Leviticus nine, these are the words of God. It came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. And he said to Aaron, take for yourself a young bull as a sin offering and a ram as a burnt offering without blemish and offer them before Yahweh. And the children of Israel, to the children of Israel, you shall speak saying, take a kid of the goats as a sin offering and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering Also a bull and a ram as peace offerings to sacrifice before Yahweh and a grain offering mixed with oil for today Yahweh will appear to you. So they brought Moses, they brought what Moses commanded before the tabernacle of meeting and all the congregation drew near and stood before Yahweh. And Moses said, this is the thing which Yahweh commanded you to do. and the glory of Yahweh will appear to you. And Moses said to Aaron, go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people. Offer the offering of the people and make atonement for them. As Yahweh commanded, Aaron therefore went to the altar. and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. Then the sons of Aaron brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood, put it on the horns of the altar, and poured the blood at the base of the altar. But the fat, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe from the liver of the sin offering he burned on the altar, as Yahweh had commanded Moses. The flesh and the hind he burned with fire outside the camp, and he killed the burnt offering. And Aaron's sons presented to him the blood, which he sprinkled all around on the altar. Then they presented the burnt offering to him with its pieces and head, and he burned them on the altar. And he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. Then he brought the people's offering. And he took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and killed it and offered it for sin like the first one. And he brought the burnt offering and offered it according to the prescribed manner. Then he brought the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar besides the burnt sacrifice of the morning. He also killed the bull and the ram as sacrifices of peace offerings which were for the people. And Aaron's sons presented to him the blood which he sprinkled all round on the altar, and the fat from the bull and the ram, the fatty tail, what covers the entrails and the kidneys, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver. And they put the fat on the breasts. Then he burned the fat on the altar, but waved as a wave offering before Yahweh. Sorry, but the breasts and the right thigh, Aaron waved as a wave offering before Yahweh, as Moses had commanded. Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people and fire came out from before Yahweh. and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. So far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. It's good to see many of you here who have been prevented one way or another. And so it'll help us. If you got a copy of the word of God with you, you can open to the end of Exodus 40, because the problem that is solved in, or shown to have been solved in Leviticus chapter nine, which we just read first appears in Exodus 40. You remember that the Lord was going to lead his people to the promised land, and then they had sinned against him in the matter of the feast to Yahweh that they were employing a golden calf to do, which Aaron had led the people in doing at the bottom of the mountain, while Moses was with the Lord at the top of the mountain. And Moses interceded for the people that the Lord wouldn't destroy the rest of Israel and start over with him. And Moses interceded for the people that the Lord wouldn't just send them by themselves to the land without him, but that the Lord would go with his people. And the Lord had answered those things. And the Lord had even on the mountain shown Moses his glory. And one of the things that then that the Lord gave in the second time up the mountain was all of this instruction about the tabernacle. And you come to the end of Exodus 40, and they have received the instruction, they've made the collection, they've constructed everything, and they've got it all set up, and then you get to the end of Exodus 40, beginning in verse 34, then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle, And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle. And so the Lord has come to dwell in the midst of his people. The Lord has formed, and when we were going through the design and the construction of the tabernacle, he's formed this kind of new paradise, this portable Eden. And as we heard even this morning, thinking about the gold and the frankincense and and the myrrh or the gold and the incense and the anointing oil, that this new portable Eden was actually kind of a hybrid of the earthly Eden and the heavenly reality. And he'd given us this marvelous thing, but when the glory of the Lord filled it, Moses, even Moses, who had seen the glory of the Lord on the mountain, could not enter." And the book of Leviticus has this wonderful Hebrew name, it's just the first verb in the Hebrew, vayekra, and he called And the sentence is, and he called Yahweh to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting. And so the Lord has given to his people the way by which they are able to come near. And he's given them what's called the burnt offering in our English translations, but it's really just, it's a very small Hebrew word. It's just the ascension. And he's given them the tribute, which is, in our English versions, the grain offering, but it's just the word for tribute, and the tribute. And he's given them the peace. And so he's given them three sets of offerings, one by which they are seen to be, as it were, they identify with the animal, and the animal is slaughtered and the blood is applied. And the word that's used for the burning is not actually a word for consuming, but a word for being transformed into smoke. They're smokefied, if you will, so that they may ascend to the Lord. And they ascend with the appointed tribute, as it were, in hand. And so there is that recognition between the king and his people of the assigned tribute, where you can communicate your willingness to have him as king by bringing the assigned tribute, and he communicates his willingness to have you. And then the peace offering, which was the one from which not only was the fat smokified so that it goes to the Lord, and it said a couple of times that it was for food, and we know that God doesn't eat food. Why would God eat the smokified fat from the peace offering? Well, the reason was because that was the offering from which the worshipper, not just the priesthood administered, but the worshipper was permitted to eat meat. And so the worshipper and the Lord, in the picture there, share table fellowship. They eat from the same dish. The worshipper is invited to eat, as it were, off the king's tray. or serving dish. So those were the first three and the primary offerings. But then there was also the sin offering and a subclass of the sin offering called a trespass offering. So that a worshiper who had a guilty conscience before God, and we remember that this especially was needed in the case of having committed a sin and you didn't even know it was a sin and then you realize later unintentional sin was still guilty and you realize and we have done that too where either it was unintentional or we're doing it without thinking and then we realize that we have been sinning against our God and God provided the sin offering for a cleansing of the conscience and that wonderful pairing of the priest shall make atonement that active voice, the priest is the one who goes through the procedure that God has assigned, and it shall be forgiven him. The priest doesn't do the forgiving, he can't do that. It's given in the passive voice, the divine passive. But God giving what you can see, the visible atonement offering presented by the priest to assure you of what you can't see, that you are forgiven by God who appointed the priest and God who gave that offering. So that if they had sinned, then they would bring the sin offering and get that out of the way. And then they could offer the ascension and the tribute and the peace. Or as we have it in our English version, the burnt offering, the grain offering. and the peace offering. So God had given them that, and then he had brought the Aaron and his four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. You could recite the entire priestly tribe very quickly, the high priestly tribe very quickly. There were only five of them. pay attention for that that's going to be pretty significant next week. Lord sparing us and we getting to chapter 10 together. But the Lord had provided them the sin and and ascension offerings especially And then a form of the peace offering that was called the filling. And in our English translation, they use the word consecration, but it's just the vanilla Hebrew word for fill, to fill their hand with the ministry that God had given them. And so every day they had to do another sin offering, which reminded them what? What have they done since yesterday? They had sinned. Remember what the Lord tells you, what the Spirit tells you in the book of Hebrews about the superiority of Jesus. He doesn't have to offer for his sins first and then for the people. Even today in Leviticus 9, we see Aaron having to offer for his sins first. and then for the people. But they had done that and they had applied the blood of the filling, the blood of the consecration offering to the right earlobe and the right thumb and the right big toe. God laying claim to the priest's head to toe every day for seven days. And that brings us to Leviticus chapter nine. It came to pass on the eighth day. Now, Moses was the one who had performed these offerings up until this point. We know that because when the sin offering was offered, although the worshiper couldn't eat from it, if it was a priest, like we see at one point in this passage, the carcass had to be burned in a clean place outside the camp, but If it was by an ordinary worshipper for the sin of an ordinary worshipper, the priest who offered the sin offering was permitted to eat the breast or Sorry, it's not the sin offering. That was all true about the sin offering. But in this particular case in the ordination, it was the breast of the filling offering, of the peace offering, that Moses was eating. Basically, Moses was the officiating priest for the ordination of the past seven days. But now, on the eighth day, Moses calls Aaron, and it's time for Aaron to fill in. His seven days of ordination are complete. His hands are now full and he can offer for himself and he can offer for the people. And that's where we've come in chapter nine. And the big question now is with all of these sacrifices and all of this procedure for ordination and having followed all this, will it work? Will they be able to enter the tabernacle that is filled with the glory of God. And the answer is not only can Moses enter, but Moses and Aaron can enter and the glory of the tabernacle is actually going to be displayed outside the tabernacle to the people. And so the answer is yes, not only has God solved for them the problem at the end of the book of Exodus of not being able to approach the glory of God because of our sin, because of our creachliness, but not only can Moses enter, but they will all today witness the glory of God and they will witness it as a blessing. And we say that because when we come to chapter 10 next week God also displays his glory This is something that man must remember God is going to glorify himself one way or the other and For us either his glory will be displayed upon us as a blessing or his glory will be displayed upon us as a curse and And so they receive not just the witness of the glory of God, but the pronouncement of blessing by the appointed priests who are offering these sacrifices that the Lord has accepted. So how, how can we know that God's consuming fire glory is a blessing to us? And the answer is by his word, by his confirmation that the offerings have been accepted and by his making us to know and see his glory. For us in particular, for them, it's the word that is spoken to them at the beginning of the chapter that they were going to see, Yahweh was going to appear to them and the glory of Yahweh would appear to them. And then that's how they know at the end of the chapter, that what they're seeing is indeed the word of, or what they are seeing is indeed the glory of Yahweh. And they're assured by the fact that Aaron and Moses can go in and come out, that confirms that the sacrifices have been accepted. And they get to actually see that which the Lord produces, the fire that comes out and consumes. For us, the parallels are these. First of all, we are assured by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ about himself. He tells us who he is and what he has come to do, so that when we read about him finishing his work, we know what has happened. And we are assured by the word of Christ. In the second place, we are assured that his sacrifice has been received, has been accepted. And this, not by human priests going in and out of a tabernacle on earth, but by the Lord Jesus's resurrection from the dead? He was given up for our transgressions, but he was raised from the dead on account of our justification, says Romans chapter four. And so his resurrection demonstrates that all for whom he died have had the wrath of God turned away from their sin. And not only his resurrection, but also his ascension. He passes through not a curtain on earth, but the very heavens. He passes through that of which the veil on earth was a copy, into that of which the tabernacle on earth was a copy. And his ascension now having this great high priest who has passed through the heavens, our Lord Jesus Christ, this assures us that the glory of God is for our blessing. And this is a great comfort as we read later in Hebrews, of course, that our God is a consuming fire. but he's a consuming fire from whom we receive grace that we may worship acceptably with reverence and awe and that acceptable worship is the worship of course that comes through Jesus and we come through Jesus And the grace also gives us the reverence and the awe. And so we're assured by the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the last place, we're assured by the Spirit of Christ. For although God does not make blazing fire come out anywhere in our worship, the Spirit of Christ does give us to have the glory, He who called light to shine from the darkness has caused the light of the knowledge of the glory of God to shine in our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ, as 2 Corinthians 4 tells us. So just a few more details, we've given you most of it there in the outline. Just notice verse four, assured by the word, God tells them what's going to happen. And then when it happens, they know that that's what happened. So, so he tells them in verse four, or Aaron is to tell them in verse four, that they are to do these things for today, Yahweh will appear to you. And then Moses himself tells them in verse six, this is the thing which Yahweh commanded you to do and the glory of Yahweh will appear to you. And then before you get to verse 23, they get blessed twice. Aaron, before he comes down from offering these offerings, he's finished offering them, but before he comes down from the altar, he lifts his hand towards the people. And that's why we do this, by the way, children. that we have the Bible example and when the Lord Jesus' blessing is pronounced on his people by the servant who is appointed to speak in his behalf on earth, he lifts his hands towards the people and he pronounces, it's not a prayer. I mean, it is a prayer, everything that we do desire for the Lord to bless us, but the benediction's a pronouncement. It's an authoritative declaration of God's blessing and favor on his people for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness and his sacrifice for the sake of the electing, adopting love that gave Jesus Christ to be the righteousness and the sacrifice. And so at the altar, he raises his hand and he blessed the people. And then when he comes down, he and Moses go into the tabernacle. And I don't know how long they were in there, but you can imagine everybody just kind of holding their breath. And then they come out of the tabernacle and they bless them again from the tabernacle. And we know, don't we, the content of that blessing. We have it recorded for us in another place in Numbers chapter 6. Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his son saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel, say to them. And we often read that part so that you will know that this is what the Lord has instructed to do and that this blessing comes with the authority of the Lord. And then we lift our hands, don't we? And we say, Yahweh bless you and keep you. Yahweh make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up his face, his countenance upon you and give you peace so that shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. So he tells them at the beginning, the glory of Yahweh is going to appear to you. Yahweh is going to appear to you. And then they have these blessings And then after the blessing, verse 23, then the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people and fire came out. And I think grammatically that is the display of the glory of Yahweh. Fire came out from before Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. You remember, don't you, Elijah and the prophets of Baal and the fire coming down from God and consuming the meat and the the water and the water and the trough around it and and And the people having a display Of the the glory of Yahweh there. This did not come down This came out of the tabernacle. It came out from before Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. Aaron, in his duty per instruction, had arranged the wood. put the meat from the Ascension on the wood, and the fat from the sin offerings and the peace offerings on the meat of the Ascension, and the Lord starts the fire and consumes them. this would be very different. He probably had to attend to it almost immediately and make sure that the fire was kept going, that there's this display. And they knew, they knew what it was, that that was a display of the glory of God. But even more wonderfully, they knew why it was, because God's glory was a blessing to them. instead of consuming them. It's like Martin Luther before and after he got saved. Many of you have heard of Martin Luther, the reformer, you know, the hammer, and he used Twitter or X or whatever it is of his day, the church door where you post. You could have more than 140 or 280 characters, but it was a lot more effort. And he posted to the door the 95 theses. That Martin Luther, Before he got saved children, the righteousness of God and the glory of God were not happy thoughts to him. Because he knew he's a sinner like you are. But he didn't know that God's glory was for him. And that in Jesus, God's righteousness was for him, being counted for him. And so the thought that God is righteous and glorious was terrifying. Because a righteous God should destroy me. And a glorious God can do it gloriously. But then when he came to faith and he realized what is offered to us in Jesus Christ in the gospel, he came exactly the opposite. The greatness of the righteousness of God was wonderful. That's the righteousness that's been counted for me in the Lord Jesus Christ. The greatness of the glory of God was wonderful. That is the glory that displays itself and will satisfy itself forever by blessing me. in the Lord Jesus Christ and that's how they knew what that glory was doing was because the word had told them ahead of time so that when it happened they would know. They're assured that it's for them by the sacrifices being received. Again, we've seen that by their going in and out. And they're assured by actually seeing the glory. And we are assured by knowing the Lord Jesus to be glorious. This is one of the great things that the Holy Spirit does for you. Now we know that Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven in part because we have the Holy Spirit. He told us that he had to go to the Father in order to give the Spirit. And when on the day of Pentecost, about a little over a week after the ascension, the Spirit is poured out from heaven, that's how they know. that the man who had been their master, the man who had been crucified on that cross, who had been gloriously resurrected, was now sitting on the throne of glory. He had made it. He has passed through and had taken his seat. It was because he had poured out his spirit from there, just like he said. And so the Lord assures us of how it is. How is it that you, a sinner, you, a creature, could come to understand and rejoice over Jesus as the very glory of God, and that that would delight you rather than disturb you? Or to borrow from something else that the Holy Spirit does, how can it be that you who can't stand anyone being the boss of you in your flesh, can come at some point to rejoice exceedingly with great joy to be ruled by Jesus Christ? Well, the answer is it doesn't come from your flesh. Well, where's the other place that things can come from in you if you're a Christian? It comes from the Spirit. And so you have this ministry of the Spirit and you have a sign that is given to you on the earth and the pouring out of water that what Jesus has done with the Spirit and this was that that's the great Christian baptism. The great Christian baptism is not what we do with the water. Remember what John, Jesus's cousin, said about Jesus when he comes. He said, John said, I baptize you with water, but when he comes, he's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And so when you come to rejoice over being ruled by Jesus, when you come to know him as the living God who gave himself for you, when you come to rest in him and worship him and devote all that you are to him, to know him as your tabernacle by whom you draw near to God and have fellowship with God, when you come to know all those things about Jesus, who did that? The Holy Spirit did that. And your water baptism testifies to you. that it's Jesus who by his spirit applies to you the benefits of his priestly work. He's the one who cleanses you by his blood. And so they had assurance from Moses and Aaron going in and coming out that the sacrifices were accepted, that this picture of ascension and this picture of tribute this picture of peace, this picture of atonement, that all of those things were true. But we have the reality. We have the certainty that the Lord Jesus' sacrifice has been accepted, and that he has passed through the heavens, and that we are seated with him. If you believe in Jesus, you are seated with him in the heavenly places. So it's not so much that water on the head assures us, but it is knowledge of his glory in the heart. That's the great work of the Spirit, to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, to shine in your heart in the face of Jesus Christ. And the water that came on your head, that affirmed what the word had told you, so that when it happened, you would know what it is, that that's what God has done. And so when we worship Him as the highest priority in our life, and when in between the worship times when we're acting upon Him, we offer our work as worship, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, everything we do in life offered to Him, we know that that is from the Spirit. And so that's how they knew in Leviticus 9 that the display of God's glory was for their blessing. And the big question for you is this, do you know by the spirit convincing you of the glory of Jesus and the acceptance of his sacrifice in your behalf, do you know that the glory of God is for your blessing? Because he will be glorified. either by your blessing or by your curse. And so come by grace to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this entire Lord's day, for this half hour in Leviticus 9, for this time of singing your praise together from your word. We thank you for your spirit, who is the one who takes all of these appointed means and uses them to bring you honor in our worship and to apply Christ to us. And we pray that there wouldn't be a single one of us here for whom the display of God's glory will be unto our curse. We thank you for assuring us of the blessedness by your word, by Christ's resurrection and ascension and session, which he displays to us in our baptisms. Lord, give us that certainty that we are blessed by God in Jesus Christ. In his name we ask it, amen.