Normally, I would probably preach
this message right before we observe the Lord's table. But
I have an experimental message that I really want to take some
time with in the next hour. So I'm going to preach it next. I'll preach this one now. God ordered Moses build the tabernacle
and all the things associated with it according to the pattern
that God showed him in the mount. Now, why did he do that? Well,
Hebrews 8.4 says, at the time that the Hebrew writer wrote
Hebrews, he said, on earth there are priests that offer gifts
according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow of
heavenly things. That's the purpose. They serve
for the example and shadow of heavenly things. As Moses was
admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle,
for see, saith he, that thou make all things according to
the pattern showed thee in the mount. All of these things are
a pattern. of heavenly things, a figure,
a picture of heavenly things. So this is where we find that
it's good for us to look at the things of these in the tabernacle
and see Christ in these things. Today we look at the high priest
and his garments and even they picture Christ. Now our subject
is Christ our holiness. Christ our holiness. Now most
in religion say that holiness, sanctification, that holiness
and sanctification, same thing, that they're partly of the sinner
and partly of Christ. Now is that offensive to you?
It's offensive to a believer. Why? Because that steals the
glory that belongs to Christ. Christ is our sanctifier and
Christ is our sanctification. Listen to Hebrews 2.11. Both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Christ is our sanctifier and then We're told in 1 Corinthians
1.30 that of God is Christ made unto us sanctification. He's
our sanctifier and our sanctification. And we're told in 1 Corinthians
1.31 the purpose is that he that glorieth let him glory in the
Lord. So if a sinner attributes part
of His holiness to man and part to Christ, He's glorying in man
rather than in the Lord. He's stealing Christ's glory.
That's why it's offensive to you that have been truly sanctified
because men are stealing Christ's glory. Christ Jesus the Lord
is the sanctifier and the sanctification of His saints. And I want to
show you that today in the priest's garments. First of all, in the
robe and the coat. And then secondly, in the hem
of the robe. And thirdly, in the mitre that
the priest wore on his head. Now let's look at this robe and
this coat. Verse 31, Exodus 28, 31. It says, and thou shalt make
the robe of the ephod all of blue, and there shall be a hole
in the top of it, in the midst thereof, it shall have a binding
of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole
of a harbourjohn that it be not rent. Verse 39 says, And thou
shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the
miter of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework. Now the coat here was worn right
next to the body. It was worn next to the body
under the ephod. And it was made of fine linen.
fine linen and then the robe that was worn over the coat was
olive blue. So you have a white fine linen
undergarment, the coat, and then you have the robe over that that
was olive blue. Now Together, they typify what
our Lord Jesus Christ had to be in order to be our sanctifier
and our sanctification. They typify what He had to be
in His person as the sanctifier and the sanctification. What
did He have to be? He had to be perfect God and
perfect man in one person. And that's what we have pictured
here. The white linen of the coat speaks of Christ being the
perfect man. He is the perfect man. Christ
our holiness is the only perfect man. As our head, His people
are what He is. He's our head and so we are what
He is. He's perfectly holy through and
through. and in Him we're perfectly holy. And so we read in Revelation
19.8, the white linen is the righteousness of the saints. This is our perfection. That's
what the white linen pictures. It's the righteousness of Christ
by which He sanctified His saints. Now, our first head was Adam. Adam sinned and plunged the whole
human race into sin and death. So being born of Adam and his
corrupt seed, we're corrupt by nature. Our sin nature is corrupt.
But we have to have a perfectly holy heart. We have to be perfectly
holy before God with a perfectly holy heart or God will not accept
us because He's holy. Now, the head of God's elect
is Christ. and He is the only perfect man. He is sinless in heart, He is
sinless in His nature, His heart, His nature, and there was never
a time when His nature was corrupted. Even when He was made sin for
us and hung on the cross, His nature remained holy. He always In holy faith, look
to His Father. Now this robe, all of blue, pictures
Christ as God. We remember, we saw before that
blue, like the heavens, is to point us to the heavens. He's
the Son of God, come down. So the blue road points us to
Christ Jesus who is God. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. God came down to save His people. God came down and became a man
to do for His people what we could not do for ourselves. God
came in human flesh. That's unchanging love. That's
unchangeable love. That's mercy. That He came to where
we are from heaven. And so Christ Jesus is the God-man
mediator. He had to be God and perfect
man in order to be our holiness. And He is. So all Christ works
as a man are eternal because He's eternal God. Everything
He accomplished for us can never be undone. It's eternal because
He's eternal God. That's why this ephod couldn't
be rent in two. That's the point here. When,
you know, it had this binding around the neck of it so it couldn't
be rent in two. This garment actually had no
seams in it. We read of Christ's righteousness
being without seam. And this garment had no seams
in it whatsoever and it could not be rent. Christ is holy and
righteous through and through and that can never be changed
because He's God. Go with me over to Hebrews 8.
Let's look at this. Christ accomplished our redemption. And so every believer right now
has eternal redemption. Redemption eternal. Look here
in Hebrews 8 verse 1. Now the things which
we have spoken, this is the sum. We have, brethren, right now,
we have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man.
The God-man mediator right now is in heaven at God's right hand
as our great high priest. Think about that. We have someone
representing us in heaven with God right now. Look at Hebrews
9 verse 12. It says, Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. You see this redemption? It's
eternal because He's eternal God. Now, when Christ is formed
in us in regeneration, when He's formed in us in regeneration,
that's when of God Christ is made unto us sanctification. That's when we behold He's really
our sanctifier and our sanctification. Look at Hebrews 10 and verse
10. We're not sanctified by our will, we're sanctified by His
will. Look here, Hebrews 10. Look at verse 7. Then said I,
this is Christ speaking, Lo, I come, in the volume of the
book it's written of me, to do thy will, O God. We couldn't. So He came to do
the will of God for His people. Now look at verse 10. By the
witch will, we are sanctified. We are sanctified. We're made
holy and separate. Made perfect through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Look down at verse
14. For by one offering He hath perfected. You could just as easily put,
He has sanctified. He has made holy. He has perfected
forever. See there? He had to be a man
so He could sanctify us. And because He's God, it's forever. Sanctified, perfected forever,
them that are sanctified. Them that are sanctified. So
Christ alone is our sanctification in heaven. He's our holiness
in heaven. That holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. When we're chastened, why are
we chastened? That we might continue to be
partakers of His holiness. Not of a holiness that's of our
own, His holiness. And He is within us our holiness. He is what makes the new man
within us holy. It's Christ Jesus. So, the same
as Christ's righteousness alone covers our nakedness, so His
holiness alone is our holiness. Not anything of us. It's all
of Him. Now secondly, how are we made
sanctified? How does this sanctification
come to us? We're dead sinners. We can't
do anything. So how are we sanctified? How are we made holy? We see
this in the hymn of the robe. Look here in Exodus 28 in verse
33. And beneath, upon the hymn of
it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of
scarlet. Remember what the blue, purple,
and scarlet was? Blue, God from heaven. Scarlet,
man who could bleed. Red, scarlet. And you put those
together as the God-man, purple, he is royalty. He is the king. He is the king-priest. All right,
look. So they made these pomegranates
of blue, purple, and scarlet, round about the hem thereof,
and bells of gold between them round about. A golden bell and
a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem
of the robe round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to
minister, and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto
the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, and that
is before the people, that he die not. So now, we know a pomegranate
is a fruit. A pomegranate is a fruit. And
all fruitfulness, Scripture says, all fruitfulness in a believer
comes from Christ the Lord. It's from Christ ministering
to us. Psalm 1-3 speaks of Christ as
the blessed man. And it says this, he shall be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth
his fruit in his season. Remember Christ said I'm the
vine, you're the branches. Without me you can do nothing.
He's the tree and he brings forth fruit. He makes dead sinners
alive in His season and brings forth fruit within us in His
season. His leaf also shall not wither
and whatsoever He doeth shall prosper. You know what God calls
you and I as His church, collectively here as the church of God, you
know what He calls us? Listen to this, from Song of
Solomon 4.12, He says, A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants
are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits. We're an
orchard of pomegranates. We're the fruit of Christ. Christ
made us fruitful. Now how does he do this? How
does he bring forth this fruit? He does it through the preaching
of the gospel. We're filled with the fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and
praise of God. That's Philippians 1.11. How
is that done? It's done by the golden bell. It's done by the preaching of
the gospel of Christ. That's what the golden bell represents. Look at verse 35. It shall be
upon Aaron to minister. What is our gospel? What do we
preach? Our message is how Christ came
not to be ministered to, but how that He came to minister
and to give His life a ransom for many. That's our entire Gospel.
He's still ministering to us through the preaching of the
Gospel. Look here, and His sound, verse 35, and His sound. What's
the sound of Christ our High Priest? It's the sound of the
Gospel. His sound shall be heard. The gospel shall be heard. When He goes in into the holy
place before the Lord, and when He comes out before the people,
this gospel is being heard. That He die not. That He die
not. This golden bell represents the
preaching of the gospel, because that's how the fruit is brought
forth. The golden bell, the pomegranate, golden bell, pomegranate, all
fruits brought forth by this joyful sound. For after that
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
to a regenerated child of God, to one whom Christ has made to
be his fruit, and has made fruitful, the gospel is a joyful sound.
like a little tinkling bell. The angel said, fear not, I bring
you good tidings of great joy. That's what the gospel is. For
unto you is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. This golden
bell was upon Aaron as he ministered. And so we preach concerning the
ministry of our great high priest, Jesus Christ the Lord. That's
our message. Christ ministered to his people
when he walked this earth, accomplishing our redemption. redeeming us
from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. He
was ministering to us on the cross. He was saving His people
from our sins. He bled in order that He might
fulfill the everlasting covenant of grace. Remember when He handed
the wine to them, He said, this wine represents the New Testament,
the everlasting covenant of grace in My blood. It's written in
His blood. That means it's sure and it's
certain, brethren. Our resurrected high priest continues
to minister. He's not through ministering.
He's going to get all the glory for making us righteous and for
sanctifying us. and He's going to sanctify us
through the preaching of the Word. Turn over to Galatians
3. This is where we see this so clearly. When Paul was trying
to correct the believers in Galatia, they were being told they have
to go back to the law to sanctify themselves. Look at how Paul,
the Spirit of God used Paul to say this, what I'm telling you.
Christ is our sanctification and He sanctifies us through
the preaching that declares His faithful ministry and how He
does all for us. Look here, Galatians 3 verse
2. This only what I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit, were you born again by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith? Were you hearing about
the works of the law or were you hearing about Christ's faithfulness
when you were born again? Are you so foolish having begun
in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? You know, that's what preachers
say. Once you're regenerated and once you're born of God and
you've been sanctified, now you have to go back to the law and
perfect that by your works. Paul said, are you so foolish?
How did you begin? You began by hearing Christ preached. You began by hearing the faithfulness
of Christ declared and the Spirit of God entered in and you were
born of God. Do you think this is going to
be completed and you're going to be brought to the end by going
back to the law? No. Look here. Look at verse
5. He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit. Who is that? That's Christ. He's
our high priest. Remember our text says these
bells are upon Him as He ministers. He ministers through this gospel
to us. And look, and Christ worketh
miracles among you. He ministers the Spirit to His
child through the gospel and He works the miracle of regeneration. He works the miracle of sanctification,
making you a new creature. Doeth He it by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith? It's by the hearing of His faithfulness. Even as Abraham believed God. How was he sanctified? How was
he made to believe God? And it counted righteousness.
How? Well, it wasn't by the law because
the law wasn't given for 430 years later, so Abraham certainly
didn't have the law preached to him. What did he have preached
to him? The faithfulness of Christ. And Christ ministered the Spirit
to him and worked a miracle of regeneration in him, making him
holy and setting him apart. You get that? You see that? And
so we don't change from this method of grace. We don't go
back to the law. We continue hearing Christ preached. And He continues ministering
to us the Spirit. And keeping us separated unto
Him all our days. Now, this gospel that we preach
is delighted in by the whole heavenly host. I love to picture
this as the Gospels being preached right now. Hebrews 12 says, you've
not come to the mouth that might be touched, it quaked with fire.
You've not come to Mount Sinai, you've come to Mount Zion. You've
come to the church of God. The spirits of just men made
perfect. And right now, remember the high priest, he goes in to
the holy place before the Lord and his sound is heard before
the Lord. Right now in heaven, the Lord
hears His Son being exalted. And all the host of men made
perfect there, all His children made perfect there, they hear
this message of Christ made perfect. Christ exalted in perfection.
His perfection is preached. And also, when He comes out before
the people, His sound is heard. You and I hear it right here
too. And so you have all heaven and all of us sitting here all
looking at Christ. All looking at Christ. That's
a beautiful picture I think, don't you? That's what's really
happening when the gospel is preached. All eyes are on Christ. That's why we can't stand to
hear a message that points us to ourselves and gives us a work
to do because that's turning eyes to us. We want our eyes
on Christ. Now the purpose of preaching
is, it says there in Exodus 28, in verse 35, the last phrase
says, that he die not. Now you've probably heard this
before. I'd heard this before too. It'll say, well he had those
bells on him so that as he ministered they could hear the tinkling
and when he went into the holiest of holies, as long as they heard
the bells tinkling, they knew he was alive. If the bell ever
stopped tinkling, they knew he had died. That can't be what it was for.
That can't be what this meant. Because when He went into that
holiest of holies, that high priest pictured Christ our high
priest. And Christ our high priest didn't
enter the holiest of holies and die. He'd already died. He's the Lamb that had already
died. And He went in as our holy high priest having accomplished
eternal redemption for us. So that can't be what it pictured.
What does it mean then? Apostle Peter said this. I will
put you always in remembrance of these things. Though you know
them and be established in the truth, I'm going to keep you
always hearing Christ crucified so that He won't die in your
memory. He won't die as your focus. He won't be put out of your mind. You will always have your focus
on Him. That's why Paul said, Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. It's why he
said, I determine to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It's why he said, as this joyous
sound goes forth, we speak wisdom. We speak wisdom, Christ our wisdom,
in whom is all wisdom. And it's wisdom among them that
are perfect, among you that are sanctified. We speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained
before the world unto our glory. The world of unregenerate men
can't understand this mystery we preach, but you understand
it. If you hear, look at Psalm 89, I want you to see this. If
you hear and you rejoice in this gospel, in the sound of this
golden bell, look here what God says about you. Psalm 89, 15. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. If you know this joyful sound,
you're blessed. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For Thou
art the glory of their strength, and in Thy favor our horns shall
be exalted. For the Lord is our defense,
and the Holy One of Israel is our King. You see that? That's
what this gospel is all about. We rejoice in Him. We have glory
in Him and He won't ever let Christ die in our thoughts, in
our heart, in our memory. He's going to keep us always
in remembrance of Him. Now lastly, let's go back to
our text in Exodus 28 and we'll look at the miter and we'll see
right here how that Christ is our holiness. He's the God-man,
so He met all the qualifications to be the sanctifier and the
sanctification. He is the one who ministers to
us through the gospel by which He sanctifies us and brings us
to a belief of the truth through the Spirit. He ministers the
Spirit to us. Now we're going to see Him. as
our holiness, right here. Verse 36, and thou shalt make
a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it, like the engravings
of a signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on
a blue lace, that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront
of the miter it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things."
Now get that part right there. You picture this mitre, it's
all of gold, it says holiness to the Lord, and it's on Aaron's
forehead. Now watch, that Aaron may bear
the iniquity of the holy things. Now he's going to tell us what
the holy things are. Those which the children of Israel shall
hallow in all their holy gifts. everything they set aside to
give to God. And it shall be always upon His
forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. Now the signet
read, on this mitre read, Holiness to the Lord. So you have a picture
of Christ our High Priest who is our holiness to the Lord. That's what the picture is. Now
verse 38 says, It was upon our High Priest, it's upon Christ
our High Priest, so that He might bear the iniquity of the holy
things, which the children of Israel, all God's elect, shall
hallow, which they separate out for God, to give to God in all
their holy gifts. And it shall be always upon His
forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. Now, believer,
we know from Revelation, the Scripture says, by the blood
of Christ, He's made us priests unto God. That's what He's done. He's made us priests unto God.
And so, now we can come before God and serve God. And we can offer to God offerings
of thanksgiving. The calves of your lips, thanksgiving
in our praise of God. Thanksgiving in whatever we do
for God, in the service of God, such as coming to worship Him. or giving an offering for the
furtherance of the gospel, or our time to work on a building,
or whatever it is we're doing, those are called holy gifts. But we're so sinful in ourselves,
our flesh is so sinful, that we defile those holy gifts. We can't just offer them up of
ourselves and God receive them because we defile them with our
sin. But get this now, God says right
here, they're still holy things. How are they holy things when
my sin defiles everything I do before the Lord? It's because Christ on the cross,
our high priest, born the iniquity of all our holy things. He bore
the sin of every gift you would offer. Isn't that amazing? When
we think of Christ bearing our sin, we think of Him bearing
the sin of our rebellion against God. He bore the sin of your
serving God too. Everything that we do as believers
to God, He bore the sin that I commit every time I stand and
preach the gospel. He bore that sin too. So that whatever we do may be
accepted before the Lord. Look over at 1 Peter 2 and I'll
show you this in the New Testament so you can see it clearly. Look
here, 1 Peter 2. Verse 5, it says, you also as
lively stones are built up a spiritual house, now look, and you're a
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. That's how they're acceptable,
by Christ. Now go to Ecclesiastes 9 Ecclesiastes
9, and I'll show you what all this means for you and I who've
been sanctified. You've been set apart by God,
made holy by Christ, so that you don't look anywhere else
but the Lord Jesus Christ for your holiness, for your acceptance
with God. Then here's the good news for
you. This is the good news for you. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 7. Go thy way, eat thy bread with
joy, drink thy wine with a merry heart, For God now accepteth
thy works. Amen. Let's stand together. Our Father, we thank You that
You sent Your only begotten Son to bear all our iniquity that
we might be accepted of You. Lord, thank You for making it
so that we can We can worship You and do for You and You will
accept it. Thank You that Christ is our
only holiness. Lord, sanctify Your people. Sanctify some lost sinner today. Set him apart and make him holy
by the spirit of regeneration. We ask it, Lord, that You might
be glorified in his heart and glorified in every heart here. Cause us this day to see Christ
and remember His broken body and His shed blood. And forgive
us, Lord, of our sin. Forgive us for looking at the
sin of our brethren and for looking at our own sin and being doubtful
or for looking at anything we do that's good. Make us look
to Christ only. We ask this in His precious name.
Amen.