SERVING GOD ACCEPTABLY
One feels the danger, dear brethren, of our getting so accustomed to the privileges that we have in assembling, and in having part in the service of God, that they should in any way become common to us. It is a great privilege to belong to God and to have part in His service in an evil world, and to maintain it in conditions suited to Him. We need to remember that, as it says in Psalm 93, “Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thy house, O Jehovah, for ever”, v 5. That is something which we are always to keep in mind. Whatever the character for the moment of the house of God, whether it was the tabernacle, or the temple, or as now the assembly, the fact remains, and we have to take account of it, that holiness becomes His house for ever. That is always to be in our minds lest, as I say, the very frequency of our coming together and of the privileges we enjoy should tend to weaken the sense with us that holiness becomes God’s house for ever. And so we have in Peter’s epistle, brought forward from the Old Testament, how God says to us, “Be ye holy, for I am holy”, 1 Pet 1: 16. He would impress this upon us, dear brethren, upon the older ones and upon the younger ones, the brothers and the sisters alike: “Be ye holy, for I am holy”.
Now we know that it is God’s pleasure to dwell among His people. In Exodus 25 we have God saying to Moses that he was to command the people to make Him a sanctuary. He says, “they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (v 8); the very word ‘sanctuary’ implies holy conditions, and it is affecting for us to take account of the fact that God wants to dwell amongst His people. He does not want us at a distance, He wants to dwell amongst us, and so He says, “And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”. He gave precise instructions in detail as to how the sanctuary was to be constructed, but at the same time everything that was required for it was to be brought by them. That is something for us to bear in mind, dear brethren; while God insists on having things in His dwellingplace according to His own standards and His own taste, if one may so say, yet at the same time He looks to us to provide the conditions in which He can dwell. “And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”. Well, they did that; they constructed the tabernacle, as we know, and the last chapter of Exodus shows us that everything was set up according to the divine requirements, and the cloud that indicated the presence of God filled the tabernacle. “The cloud covered the tent of meeting”, it says in chapter 40: 34, “and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle”; that is, God was so pleased with their exercises in providing Him a dwelling-place that He came in and took possession of it.
But now when we come to Leviticus we come to something further, and here we have that “Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tent of meeting”, that is, He called to him from the dwellingplace, evidently now implying that if He is dwelling amongst His people He desires that they should approach Him and minister to His pleasure. That is what He has come down to dwell for—that we might serve Him, and serve Him according to His own desires. That is a great privilege too, dear brethren. I feel in myself the great need of being maintained and renewed in the sense that we really have to do with God, and that God Himself is dwelling amongst us, lest our very familiarity with the meetings and frequency of coming together should weaken the sense with us that we have to do with the God who is dwelling in our midst, and not only that we have to do with Him but that it is His pleasure that we should serve Him; serve Him, as we have it in Exodus 28, “as priests”, vv 1, 41. God says that, “as priests”, in order to remind us that He looks for priestly conditions, that is to say, He looks for holiness in those who draw near to Him.
It says here, “Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tent of meeting”. Jehovah was there in the tent of meeting, and He calls to Moses as though He would make Moses feel that God is there and He wants Moses now, and then the people as taking instructions from him, to draw near, and so He says, “When any man of you presenteth an offering”. Now He has in mind that we should present offerings. This is something for every brother and every sister to take account of. The Lord does not want anyone to exempt himself from this privilege, a holy privilege it is, to serve God and minister to His pleasure. You say, ‘Well it requires a good deal of exercise to do it and to maintain it day by day’. That is true, but then the Holy Spirit of God is here, He has taken His abode in us; He is just as jealous for the pleasure of God as Christ is and He would bring us into the same feelings Godward that we should be concerned to minister to the pleasure of God continually. We often remind ourselves of what it says in the epistle to the Romans in regard of the Lord Jesus: “in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God”, Rom 6: 10. That is the present position of Christ, and it is an unceasing position, that in His manhood He is living to God, considering for God in all His activities. He will direct and sustain and give fulness to the service of God as we ourselves are available to Him and maintain the suited conditions. As we do so the headship of Christ, coupled with the service of the Spirit, are available to us so that God might be served according to His pleasure; and while the brothers are the only ones that have part in it in an outward actual way, save, of course, that the sisters have part in the singing and in the ‘Amens’, yet at the same time this is a matter that affects us all in the attitude of our minds and hearts, whether it is Godward, and whether in that attitude we are remembering that God is looking to be served by us and that we are remembering that holiness becomes His house for ever; that has always to be maintained.
As I say, the Lord knows all about it; He is the holy One, the Holy and the True; the apostles got that impression of Jesus when they were here. There came a time when certain of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him, and the Lord said to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” (John 6: 67); and Simon Peter said, “To whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. How did they know that? It was what they observed; as companying with Christ day by day they got the impression that He was “the holy one of God”, and you can understand how that would affect them, how they would feel. We need to keep near to Christ; we need to study Him so that we may learn what kind of manhood is acceptable to God, what kind of manhood He would have in those who draw near to Him. But then He desires that we should draw near to Him. One is not saying these things in any way to discourage any—rather the opposite because we have the means to draw near to Him. We have received the Holy Spirit of God. It is a wonderful thing that one of the Godhead Himself should have come and taken His abode in us. He has taken His abode in the assembly; that is to say, the assembly is the vessel of the divine dwelling, and at the same time He has taken His abode in each one of us individually, if we have received the Holy Spirit. Each one must settle that for himself; as Paul said to certain ones at Ephesus, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?”, Acts 19: 2. It came out that they did not know whether the Holy Spirit had come. That, of course, is not our position; only Paul raised that question at Ephesus, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?”. You can understand it because so much was going to be opened up to the Ephesians; the whole extent of the divine purpose and the service of God suited to it were to be opened up for the Ephesians, and so it was a very essential thing that they should not only have received the Holy Spirit but that they should know that they had received the Holy Spirit and should understand how essential the Holy Spirit is to those who would have part in the service of God.
Well now, one says that in a sense by way of introduction, but here Jehovah calls to Moses and begins to give instructions as to those who propose to draw near to God. This first chapter does not deal with the question of a sin-offering, it deals with normal conditions; it assumes that we would wish to draw near to God and that we would draw near to Him with that which speaks of Christ. The bullock is, of course, the full offering; it is what one of full growth would be expected to be able to present, but then the chapter goes on to provide for a lesser offering, a sheep, and then a smaller offering still, an “offering of turtle-doves, or of young pigeons”, v 14. In each case it says, as for instance at the end of verse 13, “It is a burntoffering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour”, and then again at the end of verse 17 even in relation to the smallest offering, “It is a burnt-offering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour”. So that the scripture would encourage us all, whatever our spiritual measure, however small it may be, to draw near to God with whatever appreciation of Christ we have. Whatever appreciation of Christ we have God will appreciate it.
I just want to draw attention for a moment, dear brethren, to one or two things that are important. In the first place the offerer has to “present it a male without blemish”; our offering must be without blemish. Of course, as we present Christ we know that He is without blemish, but at the same time the Lord would stress that. As we were saying a moment ago, Peter came to it, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God” (John 6: 69); no blemish there. But now it says here, “He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt-offering”; that is complete and unreserved committal on our part, on the part of the offerer, to Christ as the One who is being offered. You identify yourself unreservedly with Him. You do not bring forward anything of yourself; you just bring forward in an unreserved way that which speaks to God of the essential preciousness of the One of whom the offering speaks; and so you identify yourself with it. How wonderful that is, that we can be identified before God with all the exceeding preciousness of Christ to God! That never varies. God has an appreciation of it. We maybe have only a weak appreciation of it, but we may rest assured of this, that God’s appreciation of Christ and the way He has delivered Himself up for us, “An offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (Eph 5: 2), never diminishes, it never gets less. Therefore as we draw near to God and present to Him our heart’s appreciation of Christ we come into the acceptance of a most absolute kind, we are accepted before God. It says, he shall “present it, for his acceptance before Jehovah. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him”.
Then there is the next thing; it says, “he shall slaughter the bullock before Jehovah”. What a solemn thing that is, to “slaughter the bullock”! How it would bring home to us, dear brethren, that the Lord had to die, and die, if one may say so, as slaughtered. That is to say, it is in a sense a violent action, showing the absolute necessity for the death of Christ if there was to be the removal from before God of that which could never be accepted by Him, but in the very death by which all that was offensive was removed there was that which went up to God as a sweetsmelling savour. We often think of and rejoice in the love of Christ for the assembly, but do we realise that that love of Christ for the assembly itself went up to God as a sweet-smelling savour? It says in Ephesians 5 that “Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (v 2); the love of Christ in which He gave Himself for us went up to God as an offering and sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour. What wonderful things we are identified with, dear brethren; how wonderful is the acceptance in which we stand with God!
It goes on to say that “Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall present the blood and sprinkle the blood round about on the altar”. How feeble is our apprehension of what the blood is in the sight of God! One often feels how meagre one’s thoughts are of Christ, and how meagre is the sense we have of how God found delight in the life of Jesus, because that is what the blood speaks of. The blood speaks of that life laid down in devotion to God’s will and glory, and so it says here that they “shall present the blood and sprinkle the blood round about on the altar”, and then, “He shall flay the burnt-offering”, that is, skin it, “and cut it up into its pieces”. Now that is remarkable. One is struck in reading these verses, dear brethren, with the fact that it is contemplated that the whole matter is handled carefully—one might almost say reverently. “Cut it up into its pieces”—as though we are intended to be able to dissect in a spiritual way what was there in the life of Christ, all that was laid down in death for the pleasure of God. It speaks following this of the head, the fat, the inwards, and the legs.
The head we can well understand; it speaks of the dignity of the Person; you never lose the sense of that. When you think of Christ you always remember who He is; you never lose the sense of the dignity of His Person and the wonderful intelligence that was there, intelligence in the mind of God and devotion to it. All that is connected with the head. Then it says, “the fat”; that is the preciousness of what was there. According to scripture the first offering presented to God that was accepted was Abel’s offering, and he presented the fat; and so it says here, “the head, and the fat”, but then these pieces, the head and the fat, are to be laid “in order on the wood that is on the fire”; that is to say, there is to be no careless handling of these matters. It is all to enjoin on us, dear brethren, that in our service Godward we should be reverent and we should be concerned to have right spiritual thoughts and ability to present them in an orderly and spiritual manner. I am not saying anything to discourage any brothers from taking part; far from it. Only let these exercises be with us that we do not handle the things of God in any careless or irreverent way, but let us be concerned that if God is approached it be in a spiritually orderly way, “in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar”.
“But its inwards and its legs shall he wash in water”. I do not know that one can say exactly what the import of that is. It is perfectly certain that there was nothing in the way of Christ personally that needed to be cleansed; that is perfectly certain; no one would suggest otherwise, but it may be that the inwards and legs call for particular care on our side as to how we present them. It may be that there is the need for the water to come in, so to speak, as regards the way that we present these things. At any rate that is what it says, “its inwards and its legs shall he wash in water; and the priest shall burn all on the altar, a burntoffering, an offering by fire to Jehovah of a sweet odour”.
Well, that was all that pressed upon me, dear brethren, that we have this wonderful privilege of ministering to the pleasure of God, and this burntoffering comes first to assure us that as we draw near to God in appreciation of Christ and His precious death we are absolutely accepted. There is no question of any measure of acceptance; you are absolutely accepted; but at the same time God would teach us that as seeking to minister to His pleasure He looks that we should be concerned to do it in a spiritually orderly and reverent way. We need not be discouraged if we have the sense of smallness of measure or smallness of power on our part, but let every brother and sister take up the exercise of learning how to serve God acceptably for His pleasure. While the sisters cannot take part in the public expression of things, they are there contributing in their faith and affections and their spirits to what is given expression to by the brothers, so the whole matter is one to be taken up with fresh exercise every time we are together, in the understanding that God is dwelling amongst His people and His pleasure is that we should serve Him acceptably for His pleasure. May the Lord help us in it for His Name’s sake!
LONDON
30th May 1967
From Ministry of the Word, 1967
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