Turn with me to Exodus 29. I'm sorry, that's Exodus 29. Exodus chapter 29. Start in verse 1. I'm going to read verse
1 and then skip to verse 15 through 22. Exodus 29. Let's look at verse 1. And this
is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them.
To minister unto me, this is in the priest's office, take
one young bullock and two rams without blemish. So this is basically
what they're to do with the priest, Aaron and his sons. So they're
to do this thing unto me in the priest's office. Unto God in
the priest's office. Now, let's go to verse 15. We're
going to look at these two rams. Thou shalt also take one ram
and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head
of the ram. And thou shalt slay the ram,
and thou shalt take the ram's blood and sprinkle it round about
upon the altar. 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. And thou shalt burn
the whole ram upon the altar. It is a burnt offering unto the
Lord. it is a sweet savor, an offering
made by fire unto the Lord." That was the first ram. Now,
"...and thou shalt take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons shall
put their hands upon the head of the ram, and thou shalt kill
the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the
right ear of Aaron." and upon the tip of the right ear of his
sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great
toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar
round about. And thou shalt take of the blood
that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle
it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the
garments of his sons with him, and he shall be hallowed and
his sons' garments with him. Also thou shalt take of the ram
the fat and the rump, the fat that covereth the inwards, and
the call above, and the liver, and the two kidneys, and the
fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder, for it is a ram
of consecration." So, we've got these two rams. One ram unto
the Lord, one ram for consecration. This Old Testament story, lesson,
pictures or types were to be observed specifically unto Aaron
and his sons, the priests of the Lord. And so this is a lovely
picture of each believer's salvation and consecration in Christ our
Lord. Remember, there is one ram that
is for the Lord, and another ram for consecration. So, let's
look at these two rams. Verse 1, take two rams without
blemish. Without blemish. Why? Why did the priests need this
lamb to be offered and sacrificed unto the Lord. Well, turn with
me to Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59, starting in verse 1. Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither
His ear heavy that it cannot hear. Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from
you that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with
blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken
lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness." Verse 7, run to evil. They make haste
to shed innocent blood. Their tongues are thoughts of
iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in
their paths. And verse eight, the way of peace
they know not. And there is no judgment in their
goings. They have made them crooked paths.
Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. This is why,
this is why this ram is sacrifice unto the Lord. Because we, this
ram is a picture of Christ obviously, no blemish, we are born in sins,
we inherited our father Adam's transgressions. When he fell,
we fell. Our will, our purpose, our love,
our thoughts, our actions, it fell. We can see the same thing
in Romans 3. They have all gone astray. There's
not one that seeks God. No, not one. That's everybody
in this building and anybody who's listening on the calling. We cannot please God. We will not please God. We cannot. That is why the ram has to be sacrificed. And
I like the order. The order of these two rams is
set up by God. This book is inspired by the
Holy Spirit and it's exactly how it's supposed to be. God
first has to be appeased. God has been and is the one offended. We, because of our foul transgressions,
must be cleansed before God can commune with us. Before they
can approach the altar. Thou take one of the rams, verse
15, Aaron and his sons to put their hands upon the head of
the ram. And then you slay the ram and
you sprinkle the blood around the altar. God is offended first. That's why this is the first
ram. Before we can do any business with God, with a thrice holy
God, He must be appeased, satisfied, and honored as well as this law. This is how it's written. You can't switch them around. The ram of consecration and then
the ram to appease God. No, God has to be dealt with
first. Thus, this ram is a type of our
Lord Jesus Christ and His propitiatory death for us. Verse 15, And thou
shalt take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their
hands on the head of the ram, verse 18 and thou shalt burn
the whole ram unto the altar it is a burnt offering unto the
lord he's got to be dealt with first he's got to be dealt with
first and look at what it says put the hand put your hands their
hands were put on the head of the ram this signifying that
they were identifying with the innocent. The ram had no blemish,
no spot. The ram was innocent. They are
identifying with the innocent. Don't identify with this sinner.
Identify with the innocent. And, or also, it could show the
transfer of sin. The innocent for the guilty,
or as Peter states in 1 Peter 3.18, for the unjust. Thirdly, it could
also and or could signify that when that ram died, we died. When Christ died, we died in
Him. In Christ Jesus, we died when
He was slain upon the Calvary's tree. Either or, don't look to
me. Put my hands on that ram, that
innocent, pure, blemishless ram. Look at verse 18, and thou shalt
burn the whole ram, the whole thing, the whole animal. Not
a partial sacrifice, but this sacrifice was complete, total,
laying down of its life. And then our Lord Jesus Christ,
an absolute fulfilling of everything that was written against us.
A total, it is finished. upon Calvary's tree, death and
acceptance. Death, his death, therefore our
acceptance. And how do we know that the ram
was accepted? Verse 18, And now shall it burn
the whole ram upon the altar. It is a burnt offering unto the
Lord. It is a sweet savor. of fire unto the Lord. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
5. Now these very words were used
by the Apostle Paul so we know that this ram signifies the Lord
Jesus Christ and His substitutionary debt for sinners like you and
myself. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
2, walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. and hath given
Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling
savor." That's how we know that this was accepted. That's how
we know that we're accepted. As Paul says in another place,
we're accepted in the Beloved. Sweet-smelling savor. And turn to Hebrews chapter 7.
Hebrews chapter 7, starting in verse 22, Hebrews chapter 7,
By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they
truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue
by reason of death. But this man, Christ, because
he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, through
him, through this sacrifice, seeing he ever lives to make
intercession for them. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high
priests to offer up sacrifices, first for their own sins, that's
what we're talking about, and then for the people's, for this
he did once when Christ offered up himself, for the law maketh
men, high priests, which have infirmities, but the word of
the oath, which was since the law, make it the son who is consecrated
forevermore. That's why we know that this
sacrifice was accepted in type, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we
are accepted in the beloved. And we know that this is the
only way to glory, the only way to heaven's gate, the only way
to Emmanuel's land, to Beulah land, the place where there is
no sorrow, no more tears, and eternal bliss through Christ,
the first lamb, the first ram. Now, what do we do after the
Lord saves us? What do you do after you wake
up the next day and you're married? I guess. You stay with your husband, your
wife. You cherish them. You honor them. You serve one another. You act like you're married.
Whether you have a ring or not. Whether you can afford a ring
or not. you're married. So with our salvation, which
was full and free, then comes of necessity the ram of consecration. And that word, consecration,
literally means dedication. We heard this in half the Bible
class. If you hear any message of anybody
that has their worth and truth in preaching the gospel, they
say that when God saves a sinner, He's different. He's different. Now, some fruit, the fruit varies,
some 30, 60, 90, 100 fold. We know that out of Mark. Each
and every child of the King Jesus is a follower, a soldier, an
obedient servant to His Sovereign. That is, we bear fruit. We bear fruit. The seed, it says,
in the Gospels fell on good ground. All the other ones didn't, they
didn't produce. Maybe that one that came up for a little while
and then what happened and it withered. Then the other one
came up and the cares of the world choked it. And then they walked no more.
Lot lingered. Lot lingered. It is inconceivable, not by me,
not by my understanding, not by my interpretation, but in
the Bible, and we'll get to the ram of consecration. It's impossible. It's inconceivable to imagine
that those who are called, quickened, and reborn unto Christ can live
without Him. You couldn't live without food.
Physically, you cannot live without Christ. In your mind, I have
no numbers or percentages because that would be legalistic. All
I know is that when Christ calls and quickens and saves and redeems
a sinner, it's like we've seen it in the New Testament, they
wanted to go with Christ. They wanted to follow Christ.
And Christ said it would be better if you stay here and witness
for me. But that's what the believer wants to do. That's what the
believer wants to do. They cannot live without Him.
They cannot live for themselves. We do that though. And we cannot live in constant
disregard of our Master and Savior. Look with me at our text again,
verse 19. And thou shalt take the other
ram. This is in verse 22, it's called the ram of consecration. And they're both together. You
can't separate them. They come together. And now shall
take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their
hands on the head of the ram. Again, they freely identify with
the sacrifice. Everyone who's called and quickened,
they readily and freely, some more than others, But everybody
who's called and quickened puts their hand on the head of the
sacrifice. That means they're all in. That means they're thankful for
what this ram is going to do. They identify with this ram. They're not ashamed of this ram.
They own this ram. They don't hide away. in their
jobs or their homes or whatever when they desire to be identified
with this ram. In verse 20, they didn't take
this blood of the altar, that's already been taken care of. It's
like the disciples, their feet being washed. We get in the world
and we have to earn a living, we have to pay taxes, jobs, all
these different things, go to school. That's not what we're
saying here. We're saying when the Lord gets a hold of you,
this happens as well. Now kill the ram and take the
blood, put it on his right ear, right thumb, and the big toe
of the right foot. That's saying this, the ear,
the thumb, the toe, the whole person, all of our persons are
to be held up in simple, purpose unto Christ. That means we're
owned by Him. Everything about us, our ear,
top of the head, middle of the body, the bottom of the foot,
we're owned by the blood and we identify with the blood. The ear, we listen, my sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. What we hear and listen to
is to be honorable unto the blood The sacrifice, Christ, what we
hear. And I'm as guilty as anybody
listening to stuff that's got nothing to do with anything.
Whether it's on the television, or the radio, or the internet,
or whatever. He's got my ear. Why am I not
listening? Why am I not gathering together
when the saints gather together? Certain things happen. I understand
that. I'm not going to put rules and regulations. It's again,
are you consecrated? Do you want to be here? Do I
want to be here? We all wrestle with discouragement.
We all wrestle with frustrations. Do we want to be here? This is
where we're here in the Gospel. Maybe I blow it. Maybe I don't.
At least the Scriptures read. And I've told this to Matt time
and time again. The Scriptures is the important
thing. Because I may hit, I may miss.
But we listen. The ear has got the blood. We're
listening. We're listening for what's being
said. The truth. And we're not being critical.
We're listening. We're receiving it. Go home and
think about it. The next thing is the thumb. The thumb of the hands.
We're in service. We're to be in service to what
we do. And he says, all that we do,
we do to the glory of God and promote His gospel. 1 Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse 31. You don't have to turn there,
but everything we do, we do to the glory of God. Do we? Do we? And the big toe, the blood on
the big toe. We are to run, this is with our
feet, we run. We are to move towards the heavenly
Jerusalem. Not the things of this world.
Not to see the newest thing that man has to come up with. Yes,
man is bright, he's smart, he can go to the moon, he can do
all these different things. He's still. That's not going to get
you to glory. Our ear, our thumb, and our feet. We want to be where the Gospel
is. We want to be where God's people are. We want to help one
another. We want to encourage one another.
We are all, and he says we're all, this is about Aaron and
his priests, but we're all kings and priests in the New Testament.
He says we're all kings and priests. So this is every believer. We serve him daily. This is what
the priest Look at verse 1 again, "...and this thing that thou
shalt do unto them, and hallow them, to minister unto Me." We serve Him, Christ, first. That's what they did. The first
ram was sacrificed. We serve Christ. And then we
serve His people. And then we serve all people.
As much as lies within us, live peaceably with all men. Live
peaceably with that. That doesn't mean get in there
and mix it up with them. No, because we're bought, we're
separate. We're separate. And again, you
can take that and rest the scriptures and go to a monastery and don't
deal with anybody, don't go buy food. No, that's not what he's
saying. That's not what he's saying. You have to live in this
world. This world's fallen. We're citizens
of this country. Secondly, but we're citizens
of the heavenly Jerusalem first. So anytime there's a conflict,
guess who we should serve Him? Ear, thumb, foot. Ram of consecration. We're bought
with the precious blood of Christ. Our desires are different. Our
desires are different. Our aims are heavenward. Our
motives are not as they once were. We're like those Greeks
in John chapter 12 when they came and the disciples said,
we would see Jesus. That's what we want to see. We
could gather here together, find out how everybody's doing, anything
we can do to help, etc., etc. We want to hear, we want to see,
we want to be like Christ. Be like Christ. In this poor,
dull-of-hearing world is going to burn with fervent heat. But not that new heaven and that
new earth, the one of Christ's making and His keeping. We are
far too involved In this world, me too, I mean, I'm speaking
to everybody, we're far too involved, we're far too concerned, and
we ought to walk by faith. And I thought that was interesting
in the passage that Bruce read, is commandments are not grievous.
That's another indicator. Is the gospel grievous? Would
you rather be somewhere else? Are you thinking about when I
get home, Gotta do this, gotta do that. To the stuff to do,
there's no end. When you get older, you begin
to see, you should begin to see, I don't need this stuff. It's a burden. It's a burden. And the care of it is a burden.
But we ought to be seeing this now. And we ought to be loving
Christ and one another. And like I said, we're a family. Whether we like it or not, we
do like it. We're a family. And families
are dysfunctional. Families don't always get along.
But we're a family. When a family doesn't get along,
and when there's an aggravation between a mom and a daughter,
a mom and a son, when there's aggravations and something's
not right, you could say that's the flesh. That's the flesh.
Put it aside. Reconcile. And walk together. And I know personalities are
different. Personalities are different in a family. But, We've been bought with the blood.
We've been paid that ram, that first ram, that picture of Christ,
that He's a sweet Savior. It is sweet unto Him and it should
be sweet unto us. I ask myself and I ask you, do
we desire such things? To be different in Christ? To
look at the heavens? Are we more concerned with ourselves? making sure we get this and get
that and do this and do that. If we're not content in Him now, we're not going to be here after.
If you're not content in Christ, if you need Christ plus something
else, heaven is not going to be for
you. Because He has been satisfied And your ear, and your thumb,
and your toe has been dipped in the blood of Christ. Let us heed the exhortation. We are Christ's, not ourselves. In closing, let's turn to Romans
chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. We'll start reading in verse
1. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. He doesn't ask anything of us
that is unreasonable. The world does. The friendship
with the world asks unreasonable things. Be not conformed. Why is he going right into this?
Because it's a problem. We have issues. Be not conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, perfect
will of God. What's God doing? Look in the
Scriptures. Read. For I say, through the
grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, every
man, every boy, woman, girl, who is a believer, not to think
of himself, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. Look at verse 9. Let love be
without dissimulation, Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to
that which is good. Be kindly affectionate one to
another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another. Not slothful in business. We
say if you're a believer, you're not slothful in business. Fervent
in spirit. Serving the Lord. Do everything
you have. Everything, as Henry said, the
more you get, the more you give. Rejoicing in hope. Patient in
tribulation, because it's going to come. Continuing instant in
prayer. Distributing to the necessity
of the saints. Giving to hospitality. It sounds like family stuff.
It is. It is. Be of the same mind. One toward another. Mind not
high things, but condescend to men of lower stakes. Be not wise
in your own conceits." And verse 21, be not overcome
with evil, but overcome evil with good. Now if he's got that
ear, if he's got that thumb, if he's got that foot, that toe,
It's all under the blood. May we honor and serve Him. May
we take this to heart. Because I don't know how many grace works
there is in Missouri. It's a big state. I don't know how many grace works
there is in this country. It's a big country. I don't know
how many grace works there is in this world. But I know this,
the way is narrow and we have something here by God's grace. Let us honor and cherish it one
another. The church is not the building,
it's one another. We may have to go back meeting
at home again. What difference is that going
to make? The Lord has given us this place.
May we honor Him. by loving Him and loving one
another. Nathan, would you close us?