Exodus 29 - I AM Setting You Apart

[Music] open your bible please to the book of exodus chapter 28 we're going to begin at just looking at verse 41 and then we'll concern ourselves with really exodus chapter 29 here together this morning exodus chapters 25 26 27 and 28 tell the story of how god told moses to build the tabernacle that tent that would be the sacred place of sacrifice and meeting with god the chapters first speak of the tabernacle furnishings the things that would go in and around the tabernacle then it speaks of the tabernacle itself with its boards and its coverings and all of that and then it speaks of the courtyard of the tabernacle but finally in exodus chapter 28 god told moses to have made special clothing for the priests first for the high priest and then for sort of what you might regard the normal the serving priests in the midst of that description of the clothing there's a very important statement i'd like you to look at it in your bibles please exodus chapter 28 verse 41 it says this so you shall put them on aaron your brother and on his sons with him you shall anoint them consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister to me as priests now here god explained the three important even essential aspects of the preparation of his servants not only priests but i think all of god's servants those three important aspects are anointing consecration and sanctification they're separated because actually there are three slightly different ideas first of all he said to anoint them that has the idea of the application of sacred oil upon the head and in the consistent idiom of the bible this speaks of the outpouring of the spirit of god upon his servants they must be anointed covered over with the spirit of god secondly he said consecrate them and that word consecrate is actually the translation of two hebrew words meaning the filling of the open hand it's like if we bring our hands open before god by the way your hands are open because you've emptied them all the other junk that you've had in your life but you bring before god some open hands and you say oh lord please fill these open hands then there's the third aspect sanctify which literally means to make clean and to mark off as separate for god's service so i want you to think of those three things to anoint to consecrate and to sanctify and that's what god wanted to do in and through the lives of the priests no exodus chapter 28 describes the clothing that the priests were to wear but you know what it takes more than clothing to actually make a real priest before god it's not just a suit that you wear an outfit that you put on god wanted to do something in the lives of these men who would be priests now as we're going to talk about this in chapter 29 i want you to remember a couple things first of all the ceremony that we're going to look at in exodus chapter 29 and might i say some of you're going to be shocked by this ceremony because i want you to think of it as an event that really happened some of somebody's going to be grossed out by today it's not my intention to gross you out but it's my intention to preach this as it really is something that actually happened and and that we have to consider is actually happening this ceremony it pointed to spiritual truth and to reality that had to be more than just an acted out ritual for these priests you see it wasn't the ritual itself that was important something had to be affected in the life and in the spirit of the priest himself i'll put it to you this way we're going to see in this ceremony for example that they anointed the priest with oil they literally poured oil upon his head now you could pour a gallon of crisco on somebody's head but if they're not actually filled with the holy spirit it doesn't make any difference so what i want you to see is all these outward rituals speak and point towards an inward reality that must be real and if the inward reality isn't real then the ritual itself doesn't really matter much secondly the spiritual truth of all this applies to you and to myself you see we would never and i wouldn't say this we would never act out this ritual let's describe if you tried to act out this ritual it's described in exodus chapter 29 you'd be arrested i have no doubt about it nevertheless though we would not act it out it applies to us especially because under the new covenant the bible says that we are priests before god about that i'm looking out over a whole room full of priests men and women old and young new believers and old believers how about this from first peter chapter two you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ is that speaking of some spiritual elite among believers no it's speaking to all who are part of god's new covenant in jesus christ it's speaking of you and me then this in first peter chapter 2 verse 9 just a few verses later he repeats the idea he says you are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light he calls you a royal priesthood and i could go off on that not just your priesthood a royal priesthood but let's just stick with the idea that we in jesus christ are priests before god and therefore these things in their spiritual application are meaningful to us right with all that other way fasten your seat belt and turn to exodus chapter 29 verse 1 where god spoke to moses and said and this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to me as priests now following starting at the middle of verse 1 and continuing on through the whole chapter is a detailed ceremony for the consecration of the priests and it's fascinating in its detail but what you need to understand is here it's instructed in leviticus chapters eight and nine it's carried out so it doesn't actually happen here but it's described here why verse one says the purpose was to hallow them for ministering to me as priests god said in other words the first and foremost ministry of a priest was to be unto the lord ladies and gentlemen you fulfill that in your life just a few moments ago we sang songs of worship together and we honored and glorified god now do you understand that if you were actually worshiping god and singing songs of praise to him do you understand that you were fulfilling a priestly function there you were in fact you were making a spiritual sacrifice to god and ministering unto him and god was so pleased by it god is so pleased to hear your voices singing unto him and praising him and so this analogy carries forward to us now look starting here at the middle of verse one and read this take one young bull and two rams without blemish and unleavened bread unleavened cakes mixed with oil unleavened wafers anointed with oil you shall make them of wheat flour you shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket and the bowl and the two rams does this sound like a witch doctor recipe to some of you guys no not at all that isn't what we're talking about it seems kind of strange we're going to consecrate some priests so go to the barn and get a bowl and two rams go get some special bread and some special anointing oil and then let the ceremony begin verse 4 and aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and you shall wash them with water ladies and gentlemen again i want you to let the movie run in your mind and think through this as events that actually happen aaron and his sons these were the priests aaron the brother of moses and his sons by the way i i wish i could tell you right now how many sons aaron had right now it's coming to mind three nadab abihu abhiha maybe there were more three four five sons whatever it was they come before the tabernacle of meeting look what it says right there for you verse 4 you shall bring them to the door of the tabernacle of meeting now this didn't happen inside the tabernacle but right at the door they were stripped down and i don't believe they were stripped down naked but probably down to what we would consider the undergarments and they were washed washed publicly because all of this priestly service begins with a person being washed wash them with water and by the way i want you to notice they didn't wash themselves they had to submit to somebody washing them so think of these men standing in front of the tabernacle the fence around it is low the whole nation can see what are they doing they're they're washing aaron and his sons they're being ceremonially washed in the presence of the entire congregation and it took place publicly at the door of the tabernacle of meeting then notice what happens in verse five it says then you shall take the garments and put the tunic on aaron and the robe of the ephod the ephod and the breastplate and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod you shall put the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban and you shall take the anointing oil pour it on his head and anoint him then you shall bring his sons and put tunics on them and you shall gird them with sashes aaron and his sons and put the hats on them the priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute so you shall consecrate aaron and his sons now if we were to stop there at verse 9 we would say oh great that was the consecration ceremony isn't this great it's a little bit embarrassing yeah you got to stand in front of the whole nation get yourself publicly washed then they clothe you sort of ceremonially you read all that didn't you how they clothe them take the garments put the tunic on aaron as it says they're in verse five and then verse seven says take that holy anointing oil and pour it on his head and by the way in the biblical idiom that's exactly how they would do it they would pour the anointing oil on their head there's a phrase in the psalms that speaks of the anointing girl dripping off of the beard of aaron now if you come up here for prayer and especially if you want prayer for healing we'll anoint you with oil we'll take a little dab of oil not look the bible doesn't tell us exactly how to do it but this is how i do it i put a little dab of oil on my thumb and i'll just let me you know put it on your forehead and that's inconsistency with scripture that if you want an actual sort of extreme biblical anointing i don't know what we would do with that because we'd take that little bottle of anointing oil and literally just pour it over your head you would know you were anointed there wouldn't be any question about it we'd have to have a clean up there on the front aisle but this is what okay so they're clothed they're anointed and we think okay fine that finishes it you have a washing you have clothing put on you you have the anointing of god's spirit all those things together washed clothed anointed now by the way can i say that these three things in a very real spiritual application are are ours as believers we're washed by the work of jesus christ on our behalf we're clothed in his righteousness we're anointed by the spirit of god and every one of these things are your spiritual property you shouldn't walk around feeling dirty and guilty for your sin there's washing available in jesus christ you shouldn't walk around feeling naked unclothed as a person and of course i'm not talking about physical nakedness but you know the nakedness i'm talking about where you just feel insecure and safe and and and bare to the world no jesus christ wants to clothe you and protect you and you shouldn't walk around feeling that you don't have the anointing and presence of the holy spirit upon you these things are our birthrights as believers in jesus christ and by the way i think it's entirely appropriate for people here this morning when we give an opportunity for people to come up for prayer later to say you know what i feel like i need to be washed i feel like i need to be clothed i feel like i need to be anointed come on we'll pray for you for these things if you belong to jesus these are your birthrights but then notice next it doesn't end and now we get into the tricky part starting at verse 10 through verse 14 there's a sin offering an atonement for sin now the priests to be would come and set their hands on the head of a bull by the way when they brought that bull out to the tabernacle and they set their hands on it the idea in the ancient hebrew is that they would press their hands down on the bull and what they would do is they would confess their sins as they laid their hands on the bull because there was very much the idea of transference my sins are transferred to that bull and now that bull is going to pay for my sins so can you imagine aaron and his sons very solemnly that poor bull what did the bull do nothing the bull was innocent but they put their hands on that bull they confessed their sins and what happens that buddhist blood is that bull excuse me is killed its blood is wiped on the horns or the corners of the altar and some of the bull is burned on the altar and some of the bull is burned outside the camp it's atonement for sin that bull was an innocent victim paying for the sin of those priests didn't end there then you bring out the ram verse 15 through 18 describes how the priests to be would set their hands on the head of a ram the poor little ram comes out and by the way i find a ram to be a much more sympathetic creature than a bull but there it is the ram right there you set your hands on the head of the realm again you confess your sin you identify with it and then the ram was killed and bled its blood was sprinkled all around the altar and then the ram was burned almost completely before the lord now the first offering was about a payment for sin the second offering is like a life completely given to the lord surrender lisa that ram was completely surrendered to god and here's the picture very powerful both for the priests and for us today first you have to come to the cross and get your sin taken care of can you imagine yourself just as they would lay their hands on that bull ladies and gentlemen figuratively speaking you have to come and lay your hands on the cross of jesus christ that is where your atonement is you can't atone for your own sin but jesus christ made a perfect atonement for it and so first you take care of atonement but then there's the matter of consecration wholly giving the life to god and just laying it out before him it's like paul would talk about later on in his letter to the romans in chapter 12 where he talked about us presenting ourselves to god as a living sacrifice wholly completely surrendered unto god and that's what happened with this first ram it was a life completely given but then if you remember there were two rams were there not what do you do with the second ram well verses 19 through 28 describe what would happen with the second ram the second ram was a consecration offering and with that one blood was applied and a meal was enjoyed this is what i mean the first ram was completely burned up before the lord as a consecration offering but now this second ram you laid your head hands upon it you confessed your sin again and then the ram was killed it was bled and its blood was taken to the priests and check this out they would take the blood in a basin to the priest and they would wipe the blood on the right ear of the priest on the right thumb of the priest and on the right big toe of the priest can you picture this happening first of all how gross you know if we did this when people came up for prayer we'd have a lot less people coming up for prayer here's some blood from a ram let me wipe it upon your body upon your ear upon your thumb and upon your foot why because these priests were meant to be a different kind of people the blood of sacrifice was to mark their ear who are you going to listen to ladies and gentlemen i know i'm speaking in spiritual figures but you can't deny these spiritual figures are pretty powerful and how many of us need to have the blood of jesus so to speak wiped upon our ear because we listen to almost every voice except jesus we'll open up our heart and our minds and the input to everything it's like a flood of information coming into our life but you know what we don't do we don't just sit down and listen to jesus listen to who he is and how he would speak to us through his word but when that holy sacrificial blood is upon your ear you're a different kind of person i'll tell you this you cannot think of these men going through this experience and being the same kind of men this would be life changing would be like an earthquake in their life so first the blood is upon the ear then upon the thumb of the right hand what are you going to use this hand for are you going to use it for god's service and for god's glory are you going to use it to just do whatever you want to in your life there's an old story of these germanic tribes that were coming to christ in the middle ages and these whole tribes of warriors would come to jesus and then these monks would be out there baptizing them and they noticed that this one tribe of warriors barbarians they would come and okay i'll be baptized but when they were baptized they'd hold their right arm out of the water well this happened two or three times and finally the monk says stop stop what are you guys doing why are you holding your right hand out of the water when you're baptized you go well i'm not baptizing that arm i'm gonna have to kill people with it and how many of us need to say no no all of it jesus all of it put the blood on my thumb put the blood on my foot because i'm only gonna go where the blood of jesus would lead me to go would you walk into a place and say a person with the blood of jesus on their ear on their hand and on their foot can they walk in this place and be god's light in this place where the blood of jesus say no no you shouldn't walk into that place and might i say specifically it was all applied to the right ear the right hand the right foot because that was the side of skill and strength it was a way of saying the best belongs to god now as powerful as this picture was it wasn't enough don't you think whoa okay after that experience you can end it no it wasn't enough they were then to take the blood and some of the holy anointing oil and mix it together can you imagine that a bloody oily mixture and then you know what they do they sprinkle it on people thank you priest just stand here while i sprinkle this blood and oil upon you all over your clothing god wanted all of their service for him to be a mixture of sacrifice the blood and spirit the anointing oil of god it wasn't over then portions of the meat of the second ram were waived before the lord they took some of that they took some of the brisket some of the breast portion of the ram they would take it it's all bloody and they wave it do you know what happens when you wave a bloody piece of meat blood splatters everywhere you think these are priests but the idea of sacrificial consecrating blood it was everywhere then after waving it before the lord then they cooked it and they ate it as a sacred meal to god that second ram that ram presented after the bert offering it had its life applied to the consecrating priests first its life was applied with blood but then its life was applied with the meat now please understand the eating did not begin the process of consecration it came after it so there you are as a priest before god and i don't mean to oversell it but look you're a bloody mess you've got blood all over you it's sprinkled over you it's wiped on you and i want you to sit down and have a nice meal of brisket with god and that's the idea you sit down and you eat it ladies and gentlemen actually when you think about it eating is a very powerful picture of our connection with god first of all eating is personal did you know that no one can eat for you i'm not talking about nursing babies of course but even the nursing baby has to do its business at its mother's breast nobody can eat for you you have to do it for yourself and your connection with god nobody can do it for you it has to be you and god secondly eating is inward the food does you no good until you take it inside yourself i know you like to take the picture of it and post it on your facebook and all of that the meal is great the food is wonderful all the rest but let's face it it doesn't do any good until you take it inward and so it is with the work of god on our behalf you can be around it you can be on the outside of it but until you take it in by faith and here's a third idea eating is active you know there are some medicines that act upon us passively they come and they inject you with something you don't have to do anything you just sit there and they inject you and the medicine works eating's not like that you have to actively take it within yourself just like you need to receive jesus and then finally eating arises out of a sense of need why do you eat because you're hungry and it produces a sense of satisfaction isn't there something wonderfully satisfying about a good meal and that's how it is with jesus itself lisa there may be some people here who are in great need you need something in your life and you're not even sure what it is you need i'll tell you what you need you need jesus christ to show his lordship and his glory in your life come and eat at his table today now all of this the bull the first gram the second ram the waving the blood all of it here's the thing that blows my mind verses 29 through 37 describe how they were to do it every day for a week rinse lather repeat for seven days and for seven days you lived at the tabernacle for seven days you publicly got washed for seven days you were publicly clothed for seven days you were anointed for seven days the bowl the first ram the second ram for seven days the priest came back and sprinkled the oil and blood mixture upon you over and over again and i think of it after seven days think of what in how it brought each and every one of them to an end of themselves it taught the priest this through the tedious repetition of the fundamentals of a life with god here's the fundamentals of a life with god washing clothing anointing focused on the blood of sacrifice you can't get away from those fundamentals of your life with god washing clothing anointing focused on the blood of sacrifice over and over again now look i'm not saying that god doesn't move or speak to you do things you know outside of those fundamentals but everything is built upon those fundamentals secondly it brought a relentless focus on the work and the power of sacrificial blood it was if it pointed them to the cross again and again and again thirdly it stripped away and maybe this is one of the best things of it it stripped away all the glamour all the man-centered glory of it can you imagine a young man going into the tabernacle thinking i'm going to be a priest yeah a priest boy everybody's going to look up to me as a priest wow this is great how do you think he felt about that about day six he's thinking get me out of here it's gross and it smells bad and there are people who think that ministry or service unto god is something to be pursued for glamour's sake or for man-centered glory or for celebrity's sake oh it's a gift from god when all of that is stripped away and then it also trained a priest to be satisfied with secret fellowship with the lord now after describing all of this ceremony god told them then to institute morning and evening sacrifices every day for israel starting at verse 38 through verse 41 he describes that but i want you to pick it up now at verse 42 of our chapter where he speaks of a continual consecration check this out verse 42 we read this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the lord will i will meet with you and speak to you and there i will meet with the children of israel and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory ladies and gentlemen verse 42 says that there was to be a continual burnt offering morning and evening and except for the times of captivity and national apostasy these daily sacrifices continued in israel every morning every evening up until the time of the new testament why because god said in verse 42 i will meet with you that's why god wanted consecrated priests that's why he wanted a consecrated people why because he wanted to meet with his people and i love what it says in verse 42 he wanted to meet with them and speak to his people it's a marvelous phrase there i will meet you to speak with you they said don't you want that in your life don't you want god to meet with you and speak with you now some of you you don't want that you're working as hard as you can to avoid it i don't think there's many of you here it's probably you wouldn't be here unless you want to but there's undoubtedly maybe just a few here today you're running from god just as hard as you can the last thing you want is a personal relationship with jesus christ you've been trying to avoid that all of your life but god looks to you and he says no i want to meet with you and i want to speak to you would you please listen to me and this is the great reason for consecration for a sense of full surrender to god it isn't primarily so that we can be better workers for god but so that we can enjoy deeper and more meaningful fellowship with him if the idea of having deeper and more meaningful connection with god means very little to you then i think that this chapter will mean very little to you but if there's something in your heart that says i want more i want to meet with god in a deeper way i want him to speak to me in a clearer way than your heart resounds and say yes lord let's look at the conclusion here starting at verse 44 where it says so i will consecrate the tabernacle of meaning and the altar i will also consecrate both aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests i will dwell among the children of israel and be their god and they shall know that i am the lord their god who brought them up out of the land of egypt that i may dwell among them i am the lord their god by the way i love that in verse 44 so i will consecrate the lord says who does the work of consecration the lord you don't do it yourself all we can do is put ourselves into a position where god please do this work upon us take away the hindrances take away the sin that so easily besets you and just bring yourself before the lord and say lord would you please do this work into my life why verse 45 so that i will dwell among the children of israel and be with their god god stressed this idea of relationship in the process of consecration this worship filled relationship and then finally in verse 46 it says and they shall know that i am the lord their god god promised to show his glory through his consecrated people and when moses and aaron actually got around to performing this sanctuary this ceremony way off in leviticus chapters eight and nine it tells us what the result was are you ready for this you ready for the result because later on leviticus they actually do all this that we just read about this is what happened at the end of it when they actually did it look at this leviticus chapter 9 verses 23 and 24 then the glory of the lord appeared to all the people and fire came out from before the lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar and when all the people saw it they shouted and fell on their faces lisa you've been if you've been seriously thinking through this whole ceremony there's something in you that says what is possibly worth this you know how about if we do this for our next church retreat act out this ceremony over a weekend repeating it day by day and you'd get what is possibly worth all this i'll tell you what's worth it the manifestation of the glory of the lord that is worth it to see god's glory explode out among the lives of his people now look i'm not going to hide it from you there's a price to pay for being fully surrendered to god and the ceremony of consecration was long and bloody and it took some persistence to complete yet the reward was far greater than the cost to have your life and the experience of your lives touched by the glory of god and there's nothing like it in the world here's the deal if you want to experience the fullness of god's glory in your life there needs to be a sense of consecration you need to be among those who have his blood on your ear on your hand on your foot i should have thought more about it but don't know exactly how to end this message might i just say let's end it with this a quiet moment before the lord to ask where he would consecrate each and every one of us and then say lord whatever hinders this display of your glory in my life would you please reveal it and i'll consecrate it unto you let's just pray just in a moment of quietness before god father in heaven we think of this ceremony being practiced more than 3 000 years ago and it seems so distant from us yet it seems so real to us right now it's a strange contradiction lord a father we know that when they carried this out you displayed your glory and lord i thank you because most of us in this room we know something of that display of your glory but we want to know more and so jesus we come before you and we would never call ourselves priests except that you called us that first and as your priest we ask that you would do your work of consecration apply your blood wherever it needs to be sprinkle us with the blood and the oil wash us clothe us anoint us lord there's such an individual aspect to each of this work that i just ask by the power of your holy spirit you would speak to individual lives all across this room and make us make us the fulfillment of what you promised that we are a royal priesthood unto you we pray this in the name of our savior jesus christ our prophet priest and king [Music] amen

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 2,256

Rating: 4.9436622 out of 5

Keywords: david guzik, guzik, enduring word, calvary chapel, calvary chapel santa barbara, ccsb, exodus 29, old testament, i am setting you apart, priests, consecration of the priests, consecration offering, offerings, exodus

Id: gMrmTL2yTy8

Length: 36min 54sec (2214 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2020