Such a blessing. Thank you so
much. Would you go to the book of 1
Peter and the second chapter. I will begin here and I will
make my way back to the book of Exodus chapter 28 as we sort of pick up this evening
where we left off this morning speaking about Aaron and his
sons, Aaron and his sons. And I'm going to read a couple
of verses here from 1 Peter 2 after I lead us in prayer. Lord, look on us sinners this
evening with mercy. our neediness. And oh, oh God, we come to You. Thou art the helper of the helpless. You are the one who is full of
grace, full of mercy, and full of pity. We dare to come before Your throne remembering that it is a throne
of justice, certainly, and it is also a throne of grace. And grace reigns, Father, we
read, through righteousness. Our Lord Jesus is our only plea,
and it is through His sacrifice that we come Oh, great God, before
You tonight, we want to worship and adore
and make our boasts in the Lord. We'd like to magnify Your name. And Lord, we would be very pleased
if You would enable us to stress that message that brings
you great delight, which is the message of your son's successful
work of redemption. It is with his work you're pleased. It is with his very person that
you're pleased. And so, Lord, we shall Arrange
our thoughts, God willing, if the Spirit of God will help us
in such a manner that we magnify that One who is so dear to you,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that His sacrifice was
indeed a sweet savor unto God. Nothing else is a sweet savor
to you. except that substitutionary justice
satisfying death of your only begotten Son. There is no subject
that we could raise or speak of when we stand behind this
pulpit that will give you the kind of honor and glory that
you're worthy of save the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so help us this evening,
Father, help the preacher and the hearer, that we might focus
our hearts and our attentions upon the Lord Jesus, the successful
Savior. Lord, bless those who are watching
by way of the Internet, these who are unseen to us, and
yet fully seen by you in your omniscience. And Lord, speak to precious souls
tonight, both by way of the internet and to these who are gathered
before us. And may the Word of God come
to us in power and in much assurance through the Holy Ghost. Thank
you for the blood of the Lord Jesus. And we are so grateful
for His death on the behalf of the guilty. In Him we live, and
in Him we move, and in Him we have our spiritual being. He
is indeed all and all to us and we are complete in Him. So, Spirit of God, take the things
of our Lord Jesus and show them unto us. These things we ask
for the Savior's sake. Amen. Well, as we Let's open our Bibles
here to 1 Peter 1. I want to draw your attention
to verses 7, 8, and 9. 1 Peter 2, verses 7, 8, and 9. Under you therefore which believe,
he is precious. Do you believe? Simple question. It's all of your confidence in
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Is He your only hope
of glory? Is He your righteousness? His bloody death upon the cross
of Calvary your only hope? Well, if God the Spirit has taught
you the gospel, He is precious to you. but there are some folks He isn't
precious to. Under them which be disobedient,
that is, disobedient to the gospel, disobedient to God's command
to believe on the Son of God, under them which be disobedient,
He's the stone which the builders disallowed. The same is made
the head of the corner for Satan, a stone of stumbling and a rock
of offense. Even then would stumble at his
word, being disobedient. And then Peter puts this in by
the inspiration of the Spirit of God. He says, whereunto also
they were appointed. Peter is one who believed in
the divine appointment of all things, that God has ordered
all things. His will is sovereign. He deals
with all men, women, and children according to his perfect purpose
and his will. There are many who are appointed
to just, well, they stumble at the word of the gospel. They
have no interest. God has willed to leave them
in their sins and not deal with them in grace. I hope that isn't
true of anybody who's here this evening or anybody who's watching.
And I call upon all of you. Seek our God. Seek the Lord. He's ever near to those who need
Him. And if you need Him, you need
the Savior, you need His salvation, well, you call upon Him. But it says in verse number 9,
here's another group of people. These are the ones to whom the
Lord Jesus is made precious. But you, He leaves these that
God has appointed to stumble at the Word of the Gospel. He
leaves them behind. He has no more to say about them
now. And now He speaks to those who
find the Savior very precious. But you, you who believe on the
Son of God, you're a chosen generation. You didn't do anything to get
your salvation. God chose you unto salvation. The Lord Jesus has worked out
that salvation for you. And the evidence of that is that
you're a believer, that you find his gospel precious. You're a
chosen generation. You're a chosen family. We're the family of God. I know
a lot of times the brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus don't
act much like family, but we are. We are family. We're the
family of God. Born of God. Born of His Spirit. Born of the same incorruptible
Word. We're a chosen offspring of God. And he says we're a royal priesthood. We're a kingdom of priests. We're royalty. We have been lifted
up from the dunghill. God has set us among royalty. Now are we the children of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. I know what we
are by nature. But oh, bless His name, let us
rejoice in what we are by grace, a royal priesthood. We have access
to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We're royalty, we're
kings. He's made us kings and priests
under God. We're a holy nation. And our holiness is Him who is
seated at the right hand of God right now. We're a holy nation. And we are a peculiar people. That doesn't mean we're a bunch
of oddballs, although in the eyes of the world, we are odd. But what this means is we're
a purchased people. We're a bought people. Our Lord
Jesus has bought us with His own blood. He's done all of this
that we should show forth the praises of Him who has called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light. which in time
past, I'll read verse 10, were not a people, but are now the
people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have
obtained mercy. I like what one writer says about
that word obtained. It was forced on us. It was forced
on us. We obtained mercy. We weren't
looking for mercy. We didn't long for mercy. Didn't
even know we needed mercy. but God in His sovereign effectual
work of grace, He forced it upon us, and then we willingly were
glad to get it. Ah, the precious mercy, saving
mercy of God. Here's what we see. The salvation
of sinners is based on God only. It's based on God's choice. The
Lord chose, before He ever made this world of people unto Himself,
all to the praise of the glory of His grace. And this is illustrated
for us in many ways. This sovereign choice of God
is illustrated in many ways throughout the Scriptures. And one of the
most well-known ways is that He chose a people, a nation,
that would be His people, to whom He would give the tabernacle,
to whom He would give His law, and through whom He would send
His Son, and that nation being the nation of Israel. Of all
of the nations of this earth, God chose one nation. That's
His sovereign right. I don't hear too many people
fussing about that. When they fuss about God's sovereign
choice of some people unto salvation, they don't have a big problem,
don't seem to have any problem with God's choice of Israel.
But think of it. All the other nations of the
world, God rejected. And He chose one nation. Not
because they were the largest nation. In fact, they were a
little nation, just a little nation. You say, well, they were
better than other nations. God called Abraham out of heathenism
and out of idolatry from Ur of the Chaldees. The roots of Abraham,
they were sunk down deep into heathen idolatry and false religion. And God said, I choose you. And
God pulled him out. Just like He did you. Pulled
him out of false religion and drew him unto Himself. Why did
God choose Israel? Because He would. There's no
other reason to be found. They weren't the best nation,
as bad as anybody else. Why'd God choose you? Make no
mistake about it, if you believe in your heart on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He is your all in all, the only reason you have
faith in the Son of God is because before God made this world, He
ordained that you'd be one of His children. He chose you. And that is an everlasting election. You've always been His child.
You've always been the object of His love. You've always been
the object of His grace. And He's always looked on you
in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all of the Lord. God chose Israel because He would. And God made a promise to Abraham. In your seed, all the nations
of the earth will be blessed. In your seed, not seeds as in
many, but seed as in one. Think of this. God ordained that
his only begotten darling son, who's been with him for eternity,
God ordained that He would take up His residence in a body likened
unto the bodies of the people that He'd come to save. This chosen generation, He's
going to be made likened to us. This is the Son of God. And this is the promise God gave
to Abraham. A seed is coming through you. That's the Son of God. Now we know that Abraham begat
Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob. The Lord was pleased to give
to Jacob twelve sons. And then the nation of Israel
consisted of 12 tribes, 12 families, we would call them. And this
according to God's pleasure. And they fell into bondage in
Egypt, but they were still the people God chose for himself. Just like God chose us unto salvation
before the world began, but we fell into slavery, we fell into
servitude, to sin, and to Satan. But as God would not leave Israel
in Egyptian bondage, He's not gonna leave us in our bondage
either. Well, what did He do with that
chosen nation? He redeemed them. That's what
He did. And how did He redeem them? First
of all, price and by power. And so God has redeemed, He has
redeemed the people of His everlasting choice unto salvation. He's redeemed
us by price. That's the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's the substitution right
there. The innocent dying for the guilty.
There's satisfaction. Our Lord Jesus satisfied the
justice of God by dying in the stead of the guilty. And then
He redeems us by His power. And just as He extracted Israel
from Egyptian bondage, He pulls us out of a sovereign,
irresistible might. He pulls us out of the grasp
of Satan. Out of the grasp of that old
evil one. He takes us unto Himself. He
liberates us by His own mighty, sovereign power and grace. And so Israel comes out of their
bondage. They go through the Red Sea.
They get to the mountain called Sinai. And then God said, in essence, I'm going to show
you my sovereignty again. I choose one man to be the high
priest of Israel. He had already exercised his
choice in choosing Moses to be his spokesman, his prophet. God watched over him. Moses was
a chosen vessel when he was just a wee little baby. And all you
Sunday school teachers have taught this. And his mother put him
in a little cradle, in a vessel, an ark of bulrushes. Set him
among the reeds. And Miriam, his older sister,
She kept lookout. God was watching over that deliverer. He was God's choice. Well, there
were a lot of other men in Israel. Yes, there were. There sure were.
Why Moses? God's sovereign choice. You see,
as you study the Word of God, you're confronted continually. with this fact that God uses
whom He will. He saves whom He will. He calls
whom He will. And whatever purpose He's created
somebody for, they will serve that purpose. Even the wicked. Even the wicked. For this same
purpose, God said through the lips of Moses to Pharaoh, for
this same purpose, I raised you up. You mean God put an ungodly,
blasphemous, idolatrous man on the throne of Egypt? That's what
he said. What was the reason God lifted
him up so high? He's the most powerful man in
all the world. And make no mistake about it,
God made him that powerful man. God said, I did it. I'm going
to show my power. Because that man who's exalted,
it seems, above all men, I'm going to bring him down. How
low? All the way to hell. That's how
low. The sovereign choice of God.
Chose Moses, and He chose Aaron, Moses' older brother by three
years, to be the high priest of Israel. And God said He'd use one family. He'd use one family in this ministry
of spiritual things for Israel. He'd use the tribe of Levi. And nothing special about Levi.
In fact, he was, of course, we've been studying on Wednesday night,
the sons of Jacob, he was the third son of Jacob by Leah. And he wouldn't have been the
man that you and I would have selected. Levi, that's not the one we would
have selected to be the tribe that would have the priesthood
and the care of the tabernacle. Because he and his brother Simeon,
and remember Levi's name means join together, he and his brother
Simeon joined together to commit murder. Their sister Dinah, she got raped. And the man who raped her, he
then fell in love with her. He said, I want to marry her.
told his daddy, he said, that's the woman for me right there.
And so his daddy Hamar, he goes and sees Jacob. He said, my son
loves your daughter. Jacob said, well, he defiled
her. And I know. But they love each
other. They want to get married. Jacob
said, well, let me bring my sons in here. He got the sons together
and said, boys, what do you think? He said, well, you know, we'll
go along with it if all of the men of this city,
this heathen city of which Shechem was a citizen. Shechem was the
guy who raped Dinah. We'll go along with this. We'll
live to marry if all the men of the Hivites will be circumcised. And so Hamar said, well, let
me go talk this over with Shechem. They talked it over and they
said, well, you know, if we start intermarrying, you know, their
cattle will become our cattle. Their sheep, their flocks will
become part of our flocks. This will enrich us. This will
be in our best interest. That's the way most people make
decisions, isn't it? Based upon their own best interest. So they went back and said, it's
a deal. Jacob said, OK, all of you have got to be circumcised.
They said, well, let's just do it today. Let's get the surgeries
over today. OK? So they circumcised all the
men of the city. One day, two days, three days
go by. And the men of the city are getting
over surgery. Okay? And they're sore. And Levi and his brother Simeon,
they both of them got their swords. And they went into that city.
They killed Shechem. They killed his daddy. They killed
every man in that city and then the rest of the sons of Jacob,
they came in, they went through, they took everything that was
of any value. And in Genesis chapter 49, here's
what Jacob said of Levi and Simeon, your instruments of cruelty. I wouldn't have chose his tribe
to be the tribe to lead in the religious services of Israel. Not the tribe of Levi. But you
see, your thoughts aren't God's thoughts. Your ways are not God's
ways. Hey, who would have ever thought
that you would be chosen by God to be a recipient of His grace? Who would have ever thought that?
You? You? who are rotten to the core in
your heart? Could it be that you're an object
of everlasting love, everlasting grace? You? Me? Not Him? Oh yes. I tell you, God's choices
always amaze us. And the most astounding choice
of all is that when you realize He chose you. And you ask, why
did He choose me? Well, there is no good reason
in you. And the only reason is to be
found in the heart of God. He chose you unto salvation for
His glory because He would. And you leave it there. And if
you go searching for some kind of reason, you go meet in trouble. Because there's no reason to
be found in you why God would choose you. It's just because
He would. And God, from that tribe of Levi,
He chose a family. He chose a man. Go back to Exodus
chapter 28. And God said, this is my man.
This is my man right here. This is my man for the high priesthood. And these are my men that I will
use in the priesthood. Exodus 28 verse 1, "...and take
thou unto thee." This is God calling Moses, you take, you
fetch, you call effectually. You lay hold of Aaron and his
sons from among the children of Israel.
Out of all the children of Israel, out of all the tribe of Levi,
God said, Aaron is my choice. and his sons, that he may minister
unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu,
Eleazar, Ithamar, Aaron's sons." God's sovereign choice. He chooses who he's going to use. Now, the
very thought of the priesthood awakened in the hearts of the
Israelites feelings of profound thanksgiving. Oh, thank God for
His grace that we have one Aaron the high priest who will represent
us to God. That's what the people of God
wanted. Somebody to represent us to God.
I can't come into the presence of God. Now up until this time,
and I said it this morning, the heads of households were the
priests. The head of the household acted
as the priest of the family, leading in worship, offering
sacrifices to God. Then they went into Egyptian
bondage, and God brought them out. They're now at the foot
of Mount Sinai. And now God's going to implement
this way of approaching him by a man. This is wonderful. A man chosen from among men. And I'll tell you, Aaron pictured
our Lord Jesus. Psalm 89, God said, I've chosen
one out of the people. Our Lord Jesus. One of the people. Oh, he's the son of God, but
he's likened to us, made likened to us, the scripture says. Hallelujah,
praise the Lord. There's somebody who's gonna
go into the Holy of Holies once a year, and he will there represent
God's people. And the Israelites said, thank
you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. They could never
go in there. They couldn't even look in there.
They couldn't even get in the holy place. But there's a man
God has appointed who's gonna go in and offer the sacrifice
unto God that will put away the sins of Israel, cover them for
a year. Now, of course, Aaron, before
he could do anything for the people, oh, he had to offer a
sacrifice for himself. because he's a sinful man. And
so he did that. And then he offered a sacrifice
for the people of God. Hold your place here and turn
to Hebrews chapter seven, if you would, Hebrews chapter seven. Let me read you a few verses
here from Hebrews chapter 7. Look at verse 19. For the law, and I know a lot
of people, they divide the law into the moral law and the Levitical
or ceremonial law. Don't do that. It's just God's
law. And most people who do that,
they do it for this purpose so they can hang on to the Sabbath.
So they can still have a Sabbath day observance. Now listen, we're
free from the law. Okay? Free from the law. Oh,
happy condition. Jesus has bled. There's remission. for the law made nothing perfect. It didn't bring anything to perfection.
It didn't bring anything to completion. It didn't accomplish righteousness.
It didn't really satisfy the justice of God. The law made
nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. Key word in Hebrews, of course,
is the word better. By the which we draw nigh unto
God, by this better hope. The better hope is Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And insomuch as not without an
oath, he was made priest. For those priests were made without
an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, the
Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Our Lord Jesus wasn't of the
tribe of Levi. He was of the tribe of Judah.
He is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He was a priest
after the order of Melchizedek, an everlasting priesthood. Verse
22, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament,
a better covenant. And they truly were many priests
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
Aaron died. God took him up on the mountain. Moses went with him, went with
Aaron, stripped him of his high priestly garments, and gave it
to another son. Aaron couldn't, he couldn't remain
high priest. He died. And all the other priests
died. They couldn't continue by reason
of death. But this man, because he continued
with ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high priest
became us." He's suitable to us. That's what the word became
us means. He's suitable to us. He's just
the kind of high priest we need. It's like for Israel, bless the
name of God, they would say, God gave us a man to represent
us. Well, bless the name of God,
He gave us a man to represent us, but He's more than a man,
He's the God-man. Perfect in every way. He became us, He's suitable to
us, suitable to God, suitable to us, holy. and harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens," watch this,
"...who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up
sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have an infirmity, but the word of the oath which was
since the law maketh the son who is consecrated for evermore. We have a high priest. And Aaron,
he was the high priest of Israel. Let me give you a few things
here. I'm gonna skip over some of my notes here. There's a significance
in the name of Aaron. Let me give this to you quickly.
His name has different shades of meaning, all of which direct
our attention to our Savior, who is our great High Priest. First of all, His name means
bright, bright and shining, or Lightbringer. That's what Aaron's
name means, Lightbringer. Let me ask you this. Where were
we when the Lord came to deal with us? Well, we were in the
dark. We were in spiritual darkness.
And darkness in the Bible, it pictures ignorance and wickedness
and error, religious superstition, spiritual death. That was our
condition. We dwelt in a state of no gospel,
no salvation, No light. But then He who at first in Genesis
1 said, let there be light, spoke that word to our hearts. Let
there be light. Who do you think brought you
light to see the things of God? The light bringer, your great
high priest did. He brought you out of the darkness
of error into the truth. The darkness of death into the
life. He did that. Secondly, His name
means wealthy or rich. The riches of God's grace belong
to Him. The riches of God's mercies.
We were listening to some preacher the other day and he talked about
how rich we are. He said, our Father owns the
cattle on a thousand hills and the hills beside. Well, that's
true. But I wouldn't advise you go up there and get one of them
cows and slaughter it. Take it to a butcher and tell
him cut this up for you. My Father owns it. Listen, the
riches that are ours in Christ Jesus far outweigh everything
this world has to offer. We have the riches of God's salvation. We have the riches of His grace,
the riches of His mercy. And then His name means one who
is fluent, fluent. That is a ready spokesman, one
who speaks. Is He not called the Word? He's
very fluent in the Gospel. And that's a language you did
not understand until this Lightbringer, who is rich in mercy, came to
you, God's spokesman to you, and He taught you the Gospel. You remember that when the Lord
told Moses, I've got a job for you, go speak for me. Moses thought,
oh, I can't talk. Get Aaron! He's a good talker. Let me tell you something. Our
Lord Jesus, He is God's spokesman to us. And His name means, Aaron's name
means very high. He's been highly exalted. Exalted
above everyone and everything. He sits at the right hand of
God. You think of it, Aaron and his sons, they were chosen together. That passage in Ephesians, or
in Exodus chapter 28 verse 1, take Aaron and his sons. They were chosen together. We
were chosen together. Christ was God's first choice,
and we were chosen in Him. And you know, the priesthood,
The sons, they were robed with the same robe as the high priest.
The basic garment, which was a garment of white, clothed with
the same garment. I know the high priest had his
exceptional garments, which we'll go into another time, but his
basic garment that he was dressed in On the Day of Atonement, same
garments his priests, the priests where his sons were dressed in, were robed in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Absolutely astounding. And then
the priests Let me give you their names quickly. Nadab, that's
the oldest son. His name means willingly. Doesn't
that speak of our Savior's sufferings? He willingly laid down His life
for us. His name also means generous.
Surely there's none so generous as our Savior. What did He give
to save us? Not silver or gold. Something
much more valuable. himself. Nadab also means noble one. Noble one. Certainly Nadab did
not live up to the meaning of his name, for he was very un-noble
when he burned incense with coals taken from strange fire and God
killed him on the spot. Him and His brother Abihu. But
His name does mean Noble One. There is none more noble than
our Savior. And you know, as I think about
it, His name pictures us. We have been brought willingly
to believe on the Lord Jesus. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of Thy power. And you know what? The Lord makes
us generous. I'll tell you what grace does. Grace opens up the heart and
grace opens up the hand to give. The heart to love, the hand to
give. And we're nobility. We're nobility. We're the children of God. Abihu.
His name means, my Father is He. God is our Father. Our Lord Jesus, He was hated
by the Jews because He told them in John chapter 5, the passage
that y'all's special song was written based upon the man that
was beside the well, beside the water rather, that he'd been
there lame 38 years. Our Lord healed him, did it on
the Sabbath day, that irritated the Jews. And then he told me,
he said, well my father worketh hitherto and I work. And they
therefore sought the Lord to kill him. Not only because he
had broken the Sabbath in their opinion, but he said that God
was his father. thereby making himself equal
with God. God is his Father. He's the everlasting
Son of the everlasting Father. And God is our Father. God is
our Father. And I'll tell you something else
about Abihu. His name means a worshiper. Now he with his brother, they
were both killed by God. but his name means one who truly
worships. Paul says we're the true people
of God. We're the circumcision which
worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, have no confidence
in the flesh. And then Eleazar. Eleazar is
the one that he would become the high priest. when Moses stripped Aaron of
his high priestly garments up on the mountain, they were given
Eliezer. He would become the high priest.
His name means God is our helper. God is our helper. He is our
strength. He is our shield. And then Ithamar,
his name means fruitful. Our Lord Jesus, He's the fruitful
vine. He bears many sons to glory.
and we bear fruit for the glory of God. I say we bear it. It's
the fruit of the Spirit, isn't it? People say what they do, they're
fruit inspectors. Well, this is the kind of fruit
much of which can't be seen. It's in the heart. Thank God
we have a representative. Let me give you this one quick. Anytime God deals with a group
of people, He deals with them through a representative. That's
right, isn't it, Alan? He deals with them through a
representative. Adam. God dealt with that representative
man who stood in the stead of all of the human race. Our Lord Jesus in the covenant
of grace. He was our representative. He stood for us. He represented
us. Aaron, he was the representative
of all of Israel when he went in to do business with God. One
man. One man said, well, that isn't
fair. I'll let you take that up with
the Lord, if you dare. Let the potsherds of the earth
argue with and fuss with the potsherds of the earth. I wouldn't
do it with the Lord if I was you. And God dealt with Aaron. God received the sacrifice from
Aaron. on the behalf of all of Israel.
And our God receives us through one representative man, the God-man
in Christ Jesus. And you come to God by Him, you'll
be received. Got God's Word on that. But if
you try to come any other way than by this representative man,
you say, well, I'm going to step out on my own. You're just stepping
out into hell is what you're doing. You're stepping out into
a certain death. You better come to God that way
He appointed. The new and living way. Jesus
Christ crucified, buried, risen again, and ascended. Aaron and his sons. Let's sing
a closing song, 450. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful as we