The Hallowing of the Gifts

[0:00] Exodus chapter 28 again. We are still in Exodus 28. It's been a few weeks as this chapter has much material.

[0:12] ! Now that we're into these garments that Aaron is wearing that consecrates him to the priesthood, there's much detail and things to discuss about it.

[0:24] Last week we looked at the robe of the ephod, specifically the golden bells that adorned the base or the border of this garment.

[0:35] And there was a golden bell and a pomegranate of one color, a golden bell, a pomegranate of another color, blue, purple, scarlet, all the way around the hem of this garment, this robe.

[0:47] And I told you that those bells would make a sound and the verse in verse 35 was that Aaron's sound may be heard when he goes in before the Lord, when he comes out.

[0:59] And so I preached to you to keep the bells ringing. And if Aaron had the sound going, that was the sound of holiness before the Lord. That was the sound that he was accepted, that he had done everything he was supposed to do and the ministry he was performing before the Lord was accepted of God.

[1:14] If it wasn't accepted of God, there would be no sound, there would be no Aaron. He would be dead. He'd be consumed by the Lord and by his holiness. And so in studying that out, just to remind you the three thoughts, he could have been, the bells could have stopped ringing if he was unclothed.

[1:32] That is, if he didn't have on the garments like were prescribed in this chapter, even all the way to the end of the chapter where God said that he'll die. That they'll die if they don't put on the garments. And if you're unclothed, if you go in with your own street clothes on before the Lord, you'll not make any sound of holiness.

[1:49] You're going to have to put on the new man. The Bible says the new man is created in Christ Jesus, or is created in righteousness and true holiness. And so if you want to keep the bells ringing, you're going to have to put on the new man and walk in the spirit.

[2:02] If you want to keep the bells ringing, you're going to have to be clean. If Aaron didn't wash at that water before the door, then he would be struck down dead by God. It's said that in the passage that he needs to wash, that he die not.

[2:15] God's serious about that. And the Bible says in Ephesians that the Bible, the word of God, is likened to water that washes us. The washing of the water of the word. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.

[2:27] And that book can sanctify you and keep you clean. Keep the bells ringing in your life. But if you get away from the word of God, you don't have a chance. God's not interested in your works.

[2:38] He's not interested in your life is not going to produce holiness before the Lord. The third thought was if he was uncoached. That is, if it happened in the lives of his two sons. They didn't follow the instructions.

[2:49] And I'm looking at it like I don't think they got the instructions too clearly based on the reaction of Moses and Aaron. Now, at any rate, the bells need to keep ringing. And today we're going to take a look and move just a step forward into this next item in verse 36.

[3:03] So find in your Bible Exodus 28 and look at verse 36 through 38. And the Bible reads, Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it like the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord.

[3:19] Now, a plate is not something you eat off of here. It's more or less like a placard or a small piece that would be placed on a plaque. You can kind of get that idea. It's called a plate.

[3:30] And it's inscribed with those four words, holiness to the Lord. Verse 37, And thou shalt put it on a blue lace that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront of the miter it shall be.

[3:42] The miter is a type of a hat. It's a headwear that goes on, that the priest wears. And then attached to it is the golden plate with this blue, what did it call it, blue lace.

[3:54] Verse 38, And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.

[4:09] So here we have another item that is to be worn by the priest, the holy garment, part of this seven fold holy garments that sanctify and consecrate him to the service of the priesthood.

[4:23] This one's a miter with a golden plate attached to it. The golden plate is also called something else. Look at chapter 29. Chapter 29 and look at verse number 6.

[4:36] And thou shalt put the miter upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the miter. Now if you think that's something different, it's different words, but I'll let the Bible be very clear about it.

[4:49] Flip a few pages to your right, find Leviticus chapter 8. Leviticus chapter 8. And this is where, again, this is where these garments are being finally put upon the high priest for the first time.

[5:10] And you can see that in verse 7 and 8. And now verse 9, chapter 8, verse 9. And he put the miter upon his head. Also upon the miter, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses.

[5:27] So there's a little quick cross-reference there to what we're talking about and some other language that the Bible uses, calling that golden plate, calling it a holy crown, with the words, holiness to the Lord engraved upon them.

[5:43] So the purpose of this item, back in chapter 28, is given in verse 38. It says, It shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things.

[5:59] That Aaron, the high priest, that he may bear the iniquity of the holy things. What in the world does that mean? It's a strange wording. It's a strange concept.

[6:10] All of this is kind of foreign to us, but some of it's a little more simple than the other. But what does that mean? What is going on here? What I want to do with you this morning is try to explain this situation and just to uncover and understand what is exactly happening with Aaron and this miter with the golden plate upon it and bearing the iniquity of the holy things.

[6:32] What does that mean? We'll try to uncover that. And then I want to just take that thought and then draw a parallel to how this is present today in the priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is going to make this Old Testament study extremely relevant to you and I today when we understand who our high priest is.

[6:50] So before we do that, let's pray and then we'll start on the explanation of what's happening here. Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth and would illuminate our minds to the word of God.

[7:03] We are a carnal, sinful people. We are finite. We mind the things of the flesh and we only know the things of man because of the spirit of man that's in us.

[7:15] So Lord, it's going to take your Holy Spirit to enlighten us to the truths beyond our comprehension and I pray that you'll do that today that we can all understand this and that we can all see the significant role of the Lord Jesus Christ and how so important it is that we stay connected and right and in fellowship with him.

[7:35] And we ask these things in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. Amen. Amen. So the explanation, let's understand what's happening here the best we can. The children of Israel are to offer certain gifts to the Lord.

[7:47] I'm not going to get into those gifts and cover all of that details but I think we can kind of understand that already. He even mentioned it in the verse. So they are to offer things and give things before the Lord and Aaron, as we've studied, he is the high priest.

[8:01] He's the mediator. He stands in the office of a priest. He's the go-between. So for a common man or a common woman to enter into this arena, it's forbidden.

[8:15] They cannot enter into the tabernacle courtyard. They cannot offer their gifts upon the altar before the Lord. They cannot enter into the sanctuary or the tabernacle.

[8:27] They can't offer incense upon the incense. They can't do any of this stuff. They're hands off completely. But why can't they do it? Well, we've already studied some of this.

[8:39] They are not consecrated. They have not been sanctified. They have not been chosen by God to do these things. God is far too holy and mankind, even the best, are far too unclean to approach Him.

[8:53] So the institution of the office of the priest and there's Aaron, the mediator in between. We've already covered this stuff. Man and women of the common sword, no matter if you're of the tribe of Gad, Asher, of Reuben, of Issachar, no matter who you're from, you are unclean before the holiness of God.

[9:14] You cannot access. You cannot enter. And not only is this true of these people, but now listen, the same is true of their gifts. The same is true of whatever they would bring to the gate of the tabernacle.

[9:28] It's as unclean as they are. Remember in Job, the question is asked, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? And the same is true of these people.

[9:40] They cannot bring a sanctified and purified and acceptable gift to God. Why not? Why can't they? Well, verse 38 says at the end, it says at the end of the verse, it shall always be, be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord.

[9:57] That what may be accepted? Not the people, the gifts that they're offering. I'll read the verse again. It shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts.

[10:15] And it shall be upon his forehead that they may be accepted. That the gifts, the holy gifts, they may be accepted. They need to be holy, they need to be hallowed, and they're not.

[10:27] And so here comes this piece of holy garment, the holy crown. It's instituted for a purpose here. Think about no animal, no meat offering in and of itself is holy.

[10:42] It may be a lamb without blemish. It's not holy. It doesn't match and satisfy God. It can't be in any other way better than its source.

[10:54] Making a sacrifice for the sins of the people can only atone for the sins. Let's think about this. It can't make them holy. So, if I tell a lie, let's just pretend that some young man back in this day, somebody named Joseph is in the camp, and he tells a lie, he's a liar.

[11:15] He's a liar. If he steals something, and it's breaking a commandment, he's a thief. Now, he's a thief. That's what he is now. A sinner. He could make it right.

[11:27] He could offer according to the law, he could make it right. He could pay for it. But he's still a thief. That didn't undo who he is, right?

[11:37] That just made it right. It just made it, kind of brought it back up to balance. But it didn't change the liar. It didn't change the thief. The gift that's given can't undo what the source of the gift is.

[11:54] It cannot make them holy. It cannot make the sinner clean. But let's consider the gift, though. First, the gift has to be hallowed. Now, I know this probably should be confusing to you, to a degree, because this is just stuff that we don't get trained in from our youth, and we don't participate in these kind of sacrifices and things, so it's just, we don't need to know about it so deeply.

[12:18] But you're not alone if this is confusing. Look at Matthew chapter 23, and I want you to realize that the Jews in Jesus Christ's day had to be straightened out on some of this stuff, too.

[12:32] Look at Matthew chapter 23. They, in their own traditions and in their own teachings, were not in accordance to the truth of the Word of God, and to the purpose of some of these sacrifices.

[12:44] They were looking at it in the wrong way. Matthew 23, and let's start with, just get the entirety of the context here.

[12:58] He has just given it to the hypocrites, the Pharisees. These are the teachers, the guides of the people, and they're teaching them astray and wrong. So verse number 16, he says, Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, here's what they teach, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it's nothing.

[13:18] But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. You don't dare swear by the gold of the temple. Why? Well, Christ is going to say you got it wrong.

[13:30] Verse 17, Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold. The answer is the temple is what is sanctified and holy before God.

[13:42] Not the gold. Gold is gold. The only reason that gold is of any greater importance or value is because of the temple that it's placed on. Consider also the next thing.

[13:53] Verse 18, And, here's the next thing they teach, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing. You can do that all day long. It doesn't mean anything. But here's what they taught.

[14:04] Whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. If you swear by the gift. I swear by all things holy. I swear by the gift that is on the altar, that I am telling the truth.

[14:17] And they say, Well, you're guilty if you do that. Here's his take then. Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift. Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

[14:32] And he goes on from there. And that the thinking here is that the gift is the holy thing that's put on the altar. No, that's wrong. The holy thing, Christ says, is the altar.

[14:43] That was consecrated. That was sanctified. That had the blood sprinkled upon it to set it apart, to make it hallowed before the Lord. The altar is what the holy thing is, not the gift.

[14:56] If the gift is put upon any other altar, it means nothing at all. So the altar is sanctified and holy, and without the priests, the gifts that the people offer, though very well-meaning, and well-intentioned, and wanting to please the Lord, without the priest, they would not be accepted.

[15:16] And they would be unclean, just as the people that offer them. Now, God demands the priest display on his forehead, or he said elsewhere, his forefront, these words, holiness to the Lord.

[15:30] When he is in the office of a priest, when he is hallowing those gifts that are placed upon the altar, how does he hallow them?

[15:41] Look then at Leviticus chapter 1. Leviticus chapter 1. Just try to pay attention and get this. This is the explanation of this portion, and then we'll get to the parallel.

[15:57] Leviticus chapter 1. How does the priest hallow these gifts? And unclean people come to offer before a holy God a gift.

[16:12] Verse number 2. Speaking of the children of Israel, saying to them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, he shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd or of the flock.

[16:24] If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. Verse 4. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

[16:44] He shall kill the bullock before the Lord, and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar. He's putting his hand upon the burnt sacrifice.

[16:58] He's putting the sin in a sense, imputing it to the animal. The animal now is unclean. The animal is bearing the sin. But the priest bears the iniquity of the holy things.

[17:14] So how does that, that thing has to get hallowed. Look now at chapter 16. Leviticus 16.

[17:26] Aaron stands before this transfer of guilt.

[17:41] Aaron stands in this place as a mediator between God and this sinner that is offering their sacrifice, whether it's a sin offering or a gift, whatever the case.

[17:53] Aaron is going to be that mediator that allows the one to connect to the other. Because without him, the sinner can't just come up and go in.

[18:04] He can't even get close. And so he offers this sacrifice. Now, this is another case. This is not the same situation. This is one day a year. Aaron does something that I want you to see has to do with the iniquities and bearing them.

[18:21] Look at verse 21. This is the day of atonement, they call it, the one day a year where they offer one goat and then there's offered for a sacrifice and the other one is a live goat.

[18:36] Verse 21 says, Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the live goat, the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.

[18:59] And verse 22 says, and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited. He just takes them away. So Aaron and the high priest, the way I understand it, as if he absorbs in his position, not as a man, but in his position as high priest, absorbs the iniquity and then one day a year puts it all on that goat, a live goat, and sends it away.

[19:30] Because he's the one with both hands now putting it on the head of the live goat and sending it away and now the goat is bearing the iniquity. Now come back to chapter 28.

[19:41] Still trying to make sense of all this. Exodus 28. It appears that the iniquity gets transferred or is in some manner born by the priest Aaron.

[19:58] As it says in verse 38 again, it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in their holy gifts.

[20:08] If that's not on his forehead, he would not be able to bear it. He'd be in great danger handling these sin offerings, handling these unclean things that the guilt has been transferred to.

[20:23] He has to wear the holy garments. And in this case, holiness to the Lord has got to be on full display before God in his presence, as it says in the text many times before the Lord, in order for him to be considered holy and clean.

[20:39] If the holy crown isn't present or attached to the mitre, the gifts are not accepted. The children of Israel don't have a means by which to obtain atonement. The wrath of God is not satisfied.

[20:52] The offerings that are, whether of love or of gratitude or of sin offerings, they're unrecognized. They're with no significance at all. And Aaron himself would be in great danger for handling the sin offerings and presenting them before the Lord.

[21:10] He'd be a dead man. And so his consecration, his holy garments made him capable to fulfill the office. Wearing the holy crown, wearing that golden plate on his forehead was the indicator, maybe the reminder that though these people are unholy, offering their gifts, I'm bearing the iniquity and I am holy in the sight of God.

[21:35] God said, Aaron, you put these clothes on, you'll be holy before me. You don't. You're not. If you want to check the word holy, just start underlining it when you go through the book of Leviticus.

[21:47] Just start underlining how many times it shows up. That's the Levites. That's this chosen, sanctified people and it's all about the priesthood. It is God's, the only thing that connects holy God to sinful man is that priesthood and it has to be holy.

[22:04] If the, it's the presence of the holy crown, bearing the words holiness to the Lord, I think it's like a stamp of authentication that the priest is able to hallow these gifts and these sacrifices of otherwise common and unsanctified men and women and render those gifts as it says at the end of verse 38, accepted before the Lord.

[22:27] you're going kind of a chain thing that's happening here and if Aaron is not sanctified and holy, either he's dead or the offerings are not doing a thing at all. They're just, it's an empty vein thing.

[22:40] So if that makes sense to you, good. If it doesn't, I'm sorry. I'm not going to spend any more time on it but I do think if you got it, you picked up enough of it, there's a strong parallel that I want to study quickly here with you.

[22:52] When we think of our high priest, his name's not Aaron. His name is Jesus Christ. When we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can read about him in great things written in the future of Revelation 19 where he's going to return and he's going to have many crowns upon his head.

[23:12] But long before that day and long ago, he wore a different crown. We're speaking of a holy crown that Aaron had. Jesus Christ wore a different crown that wreathed his forehead.

[23:23] The Bible says the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head which is just another element of the sufferings of Christ that he bore in his body on the tree.

[23:35] Now take your Bible and you can be done in Exodus and go to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53 and also get 1 Peter chapter 2.

[23:49] We're going to run this parallel and we're going to let the scripture do the talking now. So be ready to turn to some scriptures. Isaiah 53 and this is something special.

[24:04] Not only is the Lord Jesus Christ going to be the King of kings and Lord of lords, but he was once that sacrifice, that sacrificial lamb that bore iniquity.

[24:18] In verse number 6, considering what we've studied and read already about Aaron and whether it was a gift or whether it was that goat. In verse 6, it says, All we like sheep have gone astray.

[24:30] We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him. Look at that. Laid on him, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[24:42] He laid on him the iniquity of us all. That means he's bearing the iniquities. Look at verse number 11. In all of this chapter is the death of Christ.

[24:54] In verse 11, He, God, He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. That's the Father seeing what the Son accomplished and shall be satisfied.

[25:05] By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. The Lord Jesus Christ as Aaron the high priest bearing the iniquity before God.

[25:21] He shall bear their iniquities, it says. And if you notice that verse said that the Father will be satisfied. Just like we read in those gifts back there that they'll be accepted of him.

[25:33] He was satisfied when it was done through that channel. Now look at 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. And we're speaking again of Jesus Christ and his sufferings.

[25:47] And I'll just back, I'll start in 23. 1 Peter 2, 23 and 24. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

[26:02] Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. And there it is, Peter affirming what Isaiah prophesied that the Lord Jesus Christ bore, or his own self bear our sins in his own body.

[26:20] So Jesus Christ is the mediator as we've already studied in 1 Timothy 2 between God and men. And he said, No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

[26:32] And it's because he bore the iniquities in his own body on the tree that we can now have a connection to God. But I want this really to come out. There's real one point that's going to come out of teaching that's going to help you in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

[26:48] Let's say that somebody today desires to give a gift to God. Much like the Jews of the Old Testament. Whether it was a free will offering or whether it was a sin offering, let's just pretend somebody today wants to give a gift to God.

[27:00] Some display of gratitude. Some display of love out of your heart. Or maybe an attempt to gain his approval because of your wrongdoings. And you want to make it right with God.

[27:13] I want you to understand and we'll let the Scripture bear this out that without and apart from the Lord Jesus Christ any gift and any effort of any man or woman has no absolutely no chance of gaining God's approval of gaining God's favor of even gaining God's attention.

[27:35] Apart from Jesus Christ you're just beating the air. Nothing is happening. In the case of an unbeliever someone who has not taken Jesus Christ as their Savior how can they get acceptable?

[27:50] How can they offer something acceptable to God? The Bible says they're dead in their trespasses and sins. The Bible says that the wrath of God abideth on them in John chapter 3.

[28:04] The Bible says if he that believeth not is dead already or is dead already is condemned already is the word. And so the condition of a lost man condemned under the wrath of God the Bible says in Romans 5 they're an enemy of God that needs to be reconciled to God but if they don't have Jesus Christ how can they offer gifts to God to appease that wrath?

[28:29] The answer is they can't. They must first be reconciled to God as you and I have been by Jesus Christ reconciled to God by the death of his son. But without Christ they can't be reconciled or they can't offer God something he'd be pleased with.

[28:43] That kind of goes without saying if you've been in your Bible. But now here's the message what about between you and me? What about if we want to offer God some way of saying I love you thank you?

[28:55] What if we want to make the wrongs right? What if we want to do something to show God to get his favor to get him to look upon us? What if we want to bring a gift before God?

[29:06] What about us? We're born again. We're children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. What if we desire to offer our gifts before the Lord and display our love or display our sorrow?

[29:22] Well what does the Bible say? Look at 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 and look back at verse number 5. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices.

[29:43] That's great but you better watch the last part of this verse. acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You want to offer something to God?

[29:57] You want to bring something before him? You want to tell him how much you love him? There's a condition and there's a way and it has to be by Jesus. It's not accepted if it's not by Jesus Christ.

[30:10] You want to see it again? Look back to your left to go to Hebrews chapter 13. Those last three words or five words six words or whatever they were is the condition by which whether our sacrifices or gifts are accepted to God or not.

[30:31] Hebrews chapter 13. And let's look at verse 15 and 16 and I'll back up just to get Jesus the name in verse 12 Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate.

[30:50] Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city but we seek one to come. By him therefore by him by him 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 to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

[31:24] Did you notice that there's praise and there's thanksgiving in verse 15 there's good works and there's giving that's the word communicate means giving has to do with you could cross reference Philippians chapter 4 a couple spaces there matter of fact I'll read it to you since I'm talking and I'll just read this to you Philippians 4 verse 15 Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only it says later that that giving was a sacrifice a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God but my God shall supply all your need okay so giving communicate is that they were giving they were supporting and so there's there's praise to God called a sacrifice a spiritual sacrifice that's what Peter called them there's thanksgiving to God there's doing good works for the Lord and giving of your own gifts and monies to the Lord's work and to the Lord and if you want that to be accepted of God it has to be by Jesus Christ the first two words of the verse you can't eliminate that and say just give your money folks just do good works come to church and do good it has to be by him alright let's look at

[32:53] Ephesians chapter 1 and Ephesians is very heavy on this so follow along I'm going to read a large portion of this maybe even I'll read the whole chapter so just follow along and consider how the emphasis is put on the Lord Jesus Christ and how anything we have is because of him and through him and by him anything we want to offer to God or do toward the Lord has got to be done through Jesus Christ follow along I'll just kind of read through this and just try to highlight what needs to be said the very beginning of the epistle Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful notice the words in Christ Jesus grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ mind you in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted how did he make us accepted in the beloved that's the Lord

[34:30] Jesus Christ outside of the beloved you are not accepted and neither is any of your gifts or works or anything in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set up at his own right hand in heavenly places now notice a build up here far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all now skip a few verses down to chapter 2 and verse 5 even when we were dead in sins he hath quickened us together with Christ by grace you are saved and hath raised up to us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them in verse 18 for through him that is the Lord Jesus Christ through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father skip to chapter 3 and as he mentioned some things about the church how Jesus Christ is the head over all things to the church and now he continues and I'm really just skipping through now but verse 11 says according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him our boldness and access to God comes through Jesus Christ our purpose for everything comes through Jesus Christ our adoption comes through Jesus Christ our gifts and our blessings comes through Jesus Christ chapter 3 to the end look at verse 20 now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus for God to get glory from the church for God to get any offering and gift from you and me

[38:31] it has to come through Jesus Christ one more Philippians chapter 1 Philippians chapter 1 I know it's a lot of reading but stay with me almost finished Philippians chapter 1 and come to verse number start in verse 8 for God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ for this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment that you may approve things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God if any child of God myself yourself if any one or all of us collectively seek to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God if we desire to come before his presence with thanksgiving if we desire to offer the fruit of our lips if we desire to praise his holy name if we want to give of our monies to him and to his work in obedience if we want him to be glorified in the church and in our lives the Bible says it has to be it can only be by his only begotten son

[40:04] Jesus Christ the great high priest that is the mediator between God and man by Jesus Christ what do we learn from this we learn that we can accomplish nothing without the Lord Jesus nothing that brings glory to God nothing that is acceptable to God he made us accepted in the beloved if we're not in the beloved if our gifts aren't coming from through the beloved we can't please God no amount of money no amount of praise no amount of effort no amount of work no amount of sweat and toil and labor no amount of self discipline or devotion no amount of self control or self denial none of it is accepted before a holy God unless it comes through the righteous and holy mediator the son of God our good works our commitment our righteousness is of no value to him it's vain it's empty it comes from a source that's tainted it comes from a source that's pitiful it comes from a source that's unworthy

[41:24] I can't go in I can't offer and enter in I need the Lord Jesus to take care of that to do that the Lord Jesus Christ said without me ye can do nothing the Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ he is our life the Bible says that he has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption the Bible says that he is the propitiation for our sins he is the great high priest that entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us he's called our intercessor he's called our savior do you understand maybe we don't fully understand it but can we attempt to understand the value that he offers the worth that he is to God and therefore the worth that he is to get us to God we have no channel we have no chance we have nothing to give him that he would accept and so what does this conclude what does this help us to see what can we walk away from

[42:38] I think it's a simple thought and I think it's one that that we don't take serious enough when you're saved it's a great feeling it's a great relief it's a blessing a gift from God when you know you're saved it's it's all the more relief and all the more blessing when you've been saved for a long time and things become normal in the sense that the Christian life I'm a Christian I've been I've been walking with the Lord I've been walking away from the world and when you become in that mold if you want to call it that you can definitely get stale you can definitely cease relying or cease reaching for Christ and leaning upon him because it gets to be habit get up and go to church on Sunday morning gets to be habit open up the Bible and read gets to be habit it's a good habit but it can get to be what you just do it can be your routine and in closing

[43:42] I want this to put a spotlight upon the necessity for Christ Jesus to hallow us before the Father to hallow our gifts and our efforts and our labors and our deeds in this life because it can be in vain the routine can be in vain the attendance this morning can be completely pointless if it's not being done through the relationship of Jesus Christ the point then becomes this your relationship with Jesus Christ should be the most important thing in your life every one of you in your life the most important thing in my life is my relationship to God through his son Jesus Christ everything goes through that channel and if it's not going through that channel it's fallen it's burning up it's of no value and it's not accepted and it's of no worth if you're not in fellowship with Christ this morning you're just going through the motions and it can happen to every one of us quickly you could just go through the motions you've done it before you could do it again when you first get saved it's like a light comes on and now life is in you and there's joy and peace and hope and it's also alive and exciting and it can it can become you can get accustomed to that it can normalize

[45:28] I want you to see this morning from this Old Testament passage how relevant it is today that we're walking in the Spirit that we're abiding in Him that we're following Him leaning upon Him loving Him the Bible says Christ is all what can you do for God what good thing can you do for God that doesn't go through Jesus Christ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me but the answer is nothing so see that picture of this Old Testament and see that apply to your life today even your Christian life the good life you attempt to live on this earth and make sure that it's coming out of a relationship with Christ Jesus you and Him you know why some guys say how do we I need to work harder on the fruit of the Spirit love joy peace gentleness

[46:30] I need to work harder on the gentleness side or I need to work harder on the temperance or things like that if you're convicted but the truth is you can't work harder on it that's just vain what you do is abide in Christ walk in the Spirit and the fruit starts to show up because He is gentle and He is good faith will come from walking in the Spirit and so is true for all of these gifts or all of these spiritual sacrifices fruit of the Spirit or spiritual sacrifices alike when you walk in the Spirit when your fellowship is with Christ when it's right the fruit will come the sacrifice will come it will be accepted otherwise it's vain it's filthy rags it's pointless we don't want to we don't want to walk up up to or appear into the presence of God and find out that our mortal life was a waste our devotion our commitment all of it was wasted because it wasn't being done through a relationship with Jesus

[47:39] Christ it became a habit or it became showing off or getting other people to see what we do and who we are and I'm convinced and I don't want to put this on anybody here I'm just convinced that there are men and women that have been saved a long time that are going to watch it just burn or just say where did it go because they were doing it to be seen of men and they got their reward already so let's be careful to keep our relationship with Christ important keep it hot keep it daily keep it right fathers we dismiss thank you that we can consider these things that it can put the emphasis upon what's important in this life and may it not be our soul winning may it not be our bible reading or the time we spend in prayer that we boast of ourselves but may it be our relationship with Jesus Christ and then what comes out of that and so

[48:41] Lord it's my prayer that we have fruit that remains and that we do it according to your word Lord if anybody here is struggling in some way of just routine or just going through motions that show them how empty it is how void it is why there's no joy in it why it's just a struggle and a fight and Lord show us how we can have that relationship with Christ and how that can birth some good works and a good attitude and something that you will accept and so Lord I thank you for this parallel for this truth from back in the Old Testament how it applies and pray that the application fits into our lives where it belongs I also want to thank you for the opportunity we'll have the rest of this day and the fellowship that we'll enjoy and the meal to follow please bless and sanctify that we pray this in Jesus name Amen