Continual in His Presence

Introduction

This morning I want to start with a question. Now before you answer this question I want you to actually think about it for a few moments. The question is this, “What is it that I most enjoy doing?” No, wait, don’t answer it yet, I want you to ponder this question this morning, maybe even think about it throughout the day. You see, if you answer the question here and now, it is likely that you will give the answer that you think is the right answer based on where you are and who is asking the question.

I want you to notice that this question is without restriction and I would urge you to be brutally honest with yourself. Once you think you have pondered and thought and been completely honest with yourself, I want you to think about your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly activities. As you think about those activities, compare them to the answer you gave to the first question, does it match? Is that which you enjoy doing the most the thing that consumes your time? For most of us we will find that the answer is no.

Now I want to ask you a different question, while you were thinking about your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly activities, how much of your time was truly devoted to spending time with God in prayer, studying His word, or abiding with Him as we talked about last week. Typically this exercise shows us what we really already know, and that we simply do not spend enough time doing any of those things. The Puritan Matthew Henry wrote, “Those starve their own souls that keep not up a constant attendance on the throne of grace.”

This morning as we return to the work we have been doing in the book of Exodus we will be working through the conclusion to chapter 29 and in so doing we will see God’s commands and promises to the priests and the people of Israel and what they teach us as the people of God here today. This brings us to our text for today, turn in your copy of God’s word to Exodus 29, we will be reading verses 37 down through 46...

Text

Stand for the reading of God’s Holy, Inerrant, Infallible, Authoritative, Sufficient and Complete Word

Exodus 29:37–46 LSB

“For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and set it apart as holy; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy. “Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one year old lambs each day, continuously. “The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the second lamb you shall offer at twilight; and there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with the one lamb. “The second lamb you shall offer at twilight, and you shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh. “It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. “I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be set apart as holy by My glory. “I will set the tent of meeting and the altar apart as holy; I will also set Aaron and his sons apart as holy to minister as priests to Me. “I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. “They shall know that I am Yahweh their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am Yahweh their God.

Our prayer this morning is adapted from the Valley of Vision: Meeting God

Almighty God, In public and private, in sanctuary and home, may our lives be steeped in prayer , filled with the spirit of grace and supplication, each prayer perfumed with the incense of Christ atoning blood. Help us, defend us, until from praying ground we pass to the realm of unceasing praise. Urged by our need, invited by Your promises, called by Your Spirit, we enter Your presence in this place today, worshipping You with Godly fear, awed by Your majesty, greatness, glory but ever encouraged by Your love. We are as poor in spirit as we are filled with guilt, having nothing of our own with which to pay the debt we owe, but we bring Jesus to You in arms of faith, pleading His righteousness to atone for our iniquities, rejoicing the He will weigh down the scales for us and satisfy Your justice. We bless You, of Lord, that great sin draws out great grace, that, although the least of our sins deserves infinite punishment because we have sinned against an infinite God, yet there is mercy for Your people. We rejoice that where guilt is most terrible, there Your Mercy in Christ is most free and deep. Bless us, Lord, by revealing to us more of Christ’s saving merits by causing your goodness to pass before us, by speaking peace into our contrite hearts. Strengthen us to give You no rest until Christ shall reign supreme within us, in our every thought, word, and deed. By faith, our hearts are purified, the world is overcome, and our works are works of love. That by Your hand we are held and that we ever cling to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His most blessed name we pray, Amen.

Most Holy

This morning as we began our text we picked up in verse 37. Last week we closed with verse 37 and I want ed to begin there so that we keep the context of what is happening in mind. There are those who believe that verses 38-42 were added later by someone other than Moses because the language aligns with Numbers 28:3-8 where we read:

Numbers 28:3–8 LSB

“And you shall say to them, ‘This is the offering by fire which you shall bring near to Yahweh: two male lambs one year old without blemish as a continual burnt offering every day. ‘You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight, also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil. ‘It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai as a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh. ‘Then the drink offering with it shall be a fourth of a hin for each lamb, in the holy place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to Yahweh. ‘And the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; as the grain offering of the morning and as its drink offering, you shall offer it, an offering by fire, a soothing aroma to Yahweh.

However, these are the instructional text given by God to Moses for the purpose of preparing His dwelling place among men and as we have seen from our parallel reading in Leviticus, Moses, Aaron and Aaron sons, and the Israelites were obeying all that God had commanded them around this work of instituting the Tabernacle, the priesthood and now the sacrificial system.

What I want to remind us of here in verse 37 before we proceed for the morning is the intent focus given to the necessity of that which is brought or presented before God being holy or being made holy. It concludes with a another clause that has creates a little bit of confusion because of the sentence structure and the words that we find there. In the English we render these words “whatever touches the altar shall be holy”. The confusion lies in the full meaning of this statement, does the item become holy when it comes into contact with the altar or must the item be holy, in the sense of set apart and consecrated to God, before it touches the altar.

For our purposes here this morning we are not going to solve this, what is essential that we get from these verses is that God is, in the words of seraphim, Holy, Holy, Holy and as the Most Holy God, items that are brought into His immediate presence must also be holy.

The Daily Sacrifice

Having been made holy the altar and the priesthood are now prepared to begin their working ministering before God. Later there are other sacrifices and offerings that are prescribed for the priesthood to observe for the specific purposes but first, the foundational sacrifice must be defined. Over the last several weeks we have been reading along in Leviticus 8 regarding the obedience and implementation of the priesthood. If you will continue reading that through chapter 9 you will see that a similar ceremony to that of the priest is undertaken to set the people apart to God and for God.

Just like the priests, however, that one sacrifice was insufficient to pay the penalty for the sins of the people and so, as God gives the directions to Moses for the institution of the priesthood he also gave them, in verses 38-42, the daily requirement for the people of God. In this we see something very remarkable displayed. Note firstly that the sacrifice is identified as two lambs. The word that is used for lamb here actually identifies it, as Numbers did, as a male lamb and is suggestive of the condition of the lamb, without blemish, and the age of the lamb, one-year.

As the lambs are offered the command is that they be done in such a way as that the sacrifice is continually before the Lord. Again, the English words with which the Hebrew is translated lacks the sufficiency to adequately address what is being demonstrated. For us, the term morning and evening are limited in terms of scope. Typically we think of morning as that time between when we awake and noon and evening we think of as that time between supper and bed-time. The Hebrew language however is much more robust. The literal word here can not only mean that point of transition between night and day, but can actually represent the entirety of the day as in Psalm 92:2 “To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning And Your faithfulness by night,”. Likewise the term translated into evening not only talks about the period between sunset and full darkness, but can also mean or represent the concept of all of the night.

If we take these two words and understand that they do not represent short periods of time during the day, but rather this concept of all of the daylight and all of the nighttime we see that this is not only done continually in the sense of daily, but also in the sense of the every moment in time.

We have talked much about types and shadows as we have walked through the book of Exodus and this is no exception. If we understand that the two lambs are instituted so that the sacrifice is always present before God, we notice that although there are two lambs daily there is only one sacrifice. This is, once again, typological of Christ in His role as priest, continually interceding in our behalf before God the Father. This can be a difficult concept to grasp because it seems to be contradictory to once for all of His people sacrifice that Christ made on Calvary’s cross.

Scripture is clear and there is a place for both of these truths. First, only by faith in the finished work of Christ can we be truly justified. At that moment we are absolutely saved to the uttermost, not only justified, but also glorified, full and complete. As a true Christian when you stand before God it is Christ’s righteousness and not your own that God will count to you for entry into His eternal presence. However, between now and then, it is the continual work of Christ before the throne of the Father that makes our feeble, tainted worship and living, pleasing in the sight of God. This is what is in focus here when we look at the continual sacrifice that the priests were to bring before God.

Our Daily Sacrifice

Just as the sacrifice itself speaks of Christ’s continued intercession before the throne of the Father, the continual nature also speaks to us of our responsibility. As believers, we have been called to live daily in the light of the grace that has been poured out upon us. According to studies roughly 32% of churchgoers are reading their Bible daily. First of all, that is horrible, 3 out of 10 people who attend church regularly are not reading their bible daily, in a time when the bible is more accessible now than it has ever been. As bad as that is however, I believe that if we took that subset, just that roughly 32% that claim to read their bible daily and began to dig into those numbers, how many of them, how many of us are doing it just so we can check off a box, say we have been obedient.

The truth is that, while daily bible reading is imperative, that is not all there is to what this teaches us. It is not about giving God 15 minutes of your day. It is about giving Him all of your life. in 1 Peter 2:9-12 we read:

1 Peter 2:9–12 LSB

But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul, by keeping your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good works, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

These verses define us a a people of God and as such urges us to live in obedience. One of the first steps to living in obedience is to live daily in His presence, not just setting aside 15 mins or 30 mins or even an hour to spend before Him, but learning to live in such a was as that your entire life is lived before Him, unto Him, for His glory. before Peter gets to the point where he identifies us as this royal priesthood, he writes in 1 Peter 1:13-23

1 Peter 1:13–23 LSB

Therefore, having girded your minds for action, being sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

This reminds us of the new creation that we are in Christ and that as such, as ones who have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, that we truly can live in His presence and for His glory. We live our daily lives differently than the world. Matthew Henry writes:

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume Exodus 29:38–46

This teaches us to offer up to God the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise every day, morning and evening, in humble acknowledgement of our dependence upon him and our obligations to him. Our daily devotions must be looked upon as the most needful of our daily works and the most pleasant of our daily comforts

as we understand this text and the command of scripture to live in the sight of God, we can begin to understand what the promises of God truly are.

God’s Promises

Perhaps you, like I, have had experience with church people who were some of the unhappiest people that you have ever come across. They always seem to be mad at the world, there is no joy in their spirit and at the end of the day, I think that it comes from a lack of true understanding in regards to the promises of God. Beginning in the final clause of verse 42 and down through the end of chapter 29 at verse 46 we see listed three specific promises of God that should fill out hearts with joy and praise.

Let’s begin with the greatest of these promises, one that had marked the pages of Exodus repeatedly and one, I think that we still miss the full meaning of today, and that is the promise of God to dwell with His people. First, we need to understand that this promise is specifically reserved for the people of God. Recall earlier in the book of Exodus that God called Moses up to Sinai and in doing so, He set boundaries so that the people would not approach, yet, Moses is told to build the Tabernacle so that God may dwell with His people and here in verse 42 we see that this sacrifice is to be done continually, in His presence (at the doorway to the tent of meeting) where God will meet with, not only Moses but also the children of Israel, meaning all of the people. In regards to this truth AW Pink quotes Ed. Dennett:

Gleanings in Exodus Chapter 52: The Continual Burnt Offering

“Moses was permitted in grace to meet Jehovah at the mercy-seat (

As believers, however, we should see the beauty in what has been shown here and what has been delivered to us. First of all, we have been deemed acceptable to approach on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ. Along with this, we have received within us, the Holy Spirit, as God has come to dwell with us now in that manner, but we also have a promise given to us of the ultimate fulfillment of this dwelling. We read in Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them...,”

The second of the great promises that we see displayed here in Exodus that should give us comfort, grant us peace, and fill us with joy is that not only does God desire to dwell with His people, He is the one who has made these things happen. Notice in verses 43 and 44 Exodus 29:43–44 ““I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be set apart as holy by My glory. “I will set the tent of meeting and the altar apart as holy; I will also set Aaron and his sons apart as holy to minister as priests to Me.” The promise for the people of God is that even as they set aside things to be used to in worship of Him, that by His glory He will make them Holy. He is the one who sets aside the tent of meeting, the altar, and the priests.

Throughout chapters 25-29 we have seen command after command that God has given Moses and the people regarding the Tabernacle, the tent, the altar and the priests. Steps have been given to sanctify them for God’s purpose, but only God can declare them as truly holy. For the people of Israel that demonstrated to them that their best efforts could not bring them into the presence of God nor could they keep them in the presence of God, it was necessary that He act and they, in faith, approached trusting that the sacrifice was acceptable and pleasing to God.

How deeply this should speak to us today. The first thing that it should remind us in is that our best efforts will never be good enough. That the only way that we can enter into His presence is by the perfect and finished work of Christ. You and I, not matter how much effort we put into it, no matter how much we may want it, we cannot even enter except that Christ’s sacrifice be seen as acceptable in the eyes of God for His people. When we are brought into the family of God, adopted as sons and daughters, we are kept by the power of Christ. If we could lose our salvation, we would. If it was up to us, if it were within our power, our ability to lose that which has been so graciously granted to us, we would have done it already. There is no way to have peace or comfort or assurance relying on our abilities to keep us. This is why God tells Moses and by virtue the Israelites that He will accomplish these things. That not only would He dwell with His people, but that He would keep His people dwelling with Him by His power, by His might and not our own.

Just as the people of Israel had that promise, so too do we, 2 Peter 1:2–4 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

The reception of which, Peter continues 2 Peter 1:5-7

2 Peter 1:5–7 LSB

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Simply put, because we have received this promise, because this promise not only secures us, it also assures us and allows us to walk in righteousness because of what has been promised. As Christians we can walk forth in obedience, knowing that Christ is continually interceding for us before the Father.

But there is a third promise, not only will God dwell with His people, not only will He sanctify His people, He will also make it known to us that He is our God. Look at verse 45 and 46.

Exodus 29:45–46 LSB

“I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. “They shall know that I am Yahweh their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am Yahweh their God.

How many times have you been asked or have you asked, how can I be sure of my salvation? How can I be sure that I am one of the elect? Maybe instead of running through a list of different ways we should start with the simple question, do you know that God, that Yahweh, the almighty God, maker of Heaven and Earth, is your God? It seems almost silly in a way, doesn’t it, that God would make the statement, after telling them that He will dwell with them and that He will sanctify them, to not only say that He is their God, but that they would KNOW that He is their God?

First of all, it is comforting to hear God definitively say that He is our God, that we are His people, that we belong to Him. From the moment we are old enough to begin grasping the concept, we want to belong to something. We have a desire to belong and when those around us do not make us feel as if we belong, it can hurt, especially if those people are people that we love. God wanted His people to know security, He wants us to know that we are secure in Him, not just because He dwells with us or because He is sanctifying us, but also because He is our God. There is a personal component, AW Pink writes:

Gleanings in Exodus Chapter 52: The Continual Burnt Offering

“But there is more than even dwelling with them: there is also relationship—‘I will be their God.’ It is not, be it remarked, what they shall be to Him, though they were His people by His grace; but what He will be to them. ‘Their God’—words fraught with unspeakable blessings. for when God undertakes to become the God of His people, deigns to enter into relationship with them, He assures them that everything they need, whether for guidance, sustenance, defense, succor, yea, everything, is secure for them by what He is to them as their God. It was in view of the blessing of such a wondrous relationship that the Psalmist exclaims. ‘Happy is that people whose God is the Lord’—

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, as we come to the close of our time in Exodus 29, let us not miss the weight and wonder of what God has revealed to us. We have seen the continual sacrifice, morning and evening, as a picture of Christ’s perfect and ongoing intercession for His people. We have seen God’s promise to dwell with His people, His promise to sanctify them by His glory, and His assurance that they will know He is their God. These promises are the very foundation of our hope, comfort, and obedience.

Yet here is the question you must answer, and you cannot avoid it: Does your life reflect that you truly know Him as your God? It is easy to profess faith with our lips while our hearts chase after other loves. The daily sacrifices pointed to the truth that all of life was to be lived before God, devoted to Him without interruption. So too must our lives be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him.

If He dwells with us, if He has sanctified us, if He calls Himself our God, then let every moment of our lives be offered to Him. Do your daily patterns—your time, your thoughts, your loves—bear witness to these glorious truths? Or have you settled for a compartmentalized faith that gives God only the scraps of your day?

Beloved, God has done everything necessary for us to dwell in His presence. He has made the way in Christ. How will you respond to such grace? Will you hold anything back from the One who gave His all?

Closing Prayer

Most Holy God, You who dwell with Your people and sanctify them by Your glory, we bow before You in humble awe. We confess that too often we have withheld parts of our lives from You, living as though You were not our God. Forgive us for our divided hearts. Lord, teach us to live daily as a holy people, offering ourselves as living sacrifices, acceptable and pleasing in Your sight. By Your Spirit, renew our minds and transform our desires, that we might love what You love and hate what You hate. Help us to see the beauty of Your promises, to rest in Christ’s finished work, and to walk in the light of Your grace. May our lives be marked by continual worship, prayer, and obedience. Strengthen us to proclaim Your excellencies to a world in darkness. Keep us in Your presence until that day when we shall dwell with You forever. In the name of our great High Priest, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.