prior scripture reading this
evening, I want us to turn to two passages, one in the Old
Testament and one in the New Testament. So you'll have to
do a little work. So first of all, I want you to turn to the
Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. The Song of Solomon, Chapter
5. And then I'm going to read a portion from Hebrews, Chapter
7. Now tonight, I'm going to be
preaching from Leviticus 21. And I've entitled the message,
Christ is Altogether Lovely. Now the title I've taken from
Song of Solomon here, chapter 5. And if you're wondering how
I got that title for Leviticus 21, well just stick around a
little while and I'll show you that. But I want to begin reading
in verse 9 of the Song of Solomon, chapter 5. And here the church
is represented as the beloved of Christ. You know the church
is called the Bride of Christ. And here the Beloved. And here
the Beloved of Christ is asked concerning the one that she loves. And she calls him her Beloved. And it says in verse 9, What
is thy Beloved? That's Christ. More than another
Beloved. Why is the one you love asking
the church this, the redeemed of the Lord, why is the one you
love any more or any better than someone else's love? And he says,
O thou fairest of women. Now that's the question. What
is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge
us? Charge them with folly. Charge
them with foolishness. And here's what the answer is.
Now here's how the church answers concerning her beloved Christ.
Listen to it. Verse 10. My beloved is white
and ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000. His head is as the most
fine gold. His locks are bushy and black
as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by the rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices,
as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dropping sweet smelling
myrrh. His hands, and you know myrrh
is a picture of atonement, redemption, mercy. And then it says, his
hands are as gold rings set with beryl, precious stones. His belly
is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars
of marble set up on sockets of fine gold. His countenance, that's
his appearance, his face, is as Lebanon, excellent as the
cedars, as beautiful as the cedars of Lebanon. His mouth, is most
sweet. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." Now, what an excellent
picture of our Savior. Now, look at Hebrews chapter
7, and look at verse 25, showing the greater glory, the better
priesthood and sacrifice of Christ over and above the old covenant.
Verse 25, Wherefore he, Christ, is able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. For such an high priest became
us. This is the high priest that
meets our need, meets God's requirements, is fitting for us. One who is
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. and made higher
than the heavens, who needeth not daily, as those high priests,
to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins, and then for the
people's? For this he did." Now, what did
he do? He offered up sacrifice for the sins of the people, once,
when he offered up himself. And you notice in the Old Testament,
the high priest didn't offer up himself. He offered up the
blood of the Lamb. Well, Christ is both. For us,
he's the high priest and he's the innocent sacrifice who puts
himself in the stead of his people for their sins. So he says in
verse 28, for the law maketh men high priest, which have infirmity. But the word of the oath, which
was since the law, now that word of the oath is the covenant of
grace. The new covenant brought in by Christ maketh the son who
is consecrated perfected forevermore. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in
prayer before the message tonight. Our Heavenly Father, we do pray
in thanksgiving and praise of our sovereign, sinless substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who took our place on Calvary, who stood
under the law and kept it perfectly. who shed his blood unto death
in payment for our sins, who suffered and bled and died to
satisfy thy law and justice. And it is through him that we
worship thee as both a just God and a Savior. It is through him
and by him that we stand accepted in him, the Beloved. For Christ
truly is our Beloved. And we thank God that we are
his beloved. And we thank thee, O Lord, that
our beloved is also our friend, for Christ is the friend of sinners,
your word says. And my Lord, we are sinners.
We are so in need of mercy and grace. We're so in need of compassion
from thee. And yet we know thou art a righteous
judge, but in Christ, By his blood and righteousness alone,
thou art both a righteous judge as well as our loving Father.
And our assurance and our peace is in Christ, whom to know is
life eternal. And as we open thy word this
evening, let us see more of him whom to know is true life eternal. Knit our hearts together tonight,
dear Lord, once more in the fellowship of Christ that blessed fellowship
that cannot be broken, in love to thee and to one another, and
in a fervency and a desire to get the gospel out for the salvation
of many souls. Bless us, dear Lord. And tonight
we also pray for those of our congregation who are sick and
afflicted. We do pray for them. We thank
you, dear Lord, for healing mercies that you brought. We pray that
you would continue to do so according to thy will in the lives of those
whom we love. We pray for missionaries who
preach the gospel out in other lands. We pray for other preachers
who are met tonight with their congregations who stand to preach
the glories of our Savior. We pray this, dear Lord, not
just in vain, but we know that prayer is thy ordained means
to bless thy people as you sovereignly see fit. We pray, dear Lord,
that you would guide us and direct us, for it is in Christ's name
we pray. Amen. All right, let's turn back to
Leviticus chapter 21. That's where we're going to be
tonight. On this subject of Christ is
altogether lovely. And what a description of our
Savior that we saw there in the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, Hebrews
chapter 7. You know, that's what a worship
service is, isn't it? Just redeemed, justified, regenerated
sinners coming together to admire and worship and hear more of
the glory of our Savior. Isn't that right? To hear about
our Beloved and our Friend. Here in Leviticus chapter 21
and chapter 22, which I won't get to tonight, what we have
is special instructions for the priest, especially the high priest. There are a lot of commentaries
on this passage that take these things about qualifications,
specific instructions for the priest, and apply them to pastors
of churches. because they say pastors of churches
are to be set apart from the people. And they take passages
out of the New Testament which speak of the qualifications of
a bishop, which means overseer, or qualifications of an elder
or deacon, and use this passage here to apply to them. But that's
really misleading, and I'll tell you why. You need not look at me as your
priest. I am not your priest. Every saved sinner here tonight
is a priest unto God. Now Christ himself is the high
priest. You see, I'm not the high priest.
Christ is our high priest. When you pray to God, you pray
through Him, not through me. And when you find peace and comfort
You must find it in looking to him and his word and not to me. So to apply this to just a pastor
is wrong. It's misleading. For I am not
your priest. We're all made priests unto God.
We all who know Christ now. All who are chosen, redeemed,
justified, regenerated by the Spirit. We have free access into
the very presence of God through our great High Priest. through
the blood of the crucified one. Certainly a man that is called
to an office in the church is to be careful and he's to lead
by example. I'm not denying that. I'm not
trying to shirk my responsibility. The Bible says, Paul wrote to
Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, to a bishop, an overseer then must be blameless.
To be a man of good character and reputation. But you know
all the people of God are to do the same. That doesn't excuse
anyone in the few from being responsible, from being a good
citizen, from seeking to have a good character. But you see,
all of God's people are called into the fold to a life of separation
and a life of consecration under Christ. We've said it before
as we've studied through the book of Leviticus and actually
even through the book of Exodus. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to God. We don't belong
to a church congregation. I know we say, well, we belong
to the church in a sense, but the church doesn't own us. The
church didn't redeem us. Christ redeemed us. The church
didn't pay the price for us. Christ paid the price. The church
didn't make us righteous before God. Christ did. You understand? The church didn't even call us.
Now, God may have used the church in the preaching of the gospel.
as a means, but the Holy Spirit is the one who called us into
the fold, who invincibly called us, gave us life, gave us ears.
So we belong to God, we don't belong to ourselves, and we're
to be separated and consecrated unto God. This is what this passage
is about concerning the priest and the high priest. In Israel,
for example, under the old covenant, the priestly nation of Levi,
and that's what this book is about, Leviticus, it's named
after that tribe. The priestly tribe of Levi was
set apart from the general population of the rest of the tribes of
Israel. They had more responsibility to set themselves apart because
of their office and because of their duties. Well, that's a
type of the church of God here on earth. Because of our blessings,
because of what God has given us freely, out of his mercy and
grace in Christ, so blessed us, much is required of the church. Much is required of a redeemed
sinner. Now, nothing is required in order
to be saved. That's already been handled.
That's already been settled. Christ has met every requirement
for our salvation, every condition. But as a matter of love and gratitude
and worship and service to our God, much is required of us to
set ourselves apart. We read a couple of weeks ago
when he said, sanctify yourselves. Well, we can't make ourselves
holy, but we're to realize whose we are, what we're about. Our goals in life are to be high
above the goals of the natural, unregenerate man. Our goal in
life is to be the glory of God. Our goal in life is to exalt
Christ. Our goal in life is to see sinners
saved by the grace of God. Our goal in life is to edify
the brethren, not divide, not tear down, not bring schism division,
but to unify, to edify, to build up, even at the expense of our
own reputations, even at the expense of our own desires, even
at the expense of our own wants. Even if God would say, Bill,
you sit on the outside tonight. I'm going to give somebody else
this position. Even if that would happen, I should be willing to
do it for the glory of God. and for the preeminence of Christ. Don't get worried, I'm not resigning. But I'm just telling you now
that this thing is not about me, it's about Christ and his
church. What are we here for? That's
what God's teaching them through these requirements of the priest.
It's not that the man standing behind the pulpit or the man
sitting in the pew is altogether lovely, it's Christ is altogether
lovely. And our loveliness is by virtue
of Him who is our Beloved. Now, what can we tell the world
of our Beloved that makes Him any more than any other Beloved?
There are a lot of Beloveds around the world, aren't there? But
oh, our Beloved. Oh, I tell you, there's nothing
to compare to Him. And that's why I love that passage
in Song of Solomon so much. Look at Leviticus chapter 21,
look at the first verse. He says, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Speak unto the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say unto
them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people,
except for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother,
for his father, for his son, and for his daughter, and for
his brother, for his sister, a virgin, that is, nine unto
him, which had no husband. For her may he be defiled." Now,
what he's talking about is dealing with the dead, dealing with dead
bodies, touching a dead body. Remember, they were forbidden
to touch a dead body, and if they did, they had to go through
a ceremonial cleansing. And he says, these priests are
not to deal with the dead in that way, except for their own
immediate family, because there was no one else to bury them,
no one else to deal with them. And he says in verse 4, "...but
he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people,
to profane himself." He said they shall not make baldness
upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of
their beard. Now what he's talking about in cuttings on their flesh,
what he's talking about here are practices that were common
in dealing with the dead. Common in the land of Canaan.
And he says the priests are not to be involved in that. They're
not to get into those practices because those are profanity.
And here's why he says it in verse 6, he says, they shall
be holy, separate unto their God, and not profane the name
of their God. They're not to misrepresent the
glory of God by their behavior, by their activity in these matters. And in other matters, for the
offerings of the Lord made by fire, that's the burnt offerings,
which brought atonement for sin. There were several different
burnt offerings, but they all represented and typified Christ,
our burnt offering. And so that's what the priests
do. What do they do? Well, they bring burnt offerings.
And what that means is, it's like today, what do we do as
a church? We point sinners to Christ, who
is the only Savior, the only Redeemer, the only way to God. That's the equivalent in type
of bringing a burnt offering. When I preach Christ, when we
come to God by faith in Christ and confess our sins and say,
Lord, I'm a sinner, I have no hope, but Christ and him crucified,
his blood and his righteousness, we're bringing the burnt offering.
And that's Christ himself. And then he says in verse 6,
and the bread of their God they do offer, they offer the showbread.
Now, what does that typify? That typifies our feeding upon
Christ continually. Not only does Christ save us
and justify us and redeem us, but Christ keeps us and He nourishes
us. He is our sacrifice, our substitute
to redeem us by His blood, and He continually keeps us and feeds
us and nourishes us. In other words, there is no second
in my life that I can go without Him. That's what he's saying.
I must have Christ. And he says, therefore, they
shall be holy. They'll separate themselves. So here their main
duties were to bring the burnt offerings unto God and to offer
the showbread before the Lord, picturing what God's children
do spiritually in continuity, in coming to God through Christ
and continually coming to God through Christ, feeding upon
Christ and seeking to point other sinners to Christ for all of
salvation. That's our testimony. That's
our evangelistic way. What do we do? We preach the
gospel, we witness the gospel, we tell sinners about Christ
and who he is, we preach unto him Christ and him crucified,
and then get out of the way. Get out of the way. It doesn't
matter if they even remember our names, just so they remember
our beloved. Now, in these commandments and
in these prohibitions for the priest, There are things in this
chapter, if you've already read it, it might seem kind of strange
to you. But in these commandments and
prohibitions, there will be things that may seem to be so particular,
so meticulous, so burdensome. You know, Paul said that. He
said the law was a burden upon them. And it was, because it
was even the smallest detail that they had to take notice
of, and they couldn't They couldn't veer to the left or to the right
in these matters. Think about the Sabbath day.
The Sabbath day they had so many restrictions about what they
could do and what they couldn't do. They could only walk so far. And if they'd walk out from home
and walking back would break the law as far as the number
of steps or how many miles they could go, they had to stay right
there. They couldn't come back. Remember that Moses, under the
law, they had a man stoned to death because he was picking
up sticks on the Sabbath? Now, the law never did forbid
acts of mercy or acts of necessity on the Sabbath, but it forbid
any work, because that Sabbath represented our rest in Christ.
So you see, these specific laws and prohibitions for the priest
may seem to be so particular, and some of them may even seem
to be cruel. Especially when you get to the
high priest. But they're not. They're not too much. And they're
certainly not cruel. There's a spiritual application
to us today for all of them. And when it comes to the high
priest, there's a very high spiritual application as it applies to
Christ, whom the high priest typified. Here we just read in
the first few verses there, the priests were forbidden from touching
a dead body. Now, what's the spiritual significance
of that? Well, a dead body in the Old
Testament under the Old Covenant was a picture of the flesh. It
was the picture of sin and the consequences of sin, for the
body is dead because of sin. It was a picture of fallen human
nature. And look over here at Romans
chapter 8 with me. Let me show you an application
of that. Paul speaks of that in Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 5. Listen to what
the Holy Spirit teaches us here. Verse 5. For they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. What's he talking
about? He's talking about the unregenerate man, the unbeliever. But they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. The Spirit has given them life.
The Spirit indwells them. The Spirit leads them and guides
them by the Word. And so he says in verse 6, for
to be carnally, that's fleshly minded, is death. That's what death is. It's to
be fleshly minded. It can be a religious carnality. It can be an irreligious carnality. I'll tell you what it is. It's
any mind, any purpose, any motive, any determination that does not
lead a sinner to rest solely and exclusively in the person
and work of Christ for all of his salvation. I mean, it can
be high religion that appears outwardly righteous unto men,
and yet it can be minding the things of the flesh. You take
the religious ceremonies of Catholicism, you take the Often the cultured and the prayer
of the Mohammedan. You take the eight-fold path
of the Buddhist and you can go on and on and on. Works-oriented
religion where self-righteous men and women believe, think
in their minds, and are motivated by the fact that they believe
that God will save them or bless them based upon their own inherent
goodness. That's carnality. And you know
what the scripture says? It's death. It's like a dead
body. And you and I who are in Christ
are not to touch it. We're not to be defiled with
it. Now we have to struggle with the flesh. We have death within
us in the form of the flesh. Sin. And this old body that's
standing before you is dead because of sin. And I have to deal with
that every day. But I'm not to let it get the
best of me, and by the grace of God and His power, it will
not. And the only way I can know that for sure, and I'll tell
you this, I'm just being honest with you tonight, is because
I still, every day of my life, no matter how I fail, and I've
failed a lot of times, and when you consider that our goal and
desire is to be perfectly conformed to Christ, where does that leave
us every day? Have you ever reached that goal
in life? I haven't. But I'll tell you
where you can see the mind of the Spirit. Every day I must
look to Christ. I must rest in Him. I must find
my relief, my forgiveness, my holiness, and my righteousness
in Him alone. I may have had a good day today.
Now think about this. You may have had a great day.
I mean, you may be walking on a cloud in here tonight, but
I want to tell you something. You still have been an utter
failure in being perfect and holy and righteous in yourself. You see, you need Christ just
as much today as you will tomorrow when somebody makes you mad as
a wet hen and brings you into a cussing fit. That's what I'm
telling you. You still need Christ just as
much today as you will then. Isn't that right? Am I telling
you the truth? You still can only be found in
His righteousness and His righteousness alone today as you will tomorrow
when you lose that temper and walk out ashamed. And pray, God,
don't let me do it again. Keep me from the evil one. That's
what I'm saying. And so this, to be carnally minded
though, means that that's a sinner who doesn't look to Christ. That's
what it means to be carnally minded here. It's a sinner who
doesn't rest in Christ. And these priests of the Old
Testament, their whole lives was to be a type and a picture
and a representation of a sinner looking to Christ. That's what
they were there for. Bringing that offering, that
burnt offering. Bringing that showbread. Holding up before
men. They might look at that priest
and say, you look like a pretty good boy to me. And that priest
is to say, I need a burnt offering. I've got to have a Savior save
me by grace. Today, tomorrow, every day. Every
second. I'll tell you what, look back
at Romans 8. He says, verse 6, for to be carnally minded is
death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now
let me ask you this question. Who is our life? Christ said,
I am the way. I am the life. Isn't that right? I am the truth. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. So if to be spiritually minded
is life, that tells you something. The spiritual mind is the mind
that looks to Christ. Just like that priest, you see. Bringing that burnt offering
all the time now. They didn't just bring it one
time, did they? Had to bring it every day, every week, every
month. The high priest every year into the holiest of all.
That showbread. Those priests brought it in,
they offered it to God, and then they ate some. We have to eat
that showbread every day spiritually. Christ said, this is my blood.
He that drinketh my blood, and eateth my flesh. We testify of
that when we take the Lord's Supper. That's what we're testifying
of. It doesn't mean that I just need
Christ on the fifth Sunday of every year. But it's a living,
abiding, memorial testimony that I need him every day. Do you
see that? And that's what was typified
in their prohibition. You're not to touch the dead
body, but now God did make an exception for their own families.
Because there was nobody else to do it. But then they had to
be cleansed. Look back at Romans 8 one more time, verse 7. He
says, "...for the carnal mind is enmity against God." Now,
you know what it is to be enmity against God. It means to hate
God. The fleshly mind. Now, listen
to this very carefully. Again, that refers to any mind
that is not resting in Christ as their all in all. If you want
the Bible's definition of a God-hater, and I know this is strong language
now, and I know it causes some people to cringe, but if you
want the Bible's definition of a God-hater in God's sight now,
you're talking about an unbeliever. You're talking about a sinner
who doesn't know Christ. But he says, for he is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. You can't be subject,
submitted, unto the law of God without Christ, for Christ is
the one who satisfied the law. You can do your best to try to
keep the law. You can say today, I'm going
to start today and I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep
it every day. And my friend, if you're seeking
to be justified and made righteous before God by your law keeping,
you are not submitted to the law. You're not submitted to
the law until you are brought in by the law of God as a sinner.
who has no hope of salvation by your law keeping. And see
you have no hope but in Christ. So he says in verse 8, so then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Paul the apostle
dealt with that many times in his epistles, especially to the
Galatians who were deceived by false preachers who wanted to
bring in the law and mix it with grace. and say to those who had
heard the gospel that Christ is your Savior, but you need
more than Christ to be accepted, to be fit, to be qualified, to
be holy. And Paul wrote in Galatians 3.3,
he said, Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Do you know what it is to begin
in the Spirit? Look to Christ. That's what the Spirit will do
in the beginning of your new birth. He'll leave you open to
no one but Christ. Paul wrote in Galatians 5.13,
he said, For brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only
use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another. Galatians 5.16, he said, This
I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. He said in Galatians 6, 8, he
said, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption. That's all the flesh can get,
bring about, is corruption. Just like that dead body that
the priest was forbidden to touch. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. What do you do when
you sow to the Spirit? You sow to the glory of God, to the preeminence
of Christ, to the salvation of sinners, to the building up and
growth and edification. of the church as sowing to the
Spirit. In Philippians chapter 3 and
verse 3, he said, we are the circumcision which worship God
in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the what? The flesh. We don't have any
confidence in it. Now, as I said, back here in Leviticus 21, God
did make an exception so that the priests could deal with their
immediate families. No one else would do it. But
also, the priests were forbidden to even mourn. the dead, as other
people do. That's what he's talking about
there when he talks about shaving off the corners of their beards
and cutting their flesh. That was common among the heathen
to express their mourning for the dead. They'd shave their
heads, they'd shave their beards, they'd cut themselves. That was
a common practice. And God says, you're not to do
that. Well, none of the people of God were to do that. Now,
we can mourn, the Bible says, in the New Testament. We can
sorrow. But not like the world. Isn't that right? We mourn and
we sorrow over our loved ones who are gone. But we don't sorrow
as those who have no hope. For we have a good hope. Our
hope is in Christ. Look at verse 7 of Leviticus
21. He says, They shall not take a wife that is a whore or profane.
Neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband, for
he is holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify him therefore,
for he offereth the bread of thy God. He shall be holy unto
thee, for I the Lord which sanctify you am holy." What's he saying
here? The Lord tells them that even
in their selection of their wives, God's honor was to be their first
and foremost concern, not their own desire, not their own lust,
but God's honor. Well, we can certainly see a
spiritual application of that. We're not to make unholy and
ungodly alliances in marriage or in any area. First, we're
married to Christ and in union with him. And our fellowship
is with Christ and our brethren. But in any area, we're not to
make unholy alliances. Look at verse 9. He says, And
the daughter of any priest, if she profaneth herself by playing
the whore, she profaneth her father, she shall be burnt with
fire. God required that any priest's daughter who profaned her father
by playing the harlot was to be put to death. We see the spiritual
application in man in this. Spiritual whoredom, spiritual
adultery, spiritual fornication is forbidden and will lead to
death if God does not step in and arrest us by His grace. What
was I before God saved me? I was a spiritual adulterer.
But He saved me by His grace. Look at verse 10. It says, and
he that is a high priest, now he goes to the high priest specifically
here. The high priest among his brethren,
upon whose head the anointing oil was poured. You remember
that's a picture of the Holy Spirit. Now the high priest is
a type of Christ who had the Spirit without measure. And he
says, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, the priestly
garments which typified the purity of Christ, which typified all
that he is outwardly and inwardly." He's the God-man mediator. "...and
shall not uncover his head nor rend his clothes." That is, he
shall not mourn like the world. It says in verse 11, "...neither
shall he go into any dead body, nor defile himself for his father
or for his mother." You see, the high priest was forbidden
even to do that because he was to have no part with sin and
death within himself. And he says in verse 12, neither
shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of
his God. For the crown of the anointing
oil of God is upon him. I am the Lord. You see, the high
priest is to be a priest under God. He's to represent that which
God is pleased with. He gives these specific instructions
for the high priest throughout their generations. Not to mourn
as others, even for their own parents. He who served as God's
high priest was to live always in the service of the sanctuary. Look at verse 12 again. Neither shall he go out of the
sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God. His wife was to be neither a
widow nor a divorced woman, but only a virgin of the daughters
of Israel." That's verse 13. He shall take a wife in her virginity,
a widow or a divorced woman, or profane or inharmonious. These
shall he not take. This is the high priest now.
But he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife. Neither
shall he profane his seed among his people, for I, the Lord,
do sanctify them. The high priest typified Christ.
And his bride, his church, he makes it spotless. The spotless
bride. Washed clean in his blood. Clothed in his righteousness
and cleansed by his word. You remember Paul used marriage
between a husband and wife as a type of that. In Ephesians
chapter 5 and verse 25 he said, Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church,
not having spot, not having wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish." Well, you know what that is.
That's a description of our salvation by the grace of God. That's certainly
not a description of what we are in ourselves, is it? That's
a description of what he made us to be in him. And this high
priest was to so order his life and household that God was honored
in it. He wasn't even to mix his seed
with the wicked, his children, verse 15. Well, neither shall
Christ mix his seed with the wicked. He has a people given
unto himself by the Father. And he became fully responsible
for them. We're children of the Father.
made so by the adoption of grace, and again washed clean and clothed
in his garments." Now, the rest of this chapter, verse 16 all
the way to the end, shows us this, that God required that
none of the high priest who had a physical blemish or defect
of any kind be allowed to serve as high priest. In other words,
if a man was born of Aaron's family, Aaron's lineage, and
he was in line to be the high priest, he could be disqualified
if he had any physical blemish or any physical defect of any
kind. You read it for yourself. Read
it all. He goes into detail here. Let's
look at just a few verses. The Lord spake unto Moses, verse
16, speaking unto Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of thy seed and
their generations that have any blemish, Let him not approach
to offer the bread of his God. He said, for whatsoever man he
be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach. A blind man, or
lame, or he that has a flat nose, or anything superfluous, that
is, anything that was obvious, right out there. And you look
at these, he speaks of a broken hand, broken foot, crooked back,
even a dwarf, scurvy, scab, Anything, a blemish, that disqualified
him from being the priest. And somebody said, well, now
that seems awful cruel and awful mean. That's not politically
correct in our day, is it? But you see, there's a point
to be made here, and it's a vital, vital, vital truth. You see,
the high priest typified the perfect, unblemished, sinless,
and potent Christ. That's what he was there for.
That was his whole office, you see. The one whom he typified,
he had to represent aright. Christ, now listen to me, Christ
as our High Priest must be set forth in all his purity, in all
his beauty, in all his holiness, in all his loveliness. You see, our beloved, our high
priest must be altogether lovely, without spot, without blemish. You say, well, the high priest
wasn't a perfect man. That's true, but he was only
a type. But God put restrictions, certain restrictions on his types
to represent this truth aright. could point sinners not just
to a high priest, but to the sinless, gray high priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ, without spot, without blemish. Every sacrifice
of the Old Testament showed the same thing. The sacrifice itself
that the priest offered had to be without spot, without blemish. And that's what he's typifying
here. In all of these defects, the high priest couldn't have
them. He couldn't have them. He had to be one without blemish
and without spot physically now. He's not talking about his heart.
We know they were sinful men. And we know also, as we read
in Hebrews chapter 7, that high priest, being a sinful man himself,
had to go in first and offer blood for himself. For he was
a sinner. And then he was qualified to
offer blood for the people. Now I want you to notice something
about that. When he went in for himself, he did not go in for
the people. Do you see what I'm saying? He went in for himself. He couldn't go in as substitute
for the people until he'd already been cleansed ceremonially for
himself. Now, the Bible says in Hebrews
chapter 7 that the greater priesthood of Christ was so much better
because he didn't have to do that. He didn't have to go in
first and offer for himself because he was not a sinner. He was not
even made a sinner. He went in one time. He didn't
go in twice now, like the high priest of old, like the man,
like Aaron. Christ, the fulfillment of the
type, went in how many times? One time. Not for himself, but
for the people. And he offered himself, the scripture
says, without spot. Blameless. For sins that were
charged to him. Now that doesn't mean that he
wasn't guilty. He was. By imputation. Doesn't mean that
he wasn't unrighteous. He was unrighteous by imputation. Doesn't mean that he wasn't defiled. He was defiled, not within his
human nature, not within his godly nature, not within himself,
not within his heart, not within his mind, affections, and will,
but by imputation. And God, as we say in human,
pitiful, pitiful, pitiful human terms, God turned his back on
him because of that. And that's what this represents
here. Our high priest was without blemish and without spot, just
like the sacrifice. Now, look at verse 22, and I'll
close. It says here, "...he shall eat
the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy.
Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto
the altar, because he hath a blemish, that he profane not my sanctuaries,
for I the Lord do sanctify them." deformed, defiled men among Aaron's
sons were provided for here. It doesn't mean that God cast
them out and was cruel to them and treated them badly. They
were allowed to feed upon the holy things, but they could not
perform the office of the high priest. And you know God's the
one who makes that choice, isn't he? Isn't God the one who determines
all that? You see, only the unblemished,
faultless man physically now could go into the holy place.
Only God's appointed high priest could go into the Holy of Holies
and make atonement for the people. So the priest had to be a man
who had no fault or blemish physically. But he typified that man who
is our great high priest of infinite worth and infinite beauty and
infinite glory, the God-man who gives all his beauty for us and
yet retains it all in himself. Christ is altogether lovely.
He who offered the bread of perfect righteousness in the holy place
must be himself perfect. And he who offered the blood
of complete satisfaction in the most holy place behind the veil
must himself be perfect. Look at verse 24. And Moses told
it unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of
Israel. By these things all Israel knew what sort of high priest
to expect. Their eyes were fixed on one
who was to be altogether lovely, by whose merit and virtue and
sacrifice God would accept his people, by whose merit, virtue
and sacrifice God could not but accept and bless his people,
because he is altogether lovely."