Been home a little early last
night, and I watched a movie I've never seen before. I've
just seen a little piece of it here and there. I've been wanting
to see it for a long time. Sergeant York. Gary Cooper playing
that war hero of the First World War from down close to Yorktown,
Tennessee. I'm sorry, Jamestown, Tennessee.
And it's a great movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend
everything in it except the religion. Oh, how sad the religion, typical
religion. Never did talk about knowing
God, never did talk about being born of God, just talked about
getting religion. And Walter Brennan, who played
the pastor, made a pretty good observation. When York suggested
he was a conscientious objector, he said, oh, I see you got the
living kind not to go to meeting kind. That's the kind most folks have,
you know, the good and beaten kind. And for that reason, preachers
devote themselves to trying to get churches to be modeled after
the New Testament church. And whenever I hear a fellow
talk about they want to return to the New Testament church,
I wonder which one, the one at Corinth or the one at Galatia
or the one at Colossae or the one at Jerusalem. All of them
had horrible problems. They talk about devoting themselves
to promoting believers to live holy lives because they talked
them into making professions of faith and they know full well
that nothing's changed about them, so they decide to invent
rules and constraints by which to make them behave as they think
holy people ought to behave. Folks argue about whether or
not Christ is Lord. I received a letter just recently,
a fellow asking me where I stood on the Lordship controversy.
It's not a controversy with God's people. You either bow to Christ
or you don't, that's all. You either believe Him or you
don't. There's no in between, Graham. God's people are a people
devoted to the Redeemer. The title of my message tonight
is cast in the form of a question. Are you a consecrated Christian?
Now to you here, that will seem like a strange question. The
fact is there are no Christians except consecrated Christians.
But the whole religious world seems to think otherwise. So
let's look in the word of God and see what's meant by this
word consecrated. The first time the word is used,
it's used in connection with the making of Aaron and his sons
priests unto God in the 28th chapter of the book of Exodus.
And then it is used repeatedly through the 29th chapter where
we read about Aaron's and his sons being decked out in the
gorgeous royal apparel of God's priest, the priestly family being
the family of Aaron. And this word consecrate or consecration,
the law of first mention is applicable. However it is used the first
place, that's what it means wherever it is used. What is a consecrated
person? What is one whose life is a life
of consecration under God? The word means to sanctify, to
hallow, to make holy, It's the word that would be used if you
were a jeweler and you took a rare gem and set it in a piece of
jewelry. You ladies, most of you have
a diamond ring your husband gave you. And depending on how old
your husband was when you got married, you have a lesser or
a larger diamond ring. But it was set in a certain setting
by a jeweler placing it there. And that jeweler takes great
pride in the way he arranges things, especially those who
make custom jewelry. Distinctly, the word has the
idea of setting a gem in a crown. Now, I've never seen a crown
close up. I've seen some pictures. And the person who makes that
crown for the king or for the queen, you can be sure They take
great pride in the way they set the jewels in the crown. That's
the word consecrate. God Almighty has taken some people
out of Adam's fallen race and he declares they shall be mine
in that day when I make up my jewels. And he sets them as a
diadem. a royal diadem in the crown of
his glory. Let's read about it in Exodus
chapter 29. Exodus 29. I can't read the whole
chapter. I'll read a good portion of it
because it's needful for the message. And I urge you to read
the whole chapter as soon as you can so that you don't miss
any part of what's taught here. Exodus 29 verse 1. This is the thing that thou shalt
do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest
office. Take one young bullock and two
rams without blemish. If it's offered to God, it's
got to be without blemish. If it's offered to God, it's
got to be without blemish. God won't have it otherwise.
one young bullock and two rams without blemish and unleavened
bread and cakes unleavened tempered with oil and wafers unleavened
anointed with oil of wheat and flour shalt thou make them and
thou shalt put them into one basket and bring them in the
basket with the bullock and the two rams and Aaron and his sons
thou shalt bring under the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
and shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments,
and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and
the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with curious girdle
of the ephod. Verse 6. And thou shalt put the
mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre. Then shalt thou take the anointing
oil, and pour it upon his head and anoint him. And thou shalt
bring his sons and put coats upon them. And thou shalt gird
them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets
on them. And the priest's office shall
be theirs for a perpetual statute. And thou shalt consecrate Aaron
and his sons. And thou shalt cause a bullock
to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron
and his sons shall put their hands, the word is much stronger
than just put their hands, shall press their hands, press heavily
their hands, shall press their hands upon the head of the bullock. And thou shalt kill the bullock
before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And thou shalt take the blood of the bullock, and put it upon
the horns of the altar with thy fingers, and pour all the blood
beside the bottom of the altar. And thou shalt take all the fat
that covereth thee inwards, and the call that is above the liver,
and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn
them upon the altar. But the flesh of the bullock,
and his skin, and his dung, all the dirty things, shalt thou
burn with fire without the camp. It is a sin offering. Verse 15. Thou shalt also take one ram,
and Aaron and his sons shalt put, press heavily their hands
upon the head of the ram, and thou shalt slay the ram, and
thou shalt take his 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 into his pieces and
under 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. Verse 19. And thou shalt take
the other ram And Aaron and his son shall put their hands, press
heavily their hands upon the head of the ram. Then shalt thou
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. He shall be hallowed and his
garments and his sons and his son's garments with him. Verse
31. And thou shalt take the ram of
the consecration and seethe his flesh in the holy place. And
Aaron and his son shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread
that is in the basket by the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation. And they shall eat those things wherewith the
atonement was made to consecrate and to sanctify them. But a stranger
shall not eat thereof because they're holy. Verse 42. This
shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord,
where I will meet you to speak there unto thee. And there will
I meet with the children of Israel and the tabernacle shall be sanctified
by my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify also both Aaron
and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office. Verse
45. And I will dwell among the children
of Israel and will be their God. And they. By all these things. By these priests and their garments
and their sacrifices and their services. and I will dwell among
them and they shall know that I am the Lord their God that
brought them forth of the land of Egypt that I may dwell among
them I am the Lord the triune Jehovah their God now during
the days of the Mosaic era under Mosaic law only one family was
named priest by God. God's priests were of the house
of Aaron, Aaron and his sons. In this gospel day, all those
who are in the family of God are his priest. Ye are a royal
priesthood, the Apostle Peter tells us. Paul speaks of us offering
our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the
Lord. In the church of God, no one
group is set apart from the other. We do not have in God's church
any such thing as clergy and laity. There's no such thing
as those who are lay people, that means you're kind of little
peons in the kingdom, and those who are clerics, that means I'm
up here and I'm somebody. Don't ever get me a sticker on
the back of my car that says clergy, I won't wear it. Don't
get me anything that indicates such, I won't have it. There's
no such distinction in God's kingdom. Those distinctions are
made only among those where men, among those people where men
desire the praise of men. the grand purpose of God in all
his works of grace, in everything he does for us and in us by his
grace, is to make us fit servants for him as his priest, to make
us meet for the master's use. Are you fit to serve God? Are
you meat for the master's use? Are you a consecrated Christian? Am I? If we are believers, we
are. All God's people are priests. Every true believer in Christ
Jesus is a priest unto God, one who has perpetual access to God,
perpetual acceptance with God, who lives continually in the
presence of God, continually walking before God, accepted
of God. We are priests accepted and made
meat to be accepted by God's own grace. That means we don't
need any earthly priest. We will not bow to an earthly
priest. We will not have an earthly priest. I know papists have them. And
I know Anglicans have them, and I know Mormons have them, and
other folks have them. Lots of Baptists treat their
pastors like they were priests. But I'm telling you, if you need
a man by whom you draw near to God, you don't know God. You've not done business yourself
with God. God's people are all priests,
living priest, royal priest, holy priest, made so by God himself. Now let me show you several things
here concerning this priesthood. First, they're chosen. They're
chosen. The Lord told Moses, take Aaron
and his sons. That's what we have in the first
four verses of this chapter. Take Aaron and his sons. This holy priesthood, these hallowed
people are set before us in scripture as a people God has chosen, chosen
for himself. So the priesthood is not something
men decided on by themselves. The scripture says specifically,
no man taketh this office to himself. You can read it in Hebrews
chapter 5. No man. These men who are God's
priests are chosen and ordained of God for it. This holy priesthood
is a priesthood of men whom God has chosen, but not just men,
but men and women as well, all who believe on the Son of God.
In fact, if right now you are born of God, if right now you
believe in the Son of God, you are born a priest, born into
the priestly family, so that from this day forward you walk
before God in acceptance with God through Christ Jesus the
Lord. The priesthood then begins in election. Chosen priests of
God then are washed. Look at the fourth verse. Aaron
and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. David said in Psalm 26, verse
6, I will wash mine hands in innocency. Now let that sink in a little
bit. I will wash mine hands in innocency. How are you going
to do that? Wash my dirty hands in innocency
so, that is having washed my hands in innocency, so will I
compass thine altar, O Lord. How's that? If we wash our hands
in innocency. We must be washed innocent by
our God. If we would, as the priest, wash
our hands and feet in the labor as we go into the tabernacle
or into the holy place to serve our God, we must be washed of
God in order to do so. David said, as God's servant,
as one who worships God, I will wash my hands in innocence as
I come to compass your altar as I come to worship at your
altar. That means we must be washed
in redemption. Our sins must be washed away
by the precious blood of God's darling son. Redemption is portrayed
in scripture many times as a washing. We are washed by the blood of
Christ. Our record washed clean, washed
clean before God. Our sins erased, cast into the
sea, forgiven of God, cast behind his back, blotted out by God,
by the precious blood of Christ. But redemption must be experienced. So that when God calls his priest
to himself, he calls them to wash, to wash in the fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. And that fountain is Christ Jesus
the Lord. We must be washed by him in redemption
and washed by him in regeneration. Turn to Titus chapter 3. Titus
chapter 3. Verse three, for we ourselves also were sometime
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that, the kindness and love of God, our savior toward man appeared
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, But according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And thus, both by blood atonement
and by the sanctifying operations of God's spirit, we are cleansed
from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, made vessels
fit for the master's use, cleansed of sin. He gives us both the
cleansing of atonement and the cleansing of regeneration in
the new birth. We are cleansed from all sin. Are you thus cleansed, sanctified
and washed and justified? Do you know by the sweet experience
of grace, the blessedness of what it is to be one of those
to whom God will not impute sin? That's God's priest. Well, they
wouldn't dare. They wouldn't dare go in before
God. Not sure. of what God would accept,
not sure of whom God would receive, unsure of whether they were properly
clothed and properly cleansed, else they would go in at hazard
of their lives. We don't worship God at the hazard
of our lives. We worship God in the full assurance
of faith, being washed as his priest. Then in verses five through
nine, after they were washed by Moses. And that's important. It was Moses who did the washing. Washed before the law, made clean
in the eyes of God's law. Then these priests, by this same
man Moses, were wondrously clothed. They weren't allowed, as they
walked before God as priests, they weren't allowed to wear
anything they had originally. Nothing. Their outer garments
and their underwear were provided by God. They weren't allowed
to bring anything they had purchased. Anything that they had a hand
in weaving, anything that they made any contribution to, but
all their garments were made for them, made according to the
stipulation of God's law, as we saw in chapter 28, and placed
upon them because they are now made meat through the washing
of the sacrifice to be accepted of God as his priest. And now
Moses comes and says, it's proper for this man Aaron. And for these
men who are his sons, being chosen of God and now graciously brought
by God here to himself, it's fitting and proper before the
law that they should wear these garments. Oh, what garments they
are. Every priest had a coat put on
him. These priestly coats were like
the coat worn by our Lord Jesus. all of one piece, woven from
top to bottom, hanging from the shoulder and draping the body. That coat, of course, you know,
represents the righteousness of Christ our Redeemer. In Luke
15, the prodigal son comes home and the father runs to meet him
and he says, bring hither the best coat and put it on him. The robe of Christ's perfect
righteousness. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty are, my glorious dress. Misflaming world, with these
arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. Until God puts this
robe on you, you can't serve him. You can't serve him. But I'm
here to tell you, as soon as God puts this robe on you, you're
made fit to serve Him. As soon as God, by His grace,
gives you faith to believe His Son, you're made fit to serve
Him. The robe is ours from eternity,
but it must be put on you in the sweet experience of grace
by God the Holy Spirit, sprinkling your heart with the precious
blood of Christ. Every priest was then given a girdle. We're
told that our Lord Jesus, as our high priest, was girt about
the paps with a golden girdle. The girdle. Now, in our day,
we have a little tough time trying to figure out what this is talking
about, men wearing girdles. Well, girdles were a loincloth. used
to tie up their long robes and to give them strength, to tie
them about as men lifting weights will put a tight belt around
their waist to keep them injuring themselves, give them extra strength.
Or men going to war would wear the girdle about them. Or men
on a long journey wear the girdle, keeping themselves from being
entangled. These priests were each given a girdle to wear by
divine command. And this girdle speaks of that
by which they're braced up and held and strengthened. Strengthened
by the faithfulness and grace and mercy of Christ Jesus the
Lord and given grace themselves to faithfully execute the office
God gives them. Without me, our Savior says,
you can do nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And yet we're
taught plainly I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. I've been trying to prepare to
preach to you tonight. And I can't preach to you. I
can't preach to you. But sometimes I do. If Christ gives me strength,
I can. I can speak to your heart if Christ gives me strength to
do so. And whatever it is, Rex Bartley, that Jesus Christ puts
in your hand to do, He'll give you grace to do it. Whatever it is, whatever it is,
whatever it is, he calls you to perform. He will give you
grace to perform and thus puts the girdle of his grace upon
you. And each of these priests was given a bonnet or a turban.
Turbans distinguish the priest from other men. They were given
for glory and beauty. Turn to Ezekiel 16. Let me show
you. This too applies to us. The Lord Jesus makes his people
glorious, honorable, and beautiful in his eyes. We're not merely washed. We're
not merely accepted. We're not even, and I use the
word merely with great, great care. It's not even that we're
merely beloved of Him. The Son of God has made us to
be possessors of His beauty. And the beauty He sees in you. And the beauty he sees in me,
his own beauty, is such that he says, thou hast ravished my
heart, my dove, my undefiled. Oh, what beauty this must be.
Ezekiel 16, verse 8. When I passed by the And looked
upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love, and I spread
my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto
thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God,
and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away
thy blood from thee. And I anointed thee with oil,
and I clothed thee also with brooded work, and shod thee with
badger skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered
thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments,
and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck,
and I put a jewel in thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and
a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus was thou decked with
gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and
brooded work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and didst
prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for thy beauty, for it was perfect. Oh my God, what a word. Perfect. Through my comeliness, which
I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. Thou art all fair,
my love. There is no spot in thee. Thou
hast ravished my heart. These garments, Varon and his
son, were provided freely. And their garments formed a complete
suit, entirely complete suit, in which they served God in the
tabernacle. But did you notice something?
I hadn't noticed this until today. They didn't have any shoes. They didn't have any shoes. I
know our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace. That's another sermon. We're talking about the garments
of the priests now. These priests were all barefooted. Every one
of them barefooted. Every one of them. They never
went into the tabernacle with shoes on their feet. They washed
their dirty feet in the laver before they went in, but they
went in barefooted. How come? When God revealed himself
to Moses, He spoke to Moses out of the bush, and he said, Moses,
take your shoes off your feet, for you stand on holy ground. And wherever you walk, priest
of God, you stand on holy ground. Wherever you walk, you walk with
God in his presence, accepted of him. And barefooted, I just don't like people look
at my feet, do you? I just don't. I never have understood
why ladies put rings on their toes. Your toes aren't pretty,
I'm sorry. They're just not pretty. Why on earth do you want somebody
to look at your feet? Call attention to your feet. Your feet. are commonly most
comfortable covered. To be barefoot before God is
an indication of humility before him, recognizing personal unworthiness. But I dare stand before God freely
with these garments because I am God's priest, holy and acceptable
and accepted in Christ Jesus the Lord. Look at verse 7, here's
the fourth thing. These priests were divinely anointed. Then shalt thou take the anointing
oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him. Now we read in Leviticus that
Aaron's sons were also anointed, but here in Exodus, God tells
Moses to anoint Aaron, but he's consecrating Aaron and his sons. Why then is the no mention here
by the Spirit of God of his sons being anointed? Perhaps because,
perhaps, and I'm only guessing, I don't really know, perhaps
because we have God's Spirit and all the blessings and graces
of the Spirit in our substitute and with our substitute Christ
Jesus the Lord. We have the anointing and the
unction of the Spirit by virtue of our union with Christ Jesus
the Lord. It's really ours and we really
experience it and all believers have it. If you're born of God,
you have an unction, the Holy One, God the Spirit dwells in
you, but we have the Spirit of God. who was first poured on
Christ Jesus the Lord without measure and is given to us in
the sweet experience of his grace as the sons of Aaron were also
anointed as his sons into the priesthood. Let me move on to
the next thing here. Here's the fifth thing. These
priests, Aaron and his sons, came to God and were accepted
by God as his priest by one common sin offering, verses 11 through
14. You know who the sin offering
is. The bullock for the sin offering being brought to the altar, Aaron
and his sons come and lay their hands on the head of this sin
offering. They press heavily. They press
heavily. as if to place all the weight
of their being on that one sacrifice. And all of them at once lay their
hands heavily on the head of that sacrifice, indicating a
transfer of guilt, a transfer of sin. But they couldn't transfer
their guilt to that animal. And you can't transfer your sin
to Christ. What's this imply? It speaks
of faith. Confidence in a transfer of which
God speaks throughout his word. We're standing before God confident
that God Almighty has made Christ sin for us and faith puts her
head where God put his justice and we come to God laying our
sins on the substitute. Then the Bullock was killed. killed this time by Moses, killed
by him who represents the law. Justice stretched forth her sword
and plunged it into the heart of God's darling son and killed
him. And the blood was caught in these
bowls and carried to the altar and poured out at the foot of
the altar. must have been a puddle of blood
at that altar as these priests were consecrated to God by the
blood. Our only access to God, our only
coming to God's altar is by the blood of his own son, the Lord
Jesus. And this done, the choicer, the
more vital parts of the bullock, we're told in verse 13, were
burned. burned upon the altar, those
choice parts of sacrifice, burned as a sweet savor to God, burned
as an indication of perpetual acceptance with God. That's what
we have in Christ. But because the Bullock was a
sin offering, it was also obnoxious to God. The Lord Jesus, when he was made
sin for us, is a sweet savor to God. And yet he's made to
be that obnoxious thing that God cannot have and God will
not accept. And he turns his back on his
son and the son cries, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? We have it portrayed in verse
14. The flesh of this bullock, his skin, his dung, all the filth
gathered up and carried outside the camp and burned away from
the camp. And then six, these priests were
consecrated to God by blood, specifically by the blood of
a burnt offering, verses 15 through 18. The burnt offering differs
widely from the sin offering. The burnt offering represents
our continual acceptance of God as a sweet-smelling savor in
Jesus Christ the Lord, burned on God's altar, accepted by God
continually, burned by the fire that God himself had set, consumed
continually at his altar. The sin offering speaks of Christ
bearing the wrath and judgment of God as our substitute. The
burnt offering is When I think of the burnt offering, or when
you think of the burnt offering, think about Manoah and his wife as
they offered a lamb to the Lord, and they looked on as the Lord
did wondrously before them. That's the picture. The wondrous
picture of Christ accepted of God and us accepted of God in
Him. And then seventh, in verses 19
through 22, we read about the consecration of these priests
to God by the blood of the ram of consecration. It's what it's
called in verse 22. This ram of consecration, sacrifice
to God. And Moses takes the blood and puts
it on Abram's right ear. And on the right ear of each
of his sons. And when God calls a sinner by
grace, He calls your ear to be open, to hear because of the
blood that which God speaks in peace. And he puts it on the
thumb of the right hand. Right, always representing honor
and power and prosperity. That's my right hand man. That's
my right hand man there. Christ is God's right hand man.
Puts it on the thumb of your right hand. The thumb of service. so that the blood is on these
hands by which we offer to God everything we do. And on the
great toe of your right foot, the right foot on which you walk
barefoot through this world on holy ground, made holy, cause there's blood on that toe. the blood of the Lamb. The blood
that God accepts. That means, Bob Ponce, God Almighty
accepts the totality of our lives for Christ's sake. Consecrated
to God. Consecrated to God. And these
priests, consecrated to God, live continually with their hands
full Their hands are full of meat offering and wave offering
and heave offering. They offer continually before
God. And these things are done for
seven days. The whole period of a man's entire
existence done in the completion of his life, offering to God,
thanksgiving and praise, continually, constantly eating. the ram that
God exempts, Christ Jesus the Lord. Are you a consecrated Christian? I am. I am. How can you say that? The blood is right here, and
right here, and right here. Christ is mine, and I'm his. That means I'm consecrated to
God. Consecrated to God with a consecration
that can never be broken for seven full days. Amen.