Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleChrist Our Peace
Bible TextExodus 29:22-46
Synopsis When Christ’s blood is applied in a sinner through the Holy Spirit then we are made willing by Christ’s power to come to God with Christ alone as our Peace offering to God. Listen
Date17-May-2020
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Audio HI-FI Listen: Christ Our Peace (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Christ Our Peace (128 kbps)
Length 40 min.
 
Series: Exodus 
Title: Christ our Peace 
Text: Ex 29: 22-46 
Date: May 17, 2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
Every sinner in this world wants to be happy. But we will never find true happiness in ourselves, in this world, in our circumstances or in our religious deeds.  We can change our circumstances.  We can fill up our hands with this world.  We can become religious—even in true religion.  But you and I being sinners can never make ourselves truly, lastingly, happy in this world. 
  
True happiness is to have peace with God.  Only God can give us peace with God.  Peace with God is in Christ Jesus alone.  But only Christ can fill up our hands with Christ and make us willing to come to God our Father offering only Christ alone. When Christ does this for his people God our Father and his child have peace and therefore communion one with another in Christ Jesus. 
  
In Exodus 29, we see three requirements that must be met in order for a sinner to have peace with God. 
  
One, our old man of sin must die.  Our sins must be punished.  We saw this in the sin offering which typified Christ made sin for his people.  He bore the wrath of God unto death.  By Christ, the old man of sin in every elect child of God was crucified before God.  Our sins are put away forever by Christ’s one sacrifice. 
  
Two, we must give to God complete obedience in order to be accepted of God.  The burnt offering was a sweet savor to God.  It was all burned on the altar for God alone.  It typified the Lord Jesus giving God our Father complete obedience in whom God’s elect have acceptance with God. 
  
Also, we must be sanctified and consecrated, made willing to come to God in Christ alone.  It is not enough for Christ to do a work FOR us because we have a depraved sin-nature.  Christ, through the Holy Spirit, must do a work IN us.  We saw this typified in the ram of consecration.  After the ram of consecration was slain in place of the priests, its blood, along with the anointing oil were applied to the priests.  It typifies Christ Jesus whose blood is applied by the Holy Spirit by whom we are sanctified and consecrated to God. 
  
Today, we see the result of this work typified. 
  
Proposition: When Christ’s blood is applied in a sinner through the Holy Spirit then we are made willing by Christ’s power to come to God with Christ alone as our Peace offering to God. 
  
Christ is the one offering God will receive.  When we come to God with Christ only then we find Peace with God.  The result is communion and fellowship with God our Father and his Son Christ Jesus. 
  
Subject: Christ our Peace 
  
Divisions: 1) Christ in the offering God required 2) It is Christ who fills our hands with Christ 3) In Christ we have peace, communion/fellowship with God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ forever. 
  
CHRIST IN THE OFFERING
 
Exodus 29: 22: Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul 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. 23: 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:
 
In the burnt offering the entire animal was consumed in the fire; it all went to God alone.  But in this peace offering, part went to God and part to the priests.  But here God provides detailed instructions concerning the parts of the body that are to be burned unto him.  Notice the word “fat.”   “All the fat is the Lord’s” (Lev 3:16). 
 
In our culture the word “fat” is looked upon negatively.  But in tribal cultures—such as Israel—fat is a sign of prosperity.  If a man’s children were skinny then people would feel sorry for them.  But if a man’s children were called “fat” it would be a compliment because it signifies prosperity.    In the old testament, “fat” represents the absolute best

Genesis 4:4  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 
  
Pharaoh promised Joseph, 
  
Genesis 45:18: And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. 
  
Numbers 18:12: All the best of the oil [the fat of the oil], and all the best of the wine [the fat of the wine], and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee. 
  
God required the “fat” with these inward parts be his part, burned upon the altar, because it represents Christ who is the absolute best.  Christ’s perfection through and through, in his inward parts, is the perfection in whom alone we have peace with God.   The right shoulder represents power and glory—Christ is the Power and Glory of God. 
 
Then we see Christ in the unleavened bread.  This will later be called the “meat offering.”  This meat offering portrays sinners perfect in the sight of God by the merits of Christ.  It was not a bloody sacrifice but it had to be offered in connection with a blood sacrifice.  That was the difference in God receiving Abel and rejecting Cain’s offering.  Cain brought no blood with his meat offering.  He was saying that he did not need to be justified by Christ.   But in this meat offering there was bread made from fine flour, thoroughly sifted.  Nothing in the flour was rough or uneven just like Christ our SanctificationOne part was baked of unleavened bread.  Leaven is a symbol of evil and hypocrisy.  Christ was without sin  Another cake was anointed with oil even as Christ was anointed of the Holy Spirit beyond all his fellows. Christ said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor" (Luke 4:1,14,18). 
 
In the meat offering we see Christ our Bread from heaven: holy, righteous, without sin.  Nothing moved Christ from his purpose: not satan’s tempting, men’s rejections or men’s complimentsIn his character, the God-man Mediator is perfect, even, complete, without sin, holy, undefiled, separate from sinners.   Circumstances had no effect upon him.  Sorrow did not bring him down; praise did not puff him upThese things cannot be said of any of his disciples.  No matter how wise or good we may deem a brother there are sins, infirmities, and humiliating weaknesses.  Christ alone could declare, “I do always those things that please [the Father].” (Jn 8: 29).  The Father declared it from heaven on two different occasions, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). 
  
So the fat of the inward parts, the right shoulder and the meat offering of unleavened bread made from fine flour and oil speaks of Christ the absolute Best.  He is the Holiness and Righteousness of those sanctified by the free and sovereign grace of God.  Christ is the Power and Glory of God, the Bread of Life, the one offering God will receive from a sinner. 
  
CHRIST FILLS OUR HANDS WITH CHRIST
  
Exodus 29: 24: And thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons; and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the LORD. 25: 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. 27: 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: 28: And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’ by a statute for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the LORD. 
 
Here, Moses typifies Christ our Mediator.  It was Moses going between God and the children of Israel like as Christ is the one and only Mediator between God and his chosen Israel.  Moses filled the hands of the priests with the offering God required.  How are sinners made willing to come to God only in the person and work of Christ Jesus the Lord?  Christ fills our hands with Christ.  God the Father said of our risen Redeemer, 
  
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. 
  
Our hands are full of sin by nature. Our will is in bondage to our sin nature.  Therefore, sinners will come to God with every other sacrifice but not the one offering God will receive—Christ Jesus the Lord alone.   But when Christ has emptied our hands then in irresistible power he makes us willing to lay hold of him through faith 
  
Then Moses put his hands upon the hands of the priests and they waved the offering east, west, up, and down signifying this offering came from God and they offered it with thanksgiving and praise back to God alone.  Not only does Christ have to put Christ in our hands, it is by Christ that we thank God with our wave offerings of thanksgiving and praise.  We see a spiritual fulfillment of this in the apostle Paul.  Christ put himself in Paul’s hands, along with the work God would have Paul to do.  Therefore, Paul made a wave offering by giving all the glory and thanksgiving to Christ when he said, 
  
1 Timothy 1:12: And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 
  
There is nothing good in our lives except what comes from God: all saving goodness (Eph. 1:3-6; 1 Cor. 1:30), all spiritual goodness, all providential goodness (Rom. 8:28), and all eternal goodness.  We do not deserve it and we did not earn it.  Christ, along with all good and perfect gift, comes from God and all belongs to God.  All is given us in and by Christ Jesus our Peace Offering.  Knowing this we must, with willing hearts, we give all back God again through Christ our Peace. 
  
1 Corinthians 4:7: For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 
  
After putting himself in our hands, after making us acknowledge that all came to us from God in and by Christ, then Christ himself presents our offering to the Father and God receives us.  God said to Moses, “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.”
  
Then the fat of the inward parts, the right shoulder, and the unleavened bread was burned entirely upon the altar and the smoke arose up to God a sweet savour before the LORD. What a picture of grace!  It pleased God to give his only Son, Christ Jesus our sin-offering, our burnt-offering.  He gave himself to be burned in our room and stead on the cursed tree.  Then it pleases God to give his only Son to each one for whom Christ died.  Christ fills our hands with the one offering God will receive.  He makes us offer the wave offering of thanks.  Then Christ presents us to God a sweet-smelling savour in and by him and God receives us as a sweet-smelling savor.  It is all of God our Savior who dwells in our midst. 
  
Zephaniah 3:17: The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. 
  
Do not miss this good news!  Christ our Peace shall never be taken from those he has made priests by his blood.  We see this typified in verses 27-28 when God declares that when the children of Israel brought their wave offering in the future, the shoulder shall be for God’s priests forever—"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 for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the LORD.”  
 
From then on, every time the children of Israel brought their peace offerings, Aaron and his sons were to be given the breast and the shoulder for their part.  Every sanctified child of God shall forever have the love of Christ’s heart (the breast) and the power of Christ’s arm (shoulder).  And like as that was the priest’s portion forever, so Christ is our portion forever. 
  
CHRIST IS OUR PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH GOD THE FATHER
 
Exodus 29: 31: And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration, and seethe his flesh in the holy place.  32: 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.  33: 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. 34: And if ought 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.   35: And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron, and to his sons, according to all things which I have commanded thee: seven days shalt thou consecrate them. 36: 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. 37: 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.  38: Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. 39: The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: 40: And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. 41: 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. 42  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. 43  And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.   44: And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: 45: 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.
 
The picture here is that God the Father and each sanctified child of God are brought together in communion and fellowship in and by Christ.  God the Father’s part was Christ from off the altar.  The priest’s part was eaten by the door.  This shared feast between the Father and his priests typifies the fellowship we have with God our Father in Christ our Peace Offering.  It pictures living upon Christ in whom we have communion/fellowship with God the Father in his Son Christ Jesus.  
  
Joh 6:53  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 
  
The apostle John said, 
  
1 John 1: 1: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2: (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3: That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 
  
God reserves Christ and this fellowship strictly for his elect, for Christ’s redeemed, for those the Holy Spirit sanctifies and consecrates through faith—"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 ought 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.”  Christ is holy—set apart—for his people and his people holy—set apart—for him—a stranger shall not eat thereof. 
  
Since Christ is holy and living upon him is a holy thing—none shall be left for tomorrow.  We must partake of Christ today.  We are not to wait until tomorrow.  He gives us Bread for today, grace for today.  The Lord would have his people feast with him daily upon Christ in the holy place.   Christ is delightful to God and is delightful to you.  Therefore, you must feed on Christ in communion with God, in the place of holy fellowship, which is Christ the Tabernacle, the Door! There is no sustenance for our inner nature anywhere except upon the Lord Jesus, but, blessed be his name, he fills us full, and gives strength which is equal to our day. 
  
John 6: 54: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55: For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." 
  
When God sanctifies, consecrates, and brings us into fellowship with him then it is perfect in Christ.  We see it in that this ceremony went on 7 days/perfection—"And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron, and to his sons, according to all 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.”
 
Hebrews 13: 10: 10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle…15: By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. 
 
Not only is our sanctification, consecration, and communion perfect in Christ, it is continual and shall go on forever—"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 hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin 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.”
 
Christ is our continual sin-atoning sacrifice. He is our continual burnt offering of acceptance.  Christ is our continual peace-offering and meat offering in whom we have communion and fellowship with God and give God all the glory and praise.  It is only in Christ that holy God will meet with a sinner and speak to us because we are sanctified by God’s glory, Christ Jesus his Son. 
  
Our sanctification and consecration is all of God and his people know it and give him all the glory—"And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: 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.”
 
Sinner, we can change our circumstance in search of happiness.  But true happiness is having Peace with God in Christ our Peace!  May God bless and sanctify his people and bring us into this fellowship with God in Christ. 
 
Amen!