about. That's what this book is about. We have redemption
through His blood. In Christ we have the forgiveness
of sins. It's according to the riches
of His grace. We read the verses. It's Christ
who made us to differ from others, but not each other. The only
difference between me and a murderer on death row is the grace and
the mercy of God. It's God who made the difference.
We are, as believers, one in Him. So let us forgive and forget
as God has forgiven and forgotten our sins for Christ's sake. It's
for Christ's sake, that's why we do so. We must, if He means
anything to us at all, we must. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ, and it's only in and by and through the Lord Jesus
Christ that we are. For I say, through the grace
given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think." You know why? Because
it's not of us. It's not our superiority or our
great talent and abilities. It's not to any glory that we
possess. It's altogether owing to Christ.
It's by the revelation of a humble dependence on Christ alone. By
God's grace, the older I get, the more clear I see my need
of Him. And I am thankful for that. Don't you think you're getting
better, Brother David? No, I see I'm getting worse. No, I see
that I'm depraved. I've always been depraved. And
anything that's good in me is Him. That's the only thing in
me that's good. May God be pleased to make it so. Amen.