Title: Christ our Ram of Consecration
Text: Ex 29: 19-21
Date: April 19, 2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Exodus 29: 19: And thou shalt take the other ram;
In Exodus 29, God is ceremonially hallowing Aaron and his
sons to minister unto him in the priest’s office.
The bullock without blemish was the sin-offering—Christ is
the spotless Lamb of God who bore the sin and curse of his people by whose
blood we are justified.
The first ram without blemish was the burnt-offering—Christ
not only took our sins, he took our place; he not only justified us, he made us
accepted. Christ’s perfect obedience to
God, even as he bore the fire of God’s wrath, came up to God a sweet-smelling
savor. Christ was accepted of God and
his people in him.
The other ram without blemish is the ram of consecration—here
we see that Christ’s blood must and shall be applied to each person that Christ
redeemed, personally. It is also called a peace-offering: in the burnt offering
Christ gave God the Father a sweet-smelling savor of acceptance; here, Christ
gives his people the benefit of his blood.
Subject: Christ
our Ram of Consecration
Proposition: Christ
is the ram of consecration by whose blood we are sanctified (made holy and set
apart for God’s use), consecrated (made personally devoted to God) and have
peace with God (so that we can enjoy worship without fear).
THROUGH FAITH IN
CHRIST’S BLOOD
Exodus 29: 19: And thou shalt take the other ram; and
Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. 20 Then shalt thou kill the ram,…
Three times they put their hands on the head of the
sacrifice. Each time it typifies the specific
thing in which that sacrifice typifies
The sin-offering typified Christ putting our sin away. Therefore putting the hands on the head of the
bullock typified the sins of God’s elect transferred to Christ. Then the bullock was slain because after Christ
was made to bear the sin of his people then Christ was slain in our stead
according to God’s perfect justice.
The burnt-offering typified Christ making our persons accepted by his obedience
as he bore the fire of God’s wrath. Therefore
putting the hands on the head typified our persons transferred to Christ. It pictured Christ literally becoming his
people and representing his people. Christ
himself is, before God, each person that he represented—that is how God sees
it, that is how real Christ took our place. Our obedience to God is Christ.
The ram of consecration typifies Christ’s blood sanctifying and consecrating us to
God through faith. Therefore the hands
on the head of the ram typifies faith in Christ.
Exodus 29: 19: And thou shalt take the other ram; and
Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. 20: Then
shalt thou kill the ram,…
God shall give each one for whom Christ died faith to behold
the efficacy of his blood for us personally.
As the gospel is preached the Holy Spirit begins to make a sinner hear
the truth of Christ’s victorious, accomplished work—for him personally. When a sinner beholds Christ’s blood really
put away his sin then Christ’s blood purges his conscience from sin. In other words, we begin to realize there really
is no more sacrifice for sins. Christ
put away my sins.
Beholding that Christ is our burnt offering, in whom we are
accepted and in whom we are righteous, the blood of Christ purifies our hearts from
dead works. Then we have no more
conscious of sin, no more guilt before God.
He makes us know that there truly is no more condemnation in
Christ. So we cease from dead works of
trying to make ourselves righteous. That
is when God has “purified our heart by faith” (Acts 15: 9). That is when the Spirit of God has
applied the blood of Christ to his child personally.
That is the picture
we have here. Put yourself in their
place. After they put their hands on the
ram of consecration then they saw the ram slain in their room and stead. Then they saw the blood poured out for them. Then that the blood was applied to them. It is a picture of what the Spirit of God
does in us when God gives us faith to behold Christ slain for us personally.
Sinner, God set forth
his Son for a purpose. Christ is the
place of mercy where God will meet with a sinner. But God only does so through faith in Christ’s
blood.
Romans 3:25: Whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins
Christ is the ram of consecration who sanctifies God’s
elect by his own blood.
Hebrews 13: 12: Wherefore
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate.
Christ our
sin-offering put away our sin. Christ
our burnt offering made us accepted by God.
Christ our ram of consecration sanctifies us and purges our conscious
personally. Sinner behold the blood of
the Lamb! When God sees the blood he
passes over his people. When the Spirit
of God makes us behold the blood then our conscious is purged and for the first
time in our life we can be honest with God.
For the first time in our life we can worship and serve God because we
want to. For the first time in our life
we love his people and serve them because we really want to. It is because we are constrained by the love
of Christ through faith in his blood.
THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF THE BLOOD
Exodus 29: 20: 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.
By God applying Christ’s blood to his child our whole
body is separated and consecrated for God’s use as God’s priest. Moses typifies God. It was not Aaron or his sons that applied the
blood to themselves. A sinner cannot
apply Christ’s blood to ourselves. The
application of the blood is the work of God.
The night of the Passover it was the head of the house who applied the
blood to the door post of the house—typifying Christ our Head applying his
blood to each member of his house. So it
is here. Only God applies Christ’s blood
and he only applies it to each one for whom it was shed.
By the blood of Christ,
God sanctifies our ear—"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.” This
is how we can hear and delight in the gospel of Christ and believe on Christ. Now, we cannot stand to hear our Redeemer
blasphemed by a false gospel nor to hear God’s name taken in vain.
The Spirit of God applies the blood of Christ separating
our hand—“and upon the thumb of their right hand.” By the power of Christ’s blood we are given
the hand of faith to lay hold of Christ. Then our physical hands are made willing to
serve God. God gifts his child with
bodily skills to be used for him. He
fills us with strength to serve his cause.
The Spirit of God does this by applying the blood of Christ and making
us behold that by the shedding of Christ’s blood all our sins are remitted.
God applies the blood of Christ sanctifying our feet—"and
upon the great toe of their right foot.”
Now our feet are no longer “swift to shed blood” (Rom 3:15). Instead,
our feet are “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15). The blood of Christ makes us swift to run God’s
errands of mercy.
As we look at these
things you might be thinking that this only applies to God’s preacher. Not so.
Most of those Christ has made priests unto God use your ears and hands
and feet for secular employment. But now
in your heart the ultimate cause for which you use your employment is no longer
self but the furtherance of his gospel and the good of your brethren. It is because God has applied the blood of
Christ separating and consecrating you to him.
Now, notice, this
next thing. This is important. You will get a blessing in seeing this. The same blood of our Redeemer that
sanctifies and consecrates us within also sanctifies and consecrates us before
God—"and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.” The blood of Christ applied to you and I,
his priests, is also the same blood that Christ offered to God. The blood upon the altar being the same blood
applied to the priests shows us that God’s priests are sanctified personally
and before God one way, only by the blood by Christ. Christ’s sin-atoning blood before God is the same
blood that purges our conscience within.
Notice in Hebrews how it speaks of our being perfect before God and of
our conscious within being purged.
Hebrews 9: 8: The
Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way INTO THE HOLIEST OF ALL was not yet
made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9: Which was
a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and
sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, AS PERTAINING
TO CONSCIENCE; 10: Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers
washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of
reformation. 11: But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this building; 12: 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. 13: For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14: How
much more shall THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, who through the eternal Spirit OFFERED
HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT TO GOD, PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM DEAD WORKS TO SERVE THE
LIVING GOD (Heb 9:8-14)?
Hebrews 9: 22: And
almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of
blood is no remission. 23: It was therefore necessary that the patterns
of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24: For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true;
but INTO HEAVEN ITSELF, now to appear IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US” (Heb
9:22-24 AV).
Hebrews 10: 1: For the law having a shadow of good things
to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers
thereunto PERFECT. 2: For then would they not have ceased to be offered?
because that the worshippers ONCE PURGED should have had no more CONSCIENCE OF
SINS. 3: But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made
of sins every year. 4: For it is
not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5: Wherefore
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the
book it is written of me,) to do thy WILL, O God…10: BY [Christ fulfilling God’s]
WILL WE ARE SANCTIFIED through the OFFERING OF THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST ONCE. 11:
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12: But THIS MAN, AFTER HE HAD
OFFERED ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God; 13: From
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14: FOR BY ONE
OFFERING HE HATH PERFECTED FOREVER THEM THAT ARE SANCTIFIED (Heb 10:1-14).
The same blood of
Christ expiates sin before God’s alter and also purges our conscience. That is what we see typified by the blood
sprinkled around the altar being the same blood that is applied to the priests. Christ is our sanctification and consecration
before God meaning that in Christ before God we are perfectly holy and
perfectly consecrated to God. Also,
Christ is our sanctification and consecration in our conscious meaning the
Spirit of God has made us behold the former so that we now rest in Christ from
all our works and we now worship and serve Christ and his cause.
THE BEAUTY OF
HOLINESS
Exodus 29: 21: 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.
The blood of Christ applied
by God the Holy Spirit make us holy. The
blood from off the altar pictures Christ’s justifying blood. The anointing oil typifies the Spirit of God
by whom the blood is applied. When the
Spirit of God applies Christ’s blood then we are hallowed or made holy.
Get the scene in your mind. Here the priests stand with those beautiful
garments on. Then the blood and oil are sprinkled
all over the priests and their garments. Think how stained, how spotted those priests
and their garments were. To the natural
eye it would appear ugly. It would
appear as though those beautiful garments were ruined. But the blood and the oil are how they were,
ceremonially, made spotless before God.
When John saw the saints in heaven he was told,
Revelation 7:14…These
are they which…have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb.
Garments washed white in the blood of the Lamb? But wouldn’t the blood stain the garments so
that they were red? That is how they are
made white! The priests and their garments
covered in blood and oil typifies the greatest adorning imaginable—the
beauty of holiness.
Psalm 110:3: Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power, IN THE BEAUTIES OF HOLINESS from
the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
The blood of Christ applied
by the oil of the Holy Spirit takes away all our guilty stains is our true
holiness so that God is able to receive us and commune with us. We must be perfect to be accepted of God. This is our perfection—the beautifies of holiness.
WITH NEW TESTAMENT
EYES
How does the new
testament speak of what we have seen in type here? Aaron and his sons were marked with symbols
of death and life by the blood and the oil. Typically they died; that is what the blood
symbolizes. Yet, they live; that is what
the oil symbolizes. Here is what it
pictures:
Galatians 2: 20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
We have died with Christ before the law so that our old man is crucified
and judgment is settled. But we also arose
with Christ. Therefore, the Spirit of
Christ has taken abode within us so that we live by Christ living within us. Thereby we are made new, holy, creatures. God has made us put on the new man which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. We have been made partakers of Christ's death
and Christ's life. Now, we go forth to
do his will, in the strength of his risen life, living “by the faith of the Son
of God.” Remember, how we saw that the same
blood of Christ made us perfect before God and also makes us perfect in the new
man? That is what Paul says when he says
“The life which I now live in the flesh I live BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD,
WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.” Christ
in me makes me perfect in the new man.
That same Lord Jesus gave himself for me making me perfect before God.
We still have a sin-nature.
Therefore, our personal consecration is not perfect. We are perfectly holy and consecrated before
God in Christ. In our new man we are
perfectly holy and consecrated to God by Christ abiding within. But our sin-nature makes it so that sin is
mixed with all that we do. But though
that be the case, now, “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatever we do” the
desire within our new heart is to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). We desire and we strive to follow the Master
fully and to serve him wholly. We have
a new outlook concerning ourselves that our “body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own” (1 Cor
6:19). We fail. We sin.
We hate it. We mourn over it
because of what our Redeemer has done for us.
But we fully agree with the apostle Paul who said, “I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom
12: 1).
Amen!