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Blessed be the name
159
On the first
All praise to him
Who reigns above
In majesty supreme
Who gave his son for men to die
That he might men redeem
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
His name above all names
Shall stand
Exalted more and more
At God the Father's own right hand
Where angels host adore
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
Help redeemer, savior, friend
Of man once ruined by
The fall of patience plan
For thou hast died for all
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
His name shall be
The counselor
The mighty prince of peace
Of all earth's kingdoms conquer
Whose reign shall never cease
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
Blessed be the name
Of the Lord
Sorry for that slip up if the ushers have come forth to receive the offering.
Brother Ramon, we pray for the offering.
All right, brother, thank you so much, Lord, for this great church, Lord, and the privilege to serve you here.
I pray that you bless the offering.
Help us to be cheerful givers, and thank you to all that you do.
Bless the rest of the service as well. In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Exodus 29.
Exodus 29, the Bible reads,
And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hollow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office.
Take one young bullock and two rams without blemish,
And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened, tempered with oil,
Of wheat and flour shalt thou make them.
And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket with the bullocks and the two rams.
And Aaron and his sons, thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
And shalt wash them with water.
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.
And thou shalt put the miter upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the miter.
Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.
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.
And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation,
And Aaron and his sons 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 beside the bottom of the altar.
And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards,
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 bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shall 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.
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 burn 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,
and 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, 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.
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 sons,
and shalt waive 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 savour before the Lord. It is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration, and waive it for a wave offering before the Lord,
and it shalt be thy part.
And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering,
which is waved, and which is heaved up of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron,
and of that which is for his sons. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons by a statute forever from the children of Israel.
For it is an heave offering, and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel,
the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the Lord.
And 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 see this 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 if fount of the flesh of the consecrations, or 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 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 atonement,
and thou shalt cleanse the altar, when thou hast made an atonement for it, and 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 is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar.
Two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning,
and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even. And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled,
with the fourth part of an hen of beaten oil, and the fourth part of an hen of wine for a drink offering,
and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto, according to the meat offering of the morning,
and according to the drink offering thereof for a sweet savour, an offering 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,
and I will 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.
Brother Ramon, will you pray for us?
Father, thank you so much for the word of God, and for the study of the book of Exodus.
I pray that you would fill pastor with your spirit, and help us to have ears and hear the message you put on his heart.
Fill us with your spirit as well. We love you.
Amen. All right, we're back in Exodus, chapter 29, after about a three-week break there.
And the title of the sermon tonight is The Consecration of the Priest.
Now, last time we were here, we went kind of meticulously through the outfit of the high priest.
And if you remember, the high priest's outfit was a little bit different,
because they had the ephod that they wore with the different jewels, and represented the different tribes.
And they had, like, the shoulder pieces on that said holy to the Lord.
And so they had a different, they had the same outfit, but different things on it.
And they had the, what seemed to be like an extra pocket within there,
that they put the Urim and the Thumen in there, and the breastplate, all that different stuff.
And we kind of went through what some of that stuff might represent, and what I thought for sure represented.
But all this is really meticulous stuff that's going on here.
And you'll notice that, you know, God goes through great detail to give all these instructions to Moses.
And so we know a lot of the things that God has said, and we're like, really, we're still kind of in this pause situation,
where God is just telling Moses all the things that they have to gather just to do the service of the Lord,
all the things that they have to make to do the service of the Lord,
and then all the outfits that they have to wear to be the priest, the high priest and the priest of the Lord,
and then what Moses has to do to even let those priests serve before the Lord.
So now, Moses being told what to do when it comes to, he's having to put all their clothes on him, if you didn't notice that.
He's having to kill the bullock. He's having to kind of walk them through all this stuff,
and then this is kind of like the ordination process that they have to do.
And he's just explaining what he has to do in order to get all this started,
because remember, this is like basically he's starting this new congregation basically out in the wilderness.
It's not like people have never worshiped God before, but this is under the covenant that they agreed to at Mount Sinai.
So let's look at verse number one. The Bible says,
And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office,
take one young bullock and two rams without blemish.
So this is what the word hallow means.
And hallow and consecrate and set apart and all these different words,
a lot of times they kind of have similar meanings, but hallow means to make holy or consecrate.
So a lot of times they're dual meanings, but they have to hollow them or make them holy.
So Moses' job is to make sure that they're cleansed properly to minister to God in the priest's office.
You can't just come willy-nilly to God.
And you know, like Jeroboam, one of the sins that he did when he decided to just kind of go off on his own
was that he took priests from the lowest of the people, and that was like a smash in the face of God.
God did not do that. He said they have to be this specific people,
and these are the things you have to do in order to be a priest unto me.
And then they had to take one young bullock, which is like a big cow or bull or whatever,
and then two rams without blemish.
So I don't know necessarily why it's one and then these two other types of animals,
but there's definitely three of them. Connect that with the Trinity, I don't know.
But to make them consecrated, they had to make this sacrifice.
And notice you're going to get a lot of the same imagery going on with all these things.
And I don't want you to get lost in the details, but look at verse 2. It says,
And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened, tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened,
anointed with oil, and wheaten flour shalt thou make them.
So specific ingredients, specific things that have to be done.
And God is really specific. We talked a lot about order and all these things this morning.
Well, God's really getting down to the details and what has to be done.
And this is not a suggestion. It's not, well, you can use rice instead of wheat to make your bread.
You're not making barley. He said specifically the things that they have to use.
Because it represents something. And it says,
And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket with the bullock and the two rams.
And Aaron and his sons, thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and shalt wash them with water.
So to hallow the ministers, this is the beginning of the whole thing.
You take the sacrifice, you take the bread, these different types of bread,
anointed with oil in different ways, wheat is what you make the cakes out of.
You take them and put them in one basket.
You bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
which is what? Basically where their church services are, right?
Where everybody comes together as the congregation.
And then what? Wash them with water.
So what would the unleavened bread represent?
Well, obviously, the body of Christ, okay?
And so that's what you see the picture of in the New Testament.
So when we eat the unleavened bread at the Lord's Supper, that's what we eat, right?
Unleavened bread. What does the oil represent?
Well, the oil represents the Holy Spirit.
And how you, you know, it says that you have to, you take it and temper it with oil.
So the person that's saved is filled with the Holy Spirit when they get saved.
So it's tempered with oil, representing the Holy Spirit.
And then the rams and the bullock, death is required for redemption.
And blood of a perfect sacrifice without blemish is required for redemption.
This is pictured in the death of these beasts.
They're supposed to be without blemish, picturing Christ.
And then the washing with water.
You know, modern day New Testament, what is that pictured in? Baptism, right?
And baptism doesn't wash our sins away, but it is like the first command that we do afterwards.
And notice that, you know, this is representing people that are saved, okay?
And then they get, what, they get washed with water in front of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Okay, so all these pictures are pictures of things in the New Testament that we already, that we have in place now.
So in the New Testament you're saved by the blood of Christ and dwelt by the Spirit of God.
And then you're supposed to be baptized.
Then you serve Christ as a priest in your temple, which is your body, right?
That's what the New Testament teaches.
As a living sacrifice, you know, which is your reasonable service.
So you see how the priest order is picturing what is going to come in the New Testament?
And actually it's, when it talks about how it's supposed to be something that's forever,
our priesthood, the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be something that lasts forever,
and us serving him is going to last forever.
So Moses is now to sanctify and cleanse the priest before they even begin to do the service.
So all this stuff has to happen in this chapter before they can even start doing what they're doing.
It's a pretty exhaustive process.
I'm glad that it doesn't take that much effort on our part, you know, to get saved and baptized.
I mean, obviously, a lifelong learning from the Bible and sanctification for the rest of our lives,
those things are true, and that's a lot of what's being pictured here also.
Because they continuously have to do what? Cleanse everything.
And it's like every day there's sacrifices, you know, our lives.
Every day there's supposed to be sacrifices that we give up in our lives so that we can serve him.
Every day we're supposed to kind of try to clean up our life.
You know, if we failed yesterday, or if we got dirty yesterday, hey, let's get clean today.
Let's clean up our act today.
So these are pictures about how we are supposed to live as priests to the Lord
and how we are supposed to serve God,
and these picture our lifelong service to God as New Testament believers.
So now Moses then begins to be told some other directions here about the holy garments that we talked about last time.
I'm not going to cover all those details, but I'm going to speak about this a little bit more now.
Look at verse 5, it says,
And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod.
So there was a coat, remember, and then the robe of the ephod, and the ephod.
So there was three different items there, and then the breastplate that goes over the top of it,
and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod.
So all those items were part of the outfit for the high priest.
And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.
So the mitre was like this hat, and then the crown went over the top of it.
So it's also called a bonnet.
And then verse 7,
Now shalt take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.
So again, this is the consecration service, this is the hallowing that they're doing,
and so this nice, brand new, clean outfit,
Moses is going to take oil, and pour it upon his head, with this brand new outfit on.
You know, and to me that just, like that would go, like,
maybe God just gave me this, this afternoon, but my truck that I drove here,
it was like dead, dipstick dry, out of oil.
Like it had been sitting for six months, and I turned on my truck to go soul winning,
and it was like, when the oil light's on, it's not going off, that means there's a problem.
So, I left it running, I shouldn't have done that,
but I went to put the oil in, and Sean's standing over here with like the rags,
and the blower blew the oil right in Sean's face.
I'm sorry brother Sean.
It didn't get him that bad, but it got over my watch and some stuff like that,
and I was just thinking, like, obviously I'm not a mechanic,
but I thought I was smart enough to put the oil in, but apparently I failed.
I failed before I even got here.
So, anyway, but that oil got on him, and like, you know,
you don't want to go out soul winning with oil all over you.
So, I was just thinking, you know, you put on a brand new outfit,
and then oil gets dumped on top of it,
but this oil is that special anointing oil that God said had to be that certain type of oil,
and that represents the Holy Spirit of God,
and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the life of the believer,
and so that had to be put upon that brand new outfit.
And it says in verse 8,
And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them,
and thou shalt gird them with the girdles, Aaron and his sons,
and put the bonnets on them,
and the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute.
Now, again, that pictures the future,
because these guys died, and new priests would rise up,
and so on and so forth, so they didn't live forever,
because we don't live forever until we get our new bodies, right?
As far as, like, our human bodies.
But there will come a time, and well,
Jesus Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
so he's a priest that will never die.
He's always going to be our high priest forevermore,
and, you know, we're going to serve him forevermore as people that live forever.
So, it says,
And thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.
So that word consecrate means to make or declare sacred,
to dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose,
to ordain to a sacred office.
So this is an ordination service where they're pouring the oil upon them.
This was something that was done symbolically in the Old Testament.
Now, when I was ordained,
Pastor Jimenez laid his hands upon me,
and that's also done in,
Moses does this with Joshua,
and this is done in the Old Testament also,
but he didn't pour oil on my head,
but he asked that God would fill me with his Spirit,
and give me, you know, the ability to lead,
and that God would, you know, bless me in a special way
to be able to lead the people here.
So, this is a formal ordination,
this is a formal consecration,
and they had to be in a special, specific outfit to do this.
Now, people say that clothing isn't important,
and of course, you know, when it comes to church work and things like that,
they'll say there's no thing in the New Testament that says
what we're supposed to be specifically wearing,
and I agree with that.
You know, and culturally, people,
like Pastor Stuckey wears that Filipino style,
I don't, what do you call those things?
Anybody know?
No? I don't know.
But anyway, I was wearing a tie the other night
that wasn't exactly a Northerner style tie,
I was wearing like a bolo, like a, you know,
Southwestern style tie the other night,
and I'm just saying that there's different styles
in different places, and like in Hawaii,
like the style is the Hawaiian shirt,
the aloha style shirt or whatever.
But anyway, so yeah, I mean,
but I still think that we should be presentable at church, you know.
And people will disagree with that too, and whatever,
but the fact remains that they did have to wear specific clothing here,
and one thing I do know for sure is that God wants us to be covered
and look decent.
He doesn't want us to look like harlots or whoremongers
and be dressing inappropriately with God's people
or even outside of these walls, you know.
We shouldn't be wearing one thing
and then dressing inappropriately outside of God's house.
I'm not saying wear a suit and tie outside of God's house.
We have to do that. I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that clothing is important in the Bible,
and it specifically is in this instance.
So you're like, well, in heaven that's not going to be the case,
but I don't think that that's true
because there's specific verses that talks about clothing that's worn in heaven.
There's specific verses that talks about clothing that Jesus actually wears himself.
And so Jesus wears clothing.
He's not just appearing with nothing on, folks.
It talks about his clothes.
So to say that we're not going to wear clothes is just ridiculous,
but I want to take you through some passages here real quickly.
I just kind of want to go on this little clothing rabbit trail real quick
because I do think that, I mean, I talked about this kind of in my last sermon
and kind of talked about the difference between men and women's clothing
and stuff like that, but I do want you to go to Genesis chapter number three.
Genesis chapter number three, and we see that Adam and Eve,
they were naked before they sinned,
and when they realized that they were naked,
they realized it because they realized that they were sinful.
And they're walking around with no clothes on,
and verse seven says,
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked,
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
So Adam and Eve, the first thing they thought about was taking plants
and covering themselves up with leaves.
Now, vegetables.
And it's kind of like, you know, Cain makes his offering with vegetables.
And it kind of seems, you know, God doesn't want us to wear,
you know, in the Old Testament it talks about not wearing clothing with mixed fabrics
because it's a picture of works and face out, you know.
It's talking about two different types of salvation, mixing salvation with works.
So I think it's interesting that they picked, you know, fig leaves to do that.
But they want to clothe themselves, and they want to hide themselves in the way that they want to,
but God has different ideas of how we should be dressed than how we think that we should be dressed.
Look at verse 8. It says,
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
So here they are, they already clothed themselves, though.
They made themselves aprons.
And if you know, what's an apron look like?
It has something in the front and nothing in the back but maybe a string to tie around, right?
That's not really necessarily covering everything up.
I don't know exactly what these aprons look like.
But when I think of an apron, I think of like a cooking apron, don't you?
Maybe that's not what it looked like.
But, notice that they're still hiding.
Why are they still hiding?
Because maybe their idea of being covered up wasn't God's idea of being covered up.
And then, you know, it's kind of like people will dress how they want,
and, you know, it's like, have you ever knocked on someone's door,
and then they open the door, and they realize that you're someone from church,
and then they start to cover up?
And it's like, well, if I was just some rando stranger,
you're just going to just sit in there and let it all hang out?
Because that's kind of what they do.
And so, but like when they think that someone, a Christian's at their door,
then they want to cover up. Why is that?
I don't know. That's kind of funny, though.
But look at verse, skip down to verse 21.
So, it says, unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them.
So, it's interesting, God made coats of skins, so that means that something had to die
in order for them to get covered.
Which, this is a picture of Christ, you know, who would later be slain,
and, you know, it pictures some kind of animal had to die as an atonement
for what was going to come later on.
So, but he made coats of skins, and that word coat, what do you think,
you know, obviously when we think of coat, like I'm wearing like a jacket or a coat, right?
And jacket is kind of some French word that became an English word or whatever.
But coat is like kind of an older English word, but there's two meanings for coat.
What is the first meaning for coat that you think of?
You probably think of a coat, right, like a coat that you would wear outside,
but what else is coat? Coating something with something is to cover it with something, right?
This has like, what did you coat this with, CJ?
Varnish. This is coated, this wood is coated with something.
So, it means to cover something, right?
So, God covered them up, because what they made wasn't good enough.
What they made wasn't covering them. Their aprons out of fig leaves wasn't good enough.
And so God said, you know what, you need to be covered up.
And so this, physically, they need to be covered up better,
but also this is a spiritual picture of the fact that their sins need to be covered by the blood.
And in this case, it's an animal that pictures the covering that they would need later.
And so, our righteousness, being clothed in righteousness is, you know, being clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
is, you know, it's a spiritual thing, but it's also a physical thing.
So our clothing is kind of a picture of us being, you know, not being found naked, I guess.
Now, I'm not going to have you, I've gone to this verse lots of times in our studies,
but go ahead and turn to Revelation 1, I'm going to read Revelation 19, 8,
where the Bible says,
And the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
So, in heaven, it talks about this fine linen that we're going to be clothed with,
and it's the righteousness of the saints.
And this is represented in the tabernacle, which I don't have the tabernacle out here today.
It looks like I have a spa set out here, but I'm going to show you why I brought that here in just a few minutes.
But I'm not having a spa day, I'm just going to do a demonstration, and it might get ugly, I don't know.
But, hopefully not.
But, anyway, Revelation 1, 12, it says, and this is a description of what John sees when he looks at Christ in the Revelation.
And he doesn't look like he did when he knew Jesus on the earth.
It says,
So, was Jesus wearing clothes when he saw him?
Yes, he was.
Now, obviously, it goes on to describe what his eyes looked like,
his feet, and his hair, and his head, and white as snow, and white like wool, and his eyes were a flame of fire,
but it says that he's wearing a garment.
And garment is just, you know, it's clothing.
It doesn't say what type of clothing it is,
but most people in 2023, because of all the flannel graphs they've seen,
because of all the Sunday School pictures and drawings,
and all the coloring books that they've gotten at Walmart and Dollar Tree or wherever,
they think that Jesus looks like a woman.
They think that he wears a long dress,
and a long, flowing robe that goes all the way down to his feet,
and long, flowing arm, you know, these long, flowing bell-style arm things,
and then he's got this long hair, skinny, stick-like figure,
and a beard, which that's about the only part that I would agree with.
And he's white, as the Driven sees, white as Dylan, like Casper the Ghost.
He says his pronunciation, by the way, is not like a gringo.
Anyway, I don't know, I'd have to hear him speak a little more.
But, anyway, so what I want you to notice, though,
is that he's clothed the garment down to the foot.
Now, he's wearing something that covers down to the bottom of, you know,
down to his foot, and then gird about his paps.
Your paps are like, this is your paps, like where the nipple line is right here.
So, with a golden girdle.
So, some kind of like, you know, whatever, I don't know.
I don't know exactly what that looks like, but that's what it's describing,
and he's got some garment that goes down to the foot, okay?
Now, I want you to look at Luke chapter 20, because, I mean,
I just get so tired of people describing, or these pictures of Jesus that aren't accurate,
and then people are saying, no, Pastor Thompson, you're crazy,
because you think that Jesus wore pants, or you think that he wasn't wearing a robe,
or you think that he didn't have long hair.
It's like, you're just, dude, you're just, you're brain-defiled.
Like, we're not supposed to draw pictures of Jesus,
and we're not supposed to make pictures of God, and so, but what do people do?
They do it anyway, and then the ones that they make, we get etched into our mind,
and even we can't help but think those pictures,
and so that's something that we have to bring into captivity,
and that has to be something that we have to just kind of just not allow ourselves to think,
because we've seen it so much that you can't almost help it.
Now, and then we almost are not offended by it.
You know, you see it, and instead of ripping it up and throwing it in the garbage,
you're just like, eh, not a big deal.
But Luke 20, verse 45 says,
Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples,
so what's Jesus about to do?
He's saying in front of a whole bunch of people,
he said unto his disciples,
Beware of the scribes which desire to do what?
Walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets,
and in the highest seats of the synagogues,
and the chief rooms at feasts.
So he's saying beware of them.
This is what they like to dress like.
They like to wear long robes.
And then, you know, you'll take a verse like Revelation chapter one, verse 13,
where it says he's cold with the garment down to the foot,
and you automatically assume that's a robe.
Why would you think that?
It says in verse 47,
Which devour widows' houses, and for a show make long prayers.
So not only do they like to wear long clothes and long robes,
but they like to do long prayers too.
They go back to Genesis, they hit Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
They're saying the most eloquent long prayers, you know.
They're saying, you know, just everything.
They're just like, dude, would you ever shut up?
I'm ready to go.
But anyway, which devour widows' houses, and for a show make long prayers,
the same shall receive greater damnation.
So Jesus said this in front of a whole bunch of people, didn't he?
To his disciples.
And said they like to wear long robes.
Now turn to Mark chapter 12, verse 38.
Mark chapter 12, verse 38.
You're like, well, Pastor Thompson, why are you so passionate about this?
Well, I'm just, I'm tired of it.
I'm tired of the false teaching.
I'm tired of the false doctrine about it.
It just annoys me.
It says, Mark 12, verse 38 says,
And he said unto them, this is a parallel passage.
He said unto them in his doctrine,
Beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing.
So this is a parallel passage.
So long clothing can be translated as long robes, right?
If this is the same, and love salutations in the marketplace.
You know, it's a parallel passage to the same thing.
He's talking about people that like to dress in wizard outfits and go out in public.
Isn't he?
If I walked around in a robe like T.D. Jake's the faggot that he is,
who likes to be hanging out with P. Diddy and doing weird stuff,
he wears a dress.
It doesn't surprise me that he wears a purple dress when he preaches.
At all.
It doesn't surprise me when Catholic priests turn out to be pedophiles,
and they're wearing women's clothing.
Why would that surprise me?
You're like, that's not a women's clothing.
Jesus said they will receive the greater damnation.
He said they like to wear that stuff to get attention drawn to them.
And then people will be like, draw me a picture of Jesus.
And it's a guy wearing a long dress.
Just like he said, don't do this.
They're going to receive a greater damnation, but I'm going to dress exactly like them.
What are you talking about?
That's not possible.
Wouldn't that make him a hypocrite if he dressed exactly like he told people not to dress like?
He didn't say don't do it, he just said this is what they like to do.
And so, if they like to do it, and then he's like, they like to do it, but so do I.
Here's me in my wizard outfit.
Wouldn't that be weird?
Turn to Revelation 19, verse 16.
Revelation 19, 16, the Bible says,
And he hath on his vesture.
And the word vesture, I just kind of looked it up.
I like the etymology of the word.
Actually, I looked up the etymology, because it makes me think of the word vest.
And the vest is something usually that has the cut off arms and it covers your chest, right?
Maybe they zip up sometimes or whatever.
But vest is short for vesture.
So, vesture is probably something that covers the upper body is what I'm guessing.
And then, you know, obviously, he probably wasn't wearing,
he's probably not wearing a vest when he comes back like you would think.
Like, you know, but vesture, something that's covering his, you know, he's covering his upper body.
And it says, He hath on his vesture and on his thigh,
a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So, he's got something written on his thigh.
Now, let me just ask you this.
Is this on his underwear?
Because if he's wearing a robe or tunic, like they say in the ESV and all these other versions,
wouldn't that technically be on his underwear?
Or is it on the dress somewhere that he's supposedly wearing?
You know what I'm saying?
Like, if he's wearing a robe, like a long robe, like you see in all these flannel graphs and all these stuff,
wouldn't it be on, you know, because it says his vesture,
so I'm guessing that it's written somewhere on his upper body someplace.
King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and then somewhere on his thigh.
Now, the people that think that when it talks about britches in the last chapter,
how they had to make the britches, that that's the underwear that goes underneath the robe, right?
That's what a lot of people will say.
Has anybody else heard that?
That's their underwear.
No, it's not.
That's not true. I don't believe that.
And then they'll say, well, their pants weren't invented back then.
Yes, they were. Yes, they were.
Pants have been around for thousands of years.
As a matter of fact, one of the thumbnails that I put up,
it has the pair of 3,500-year-old pants as the thumbnail for the picture of the last sermon I preached about this.
It's not the priest outfit. It's the Chinese pants, okay?
So, now I brought these items here.
They're not the priest garments, but it is a robe, okay?
And this was made specially overseas by Omar the tent maker.
But this is a robe, okay?
And it doesn't go all the way down to my feet, but it covers my arms, and it goes almost to my thighs.
And I'm not saying that this is exactly how long the robes were of the high priest or whatever.
It could have been shorter than this.
But do I think that it was all the way down to their feet?
Because if it was, then wouldn't that be what Jesus is talking about?
That they like to wear long clothing?
Because, and it says they like to broaden, you know, they like to have these big,
isn't that what you see with the wizard outfits, that they have these big, what do you call those, cuffs?
The cuffs are like all big and floppy.
And this is just like a regular robe, right?
And you could probably get away with wearing this.
And these don't fit me, but these are the shorts that come with it.
They're actually way too big for me, but I'm not going to put them on.
But anyway, you could wear shorts.
These shorts go past the knee.
But if you wear them with this robe, it's on your thigh, right?
So, I believe that when the priests wore these garments,
that they were just wearing a pair of pants, short pants, just like those right there,
and maybe not just like those.
They were nicer.
But anyway, I had to show you that they do exist.
It doesn't have to be some long, drapey, you know, wizard, emperor, palpatine robe,
the pope, or the cardinal, or any other kind of bird.
You know what I'm saying?
So, but, riddle me this on this verse.
It says, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, king of kings, lord of lords.
So, if he's wearing a robe that goes down to his feet,
because remember in Revelation chapter 1, was he wearing a garment that went down to his feet?
If it's a robe, how are you going to see it on his thigh?
Is it written on his thigh?
And written on his vesture.
If it's a robe, it'd be written here, and then what?
However he sits, then you're not going to see it correctly.
You know what I mean?
But if you're wearing a pair of pants, or a pair of short pants,
and you have something written on your thigh, you're going to see it on the thigh no matter how you sit, right?
So, it just doesn't make sense that Jesus would say, you know,
don't wear long clothes, or, I guess to say it like this,
that they love to go in the long clothing, and then he comes in long clothing.
That doesn't make sense, folks. That is hypocritical.
He would not do that. He's not a hypocrite.
That would make him a hypocrite, which would make him a sinner.
And Jesus can't sin.
So, you're like, well that doesn't prove that he was wearing pants.
Did the garment go down to his feet?
Did he say that wearing long robes is something to not do?
Well, then what is it?
You tell me what garment it was then.
What did the high priest wear?
They wore breeches. They wore shorts.
And so, if he's just being above reproach, he's maybe just saying,
well, I'm just going to wear the whole thing.
I'm going to put the rest of the pant leg on there.
I mean, he is the Lord.
So, anyway, you're like, well, why does that matter?
Well, it matters because it makes Jesus a hypocrite in the Bible
when people draw pictures like that, and that's what they think he looks like.
And when they say that he wore a robe, the only time Jesus is called wearing a robe
is when he is going to be crucified, and they put the robe on him to mock him.
That's the only time.
And then they take it off of him and put his regular clothes back on.
Look at John chapter 19.
I'm not going to go to that verse, but they've already put his clothes back on at this point.
And it says what he's wearing.
This is a long kind of timeout here, but I'll get rolling here.
John 19, 23.
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments.
Is that garments as in plural, or is it just a one-piece outfit?
It's plural, isn't it?
And made four parts.
Does that mean that there's four parts to this outfit?
Can you guys count with me?
One, two, three, four, right there, right?
To every soldier a part.
So how many soldiers are there?
Four.
Also his coat.
That's an additional item.
That's five items.
Is he wearing a coat?
Yes.
Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
So there's no seams on this coat.
This is a special coat.
It's definitely not like any other coat, necessarily.
And these clothes must have been nice to a certain extent,
because why are they trying to part them amongst themselves?
It's like, these are Roman soldiers.
They probably got more money than Jesus.
So what does this tell you?
That the clothes he was wearing, he wasn't wearing rags.
He wasn't wearing Walmart fall-aparts.
He was wearing decent clothes.
Decent enough to where they're ready to gamble for his clothes.
So what does that tell you?
That Jesus is not just dressing any willy-nilly way.
And so clothing is important.
And I'm not saying it's the most important thing,
but this is part of the story and part of the persecution of Jesus.
The fact that they took his clothes,
and this special coat that he has,
and remember Joseph had a special coat
that was divided and torn up by his brothers.
And it says, and said therefore among themselves,
let us not rend it, but cast lots for it,
whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
that they saith, they parted my raiment among them,
and for my vesture they did cast lots.
The other thing that proves to me that that part,
the vesture is something you'd wear on your upper body,
is because the coat is what they're talking about here,
and it says my vesture they did cast lots.
That's what they cared about.
They cared more about the coat.
They said, let us not rend it.
Let's gamble for who gets the coat.
And that is the vesture.
And these things, therefore, the soldiers did.
So I know that was a long rabbit trail,
but I mean, to say that clothes are not important at all
is just not true.
And Jesus is not wearing some hobo outfit.
He's wearing actually a nice outfit.
He probably had that specially made or whatever,
but he's not wearing the worst clothes he can
or dressing and rags.
He's wearing a decent outfit.
And the fact that he's covered in the verses that it shows
proves that it does matter what you're wearing.
The fact that he made coats of skins for Adam and Eve
and covered them because they weren't covered good enough.
You know, there's tons of other verses that I could go to,
but I'm not going to because it's really out of the scope of this sermon.
But I did kind of want to put the stamp on the whole robe thing.
And I want to show you that, yes, they do actually make robes that have shorts.
And you could wear that, and it's not...
I mean, I wouldn't wear that at a house necessarily.
It's just not really...
But it is shorts. It is a robe.
It's not technically...
I mean, would you consider that pajamas?
I mean, if I wore that to Walmart, pretty ghetto, right?
But that's why I didn't want to put the shorts on.
Anyway, so anyway, let's move on with the rest of the sermon here.
Exodus 29, verse 10.
So Moses puts the special clothes on them,
the way that God said to do it.
And it says,
Now shall 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,
and thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
So they specifically had to kill this bullock in a specific spot
that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And of course, Jesus has the famous I Am statements that he said in the book of John.
And one of those things is, I am the door.
So he's the door of the congregation.
This bullock pictures Jesus being killed by the door.
And go ahead and turn to Ephesians, chapter 5.
Because I thought this is interesting that it kind of...
In Ephesians, chapter 5, it kind of uses a lot of the things that's happening in this chapter,
which I find very interesting.
Ephesians 5, 25.
This is the famous marriage passage.
It's a great passage for teaching on marriage, but it is talking about Christ and the church.
That's the main passage that it's supposed to be used for.
But it says in Ephesians 5, 25, husbands love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
Where's Aaron and his son supposed to put their hands on the bullock?
The door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And it says that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.
So what is going on in this chapter again?
They're being sanctified, they're being cleansed,
and they're washed with water by Moses right before this happens, right?
And that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
And so this sanctification process that's going on,
ultimately the blood of Christ is going to be the fulfillment of what's going on here,
but back in Exodus 29, 12 it says,
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 beside the bottom of the altar.
What does this kind of make you think about?
Well, it's the altar, and he has to put the blood with his finger on it.
And what does Jesus do after he dies on the cross,
and all of his blood is poured out upon him?
He resurrects from the dead, and Mary comes and tries to touch him,
and what does he say to her?
He says, Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Right?
Now turn to Hebrews chapter 9.
So they had to pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.
They had to touch the altar with his finger,
pour the blood beside the bottom of the altar.
And then Hebrews 9, 12 it says,
Neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Now I realize that this is talking about the holy place that's inside the tabernacle,
but the blood being shed on the altar is where he gets the blood.
You know, Jesus dies on the cross.
That is the picture, and then going to hell for three days and three nights.
So the wood he's placed upon is the cross,
but the altar itself is how do they cook things on it?
How do they roast these offerings with fire?
Well, they put the wood on top of it, then they put the sacrifice on top of it.
They burn it, and then they take the blood in,
and Aaron has to take that blood, and it has to be on his ear.
It's going to go through that here in just a minute,
but he has to take that in and put that on the mercy seat. Right?
Now look at Exodus 29, 13.
And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards,
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 bullock, and his skin, and his dung,
shall thou burn with fire without the camp.
It is a sin offering.
So what is it for? A sin offering.
So, I mean, they're going through this whole process.
I mean, this whole chapter, again, is this whole process
of just being able to serve God in this capacity.
Hebrews 13, verse 11, you can turn there if you want to,
or just keep your place in Exodus,
but just listen if you're not going to turn.
Hebrews 13, 11 says,
For the bodies of those beasts,
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin,
are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also,
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate.
Let us therefore, let us go forth therefore unto him
without the camp, bearing his reproach.
So, a lot of these things are directly correlating
to the book of Hebrews to help us understand
what the meaning of these things are.
Exodus 29, 15,
Thou shalt also take one ram, and Aaron, and his sons,
and put their hands upon the head of the ram.
And thou shalt slay the ram,
and thou shalt take his blood,
and sprinkle it around about upon the altar,
and thou shalt cut the ram in pieces
and wash the inwards of him, his legs,
and put them into 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 savor,
an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
So, I mean, just think about having all this,
having to do all this work.
And at this point, Moses is the one doing all this stuff.
And they're kind of, you know,
they're putting their hands on everything,
but Moses is the one chopping them all up.
Moses is the one that's doing all the things.
And it's kind of like,
because Moses really does picture Christ,
and he's the one that does all the work,
and then he's the one that sanctifies us.
And so, really, I think that's why
God is having Moses do all this stuff.
Because Moses is not the high priest,
but Jesus becomes the high priest
after he does all the work, right?
So, Jesus becomes the high priest
after he does all this stuff,
and then becomes the high priest.
So it makes sense that Moses is doing all the work
because Christ did all the work for us.
And then he consecrates us, he sanctifies us,
he cleanses us, and cleans us up,
and then, you know, then he makes us suitable
to serve with him by this cleansing.
So, it's really a cool picture, I think.
But, you know, then it says it's a sweet savor,
an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
Now, I'm gonna have you go back to Isaiah 53.
I know we looked at it, you know,
multiple times in the last couple weeks,
but, again, Isaiah 53 is the passage
about how Christ is gonna suffer for us,
and did suffer for us.
But, you know how it says that it's a sweet savor?
When the burnt offering goes unto the Lord,
it's a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
You know, a sweet savor means it smells good.
When you make a steak on a barbecue,
what does it smell like to you guys?
It's a sweet savor, isn't it?
It smells good.
This is animal flesh cooking on a barbecue,
and it smells good.
And so when it smells good, you wanna eat it, don't you?
I mean, you're like, man, that steak smells great.
Medium, medium rare, or who likes rare?
Y'all weird.
Anyway, I'm just kidding.
But, you know, however you like your steak,
it smells good, right, when you cook it.
But it's weird how it's likened unto, you know,
God smells this smell, and he thinks it smells good.
But what is it picturing, though?
It's picturing the fact that when Christ
actually makes his atonement and sacrifice,
that what he does, not just the fact that he's in hell,
not just the fact that he died,
but the perfect life, like everything it took
to purchase our salvation,
once it finally culminates in everything,
that is the sweet savor that God smells,
that this is picturing.
And that God is satisfied,
because you're satisfied when you finally get the steak.
You're satisfied when you smell the smell,
and you're like, oh man, that smells great.
But when you finally get to have the steak
when it actually becomes a reality,
that's when really the whole thing is complete, right?
Look at Isaiah 53, 10, it says,
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He hath put him to grief,
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see the travail of his soul,
and shall be, what's it say there?
Satisfied.
So he's satisfied with what's happened with the sacrifice.
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant
justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he hath poured out his soul unto death.
Now when you think about pouring out your soul unto death,
the Bible says that in the blood is the life.
And when his soul is poured out,
obviously it's talking about the anguish
that it goes through, and it's talking about him,
his soul definitely goes to hell,
but his blood also is poured out.
And so it says he hath poured out his soul unto death.
You know when all the blood leaves your body,
guess what happens to you?
You die.
And it says, and he was numbered with the transgressors,
and he bared the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
So I mean when that sweet saver comes up,
like when God asked him to do these sacrifices,
he's helping us to understand kind of
when the ultimate sacrifice is made,
that to God that is well pleasing,
and satisfactory to him.
And so when we smell this smell,
it kind of makes us understand a little bit
that it's pleasing, that that smell is pleasing to us.
That's why they probably have to burn the skin
outside of the camp, because you know what?
Burning skin and hair doesn't smell good at all, does it?
It smells disgusting.
That's why they burn that outside the camp, right?
But Exodus 29 verse 19 says,
And thou shalt take the other ram,
and Aaron his son 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.
So they kill the ram,
and they put the blood in all these different places
on the right-hand side every time,
not on the left-hand side.
If you're left-handed, you're wicked.
That's just all there is to it.
I'm just kidding.
But it does picture something.
What does it picture?
Well, in the Bible, the right hand
is pictured as the righteous side,
or the right-hand side of God.
Who's at the right hand of God?
Jesus Christ.
Romans 8, 34 says,
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died,
yea, rather that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us.
So what is this picturing here?
Well, it's picturing the fact that Aaron
is gonna be playing that part of the high priest.
He is the high priest.
And all that blood is being on the right side of him,
picturing the fact that he's gonna make intercession
for the children of Israel,
just like Jesus Christ is literally going to do it
for the children of Israel,
and he's gonna make intercession for us,
and he is at the right hand of God.
He is the right hand of God.
So, Exodus 29, verse 21.
And thou shalt take the blood that is upon the altar
and of the anointing oil,
and sprinkle it upon Aaron.
So here's where it starts getting gross, all right?
This is, it's not just fake blood.
This is real blood, right?
Thou shalt take the blood that is upon the altar
and of the anointing oil,
so it's oil mixed with blood,
and sprinkle it upon Aaron
and upon his garments.
The brand new clothes that he just got
that already have oil on them now,
it's blood and oil being sprinkled upon him, right?
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.
So, everything has to be cleansed with blood.
Everything they're wearing themselves,
and really, what is this picturing?
Well, it's picturing the fact that we also
have to have the blood applied to us
in order to be hallowed, to be saved, right?
And we also have to have the Holy Spirit.
And thou shalt take the ram of the fat,
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.
This is a special type of offering for this consecration
for the high priest and for his sons.
And one loaf of bread, one cake of oil bread,
and one wafer 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 sons, and shalt waive them
for a waive offering before the Lord.
You're like, what in the world is going on here?
This is kind of tough.
What does this mean?
I don't know.
I mean, they're waiving this in front of the Lord.
I don't know if they're waiving it like this.
It kind of seems like they're waiving it like this.
They're just waiving it before the Lord.
So what are they waiving?
Well, the bread.
Well, these three different types of bread,
out of that basket, remember the basket,
and the right shoulder of the ram.
And they're waiving this.
It's in the hands of Aaron.
He's waiving it.
And it says in verse 25,
and thou shalt receive them of their hands,
and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering
for a sweet savor before the Lord.
It is an offering made by fire unto the Lord,
and thou shalt take the breast of the ram
of Aaron's consecration,
and waive it for a waive offering before the Lord,
and it shall be thy part.
So we don't have time to go to all the scriptures about it,
but it talks about it in other passages
like in Leviticus and other spots and numbers.
And specifically, when his sons offer strange fire,
Aaron's sons, and they die before the Lord,
he doesn't eat this offering
at the specific time that he's supposed to,
and Moses gets on his case about it.
And maybe when it covers it again in Exodus 35,
we'll go to that passage,
but tonight we're not gonna do that for sake of time.
But anyway, it says in verse 27,
and thou shalt sanctify the breast of the waive offering.
So there's the shoulder of the ram,
and then the breast of the waive offering,
and the shoulder of the heave offering,
which is waived, which is heaved up.
So it's waived and heaved up.
So you got this waiving motion,
and then you gotta heave up.
What do you think that that means?
What is that?
It's kind of a symbol of, I don't know,
maybe a cross or something.
Anyway, I don't know.
That's just a guess,
but it is something that they're supposed to eat.
This is their portion that they eat.
So they eat of this.
This is their portion.
So it's waived and heaved up
of the ram of the consecration,
even of that which is for Aaron
and of that which is for his sons.
So I think it might be possible
that it is showing what a cross is.
I don't know.
Maybe.
I don't know.
Obviously, I'm not saying the way the Catholics
do all that stuff is right or whatever.
They stole it from the Bible or something.
But Exodus 29, 28.
It shall be Aaron's and his sons
by his statue forever from the children of Israel,
and 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.
And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him
to be anointed therein and to be consecrated in them.
So when Aaron dies,
those garments go to the next priest
who's in line to take over for him.
And that son, that is priest,
in the stead shall put them on seven days,
and when he cometh into the tabernacle of the congregation
to minister into the holy place.
And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration
and seethe his flesh in the holy place.
So they're supposed to boil that flesh in the holy place.
And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram
and the bread that is in the basket
by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
So really specific things that they have to do here, right?
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.
So they're the only ones that are allowed to eat this food.
And if aught of the flesh of the consecrations or of the bread
remain until the morning,
thou shalt burn the remainder with fire,
it shall not be eaten because it is holy.
And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron and his sons
according to all things which I have commanded thee,
seven days shalt thou consecrate them.
So how long does it take to do this whole process?
Seven days, right?
Thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement.
This is like seven, this is a process, isn't it?
Seven days, so thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement
and thou shalt cleanse the altar.
When thou hast made an atonement for it and 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.
So not only are they consecrating the priest,
but he also has to consecrate the altar
to make sure that they can even put the sacrifices on the altar in the first place.
So everything basically has to be holy.
Everything has to be cleansed.
Everything has to be anointed with oil.
Everything has to have sacrifices and blood made for it.
Verse 38, now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar.
Two lambs of the first year, day by day continually,
one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning,
the other lamb thou shalt offer at even,
and with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hen of beaten oil
and a fourth part of an hen of wine for a drink offering.
And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even,
and thou shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning
and according to the drink offering thereof,
for a sweet savor and offering 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 with 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.
So just for God to be there to meet with them and the children of Israel,
all this process has to be done.
And this isn't even everything.
This is just the consecration for the priests themselves
and for the altar for them to be able to sacrifice and do this specific stuff.
And it says in verse 44,
I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation
and I will 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 I 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.
So let me just sum up or bottom line this whole chapter.
What is with all this cleansing and meticulous setting apart
and all these details specifically to do every offering and how to cleanse everything,
all these wave offerings and heave offerings, what's the deal here?
It just shows how holy God is.
And without Christ, without his special atoning and perfect life
and all the things that he did,
this is how that you can even come close to getting close to God at all.
And these were the priests.
The regular people, they couldn't do this.
It was only the priests.
And so before the New Testament came, people couldn't just approach him to God however they wanted.
They had to go through all these special cleansing rituals and all this stuff
and it shows just how set apart and how holy you have to be to even appear before him to just serve him at all.
And that just shows, I mean think about having to do all that stuff before you come to church.
Think about if I had to do all that stuff before we, I mean there'd be a lot of people just not coming to church.
It'd be pretty, I mean to have to kill all these animals and pour blood all over you.
I mean because remember I think it was a few chapters back where Moses is having to sprinkle the people with blood.
Remember at Mount Sinai he's having to sprinkle the people with blood, sprinkle the Bible, everything.
Everything that they use in the service of the tabernacle, they have to pour blood all over everything.
And so, and only after doing all these things and being of the right tribe, of the right family of that tribe,
and then being ceremoniously purified and cleansed could they even come close to God at all.
And if everything was not specifically carried out to the T, you were risking your life to even mess up one little detail of this whole process.
I mean God killed Aaron's two sons and it says that they offered strange fire to the Lord.
It doesn't say what that meant exactly, but right afterward it said you shouldn't drink alcohol and go into the house of the Lord.
My guess is that's what they did and God was not very happy about that.
And so, but you do one thing back then in the service of God that you weren't supposed to be doing like this and you're out.
And just remember the bells in the outfit a few weeks ago?
They had to put the bells and the pomegranates on the hems of their outfits
because if you didn't have a sound going before you into the holy place, then God could possibly kill you for that.
I mean this is how holy God is.
And just the fact that we have Jesus and it's this easy for us to come in and meet with God, I mean it's pretty amazing.
And really all this wasn't even good enough what these guys had to do.
This was just kind of like a here's what I'll let you work with until Jesus comes.
This is how I'll let you even serve me and be with me at all.
And it's all symbolic of just how perfect and holy Christ is and everything he had to do to redeem us.
And what he accomplished was and is good enough for all times.
I mean I just think that's pretty amazing because that was a grueling chapter of all the things that they had to do.
And you got all these clowns out there thinking that they're going to be able to do enough to earn their own salvation.
I mean just think about this chapter the next time somebody at the door tells you that they're going to heaven because they're a good person.
And it's like even the priest that loved God in the Old Testament couldn't even come close to him without carving up an animal.
Seven days offering all these offerings, putting them on an altar that had been cleansed for seven days.
And then you're going to say you're a good person while you're smoking a cigarette and drinking beer balls all over the front of your house.
Really? I mean they need to realize just how holy God is.
And sometimes we just got to put the fear of God into them.
Without Jesus imputing the righteousness to us, we could never even be in his presence at all.
But when the veil was rent in twain at his death, when Jesus took on the role of our high priest forever,
making us clean enough by his applied blood, there was no longer the need to wash ourselves in these kinds of ceremonies.
For days on end and sprinkle blood and kill animals and drain their blood and burn them and clean them over and over again.
Because if you notice they had to clean the altar every time that they used it too.
So it's just like you know guys you clean your barbecues.
You know some people are more meticulous than others.
Sometimes you like to have those grunnions left over to kind of flavor it up.
What do you call that ladies when you leave the cast iron skillet?
You call it the seasoning.
Yeah I call it leftover grease.
But they had to clean everything.
It was like they didn't, you know, it was a big deal.
The New Testament is just so much better. We're so much more blessed to live in this testament.
And it's so weird how people want to go back to the Old Testament.
And you know these Jews that want to live by this it's like they're not even doing it.
They're not doing any of this stuff.
Like how do they think that they're going to go to heaven and they don't even do any of this stuff that they think requires them to go to heaven?
They don't have altars. They don't have the animals.
If they tried to put these animals on an altar right now PETA would be over them so fast their heads would spin.
That's going to take a special covenant to even allow that to take place.
They'll probably have to do like clone animals or something. Who knows?
The world's getting so weird.
But we're saved and sanctified by Jesus Christ's blood alone.
He went up there one time, put his blood on the altar, saves us forever.
We're sanctified by the word of God.
And we're baptized once. We don't have to do it over and over again every week.
And you know Jesus went to the altar for us.
He was the burnt sacrifice for us.
God provided himself a lamb for the burnt offering.
And so that we never have to see that place one time.
And you know that's a great blessing.
And so we get to be as kings and priests forever without having to do all that stuff.
Praise God for that.
Alright let's pray. Lord we thank you so much for this great chapter in the Bible.
And for the great pictures it teaches us Lord about just how holy you are.
And how holy we would have to be to approach you without your son's blood applied to our account.
Lord we thank you so much for this great church.
Pray you'd help us to be better Christians every single day.
And that our church would be something you look down and smile upon Lord.
And that you would continue to bless this church for many many years to come.
And Lord that you would just help us as we endeavor to do more for you this year Lord.
I pray that you'd help us and take us home safely tonight.
For it's in Jesus' name we ask, Amen.
The last song this evening is song number 195.
I will sing of the mercies 195.
I will sing of the mercies.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing, I will sing.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.
With my mouth will I make known.
Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness.
With my mouth will I make known.
Thy faithfulness to all generations.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing, I will sing.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
Great singing brother Jesse. We end this in order of prayer.
Thank you.