Exodus chapter 4. And we'll begin reading in verse
27. Exodus 4.27. It says, And the Lord said to
Aaron, The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet
Moses. And he went, and he met him in
the mount of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the
words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which
he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and
gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And
Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses,
and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people
believed. And when they heard that the
Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked
upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped."
Now this must have been a happy reunion for Moses and Aaron after
40 years. They haven't seen one another
now for a long, long time. And here they are, come together
now and they're seeing each other for the first time after all
that time. But there's a whole lot more
here than just Moses and Aaron meeting one another. This passage
gives us a picture of how Christ, our high priest, our mediator,
how Christ met the law of God on behalf of His people. That's what we're going to be
looking at, how Christ met the law on behalf of His people. Now here are the types. Moses
is a type of the law. He's the one the law came through.
The law was given through Moses. And also Moses is a prophet.
So Moses here is representing the law and the prophets. The
law and the prophets. Aaron was the elder brother of
Moses. He was the elder brother. He
was the high priest, the mediator. He was the one who went into
the holiest of holies and represented the children of Israel. So Aaron
here is a picture of Christ our high priest, Christ our mediator.
And then the children of Israel are a picture of God's true elect
spiritual Israel who Christ redeemed and who He shall bring to worship
Him. You get the picture now? We got
Moses, the law and the prophets, Aaron, Christ the high priest,
and the children of Israel, God's elect. First of all, God sent
Christ into this earth. Verse 27 says, And the Lord said
to Aaron, Go into the wilderness. It was the Lord God who sent
His Son into this wilderness, this world, to redeem His people. He sent Him here to fulfill the
law for us. Verse 27 says, And the Lord said
to Aaron, Go in the wilderness to meet Moses. You see, God didn't
just send Christ for nothing. He sent Him to accomplish a work.
He sent Him to meet the law. He sent Him to fulfill the law
and the prophets for His people. That's why He came forth. He
sent Him because we needed propitiation to be made. Propitiation means
appeasing God. It's the act or that which appeases
God and gives God full satisfaction. And that's why we read in the
scriptures, herein is love, not that we love God. You and I couldn't
propitiate for ourselves because all mankind died in Adam so we
were all the offenders. The offender can't do the propitiating.
We couldn't propitiate God because we sinned against God. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation. And he, you know, that's how
you define what a text means. Look into the text and see what
it says. Christ came and made propitiation. That's why when you read, when
Paul says he's the propitiation for our sins and not for ours
only but for the sins of the whole world, you know he's not
talking about everybody in the world because propitiation was
made. He appeased God and satisfied
God so that God will never be angry again with those for whom
Christ died. So that world means His elect
scattered throughout the world because those for whom Christ
made a propitiation. Now, God sent Christ to redeem
His people from the law's curse. He sent Him to redeem His people
from the law's curse so that God might send us the Holy Spirit
of adoption. We had to be redeemed and then
God, and He did that, that He might recall us. and quicken
us. Galatians 4.4 says, 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, that, there was a purpose to it, that we might receive
the adoption of sons. What I'm saying to you is, Christ
knew who He came to die for. He knew who He was coming to
save. And He came And He did it so
that we might receive the spirit of adoption. That doesn't mean
that if you're an elect, it doesn't matter if you ever believe or
not, you'll be saved as some teach. No, that wasn't the purpose
for which Christ redeemed His people. He redeemed His people
that we might receive the adoption of children. So that we shall
and must be born again and brought to faith in Christ. And God sent
His Son that His people might live through Christ's death.
When I say might or should, I'm not saying there's a possibility.
I'm saying this is the end purpose which God is accomplishing, has,
is, and shall accomplish for all His people. He sent Christ
that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law. Christ
did it. He sent Christ to make propitiation. Christ did it.
He sent Christ to make it so that we might receive the adoption
of children. Christ did it. He sent Christ
to give His people life through Him. Christ does that. He did
that. He does that in His people. And this was manifest to the
love of God toward us because the God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. Do you think
God is going to purpose that we will live through the death
of His Son and not accomplish that? Sure He's going to accomplish
it. He has to accomplish it. He gave
His only begotten Son to lay down His life and die that we
might live through it. So He's going to make us live
through it. And Christ obeyed. He came and He met the law of
God in the mount of God on the cross. That's what was taking
place on the cross. Verse 27 says, He went and met
Him in the mount of God. Aaron obeyed. He went when God
sent Him. And He met Moses in the mount
of God. is a picture of Christ our High
Priest, Christ our Mediator. When God sent Him forth, Christ
came forth and He met the law in the mount of God on Calvary's
cross. That's where He met God. So,
why did He do that? We've broken God's law. Those
He came to save have broken God's law. See, here's how I'd say
this doctrine all goes together. We can't have a part in Christ's
death. unless we are totally depraved.
You see, that goes together because this is why Christ came, because
we broke the law. And in that what the law could
not do through the weakness of our flesh, because we couldn't
keep the law. You see, if a man says, well, I don't believe we're
totally depraved, well, then he can't have a part in this.
He got no business saying Christ died for all men because he has
no part in that. Only the totally depraved have
a part in this. because Christ came forth because
we had broken the law and God will not clear the guilty. He
will not clear the guilty. Everybody sitting here before
me today, we came into this world guilty. Some are still guilty. Some are going to pass from this
world guilty. You realize there are some people sitting right
here, right now, people we love. They are going to pass from this
world and stand before God guilty and be sentenced to hell for
all eternity. That ought to scare us to death.
That ought to make us... You know, I was talking to a
brother this past week and I was asking about one of his loved
ones coming with him. He had mentioned it several times. I
said, are you going to bring her with you? He said, well, I'll
see. You know, I'll just wait and
see what happens. I said, would you do that if she was in a burning
building? Would you just stand back and say, well, I'll just
wait and see what happens? No, you try to get her out of
there. Well, get her out of this church. Get her to hear the gospel.
Bring her. No matter what you got to do.
Paul said, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
So Christ came because we're guilty. And that's the gospel. Here's the gospel. God came to
save the people who are guilty, who God's going to show mercy.
Now, how can He satisfy His law and honor His law and yet show
mercy? You know, that can't be. I heard
somebody this week talk about a person who had been sentenced,
but they didn't exactly plead guilty. They plead the Alfred
Law, you know, where you don't exactly have to say you're guilty,
but yet it goes down as you're guilty. And this lady said, well,
it was just partly justice. There's no such thing as partly
justice. With God, it's all justice. and all mercy. How can He do
that? How can a man be just with God? How can God honor His justice
while showing guilty sinners mercy? This is the question of
the Gospel. This is the essence of the Gospel.
This is what Scripture refers to when it says the purpose of
God in sending His Son was to declare the righteousness of
God. This is how the righteousness of God is declared. How God can
be just and the justifier. First of all, in order to be
just, Christ had to be spotless. He had to be the spotless Lamb
of God. He came forth under the law to be proven spotless. You
know how they put that lamb up and they looked at that lamb,
and they went through that lamb, they looked at every hair in
that lamb, they wanted to make sure there was no streak, no
little off-colored hair in that lamb. And they looked for any
blemish all over him, and that lamb had to be spotless. He had
to be perfect before he could be offered. And so it was with
Christ. Christ had to be perfect. Christ
just once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. He's the just one, that He might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the Spirit. He made His grave with the wicked and with the
rich in His death because He had done no violence. Neither
was any deceit in His mouth. If He had done violence, if there
was deceit in His mouth, He wouldn't have been fit to lay down His
life for us. You see, that's why you and I can't ever satisfy
the law. We have deceit in our mouth.
That's all that's in our mouth by nature. And we do violence
by nature. We can't do anything to satisfy
God. Christ the spotless Lamb alone
could. So this spotless Lamb of God then presented Himself
to God our Father to have all the sins of His people laid on
Him that God might be just. Just to pour out wrath on Christ
in our place and just to declare us forgiven and give us mercy. You get that? He had to be just
to pour out the wrath on Christ. So Christ made sin for us. And
he had to be just. And what Christ was doing was
to make it just so that God could give us mercy. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We turn every one of us to His
own way. And the Lord laid all that iniquity
of us, His people, on Him. He took all that sin of His people
and laid it on His Son. For He made Him sin for us who
knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. And He said, therefore I'll divide Him a portion with
the great and He'll divide the spoil with the strong. He spoiled
Satan. He spoiled all our enemies. And
He'll divide that spoil with His people. How come? Because
He poured out His soul unto death and He was numbered with the
transgressors. God imputed sin to Him. Because
he had made him sin, he bear the sin of many. That's why he
had sin imputed to him. And he made intercession for
the transgressors. That means he satisfied God.
He made propitiation. He honored the law. And so by
his finished work now, what's happened? Righteousness and peace
have kissed in harmony. Look at verse 27. And he went
and he met him in the mount of God and he kissed him. He kissed
him. Because Christ satisfied God's
law, because Christ declared God just, and because in Christ
God is the justifier, we read in Psalm 85, 10, mercy and truth
are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other
because of what Christ did. Just as Moses went forth and
Aaron came forth and on the Mount of God they met and they kissed
each other, Christ Jesus, who is our righteousness and who
is our peace, together with the law, they've kissed each other
in harmony. God can show mercy now and it
not be at the expense of His justice because Christ honored
His justice. Go to Psalm 89.13. I want you
to see this. People talk about God's love
and they want to make that the chief attribute of God and they
teach it as a sentimental thing. You know, God's just so loving,
He's going to have mercy on everybody and just do best you can. Listen
to what the Scriptures say. Psalm 89, verse 13, Thou hast
a mighty arm, strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Watch
this. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of Thy throne. That means God's throne, who
God is, is judgment and justice. That's who He is. That's His
first chief attribute. Holy. He's just. Everything He does is done justly. Look here, mercy and truth shall
go before Thy face. Mercy and truth. Mercy and justice. How can that be? It doesn't say
it's a possibility. It says, they shall go before
thy faith. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. They
shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. When you
know how this truth and this mercy meet, when you hear that
joyful sound and you understand how they meet and in whom they
meet, that's when you'll start walking in the light of God's
countenance. Look here, in thy name shall they rejoice all the
day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. Not our
own. We don't rejoice in our name
and in our righteousness. We rejoice in Christ. We've heard
that joyful saying. We know it's Christ in whom His
people are made just and can have mercy. For Thou art the
glory of their strength, in Thy favor our horns shall be exalted,
for the Lord is our defense, and the Holy One of Israel is
our King." Christ did it all, so we glory in Him. Now let me
go to the next thing. Everything, everything that the
Law and the Prophets declared, Christ fulfilled. Everything
the Law and the Prophets declared, Christ fulfilled. Verse 28 says,
Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him
and all the signs which he had commanded him. Now you get the
picture there. Moses is telling Aaron all the
words of the Lord who had sent him. Well, remember Moses, the
law was given through Moses and Moses was a prophet. So here
you got the Law and the Prophets telling Christ all of the words
of the Lord. You got the Law and the Prophets
telling Christ all the words of the Lord that Christ must
fulfill. That Christ must fulfill. Christ said, think not that I
came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. He said, I came not
to destroy but to fulfill. To fulfill the Law and the Prophets. You and I couldn't fulfill the
Prophets. and we came to fulfill the Law. Christ came to fill
it full, as full as it can be filled, and complete the Law
and the Prophets. For verily I say unto you, Christ
said, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. That was why
Christ came forth. And everything Christ did on
this earth was to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. He declared
that to those men on the road to Emmaus. Go to Luke 24-25.
It says here, It says here, Luke 24-25, Then
He said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken. See that? All that the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to have entered into His glory? He says here, And beginning at
Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself." That means he declared
to them the law and the prophets and said, all these things are
written of me, of what I'll fulfill. That's why Paul in the first
few verses of Romans, he said, I'm sent to preach the gospel
of God. And then in Ephesus he tells
you what it is, which he had promised afore by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. concerning His Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's what the Law and the Prophets
is all about. Men look into this Old Testament and they want to
teach you that things are miraculous, things that will come to pass
and that nobody can say, you know, that nobody can understand
and they want to talk to you about the Law and what you ought
to do and not do about the Law and all this. All that's written
in the Old Covenant, in the Law and the Prophets, is concerning
Christ. Everything there. And if we're
not preaching Christ from it, we haven't preached what the
meaning of it is. What I'm preaching to you now in this text, I'm
not going to this text and just preaching you something about
how brothers ought to love one another after they've seen each
other for 40 years. I'm talking to you that this is a picture
of Christ. Because this is concerning Christ. Everything God did by
His sovereign hands concerning Christ. Christ is the seat of
woman. Christ is the high priest. He's the spotless lamb. He's
the mercy seat. Christ is the one spoken of in
Isaiah 53. He's the one spoken of in Daniel's
prophecy of the 70 weeks. He accomplished all that written
there on the cross. And everything in between those
Scriptures are all spoken of Christ. He's everything. The
fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. So go to Romans 3 now. I show you this a lot. Romans
3. We're going to get this one day. Romans 3. Since Christ fulfilled
the Law and the Prophets, the Law and the Prophets, when we
read them, they do for us what we're doing right here now. They
bear witness of Christ. They teach us we've seen Christ.
We're telling you about Christ is what the Law and the Prophets
do. If we see them all right and they're taught all right.
Look here, Romans 3.21. Now the righteousness of God
without the Law is manifested. That means without you doing
the law. The righteousness of God was manifested without you
keeping the law. But it's witnessed by the law
and the prophets. The righteousness of God is what
the law and the prophets are speaking about. See, the law
right now, we're looking into the law. First five books of
the Bible were written by Moses. We're looking into the law and
the prophets right now. And they're bearing witness to
us of the righteousness of God. Who are they speaking of? Who
is that righteousness? Verse 22, Even the righteousness
of God which is by the works, the faith of Jesus Christ, unto
all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. That's
the only way believers are saved is through the righteousness
of Christ. What He did, His righteous obedience to God, that's what
all the Old Testament law and prophets are teaching us, bearing
witness to us of the law of Christ, the righteousness of God. So
all who believe, brethren, all who believe, the Scripture says,
have come to the end of the law. They've come to the end of the
law. Christ, our righteousness. The Scriptures, Paul talked about
his brethren in Israel, his kinsmen after the flesh. And he said,
I would to God they believed. I'll bear them record, they have
a zeal of God. They're running around religious as they can
be. They're building churches left and right. They're making
proselytes left and right. They're going in all the world
and doing missionary work. And they're doing humanitarian
aid work. And they're doing all the things
they can do. He said, and every bit of it
is ignorance. They're going about to establish their own righteousness
and they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Because
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. You see, it's happening in our
day. This world is going, it's super religious and all the things
that are being done in the name of Christ is being done in ignorance
for those who have not submitted themselves to the righteousness
of Christ, to God's righteousness. He's the end of the law. We're
not trying to come to God by our works. And when men, you
know, they'll say, well, we're not talking about you trying
to accomplish salvation by your works or righteousness by your
works. Well, if you're trying to accomplish holiness by your
works, the same can be said. It's ignorance. And if you're
trying to get a reward in heaven, which is a false gospel, a false
doctrine, you're trying to earn something
and indebt God, and God hates that. Our reward in heaven is
Christ. You can't get any better than
that. And all His people are going to have the same reward.
Christ. Are you rewarded in this life?
Yeah. There is no such thing as rewards
in this life. You obey God, He is going to honor you. You disobey
Him, He is going to chase you. But when we get to glory, that's
over with. We are all going to be sitting
under Christ. Our reward. Our reward. Christ
told Apostle Peter, He said, anybody that's forsaken off and
followed Me, they're going to have untold brethren in this
world, and they'll have a place they can sleep anytime they want
to, and they'll be provided for, and that's the reward in this
life. And He said, and after eternal life with Christ. That's the reward after this.
And that's the only reward. We're not going after, we're
not mercenaries. trying to indebt God to us. Now
go to, this is the third thing. Then Christ makes His people
hear and believe. Now, back in our text, Exodus
4, we can't hear the Law and the Prophets by nature. We're
deaf. We can't hear the Law and the
Prophets by nature. Christ has got to come through the preaching
of the Gospel, through the Holy Spirit, and reveal to us the
Law and the Prophets. See, Christ comes with the Law
and the Prophets. Paul said, the Law was our schoolmaster
until Christ. And that's what the word is there,
until Christ. When Christ comes, it's not the
Law that you hear alone. We couldn't hear the Law alone.
When the commandment came, as Paul said, is when Christ came
and taught us the Law and the Prophets. And he does that effectively. Look at verse 29. And Moses and
Aaron went. You see the Law and the Prophets
in Christ's hand coming forth. Aaron and Moses went and gathered
together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron
spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses and
did the signs in the sight of the people. Now Moses signifies
the Law and the Prophets. Aaron signifies Christ our High
Priest. So Moses and Aaron went. Christ
comes to His people with the Law and the Prophets. He comes
to us with the Law and the Prophets. Just like Aaron went forth with
Moses, Christ comes with the Law and the Prophets to teach
us like He did those fellows on the road to Emmaus. How did
they learn with the Law and the Prophets that they were concerning
Christ? Christ met them and taught them. That's what's happening
here in type. And then they gather together
all the elders of the children of Israel. Christ gathers all
His people together. I don't have to worry about whether
or not God's people are going to come in here and hear the
gospel. I'm going to do everything I can to get folks to come. But
I don't have to worry as to whether or not God's people are going
to come here. You know, we sit here and we meet week in and
week out, and all of a sudden, somebody new shows up. And we
couldn't have found those people if we had tried to find them.
And they show up. And God plants them, and they
stay. We don't have to worry if He's going to gather His people.
He's going to gather His people. And it says, and Aaron spake.
See who spake? Aaron spake. The Law and the
Prophets don't speak to us. Moses didn't talk. Aaron did
the talking. And the Law and the Prophets
are only spoken to us by Christ. And it said, and He spoke to
him all that which the Lord had spoken unto Moses. And He did
the signs in the sight of the people. Christ Jesus the Lord
comes forth and He teaches us the law and the prophets. Christ
Himself is the sign. He said, I'm the sign. And He
teaches us all those signs that Moses saw in that rod of God. Remember the rod of God? Christ
comes forth and makes us behold, He's the righteousness of God.
He's the righteousness of God. He's our righteousness. And remember
the hand that went in the coat and it came out clean? He makes
us see He's our sanctification. He's the only one that can purify
lepers like us. Christ did. And when He makes
you behold He's your righteousness and He's your holiness, He makes
you behold that third sign which was judgment. Remember He said,
I'm going to pour water out on this land and it's going to turn
to blood. That water, life was water. And
that was judgment upon those who would not believe. And He
makes you see judgment has been satisfied for you. Been satisfied
for you. That's what Christ does when
He comes forth to teach you what the Law and the Prophets say.
And when He makes us hear and behold Him, He makes us willing. By giving us a sight of Him,
He gives us a new heart, a new willingness and power to believe
on Him. Look at verse 31. And the people
believed when they heard. that the Lord had visited the
children of Israel. You know when you're going to
believe? When you hear. That's right. When Christ makes you hear that
in Christ God Almighty has visited His people. That's our message. He didn't visit the whole world
without exception. All men in the world without
exception. He visited His people. When you're going to believe?
When you hear He visited His people. hear it affectionately
in the heart. And it says there, and that He
looked upon their affliction, that's what Christ did, He looked
upon our affliction. And He made all provision for
us to provide for our affliction. And then, what was the result?
When they heard this, what was the result? Then they bowed their
heads and worshipped. They bowed their heads in worship.
Have you believed? Have you heard what the Lord
has spoken? I can tell you this, when you
hear that God has looked upon the affliction of His people
and saved us from our sin, that's when you will bow and worship
God. You'll stop being stout-hearted
and stiff-necked and denying God and calling God a liar, and
you'll bow and you'll worship Him. It's just so. I'm telling you, be it known
unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses." He says, the only way you can be justified
is Christ. Come to Christ. What is it to bow our head and
worship God? What is that? is to count all
our former religion and all our former works and all our former
hope as nothing but dung. That's what it is. We haven't
repented until we've done that. Philippians 3.8 Paul said, Doubtless
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I've suffered the loss of all
things and to count them but dung that I might win Christ.
That's when you bow in worship. when you've forsaken everything
else. And it's Christ only. Christ
only. To have one desire has to be
found in Christ having His righteousness. Paul said after that, I want
to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
that which Christ worked out for me, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. I pray God will be pleased now
to grant us repentance and faith in Christ. Make us behold Him
and Him only. Let's stand together and we'll
be dismissed. Our gracious Father, we thank
You that You've provided the propitiation that satisfied You
and made perfect, complete atonement redeeming Your people through
the precious blood of Christ. Lord, make us see now that everything
this book teaches is concerning Christ and Him alone. Make us
behold that as Christ is glorified, so the Father and the Holy Spirit
are glorified. Make us bow now, make us worship.
We ask it in Christ's precious name. Amen.