Hey, Trish. I didn't see you
come in. I'm sorry. Well, it's good to see everybody
out this Sunday. We'll only have an 11 o'clock
service since it's New Year's Eve. We won't have dinner. Just
come over here, hear the gospel, and go home and be with your
family. That'd be a good thing. And then
the following Sunday is the last Sunday of the month. We'll have
dinner. We'll have morning service at the Lord's Table. And then
we'll have dinner and no afternoon service. That's at the end of
this month. Is that right? Okay. So when I'm going to do the ham? Nobody cooks ham this next, on
the 31st. I got me a real fine ham. Mike
Butler sent me a ham. He sends me one every year. Those
who requested prayer, continue to remember those. Cliff Cochran,
any word on him? Chemo? Yeah, bless his heart. That ain't no fun. I'll continue
to remember Cleaves and your prayers. How's Debra doing? She's amazing. This woman's had
cancer for 20 years, the bad guy, and still going. She's an
amazing person. I do remember her. I remember Peggy Lambert's family
and Carla Snook's family in your prayers. And Cynthia called me. It was somebody else, a Welch
lady. Ann Welch. I remember her in
prayer. I think it was Ann. Somebody, Cynthia knows, so remember
her in your prayers also. Let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 227, The Cleansing Wave. Oh, now I see the cleansing
wave, the fountain deep and wide. Jesus, my Lord, my God, The cleansing stream I see, I
see, I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth
me. It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth
me. I rise to walk in His own light
above the world and sing. cleansing stream, I see, I see. I plunge and oh, it cleanseth
me. Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth
me. It cleanseth me. Yes, cleanseth
me. Amazing grace to ? To feel the
blood apply ? And Jesus only, Jesus, Lord, my Jesus I see, I see, I plunge in. Oh, it cleanseth me. Oh, praise the Lord. It cleanseth
me. It cleanseth me. Yes, cleanseth
me. Hymn number 51, praise the Savior. Praise the Savior, he who know
him, who can tell how much we owe him. Gladly let us render
to him all we are. have. Jesus is a name that charms
us. He for conflict gets and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints Neither force nor God can sever
those He loves from Him. Keep us, Lord, O keep us cleaving
to Thyself and still believing till the hour of our receiving. Then we shall be where we would
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not now nor could
be soon shall be our own. You have your Bibles, turn and
read your 29th chapter of Exodus. We're gonna look at verses 10
through 21. Verse 10, and thou shalt cause
a bullet to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation.
And Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head
of the bullet. And thou shalt kill the bullet before the Lord
by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And thou
shalt take of the blood of the bullet, and put it on the horns
of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside
the bottom of the altar. Now shalt take all the fat that
covereth the innards, 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 bullet,
and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the
camp. It is a sin offering. Thou shalt also take one ram,
and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head
of the ram. Thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his
blood and sprinkle it round about the altar. Thou shalt cut the
ram in pieces, and wash the innards of him and his legs, and put
them into 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-smelling savor, an offering made by fire
unto the Lord. And thou shalt take the other
ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head
of the ram. And thou shalt kill the ram, and take 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. Now shalt take of
the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and
sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons,
and upon the garments of his sons with him. And he shall be
hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments
with him. Now let us pray. Our Father,
we thank you that throughout this book and the Old Testament
we are continually reminded of the offerings offered unto thee,
as they all point to some aspect of our Lord Jesus Christ and
what he did for us on Calvary's tree. We are thankful for that
great singular offering when he offered himself unto thee,
the perfect sacrifice, and in doing so perfected those that
were sanctified forever, so much so that you'll remember their
sins no more. And because their sins are remitted,
there is no need of any other sacrifice ever. Sufficient, efficient,
completely a success. What a joy to be able to say
that. Father, we pray for those who are sick, those who are going
through trouble. We pray especially for these
who've been mentioned, Deborah and Cliff. And we ask, Lord,
you be with them. Be with the doctors as they minister
to them. Continue to pray for Arlene and also for the others
who've lost loved ones. Lord, now know it's the heart
of every one of your children. Only you can touch that heart
and move it and strengthen it in Jesus Christ. We are thankful,
Father, for all you've done for us. Many things take place in
our life we know is appointed by thee, things that we don't
understand, things that sometimes drag us down and break us. But
when we are broken, we know who heals the brokenhearted and lifts
up the faint and causes us to stand firm in the gospel. And
we thank you, Father, for the trials and the tribulations that
come our way. though painful, yet useful, for
they drive us to the feet of the Savior. Help us tonight,
Lord, as we look at your Word. Give us grace to understand and
appreciate what you have before us. We thank you for this Word.
It's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. It gives
us understanding, though we be simple. It gives us understanding
of great things, things that no man of his own self can ever
understand. You have given us faith to believe.
We thank you in the name of Christ. Amen. Now, before us in this passage
are the three offerings established for the hallowing of the priesthood.
You'll find that in verse 1 and 2 of chapter 29. It says, And this is the thing
thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto the me
and the priest's office take one young bullock and two rams
without blemish. So he brings us back to these
offerings for the priesthood. Now every offering in the scripture
pictures some aspect of the relationship between the son and the father
and or the relationship between the elect and the savior. They
all have to do with sin. They all have to do with redemption.
They all have to do with justification. and they all have to do with
sanctification and thus they are all about the salvation of
the sinner by the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the results of that work upon those for whom the work
was made. Though the sacrifices speak of sprinkling and pouring
and applying blood, the one thing essential for these things to
occur is death. That must happen. That must happen. The sacrifice must die. It must die. If the issue of
sin is to ever be settled, there must be a death for sin. That's the payment that is due.
To this there can never be an exception. I know there's a song
that says if one drop of blood could have done it, no it couldn't.
took the very death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He poured out His
soul unto death. He died in the room instead of
His people because that's the only thing that would take care
of their sin. Now in those three hours of darkness on the cross
when God shut down the light so nobody can see how He deals
with sin and hell, He punished our Lord or punished our sin,
our transgressions. He visited our transgressions
upon Christ and punished our sin on Him And for three hours,
terror took place that no man can ever know what it's like. For even if we were to end up
perishing in hell forever, we would never know what our Lord
took in those three hours of darkness when God poured out
His wrath and He tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. What was necessary, however,
since He came out on the other side of that punishment for sin,
was the debt that had to be paid. And so he freely gave up his
life. He died in the room instead of his people. That is absolutely
necessary without any exception. And each of the offerings here,
this bullock and these two rams, they were killed. They were slaughtered,
which is the precise meaning of the blood shed in the Word
of God. When he shed his blood, that
means he died. That's what it means, always. Though blood is
applied or sprinkled for washing and cleansing or covering without
it flowing from the death of the sacrifice, it carries no
weight and no value whatsoever. the first of these three offerings
was a bullock. We see that in verses 10 through
13. And thou shalt cause the 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. Now shall kill the
bullock before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation. Now shall take of the bullock and put it upon
the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood
upon all the blood beside the bottom of the altar, and thou
shalt take all the fat and the coal 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 bullet and
his skin and his dung shalt thou burn with fire without the camp."
Without the camp, it is a sin offering. A young bullock without
blemish, a young steer without spot or blemish was to be used.
The bullock in scripture is symbolic of strength and power sufficient
to pull the load or bear up under the burden. When John wrote in
1 John chapter 3 of Christ being manifest to take away our sins,
he used an interesting Greek word. The word that is translated
take away is aro, which means to bear up under. He was manifest
to bear up under our sin. That's a picture of this bullet. Christ bore the full weight of
the magnitude of our sin on Calvary's tree when He was made to be sin
for us. Now this offering is designed
as a sin offering. That's how it's described. The
Lord said this is a sin. And this signifies that when
the priesthood laid their hands on the head of the offering,
they did so confessing their sin. For on the sin offering,
as we'll see later in Studies in Leviticus, on the sin offering,
when the sin offering was made, hands were laid upon the head
of the sacrifice and sins were confessed. What does this picture? This picture's imputation of
our sins being imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
was signified when they confessed their sin. And when all the sins
of all the elect were made to meet on Christ. That's how it's
described in Isaiah chapter 53. You don't have to turn there.
I know you're familiar with the passage. You could probably quote
it for me. But in Isaiah 53 and verse six says, all we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord hath laid on him or made to meet on him
the iniquity of us all. I don't ask me to explain that
or to elaborate on it because there's no really real way to
explain the wonder of that when Jesus Christ was made sin for
us. There's just no way to explain it. Just to know it's true and
to believe it is a wondrous thing. When the bullock was consumed
by fire it symbolized our sins being carried away, being put
away. The blood was called an abasin
and then it was applied to the horns of the altar. The horns
of the altar represent authority. and power and these horns were
used to attach the sacrifice to the altar and in scripture
people in trouble and extreme sorrow would grab hold of the
horns of this altar. They would run to it and grab
hold to it. These horns These horns on the four corners of
the altar were things to grasp unto as a refuge. And we know
that points to the Lord Jesus Christ, the horn of our salvation.
Christ is our refuge. And the remainder of the blood
was poured at the base of the altar, picturing Christ pouring
out his blood for his people. Now, some writers have said there
was a kind of a trough around the edge of the altar, and that's
where the blood went. I don't know whether that means
anything or if it's any value to know that. But the fat that
covered the innards, what we would call the omentum or the
mesentery around the organs, the call of the liver, which
was the lobe, one of the lobes of the liver, and the kidneys
and the fat thereof, which represent basically the best parts of the
beast, the best parts of the beast, they were washed. They
were washed and then they were burnt on the altar before the
Lord. The word but that begins verse
14 signifies that though the hide and the body and the intestines
were to be burned, they were not to be burned on the altar.
They were not to be burned on the altar. They were taken outside
the camp and burned outside the camp. We see some sense of what
that means over in Hebrews chapter 13, for I think Paul was referring
to this very instant when he wrote these words in Hebrews
chapter 13. In verse 11 and 12, he says this,
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the
camp. They are burned without the camp.
What is that talking about? Wherefore, Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the camp. He was outside Jerusalem on Golgotha's
Hill. So that's the picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ and His crucifixion. This is called the sin offering. The sin offering. These elements
had not really been discussed particularly and will not until
later on in Exodus and Leviticus. But the sin offering was a very
important offering. Now in verses 15 through 18,
one of the rams is offered as a burnt offering, verses 15 through
18. And thou shalt take one ram,
and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head
of the ram. 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 pieces upon the head. So it was kind of stacked
on the altar when it was set on fire. And thou shalt burn
the whole ram, The whole ram, upon the altar, it is a burnt
offering unto the Lord. It is a sweet-smelling savor,
a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Now, this offering was called
the burnt offering, and the laying on the hands was about association
or identification. On the burnt offering, the hands
were laid on the head, but no confession of sin was made. On a sin offering, confession
was made. But here, the laying on the hands,
there was no language involved at all. It was as if the offerer
was declaring something about the sacrifice. It had to do with
identification and association with the sacrifice. It was as
if the offerer was declaring, this sacrifice is me. Before
God, this sacrifice is me. The burnt offering addressed
substitution. So no sin was confessed. Not
when Christ was made substitute for us, we didn't confess anything,
did we? That was a transaction made between
God the Father and God the Son. The offer is declaring that the
sacrifice died in His room instead. He's saying, I owed God a death
and the sacrifice paid that debt for me. This is a burn offering. The sacrifice was for God and
unto God. Who did Christ die for? I know
he died in the room instead of his people. He died for God. Because unless God is just and
receives justice for sin, he cannot be just to justify any
person. God first must be just. And so
death is required. And so this is a picture of what
substitution is. The blood of the ram. was the
sacrifice. The sacrifice was for God. The
payment was made to God and it was accepted by God as full payment
for the sin of his elect. God, Christ, offered himself
to God. I know modern religion sits around
offering Christ to people. I want to offer you Christ. I want to share Jesus. I never
ever liked that kind of terminology, share Jesus. sharing something
with someone presupposes they want what you got. And by and
large, when you tell people about Christ, they don't want anything
to do with Him. So sharing Him is a veritable impossibility.
But the sacrifice was made to God. Christ and God, the Father,
were in operation during that wondrous few hours on the cross. The sacrifice was made to God.
It was accepted by God. He was propitiated by it. The
blood of the ram was sprinkled upon the altar. The word sprinkled
is used also throughout Scripture. Look at a few passages of Scripture
in the New Testament. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 through
3 describes the people of God. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, or Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, they are elect according to the
foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit,
and unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you. That's a direct
reference to this sprinkling of blood on this holy altar for
substitution. In Hebrews chapter 10, in verse 22, It says, Let us draw near with
a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
How are our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience? It's
done because Jesus Christ has died in our room instead. It
says in verse 14 of chapter 9, How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works? to serve the
living God, to serve the living God. The blood was to be sprinkled
around the altar. They did that with hyssop. Hyssop
was a little plant that grew out of the crags of the rock.
It was nothing fancy. It was just a little plant, but
it had kind of a furry head on it. And it was used, they would
dip it in the blood and shake it and sprinkle it. And that's
how it was done. That was what was used. The ram
was to be then cut up in pieces. Cut up in pieces and stacked
on the altar and the entire sacrifice was to be consumed by fire. And
when that happened, you know scripture says in this Old Testament,
the fat belongeth to the Lord. I used to have a friend that
weighed about 400 pounds and he would like to say that about
himself. He said, the fat belonged to the Lord. But the fat belongs
to the Lord because it produces the sweetest smell, the finest
smell, the most savory smell. We cooked some pork chops on
the grill today for lunch, and when that fat caught fire, oh,
mine smells so good, so good. The fat belongs to the Lord.
The fat and all the fat thereof, which it speaks of here, made
a sweet-smelling savor. the sweet-smelling's favor, and
that applies to the propitiation, satisfaction, or pleasing the
Lord. So in the substitution of Jesus Christ, we have propitiation,
which is God being appeased for sin. We have sanctification,
which Christ is made to be to His people. We have satisfaction. God is satisfied with His people
in this substitutionary work. This refers to the sacrifice
of Christ which pleased, propitiated, and satisfied God for the sins
of His people. In Ephesians 5 it speaks about
loving one another and it is like the sweet smelling savor
of Christ's sacrifice. When we preach the gospel it
is called a savor unto God, a sweet smelling savor unto God. In Hebrews
in different places it talks about a sweet smelling savor
unto God, this uplifting. We know that in the Old Testament
these things were temporary and temporal but they still smell
good to God. First time substitutionary sacrifice
was offered was other than in Eden when God slew the beast,
was after the flood. And it pictured God's satisfaction
because when Noah offered a burnt offering unto God, the result
of God said, after he'd smelled a sweet-smelling savor, he said,
I will punish the earth this way no more. I'll never send
flood again to kill everything. So in that sense, he was satisfied
or sated. This is what the burn offering
does. So you have the sin offering
representing an imputation. You have the burn offering representing
substitution. And then the other ram, ram sacrifices
addressed in verses 19 through 21. It said, now shall take the
other ram and Aaron and his son shall put their hands upon the
head of the ram. And then thou shalt kill the ram, and take
the blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Avron,
and upon the tip of the right ear of the sons of his sons,
and upon the thumb of the right hand, and upon the great toe
of the right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round
about. And thou shalt take the blood that is upon the altar,
and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Avron, and upon
his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his
sons with him, and he shall be hallowed, or made holy, or sanctified. And his garments, they'll be
holy, and his sons, they'll be holy, and his sons' garments
will be holy." Everything about it will be holy. Everything about
it will be holy. That's what this is teaching.
Now the laying on of hands here represents something else. One
represents confession of sin, the other represents saying association
and identification with the sacrifice as being offered to God for us. This represents possession. This
represents possession. The shedding of the ram's blood
addresses application of the blood to the priesthood, the
elect church, for the ear, the thumb, and the toe are involved
in this. This speaks of sanctification
or howling or pissing set apart for God's service. This is a
picture in where the blood is applied any time the word right,
as opposed to left, is found in scripture representing some
part of the body, it refers to salvation. If thy right eye offend
thee, or cause thee to offend, pluck it out." Why does it say
that? And what does it say? With the eyes of the wind of
the soul. How can the right eye cause you to offend if you're
looking at anywhere else but Jesus Christ for your salvation?
It's offensive. It's an offense. God's hand of
salvation is called His mighty arm and His right hand. His right
hand of salvation. The blood here is first applied
to the tip of the right ear. to the tip of the right ear.
Some say it's the lobe, some say it's that center gristle,
some say it's on the top of the ear. I don't know where, nobody
knows exactly where it was because it just says to the tip of the
right ear. Why? Because the Lord said, take
heed what you hear. Take heed what you hear. He also
said this, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
The first place that the gospel enters is the ear gate. You don't
see the gospel, you hear it. You hear it. That's why when
the Lord healed the blind man, he could just say, open your
eyes and see. Or to the lame man, he would
say, take up your bed and walk. To the man with the withered
arm, he'd say, straighten out your arm. But to deaf people in scripture,
every deaf person, he touched them. He put his hands on them. Why? because your ears have got
to be opened. And it is God who gives the hearing
ear and the seeing eye. And our Lord said to His disciples,
Blessed are your ears, for they hear. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. Then the blood was applied to
the thumb of the right hand. Hands represent activity or works
for the believer. Now the works of the believer
we know are predestinated. You are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has foreordained that
you should walk in them. This is the work of God. So if
you have works, it's going to be God who produces them. If
you have good works, it's going to be God who produces them.
You won't know whether they're good or not. In fact, the fact
that you do them in and of yourself will make them less than good.
Because we can't do anything where sin is not present with
us. But God has ordained that our works are accepted by the
blood of Jesus Christ. And so they are good works to
him. What are our good works? It's the life you live. It's
the life you live. I love my wife. Loved her for
a long time, longer than I've been married to her. Loved her
eight years before I married her. But I've loved her for a
long time. Now when I do something for her,
And I don't do that much, she does most of it. I'm gonna be
honest with you, she can't sit still. She's gotta have something
to do. Me, I believe you ought to not do anything if there's
nothing to do. I'm just that way. But I love her to death. But when I would maybe get her
a cup of coffee or do something for her, maybe cook breakfast
or whatever, I don't say after I've done it, this is a good
work. And I need to get some points for this. I don't do that.
Why do I do that? Because I love her. Why does she do what she
does? Because she loves me. There's no law involved in that.
There's no keeping score. She don't think when she does
something for me that this is a good work and I'm going to
get points for that. It's living. It's living. If you love somebody, you will
do for them whatever you can do for them. And if they love
you, they'll do the same. But they won't be keeping score.
Love always flows outward. Never looks for reciprocation,
doesn't even consider it. Love don't act that way. Love
always flows outward. What is our good works? Getting
up in the morning, taking care of your family, loving your neighbor. You don't
think about these things. Somebody needs help, you don't
say, well, I think I'll do a good work here, I'll give them some
help. No, you help them. Why? Because that's what life
is. That is your good works. But these are ordained of God.
That is why the blood is put on the thumb of the hand. It represents the works. They
are accepted because the blood has been applied. The blood has
been applied. We are the priesthood, the royal
priesthood, and we are able to make acceptable sacrifices unto
God by Jesus Christ. That is according to 1 Peter
chapter 2 and verse 5. Then the blood was applied to
the great toe. the ear, the thumb, and the toe. This speaks of the walk or the
conversation of the child of God. Now the Lord says some things
about that. Let's look at a few instances.
Look over at James chapter 3 for a moment. James chapter 3 and verse 13.
It says, Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Let him show out a good conversation. That's a good walk. good conversation,
his works with meekness, and wisdom. Both of those are elements
that he'll receive in knowing Christ. Excuse me, then and over
in 1 Peter 1. In verse 15 it says this, but as
he which hath called you is holy, So be ye holy in all manner of
conversation. Now what was this blood applied
to the ear, the thumb, and the hand for? It was for consecration.
It was to consecrate the priesthood for the service of the Lord.
So if the Lord has consecrated you for His work, and He has
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a holy conversation. You have a holy walk in this
world. The introduction of the oil. in verse 21 with the blood
and mixed and then sprinkled upon Aaron and Aaron's garments
and his sons and their garments so that they would be hallowed
unto the Lord. This represents the work of the
Holy Spirit in the believer. In John chapter 16 it makes it
very clear that the work of the Holy Spirit in John 15 says he
will not glorify himself So when people talk about the Holy Spirit
meetings, things like that, they're talking about the Holy Spirit
come down, and I called down the Holy Spirit, and there wasn't
a dry eye in the house. They're glorifying the Holy Spirit,
something the Holy Spirit will never do. He will never glorify
himself. The Holy Spirit says he will
glorify Christ. Christ said he'll not speak of
himself, he will glorify me. He will glorify me. Now when
this sprinkling of this blood mixed with the Holy Spirit is
a picture of the Spirit's work in the child of God, He takes
the things of Christ, leading them into all truth and guiding
them into all truth. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them unto the believer. He sprinkled from head to toe
with the blood and the Spirit, from head to toe. Though our
ears are consecrated, however, we're still sinners. That's why
they sprinkle the entire body, and the clothing speaks to the
frailty of the sinfulness of the believer. Our ears are consecrated,
but we often listen to and heed what we should not. Though our
works are consecrated, we often do what we should not. Though
our walk is consecrated, we often live as we should not. our entire
body must be awash in the blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit
through the gospel so that before God we are holy. We are holy for it says in verse
21 and he shall be hallowed and his garments and his sons and
his son's garments with him. In first Corinthians 1.30 It
says, Of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, holiness, and redemption. And
in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, when it talks about who's not
going to enter the kingdom of God, all those things mentioned. It says, Such were some of you,
but you are washed. You are sanctified. imputation, substitution, and
consecration. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name, Amen.