I'm going to ask you to turn, please,
to Exodus chapter 29.
The Old Testament is God's picture book of
the truths taught so explicitly and clearly in
the New Testament.
We look to it for the illustration, and
here we're seeing the shadow, the type, the
picture, if you please, the illustration.
Now, I would like to read several verses,
actually through the 21st, and I would suggest
that you try to visualize what is read.
Now, see it.
See it as happening in a three-dimension,
a full-color stereo, if you please.
It's happening.
This took place, and there's a very real
reason for it.
And this is the thing that thou shalt
do unto them, to hallow them, to minister
unto me in the priest's office.
Take one young bullock, and two rams without
blemish, and unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened, tempered
with oil, and wafers unleavened, anointed with oil,
of wheat and flour shalt thou make them.
And thou shalt put them into one basket,
and bring them in the basket with the
bullock and the two rams.
And Aaron and his son thou shalt bring
into the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation, and shalt wash them with water.
And thou shalt take the garments, and put
upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of
the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate,
and gird him with the curious girdle of
the ephod.
And thou shalt put the mitre upon his
head, and put the holy crown upon the
mitre.
And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and
pour it upon his head, and anoint him.
And thou shalt bring his sons, and put
coats upon them.
And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron
and his sons, and put the bonnets on
them.
And the priest's office shall be theirs for
a perpetual statute.
And thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.
And thou shalt cause a bullock to be
brought before the tabernacle of the congregation.
And Aaron and his sons shall put their
hands upon the head of the bullock.
And thou shalt kill the bullock before the
Lord by the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation.
And thou shalt take of the blood of
the bullock, and put it upon the horns
of the altar with thy finger, and pour
all the blood beside the bottom of the
altar.
And thou shalt take all the fat that
covereth the inwards, and the gall that is
above the liver, and the two kidneys, and
the fat that is upon them, and burn
them upon the altar.
But the flesh of the bullock, and his
skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with
fire without the camp.
It is a sin offering.
Thou shalt also take one ram.
And Aaron and his sons shall put their
hands upon the head of the ram.
And thou shalt slay the ram.
And thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle
it around about the altar.
And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces,
and wash the inwards of him, and his
legs, and put them unto his pieces, and
unto his head.
And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon
the altar.
It is a burnt offering unto the Lord.
It is a sweet savour, an offering made
by fire unto the Lord.
And thou shalt take the other ram.
And Aaron and his sons shall put their
hands upon the head of the ram.
Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take
of his blood, and put it upon the
tip of the right ear of Aaron, and
upon the tip of the right ear of
his sons, and upon the thumb of their
right hand, and upon the great toe of
their right foot.
And sprinkle the blood upon the altar round
about.
And thou shalt take of the blood that
is upon the altar, and of the anointing
oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon
his garments, and upon his sons, and upon
the garments of his sons with him.
And he shall be hallowed, and his garments,
and his sons, and his sons' garments with
him.
Now we'll stop the reading of the word
there.
This gives us the picture that I believe
the Lord wants us to consider this morning.
Last night we saw that God has a
way of working.
We considered this in the moving of the
Ark from the country of the Philistines back
to Israel.
God has a way of working that honors
him, that exalts his Son.
And we have to do God's work in
God's way, if God is to honor it
and get the glory that he deserves from
it.
But today we have to see that God
has a time for his working.
God's work is not only to be done
in God's way, but it's also to be
done in God's time.
For this is the, one of the significant
factors.
Moses has given orders for the building of
the tabernacle.
The garments have been prepared.
But Aaron and his sons, though appointed to
serve, are not ready to serve, are not
released to serve, until certain things are done,
certain things are fulfilled.
And here we are, a company of perhaps
the largest portion of this morning, students, preparing
to serve the Lord.
And it's so important that we should understand
that God has a way of working, and
God has a time for working.
I recall back in Northwestern schools in Minneapolis
in 1936 it was, or perhaps it was
the fall of 36.
You may recall that there were thousands of
American young people on the road, drifting with
the railroads.
Camps of these refugee adolescents would be set
up at the edge of town.
Cities would provide some kind of food for
them.
Thousands and thousands of young people, just drifting.
No work, no employment.
And I became concerned about it.
Someone came and talked to us at school,
and somehow it entered into my mind that
that perhaps I should leave school and just
go and witness to these young people.
R.
L.
Moyer was the dean of the school and
professor, and I met him one day and
I mentioned this to him.
Well, he said, I don't know what the
Lord has for you to do, and I
can't tell you what you should do.
But I want to tell you one thing.
Faithful preparation is service.
You're not preparing to serve, you're serving while
you prepare.
Faithful preparation is faithful service.
He said, I think the problem with you
is you're eager to serve, and you don't
feel that you're serving while you're preparing.
He said, you've got to understand that in
your preparation you are serving God as much
as in any service that you will perform
afterward.
God has a time, a time to prepare,
a time when the arrow is polished and
put into the quiver.
And if you do not faithfully prepare, then
there will be no possibility of your serving
in the opportunity and the privilege that God
will have for you.
Now here are instructions.
We've read in Exodus 29 the instruction.
They're clearly given for a real purpose.
First they're to take the garments which have
been prepared and put them on Aaron and
his sons.
This is substantially what's happening to students now.
These that have prepared truth and testimony and
ministry are now transmitting it.
They're putting it upon mind and spirit and
heart.
And oh how many there are that have
had the garments put on, and they have
felt that they were ready, because their minds
have been furnished and their hearts have been
stirred perhaps with the awesome privilege and responsibility.
But it wasn't just that they were to
have the garments put on.
They were also to then stand before the
door of the tabernacle with their hands over
the head of the bullock.
Now this is in a sense an inauguration
service, but it pictures again the deliverance that
was first illustrated back there in Egypt, when
they were delivered by blood.
It's a reaffirmation if you please.
It's a testimony.
And we must ever, I believe it was
our brother O'Neill who prayed yesterday, and
in his prayer drew our hearts in worship
to the fact that we never outgrow the
need for the precious blood of Christ.
It was Spurgeon speaking to the students at
the Pastor's College in Britain who said, young
man, young man, make much of the blood
of Christ.
For everything is on the perch, the pouring
out of his life, that purchase of our
redemption that he made there when he died.
Back in Egypt that night, the ram was
taken and slain, and its blood sprinkled on
the doorpost, the lintels.
And it's strangely enough, if you move the
two lintels together with the post, you have
again a cross.
How frequently this appears in the types of
the Old Testament.
But the blood is sprinkled on the doorpost,
and it was there that night, that Aaron
and his sons came under the covenant of
blood.
But now as they begin their ministry, they
put their hands over the head of the
oxen, and in so doing identify again with
the fact of their utter unworthiness, that in
them, in themselves, there's no good thing.
And so with you, as you prepare to
serve the Lord, be it ever before you,
that though it may have been years before,
that you knew first forgiveness and pardon and
the gift of eternal life, it should be
as it were daily that you stand with
your hands upon the head of the oxen.
In me, Father, in my flesh, no good
thing.
Remember the blood.
Make much of the blood, is the testimony
here.
And they're declaring that when God found them,
they worthily deserved his wrath.
They deserved to have died in Egypt.
They deserved, because of their sin and their
unworthiness, to have perished.
But God loved them.
They were redeemed by grace.
It was the mercy of God that found
them in the dunghill, and lifted them up,
and set them among princes.
And so as they stand with their, their
head upon the ox, it's a sin offering.
It's an affirmation.
It's a testimony.
It's a picture.
That it's not by works of righteousness which
they have done, but according to his mercy
hath he saved them, by the washing of
regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
And so we find that there has to
come to us, ever and always, this recognition
that there's only one door.
Oh Aaron may, may be high priest, and
his sons priests with him.
And they're going to minister to the people
of, of Israel that come and stand at
the door.
But now at this day, Aaron is saying
as he puts his hands upon the, the
head of the ox that's there, I came
by this same door.
There's only one door, for the rich, the
poor, for the taught, the wise, the untaught,
the unwise.
All of us have come thus, and thus
it behooves us to remember that there is
no sin that anyone's ever committed of which
we are not personally capable.
Aaron must put his hands upon the head
of the bullock.
Then we find that there is the second
offering.
It's the ram that's brought.
And here, in a sense, it's that putting
his hands in identification.
But the whole ram, though it is the
skin is taken from it and the inwards
are burned, then the pieces are laid to
the head.
And the whole ram is laid upon the
altar.
And it speaks to us of Romans 12,
1.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you that have been redeemed
and washed by the blood, present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable under the Lord,
which is your reasonable service.
And so it is that they're now saying
something else.
They're not only saying as their hands are
upon the head of the bullock that our
sins were carried by the death of the
just one, for us the unjust, but they're
saying we have brought ourselves now by virtue
of our union and our identification with Christ
to present ourselves on the altar a living
sacrifice.
But you would think this would certainly now
qualify them to serve, wouldn't you?
They've seen themselves washed in the blood of
God's dear Son.
They've made presentation of themselves in surrender and
in abandonment, as they've identified with the ram
of the burnt offering, a sweet savor to
the Lord.
You would think now they were ready, wouldn't
you?
But ah, wait a moment.
There is the other ram.
The other ram.
Isn't it interesting that it is, it is
so stated?
And then there is brought this other ram.
And again there is this act of identification,
putting of their hands upon the head of
the ram.
The ram is slain, its blood caught in
a basin.
But notice now what is done with the
blood.
The finger of Moses is put into the
blood, and first it touches the ear, then
it touches the thumb, and then it touches
the great toe.
Do you see the symbolism of it?
The ear, the thumb, the great toe.
What does that form?
A picture of the cross.
And there you have the preparation of Aaron
and his sons for service.
That they have surrendered themselves to the Lord,
that they've presented themselves a living sacrifice, is
essential.
Washed in the blood, indispensable.
That they have made a surrender to the
Lord, absolutely necessary.
But before they're ready to serve, there has
to be this cross experience.
Because Aaron and his sons can never be
as others will be.
They're going to have to buy this cross,
so totally identify with Christ.
It's not a matter of now of sins.
That was settled there at the sin offering.
It's not a matter of surrender.
That was done at the burnt offering.
But the cross is now reaching in deeper,
because Aaron has rights.
Oh he has rights to his name, and
rights to the position God has given him,
and rights to his time, and rights to
his talent, and his ability, and rights to
his possessions.
He has rights.
But if he is to fulfill the purpose
of God to him, his identification with the
cross must touch his ear.
The blood must come to the place that
he has neither right to hear, nor think,
nor speak.
For the blood now has come to this
seat of government.
And now he's presenting his ear, that he
may hear what God would have him hear,
the complaint of the people that would come.
His brain, that he might think God's thoughts
and get them back into the world again.
His eyes, his lips.
Blood is on the ear.
The blood is on the thumb.
He has no longer right even to do
the right and proper things.
Things which others may have perfect right to
do because he is who he is, he
has no right to do them.
He has abandoned in this the right to
his rights.
And this is where the cross reaches.
I am crucified with Christ.
It's not a matter of sins of the
past.
It was death of Christ for us that
dealt with that.
I present my body a living sacrifice, wholly
acceptable unto the Lord.
This is a matter of surrender.
But before Aaron and his sons, or you,
and you, and you were ready, there has
to come this identification with Christ in his
death, to the abandonment of the right to
your rights.
Now notice, there's a reason for this.
How many people there are that have wanted
power, the power of the Holy Spirit, that
in a sense they might use God, get
a handle on God.
I remember speaking down in Huntington, West Virginia,
speaking on the radio and in a little
work there.
Pastor came to see me.
We had spoken to a group of pastors,
and he, and asked me to stay on
and converse with him.
He said, now I'd like to just tell
you a little about myself.
We have a big program here, a big
radio program.
We're reaching on so many stations.
Growing Sunday School, we have so many hundreds.
We have a big church.
But I need power, and I've been told
by Brother Coy that, that you could help
me.
Well, you know what the picture was?
The picture was somebody sort of in a
big Cadillac wheeling up in front of a
filling station, a little old broken down filling
station, if I was a filling station, and
saying, fill her up, bud.
Well, in this case, I looked at him,
and I saw the Cadillac, his opinion of
his own work, and all I could think
of was he wanted super high octane spiritual
power to run that big program of his.
And I said to him, well now look,
it's like this.
Suppose we're talking about power as gas, and
you're driving up in a car, whatever kind,
Cadillac, he said.
I said, all right, you're driving up in
a Cadillac.
And you're saying to me, fill her up.
And I look at you, and I say,
I can't, I don't know.
You just better get over in the front
seat in the other side, let the Lord
drive.
I don't think you're going to get this
pump unlocked till, till you're over on the
other seat.
And then I said, no, I don't know.
Do you think you could trust yourself?
Haven't you a feeling that maybe if even
the Lord was driving, and you wanted to
stop, you'd turn the key off?
Or you'd pull the wheel, or put your
foot on the accelerator to go faster, the
brake to stop?
I said, I don't think you could trust
yourself.
You better get in the back seat.
He smiled a little, and I said, Bo,
I don't know, that isn't so good either,
because you just leap across and grab the
key or the wheel.
I said, I'll tell you what, as I
understand this matter of power, God isn't giving
you his power so that you can drive
off in your program.
It's like this.
All I know about it is, if you
want God to fill your car with powerful
gas, you get out, turn the key off,
leave the keys in the switch, take one
key, open the trunk, crawl in the trunk,
throw the key away, and pull it down.
And as it comes down, say, look Lord,
you drive.
And I said, he may do something for
you.
But this is essentially what's happening here.
Aaron has been cleansed from past sins, pictured
by the sin offering.
He's surrendered his life to the Lord, pictured
by the burn offering.
But now he's getting ready for service.
He's not ready yet.
Dr. Simpson, commenting on Luke 24, where our
Lord met his disciples and said, you go
into Jerusalem and tarry there.
They thought they were ready for service.
This is the end of side one.
Please stop the machine at this point and
turn the cassette over.
He wasn't afraid that they wouldn't get busy
for him.
He was afraid they would before they were
ready.
So he said, you just go and wait
now till I've met you and I've done
what.
And so here we find Aaron and his
sons waiting.
They're not ready to serve yet, because the
blood has to be applied to the ear,
and the thumb, and the great toe.
The cross has to reach to the right
to their rights.
The right to their time, and their talent,
and their ability, and their possessions.
And Aaron and his sons are going to
serve under the cross.
Even as the Apostle said, years after his
first meeting with the Lord, I am crucified
with Christ.
This wasn't an experience alone, it certainly was.
It was an attitude toward himself.
In Paul's case he said, the blood is
on my ear, my thumb, and my great
toe.
And I'm staying there.
But it, that isn't all.
They still aren't ready.
You will notice that after the blood had
been applied to the ear, and the thumb,
and the great toe, the cross had done
its work.
Then the blood and the oil are mixed
together.
And the oil is poured on Aaron's head,
and on, sprinkled on his clothing.
The oil speaks to us of the Holy
Spirit.
And there was no, in a sense, anointing
with oil for his garments, and the service,
and function, and ministry those garments represented, until
the blood had been placed upon the ear,
the thumb, and the great toe.
And thus it was that he's saying to
you that the power of the Holy Spirit
is to be related to the cross at
work in your experience.
Now I happen to know from having met
people through the years, that there are those
that have been baptized with the Spirit, received
certain gifts of the Spirit, and accompanying power
of the Spirit, before they've known anything of
the cross.
And this is difficult for me to explain
at one time.
I recall being down into Coa Falls, Georgia,
probably ten years ago now, or perhaps even
longer.
A meeting had been canceled unexpectedly.
I had received a telephone call.
Brother Reedhead, you've never met me.
We have mutual friends.
My name is Nolan.
I am pastor of the Grace Baptist Church
in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Several of us had been in prayer for
your coming, and the Spirit of God gave
witness to us that you had a cancellation.
You received word of it yesterday.
You would be free to begin with us
on Sunday and to remain for eight days.
Are we correct?
If we are, we want you to come
with us.
I said you're absolutely correct.
I'll be there.
Now the Spirit of God had told them
exactly what had happened.
I went, administered the word with them.
This is what I found out from this
brother.
He'd been, had a marvelous experience of regeneration
out in Colorado.
Early it had come to some that had
the testimony of the baptism of the Spirit
and the gifts of the Spirit.
And God had met him and given him
several certain gifts of the Spirit.
But you know what happened?
First, he had red hair and the accompanying
disposition that's attributed to it, though I think
unjustly.
But in his case, he found that he'd
been extremely unable to control his temper.
This had made a great deal of difficulty
for him in his ministry.
He had also the matter of great moodiness
and vacillation and enthusiasm and unsteadiness of purpose.
Oh, there were several things that had been.
And yet he had these gifts of the
Spirit.
So here he was in torment.
He'd come to the place that one time
he denied the reality of the gifts and
what God had done.
And then he couldn't do that.
And he was in considerable distress.
I came and sought to just present the
word, knowing nothing of this of course.
And I presented the cross.
I am crucified with Christ, as being that
preparation of heart, that preparation of spirit, of
mind.
God finds the prerequisite to our being sprinkled
with oil, if you please, following the type.
And then he came to me on Friday
of the meetings after the morning service.
And he said, Brother, you see, I know
now that if there wasn't anyone else, he
sent you here for me.
I had thought perhaps that what I had
was spurious and false.
But I know now that God met my
hunger and my need, anticipating the time would
come when someone would instruct me.
I see it's a both-and matter, not
an either-or.
Similarly, I was talking with Robertson McQuilken, the
son of Dr. McQuilken, founder of Columbia Bible
College.
Dr. McQuilken had been closely associated with Keswick
in its early days.
And in those days, he'd had a marvelous
experience of the baptism of the Spirit.
But as he had taught this message, with
the message of the cross, he discovered there
were people that had experienced the baptism of
the Spirit that weren't having victory.
And so he concluded that the important thing
was the message of victory, the message of
the cross.
And for nearly 30 years, he just completely
ignored that whole area of his own experience,
in which he delighted.
But he didn't feel it was relevant, that
the important thing was the message of identification,
and victory through identification, through union with Christ
in his, his death.
Robertson said to me, you know you had
a real blessing, you're a real blessing to
my father, when you came and he found
that you had entered into the same experience
that God had given him years before.
And he told me just a few days
before he died that perhaps he'd been wrong,
in that it wasn't just a matter of
victory or the baptism of the Spirit.
It wasn't an either-or matter.
It was both and.
Both and.
And so here it is in the type.
It's both and.
It's the other ram.
It's this blood upon the ear, and the
thumb, and the great toe.
It's this union with Christ.
I am crucified.
The day he died, I died.
And then, on the basis of this, the
sprinkling with oil.
The oil speaking to us of the, of
the baptizing fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Now, it remains for us to recognize that
our Lord followed this type.
After all, he was the author of all
the instructions given to Moses concerning Aaron and
his sons.
And it was in Luke, the twenty-fourth
chapter, to which I've already referred, that our
Lord there on the road to Emmaus met
these, his disciples, and spoke to them.
And you will recall how he said, Thus
it is written, and thus it behooved Christ
to suffer and arise from the dead the
third day, that repentance and remission of sins
could be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And ye are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I send the promise of my
Father upon you, but carry ye in the
city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with
power from on high.
God's work is to be done in God's
way, but it's also to be done in
God's time.
I think of my own ministry.
Oh, how I would wish that it were
possible to retrieve certain years of the past.
I was down at South St. Paul at
the old Red Rock Holiness camp meeting when
these men I mentioned last night were preaching.
The one who made the strongest impression upon
me was Dr. Paul Rees.
I'd been a professing Christian, a church member,
and there the faithful preaching of the Word
morning, afternoon, and evening had discovered to me
the fact that I had never been born
of God.
I can recall on Thursday of that second
week, so convicted of sin, we were playing
over in the freight yard at Cudahy's, and
I was playing follow the leader and leading
at the moment, ran and stumbled and slipped
and flew across the tracks and fell with
my arm wedged between two ties and just
then a loaded boxcar of meat products being
shunted down to make up a train came
past.
I heard the brakeman scream when he saw
this boy lying there.
He couldn't know whether I was under the
wheels or not, but I pulled my head
as far as I could and those wheel
trucks were six inches from my head, and
I knew that I was six inches out
of hell, that if I died as I
was, I'd certainly be there.
That night I listened and under deep conviction.
Dr. Rees was preaching and all the penetration.
I went home and went to bed, laid
down, and then the lights were all out,
and the cabin sat up because I knew
God had gotten me within six inches, and
he was certainly after me, and I wanted
to be awake when it happened.
He was angry with me because of my
sin, and I awakened in the morning, gray
morning, all lame and stiff from having slept
crumpled up in the middle of the bed.
That was the day, that night in the
altar service, that God in sweet mercy and
grace saved me, and I passed from death
to life.
One of the, I went to see the
children's worker on the next morning, and she
met me, and I was so eager to
tell her what the Lord had done.
You know what she did?
She looked at me and patted me on
my head, and said, that's fine, now you
need to be sanctified.
Instead of allowing me to just enter into
the meaning of this deliverance from Egypt by
blood.
And she, she didn't understand that there's a
time in the dealing of God.
Now God had met me in reality, and
she said, come on, let's go into the
auditorium, and we'll ask God to sanctify.
So we went, this time I went, not
having any idea what was happening, no preparation,
just a word.
And she prayed, and met me, talked with
me, and put words in my mouth, and
told me what to pray.
She was sweet and earnest, and oh so
mistaken.
And when we got up, we went out,
she said, Dr. Reese was coming.
She said, oh Dr. Reese, isn't it wonderful,
Sonny was, was saved, and was sanctified this
morning.
Saved was, slid it over, and sanctified was
important.
And to me, the boy born of God
was a miracle.
And the other was just words.
And I went on from there, and it
wasn't until we came back from Africa in
1949.
I went, so I knew something was desperately
wrong.
I went to seminary, matriculated, thought certainly there
was something there that God had.
And I began to realize that seminary wasn't
the answer, so I dematriculated, and stayed for
a month, and had spiritual inventory.
I began to go back down, down, down,
looking for reality, looking for something that had
meaning, looking for something that was real.
And finally I got through the years in
the mission field, in the pastorate, in Bible
training school.
And I can recall one day writing to
my wife saying, I've gone now in introspective
review, and in, in, through the past twelve
years of my life, and I fear that
if I should go on through, and find
no more reality than I found up until
now, that I will out of conscience have
to become an agnostic.
I cannot give my life to preach something
that's no more real than what I have
experienced.
And I went on down, and down, and
down, and down.
I went right through those few moments at
the altar with this dear sister, until I
came to the next night.
And you know what I discovered?
That the last real thing that ever happened
in my relationship to Christ was the first
real thing that ever happened.
I'd been born of God.
I couldn't deny that.
If I denied that, I would deny my
own knowledge of my own person.
I would have no grounds to know I
existed if I denied what God did to
me that night in the altar in the
straw.
But from that time on, I had been
led by this, the office of this good
woman, to assume that if I knew the
words, and could say the words, and define
the words, and explain the words, and I
went through the formula, I could presume I
had reality.
But you can't go to the mission field
with presumed reality.
It'll be exposed, just as it was exposed
to me.
Oh, I, we had a teacher at school
here in the city that knew all of
these truths, Maude Groom.
She had a course in the Christian life.
I got ninety-eight for the course.
My desire, I'd gone out into the auditorium
of the First Baptist Church and knelt in
the back pews and said, Lord, I take
my faith to all that I've been studying.
The fact remained that when I got to
the mission field, I found that it wasn't
enough.
And I discovered, as I've related to you,
that there was such a critical mind and
censorious spirit.
I wasn't right, and I could prove that
nobody else was.
That's the only way I could live with
me, it seemed.
And so I became critical and censorious and
sarcastic, out of a self-defense, out of
a, the fact that I'd been through everything
and nothing had reality.
But I'll never forget that day down there
in Clearwater, Florida, or Crystal Beach, Florida, when
George Mandela, Maranatha Tabernacle in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania,
opened the word.
And he described me, and he said, your
problem is you've never seen the cross from
the inside.
Oh, I knew I'd been washed in the
blood and forgiven.
I knew that I'd put my hands on
the head of the bullock.
I knew I had a witness and assurance
that my sins were forgiven.
Oh, I knew that the ram of burnt
offering had atoned for those times when I
had been critical and censorious and sarcastic.
I knew he'd been gracious to cleanse.
But I knew I wasn't ready to serve
him.
I knew I wasn't ready when he said
you've never seen the cross from the inside.
And he talked about the fact that there
were two people on that cross, Christ and
me.
And then with that truth, that insight, that
knowledge, I went to my room.
And there, as at first, when I first
met the Lord in reality, that day it
was as though the blood came to ear
and thumb and great toe.
And that an experiential reality.
This was wonderful.
It was marvelous, this truth of identification.
And that is the ministry that I took
to Ben Lippin Conference and shared with Dr.
McWilkin.
But it was in Louisville, Kentucky, that a
dear sister came to me one day.
She said, my heart has been as you've
spoken of our union with Christ, our identification
with Christ.
And God has made this truth real to
you.
But oh brother, that you'd go on to
see that after the blood was sprinkled on
the ear and the thumb and the great
toe, the oil was poured upon Aaron and
his sons.
Said God wants you to know that you
can be baptized with the Holy Ghost, filled
with the Spirit of God.
She said, I'm gonna pray for you.
And several times after that, when I'd come
to Louisville, I'd see her.
And she'd say, you know, I'm still praying
for you.
And rather resented it.
I didn't think there was anything more than
the blood on the ear and the thumb
and the great toe.
This was the message.
Victory.
But there the truth of God began to
burn into my heart.
And I went to talk to one whose
background was similar to mine and who'd experienced
the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I questioned him as though he were before
me for ordination and satisfied with his orthodoxy.
And I remember after spending two hours with
him in prayer, he said, you're going to
be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence.
I didn't even know that was in the
Bible, though I must have read it hundreds
of times.
Because God spoke it to my heart.
It became quick to my spirit.
This is what God wants you to see.
There's a time.
God's work in God's way, yes.
It's by the two staves.
The cross is the only way by which
this glorified Son can be uplifted.
But God not only has a way, but
he has a time.
It's after that the Holy Ghost has come
upon you.
Tarry until ye be endued.
Oh, do you mean to say we do
nothing until then?
No, not at all.
Not at all.
But that you understand that this is the
preparation.
I'm sure that Aaron was busy.
I'm sure his sons were active.
But I know that they did not perform
that ministry that God had for them.
Until the blood was on the ear and
the thumb and the great toe, and on
the blood was sprinkled the oil.
Only then were they equipped and prepared.
And so with you.
The Spirit of God wants to cleanse you.
He wants you to bring yourself a living
sacrifice to the altar of surrender.
And everything that touches the altar is cleansed
by the altar.
He wants you to have a clean heart
and a motive and purpose only to glorify
him.
Certainly.
But he also wants you to come with
the right to your rights.
In that abandonment to him.
Because you see being filled with the Spirit
of God with the oil of anointing is
not that you should get control of God's
power, but God should acquire full right and
control of you.
Oh how different.
And how important that difference.
And so here it is.
This is what he's asking for and yearning
for and praying for.
That you'll abide in him, crucified with him.
That he can abide in you in the
fullness of his resurrection life.
To do in you anything he chooses.
Anywhere, any time, any place, any way.
To succeed or fail, to be known or
unknown, to live or die.
But what you're doing is coming as Aaron
did of your own choice.
And saying, Lord hear the ear, the thumb,
I'll live under the cross, crucified with Christ.
That Christ may live in me.
First the blood of cleansing from past sin.
Then the blood of cleansing of the heart
from all that would defile it.
Then the cross.
Not separate experiences if you please, necessarily.
By the timing of God's dealing with me
is inconsequential.
I tell you not the timing should be
significant, but only the truth should be illustrated.
It's a relationship with him.
For additional copies of this cassette or a
listing of other dimension tapes, contact your local
bookstore or Bethany Fellowship, 6820 Auto Club Road,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438.