Now let's open our Bibles back
to Leviticus chapter 8. Leviticus chapter 8. Before I begin the message tonight,
I just want to say a word. You know, someone said last week
that there's so much detail in the Old Testament when you look
at these types and pictures of Christ. And you do realize we're
just in the third book of the Old Testament. I mean, there's
more. And of course, there's history
books, too. But especially in these first few books of the
Bible and Leviticus, there's so much detail. Chapter 7, as
we went through it, there's a lot of things. And somebody asked,
how can I remember all those things? And the answer to that
is you can't. I can't. If I were going to preach
on it again, I certainly wouldn't try it from memory. I'd have
my notes up here. But the thing about it is it's
not impending upon us to remember every detail. Someone said this
about going through the types and the pictures of the Old Testament.
He said, think of it like walking through a huge, vast art gallery. And as you walk through that
gallery, you're admiring the beautiful paintings. And you'll
stop and you'll look at a painting and there's so much detail in
that painting and you'll be impressed with that detail and this detail
and the whole painting overall. And then you go on to another
one and you admire its beauty and it just draws out your affections
and your emotions and you go on to another one. And finally,
when you finish looking at the whole art gallery, you go home
and you know that you've seen something beautiful. You've been
changed inwardly. You'll never be the same. You
remember more details maybe about one painting than you do another.
There are a lot of the details you don't remember, but you know
you've seen something beautiful and it's been a glorious experience. And sometimes if you go back
into that art gallery and you look at another painting, you
say, well, I didn't remember that before, but there it is
again. I see it now, even clearer. And it means a little more to
me now. And that's the way it is. You see, what is important
I believe about studying the pictures and the types of the
Old Testament is that we see the overall beauty of Christ
and him crucified. And as we walk through this gallery
of Leviticus chapter 8, we're going to see some details. And
maybe we won't remember them right when we get up tonight
to leave to go home, but maybe sometime in the future you'll
be sitting down and you'll be reading Leviticus chapter 8 and
you'll look at that little detail and you'll say, I remember what
that is. The Lord may bring that to mind. And that's the way we
do this. We look at the overall beauty of Christ. And that's
what this chapter is about. It's the beauty of Christ. And
this particular chapter, Leviticus chapter 8, is one of the most
instructive chapters in the Old Testament concerning a believer's
relationship to Christ. I've entitled this message, Our
Consecration to Christ. Our consecration to Christ, because
what this is talking about in chapter 8, and actually it goes
on over into chapter 9 and chapter 10 too, a little bit, is the
consecration of the priest to the ministry of the tabernacle,
later on the temple. You see, God had appointed, he
told Moses, he commanded Moses to appoint Aaron and his sons
to be the high priests, and that was set in the commandment of
God. God's the one who chose. his
priest. And now we see their actual consecration
or their dedication. They are set forth and separated
and dedicated and equipped to do the work of the ministry.
And what we have there in the consecration of the priest is
a type or a picture or an object lesson of the believer's consecration
to Christ. And you'll be amazed at the detail
that's in this, because it is amazing. But don't lose sight
of the overall picture and the overall beauty of it now, which
is that we are. We've studied this before. You
know, we've studied the office of the priest. We studied it
back in Exodus. Remember, we went over the office and went
over all the clothing and all of the sacrifices, and then studied
a little bit in the sacrifices in the book of Leviticus. And
you remember, we studied it in the book of Hebrews, too, because
that's a book about the priesthood. In the book of Hebrews, that
great commentary, New Testament commentary, showing how Christ
is the fulfillment of the priestly office of the High Priest. The
High Priest of Israel was a type of Christ, our great and our
only High Priest. There is one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Therefore, it is
blasphemy and idolatry for men today or women today to call
upon any other priest than Jesus Christ, the crucified one, the
one who's passed through into the heavens, the scripture says,
and who's seated at the right hand of God, the Father on high,
making intercession for us. The priesthood springs out of
the nature of God. Why do we need a priest? I'll
tell you why, because God is holy, because he's just, and
we're sinners. We can't come to God on our own.
We can't come to God without a proper, appointed, able, and
willing high priest. We can't come to God on our own
terms. Our own terms are deadly for
us. So it springs out of the nature
of God. It's a requirement of the holiness
and justice and the satisfaction that God requires. And it springs
out of our need of forgiveness, our need of access to God. That's
what we need. Our need of communion with God,
things to be made right. God reconciled the sinners and
sinners reconciled to God. Access to, now listen, access
to God, acceptance with, fellowship with, communion with God, all
were attained and maintained by the priesthood. Standing for
the people, offering sacrifices unto God. And all of this in
the Old Testament pictured our one great high priest who offered
himself without spot unto God for his people and accomplished
all of these goals. Now, the other priest, Aaron's
sons, he mentions here in verse 2 of Leviticus 8, take Aaron
and his sons. Aaron is the high priest. He's
the type of Christ. He's the one he set apart, you
see. He has the preeminence. Aaron is the high priest here.
The other priests, his sons, were types of believers, the
church, who've been made priests unto God. That's what we are
because of what Christ accomplished on Calvary. We've been made priests
unto God because of our great high priest. These sons of Aaron
were made priests because Aaron was the high priest. We've been
made priests because Christ is our great high priest. And that
means we have free, open, unhindered access into the holiest of all
by the blood of Christ. You see, our great high priest.
That's the priesthood of the believer. I preached a whole
message on that. We studied it. Everything in the ceremonial
worship of the tabernacle was typical of how sinners are to
approach God and find acceptance, find communion, find forgiveness
through Christ, the crucified one. Now Aaron, as I said, the
high priest, he was a type of Christ. You remember the lamb
that was slain on the day of atonement? That's a type of Christ.
And all other sacrifices made on other days, they were types
of Christ. They typified our sin offering, our trespass offering,
our peace offering, all of that, our meal offering. The tabernacle
itself, and then what later became the temple when God commissioned
Solomon to build the temple. is a type of God's spiritual
house. The house of God. And what is
that but the church? The house of God. And we're not
talking about this building here now. We're not talking about
these walls and this roof. As much as we thank God for this
facility and its comforts and it allows us a place to gather
together, this is not the church. You are the church. The people
of God. I'm going to show you that here
in just a moment in type. In other words, it's the chosen
ones. It's the redeemed ones. It's the justified ones. It's
the adopted ones. It's the regenerated ones, the
ones who are called out of the world, the people of God in whom
God dwells by His Spirit. Look over at 1 Peter chapter
2. Let's look at this before we go any further. This is what
he says in verse 9. This is the type here fulfilled. 1 Peter 2 and verse 9, he says,
but you are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood, a
kingdom of priests, Christ the King, Christ the Great High Priest,
Christ the Prophet, and holy nation set apart by God, made
holy in Him, a peculiar people, a purchased people, that you
should show forth the praises of Him who have called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light. And that's what the priesthood
of the Old Covenant was to do, to show forth the glory and the
praises of God. Look back at that same chapter
in verse 4 of 1 Peter 2, to whom coming as unto a living stone,
that's Christ, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, that's
Christ. He was chosen of God. And precious
you also as living stones. are built up a spiritual house
and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also it is contained
in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded unto you therefore which believe." Precious. Precious. Christ is precious. That's the
Go back to Leviticus 8. This Leviticus 8 shows us how
the priests under the Old Covenant were made, how they were dedicated,
how they were consecrated, what set them on their task, on their
office. When did it begin? You say, when
God first commissioned Moses to set apart Aaron, the tabernacle
wasn't built. But now the tabernacle's built.
Now it's time to set forth the priest. and to do their offices
and their duties. And it was a seven-day ceremony,
a seven-day ceremony showing the completeness of the salvation
that God provides through his Son. It typically sets forth
how we who are saved have been made priests unto God in Christ.
And the first thing you notice in Leviticus 8 is this, is that
the priests were chosen by God, not by man. There was no, this
was not the result of a committee or a seminary or any kind of
a synod or any kind of a vote. It was totally God's choice.
Look at verse one. And the Lord spoke unto Moses
saying, take Aaron and his sons with him. And the garments, the
anointing oil, the bullock for the sin offering, the two rams
and a basket of unleavened bread. Take Aaron and his sons. There
it is. Aaron a type of Christ, his sons
a type of the redeemed, that's Christ and his people. And listen
to me, just like Aaron and his sons were chosen sovereignly
by God to be the priests of Israel under the old covenant. the one
and only, unique, the only begotten Son of God. God Himself, the
Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, was chosen in
eternity in the everlasting covenant of grace and set up to be the
one mediator, the one Savior, the one High Priest of God. He was chosen. Isaiah spoke of
it in Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 1, when the Lord revealed, he
said, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, he's speaking
of Christ, in whom my soul delighteth. Who is the one in whom God's
soul delights? His Son. He said, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Not talking
about me or you, talking about his Son. And he says, I put my
spirit upon him and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
That's the gospel. He's going to bring the gospel
to work in this world by himself. He was chosen. And then the Bible
teaches that Aaron did not take this office unto himself. Look
over at Hebrews chapter five. Again, no man could take this
unto himself. No man can appoint himself to
be a priest. He says it in verse 4 here, talking
about the high priest of Israel. No man taketh this honor unto
himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. He has
to be chosen of God and called of God. Go back to verse 1. Here's other things for every
high priest, taken from among men. He must be taken from among
men. Now, we know that that speaks of the humanity of Christ as
the type is fulfilled in him. He was taken from among men,
for he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham,
and is ordained for men." The priest was to represent men,
God's chosen ones, in things pertaining to God. He was to
represent men to God. That's what the Scripture said.
"...that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin." That's
Christ, you see. Aaron did that, but he was only
a type. He was limited. Aaron was a sinner
himself. Look on verse 2, one who can
have compassion on the ignorant. You see, Christ could have compassion
on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he
himself is compassed with, also is compassed with infirmity.
That's the infirmities of his human flesh without sin. And
speaking of Christ. And by reason hereof he ought
as for the people also for himself to offer for sins." Now Aaron
was a sinner himself. Christ was sinless. But when
our sins were imputed to him, they became his. And I'll tell
you, I hear these preachers talking about legal fiction now. There
was no legal fiction in this great transaction of God the
Father who made him to be sin. And when he made us to be the
righteousness of God, they can make fun of it and call it a
legal fiction all they want, but they're going to be accountable
to God for that now. That was no fiction. When our
sins were charged to Christ, he didn't become a sinner, but
those sins became his. And he spoke of them as his sins,
not his sins by commission, not his sins by corruption, not his
sins by infusion, but his sins by legal act of imputation. And that's real. And just in
the same way, we can take his righteousness unto ourselves
and call it ours, not by our making, not by what we've done
or will do or plan to do or promise to do or try to do, but by a
legal act of imputation. It's ours. He's the Lord, our
righteousness. Now you see there, that's the
high priest chosen of God. Aaron didn't take it upon himself.
And then it says back here in Leviticus 8, take Aaron and his
sons. Now his sons were chosen too. They were chosen in Aaron. And that speaks of the sons who
became priests through Aaron. Now that speaks of us who are
priests unto God. We became priests through Christ,
our high priest. You can read the whole chapter
of Ephesians chapter 1. And how many times does it say
we are chosen in him? through Him, in Him, in Him. You see, it's always in Christ. Our election was in Christ, you
see. It's not that God looked down
through a telescope of time and foresaw what you would do or
wouldn't do, whether you would believe or wouldn't believe.
We were chosen in Christ. Our election is in Christ. Now,
election without Christ is pride. Do you know that? That's what
happened to the Jews. We're the elect, you see. Well,
if you really know election, God's unconditional election,
it won't bring about pride, it'll bring about humility. Why? Why? Why did God choose me? I'll tell
you. Why did He choose me? Wasn't
there many more qualified? Well, you compare men to men,
you'd have to say yes. But not in God's sight. None
of us were qualified. He chose us in Christ. And like Aaron's sons, we were
born into that priesthood. You see, that's the Levitical
priesthood, the sons of Levi. That's what this book's about,
the book of Leviticus. And to be a priest, you had to
be of the house of Levi. You had to be born into it. And
my friend, we're born into this priesthood at the new birth.
When we're born again by the Spirit of God, we are personally
and by experience consecrated into this priesthood. That's
when we see Christ. That's when our consciences are
cleansed of its guilt, to where we have boldness and freedom
by faith to enter into the holiest of all as priests unto God. He
mentions here these items for their consecration. He talks
about the garments, the anointing oil, the bullock, the two rams,
the basket of unleavened bread. We'll get to them in a minute.
But the point that you need to see here is that all of those
items are not made by man. They're appointed and provided
by God. In other words, everything they
needed to consecrate them to the priesthood was a free gift
of the power and grace of God. And that's the way it is with
us. You see, we don't enter the priesthood by choice. God chooses us, He calls us,
and He equips us, and He brings us in. And yes, we do choose,
but that's not how we get there. We get there because God draws
us with cords of love and mercy. Now, in the next few verses,
look at verse 3 here. We see next it was a public consecration. In other words, this was no private
matter hidden behind closed doors. This was no secret society. This
was no bunch of guys getting together and chanting. behind
closed doors and saying, now don't tell anybody else what
we're doing. No, sir. This was a public, open consecration
before the whole congregation. Look, he says, gather thou all
the congregation together into the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation. Not done in secret. Right there
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, where God
reveals his glory, where God meets with his people on the
ground of sacrifice through the high priest. And he says, and
Moses did as the Lord commanded him. The assembly was gathered
together to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Moses said
unto the congregation, this is a thing which the Lord commanded
be done. It's all by the command of God,
not by the command of men. Man-made rules, regulations,
man-made rituals have no place here. This is all of the Lord. And isn't that the way it is
with our salvation? You know, when man-made Instruments, rules,
regulations, ideas and opinions come into play. You know where
that gets us, don't you? Gets us in trouble. It means
death is what it means. Look at verse 6 now. The next
thing we see is it's a consecration of cleansing. This consecration
could not be defiled. And there's two ceremonial cleansings
here, but look at verse 6. He says, And Moses brought Aaron
and his sons, and washed them with water. Now, the priest must
be washed clean ceremonially, and these are ceremonial washings.
Now, when you read in the New Testament about the baptisms
and the washings of the Old Covenant, this is part of what that's talking
about, this washing of water, ceremonially. And that's typical
of our washing and our cleansing judicially and spiritually. Let
me show you what I'm talking about. Now, first of all, look
here. It says, Moses brought Aaron and his sons and he washed
them with water. Now, this was a one-time cleansing
from head to toe. I mean, it was like a bath. And
it was a humbling experience because it was right out there
in the open in front of the whole congregation. I mean, it was
a humbling experience. These men were stripped naked
and washed from head to toe with water. And you know, I thought
about that in this way. You know, when God saves us,
when he brings us to Christ, you know what he does? He strips
us naked of all of our self-righteous robes and ideas and thoughts
and brings us, brings us bare before his law and shows us what
we are. And that's what this is all about,
you see. And it was done with water, ceremonially. But throughout
the chapter, we see them cleansed several times, not by water only,
but also by blood, by blood and water. And that makes you think
of the blood and the water that flowed from our Savior's side,
doesn't it? In verse 2, you remember he said that they were to bring
a bullock for a sin offering and two rams. The blood of the
bullock was poured out at the bottom of the altar, and the
blood of one of the rams was sprinkled upon the altar. And
in this manner the priests were cleansed before God with blood
and water, for without the shedding of blood there is no cleansing,
there is no remission of sins. And there are two cleansings
that consecrate us, us today, to the priesthood. The first
one is our judicial, our legal cleansing at the cross by the
blood of Christ. When our sins were laid upon
Him, And he drank damnation dry. He bore them away. The Bible
calls that being washed in the blood of Christ. Let me show
you that. Look at Revelation chapter one. And that's when that took place,
that's our justification before God right there. That's when
this and that's if you're in Christ, that's when your sins
were put away even before you were born. And you think about
that now, just like that altar of burnt offering and that bullock
whose blood was poured at the bottom of that altar, that's
a picture of the blood of our Savior, you see. And that was
done to cleanse the priest. And he says in Revelation chapter
1, look here in verse 5, he's talking about all the revelation
and from Jesus Christ. who is the faithful witness and
the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of
the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins
in his own blood." And then look over at Revelation chapter 7.
We have that same language used here in verse 14. Speaking of The saints of God
going through tribulation. He said in verse 14, I said unto
him, Sir, thou knowest, and who are these that came forth with
arrayed in white robes? He says, Sir, thou knowest, and
he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation
and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb. Washed in the blood of the crucified
one. When Christ died, we were cleansed
from all sin and all guilt. in the eyes of God's law and
justice, justified based on his righteousness imputed, and that
is as real as God is real. That is as real as the blood
that flowed out of our Savior. That is as real as the pain that
he went through. That is as real as his death
when he gave up the ghost, as real as his burial, as real as
his resurrection, and as real as his ascension and intercession.
And don't ever let anybody else tell you that's not. My friend,
if God declares it, if God sees it that way, it's more real than
you looking at me right here. I'm telling you, that's the truth.
Now, that's cleansed by the blood. The second cleansing is our regeneration
and our conversion, the new birth. The Bible calls that the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. In Ephesians
chapter 5 and verse 26, it's called the washing of water by
the word. It's called the cleansing of
the conscience sometimes. And that's not the impartation
or infusion of some kind of perfection within us. You see, initially,
these priests, now think about this, back here in Leviticus
8, initially, these priests were washed from head to toe. But
they had to continually wash their hands and feet. They did
this one time. washed from head to toe. That was a one-time thing.
But they still had to wash their hands and their feet, their works
and their walk, you see. Why? Because that was a testimony
of their continual sinnerhood and that their only hope continually
was to be washed with the water of the Word that pointed them
to Christ, you see. And we must continually, as believers,
As regenerated sinners, as saints, as priests, we must continually
fight sin within. We must continually look for
Christ for our cleansing. Our works, our walk, our thoughts
must continually be washed in the water of his word that does
what? That points us to Christ for
atonement, for relief, for remission, for perfection. Do you see that?
Now, look back here, Leviticus chapter 8. Now, in verse 7, he
speaks of the garments for the high priest and the garments
for the priest over in verse 13. He says in verse 7, he put
upon him the coat. Now, this is talking about Aaron,
girded him with that coat. You remember that we studied
this in all the different pieces of clothing of the high priest.
He had his coat girded him with a girdle. That's his service,
ready to serve. clothed him with the robe," all
of this signifying the purity, the perfection, the holiness,
the righteousness of the high priest. "...and ephod upon him,"
you remember the ephod which went over the robe and over which
they hung the breastplate and had the shoulder pieces with
the names of the twelve tribes. "...girded him with the curious
girdle," that's a valuable, a precious girdle of the ephod, "...and
bounded upon him therewith, and put on the breastplate upon him."
Also he put upon the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. You
remember that? The Urim means light. That's
what that means. Thummim means perfection. That
is the light of the glorious perfection of God set forth in
the high priest. Now Aaron typified that. Christ
is the substance of it. The light of the perfection of
God in him. He is the light. He said He's
the light of the world. And in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. No sin in Him, you see. And it
says He put the mitre upon His head, the glory of God. And upon
the mitre, even on His forefront, did He put the golden plate.
Do you remember what it said? Holiness to the Lord. Do you
remember that? The Holy Crown. And the Lord
commanded Moses. And there it is. The High Priest.
Now, He's set apart. He has the preeminence. His clothes
were much more impressive than the regular priest because that
was in himself, you see. He had the preeminence and all
of it picturing Christ, the head of the body. Christ is the great
high priest. We're made priests unto God.
He's the greater, we're the lesser. He's the one, we're the many.
He's the head, we're the body. He's the bridegroom, we're the
bride. All of it. Now, down here in
verse 13, it says, Moses brought Aaron's sons and put coats upon
them and girded them with girdles and put bonnets or turbans upon
them as the Lord commanded. You see, the other priests had
their garments, and that all typified the righteousness of
Christ imputed to them, and which we put on by faith when we're
born again. That is, it's imputed to us at
the cross, but then the Holy Spirit comes, gives us life and
knowledge, and lets us in on it. He lets us know what took
place. we look to Christ in glory in
Him. We continually put it on in our hearts. That's what the
Bible means when it talks about putting off the old man and his
deeds. I'm no longer condemned in Adam. Therefore, I shouldn't
go around acting like a condemned man. Put that off. The old man
died when Christ died. Put on the new man, which was
created in holiness and righteousness. I'm to see myself as not condemned
in Christ. I'm justified. Nobody can lay
anything to my charge I'm a child of God. Now I ought to act like
it. I ought to live like it. I ought to think like it. You
see what I'm saying? Put him on. Continue to lay hold of Christ
by faith. That's what that means. Look
back at verse 10. Now here's the anointing oil.
The next thing we see, there has to be anointing oil, both
for the items, the inanimate objects, and for the high priest.
He says in verse 10, Moses took the anointing oil and anointed
the tabernacle and all that was therein and sanctified him. He
set him apart with that oil. And he sprinkled thereon upon
the altar seven times, that's completeness, you see, perfection,
and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the labor and
his foot, to sanctify them. We've read about this before
in other places. He poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's
head and anointed him to sanctify him. set him apart. Now, the
anointing oil typifies the work of the Holy Spirit within. Sprinkled on non-living things
to show that they were set apart for God. It was sprinkled on
the labor, on the altar. These things are set apart. The
testimony of the Spirit is that these things were set apart for
God. They weren't to be used for anything
else but the glory of God. But also for another reason.
I believe it teaches a lesson. that to show that it takes the
work of the Holy Spirit within us so that we can see Christ
in these things, so that we can see the glory of God. You know,
you can't even believe the plain testimony of the gospel without
the work of the Holy Spirit. You know why? Because you don't
have eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts and minds to understand
without the Holy Spirit. That's right. Without the work
of the Spirit in the new birth, in regeneration and conversion,
we're blind people walking in a dark world, all getting ready
to fall into the ditch together. Isn't that right? That's why
the Scripture says, let him who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
And there's no way that you can see the glory and the majesty
and the significance. There's no way you can see Christ
in these things except as you're guided by the Holy Spirit. And
He shows these things to you. How do I know what that laver
represents? What that altar represents? What
Aaron typifies? It's only by the testimony and
the revelation of the Holy Spirit that we know. And we know that
so. You're not going to believe,
know, and love Christ apart from the new birth. You must be born
again, the scripture says, Christ said. And this oil now was poured,
now it was sprinkled on these inanimate objects. But you notice
it was poured upon Aaron. I mean, he was doused with it.
You read that back in the study when it talked about how great
and how precious it is for brethren to dwell together. It's like
oil on Aaron's beard that trickled all the way down to his feet.
And what that means is the joy and the peace and the love that
comes by the Holy Spirit as he enters our hearts and gives us
a sense of our oneness in Christ. And here's Aaron. the high priest,
the type of Christ, and the oil that represented the Holy Spirit
was poured upon him. And I want you to notice something
about this. Don't miss this. Did you notice that only Aaron,
if you read the whole chapter now, only Aaron, the high priest,
was anointed with oil before the blood was shed? The other
priests weren't anointed until after the blood was shed. But
Aaron, the high priest, He's anointed with oil before. Now,
what does that mean? Well, He's a type of Christ who,
by virtue of what He is in His own person, was anointed with
the Holy Spirit without measure. For again, in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Christ, the God-man, dwells
all the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
without measure. I can't understand that, but
it's so. I can't explain it. Long before the work of the cross
was accomplished by our Savior, He had the full anointing of
the Holy Spirit in His holy humanity. And it equipped Him to go to
the cross for us. But now Aaron's son, they were
not anointed until after the blood was shed. You see, that
sets all things in proper order and importance. that Christ might
have the preeminence. You see, the only way that you
and I can be born again and have the work of the Holy Spirit in
us is based upon what Christ has accomplished for us on the
cross. Now, he told his disciples that in John 16. He told them
in verse 7. You remember when they were gathered
around in the upper room and they were sad. They knew what
was going to happen. They knew he was going to be
arrested. They knew that the Pharisees and the Romans, they
wanted to kill him. And they bask in his presence,
you see, and they were sad. And Christ told them, he said,
don't be sad, be glad. That's what he was telling them.
He said, it is expedient or necessary that I go away. He's saying,
I've got to go through all this. Remember, he told them one time,
he said, for this purpose came I into the world. And when he
prayed in the garden, when he was going through that agony,
that human agony, without sin over the impending suffering
that he was about to face, he said, should I ask that this
cup pass from me? And he said, for this reason
came I into the world. I came here to die. And he told
his disciples, he said, it's necessary for you that I go away.
You can't be saved apart from the work of Christ on the cross.
You can't be forgiven. You can't be justified. And then
he told them, he said, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. There'll be no work of the Holy
Spirit unless Christ does his work on the cross. There's no
life to give if Christ doesn't earn that life and work out that
life in himself on the cross. There's no forgiveness of sin.
There's nothing for the Holy Spirit to testify to if Christ
doesn't die, be buried, and raised again the third day. You see,
the work of the Holy Spirit in us is the fruit and the result
of the finished work of Christ for us. And that's what this
is teaching right here. Aaron was anointed before the
blood. His son's anointed after. And that's the way it is with
us. Work of the Spirit is. And then all Christ's sheep will
have this anointing in the new birth. There's not one priest,
you see, that was not to be anointed. And notice they must be clothed
first and then anointed. So we must have Christ's righteousness
imputed first at the cross. And then as a result, in time,
when God brings us under the preaching of the gospel, he anoints
us with the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Gives us eyes to see,
ears to hear. Now, in verses 14 through 21,
he talks about the sin offering and the burn offering. We just
studied quite a bit of that. The sin offering was for sin
in its very essence. That's what we are. That's what
we always will be in this life until we're glorified. The burn
offering was the basis of all justification and forgiveness,
both typified salvation by the blood of Christ. And then in
verse 22, he starts talking about The ram of consecration. First,
there are two rams here. There's a bolek for the sin offering. There was a ram for the burnt
offering. And then verse 22, it says he brought the other
ram. There's another ram. And it's called the ram of consecration. This ram of consecration was
mentioned back in the book of Exodus in chapter 29. It was the ram of consecration,
it was a wave offering. Remember, we talked about the
wave offering. When they took the offering, they waved it around
in the holy presence of God. And it was an application of
the blood. And though sin had already been atoned for, consecration
before God still happens based on the blood. You don't ever
get away from the blood. And my friend, in anything when
it comes to do with God, when in our justification, our adoption,
our consecration, our redemption. You don't ever get away from
Christ and Him crucified. He's always to be at the forefront
of our minds. Look at verse 23. He slew this
ram of consecration. It says, Moses took of the blood
of it, put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the
thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe, the big toe
of his right foot. Now, doesn't that seem strange?
And he goes on, verse 24, we've studied this before in Exodus.
He brought Aaron's sons, Moses put off of the blood upon the
tip of their right ear, upon the thumbs of their right hands
and upon their great toes of their right feet. And Moses sprinkled
the blood upon the altar round about. The ear, that consecrates
our what? Our hearing. The blood upon the
ear, the blood of Christ applied to our hearing. That's how we
hear the gospel. The thumb. That's our works,
reaching forth our hands, the blood of Christ, consecrating
our works, washing us clean. The big toe, that's our walk,
the blood of Christ, consecrating our walk. It was given first
to Aaron because it typified Christ who was totally dedicated
in every way to the glory of his father, in his ear, in his
works, in his walk, in every way. And then to Aaron's sons,
where it typifies the application of Christ to us. God, the Holy
Spirit, points us to Christ in what we hear, in what we do,
and in where we go. Consecrated to him. You see that?
That's amazing, isn't it? The ram whose blood was used
for the consecration of the priest was roasted and eaten by the
priest over the week of the consecration ceremony. And after that it talks
about the best of the ram, the fat, the inwards, the two kidneys,
the right thigh were all waved by the priest and then burnt
before the Lord. This was the Lord's portion of
the consecration offered. The best goes to God. You know,
that word consecration is an interesting word. You know, it
literally means to set, as in setting a precious stone. taking
a precious stone and set it, put it in a setting. You ladies,
you have rings or necklaces, you have stones set in that ring
and the arrangement of those and they're set there. It's the
same word that was used to describe the setting of the stones in
the breastplate of the high priest and on his shoulder. They were
set. And what does that talk about?
Well, that's what God's children are. They're his stones, they're
his precious stones, who are set on the shoulder of our Savior,
for our salvation is conditioned on him. They're those precious
stones set upon his breast in his heart, for he loved his own
unto the end, unto the finishing of the world. And when the Holy
Spirit calls us and consecrates us as priests and equips us for
the ministry, God sets each and every one of us in the place
that He wills, where He wills, to use us and to put us. And
there we're to take our place willingly and shine forth His
glory where He puts us. That's exactly what that means.
Somebody says, well, I don't like the arrangement around here.
Well, you didn't consecrate it. You didn't set it. God did. And your beef is not with me
or any other person. Your beef is with God. You take
it up with Him. That's it, isn't it? Later on,
we're going to see where some fellas got out of kilter because
of the arrangement of things. Huh? Why Aaron? Why his family? You see, you don't question God's
arrangement of things. He's sovereign. He's in control. He's the governor. He's the God
of Providence. These last verses over here. Verse 31, he speaks of Moses,
said unto Aaron, he said, boil the flesh at the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation and eat, eat it with bread that
is in the basket of consecration. Here's a fellowship meal with
God. The rest was raised before God and then for eating by the
priest. They would, in a sense, share
a meal with God. Consecration always takes place
in the context of fellowship with God. You remember when Moses
went up on the mountain, he came back down and God fenced that
mountain around. He said, don't you let don't
don't let the people touch it. And he said, don't even let a
Don't even let an animal come to the foot of that mountain
lest we throw a spear and kill him. It's holy ground. And then later on, after sacrifice
was made, God said, Moses, you come up. And he said, bring Nadab
and Abihu, bring Aaron, bring the elders. Moses alone was to
go into the presence of God. He represented Christ, you see,
for the people. But when Moses come back down,
they sat down in Exodus 24. And it says this, here they were
at that mountain that God had before forbidden, showing that
based on your qualifications, your worth, you can't come. But
by the invitation of God, by the choosing of God, by the anointing
of God, and based upon sacrifice, here they come. And it says God
laid not his hand on them. He laid not his hand on them.
You see, there was no condemnation there. There was no charge there. There was no wrath there. Because
in Christ there is no condemnation, no charge, no wrath. And it says
they saw God. How do we see God, friend? Only
in Christ. You can't see God apart from
Christ. That means they beheld Him intently, they beheld Him
peacefully, they beheld Him continually. And it says in Exodus 24, they
did eat and drink. That's peace. That's fellowship. That's quietness. That's nourishment. Feeding upon the provision of
God. Christ, the bread of life. Christ, the water of life. You
see that? That pictures the Holy Spirit's
work to comfort us in the presence of God by causing us to set our
gaze intently, peacefully, and continually on Christ and Him
crucified. God at peace with His people.
and his people at peace with him. And then those last verses
say that they were to remain there for seven days as the priest
alone with God before they could serve the people.