Go ahead and turn with me again
to Exodus chapter 28. Why do we study the Old Testament
scriptures? Well, the Lord Jesus said, Moses
wrote of me. Moses wrote the book of Exodus
and it's all about Christ. Our Lord also said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and was glad. And you can read about
that day in the book of Genesis. And it was Moses who wrote that
book also. The Old Testament saints were
saved the same way as we are, by seeing Christ, God revealing
Christ to us. Christ is what all the scriptures
are concerning. The law of Moses and the prophets
and in the Psalms is referring to the Old Testament scriptures.
And Christ said, they're all concerning me. For a few studies
now, we've seen how the high priest and his garments have
no doubt pictured and typified the Lord Jesus Christ in both
Aaron and in the clothing that he wore. And tonight in verse
40, we come to Aaron's sons. Look at verse 40 with me. "'And
for Aaron's sons, thou shalt make coats, "'and thou shalt
make for them girdles, "'and bonnets shalt thou make for them,
"'for glory and for beauty.'" Now, the first thing that I want
to remind you of in Knight's study is that it was God. It
was God who chose who would be his high priest and priest. In
verse one, God said to Moses, "'And take thou unto thee Aaron
thy brother, and his sons with him from among the children of
Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest office,
even Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, Aaron's sons." And
it's God who chose who would be his high priest. It was God who elected his son
to be the high priest of his people. That's what Isaiah said. He said, behold, my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect. You see, we're elect in Christ.
Christ was God's elect. He said, behold, my servant,
in whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delight, and
I have put my spirit upon him. And he most certainly did that.
Then the Lord through Isaiah said, he shall not fail nor be
discouraged. That should be such great joy
and comfort to the believer. We have a successful high priest. He cannot fail. That's being
successful, isn't it? One who cannot fail. And Isaiah
there in chapter 54 said this, the Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake, and he will magnify the law. And he
most certainly did that. The law that you and I couldn't
keep, Christ magnified. Christ exalted, Christ fulfilled,
and he shall make it honorable, and he most certainly did that.
That's exactly what Christ, our high priest, did. This is what
I want you to see tonight, that God not only chose the high priest,
Aaron, but God also chose who would be priest, Aaron's sons. And this, dear friends, is a
picture of all believers. All believers are of God's holy
priesthood, and it's only because God, from the foundation of the
world, elected you and ordained you to be his own. Salvation
doesn't begin with man's will. I don't know how someone can
read this Bible and believe that. It begins with God's will. Men and women do not will themselves
to be saved. They are saved because God in
eternity willed and purposed for them to be so. All believers
are priests and have been consecrated to and for the divine service. Believers have been made kings
and priests under God, according to Revelation chapter 10, verse
six. And because of that, every child
of God has access to God. That's great news. Why? Why do
they have access to God? For in Christ, they've been made
a holy priesthood. That's what Peter said. He said,
we're a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ, our great high priest. God accepts us because
we're made acceptable to him. We are accepted in the beloved,
that's Christ. We are acceptable unto him by
Jesus Christ. We read that over and over in
the scriptures, in, by, and through him. Peter went on to say in
that same chapter that we are a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood. You see, we're united to the
one who is the king of kings. We talked about that this past
Sunday. Christ is not only king, but
he's the king of all kings, and he's the Lord of all lords. And there's nothing in scripture
that warrants a separate priestly class among believers. I know
there are some denominations, maybe not many, but some who
believe that there are men set aside for that particular position
of the high priest, but all believers have equal right to draw near
to God. That's what I want us to see.
Every child of God is a priest, according to Scripture. Turn
with me for a moment to Hebrews chapter 10. Keep your place here
and Exodus will be coming back to it, but I want you to see
this in Hebrews chapter 10. All God's priests worship at
a spiritual temple. Look at verse 19, Hebrews 10,
verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter in and to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the
veil, that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. We all stand
at a spiritual altar." Look over a page or two to Hebrews chapter
13, verse 10. Hebrews 13, verse 10. We have an altar, Christ is that
altar, and Christ is the sacrifice upon it. Those who were and are
still adhering to the Levitical law in meets and in ceremonies
have no lawful right to partake of Christ. That's what he's saying
there in verse 10. We have an altar where they have
no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. To trust in the Old
Testament sacrifices was to deny that the Lamb of God had been
slain before the foundation of the world and had come in the
flesh to save His people from their sin. Back in Hebrews 10
verse 4, you know these verses, but we're told here. Speaking
of those sacrifices of the Old Testament, verse three, but in
those sacrifices, there is a remembrance, again, made of sins every year,
for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should
take away sins. Wherefore, when he, Christ, cometh
into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. and in burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin, thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Christ
speaking, lo, I come in the volume of the book it's written of me
to do thy will, O God. You see, to reject Christ, the
son of God, is to be rejected by him. As believers, we offer
a spiritual sacrifice. Again, Hebrews chapter 13, look
at verse 15. By him, Therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. But as we see from Exodus chapter
28, verse 40, turn there again and let's read verse 40 again.
And for Aaron's sons, thou shalt make coats and thou shalt make
for them girdles and bonnets shall thou make for them for
glory and for beauty. All believers, as the priest
of God, are clothed with the same garments. And these garments
are made by God through Christ fulfilling the law for us. Just
as Aaron's sons were all clothed alike, so are we as believers. And it's important that we understand
the significance of this. None of us can boast that we
are more righteous or holy than another. Every man and woman
is depraved. Scripture teaches totally depraved. Our hearts are deceitful above
all things. Our hearts are desperately wicked. Our hearts think and act upon
evil. And not only that, but upon evil
continually. Genesis chapter six. Yet every
believer, every priest of God is adorned with the very same
garments. When Christ looks upon each of
them, He sees the very same thing. You know what it is. It's the
perfect righteousness that he wrought out for us. No believer,
no priest can boast. We have nothing to do with the
making of these garments. Not one of Aaron's sons had even
a thread of their own stitching upon themselves. The garments
were freely made for them and freely given to them. And no believer can boast in
any righteousness of their own. Why? Because we don't have any.
Our righteousness is filthy rags. We have no righteousness of our
own making. And I remind you of what Paul
wrote to Titus. He said, not by works of righteousness,
which we've done. No, sir, we have done no works
of righteousness, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Let's
never lose sight of that. It's God's mercy and grace in
Christ that saved us. according to his mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Titus 3, 5.
You know, I was thinking today, as I prepare notes to write some
of these things down, I think to myself very often, I hope
and pray we never get tired of hearing these things. Christ
made this garment of righteousness through the fulfilling of the
law for each of God's chosen priests. And it was God who made
the garments here through Moses, who pictures the law. And God
said to Moses there in verse 40, and for Aaron's sons, thou
shalt make. And that's the point that I'm
striving to make. God, our savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ was born of a woman that he might be made under the law
and that he be made under the law might fulfill the law for
his people and deliver them from his law. Now that's exactly what
Paul is telling us in Galatians chapter four. He said, when the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, How? Made of a woman, made under the
law, that we, that being his people, his priest, might receive
the adoption of sons. Like Aaron and his sons, you
child of God are God's priest and you are God's sons. Ladies
too, as I said recently, whenever we see that word sons, that's
speaking of you ladies too. And the apostle Paul said in
Galatians chapter five, that if a man is circumcised with
the hope and intention of being righteous by that act, then he's
a debtor to do the whole law. You see, if a man or a woman
puts any trust in any work that they do, if a man puts any trust
in the act of circumcision, then he's got to keep all the law.
He's got to keep all of it. And not only that, but he has
to keep it perfectly. That's what James said, for whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in just one point. We just miss one little part
of that humongous law, then we're guilty of the whole law. Our
Lord was circumcised according to Luke chapter two, verse 21,
and he kept the whole law. But the point is this, he's the
only one who did. He's the only one who could.
Therefore, he's the only one who could pay the debt of the
law in full perfection, dotted every I, crossed every T, kept
it perfectly. And he, as our federal head and
representative, did so for us. And therefore we did so in him.
You remember when the Lord Jesus was baptized by John in the river
Jordan, John the Baptist said, Lord, I need to be baptized of
you. I can't baptize you. And the
Lord Jesus said, suffer it or allow it to be so now for thus
it becometh us. You know, I thought about that.
Becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. And you know that John baptized
him. But why did the Lord say it becometh
us? You ever thought about that?
What did John have to do with the fulfilling of righteousness?
He didn't do a thing. Same as we don't do a thing.
But John was fulfilling all righteousness in Christ. And that's the way
we do in him. And this may be the hardest thing
for a child of God to get a hold of. When Christ fulfilled all
righteousness, all his elect fulfilled all righteousness in
him. Therefore, when God now looks
at me, he sees his beloved son. I'm just as perfect as Christ
is because of what Christ did. And it's really just that simple.
All who profess to believe on Christ and then insist that they
must keep the law or they can't be saved have not truly believed
on Christ. That's just the truth. And that's
what Paul meant when he wrote in Romans chapter 10, verse three,
and said that those who endeavor to keep the law as a means of
being saved are ignorant of God's righteousness. and they go about
to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves. What does that mean? It means
that they're not under obedience to Christ's righteousness. They
have not subjected themselves to Christ's righteousness and
to the righteousness of God. And what does it mean not to
submit or subject into the righteousness of Christ? Just what it says.
It means that you don't trust alone in Christ imputed righteousness,
that perfect righteousness that's freely given to you as your only
means of acceptance before God. You believe you've got to add
something to it. That's not to believe in Christ
at all. The true child of God knows that they are nothing,
that they have nothing that they can provide. nothing in order
to be saved. And it's only for Christ's sake
that God has forgiven you, me, or anybody. I say it all the
time, but it's really not hard to understand. It's impossible
to believe apart from God's mercy and grace. But we have to take
sides with God against ourselves. We just do. Christ told that
woman from Canaan, He says, it's not meat, it's not right. To
take the children's bread and to give it to dogs. You remember
what she said? She said, that's the truth. That's
the truth if I ever heard it. Truth, Lord, that was her word. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the master's table. Do you see what she did? She took sides with the Lord
against herself. She said, yes, Lord, I am a dog.
But the dogs do get to eat the crumbs from the master's table.
And I'm a dog. I have no right to your mercy
and grace, but dogs do get the crumbs. I'll take your crumbs,
Lord. The crumbs from the master's
table will more than suffice. And you remember what the Lord
said. He said, Oh, woman, Great is thy faith. Great is thy faith
to be it unto you, even as you have desired. And you know, she
came petitioning the Lord for her daughter. And it says, the
scripture says that her daughter was made whole right then and
there. You see friends, Christ is the
end of the law. Did you hear that? He's the end
of the law. He's fulfilled the law. The question
is, do we believe it? If we do, then we need to stop
trying to earn merit what Christ has already provided. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Did you hear that? Do you believe
that? Then we need to stop trying to
provide our own righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. If you believe
that, then great is your faith. because it's just within us by
nature to want to do something in order to be saved. Every believer
though wears the same garments. That's the point I'm trying to
make. And that being the very robe of righteousness that Christ
provides for us. I never grow tired of hearing
that. Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. Scripture says,
but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. and make not provision
for the flesh. Romans 13, 14. Paul said, for
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, and that's not talking
about water baptism, that's talking about baptism by fire. But as
many of you has been baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ. Galatians 3, 27. Now look at
verse 40 again. And for Aaron's sons, thou shalt
make coats. Exodus chapter 39 verse 27 shines
a little more light on these coats. It reads, and they made
coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron and for his sons. And as you well know, that pictures
Christ's perfect righteousness. As we've seen from our previous
studies, fine linen speaks of that spotless purity and that
holiness of Christ. And more specifically, the spotless
linen coats of the priest set forth the righteousness that
the people and the priest of God are clothed with. That's
our coat. Do you remember what the prodigal's
father said to his servants when he returned home? He said, bring
forth the best robe and put it on him. That's what Christ has
done for us. He's given us the best robe.
That's his perfect righteousness. And he's put it on us. And that
brings me to the second thing that I want us to see tonight.
And that is that we are clothed by another. We didn't clothe
ourselves. We caused our nakedness, but
the Lord Jesus clothed us. Look at verse 41 here. And thou
shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother and his sons with him,
and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that
they may minister unto me and the priests of us. Now these
coats were like the coat that our Lord Jesus wore. It was a
one piece woven from the top to the bottom. And every priest
had these garments put on them. And each one of them was put
on them by another. You see those who are made priest
unto God, that's what God's people are. That's what we're talking
about. That's what Aaron's son's picture. "'Those who are made
priest unto God "'do not put Christ's garments on themselves. "'They are put on us by another.'"
Isaiah said this, he wrote, "'I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
"'My soul shall be joyful in my God, "'for he hath clothed
me with the garments of salvation.'" and he hath covered me with the
robe of righteousness." I couldn't say it any better than that.
That's exactly what the Lord has done. The Psalmist said,
let thy priest be clothed with righteousness. And in another
place, he said, I'll clothe her priest. Speaking of the church
with salvation, Psalm 132. Also by the hand of another,
there was put on every priest a girdle. Now a girdle was a,
huge belt that held up the long robes that men in that day wore
and they added strength and support to the body when engaged in labor. I'm sure you've seen these weightlifters. They wear these big wide belts
and they support belts. And even now you can buy belts
like that for when moving heavy things. So supports the work,
same principle. But when Christ is formed in
the believer in the new birth, when Christ gives each of his
redeemed his girdle of faithfulness and his girdle of truth and love. His faithfulness is what gives
us strength. And that's what this girdle pictures.
So as we labor in the cause of Christ, we fight every battle
with Christ who is our strength and our support. We don't fight
these things alone. Peter said, wherefore gird up
the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Christ.
You see, a man who fails to use the girdle allows his garments
to hang loose. They get in the way, they hinder
his movements. Men's loose thoughts and wondering
imaginations must be girded. We must, as Paul said in Ephesians
chapter six, stand therefore, having your loins girt about
with truth. The child of God is not only
a priest to serve God, but, well, we're a pilgrim journeying to
another country, and we're also soldiers called on to fight the
good fight of faith, and we wrestle against principalities and powers
and spiritual wickedness. And by the hand of another, each
priest, we're told here, was given a bonnet, given to distinguish
the priest from others. And it says, for glory and beauty. Oh, as I think about Christ having
created us anew, we're born again. We're new creatures in Christ.
He's now created us in the image of God. Paul said that we're
being conformed to the image of his son in righteousness and
holiness. Therefore in Christ with his
garments on, we're glorious and beautiful in God's eyes. The
Lord, our bridegroom says to all his family, his people, his
bride. He said, thou art all fair, my
love, there's no spot in thee. Thou has ravished my heart. Song of Solomon chapter four.
Psalm 45, 13, it says, the king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of rock gold. Psalm 149, four, for the Lord
taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meat with
salvation. And I'll be honest with you,
I've never been one much for love stories, but this one, this
one, I can get excited about because it involves me, the unlovable
sinner that I am. This is what Christ has done
for me. And again, verse 41 tells us that God told Moses to anoint
Aaron and his sons. Did you notice that word, consecrate
them? sanctify them for glory and for
beauty. That's what the Holy Spirit does
for his people. He anoints them, he consecrates
and he sanctifies his people so that they can minister unto
God as priests. And the truth of the matter is
this, until the Holy Spirit does these things for us, we can't
serve God. But once Christ is formed in
us and we wear this beautiful and glorious attire, we can minister
unto God in the priest's office. And only then as a royal priesthood,
we can offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 42. And thou
shalt make them linen breeches. The Hebrew word there means drawers. It's the same word in the English
means trousers. And he says, to cover their nakedness
from the loins, even into the thighs they shall reach. And
that's speaking, of course, of the part of the body which ought
not to be naked and exposed to view. In verse 43, and 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.'" Now look at this. "'That they bear not iniquity
and die. "'It shall be a statute forever
"'unto him and his seed after him.'" That's a glorious, glorious
thing. with Christ's garments on, not
one child of God, not one, shall bear iniquity and die." You know,
it's no longer about what we deserve or what we've earned
by the wages of our person and our works. We've only married
to death. The wages of sin is death. But as a believer and
a priest of God, now it's all about what Christ has done for
us. having Christ's righteousness,
having His holiness, the believer can never again be charged with
iniquity. Therefore, the believer cannot
die, which is what sin's wages demand. And when Adam sinned,
we became naked, yes. And our fig leaf righteousness
can never cover us, but Christ covered our nakedness. Christ
that Aaron's covering here pictures. And it's Christ that Aaron and
the priest garments picture. It's all about him. This covering
was necessary when the priest entered into the holy place to
minister. And it's necessary because we
can only approach God with Christ covering on. Remember what the
Lord told Moses? You can't see my face in the
land. with Christ as our high priest and our covering, we're
actually welcomed into the presence of God. We are able to come boldly
into the throne of grace. And that's exactly what Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 19 tells us. Let me read, you don't have to
turn there. Let me read these verses to you. Having therefore
brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. by a new and living way, which
he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his
flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us
draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water." Did you notice here in verse 43 that
this was a statute forever unto Aaron and his seed after him.
That simply means as long as the priesthood continued, there
would be no iniquity found in or on God's people. Well, hasn't
the priesthood stopped? No, no. Since Christ is our high priest
and he's a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, with
no beginning or ending of days. The scripture says, Christ is
our high priest and we as his seed, his people, those he made
priests, shall be covered and shall never, ever bear iniquity
and shall never die throughout all eternity. And friends, that's
something to rejoice over. No need for us to fear death,
is there? No need for us to fear eternity.
There's no need for us to fear anything. Being found in Christ
who has made us priest unto God, we have nothing to fear. So we really ought to stop living
in fear. You know, I was thinking today
in my 64 plus years of living on planet earth, I've never seen
a time in my whole life where people are as afraid as they
are right now. I received an article last week
in Paul Mahan's bulletin that I'm gonna put in ours this Sunday,
but I wanna go ahead and read it to you right now. I think
it's very appropriate in considering this last verse of this chapter.
Paul quotes 2 Corinthians 5, verse eight, which says, we are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord. Paul wrote, in this article,
to be fearful of people or things that might kill us is fleshly
fear, fear of man, unbelief and over-attachment to this world
and under-attachment to Christ. Whatever our Lord sends is the
means of our death, is the means of our entrance into life with
Him, joy unspeakable and full of glory. Why would we fear the
thing that is the best thing that could happen to him. You
see, the person that does not know and fear the Lord should
be afraid of everything. But the one who knows and fears
him shouldn't be afraid of anything. The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27, verse one. May God be pleased to make it
so.