made priests unto God to picture
how God's sons are made priests unto God by Christ. His sons
were made priests because Christ's sons are made priests. That's
what it pictured. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our
sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto
God. to Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. But you see Aaron's sons, like
us who are God's priests, like you and me who've been made priests
by Christ, we see here in Aaron's sons, they had to have some holy
garments on before they could come into God's presence. And
you and I have to have these holy garments on, these spiritual
garments. not carnal, temporal, physical
garments, they're spiritual garments. Now, all who come to God by faith
in Christ are themselves priests unto God, adorned with spiritual
garments, which were made and put upon us by our Lord Jesus
Christ. You and I who believe are priests
unto God. We wear these spiritual garments
and this is all by Christ. The work He did for His people
and the work He does in His people. Now I've got four characteristics
here of sinners who were made priests unto God. Four characteristics. We'll just look at these one
by one. First of all, Christ's priests were chosen by God. Chosen by God we see here in
verse 40 God says and for Aaron's sons thou shalt It was God who
chose who would be the high priest God chose his son the Lord Jesus
to be the high priest of his people and It was God who chose
who would be priests God chose His people in Christ. If you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because from the foundation
of the world, God elected you unto salvation, ordained you
to eternal life, and that's the reason. It's by God's grace alone. Now, when we hear that, we should
know this. Salvation is not by man's will. It's not by man's will. It's
by God's will. Salvation is not carried out
by man's will. It's carried out by God's will.
Men and women are not saved because they will to be saved. That's
not why. We're saved because from eternity
God willed us to be saved. That's the difference between
the gospel of grace and the gospel of works. All are truly born
of God, happily confessed it. We happily confess that the only
reason we believe is because God chose us. He chose us by
His will. We sing, "'Tis not I that did
choose thee, for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still
refuse thee, but thou hast chosen me." That's the difference. Now secondly, each of Christ's
priests is clothed with the same garments made by God through
Christ fulfilling the law for us. We all have the very same
garments. They're all made by God and they're
made through Christ fulfilling the law for us. Look at verse
40. And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats Thou shalt make
for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for
glory and for beauty. Now all the Lord's priests are
clothed with the same garments. All Aaron's sons here had the
same garments on. They all had the same garments
on. Now be sure to get this. Please
get this. I do not care what sin you see
in your brethren. It does not matter what outward
sin you and I see in one another. It does not matter. Listen to
this. Not one believer can boast that
we are more righteous or more holy than another. not one. We have the same garments
on. We have the righteousness of
Christ, the holiness of Christ, each one of his people, the same
garments. So we can't make a boast, we
can't use another's sins to exalt ourselves over one another, because
before God's where it matters, and before God we have the same
garments on. Same garments. Our garment, our righteousness
is Christ himself. And Christ himself put this garment
upon us. He made it. He made it. Christ
made this garment of righteousness through fulfilling the law for
each of God's chosen people. He made this garment of righteousness
by fulfilling the law for each of his chosen people. Notice
here, it was God who made the garments through Moses. And that pictures, he pictures
the law. Moses does. Verse 40, God said to Moses,
for Aaron's sons thou shalt make. I keep telling you that the law
and Christ are not at odds. Christ came and through the law
made us righteous. He fulfilled the law. He gave
the law everything the law demanded. He made these garments through
the law. Just like God made these garments
through Moses. God made our garments through
Christ fulfilling the law. Our Savior was born of a woman. Why was Christ made flesh? Why
was He made flesh? That He might be born under the
law. that He might fulfill the law
for His people and deliver us from it. That's why. When the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law. To buy us out from under the
law by giving the law the payment it demanded. To redeem us from
under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. The Apostle
Paul said this, he told the Galatians, he said, if a man is circumcised,
he's a debtor to keep the whole law of God. Well, in Luke 2 21
we read, when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising
of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of
the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Our Lord Jesus Christ
came to that temple on the eighth day and he was circumcised. And
that made him a debtor to keep the whole law of God for all
his people. And brethren, he paid that debt
in full. He gave the law everything it
demanded and we gave the law everything it demanded in him.
You remember when he came to be baptized and John didn't want
to baptize him. He said, I need to be baptized
of you. You want me to baptize you? Jesus
answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. It becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. When Christ fulfilled all righteousness,
we fulfilled all righteousness in Him. When Christ was baptized
in perfection that day by John, John was baptized in Him in perfection. And the picture, it pictured,
when He went into the watery grave, John went into that grave. When He came out of that grave,
John came out of that grave. That's what Christ meant when
He said, thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Christ
did it, but we did it in Him. We did it in Him. He blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. They were
contrary to us and He took it out of the way, nailing it to
His cross. And those who profess to believe
on Him, right now, there's multitudes in this world that profess to
believe on Christ, but at the same time, They believe they
must keep the law of Moses or they cannot be saved. You know
what the problem is with those people? Now get what I said.
I didn't say they believe on Christ and they feel like they
ought to keep the law. That's different. That's what
we saw in Romans 14. They're in error, but they feel
like for the Lord's sake they ought to observe certain days
and eat certain things. They feel like they ought to.
They're in error. But what I said is when a man says he believes
on Christ and says he must keep the law or he can't be saved. You must keep the law or you
can't be saved. That was the difference in those
Pharisees that came down. Brother Rob pointed this out
last week. Those Pharisees came down and
they said of those Gentile believers they must be circumcised and
keep the law of Moses or they can't be saved. That's when Paul
said, no. No. What's the problem with a man
like that? There's only one problem. Listen to me. He has not believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the problem. Where do
you get that, Clay? Romans 10.3 says, they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. but to one that
hasn't submitted to Christ, one that hasn't believed on Christ,
oh, he'll profess with his lips to trust Christ, but by his action
of saying he must keep the law, he's showing he does not really
believe Christ is all his righteousness. But we have the same garments
made by Christ upon all of us, perfect righteousness. Now thirdly,
those made priests unto God do not put Christ's garments upon
ourselves. We do not put Christ's garments
upon ourselves. They're put upon us by another. Now look here in verse 41. And
thou shalt put them, these garments, thou shalt put them upon Aaron
thy brother, and his sons with him. and shall anoint them, and
consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister
unto me in the priest's office." Again, God did this through Moses,
who pictures the law. The law says of Christ, He's
made all these garments. The law justifies Christ and
says, oh yes, He gave the law everything it demanded. These
garments are His. And the law even says everybody
for whom Christ did that work, everybody He justified, these
garments must be put on them. You see that in the picture of
God using Moses to put these garments on? The law that was
our enemy, by Christ fulfilling it, is now our friend. Its justice
says these garments must be put on everybody for whom Christ
died, because he perfected us forever. I'm not an enemy to
God's law, and I'm not nothing ill against God's law. God's
law is my friend. God's law now says I must be
saved because Christ justified me. Isn't that a good thing? That's a good thing, brethren.
Every priest had these garments put upon them by another. Now, due to our sin nature, we
come into this world dead and trespassing in sin. Like Adam, when Adam transgressed
against God, we transgressed against God. And we became naked. We became sinners. So not only
do we need Christ to work out a righteousness for us, we need
Christ to come and create a new holy and righteous man within
us and put these garments on us. Each priest had a coat put upon
him. Each one of them had a coat put
upon him. These coats were like the coat
Christ wore. That coat that Christ wore was
all of one piece woven from top to bottom. No seams. No seams. And that coat represents the
righteousness of Christ that is complete. Complete. And that righteousness is freely
imputed to us. It is put upon us the moment
God brings us to believe on Christ. That garment's put upon us. Psalm
132.9 says, Let thy priest be clothed with righteousness. Be
clothed. If I have been clothed, that's
a very passive thing, isn't it? To be clothed? What does it mean? Well, verse 16 of that same psalm,
God says, I will also clothe her priests with salvation. I will clothe them with salvation. Her saints shall shout aloud
for joy. I asked Brother Art to sing this
in the first song in the next hour. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty are my glorious dress. Midst flaming worlds in these
arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand
in thy great day, For who ought to my charge shall lay, Fully
absolved through these I am, From sin and fear, from guilt
and shame. He puts these garments on us
and we're free. Free from the law, oh happy condition,
Jesus is bled and there is remission. And so also by the hand of another
there was put upon every priest a girdle. A girdle. Girdles were
these huge belts and they wore these and they held up those
long robes they had on. And they added strength and they
added support, like a girdle does. They added strength and
support to the body when the men were engaged in labor, or
when they were traveling, or when they were in battle. We're
told our Lord Jesus Christ, as our great high priest, is girt
about the paps with a golden girdle. In the new birth, when
Christ is formed in us, Christ gives each of His redeemed
His girdle of faithfulness, truth and love. His faithfulness gives
us strength and His truth makes us walk in
truth and His love makes us love. So as we labor in the cause of
Christ, As we travel through this land as pilgrims, and as
we face every battle, Christ is our strength and our support,
who keeps us faithful, keeps us walking in truth, and he keeps
us loving one another. By the hand of another, each
priest was given a bonnet. It's a turban. And this was to
distinguish the priest from others for glory and beauty. Christ
has created us anew by His work on the cross and by creating
a new man within those who are regenerated and that He's created
us anew in righteousness and true holiness. The only thing
that's left to be done is to do the same for our body. But
He's done this work at the cross and in our new spirit and all
that remains to be done is for our body. And by the Spirit, he continually
renews us in knowledge after the image of him that created
us. Now, get what God's saying there.
The old man is after Adam. He's corrupt and deceitful. The
new man, which after God, he's created in righteousness and
true holiness. That new man within us was created. And it was created in the image
of God. And it's righteous and holy.
And He continually renews us in the image of God. After the
image of Him that created us. And so Christ with His garments
on. When we have His garments on.
In Him and with His garments on. We're glorious and beautiful. In His eyes. And the Lord Jesus says to every
regenerated believer, Thou art all fair, my love. There's no
spot in thee. Thou hast ravished my heart.
It's because the king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing
is of wrought gold. How did we get this? Psalm 149
verse 4 says, The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will
beautify the meek with salvation. That's why we're beautiful in
his eyes. He's beautified us. He's done it. And all this work
upon Aaron's sons was the work of another. It was typical of
the Holy Spirit, verse 41 says, who anoints us, consecrates us,
and sanctifies us, and God says that they may minister unto me
in the priest's office. Until we've been anointed, that
word simply means to smear. They take holy oil and they just
put that holy oil all over the priest to be anointed. Till the Holy Spirit has anointed
us and consecrated us and sanctified us, we cannot serve God. Our Lord told us there's going
to be a multitude in the last day that are going to find out
that all that they did in this life in the name of serving Christ
was never serving Him at all. Why? Because He didn't know them.
To know His people, to know His people is to know us intimately
in the biblical sense of the word. It's to anoint us and consecrate
us and sanctify us so we can serve Him. Once that's done,
we can serve Him, but not before then. not before then, but then
we serve him and we minister unto God in the priest's office. We're ministers of God. I'm not
just a minister of God, you're ministers of God. What are we
doing? We're ministering unto God for
God in the priest's service. That's what we're doing. What
are we doing? You also, as a holy priesthood,
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. They're acceptable to God by
Christ because you've been anointed and consecrated and sanctified
so you can minister in the priest's office. Now lastly, this work,
by this work, Christ covers our nakedness. so that not one of Christ's sons
and daughters shall ever bear iniquity and die. He's covered
our nakedness so that not one of us shall ever bear iniquity
nor shall we die. Look here in verse 42. And thou
shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness. These,
you're going to see here as I read this, these are basically like
what we call today boxer briefs is what they are, like a man
wear, boxer briefs. It says, from the loins even
unto the thighs they shall reach. They shall be upon Aaron and
upon his sons when they come in unto the tabernacle of the
congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister
in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever
unto him and his seed after him. So these garments covered their
nakedness. And because their nakedness was
covered, They bear not iniquity, and they do not die. Now listen
to Psalm 132.10. For thy servant David's sake. What's he saying? For Christ's
sake. For the one David pictured, for Christ's sake. Turn not away
the face of thine anointed. You who he's anointed, when you
approach unto God, through Christ our author, come unto His holy
place, for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, He will not turn
away your face from Him. He will not. It's not a question
of what we are entitled to by our person and our work. No,
it's what Christ is entitled to by His. He's entitled to have every saint
with him for priestly service Godward. He's entitled to that. And by Christ's righteousness
and holiness, the believer can never again be charged with iniquity. We can never again come before
God's judgment seat and be charged with iniquity and die. Now, as
I said, when Adam sinned, what happened? Immediately, he knew
he was naked. He and his wife knew they were
naked. And what did they do? They tried to cover their nakedness.
They tried to cover their nakedness. They tried to make fig leaves.
Men use religion, men use good works, men use everything under
the sun to try to cover their nakedness and it's just fig leaves.
What happened when God called to Adam? He hid himself. Why? He was covered. Why did
he hide himself? He said, I knew I was naked,
that's why. But you had on fig leaves, Adam. But God, I knew
before you I was still naked. What's going to cover our nakedness?
Only the garment Christ has made and put upon us. That's the only
thing that can cover our nakedness. But with this covering, with
this necessary covering, those priests could enter the holy
place. They could draw near to the altar. Aaron could go into
the holiest of holies and not bear iniquity and not die. What's that teaching us? Hebrews
10.19 says this, Having therefore, brethren, boldness Liberty, confidence,
welcome to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, to enter
into God's presence, to approach God now as priests by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil. That
is to say, through His flesh, through Him living and dying
for us. And having Christ as our high
priest over the house of God, let us draw near. Preacher, you said I can draw
near to holy God? I'm a sinner. I'm such a sinner. My brethren don't know that.
They don't even know the half of what kind of sinner I am.
God does. You mean I can draw near to God?
being robed in Christ's garments by His blood and having Christ
as our high priest, you can draw near unto God. Listen, not only
can you draw near, you can do so with a true heart. With a
real heart, a true heart, a heart that's not hypocritical and not
just going through the motions, a true heart that believes God. You can do it in full assurance
of faith. Well, I don't see anything in
me to have assurance with, because you're looking in the wrong direction.
Assurance is not of you, it's of God. You won't have assurance
until you look to Him. But I can enter in in full assurance
of faith because my heart has been sprinkled from an evil conscience
and my body's been washed with pure water. We're going to see
next time They're gonna wash these priests. We're gonna go
into more detail and see how they sanctify and consecrated
them next time. We've been washed, brethren.
We've been washed in the blood of Christ. We've been washed
in the water of the word. We've been washed. And we have
a new heart, a true heart. And through faith in Christ,
we can draw near to holy God. And we can do so, God says, in
boldness. We can do so in full assurance
of faith. I think I told you all this illustration
one time before. When they were building that
new World One Trade Center, before they opened it up, I read in
the news there was some window cleaners that were cleaning the
windows. And you all have seen that thing,
how tall it is. And they're up at the very top. And they're
outside on a platform. I hope they got paid a lot of
money to do that. You'd have to pay me a lot of
money to do that. And they were up there doing
that, and that chain slipped on that platform, and it fell
down and went in. Well, they had on some harnesses
strapped to that thing they're on. But I mean, you can imagine
when that thing fell, and they're dangling there on that thing,
you can imagine that they're pretty nervous. And the firefighters
came, and they had to take the window out And the first thing
they did is they went out there and they wrapped a huge harness
around both these men and they had that harness in the building
tied off to something. So no matter what happened, those
men can't fall. They can't fall. Now, as far
as subjectively in their hearts, they might not have had a lot
of assurance. They might have been sitting there thinking,
Oh, till I get in that building, I'm not gonna believe I'm safe.
But you know, what, what really could assure them that they were
not going to fall had nothing to do with them. It was that
cord holding them, that harness holding them, so they couldn't
fall. We have that in Christ, brethren. Whether you feel in yourself
that you have assurance or not, you've got assurance. Your assurance
is Christ who's holding you. I want you to have it in your
heart and know He's not going to let His people go. You can
enter into God's presence. And I want to show you one last
thing. The last verse there, the last phrase there tells us
that this was a statute forever unto Aaron and his seed after
him. That is, as long as that priesthood
continued, discontinued. Discontinued. Brethren, since
Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, He
has neither beginning of days nor ending of days. The Hebrew
writer is telling us all through, those priests died. and they
had to be a new priest. But Christ never dies. He's a
priest like Melchizedek was, who has neither beginning of
days nor ending of days. His priesthood is forever. And
because His priesthood is forever, Christ and His seed, Christ and
His people, Christ and those He's redeemed, Christ and those
He has sanctified and made holy, Those he's made priests shall
be covered. Their nakedness shall always
be covered and they'll never bear iniquity and they'll never
die for as long as Christ is our high priest. Forever. Forever. I don't know how many messages
I preached out of Exodus 28, but it was quite a few. That's
been a very edifying chapter, hasn't it? And we started out
thinking all it was going to be was just a description of
a bunch of garments. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we thank you for this word. Thank you for showing us
these pictures. Lord, be with your people everywhere.
Make your gospel go forth in power today. Exalt Christ. Make this morning to be a time
when all heaven and all your people in earth are looking to
Christ and he's receiving all the glory. Lord, help us to be
patient and forgive one another and make us to be edifiers of
one another. Help us now to worship. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen.