I'm going to be speaking from
Exodus chapter 29, but I'd like to look at those two verses of
scripture I just read at the beginning of this service in
Psalm 86, where David says, bow down thine ear, O Lord, and hear
me. For I am poor. And needy. preserve my soul,
for I am holy. Now, how can a man be poor and
needy and be holy? And that's the question I hope
is answered from this passage of scripture we're going to look
at. David says, I'm poor and I'm needy. And David says, I
am holy. And that's something every believer
can say, I'm poor and needy. I am. And I can also say this,
by the grace of God, I am holy. Now, how can that be? Turn to
Exodus chapter 29, verse 1. And this is the thing that thou
shalt do unto them to hallow them. To minister unto me in
the priest's office. This is what you'll do to them
to hallow them. Now that word look across the
page in Exodus chapter 30 verse 29. And thou shalt sanctify them,
that they may be most holy. Whatsoever toucheth them shall
be holy. Now that word holy in verse 29
of that verse of scripture I just read is the exact same word that's
translated hallowed. We pray our father who art in
heaven, hallowed, holy be thy name. And God says regarding
these priests that he's going to do something to them to make
them. Hello or holy. Now, Aaron and his sons, the
men that served as priests under the old Testament economy were
sinners just like you and I are. You know how bad your heart is.
That's how bad Aaron's heart is. That's how bad all these
men's hearts were. They had the same sinful nature,
but this chapter tells us what is done to them to hallow them. Now, when they are hallowed,
made holy, now they are fit to serve me in the priest's office. They're now qualified. And do
you know the same things that are done Or the same thing that
is done to them to make them a priest. And listen to me, every
believer is a priest to God. Every single one of them. Scripture
says he hath made us kings and priests to God. There's not one
man who's a priest and another one who's not. Every believer
is a priest before God. And something has been done to
them to hallow them, to cause them to be a priest toward God. Now, notice in verse 1, and this
is the thing that thou shalt do unto them, to hallow them,
to minister unto me in the priest's office. Now, first, for me to
be hallowed or holy, something is going to have to be done unto
me. I can't make myself holy. I know
that. I cannot make myself holy. Something's going to have to
be done to me. to make me holy. You see, salvation
is what God does for and to the sinner. It's not what the sinner
does for himself. Now understand that. Every aspect
of salvation is what God does, not what we do. It's what God
does for and to the sinner to make him hallowed, to make him
holy. It's not what the sinner does
for himself. And I'm mighty grateful for that
because I know that I cannot make myself holy. I'm just sure
of that. I cannot make myself holy. Now let's go on reading. He says,
take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish." This is
in verse 1. Here's what you're going to do
to hallow them so they're fit to be priests. And the same thing
that's done for them is done to you and I to make us fit if
we're believers. He says, you take 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 to one basket, and bring
them in the basket, and the bullock and the two rams. Now, a bullock
and two rams for sacrifice, unleavened bread with oil, to make cakes,
which represents the work of the Holy Spirit. Oil always typifies
the Holy Spirit, and the unleavened bread, we read in the New Testament
of the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. That's the work of
the Holy Spirit in us. Now, He gives three sacrifices
that are to be made, all which give some different aspect of
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to make us holy. and
then the work of the Holy Spirit in order to make us holy. Now let's go on reading. Verse
4, we're going to get to what these sacrifices are in just a minute. Verse 4,
and Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation and shall wash them with water. I need
to be washed. I need God to wash me. I'm filthy
and I need to be washed. For me to be holy, I'm going
to have to be washed through and through. Verse 5, 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 the curious girdle of the ephod. We considered what
those meant last week. And thou shalt put the mitre
upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre. And thou
shalt take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and
anoint him. the work of the Holy Spirit.
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. Now he's gonna talk about the
sacrifices. And this is what makes Aaron and his sons holy. Verse 10. And thou shalt cause
a bullock. to be brought before the tabernacle
of the congregation, and Aaron and his son shall put 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 of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon
the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood
besides the bottom of the altar. And thou shalt take all the fat
that covereth the inwards, and the call that's above the liver,
and the two kidneys, and the fat that's upon them, and burn
them upon the altar, but the flesh of the bullet and his skin
and his dung shalt thou burn without the camp. It is a sin
offering. Now all of these offerings, we're
going to look at three of them. First, this sin offering teaches
us how I, how every believer can actually be Are you interested in being holy?
I want to be holy before God, don't you? I want him to see
me in a way where he is pleased with me. Now, how can I, the
sinner, be holy before God? Now look back at verse 10. And
thou shalt cause a bullet to be brought before the tabernacle
of the congregation, and Aaron and his son shall put their hands
upon the head of that bullet. Now the laying on of hands teaches
substitution. Now understand first, it's the
sacrifice that makes us holy. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not something you do in order to be holy. The sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ actually makes everybody that he died
for holy. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10 says,
by the witch will, by God's will, we are sanctified. made holy through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That's something that
doesn't need to be repeated. Now every believer is actually
made holy by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
the New Testament teaches. Now I love this picture of Aaron
and his sons getting over before they kill that sacrifice. They
put their hands on its head. And that signifies the transference
of guilt. That signifies substitution.
My sin became His. They put their hands on the head
of that sacrifice. And what that symbolically meant
is their sins were transferred to that innocent bullock. And
the innocence of that bullock was transferred to them. Substitution. a real substitution, a real transference
of sin. Now, according to the scriptures,
according to the New Testament, in this transfer of sin that
took place, and that's what was going on on the cross, this is
so mysterious, it's so high, it's so holy, it's so glorious,
I hope I can say what needs to be said. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says,
for he hath made him to be sin for us. You know what that means? the sin that I've committed,
the sins that I've committed, the sins that I'm so ashamed
of that I would be so ashamed if you knew anything about them,
the sins that I don't know about, the sins of omission, the sins
of commission, all my sin, and most of my sin, I don't even
know about it. All my sin was transferred to Him, and He took
upon the guiltiness of it. He took upon the defilement of
it. He was made sin. Now, do I understand what all
that means? No, I can't possibly understand, but I know this.
Just as truly as He was made sin, What a horrible thought to think
that this holy spotless Son of God who never sinned was made
sin. All my filth was placed upon
Him. He was made sin. And just as
truly as He was made sin, His righteousness is mine. Now that's what happened in the
sin offering. Notice in verse 14. But the flesh of the bullock
and his skin and his dung shalt thou burn with the fire without
the camp. It's a sin offering. Look over in Hebrews chapter
13 for a moment. Hold your finger there in Exodus 29 and look in
Hebrews chapter 13. that the flesh and whatever else
was taken outside the camp and burned outside the camp, not
within the camp of Israel. In Hebrews chapter 13, the writer
says in verse 12, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the
people with his own blood. And that's what he did with his
blood. He sanctified the people. He suffered without the gate. Let us go therefore unto him
without the camp bearing his reproach. He was crucified on
Calvary's Hill, a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem. Substitution,
substitution, substitution. He took my place. And that's how I'm holy. He took
my place. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. The sin offering. It's the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes me holy. You see what His
blood did? His blood put away my sins. I don't have any sin if he died
for me. My sin has been put away and now I'm fit to be a priest.
Now let's look at the second aspect of the sacrifice. Look
at verse 15. Thou shalt also take one ram
and Aaron and his son shall put their hands upon the head of
the ram. They do that again the same way they did with the bullock.
They put their hands upon the ram signifying the transference
of guilt. And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take
his blood and sprinkle it round about the altar. Once again,
death, death. Now why did somebody die? There's
only one reason for death. Guilty. Sin. That's the only reason for death.
The sins of the priests were Figuratively transferred to that
bullet, that bullet became guilty. Its innocence became the priest,
their fit, but their sin became his. He becomes guilty. You slay
once again. Let's go on reading verse 16.
And thou shalt slay the ram. And thou shalt take his blood
and sprinkle it round about the altar. And thou shalt cut the
ram in pieces and wash the inwards of him and his legs and put them
into the 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." Now, this second sacrifice is
what's called a burnt offering. It's different from a sin offering
in this sense. What is emphasized is different. The sin offering emphasizes the
putting away of sin. The burnt offering emphasizes
the satisfaction that God finds in that death. where it says
it's a sweet savor. That verse I just read, a sweet
savor, that means literally a savor of rest. God smelled that sacrifice
and He was satisfied. Satisfied. God is satisfied. He rests. There's nothing else
needed. That's what that burnt offering
represents. The complete satisfaction God
has with the sacrifice. Turn with me for a moment to
Isaiah chapter 53. Hold your finger there. Exodus
29, turn to Isaiah 53. Verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Now that doesn't mean he got
some kind of sadistic pleasure and morbid pleasure out of inflicting
pain on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know it doesn't mean that.
It means he got satisfaction out of it. His justice was satisfied. It pleased the Lord. The Lord
was pleased. Nothing else was needed. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Now
let's go on reading. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. Now, what's that mean? Now this
is the best way I can explain this. Turn to Genesis chapter
26. Thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. Verse 10. And Abimelech said,
what is this that thou has done unto us? One of the people might
have lightly lying with thy wife and thou should have brought
guiltiness upon us. Now see that word guiltiness?
That word guiltiness is the exact same word that's translated an
offering for sin. You made his soul guiltiness. Guilty as charged. Now back to Isaiah 53. Let's
go on reading. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul
guiltiness. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure, the satisfaction of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. The Lord is satisfied. His justice
is satisfied. It doesn't need anything else.
He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be what? Satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Now the
emphasis here is the satisfaction of God. It pleased the Lord to
Bruce. He was satisfied. His justice
was satisfied. If somebody I gave this illustration
a couple of weeks ago, but it's just as true now as it was then,
so bear with me. If somebody murdered my daughter,
and if they would offer me $10 million, I still wouldn't be
satisfied. If they offered me everything
in the world, I still wouldn't be satisfied. I couldn't find
satisfaction. Justice would not be satisfied.
As a matter of fact, if that person died, I'd want him to
die. If they did that, I mean, I suppose,
I mean, I hope I could forgive him. I don't know what I'm...
I'm just trying to talk about the issue of satisfaction. Even
if they died, I still wouldn't be satisfied. And you see, sin
is an infinite evil. That's why hell lasts forever.
God can never be satisfied. His justice is never satisfied.
That's why hell just lasts forever. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, God was satisfied. He was satisfied and now He's
satisfied with me. Everybody Christ died for, God
is plumb satisfied with Him. What about the sin? What about
the sin? What sin? It's been put away. God is satisfied. Now that is how I'm holy. God doesn't have anything to
be dissatisfied with me about. He took, I'm going to quote that
song again, He took my sins and sorrows and made them His very
own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. And where are those sins He bore?
They're gone. They're gone. And He is satisfied. And that's how a believer is
made holy. Now let's look at the third aspect of this sacrifice. Back to X is 29. We've seen substitution. We've seen satisfaction. Now,
the third word that would emphasize the third aspect of this sacrifice
is sanctification. Now, let's go on reading. Verse 19. This is the third sacrifice.
And thou shalt take the other ram, and Aaron and his son shall
put their hands upon the head of the ram, and 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
round about the altar. Now, this third offering, as
I said, has to do with sanctification. Now, think about this. The blood
was put on the ear, on the hand, and on the foot. Ear for hearing,
hand for receiving, foot for my walk. The blood is put on
the ear, You have blood washed ears and what is it you hear?
When you hear the gospel, what is it you hear? You hear of the
power, the efficacy, the soul-cleansing power, the saving power of His
precious blood. That's what you hear. When you
hear the Gospel, what do you hear? The blood. The blood maketh
atonement for the soul. That's what you hear. That's
what you understand. That's what you rejoice in. It's
the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. What do you hear
the blood say? I love that passage of Scripture in Hebrews 12 where
it talks about the blood of Christ that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. Well, what did Abel's blood speak? get him revenge
put him to death for what he did and I can see why Abel's
blood said that but what does the blood of Christ say forgive
him forgive him His sins put away. Yes, it cries for justice
too. Justice has been satisfied. And
the blood of Christ says, forgive him. That's what you hear. You
hear of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's applied to
your ear, but it's also applied to your hand. It won't do you
any good to hear something if you don't receive it. We receive
this. I love that scripture in Romans
chapter 6, verse 11, by whom we joy in God, by whom also we've
received the atonement. We've received the reconciliation.
I'm receiving this. I'm receiving this, I'm believing
it. That's what it is to receive, it's to believe. To as many as
received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons
of God, even to them which believe on His name. I'm receiving this
complete atonement that the Lord Jesus worked out on the cross.
What that means is, I really believe that His blood makes
me holy. You really believe that? I receive
it. It's my hand. And you know what
it does? It affects my walk. It surely
does. If it doesn't affect your walk,
you haven't received it, nor have you heard it. Every time
somebody hears of the blood, every time somebody receives
the blood, it affects their walk. Blood on the big toe. It's a
grateful walk. It's a humble walk. It's a fearful
walk. We fear sinning against him and
bringing dishonor upon him by our walk. And it's the walk of
faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It, that's my walk. Then let's go on reading verse
21 and thou shalt take of the blood that's upon the altar and
of the anointing oil. That's the Holy spirit. and sprinkle
it upon Aaron and upon his garments." These beautiful garments that
we've been studying for the last several weeks. What do they do?
They throw blood all over them. "...and upon his sons and upon
the garments of his sons. And he shall be hallowed in his
garments and his sons in his sons' garments with him. Blood
sprinkled and the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit, the new birth,
hallows us." Verse 22, And thou shalt take of the ram, the fat
and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the
call above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that's
upon them, and the right shoulder, for it's a ram of consecration. You're going to take a part of
this ram, this third ram that was sacrificed. And then he talks
about that unleavened bread that we talked about at the first
in verse 2 of the chapter. And one loaf of bread, and one
cake of old bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened
bread that's before the Lord, And thou shalt put it all in
the hands of Aaron, and the hands of his sons, and thou shalt wave
them with a wave offering before the Lord. Now, you think of the
picture, a piece of the ram's shoulder, this third ram, the
ram of consecration, and then this unleavened bread tempered
with oil, which represents the work of the Holy Spirit. He's
always described as oil, the oil of the Spirit, and the unleavened
bread is His work in a sinner's heart where He makes them sincere,
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And He says, you take
that, you put it in that basket and you wave it before the Lord,
a wave offer. Now when you wave something,
what's that mean? When you wave something, that means that's
what you want them to see. That's what you want them to see. This
is all I want the Lord to see. I want Him to see the work of
Christ for me, and I want Him to see the work of Christ in
me. And that's all I want Him to see. I don't want Him to see
anything else. All I want Him to look at is His work, His work
for me in the sacrifice, His work in me in the work of God
the Holy Spirit. That's all I want him to see.
I don't want him to see anything else. I don't want there to be anything
else. All I wave, when you wave something, that's, you know,
if somebody waves something, they want him to see it. And
that's what he's doing. This is all I want him to see. Now
let me verify this from the New Testament. Turn to John chapter
3. Verse 19, and this is the condemnation
that light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hated the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, he comes
to the light, that his deeds, his deeds may be made manifest,
that they're wrought in God, that God did this. That's all
I want him to see, what he has done. Everything else I want
to just be put away by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I'm not ashamed to bring what he's done before the Lord. That's
what every believer does and that's what this wave offering
is. Now, waving it back and forth. Now let's go on reading, verse
25. And thou shalt receive them of
their hands and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering. For a sweet savior before the
Lord, it's an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And thou
shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration and
wave it for a wave offering before the Lord. It shall be thy part.
And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the rave, the wave offering
and the shoulder of the, look at this next word, the heave
offering. which is waved, and which is heaved up of the ram
of the consecration, even that which is for Aaron and that which
is for his sons. Now what in the world is a heave offering? We
talked about the wave, that's all we want him to see. But look
over in chapter 25, verse 1. Exodus 25 verse 1, speak unto
the children of Israel, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying,
speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering.
Now see that word offering? My margin says a heave offering,
a heave offering. Now what is a heave offering?
Of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, you shall take
my offering. Now this is what we offer up
willingly. I willingly offer up to the Lord that which
He's done. I don't want to offer up anything
else. I, with full consent, simply
want to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what I
willingly offer up. I don't want to offer up anything
else. This is what I want to offer
up, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. That's what
a heave offering is. It means you offer it up willingly.
If you're given a choice, which way would you rather be saved,
by Christ or by what you do? Which way would you choose? That's
easy, isn't it? If you're given a choice, would
you rather be saved by Christ's righteousness or your own righteousness?
Which one would you choose? Oh, that's a no-brainer. The
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I offer up that willingly. I don't want to come any other
way than by this way. It's a heave offering unto the
Lord. I am willing to be saved by the
substitutionary, satisfactory, sanctifying sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Are you? That's offering up a
heave offering. Now let's go on reading verse
29. And the holy garment of Aaron.
shall be his sons after him to be anointed therein and to be
consecrated in them. And that son that is priest and
a stead shall put them on seven days when he cometh into the
tabernacle of the congregation to minister in the holy place.
And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration and see this
flesh in the holy place. And Aaron and his son shall eat
the flesh of the ram and the bread that's 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 are holy." What did they eat? That is the
same thing as what our Lord meant when he said, except you eat
my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. What
is it that nourishes my soul? The atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I tell you what, the only thing
that gives me comfort The only thing that actually gives me
confidence, the only thing I have any boldness in, is the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's my boldness before
God. We're to come boldly by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way. And that's the only way we can
come. This is what we feed on, the atonement. In verse 34, And
if aught of the flesh of the consecrations of the bread remain
unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire.
It shall not be eaten, because it is holy. And thus thou shalt
do unto Aaron and to his sons. This is what makes them holy.
This is what makes them hallow. Thus shalt thou do unto Aaron
and to his sons, according to all the things which I have commanded
thee. Seven days shalt thou consecrate them. And thou shalt offer every
day a bullock for a sin offering, for an atonement. And thou shalt
cleanse the altar, and when thou hast made an atonement for it,
thou shalt anoint it to sanctify it. Seven days thou shalt make
an atonement for the altar and sanctify it, and it shall be
an altar most holy whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy." Now this altar upon which this
sacrifice was made, this altar with the blood of the Lamb, Here's
something that's very glorious. A lot of things are glorious
about this, but there's nothing more glorious than this. A man couldn't
defile the altar. The altar could only make him
holy. You can't do, listen to me, you
can't do anything to mess up the blood of Christ. You can't
do anything to make it lose its efficacy. All the blood of Christ
can do is make you holy. There's such security there.
There's such peace there. There's such joy there. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ actually makes me holy. Now I still say, I'm poor and I'm needy. And I
am. I'm poor and I'm needy. but through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I am holy. I am hallowed. And that doesn't mean in word only. It means I am holy. And this is the cry of every
believer. I'm poor and I'm needy. Do you know that King David,
the man after God's own heart, what phrase is found in the Psalms
more than any other phrase? I'm poor and I'm needy. That's the man after God's own
heart. I'm poor and I'm needy. And I can't get away from that,
but I can't get away from this either. I am holy. Wonderful place to be, isn't
it? Let's pray together.