Remember that. Remember those
who've requested prayer. Seek the Lord's help for them. Jennifer's doing okay. Didn't
find any problem with her heart. Stu's wife, Jennifer. They haven't
found out? Okay. Continue to remember them
in your prayers also. Let's begin our worship service
tonight with hymn number 236, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the
Sound. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. Was blind, but now I see. It was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. His grace hath brought me safe
thus far. When we've been there 10,000
years Bright shining as the sun We've no less days Him number
242, Jesus, I come. Jesus I come, Jesus I come, into
Thy freedom, gladness, and light. Jesus I come to Thee. Out of my water and into thy
well, Out of my sin and into thy cell, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shame, for failure
and loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come into the glorious name
of thy cross. Jesus, I come to thee out of
earth's sorrows, into thy palm, out of life's storms, Out of
distress to jubilate song, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. ? Jesus, I come to Thee ? Out of
myself to dwell in Thy love ? Out of despair into rapture's abode
? For I, on wings like a dove ? Jesus, I come to thee ? Out
of the fear and dread of the tomb ? Jesus, I come, Jesus,
I come ? Into the joy and light of thy home ? Jesus, I come to
Thee ? Out of the depths of ruin untold ? Into the peace of Thy
sheltering fold ? Ever Thy glorious face to behold ? Jesus, I come
to Thee ? Turn your Bibles please to Exodus
chapter 29. Gonna look at verses 22 through
28 tonight. The title of my message is Wave
and Heave. Exodus 29 verse 22. And also 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 is upon them, and the right shoulder. For it is a ram
of consecration. And one loaf of bread, and one
cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the
unleavened bread that is before the Lord. And thou shalt put
all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his son. and
thou shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. Thou
shalt receive them of their hands and burn them upon the altar,
an offering for a sweet savor before the Lord. It is an offering
made by fire unto the Lord. Thou shalt take the breast of
the ram of Aaron's consecration and wave it for a wave offering
before the Lord, and it shall be thy part. Now shall sanctify
the breast of the way of offering and the shoulder of the heave
offering, which is weighed, which is heaved up of the ram of the
consulcation, even that which is for Aaron and that which is
for his sons. And shall be Aaron's and his
sons by statute forever from the children of Judah. For it
is the heave offering and it shall be a heave offering from
the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings.
even their heave offering unto the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father
in heaven, most gracious Lord God, slow
to anger, plenteous in mercy, who will not always chide forever,
who has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities, but by your grace has separated us from our
sins as far as the east is from the west. So much so that you'll
remember them no more. We're thankful, Father, that
you know our frame, our frailty and our weakness. You remember
that we are dust and you sent your son into this world. to die in the room instead of
your people. Sanctify them, justify them,
make them holy in your presence. Impute to them a perfect righteousness
whereby they're accepted in the beloved. We thank you for your grace and
your mercy that's new every morning. Pray for those who are sick,
going through trials and troubles, especially this time of year,
those who've lost loved ones. We ask your mercy upon them. We're thankful that Loretta's
doing better and Harper's doing better. Pray you'd continue to
bring them back to a good measure of health. Pray for ourselves
this hour, Father, as we gather here, that you might be pleased
to teach us your word. Let us rest in it and be thankful
that we have it. Find ourselves often thinking
on it and dwelling upon it and meditating upon it. where your word is light and
understanding. And we praise you that you've
given us faith to where we don't understand, we still have been
given faith to believe and bow in wonder to who you are and
what you've done. Help us tonight to worship you.
We pray in Christ's name, amen. As we saw last week, three offerings
were slain And they were for the hallowing
of the priest. Hallowing of Aaron first. He's
the high priest, who's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, is
our great high priest. And his sons were to be hallowed
for the priesthood, which is representative of the Church
of the Living God. And these offerings represented
imputation, with the laying on of the hands, substitution with
a burn offering, and consecration with the ram whose blood was
shed and the blood was put on the ear and the thumb and the
large toe of the priesthood. The subject of consecration takes
up the remainder of this chapter, this entire chapter. That being
the case, the subject has to do with Christ setting apart
His church for the serving of the living God. We speak of consecration,
but this aligns with the concept of sanctification in the sense
of the priesthood being holy or hallowed unto the Lord. This hallowing or holiness is
not of themselves. They are holy by the blood of
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. A thing is holy when
God sets it apart for His use and His glory. That makes it
holy. Just as the instruments of the
tabernacle, the shovels were holy, the bows were holy, the
plates were holy, the altars were holy. Why? Because they
were set apart for the Lord's use and therefore they're holy.
And because you have been chosen from the foundation of the world,
set apart in election because Christ was your surety and assumed
your debt before you came into the world and you were never
responsible for paying it. He took that responsibility upon
himself. Because God has sanctified you
in Jesus Christ and made Him to be your righteousness, then
before God, as a child of God, you are holy, not of yourself. You are holy because God has
set you aside as His own and for His use, for His glory, the
glory of His grace. Christ alone has made the righteousness
or sanctification of His people. Therefore, they are holy because
God has declared them to be and God regards them as such. Therefore,
they are holy. You say, well, I don't feel holy.
You ain't holy. In and of yourself, you're not.
But before God, you are. And remember, it's not how you
see things. It's how God sees things that
makes things real. No believer ever believes himself
or herself to be holy personally. No believer ever believes that.
He or she knows that they are holy by the blood of Christ and
that alone. Now, the consecration is what
fills most of this chapter. This concept of consecration
or sanctification or hallowing or making holy the priest. Now,
in this context we are introduced to three offerings that are made
using certain elements of the ram of consecration. That s the
last ram that was slain, the one that put the blood on the
ear, the thumb, and the toe of the priest. After the blood of
lamb was placed on the priest s body, certain parts of the
ram, one loaf of bread, one anointed cake, the right shoulder of the
lamb, the inward parts with the colon, the liver, and the fat,
one wafer, they were all put on the altar and burnt as an
offering to the Lord made by fire. That's what it says in
verses 22 through 25. It says, And all shall sell the
thick of the lamb, the ram, the fat, and the rump, the fat that
covered the inwards, the call above the liver, the two kidneys,
and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder, for it
is a ram of consecration, and one loaf of bread, one cake of
oiled bread, one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread,
that is before the Lord, and thou shalt put all in the hands
of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and thou shalt wave
them for a wave offering before the Lord, and thou shalt receive
them of their hands and burn them upon the altar for a burnt
offering, for a sweet savor before God. It is an offering made by
fire unto the Lord." Now, all the elements employed there picture
the Lord Jesus Christ in some way. Christ is the pure bread
of life. He's the loaf without leaven.
He's anointed as the bread and the wafer both were, anointed
for the salvation of the elect. That's why He's called the anointed.
The anointed, the one who came to die in the room instead of
His people. and his flesh was the offering that paid the sin
debt for his people when he died in the room instead and then
suffered the hell that they deserved in those three hours of darkness
on the cross. These elements were placed on
the altar, that is the offering, the great altar, and they were
placed for a burnt offering. And we know the burnt offering
pictured the perfect sacrifice and finished work of salvation
for the ones whom God had chosen. Here in the Old Testament, it
is represented by the elect nation. In the New Testament, it is pictured
as the elect people, the Israel of God. And this is seen in verse
25 when it says, It is a burnt offering or a sweet-smelling
savor unto the Lord. It is an offering made by fire.
What does that mean? It means it was totally consumed.
It was put on that altar was totally consumed and it was a
sweet savor to the Lord. A sweet savor to the Lord as
we saw last time is a picture of the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ being acceptable to God and accepted by God in
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. It says this, and 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 offering to God reached
the nostrils of God. Now, other things can reach the
nostrils to God, too. Those who call themselves holy,
when they say, we are holier than thou, that's smoke in God's
nostrils. Burns his eyes, in other words.
That's the language that's used. Those who say that they are holier
than thou. The word holier is only used
there in scripture. The word, the prefix or suffix
er is never attached to the word holy except right there, holier
than thou. And it's said as a condemnation
of those who judge others to be less holy than they are. But
this signified the acceptance, this burnt offering signified
the acceptance of the sacrifice and the propitiation of God for
the sins of his people. When the hands were laid on this
sacrifice, the burnt offering, no sin was confessed because
this offering was for God, between God and the offering, and that
settled the matter of salvation outside any person's confession. Worthy to know that these elements
were placed first in the hands of Aaron and then in the hands
of his sons. And it was the high priest that made the offering.
Now before the high priest put the offering on the altar, it's
a burnt offering. It says he lifted it above his head and
waved it before the Lord. It's called a wave offering.
That's what it says in verse 24. And thou shalt put
it in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his son, and
shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. So this is the
ram of consulcation, or parts of the ram of consulcation. that
is put on the burnt offering. And then it's said to be before
they do it, they put it, they lift up these elements to the
Lord. And the history of it is that
they say they shook these things. They shook these things before
the Lord. They lifted them up above their
head and they shook them. Shaking means a lot in Scripture. Shaking means a lot in Scripture.
Look at a few passages of Scripture. First of all, they were lifted
up. They were lifted up towards God. Our Lord was said to be
lifted up. In fact, He said that when He was speaking to His Father
about the death that He should die in John chapter 12. In verse 31 it says, Now is the
judgment of the world. Now shall the Prince of the world
be cast out, and I, if I, be lifted up. from earth will draw
all men to myself. A.W. Pink when he was writing
on the seven sayings of the cross said the Lord who had before
many times said your sins are forgiven to people on the cross
didn't say I forgive your sins he said father forgive them for
they know not what they do and he said that was because he was
lifted up While he was on earth, he had the power to forgive sins.
He had the power on the cross also, but he was between heaven
and earth, and he gave the Father the right to forgive sin. He
was lifted up throughout scripture. Speaks of the Lord being lifted
up. We know this brazen serpent was a picture of Christ being
lifted up. When the people hated the light bread in the wilderness
in Numbers chapter 21, they are so loatheth this light bread.
God sent serpents to bite them, and they began to die. And Moses
intervened and the Lord said, put a serpent, a brazen serpent
on a pole and lift it up. And that pictured the Lord Jesus
Christ. In fact, that is used in John
chapter three when the Lord is talking to Nicodemus. He says
that Moses lifted up the serpent. And when so shall the Son of
Man be lifted up. And whosoever believeth on him
shall have everlasting life. So the Lord was lifted up. That's
what this way of offering first means. It pictures the Lord being
lifted up. being lifted up. Look over at
Matthew chapter 27. Here it talks about things being
shaken. In Matthew 27 verse 50 and 51
it says, Jesus when he cried with a loud voice, it is finished.
In John chapter 18 or 19. He lifted up the ghost and behold
the veil of the temple was rent entwined from top to bottom and
the earth did quake. There was a shaking going on. The earth did quake and the rocks
were rent. Rocks for rent. And over in Hebrews
chapter 12 it speaks of that time of shaking. And another
time to come when more shaking is coming. This is all pictured
by this ram of consecrations being lifted up and shaken before
the Lord. In Hebrews chapter 12 And verse 26 and 27 says, Whose
voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things
which are shaken as things that are made, that those things which
cannot be shaken may remain. Next time the Lord shakes the
earth, everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken. And everything that can't be
shaken is that which is remaining. What can't be shaken? Only eternal
things can't be shaken. Everything temporal can be shaken,
including the earth in which we tread upon. This is called
a wave offering. A wave offering. It is said in
Jewish history that the high priest shook the sacrifice in
four directions, northeast, south, and west. That signified the
gospel covering the whole earth from the four corners of the
earth. Now the breast, the breast or the brisket of the ram was
given to Moses and was to be his part of the ram for food.
That is in verse 26 of our text. Verse 26, And thou shalt take
the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration, and wave it for
a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be thy part. It
shall be thy part. What was it part for? It was
for food. So part of this was a burnt offering, rammed consecration.
Part of it was to show, all of it was to make the priests holy.
Part of it was to sanctify their ears and their thumbs and their
toes, speaking of what they hear and what they heed, their works
of their hands and the conversation of the walk they have on this
earth. But this was for food, and this is important to understand. At this point, Moses is acting
as part of the priesthood. The symbolism here is that our
sustenance is Christ. Our sustenance is Christ. We
feed upon Him. How do we feed upon Christ? Our
Lord made an interesting thing which turned a whole lot of His
disciples away when He said, You must eat My flesh and drink
My blood or you'll have no part with Me. That doesn't mean we're
supposed to be cannibals. We do that symbolically when
we take the Lord's table. But he said, you must eat my
flesh or you have no part with me. And he said, this is a hard
sin. Many of them said, this is a
hard sin. We can't do this. We can't do this. He said, you
think that's hard? This is an absolute requirement
that you do it. But I'm not going to be here
for you to do it. Think this is hard? A son of man's going
to be with the father. How can I eat his flesh and blood
when he's not here? And he tells us how. My words. They are spirit. And they are
life. The spirit quickeneth. The flesh
profiteth not. He said my flesh is not going
to be here because it really wouldn't profit you to eat my
physical flesh. It's my words. They are spirit and they are
life. This is how we feed on Christ. We feed on him as we
feed on his words. they are spirit and they are
life. Waving the ram's breast before the Lord is an act of
thanksgiving. They lifted it up and they shook it before the
Lord as a wave of thanksgiving, knowing by faith that what we
have, we have received by God's gracious hand. This is why it
was lifted up. This is why it was lifted up before it was put
on the altar and then the ram's breast or his brisket was lifted
up before the Lord in the spirit of thanksgiving. And that's That's
what all we always do when we come to Christ. That's what every
child of God does. He doesn't come with things that
he's going to offer to God that he's accomplished. If he has
done any works at all for God, he comes there and shows them
to God, puts them before God, and then says, this is what you've
done. This is what you've done. That's what our Lord said to
Nicodemus in John chapter 3. when he talked about those that
come to Christ, those who believe on Him. He says in verse 18 of
John chapter 3, He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but
he that believeth not is condemned already. Now, he has just said
to Nicodemus in a few verses prior to this, You believe not.
And we know Nicodemus carried the Lord's body and defended
the Lord, and all probably was a believing Pharisee. But he said, But he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name
of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation.
This is the condemnation. What condemns men? That light
has come into this world. Christ has come. His word has
come. But men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. For everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light lest
his deeds should be approved or reproved. But look at verse
21. But he that doeth the truth cometh
to the light. He comes to the light that his
deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God. He comes
to the light with what He's done and says, this is what God did
for me. The works that I perform, if they are, if I ever know anything
of them, I have to put all claim and bring it all to the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for He did it for me. What we have,
we have because we've received it. Every believer knows that.
What maketh thee to differ from another? Who maketh thee to differ? What is thou that thou hast not
received? If you have received it, why do you boast as if you
have not received it? What we have, we have received at the
good hand of God. Every part of our life, as a
child of God, finds its entirety in Jesus Christ alone. We step
outside that gracious, gracious place, we find ourselves in trouble. Now back in our text in verse
27, the food for Abram and the priest are sent forth. It says, And thou shalt sanctify
the breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave-offering,
which is waved, which is heaved up at the ram of consecration,
even and that which is raven, and that which is for his food.
Now that's the shoulder. That's the shoulder that's offered
up. After the breast and the shoulder are sanctified, declared
to be the Lord's, property, he then in turn gives to Moses and
the priesthood these elements, this breast and this shoulder.
Another aspect of the sacrifice is introduced here. The shoulders
designated for the priest's food is not only waved before the
Lord, it is said to be heaved before the Lord. So it is not
only lifted up and waved, but it is heaved before the Lord.
The record records that it was actually thrown into the air
and caught. Thrown into the air and caught.
and it was repeated many times, many times. Before it was eaten,
before it was boiled or made into a stew or however they ate
it, they not only waited before the Lord in thanksgiving, setting
forth the Lord as the one who was lifted up and the earth being
shaken because He was, but they heaved it, they heaved it. You
say, well this must have been some sight. Let's see this, a
lamb's breast, a ram's breast and a ram's shoulder being heaved
up into the air. But the symbol of it is that
the food by which we are sustained comes from heaven down to us.
And we offer Thanksgiving for it again and again. That's what
this is talking about. This is why the heave is for. We heave it upward, it comes
down to us. This is called a heave offering. And this part of the
offering is for, this is part of the offering of consecration
to make holy the priest. It's not only what they wear,
which is part of their hallowing, not only the blood that's put
on their ear and their thumb and their toe, but also what's
offered for them and what they eat. All this has to do with
God hallowing them for the priest. This picture's the gospel, the
feast of fat things on the wine and wine on the leaves and well
refined. The preaching of the gospel is
the absolute necessity for the child of God. It's what he thrives
on, it's what he lives on. The gospel alone, telling sinners,
saved by grace, over and over again, what God has done for
them by the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that will convict
them The only thing that will convince them. The only thing
that will comfort them. The only thing that will console
them. The only thing that will save them and deliver them. That's
it. Nothing else will do that. A preacher can preach about adultery. And when he runs across it in
scripture, in the context, he has to preach about it. But if
his message is adultery, most of the people in the church aren't
doing that. You know what's going to make those people feel good?
They're going to feel good. They did not do it then. When
naturally, and still in their flesh, they're all adulterers.
They're all adulterers because they're idolaters who seek after
a false god. It's this gospel. What do we
do? Throw it up and catch it. Throw
it up and catch it. That's what we do. And finally,
this offering, this food for the priesthood, has one further
designation. In verse 28 it says, And it shall be Aaron and his
sons by a statute forever for the children of Israel. And it
was done forever because offerings were made every day. For it is
a heave offering, and it shall be a heave offering from the
children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even
their heave offering unto the Lord. Now this is an interesting
thing. This is significant. The peace offering was the sacrifice
that declared, and we'll see that in the study of Leviticus,
it was the peace offering that declared a finished and completed
thing, the thing that has established peace with God. This is a peace
offering. You remember the false teaching
of the harlot in Proverbs chapter seven that seduced Solomon's
son into her chambers. One of the things she seduced
him with is we have peace offerings. Now peace offerings only come
where peace is established with God. And Ed Harlow hadn't established
peace with God. She was trying to seduce her
son away from the teaching of Solomon, the teaching of scriptures. Peace comes when God is at peace
with his people. when God is reconciled to His
people and His people are reconciled to Him. Well, God doesn't really
need to be reconciled to His people. He's not done anything
wrong. We need to be reconciled to Him. Peace with God is only
possible if God has been propitiated. God can only be just to justify
if every element of His law and justice has been satisfied, propitiated. Peace offering is a grand statement
of thanksgiving for the fact that sins have been forgiven
and righteousness has been established in the Lord Jesus Christ. For the peace offering to be
aligned with the offering of consecration, and it is, it's
the realm of consecration. It's what this realm is used
for, is to say that consecration, sanctification, is a finished
thing. It's a finished thing. consecration
and sanctification are part of the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Peace has been established on
Calvary's tree according to scripture. Look over Colossians chapter
1. Colossians chapter 1. Verse 19,
it said, It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness
dwell, and having made peace, past tense, having made peace
through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself, I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, and you, who were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." That's the work
of God. He made peace for himself by
the blood of the cross. Remember what the false teachers
teach. Jeremiah the false teachers teach
peace when there is no peace. That's saying we have peace offerings
when no peace has been established. We as believers say we can offer
the peace offering because peace has been established. The peace
offering is part of the consecration of the child of God. So in these
offerings that we've looked at thus far in this chapter, these
offerings that make the priesthood holy, that make you holy, to
hallow you for God. Imputation, substitution, consecration,
sanctification, thanksgiving, and peace. Sounds like it is
all there, doesn't it? This is glory and this is beauty. God bless you.