Lord, as we gather together in Thy presence, our hearts are full of gratitude, thanksgiving, love, and adoration. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee for this privilege, that we may enter into the holy fellowship with Thee.
It is not because of what we are, nor because of what we have done or have not done. It is purely because of Thy life. It is because Thou hast made us a new creation, even Thy children. It is because Thou, our Lord Jesus Christ, art our great High Priest.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast brought us, carried us, into the very presence of God, that we can live upon Thee and help from Thee. Because Thou hast first loved us, although we are poor today, it is all of Thy grace. We are here as an exhibit of Thy love and of what Thou hast done on this earth.
Lord, we are here to glorify Thee. We are here to exalt Thee, to live unto Thee, because Thou alone art worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
O Lord, we do desire that we may see Thee with a clearer vision, that we may feel Thy touch. Oh, Lord, how we praise and thank Thee because Thou art who Thou art, and Thou art ever present, Thou art always available.
Lord Jesus Christ, we commit this time into Thy hands and trust the Holy Spirit to breathe upon Thy word and make it living and operative in each one of us. Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Thee, that Thou mayest be glorified in the church in Christ Jesus, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I would like to read from the third book of the Bible, the book of Leviticus. Will you please turn to Leviticus, chapter 8? God willing, we would like to cover three chapters this evening, from chapter 8 through chapter 10. We did seven chapters this morning, so I think three chapters this evening will be enough.
Leviticus, chapter 8. We will read from verse 22.
And he presented the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.
And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood thereof, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.
And he brought Aaron’s sons; and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.
And he took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right thigh:
And out of the basket of unleavened bread, that was before the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat, and upon the right thigh:
And he put the whole upon the hands of Aaron, and upon the hands of his sons, and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord.
And Moses took them from off their hands, and burnt them on the altar upon the burnt offering: they were a consecration offering for a sweet savour; it was an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord: it was Moses’ portion of the ram of consecration; as the Lord commanded Moses.
And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons’ garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.—Leviticus 8:22-30
That is all we will read tonight.
For the sake of some people who were not here this morning, I am afraid we have to go back a little bit so that you may see the connection.
The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings; therefore, it shows us the purpose of God. The book of Exodus is a book of redemption; therefore, it reveals to us the work of God. The book of Leviticus is a book of priesthood; it tells us of the call of God.
Now, what is God’s purpose? God’s purpose is to have a certain kind of man: God-man. He first secured that Man in our Lord Jesus Christ, and then, through our Lord Jesus Christ, a corporate Body joined to Christ. That is the church.
In order to obtain that corporate man in Christ Jesus, He has to do the work of redemption, because sin has entered into this world.
Redemption is more than merely redeeming us out of something into which we have fallen. That is only part of the work of redemption. Our Lord Jesus redeems us out of sin, out of death, out of the curse of the law, out of the world, out of ourselves, and out of the power of darkness. But this is only the negative part.
Redemption is to redeem us back to the purpose of God. Therefore, there is a positive aspect of redemption: He redeems us out of something that He may redeem us unto Someone.
That is the reason why, when you read the book of Exodus, you find at the beginning the story of the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, until God brought them unto Himself at Mount Sinai. But when you go on from Sinai, you find not only the giving of the law, but the revelation of the tabernacle.
Finally, in the book of Exodus, the tabernacle was erected and the glory of God filled it. In other words, there the work of redemption was accomplished. Man had become a tabernacle for God, and God dwelt in man. God and man were united in life. That is the purpose of God, realized through the work of redemption of our Lord Jesus.
Then, after Exodus, you have the book of Leviticus. Most likely, all that is given to us in Leviticus occurred during the first month after the tabernacle was erected. The tabernacle was set up in the wilderness, and the glory of God descended and filled the tabernacle.
Then the book of Leviticus begins with this: “And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tent of meeting.” In other words, after the tabernacle, God began to call His people to come unto Him and to serve Him as priests.
Dear brothers and sisters, remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 2:4-5. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a living Stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect and precious. As we come unto Christ, we also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house.
We who were dead, we who were not good, we who were enemies of God, we who were sons of disobedience—through the redemption work of our Lord Jesus, He has made us living stones. We have His life in us. We are stones; we are living stones, just as Christ is the living Stone. We are chips out of that Rock. We share His life, His divine nature.
But, brothers and sisters, this is not all. We are not merely made living stones through the work of redemption. We are living stones being built together into a spiritual house.
The work of redemption is not finished if we are merely living stones scattered all over. Why? Because if we are merely living stones, we may be beautiful in ourselves, but God cannot dwell there. Or you may throw all these living stones together into a great pile. It may serve as a great monument, but it is not a spiritual house. God cannot dwell there. God’s purpose is not realized.
But if we, as living stones, allow the Holy Spirit to work upon us—to use the cross to cut us, chisel us, saw us, smooth us, and bring us together—that we may be fitly framed and rightly joined one to another under the living Head, then we become a spiritual house, like the tabernacle in Exodus, and the glory of God fills it. This is what the church is, and this is God’s purpose.
But Peter says something more than that. Peter says that we, as living stones coming to Christ, are being built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.
In a sense, you know, it is almost ungrammatical. Why? Because it does not say that we are being built up together as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. There is no conjunction in the original. It is simply, “a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.”
Why? Because the spiritual house and the holy priesthood are two sides of one thing. On the one hand, we are built up together as a spiritual house. At the same time, we are called into a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
What good is a tabernacle if there is no priesthood? You may have a tabernacle erected with all the furnishings, finely and fully furnished; if there is no priesthood, the whole tabernacle is dead. God is not served at all. God is not worshipped.
But when the tabernacle was erected and the priesthood began to enter into the tabernacle, offering the sacrifices upon the brazen altar, pouring water into the brazen laver, washing their hands and feet, going into the holy place to light the lamp, to put on the showbread, and to burn incense, then you find the whole house becomes living, and God is served.
So here, brothers and sisters, we are not only a spiritual house; we are also a holy priesthood.
With the children of Israel, when God first called them in Exodus 19, God said:
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will indeed obey My voice, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine:
And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.—Exodus 19:4-6
In other words, God’s original purpose for His redeemed people was that the whole nation would become a nation of priests. All the redeemed ones are priests. Whether you are a man or a woman, an old man, a young man, or a child, you find that the whole nation is a nation of priests.
What does this mean? It means that everyone is to serve God. “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”
But unfortunately, while Moses was receiving the law at the top of the mountain, the children of Israel made a golden calf, and they began to worship it. Because of that, they disqualified themselves as a nation of priests.
Only the tribe of Levi stood with Moses. When Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and called, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” only the tribe of Levi stood with him. Because of that, from that time God set apart the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron as the priesthood.
But remember, this was God’s emergency measure. This was not God’s original design.
Therefore, when we come to the time of our Lord Jesus, when the reality has come, when the Lord Jesus redeems us unto Himself, God does not redeem us through Christ Jesus into His emergency measure. God redeems us in Christ Jesus back to His original design.
That is the reason why, in Revelation 1:5-6, we are told:
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
And He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father;
To Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.—Revelation 1:5-6
Dear brothers and sisters, we know that the Lord Jesus loves us. We know that He has washed us with His blood. He has washed away all our sins and made us clean. Thank God for that. But do you know that He has done something much more than that?
You are not only cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, but He has made you kings and priests. You are a priest.
You may not be called a priest by people, but so far as your relationship with God is concerned, you are a bona fide priest. You belong to the priesthood. Every believer is a priest.
What is a priest? A priest is one who is set apart for one purpose in life, and that is to serve God. That is a priest.
Do you know that you are a priest? Oh, you say, “No, I am a housewife. No, I am a lawyer. No, I am a doctor. I am an engineer. I am a farmer. I am a teacher. I am a student.”
These are your avocations, not your vocation. A priest may serve in a family. A priest may serve in an office. A priest may serve in a field, but he is still a priest.
These are our avocations. Our one vocation is serving God. This is the priesthood we are.
When you are serving in the family, you serve as a priest in the family; that is to say, you serve God there. When you are working in the office, you are working in the office as a priest. You serve God in your office. No matter what you are engaged in, you are a priest, and the priest has only one purpose in life: to serve God.
Every believer is a priest. Christianity has fallen back into Judaism, back into God’s emergency measure, when we set apart only a few as a special class of priests, and then the rest of God’s people serve the world. No such thing in the Word of God.
Every believer is a priest. This is our calling. We are called to be priests to serve God.
We are not merely priests; we are a holy priesthood. What is a priesthood? A priesthood means that it is not just one priest. It is not merely many priests serving separately, individually, independently, all by themselves. A priesthood is a number of priests serving together in a related way under the order of the great High Priest.
How do we become God’s dwelling place, God’s habitation? Only when we, as living stones, are being built up together can God dwell and rest among us.
How can we serve God? Not if each one goes off on his own tangent and serves God independently. No. It is only when we serve God together, each in his or her proper place in relation to brothers and sisters, all under the direction of our great High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ. Then you have some priesthood.
What is the purpose of the priesthood? To offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are to offer sacrifices to God.
What are the spiritual sacrifices? Not just anything. Cain offered his sacrifice, and he was completely rejected by God. Why? Because he was just offering the produce of his own hands. He did not offer the right sacrifice, which was offered by his brother Abel.
What are these spiritual sacrifices that we can offer to God as our spiritual service? That is the reason why, in the first seven chapters of the book of Leviticus, you find five different kinds of offerings. These five different kinds of offerings form the basis of the priesthood.
It is through these five kinds of offerings that a priesthood comes into being. When the priests begin to serve, these are the sacrifices that they are able to offer to God.
This morning we dwelt on the first seven chapters. We cannot go back into detail, but we mentioned that these five offerings reveal to us the various aspects of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We, as priests, are to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. That is to say, we are to function as priests, to offer what satisfies God, pleases God, and serves God.
If you try to offer yourself—“O Lord, here is my talent, here is my wisdom, here is my cleverness, here is my experience. I am a great executive, so I am coming to the church to serve You as an elder”—no, these are not spiritual sacrifices. These are the offerings of Cain, abominable in the eyes of God.
God cannot accept anything that we offer unless we offer Christ. God cannot accept anything less than His own Son.
How are we going to offer Christ to the Father unless we appreciate and appropriate all that Christ is? When we begin to appreciate Him, when we begin to appropriate all that He is and all that He has done for us—in other words, when we begin to know Him and to experience Him as the burnt offering, as the meal offering, as the peace offering, as the sin offering, and as the trespass offering—then we come to God and say, “Now we offer back to You the Christ that You have given to us.”
This is acceptable to God. These are the spiritual sacrifices.
Chapter 8, chapter 9, and chapter 10 form another section in the book of Leviticus. The book of Leviticus is a book of priesthood, so the Talmud calls it “the law of the priests.”
Here you find God calling us to offer spiritual sacrifices as priests. In chapter 8, God called Moses and asked him to bring Aaron and his sons, because God had set apart Aaron and his sons to be priests.
But before they could function in the tabernacle as priests, something had to be done with them first. It is true that Aaron’s family was chosen. His family was set apart to be priests, and their future service would be to serve God in the tabernacle. But they could not simply walk into the tabernacle and begin to minister. They would be completely rejected.
Something had to happen to them before they could begin to function as priests. That was chapter 8.
God called Moses to bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and all the children of Israel were gathered there to serve as witnesses. Why? Because there Aaron and his sons were to be consecrated to God.
Actually, the word consecrated simply means “set apart.” God had called them; now they were to be set apart. Of course, consecration has a deeper meaning, and we will go into that afterward.
Before Aaron and his sons were to serve in the tabernacle as priests, before they were to offer spiritual sacrifices, first they had to be consecrated.
How were they to be consecrated? Several things had to be done. There had to be a bull offered as a sin offering. Even before that, Aaron and his sons were to wash themselves; they were to take a bath. Then they were to put on the priestly garments of beauty and glory.
After that, oil would be poured upon the head of Aaron. Then they would bring a bull as the sin offering. Aaron and his sons would put their hands upon the head of the bull, the bull would be slain, and the blood would be sprinkled before God. The bull would be burned outside the camp as the sin offering.
Then they would offer a ram as a burnt offering. This ram was to be burned completely on the altar as incense toward God.
After they had done all these things, then came the second ram. The second ram is called the ram of consecration. By that second ram, they were to be consecrated as priests unto God. After that, they would begin to function.
Now, brothers and sisters, let us go back a little bit. So far as the work of redemption of our Lord Jesus is concerned, we are all priests. There is no doubt about that. This is the Word of God.
Whether you feel like a priest or do not feel like a priest, whether you want to be a priest or do not want to be a priest, that does not alter it a bit. If you are redeemed, you are a priest. If you are a child of God, you are a priest—not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek.
Yet there is a problem here. We are all priests, but how many priests function? We are all priests, but how many are serving God? Why is it that we are all priests, and yet so few are really serving, while the rest are not functioning as priests in the tabernacle, in the church?
There is something here, and that which is missing is consecration. By calling, we are all priests; but before we can enter into practical priestly function, we need to do one thing, and that is to become really consecrated.
In Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
—Romans 12:1
Following that, you find the functioning of the members in the Body of Christ, as recorded in Romans 12. In other words, before you can function as a priest, you have to present your body as a living sacrifice, and that is consecration.
Consecration is to present your body as a living sacrifice. But before you can present your body as a living sacrifice, there needs to be some preparation. Not just anybody can do it.
Suppose I am a person who does not know God. Suppose I am a person who is not saved. Somehow it comes to my mind that I want to serve God. Do you think God will accept my service?
Is He so hungry for service, so eager that somebody will serve Him, that He will take anybody into His service if anyone wants to come?
Even today, when you want to serve the Queen of England—suppose you want to be a chambermaid to the Queen—do you think that because you offer yourself, she is honoured by your offering and says, “Sure, I need you to serve me”?
To serve the Queen as a chambermaid, you need certain qualifications. If you are chosen to be her chambermaid, you are honoured; she is not honoured—you are honoured.
God is such a great God. Do you think He is so hungry for service that He would take anyone to serve Him? Not so.
If you are a genius, if you are the most talented person, the most wealthy person, the most highly educated person, and you come to God and say, “God, I am going to serve You,” will that be a great honour to God? God says, “I do not want your service. You are not qualified.”
Not just anybody can serve God. Why does Romans say, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice”? Because these bodies are not just anybody’s bodies. God has done something to these bodies.
In other words, you have Romans 1 through Romans 11 as preparation. We were sinners. We were dead in sins and transgressions. How could we serve God? Even if we wanted to serve, God would not be honoured. God does not lack service.
Christ Jesus came as the sin offering. He died on the cross for us. Because of that, we know Jesus Christ as our sin offering. We lay our hands upon the head of the victim; in other words, we are identified with Christ. We accept Him as our sin offering. Therefore, our sins are forgiven.
Not only do we know Christ as our sin offering; we know Christ as our burnt offering. In other words, He not only cleanses us from all sins, but in the Beloved we are accepted by God. We have found favour in the Beloved.
From Romans 1 through Romans 11, God has done everything for us in Christ Jesus just to prepare for that day when He can say, “Brethren, by the compassions of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Now you can do that.
Dear brothers and sisters, to consecrate ourselves to the Lord to serve Him is a great honour. Never think that to serve God is to give God honour. It is to receive honour: God honours us with the privilege of serving Him.
Before the ram of consecration was offered, there had to be all those preparations. They had to be washed. They had to be clothed in the priestly garments. They had to offer sin offerings and burnt offerings.
It means that we have to be washed. We have to be separated. We have to put on Christ as our garment of beauty and glory. We have to be united with Christ in His devotion as the burnt offering.
After He has prepared us in Christ Jesus, He says, “Now this is the hour. You can serve Me now. Now you can consecrate yourself. Now you can offer the ram of consecration.”
How about the ram of consecration? A ram was slain, and then the blood of that ram was put upon the right ear of Aaron and his sons, upon the right thumb of their hands, and upon the great right toe of their feet.
In other words, with the ram of consecration, first the blood is applied to the ear, to the thumb, and to the toe.
In Leviticus 17, we are told that life is in the blood. Therefore, the blood can make atonement for life. So you find that the blood of the ram is put upon the ear, the thumb, and the toe. What does it mean?
The ram is to be offered to God, wholly devoted. In other words, our Lord Jesus, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God, willingly, voluntarily, completely, out of love. He offered Himself to God as the Lamb of God.
That is our Lord Jesus. He is so devoted to the Father that He was willing to go unto death, even the death of the cross. This is to be applied upon our right ear, upon the thumb of our right hand, and upon our toes.
In other words, what characterizes Christ is now to characterize us. If we want to serve God, we cannot serve in our own life, our natural life, our natural ability, or our natural cleverness. That is natural, of ourselves.
If we want to serve God, we have to be identified and united with Christ, and His life must be our life. That which characterizes His life is to characterize our lives. That is why the blood has to be put upon us.
What is the most important thing in service? It is not that we do much. Sometimes our feet are too swift, our hands are too busy, but our ears are very dull. If that is the case, you cannot serve the Master.
In service, the first important thing is to hear. You remember that in Psalm 40 it is prophesied of our Lord Jesus:
Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in;
Mine ears hast Thou opened:
Burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I am come;
In the roll of the book it is written of Me:
I delight to do Thy will, O my God;
Yea, Thy law is within My heart.—Psalm 40:6-8
The word “opened” means that Thou hast pierced my ear. You know, many women pierce their ears in order to put earrings in them. But in the history of Israel, you find that if a Hebrew became a slave to another Hebrew, he would serve only six years, and after he had served six years, he would go out free in the seventh year.
But during the period of his service, perhaps he came to love his master’s family. When the day came that he was to go free, he said, “I do not want to go free. I love you. I want to serve you forever.”
Out of love, not out of obligation, the master would take the slave to the door, put his ear against the doorpost, and pierce it with an awl. Whenever you saw a Hebrew whose ear was pierced, you knew he was a love slave. He was no longer free. For life he was a slave, but by his own choice.
Dear brothers and sisters, this was spoken of our Lord Jesus. God said, “Sacrifices and oblations Thou dost not desire, but Thou hast pierced Mine ear.” “I am here to hear Thee, and because I hear Thee, I do Thy will. Behold, I come to do Thy will, and Thy law is in My heart”—or, another translation says, “Thy law is My delight.”
This is our Lord Jesus. How does He serve God? He serves God with an attentive ear.
The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of them that are taught,
That I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary:
He wakeneth morning by morning,
He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as they that are taught.—Isaiah 50:4
The first thing is to hear. Therefore, the blood of the ram must be applied to the right ear. That is to say, we are to be joined with Christ in service, learning to hear the voice of God. Unless we can hear by the power of His life, we are not qualified to function.
Sometimes we are too swift in our feet, too agile in our hands, and yet before we hear, we are a hundred miles away. We have already done something half-finished. We give God a lot of help. The more we help, the more trouble we give.
Therefore, the blood must be applied to the ear, then to the hand, and then to the foot. The ear is to hear, the hand is to work, and the feet are to walk. These three points represent the whole person.
This is what is meant by Romans 12:1: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” As we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, we are identified with Christ in the burnt offering. His life of obedience is to be our life. As He hears the Father, so we hear Him. As He does the will of God, so we do His will. As He walks in the way of God, so we walk in His way.
The second thing is that Moses took all the fat of the ram. Today people are afraid of fat, you know. But what is fat? After you have eaten food, your body uses what you have eaten; but because you eat so well, there is more than you need. What is left over, that which is abundant, becomes fat and is stored in the body for future use.
Fat, in Scripture, represents the strength of life. It represents the inward strength of life. The children of Israel were not allowed to eat the fat, because the best belongs to God: the inward strength, the heart, the heart’s love, the heart’s affection, and the heart’s desire. All that inward strength belongs to God.
Then there was the shoulder of the ram. The shoulder in Scripture always speaks of responsibility. The priests bore the ark upon their shoulders, and there you find strength and responsibility.
Moses put the fat and the shoulder of the ram into the hands of Aaron and his sons. Then he took from the basket of unleavened bread an unleavened cake, a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer. He put these upon the fat and the shoulder, and he filled the hands of Aaron and his sons with these things. Then they waved them before God.
The fat was burned, and the shoulder belonged to Moses. The Bible says, “This is a consecration offering.”
The word consecration in the original Hebrew literally means “fill the hand.” To fill the hands—that is consecration.
First, we allow the life of the Lord Jesus to so work in us that now our hands are empty. Our hands are always occupied with something, and because our hands are always full, God cannot use us. Therefore, first we have to empty our hands.
When our hands are empty, then God will fill our hands with what is on His heart. As we raise it before God, this is consecration.
The fat and the shoulder represent the inward and outward strength of our Lord Jesus from the divine side. The flour, the unleavened bread, the cake, and the wafer represent the purity of the life of our Lord Jesus from the human side.
In other words, what fills the hands of Aaron and his sons is the Lord Jesus—His divinity and His humanity. It is what the Lord Jesus is that fills their hands. When their hands are filled with the Lord Jesus and they wave Him before God, they are consecrated.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we are priests, but before we can function as priests, we have to be consecrated. That is to say, we have to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, so that we are free of everything before Him, with empty hands.
Then He will fill our hands with Christ. When we are filled with Christ, we are occupied with Christ. Oh, that is consecration.
Brothers and sisters, are we consecrated? What fills our hands? Is it Christ who fills our hands? This is just a symbolic way of saying: What occupies us?
Are we occupied with Christ? Are we occupied with ourselves? Are we occupied with many things of this world? Or are we occupied with doctrines about Christ, or teachings concerning Christ? Are we occupied with a living Person—with Christ, the living Person?
Dear brothers and sisters, when you are fully occupied with Christ, when you present your bodies as a living sacrifice and Christ fills you, you know, oftentimes we think consecration is horrible.
Sometimes we say, “The preacher always tries to trick people.” You know, that is how I was treated. I went to a conference, and during the first few days the preacher would always say, “Well, salvation is free. Come, and you will drink of the water of life freely. You do not need to pay anything. It is all for you.” That is good.
So I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour, and thank God He forgave my sins, and I enjoyed Him very much. Then on the last day, the preacher said, “Now consecrate yourselves. Give yourself to God.” He caught me, and I was unhappy.
You know, we often think that when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we say, “Lord, what is left for me?” Nothing. We often think of consecration as a loss.
But, dear brothers and sisters, the Lord says, “Present your body as a living sacrifice, because I can fill you with Myself.” Oh, He will fill your hands. He will fill you with Himself. You will know Him and experience Him in a way you have never known Him before.
He is so rich. He is so full, unspeakable, unsearchable. That is Christ. He will fill you with Himself, and when your hands are filled, guess what? You are consecrated. You are set apart.
Then Moses took the blood from the altar and the anointing oil and sprinkled it upon Aaron and his sons and their garments, and they were consecrated. In other words, their life from that time on was marked by the life of the Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is in the life of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that you serve and function as priests.
Lots of believers do not function as priests—not because God is partial, but because they keep themselves back from God. They will not present their bodies as a living sacrifice. They want to keep themselves for themselves, for their own use, to serve their own purpose.
Oh, if only we are constrained by the love of Christ and present our bodies to the God who redeemed us, He will fill our hands with Himself. Brothers and sisters, then we have the Lord to serve. We can function as priests, and we can serve in the resurrection life of our Lord and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The rite of consecration went on for seven days. Seven is completion. In other words, consecration is not something that you did five years ago, and that is it. Consecration is a consecrated life.
It continues on for seven days. That is to say, from the first day you consecrate yourself to the Lord and He sanctifies you, then it should continue throughout your life.
Every morning when you wake up, you say, “Lord, I am still on the altar, and I do not intend to climb down.” Every morning you come and say, “Lord, I am Yours. Fill me with Yourself and use me as You will.” You find that it continues throughout your life, and that is consecration.
Then comes chapter 9. On the eighth day—that is to say, after they were consecrated—then on the eighth day, which speaks of resurrection and a new beginning, Aaron and his sons entered into the tabernacle.
They began to offer sin offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings. As they did so, do you know what happened? The glory of the Lord appeared, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the offerings upon the altar. The people bowed down and worshipped God.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we who are chosen as priests of God will present our bodies as a living sacrifice, if we will be occupied with Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit and in His resurrection life function as priests and offer Christ to God, then the glory of the Lord will come down from heaven to consume our offering.
In other words, God says, “I accept it. I am pleased with it. This is My food. I am strengthened. I am full. I am satisfied.” Whenever God is satisfied, glory appears.
If only God’s people realized this! We are a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. If every brother and sister would present his or her body as a living sacrifice, be filled with Christ, and offer Christ back to God, glory would fill the church.
Why do we not see the glory of God? Not because God does not want to appear. It is because we hold back from God what is His. If we satisfy Him, His glory will appear.
But then comes chapter 10. On that eighth day, everything was so glorious, and yet something else happened. Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, acted presumptuously.
They took their censers, put strange fire in them, put incense upon it, and intended to go into the holy place to burn incense to God. Their intention was good. They were priests; they wanted to serve God. But they used strange fire.
As they entered into the tent of meeting, fire came out from before the Lord and burned them. It burned them.
After this happened, God told Moses that whenever the priests were serving, they were not to drink wine or strong drink. This shows that they must have been drunk.
These two sons of Aaron failed in three points.
Number one: they were drunk. You remember that the Bible says:
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit.
—Ephesians 5:18
What does it mean spiritually to be drunk? It means that you are filled with the pleasures of the world instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit, who is joy, peace, love, and so forth. You are filled with the pleasures of this world.
Brothers and sisters, if we, as priests who are supposed to serve God, yet seek the pleasures of this life—if you love the world and try to serve God—there is no way.
Number two: they served without the order of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were to serve under the direction of Aaron. But instead of waiting for direction, they served independently.
Without hearing, it just came to their minds. It was presumption. It came to their minds, they presumed it was all right, and they simply went ahead and did it.
In serving God in His house, there is a divine Head. Whenever it is out of order, something is wrong.
Thirdly, they offered strange fire. The incense had to be burned with fire taken from the altar. The fire on the altar was the fire that came down from heaven, from God.
But instead of using that fire, they used other fire, which was strange fire. What is strange fire? Strange fire represents the zeal of the flesh—our natural zeal and our natural energy.
How often we try to serve God with our natural zeal and our natural energy. That is strange fire. God will not accept it.
So, dear brothers and sisters, on the one hand, if we serve God as He wills, glory comes. But if we serve God in our own way, from ourselves, it is most serious.
It is a great privilege that a holy and great God allows us to serve Him, but it is also a serious matter. It can bring in death.
These three chapters show us the consecration of the priests, the first day of their service, and the warning concerning unacceptable service. May the Lord use these words to encourage us and, at the same time, warn us.
Knowing that serving God is such a high privilege, may we serve Him in love, in fear, and in truth. Oh, that our service may bring in the glory of God instead of the fire of judgment.
Our Heavenly Father, Thou hast honoured us with such a high honour, that we are all called to be priests, that we are called for service.
O Father, we do desire to serve. Therefore, we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Fill us with Thyself, that we may be set apart for Thy service.
Teach us how to serve in the way that our Lord has served, that we may serve Thee under the direction of the High Priest, even our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may serve Thee according to life.
O Lord, may our service bring in glory. Deliver us, O Lord, lest we ever become priests who are drunk, who are independent, and who offer strange fire and bring down the fire of judgment.
O Lord, we pray that we may be a holy priesthood—not merely priests, but a priesthood—that we may offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Thee through Jesus Christ. We ask all in the name of our Lord Jesus and for His glory. Amen.