Some messages take a lifetime
to prepare, and I believe I have such a message tonight. My text
is a text from which I have wanted to preach for more than 40 years,
a subject I've wanted to address and deal with every time I've
read the text for more than 40 years. I believe God's given
me a message. Exodus chapter 28. How we lament the sin with which we serve God. Now be sure you hear that just
like I worded it. how we lament the sin with which
we serve our God. Our hearts mourn the fact that
evil is always mixed with everything we do. We worship God and when
we worship at our best, our souls are heaviest with the burden
of felt iniquity. When we read or pray or sing,
sin is mixed with all we do. It is this sad fact that I want
to address this evening. Turn with me to Exodus 28, verse
36. The title of my message is the iniquity of the holy things. The iniquity of the holy things. The iniquity of the holy things. Here in Exodus 28, 36, 37, and
38, the Spirit of God shows us a portion of Aaron's priestly garment that stood as a constant representation
of every covenant worshipper's condition before the Lord. As the worshipper stood before
the holy Lord God in the person of God's appointed priest and
mediator, this is how he appeared. This part of Aaron's dress displayed
both personal iniquity and, bless God, perfect holiness all at the same time and all the time Aaron was in
the holy place Exodus 28 verse 36 and thou shalt make a plate
of pure gold and grave upon it like the engravings of a signet
holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it upon blue
lace, that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront of
the miter it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy thing. which the children of Israel
shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always
upon his forehead that they, that is the children of Israel
and their holy gifts, that they may be accepted before the Lord. Here comes a man, an Israelite,
to worship the Lord God at the door of the tabernacle. He's
a man who is a real believer. He's not just one of Abraham's
physical descendants. He's an Israelite indeed. He
understands what was symbolized and represented in the various
acts of the ceremonial law and ceremonial worship. He understood
that when Aaron went in before the Lord God on the day of atonement
with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, that that Paschal Lamb
represented the Lamb of God who soon would come to take away
his sins. He understood that that Lamb
being slain by the hand of God's priest under the command of the
law represented Christ crucified as our substitute. And that blood
sprinkled upon the mercy seat. was a picture of Jesus Christ,
our blessed Redeemer, entering in once into the holy place with
his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He
understood that when on that great day Aaron let go the scapegoat
into the wilderness, that that scapegoat portrayed the Lord
Jesus taking away our sin. He understood those things, understood
them. He understood that when Aaron came out before Israel
again and he had on his priestly garments, those gorgeous, rich
garments of the priesthood, and on the basis of that atonement
that he had accomplished, stretched out his hands over Israel and
pronounced God's blessing upon them because God commanded the
blessing. He understood that he was a man
blessed of God through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ the
Lord. And he comes to bring his holy
gifts. Not gifts that he had to bring. But holy gifts of worship,
of praise and thanksgiving. Gifts of gratitude. Just because
he desires to express his deep appreciation. His great gratitude. His great joy in the accomplished
redemption of Christ and in the goodness of God's grace bestowed
upon him. He comes with these gifts, a
gift of praise, a thank offering, something he wants to give to
God just for God's glory. Just for God's praise, just because
he wants to, just because he wants to. And he brings the gift
to the Lord. Ceremonially, he pictures you
and me as we've come here tonight. No constraint, no force, no law
requiring it, no church covenant requiring it, no church creed
requiring it. Nobody going to check up on you
if you aren't here. Nobody going to find out what
you were doing when you should have been here. Come just because
you want to. You bring your gifts and you
put them in the offering plate or in the offering box or you
send them to this person or that for the cause of Christ. Just
because you want to. Just because you want to. Take
no pledges. Don't require you to fill out
any kind of form saying how much you're going to give and check
up to see if you're going to. Just because you want to. Just
because you want to. You get up in the morning and
You open the scriptures and you read a portion, maybe a lengthy
portion, maybe a brief one, just because you want to. Sit for
a while and think about it. And ask God to seal it to your
heart just because you want to. And you offer him prayer. Sometimes audibly, sometimes
together with your wife or your husband or with your children,
sometimes Silently, privately, just because you want to. Maybe
you sing a hymn to him. You wouldn't dare let me hear
you sing, but you get by yourself when you sing his praise. I told
Shelby the other day, I said, I want us to put a hymn book
in the car and the truck, because she and I like to sing. We wouldn't
let you hear us sing for anything in the world, but we like to
sing and can't remember the songs anymore. So I put us a hymn book
in the car so we can sing when we're driving down the road.
How come? Just because I want to. For his
praise. For his glory. But how? Can I come to God? And bring
him my gift. How can I bring him my praise,
my gratitude, my worship, my service, and expect him to receive
it? You see, there's a problem. Every time I stretch out my hand
to offer something to God, I see leprosy popping out of my flesh. Uncleanness, a deep seated, horrid
uncleanness from which I cannot rid myself. An uncleanness from
which I cannot free myself. An uncleanness that will not
go away as long as I live in this body of flesh. an uncleanness
that God Almighty can never accept. So I come like this worshipping
Israelite to another man. Another man just like me. Another man with my flesh. Another man with my heartfelt
experiences. Another man, who though he has
no uncleanness, has been made unclean. And has felt uncleanness as I
can never feel it. Has experienced uncleanness as,
bless God, I shall never experience it. A man touched with the feeling
of my infirmities. A man represented in this man
named Aaron. Aaron who was distinguished from
the other common priest in Israel. Distinguished from his sons.
The high priest always set apart from the ordinary common priest.
Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies on the
Day of Atonement. And that high priest wore garments
nobody else could wear. And one of those distinguishing
garments is this headpiece he wore. He wore a miter made of
blue lace, trimmed out in gold, with a golden plate right across
his brow, right in the forefront of it. And on that golden plate,
these words inscribed in bold letters. holiness to the Lord. And he wore that plate as he
ministered, bringing the daily sacrifices of Israel before God. bringing their daily gifts to
the Lord, bringing daily intercessions before God, going in with the
Urim and Thummim on his breastplate, seeking counsel from God as their
priest. He wore that golden emblem right
in the forefront, holiness to the Lord. And bearing that emblem,
he bore before God the iniquity of all the people in all their
holy things constantly. What does that mean? Does Christ
still bear the iniquity that he bore away? No, no, no. He bore it away. He bears before
God that by which our iniquity has been purged. so that he constantly
bears before God his blood atonement and his perfect righteousness
as our representative, our surety, and our substitute. And by him
bearing constantly before the Lord the iniquity of the holy
things. The iniquity, all our sins even
to the iniquity of our holy things. He bears those things and We
bring, I say this often in jest when I've finished preaching,
I'm tired, one of you ladies will be around, I say, the scripture
says if a man will offer as much as a cup of cold water in the
name of a disciple, he'll not lose his reward. And you all
understand that to mean I'm thirsty and want some water, and somebody
will go fetch me some water. Now listen to me, I use it a
lot lightly, but I've never used it more seriously. He accepts a cup of cold water. That's perfect holiness. A cup of cold water I give to
you in the name of a disciple. He accepts our prayers, our efforts
at praying, our worship, our efforts at worship, our love,
our efforts at love, our devotion, our efforts at devotion as holiness
to the Lord. Aaron was distinguished from
all the others by this beautiful, gorgeous array and he now makes
us accepted before the Lord who is our Aaron. Why was Israel's
high priest arrayed with this royal adornment? The Spirit of
God says, such and high priest became us. He is just the priest we need
to make us and our sacrifices not acceptable, but accepted
before the Lord. As Israel of old had need of
one to bear the iniquity of their holy things, so you and I, as
we come to God with our sacrifices, come to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, trusting Him who is able to save to the uttermost
all them that come to God by Him. And blessed be His name. He who is our priest forever
over the house of God bears the iniquity of our holy things and
receives those things we bring to Him, those things we bring
to God by Him as that which is perfect and well-pleasing in
God's sight. Thank God for him who constantly
wears this golden plate in his forehead. Holiness to the Lord. I want to talk to you about just
two things, just two things, iniquity and holiness. The iniquity of our holy things
and holiness to the Lord. First, painful as it is, I want to talk
to you about the iniquity of our holy things. We don't like to think about
it, much less talk about it. Now we do rather enjoy a display of self-abasement. We all do rather enjoy a a pretentious
self-loathing. We all do rather enjoy working
to try to outdo one another in putting ourselves down and language
that other folks are impressed with. But none of us likes to
think about our own iniquity before God in all we do all the
time, personally. Let alone talk about it. The iniquity of the holy things. Those holy things that we hallow, that we sanctify before the Lord. Is that what the text speaks
of? The iniquity of the holy things which the children of
Israel shall hallow in all their gifts. The iniquity of those
things we take most seriously. The iniquity of those things
that are dearest to us. The iniquity of those things
by which we seek to honor God. Not just ordinary iniquity, transgression,
and sin. The iniquity of those things
by which we seek to honor God. The iniquity of the holy things.
All that we do for our God. All that we do for our fellows. All that we do in the name of
Christ. All that we do in the cause of
Christ. is deformed and polluted by our iniquity. And that doesn't
require much proof, does it? Just a casual observance of our
own hearts, just briefly. Our prayers are things about
which we pray. Our tears, things for which we
weep. Our repentance is that for which
we repent. Our confession needs confessing. When our most fervent prayer
has been groaned and our most self-denying act has been performed,
when our most liberal offering has been given and our most powerful
deed has been performed, When I preached as I've never preached
before and our sweetest anthem has poured out of our hearts
and great music of praise to our God, we must be bathed and
all that is done bathed in the precious blood of Christ. God won't accept it otherwise. can't accept it otherwise. Now, be sure you don't miss this.
So, Brother Dodd, if all we do is steal sin, then
maybe we just ought to quit doing anything. Our text speaks of the iniquity
of the holy things. Larry Brown, God Almighty, Calls
them holy steel. Polluted, but holy things. Made dirty by us, but holy steel. Corrupted by us, but holy steel. How can that be? How can it be
that we come here to worship God and our worship, our best
deeds of righteousness are but filthy rags? How can it be that
these things are called holy things? Let me give you two or
three reasons. First, what we're doing here
is God's ordinance. We've come to worship our Redeemer.
The Lord God calls us to worship Him. He calls us to make our
sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. He calls us to give of ourselves
to the cause of Christ. We come to worship him. This
is God's ordinance. The ordinances we perform here,
preaching of the word, the reading of the scripture, prayer, the
songs of praise, baptism, the Lord's Supper. These are God's
ordinances. We corrupt them, but they're God's ordinances
that makes them hallowed things. That makes them holy things.
That makes them sacred things, sanctified things. Not only that,
but their ordinances designed to show forth his glory. When
the Israelites came to worship God, everything they did, everything
God required of them, everything spoken of in the law, All the
sacrifices, all the ceremonies, all the services, all the furniture,
every holy day, every feast, everything was designed to show
forth God's glory in some aspect of redemption and salvation by
Jesus Christ. Nothing in the tabernacle, nothing
in the priesthood, nothing in the law, Nothing in the worship
of God in the temple was ever designed to show anything that
distinguished one man from another. That went into most Baptist churches. There was nothing there to make
you stick out. There was nothing there to impress
anybody with you or with me. Nothing, it was all designed
just for God's glory, just to show forth His great glory in
saving sinners such as we are. That makes these things holy
things, hallowed things, sanctified things. We come here to worship
God and our object, our purpose in everything we do, oh God make
this so. Our object, our purpose, and
everything we do is to show forth God's great glory in the accomplishment
of redemption. God keep us in this house of
worship, wherever we are gathered, whether we are gathered in this
building, are gathered in a field, are gathered together in one
of our homes, wherever we gather to worship our Redeemer. God
keep us from doing anything to set one of us apart, to distinguish
one of us, to exalt one of us, or all of us together. Our determination,
let it be the praise of our God. And if that's the reason we come
together, two or three gathered together in his name, he's in
the midst of us for We've come to a holy place, and we've come
to offer God holy worship, sanctified to him. Not only is this the
design, as you read through the scriptures here, for those who
came to worship God in the Old Testament, these Israelites,
it was the intent of the worshiper to bring praise and honor and
glory to God. When he brought his turtle doves
or his lamb or his bullock, it was his intent to reverence and
sanctify God. That's what worship is. It is
reverencing and sanctifying God. I know we live in this age when
nobody reverences anything or anybody except themselves. I
know we live in an age where everything is casual and flippant
and light-hearted. If God will give me grace as
your pastor, I'm not going to let that happen here. We will
exercise great care to worship God here, to reverence God here. Little boys start coming in here
wearing the baseball caps, they will be asked to pull them off,
yours too. How come? We've come to worship
God. This is not a ball field. Folks
come in here wanting to joke and run around and play, they
will be asked to sit down. How come? Because we've come
here to worship God. Folks come on a yak, run in and
out, they'll be asked to be still. How come? Because we've come
to worship God. And we're not going to treat
it lightly. We're not going to handle it as if we were at a
ball game or at a pep rally. We've come to worship God, and
that's dead serious. Holy things these are, but iniquity
is on them. Our souls, how heavily they go
to reach eternal joys. Our holy things, how horribly
evil are our holy things. But thank God our text says something
else. Look at it again. In the very
same sentence in which the Lord speaks of the iniquity that is
ours, the iniquity by which we pollute everything, he speaks
of holiness, perfect holiness, holiness to the Lord. How instructive. How impressive is this picture?
And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like
the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put
it on a blue lace that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront
of the miter it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead, and Aaron that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the
holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow or sanctify
in all their holy gifts, in all their sanctified gifts, and it
shall be always upon his forehead that they, the children of Israel,
and their gifts may be accepted before the Lord. Now, I want
you to turn to three texts. Turn to three texts. The first
is in Jeremiah chapter 2, where this word holiness to the
Lord is used again. Jeremiah chapter 2, the Lord
God here declares that his chosen, the children of Israel, verse
3, was holiness to the Lord. holiness to the Lord. Christ Jesus bears the iniquity
of his people whom he has made holiness to the Lord. The word
holiness means sanctified. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. who
were sometimes far off and made nigh by the blood of Christ and
you who were filthy and unclean are washed and sanctified by
the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Sanctified, made
holy in Christ Jesus. Made holy by these two great
works of grace. We're saying about it in the
closing of that last hymn, we're saying your righteousness Impart
to me your righteousness, or impute to me your righteousness,
impart to me your holiness. Righteousness is imputed to us
in free justification. So that we stand before God right
before the law, right before all the requirements of God.
And in the new birth, he puts in us a new holy nature, giving
us holiness before God. so that we are his Israel and
he declares Israel holiness to the Lord look at Zechariah chapter
14 Zechariah chapter 14 verse 20 in that day shall there be upon
the bales of the horses holiness unto the Lord. And the pots in
the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar in
that day. In that day. In which we now
live in this marvelous day of grace, in this day in which Christ
Jesus has come and accomplished redemption for us. In the person
and work of our great Aaron, the Lord Jesus, he says, even
the horses on their bridles will wear bells. And I don't know
whether it means that there's inscribed on the horses bridle
bells, the words holiness to the Lord, or as they just move
along, those bells jingle out and make their little noise.
I'll be honest with you, I've been places where they have horses
with bells on their bridles. And it's fine for a little while.
After a while it gets aggravating. I'd just rather not hear the
noise. Because the noise is the constant jingle that makes no
sense. Just a jingle. That's kind of like my life,
isn't it? just a noise that makes no sense
to anybody but God to whom the horse belongs. That's all. And the bells ring out holiness
to the Lord. Horses. What do you use horses
for? You use them for labor, to ride
somewhere, to pull a plow, to pull a carriage, to pull a wagon,
or to pull a lot of stuff. Horses are work animals. And upon the bridles, as we seek
to serve our God, and it seems to be a jumbled mess and just
so much noise, God declares it is holiness. to the Lord. He accepts it as the very obedience
of his own son, as holiness to the Lord. This is how he puts
it, 1 Peter chapter 2, you don't need to turn there, verse 5.
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices. What's that? Merle, that's just anything you
do for Him. Spiritual sacrifices. Why would God accept me offering
a cup of cold water in the name of the Lord? Why would God accept
you singing, beautiful as the voice is? Why? Why would God
accept you being here to worship Him? Why? Acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ. And that's all. So that in Christ,
as we seek to serve Him in this world, These bridles just jingle
out all the time. Holiness to the Lord. Holiness
to the Lord. Holiness to the Lord. And God's
well pleased. Look at verse 21 of Zechariah
14. There's more. Verse 21. Yea, he said in verse
20, he said the pots of the Lord's house will be like the bowls
before the altar. Yea, Every pot in Jerusalem. And in Judah. Every pot. Every pot. Every pot in your
kitchen. Every pot in the garden. Every
pot in the house. Every pot. Every pot through
all the church and kingdom of our God. That reduces it down to every
aspect of your life. Every aspect of your life shall
be holiness unto the Lord of hosts. Let's see if I can make good
on that. Romans chapter 12. Romans 12. Brother Dodd, do you
mean to say that God Almighty receives us in the totality of
our lives everything about us, everything
connected with us. He receives and embraces us in
perfect holiness in spite of everything we are. Well, let's
see if that's what it means. Romans chapter 12, verse one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God. That you present your bodies,
plural, Here we are, all of us. Present your bodies, all of us,
a singular living sacrifice. Present yourselves, your whole
life, every aspect of your lives, all of our lives, as one living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. And be ye not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. Brother Don, how can we present
ourselves a living sacrifice to God, only as we trust one
great living sacrifice, our great High Priest and Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who bears perpetually before God the iniquity
of our holy things, and declares not just forgiven but emblazoned
in his forehead holiness to the Lord. Listen to this. Go thy
way, eat thy bread with joy, drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works. My brother, my sister, imagine
this. You are holiness to the Lord. You've been working back here
all day long. You get frustrated with things
that don't work right, still holiness to the Lord. Your gifts, holiness to the Lord. Imagine that. Holiness to the Lord. Amen.