Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews
chapter three, and reading from our text, part of verse one. Consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. The whole verse reads,
wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. And this evening, with the Lord's
help, I want to look back to the Old Testament, to the chapter
that we read in Exodus, chapter 28, of the type of the high priest,
his clothing that he wore, his consecration, the duties and
the specific requirements that were put upon him, all of which
show us something about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And
as the Apostle here, he speaks to those already saved, holy
brethren, already partakers of a heavenly calling, and very
obviously points them to that consideration that shall strengthen
their faith. and help them in their path and
in their walk as they view the Lord Jesus Christ as their High
Priest in Heaven. And so I want to then look firstly
at the clothing which the high priest was clothed with. I won't take it in exactly the
same order as it is in Exodus 28, but Try and describe it as
from the undergarments first and then up to the outer garments. There are actually seven articles
of clothing that the high priest wore and each of them does have
a significance. The first two are put together,
and they are the linen breeches and the linen coat. And they
had those next to their flesh. And the linen, of course, was
that which doesn't cause sweat. There's a practical use for many
of the things, as well as symbolical. But also it is a garment that
were made without a scene, they were fine twine linen, they were
white, they were pure, and they were that which undergirded everything
else that was put upon them. And so we have the Lord Jesus
Christ as such a high priest became us that he is holy. that
is undefiled, that has no sin but is pure and is perfect. And the purity, we mentioned
it last week with the tabernacle, that as you came to that tabernacle
and you saw the curtains around it, that all you saw was whiteness
of these the white linen and then you saw the opening as to
the different colours, the colours of the blue and the purple and
the scarlet. And here you have this which
is going to be hidden, but it's undergirding. It is the purity
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no gap, there's no seam,
there's nothing that is wanting in that at all. It is interesting
on the Day of Atonement, that is the day when the High Priest
was to go into the holiest of all, not the holy place that
is mentioned so much here, but the holiest of all, that he was
to put off all of his outer garments except these white linen ones
and appear just as in those white garments. And we think of our
Lord when he was crucified, they took from him his garments and
specific mention is made of his coat that was woven without a
seam, they cast lots for that. And yet with our Lord, In the
eyes of his father, that purity, that holiness was still there. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, but he himself was still spotless and pure. He needed to be for the sacrifice,
for the offering, to be accepted, that he didn't make himself to
be a sinner, and so under the law demand that that sinner die. He bore the sin of many, but
even in bearing it, he remained spotless and pure. We think of how these garments,
they are put next to the skin, and there's other things that
are to come up on the top of them, but may we never lose sight
of the holiness and purity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The high priest, this had to
be what he first put on. And if Christ wasn't first, holy
and pure and righteous. It wouldn't matter what else
was put on. It would avail nothing. Then we have, secondly, the robe
of the ephod. And the robe of the ephod was
all of blue. It was one piece, one thread
right through, There are some that feel that the blue sets
forth the skies and heaven, but as we said the other week, and
I've always viewed it as being grace, the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is one preeminent feature,
attribute of our Lord Jesus Christ, that even his adversaries, they
could not deny that. they recognised his grace, the
way he spoke, and all that he did. And so this ephod, it was
made, if we say, like a sheet, and we cut a hole in the middle
of it, and hemmed that round that hole so it didn't fray,
and then put that over our heads, so like a tabard, one side, one
the other side, that would then be the robe of the ephod. But then on the bottom of that
robe, there were bells and there were pomegranates. A pomegranate
and a bell, alternately, on the bottom of it. In verse 31, chapter
28, we have, And thou shalt make the robe of ephod all of blue.
There shall be a hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof.
It shall have a binding of woven workings round about the hole,
as it were the hole of a havigan or an undergarment, that it be
not rent. And beneath, upon the hem of
it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue and of purple and of
scarlet. And we said the other week, and
this is what the colours that run right through here. We have
the blue, the purple and scarlet, the grace, the kingship, the
redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. And these bells and pomegranates
alternately around the bottom of it. We are told here that
one of the purposes of this, that when Aaron came, that he
went through that first veil into the tabernacle proper, and
those outside of it, they could actually hear him moving about. They could hear him as he dealt
with the showbread, with the altar of incense, so that really
it was a profession that he was at work there doing the work
of the high priest. And it's said here that it is
so that he die not. And if we think of how it's alternatively
put, the pomegranate is a fruit, and the bells are that which
give a sound, we might say a profession. And with our Lord Jesus Christ,
not only was he given a name which is above every name, Not
only did he claim to be the son of God, but the fruit of his
life, he said, the miracles that I do, they, the works that I
do, they bear witness of me, and with us as well. If we are made priests unto our
God, whatever we have as a profession of religion, it should be balanced
with fruitfulness, so that our works go with our words, and
that men may take knowledge of us that we are not hypocrites
that say and do not, but that we actually say and do, and that
is matched up exactly. And we have in the Lord that
to perfection, that the Lord's work matches exactly his profession
as to who he is. Is he a high priest? Yes he is,
and the bell is denoted in all his work. Is he a high priest? He does
the work of a high priest that exactly matches that profession. A sad thing it is if there are
those that make a profession and their works do not match
it. But with the Lord Jesus Christ, it does. And in this type of
the ephod, then this set that forth. But then we have, in the
fourth place, the ephod itself, not the robe of the ephod, but
the ephod itself. And again we have here, and we're
going back now to verse 6, They shall make the ephod of gold,
of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine, twined linen with cunning
work. And this then has got two parts
to it, and it's joined together with two shoulder pieces, and
those shoulder pieces, they have stones on them, they have golden
sockets or ouches to hold these stones. And on each stone there's
engraven six of the tribes of the children of Israel, one on
one side and one on the other. And so the high priest, he had
this ephod that is over the coat the robe of the ephod and he
bears the names of the children of israel and he bears them before
the lord and those names work of an engraver we have in verse
11 like engravings of a signet and they shall be in verse 12
for a memorial unto the children of Israel. Aaron shall bear their
names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. And these stones are upon this
ephod that in this case is made with gold and then we have the
other colours, the blue, purple, scarlet and then it is on the
fine twine linen which is white. If we took the gold as the first
and the white as the linen that's built on as the last, you have
a type of the divinity of Christ in the gold and his humanity
in the white, perfect again, pure humanity, not fallen humanity,
and enclosed within that the blue, the purple, the scarlet,
the grey, the kingship, the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they are so entwined together. And this runs through a lot of
these garments. Of course, again, you might say
it's in a practical way that these colours are all entwined. But we speak of the humanity
and the divinity of Christ, but you can't really separate them. And you can't separate his kingship
or his work, or his grace, they are all, they make him up, they
are all bound together, all interwoven together. And we see this in
the making of the ephod in this way. These separate articles
of garment, they draw our attention to the separate functions and
the separate types of our Lord Jesus Christ. What we said with
the robe of the ephod, it was dwelling more of our Lord and
his work. Whereas when it comes to the
ephod itself, that is upon the robe, then it is what he is doing
for his people. It is his people that are being
brought into the holy place. It is his people that are being
borne up on his shoulders. And it is people that are being
brought there as a memorial. The Lord is not to be separate
from his people. They are engraven. We read in
Isaiah, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls
are ever before me, and they're in these ouches of gold and so
fastened to the Lord. We have in John 10, our Lord
speaking of that security of his people, that they are in
his hand, no man can pluck them out of my hand, and my father
is greater than I, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. So we have then the ethon. Then the fifth piece of clothing
is the girdle. We describe those things that
really are hanging down. And in one sense the girdle is
to be a very practical piece of clothing. It is made of the
same as what the ephod and the coat is made out of, and the
gold, the blue, the purple, scarlet, fine twine, linen. But it pulls
everything together, brings all these gathered clothes. That's
what a girdle is gird up the loins. And where there is to
be a work, where there is to be moving and activity, then
there needs to be a girding up of those flowing robes. But especially
to pull them all together. Instead of loose and flapping,
they're brought in close. And so we think of this with
our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lord's work, which is brought in close
and close to the Lord, his people bound close to him, and all his
attributes and what he is, they are all bound up together with
our Lord. And may we view the completeness
of even just the smallest thing, that will point to our Lord in
this way. Now we especially think of those
that are employed in the harvesting and girding up their loins and
harvesting and our Lord has a harvest and he has a work and that work
that he does and that work which he performs is for his dear people
and how needful to even have a practical application pointing
in that way a girdle is provided. But then we have in the sixth
place a breastplate, a breastplate which we are given a description
of from verse 15. And we have again a piece made
with cunning work. We have the same picture of gold,
blue, purple and scarlet. All those attributes are still
in each part of it. And it's four square as a span. It's doubled over so that then
it's double thickness. And on this it's got four rows
of very precious stones. And in those four rows then you
have three columns. And on those individual stones,
each one different, not the same, but each one precious, was the
individual names. They're not grouped together
now, the individual names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
And they're right on the breast. And on the top of that breast
plate there is gold rings and gold chains that join to those
ouches that are holding the stones on the top of the ephod. And then on the bottom, the golden
rings, they have a ribbon, the blue, that again ties it in to
the ephod. And this is then a bearing of
the names of the children of Israel again before the Lord
and bringing it into the presence of the Lord. And again, the preciousness
of how close upon the heart of the high priest is the names
of his people, how precious they are to him, and how that he'd
have them close, close unto his heart. And we read in 29, Aaron
shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate
of judgment upon his heart when he goeth into unto the holy place
for memorial before the Lord. And so he specifically mentioned
this for judgment. The judgment of the Lord is that
I shall die in the place of these people. My blood shall atone
for them. I will put away their sin. I am appearing in the presence
of God for them. And that judgment is with the
Lord. And as it were, to emphasize
this, there is joined to this breastplate a pouch that had
the Urim and the Thummim in it. It's not really clear what these
were. Some think that it was two stones,
a light one and a heavier one. But we do know that it is, again,
inseparable from the judgment. And when Israel had judgments
to make, then it was to this that they looked, that a clear
judgment would be made. And so, you and I, if we have
an interest in our Lord Jesus Christ, we need that very clear
judgment. Is He, instead of me, is seen
when I approach to God, or that we are bound upon His heart?
And there's the presence of the High Priest, and yet there is
our names, and we are with Him, inseparable from Him. It cannot
be loosed from Him. And the judgment of the Lord
is that those that are in Christ are safe. Those that are found
in Him shall not perish, but should have eternal life. And
this then is set forth to us in this breastplate. What a beautiful
thought that our names should be so written, so close to the
Saviour, so born upon his breast. You know, every time that priest
was to do his office and service, twice every day, they would hear
from outside, they'd see him going through the veil, they
would hear the bells, they would know that he was appearing there,
and their names of their tribe would be there before the altar
of incense, And there, with the showbread, and the light, the
candle, and the offering of the service of God, the same in the
outer court with the sacrifices, and the lava that we had there,
and their names were there, in all that he did, in all the service
that he worked, then they were with him. No wonder the apostle
speaks of being buried with Christ and risen again with him and
the union that is between Christ and his people that is so set
before us in this time. Then we have lastly the mitre
that was to be upon the head, really a hat of fine linen, and
attached to the front of that was a gold plate, and on that
gold plate was written, Holiness unto the Lord, engraved in it,
not just written. In verse 36, Thou shalt make
a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it like the engravings of
a signet holiness to the Lord. Then there was the lace that
was to bind it to the mitre. In one sense a hat or a head
covering, it sets forth that subjection and Christ and we
had it in a beautiful way set forth in Philippians. How that he, right, and turn
to it, in Philippians chapter 2, is the beginning of that chapter. We have a picture of Christ humbling
himself again and again. and brought down low, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant,
was made in the likeness of men, being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. And all that preparation work
was a humbling work, a low work, but because of that, wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him. And we find with our Lord
as the high priest, as described here in Philippians, in that
work first he was humbled, then he was exalted. And we have both in that way
set forth in the mitre, that which is upon his head. A golden crown, as it were, attached
with a blue ribbon. Holiness unto the Lord. He alone
has fulfilled the law and made it honourable. And we think of
that, bring forth a topstone, crying grace, grace unto it. And the blue ribbon again with
the significance of grace. And so with the high priest there
was in each of the articles of clothing that which points us
to our Lord Jesus Christ, that which inseparably joins the high
priest with the people that he was officiating for, and appearing
in the presence of God in the holy place for that they are
bound up together. May we dear friends get a real
glimpse and sight of that, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
is not appeared in the presence of God without any memorial,
without any remembrance, without any binding him with his people. They are bound together with
him. He cannot forget them. His very
presence there is set forth by these garments as emphasizing
to us in these Old Testament scriptures a real solid comfort
and joy to the people of God in a union with Christ. Well, I want to look now briefly
at the consecration of the high priest. And we would say on this
that just the very office of high priest, it teaches us the
need of a mediator. In fact, the original In the
Hebrew, understand means, the priest means to draw near, to
draw near. Sinners, the children of Israel
were sinners. They needed a priest. They needed to be able to draw
near. We think of when God came down
on Mount Sinai and it was all on a smoke and they fled from
it and they said, draw thou near unto God, let us not draw near. They were impressed, their need
of a mediator. The whole tabernacle was that
God would dwell with them. But the entrance into that tabernacle,
it pointed to the need. And you and I, we need a mediator. And the gospel is a mediator
is provided, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a
great Comfort in that, the Lord knows we're sinners, he knows
we cannot appear in the presence of God ourselves. He knows there
is a need of a provision and he has provided. Now in the types here with the priests,
there needed to be a consecration of those priests, setting apart. for the work that they had to
do, and of course part of it was ceremonially cleansing them,
which our Lord, of course, is already cleansed and pure and
needs no such cleansing, but it points to that. And the whole
ceremony of that is further taught in Exodus 29. The chapter begins, this is the
thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister
unto me in the priest's office. And there they were to take those
things that had to be offered. And perhaps to summarize a little,
that there was two lambs that had to be brought. The one had
to be killed, its blood then was kept separate, it was then
split up, divided, put on the altar and fully burned as a whole
offering. So the blood was sprinkled round
it and the whole lamb was burnt as a type of the total dedication
to God. The Lord Jesus Christ was to
be the Lamb of God. The Passover lamb had to be fully
fully consumed, nothing had to remain until the morning. And so with the consecration
of these high priests, they had to be totally dedicated to that
work. And then there was the other
lamb, they had to put their hands on that one while that one was
killed and they had to take the blood and put it on the extremities
of their right sides, the tip of their right ear, their right
thumb, their right big toe, and then the blood that was around
the altar which came from the first lamb, that was then to
be sprinkled over all of their garments. a life separate from
sin, sprinkled with the blood, atoned, consecrated, ready for
the service of God. And this is what they had to
do as a consecration, and perform this, and to do this for the
work that they had to do. And not only one day, It had
to be done seven days running before they could then perform
their priest's office, to be consecrated. Seven is a perfection. We had seven garments, we have
seven days of consecration, and then they were ready for that
work. What a blessed preparation our
Lord had. He does not need all of this
ceremonial, but it points to how needful it was that he be
fully dedicated and life separated for this and this work alone. What then were the duties of
the High Priest? There were really five duties
that they had to perform. The first one was presenting
the sin offering for the nation as each occasion required. Sometimes it was because of sins
of ignorance. Sometimes it was a trespass offering. And there was many times under
the ceremonial law that their priest then had to offer those
offerings. So that was the work of the high
priest. The second thing was on the great
day of atonement, which only happened once a year. And the
high priest there entered, and we mentioned that before, how
that he put off those outer garments and just in white, entered into
the holy place, not with blood, but with the blood of bulls and
of goats, and there into the very presence of God and we're
told in Hebrews that the Holy Spirit was there signifying with
the veil still there and that it was only once a year that
that way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while that veil, while that tabernacle was still standing. But when
our Lord died upon Calvary's tree that veil was rent entwined
And our Lord himself, as the great anti-type of these high
priests, he has entered into that holy place. He is there
and made that way that we may come, boldly come, and he has
made us as kings and priests unto God. It's a very different
thing than With the children of Israel, the Israelites themselves,
they couldn't approach themselves. They had to have a high priest.
We have a high priest, but he is in heaven, and we can come
directly to heaven. We don't need a priest on earth. He has made each believer as
kings and priests unto God, and to come unto God by him. He is
that new and that living way. And it is as we enter in as bound
upon these garments that we enter in with him in the presence of
God. The third thing we mentioned
about the Urim and Thummim was so that they could inform the
people of the will of God. They were to be the Lord's mouthpiece
as to what the Lord would have them to do, the judgment of the
Lord, and how our Lord Jesus Christ is that to his people. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. But of all that is right and
all that the Lord would judge and direct is all done by him
as our high priest, informing the people of the will of God,
That is what our Lord did in his ministry, that is what is
carried on in the epistles of the apostles. The fourth was
that he performed an important act as a civil ruler as well
as a spiritual head. There were those things that
needed to be done in a civil way, and we think of even In
the case of the cities of refuge, when those that had killed a
man unawares, they fled to those cities of refuge, and they had
to remain there until the death of the high priest. But it was
the high priest that presided over those courts. It had to
be brought before them. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
is also the governor of his people. He protects them, he guides them,
he teaches them the way that they
should go. Not just a high priest, but he
performs these functions as well. It is Jesus can teach the way
you should go. And it's a blessed thing to be
led, directed, taught by him as our High Priest as to the
way to go. The last thing that the High
Priest had an office to do was to supervise the other High Priests. Really all of the tabernacle
worship was governed by those High Priests. And when we think
of our Lord, and it is said before us in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians,
and he speaks in chapter four of the ordering of the church
of God, and he said, wherefore, in verse eight of that chapter,
wherefore he said, when he ascended up on high, He led captivity
captive and gave gifts unto men. And then we have in verse 11,
and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. Our Lord is the head of the church,
he governs We have a picture of this in Revelation, where
he is moving in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
We're told that those candlesticks are the churches, and in his
hand are the stars, which are the angels of those churches. And so with the high priest,
he supervised all that went on of the other priests, so our
Lord also. In the church of God, It is His
supervision in all of the service and all of the work that goes
on there. Just as a last thing, I bring
before you the strict rules, just three of them. that the
high priest had to adhere to. And it must have been a real
cross to them in a natural way to have that office. The high priest could only marry
an Israelite virgin. He could not marry a widow. He
was very restricted in who he was to marry. He could not attend
a funeral. or even touch a dead body, not
even of his own family. Not even of his own family. He could not defile his person
in any way that would so defile the sanctuary. In that we have such a time of
the need of the separateness, the perfect purity, and holiness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Really in many of the types and
shadows of the Old Testament that made such emphasis on purity,
the spotless lamb, the linen, the white, all of the methods
of keeping those garments clean even when they are moving with
the covering of badger skins. It so sets forth before us that
sinless Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity, His Godhead, no
sin in Him, and though He was much tried by Satan, much tempted,
endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and
yet never, never was He defiled. Lamb of God, the spotless High
Priest, the pure High Priest. You know, if the High Priest
did not adhere to these strict rules, they would then be not
allowed to perform that office, unfitted, unsuited to it. And
how we have the picture of our Lord so suited, such a perfect
High Priest, such a provision, And when we think that these
directions, these types, were all set forth, all building up
to the great anti-time, really if we look at our Bibles and
we see how small a section of them is the New Testament. We have, if we turn and get the
division here, we have the New Testament here, and the Old Testament
here, and the New Testament so much smaller in volume. But when our Lord preached that
sermon on the way to Emmaus, it was in all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself, and he took the scriptures that
they then had, the Old Testament scriptures, and brought forth
these things. a suffering saviour but also
a mediator, one that was to perform these sacrifices, one that was
not only to provide the spotless blood but also present it, one
to bring the names of his people into the holiest of all. You
know, if the dear disciples clearly understood this, No wonder when
the Lord ascended up into heaven they returned to Jerusalem and
into the temple and they were constantly praising God and with
great joy. If we fully embrace and understand
what is bound up here with the High Priest and to leave it with
you, to leave it with me, the words of our text, consider Consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Jesus Christ. May we go away this evening and
we consider some of these things I've tried to set before us this
evening and to see how wonderfully suited he is to poor sinners
and how strengthening this is to faith to view that we have
a great High Priest. Does the Lord know about us?
You know the woman at the well of Samaria, Nathaniel that was
underneath the fig tree, Zacchaeus who was climbed up into a sycamore
tree. They all were brought to know
that the Lord knew them. He saw them. What a beautiful
evidence that their names were bound upon his breast. He must
needs go through Samaria. Whence knowest thou me? Our Lord
could have said, your names were bound to my breast from eternity,
chosen in him from the foundation of the world, that's how I know.
And I came to suffer for you and to bear your names before
the throne forever, to appear in the presence of God for us. May the Lord add his blessing. Consider the Apostle and High
Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Amen.