Exodus (Lesson 55)

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delante, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

Okay, thank you for riding along with us today.

I'm Brother James.

This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast, and I greet you as always in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Hope that you're having a great day.

Hope that we can add to it and make it a little bit better.

We are going to study with you from God's Holy Bible.

We are in the 29th chapter of Exodus.

We are considering the anointing of Aaron, the high priest, to minister before the Lord on behalf of God's people, the children of Israel.

On today's program, we're going to read a little bit more of Exodus 29, and then we're going to pause and talk about this matter of the anointing of Aaron for his priestly duties.

And we're going to see many great spiritual lessons that I hope and trust will be a blessing to your heart as they were to mine.

Let's read, just so we can get a little bit more of this from 29, starting at verse 15.

These are the sacrifices being offered at the time of Aaron's anointing.

Thou shalt also take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram, and thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it round about upon the altar, and thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him and his legs, and put them unto his 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 savour, 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.

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, upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, 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, last time we talked about the fact, the fact that a man must be consecrated, a man must be sanctified, a man must be hallowed, a man must be washed and cleansed in order to serve in the presence of God.

And, and we talked about the fact that without blood, without the shedding of blood, sacrificial offering that a man can never be fit to stand and serve in the presence of God.

And we talked about, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is our great, supreme, acceptable, sacrificial offering made on the cross at Calvary to bring man to God, and how we thank the Lord and praise the Lord for his Son Jesus Christ.

Now, just some background.

Just some background.

As Moses was the mediator of the covenant between God and the children of Israel, it is to him that Aaron and his sons draw near in order to be appointed to the priesthood.

Note that there is emphasis placed on the fact that Aaron was Moses' brother.

In 28, 1, it's important to understand.

Aaron was the brother of Moses.

He had been called this at the beginning of chapter 7, and it'll be called this, uh this will be pointed out on a number of occasions afterward.

But at this crucial point where he is about to become the high priest, he is called Aaron thy brother.

Now, no doubt the godly mother who reared Moses as his nurse brought up her older son and their even older sister Miriam in a similar manner.

There was not special treatment for Moses because he was to be placed in Pharaoh's court.

And what a commendation this is to Jacobad, that all three of her children made their mark for God.

The relationship between the two brothers is an important factor.

Since returning to Egypt, Aaron had been Moses' closest associate.

Now, a number of things we got to remember about Aaron.

Because of his eloquence, he was chosen by the Lord to be the mouthpiece for Moses when dealing with Pharaoh.

Chapter 4, verse 14.

He acted in that capacity as they both met the children of Israel when Moses arrived in Egypt.

Chapter 4, verse 29.

Both Moses and Aaron were given the charge to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

6.13.

He accompanied Moses when they appeared in the presence of Pharaoh.

Chapters 5 through 11.

The Egyptians always regarded Moses as the leader, but Aaron was there nonetheless.

Now the different roles of the two brothers in their dealings with Pharaoh were defined by the Lord as he spoke to Moses.

In 7.1 you remember, see, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

The crucial instructions regarding the Passover were given by the Lord to Moses and Aaron.

Chapter 12, verse 1.

The whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness of sin, and both men brought the response of the Lord to the people.

Chapter 16, verses 1 to 10.

When Israel engaged in battle with Amalek, remember it was Aaron and her who held up the hands of Moses on the hilltop in chapter 17.

Aaron and all the elders of Israel came and ate bread with Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, chapter 18, verse 12.

When the covenant was ratified, Moses, Aaron, Nahab, and Abihu, with seventy of the elders of Israel, went up the mountain and saw the God of Israel, chapter 24.

And then the first indication that Aaron and his sons would have responsibilities in the service of the tabernacle was when they were charged with ensuring that the candlestick was always lit.

Chapter 27, verse 21.

Now, despite all this, there appear to be good reasons why Aaron was not suited to be high priest.

In the idolatry of the golden calf, we'll see him play a prominent part when we get to that chapter.

The people approach him with their discontent, and he readily listened to their complaining, and then received their gold, and then formed a molten calf.

He showed himself to be weak willed, not possessed of the leadership quality of Moses.

Using the pretext that Moses had married an Ethiopian woman, he and Miriam were involved in a shameful rebellion against Moses.

And it's interesting that Miriam, not Aaron, was stricken with a leprosy, indicating she was the leader in the matter, showing again Aaron's lack of leadership ability.

Now, whatever Aaron's motives, whether he's jealous of Moses or just too weak to take the lead, he certainly didn't earn a place as high priest in Israel because of his unwavering and unfailing godly character.

He had more than a few problems in his personal life, and more than a few things are recorded in his history that we would have to admit leave him just a bit wanting.

Nevertheless, God, by his grace, and God in his wisdom, according to his purposes, chose to make Aaron and his sons the high priestly family.

Now, I was asked one time many, many years ago, when studying a similar matter, why would God choose a sinful man like Aaron?

And the answer to that's very simple.

He didn't have any choice.

There are no sinless men apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

So whomever God chooses to use in his service, God is going to be working with someone who is greatly flawed.

All right, now this is a matter of the anointing of Aaron.

It parallels many New Testament truths.

And let's consider these things.

Aaron and his sons were to be taken, verse one, and brought, verse four, and washed, verse four, and clothed, verses five and six, and anointed, verse twenty-one.

Are you saved?

I mean, has Jesus Christ saved your soul?

Are you saved?

If so, it is because you were taken, brought, washed, clothed, and since that time anointed.

Now every child of God is a child of God because they were first taken out of the world and brought to Calvary.

Jesus said, No man, no man can come unto me except the Father draw him.

Now, before you uh Calvinists light the candles on your birthday cake, he said, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.

But you can't come unless he draws you.

Thank God, thank God, for the drawing power of the Lord Jesus Christ, the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.

Praise his name for that.

Then you have to be washed by the blood of the Lamb and by the Holy Spirit.

First Corinthians 6 11 names a list of terrible sins and then says, Such were some of you, but ye are washed.

Well, how do we get washed?

The blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

We receive the washing of the water by the word, spiritual cleansing through the word of God.

And the Lord be praised for that.

Then we're clothed with the righteousness of God.

Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then 1 John 2 27 says, We are all anointed by the Spirit of God.

So that's that's salvation.

Then Aaron was girded.

Verse number nine, thou shouldst gird them with girdles.

And the saved child of God is told, before you go into service, make sure that your loins are girt about with truth.

Ephesians 6, verse 14.

Ephesians 6:14

Not only that, verse 9 says that Aaron and his sons are priests for a perpetual statute, forever, forever, an unending priesthood.

And so in the New Testament, 1 Peter 2.5, 1 Peter 2.9 says that everyone who has received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior has been made part of a royal priesthood and and Hebrews 7.24 says, that life of service and that life of fellowship given to all who believe when they believe is forever.

Hebrews 7.24.

In verse 7 of our chapter, we read that Aaron is anointed before his sons.

We read that the oil is poured out while his sons have it sprinkled on them.

Poured out on Aaron.

Sprinkled on his sons, verse 21.

The anointing of chapter 40, verse 15 is still not the pouring out of verse 7, all of which shows what Hebrews 1 9 says.

Jesus Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.

In John 3.34 it says that Jesus Christ was not given the Spirit by measure, but as Colossians 2 says, the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in him.

Now, all of us who are priests, we are priests because we are sons of, children of, the great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He, he was given, he was the full measure of God the Holy Spirit.

We have, praise his name, an earnest, a portion, if you will.

We have been sprinkled where he received the full outpouring.

That's all right.

That's all right.

Whatever God chooses to give me, I'm glad to have it.

Now, Aaron was anointed on the head.

Leviticus 21, 10 to 12.

Kings were anointed this way, 1 Samuel 10, 1.

And this oil is described in Exodus chapter 30.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

Psalm 133 says, The oil poured upon his head ran down his garments.

And there are five priests anointed.

And seven kings, all told in scripture, are said to have been anointed in this way.

Isn't God good to allow us a place in his service?

To allow us a part in the in the great work and activity of offering up spiritual sacrifices, and the great uh the great joy, the great blessing of entering in into his presence with our prayers, our praises, our petitions, our requests, our burdens, our needs.

What a God, what a savior.

What a salvation.

What a life.

God's so good to us.

Now 29 says, The holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them.

And that son that is priest in his 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 seethe his flesh in the holy place, and Aaron and his son shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them, but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.

And so, so it is that no one who is not a priest is to eat in this manner, and just so, again, as 1 Peter chapter 2 points out that all saved people are priests.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Revelation 1 6, God has made us kings and priests unto himself.

So when the priests gather at the Lord's table to eat the Lord's supper, none who are unconverted may eat of that bread and drink of that cup.

It's expressly forbidden.

Then a verse you you probably know and have heard in verse 37 Seven days shall uh 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 was perverted later by the Pharisees, and they used this idea to cover up all manner of sin, but uh that that's that won't do.

And and uh Joab ran in one time and was guilty and worthy of death, and he thought by grabbing hold of the horns of the altar that would uh spare his life.

But but no, no, no.

It's not the altar is not a magic charm, the altar is not a lucky rabbit's foot.

When you bring a sacrifice and you offer that sacrifice upon that hallowed altar in that hallowed place before our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

These items which would be common and ordinary were it not for the blessing of God upon them, become holy.

Now think about it.

That uh that wood that makes up that brazen altar, there's nothing holy about that wood.

That gold that covers, I'm sorry, the brass that covers that wood, there's nothing holy about that.

That ram or that uh sheep that's brought to lay upon that altar, that bullock that's laid upon that altar, there's nothing holy about those animals.

And certainly the man who brings the sacrifice, the family that brings the offering, there's nothing holy about them.

But as these common ordinary things are given up and given over in sacrifice to the one true and living God, they become holy because they have been devoted to His service.

My friend, as you listen right now, a common man, a common woman, living an ordinary life and An ordinary town, in an ordinary nation, in an ordinary day in history, do you realize that as you take your life, your talent, your time, your energies, your gifts, your skills, your personality, as you present your body a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God, as you perform this reasonable service, do you realize that God can take you?

That God can take me.

He can make us holy, he can make our lives holy, he can use us to bring honor and glory unto Himself.

What a thrill.

The Bible says this in verse 38.

Now this is that which thou should alter upon the altar, two lambs of the first year, day by day continually.

The one lamb thou should offer in the morning, the other lamb thou should offer it even, and with one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with a fourth part of a hen of beaten oil, and the fourth part of a hen of wine for a drink offering, and the other lamb shalt thou offer it even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour unto the Lord, made by fire unto the Lord.

This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak there unto thee, and there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.

And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, I will sanctify uh sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office, and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell among them, I am the Lord their God.

Why all these sacrifices, lest the people forget their God?

Why all these offerings, lest the people forget their God?

Why all this fire, why all this smoke, why all these beasts, lest the people forget their God?

He dwells in their midst, but unseen.

He walks among them, but not visibly.

He is present in their midst, and yet how little does man perceive of his God?

And so in these sacrifices men are reminded of the God to whom they owe the all.

Men are reminded of the God who has blessed them with such wealth, men are reminded that they are free to worship their God according to his word only because he has delivered them.

And so every morning a lamb, every evening a lamb, every day two lambs, day after day two lambs.

Now, when you think that there were 1,718 years from the giving of this law to the destruction of Jerusalem, taking out the 70 years of captivity, two lambs sacrificed each day, there would be one million two hundred and fifty-four thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight lambs killed, all told.

A tenth deal, about a half gallon per lamb.

That'd be six hundred twenty-seven thousand four hundred and ninety-nine gallons, all told.

A hen was six quarts.

Quarter hen for each lamb would mean one million eight hundred eighty-two thousand four hundred and ninety-seven quarts of oil, and the same amount for the wine.

A figure prepared in 1963, way back, at then current prices, brought the value in US dollars to almost 36 million dollars.

In today's money, you you could hardly calculate it.

Ladies and gentlemen, all those lambs reminded the people of their sin.

All of those lambs reminded people of their God.

Yet not one of those lambs, nor all of those lambs combined could take away the sin of the people.

Not one of those offerings, nor all of those offerings combined, could fit those people for a place in heaven.

And so day after day, month after month, century after century, in accord in obedience to, in accord with in obedience to God's word and God's commandments, those lambs were offered.

And yet, and yet the wages of sin continued to pay off in death.

But one day, one day Mary had a little lamb.

And one day John the Baptist looked out from the river bank and saw the full grown lamb, the ram, the Lord Jesus Christ, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

And on Mount Calvary, up Calvary's mountain went a lamb before her shearers, dumb, a sheep opening not his mouth, and he went to that cross, and he laid down his life there, and he shed his precious blood there, and he offered his sinless body there, and on Mount Calvary the Lord Jesus Christ was the supreme, the final, the ultimate sacrifice that at long last took away the sins of the world, that at long last made full, complete, absolute, and satisfactory payment to a holy God to pay for the transgression of sinful man.

And now, my friend, there is no further need for that morning sacrifice.

There is no further need for that evening sacrifice, for Jesus Christ the Lord has paid it all.

He cried with a loud voice, it is finished.

He gave up the ghost, the veil and the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, and the way, the way of everlasting life, through the finished work and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, was now open and available to all.

Have you received him?

There's no other Savior.

There's no other salvation.

There's no other way to heaven.

But all that trust in Jesus Christ have, by the grace of God, everlasting life.

How about it, my friend?

How about it?

Do you know Jesus?

I hope so.

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