Well, good evening, everyone. If you would open your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 6. I'd like to begin our service reading a portion of Isaiah chapter 6. We'll read the first five verses.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

All right. Now if you would, turn in your hymn books to page 275. Sean and Jonathan are both working tonight. So once again, y'all are stuck with me.

275.

I belong to the king. I belong to the king. I'm a child of his love. I shall dwell in his palace so fair. For he tells of its bliss in yon heaven above, And his children its splendors shall share. I belong to the King, I'm a child of his love, and he never forsaketh his own. He will call me someday to his palace above. I shall dwell by his glorified throne. I belong to the king, and he loves me, I know, for his mercy and kindness so free. are unceasingly mine, wheresoever I go, and my refuge unfailing is He. I belong to the King, I'm a child of His love, and He never forsaketh His own. He will call me someday to his palace above. I shall dwell by his glorified throne. I belong to the king, and his promise is sure, that we all shall be gathered at last. in his kingdom above, by life's water so pure, when this life with its trials is passed. I belong to the King. I'm a child of his love. and he never forsaketh his own. He will call me someday to his palace above. I shall dwell by his glorified throne.

All right, now back to page 118.

118, when I survey the wondrous cross. When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And poor contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See from his head, his hands, his feet. Sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

All right, if you would turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 28. We'll start reading verses, we'll read verses 36 to 43.

And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave 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, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen. Thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework. And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shall they make for them for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother and his sons with him, and shall anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me the priest's office. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness from the loins even unto the thighs that they shall reach. and they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons when they come into the tabernacle of the congregation, or will they come near, and when they come near unto the altar of the minister in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him.

Let's give the Lord a prayer. our most gracious and most merciful heavenly father. We thank you lord this evening for your word. These words in which we now read is truly a blessing and they're so precious to us for we know this is truly our only communication we have with you is your word and by prayer. So we thank you lord. We thank you lord for these words because we know This is our only means in which we have that we can and will have faith. Our faith in which we have comes by the hearing of these words.

And also, Lord, by these words, the one most precious gift that one can be given. And that's the words of eternal life, the words concerning your son, Lord. We pray this evening. that we see him in these words, Lord, let him be exalted. Let all of our exaltation, all of our consecration be on him. Let his name or be magnified this evening. That would be our rejoicing that he be lifted up on high, where he now sits is our intercessor forever making intercession for his people is ones in whom he first loved and has manifested that love to them by this gospel. What a blessing that is, Lord.

Now we pray this evening, Lord, for those in whom you have brought into these very, very difficult times, these troubled times, these trials and tribulations, these afflictions, these infirmities. These things we know, Lord, are like all things. They're ordained by you and they come to pass for our good and your glory. They come to pass, Lord, that we would Look to him, the one and only true physician. Look to the mercies, the true mercies, the healing mercies of your grace. So thank you, Lord, even for these things, we thank you.

Now, all these things we ask in Christ's name and for his sake, and amen.

All right, now keep your Bibles open there to Exodus 28. passage Brother Gary just read for us. I've titled the message tonight, Christ the Holy High Priest. Our subject is something that you and I know nothing about by experience. It's holiness. We know by experience it's just completely foreign to us, but that clearly is the subject of the passage. It says it right there in all capital letters, verse 36, holiness to the Lord. That is the subject of this passage.

And holiness, that is the chief attribute of God. His very name is holy, the holy one of Israel. Holy and reverend is his name. We just read to open the service in Isaiah chapter six, verse three, holy, holy, holy. is the Lord of hosts. Those angels that are in his presence that see him, the phrase of praise that they use is holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And God is the only one who is holy. That's why none of us know anything about holiness in our personal experience because God's the only one who's holy. Hannah in her prayer in 1 Samuel 2 verse 2 says there's none holy. as the Lord, none. There's none beside thee, neither is there any rock like unto our rock. He's the only one who's holy.

If you'll turn back a few pages in Exodus chapter 15, this is not just some attribute of God that, you know, that we talk about it, that doesn't seem to have any connection to us. We see God's glory in his holiness. Exodus 15 verse 11. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? God's glory is seen in his holiness, and his beauty is seen in his holiness.

Now this is the beginning of the Bible. Look over at the end, Revelation chapter 15. The reason that the saints in heaven worship God, which tells me that the reason you and I ought to be worshiping him and glorifying him is his holiness, his holy character. Revelation 15, verse four. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? Four, now here's the reason we would fear the Lord and glorify his name, thou art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments, That's the reason that we worship God is His holiness.

Now this is God's essential character. He is holy. He doesn't do something because it's holy. God is holy in His personal character. And since He's holy, God will never accept anything in His presence less than perfect holiness. It can't even have a taint of sin.

Look at Joshua chapter 24. Joshua 24. Habakkuk said in Habakkuk 1 verse 13, thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity. God can't even look on sin and iniquity because he's holy. And look what Joshua says, Joshua 24 verse 19. And Joshua said unto the people, you cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy God. For he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

Now that is the very nature of holiness. God will not forgive sin. He will not forgive transgressions. And that word forgive, it means to forgive, but it also means to accept or to regard. All you and I are is sin. God will not forgive our sin. He will not accept us nor regard us in our sins. God will never forgive any sin. Somebody's gonna be punished for it, aren't they? God must punish every sin.

So here's the question. Is there a way that the holy God could ever accept sinners like you and me? Is there a way? Well, there is a way that we find in our text this evening, and that way is in Christ, our holy high priest. Sinners are accepted into the Father's holy presence because of the personal holiness and the personal purity of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Now look back in our text, Exodus chapter 28. I give you three or four things here about this holiness.

Number one, holiness is the foundation of everything Christ, our high priest, has ever done. Look first at verse 39. 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. Skip over to verse 42. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness, from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach, and they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons when they come in under the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him. Now the Lord told Moses in all these garments, and we've been looking for the past several weeks at the garments that the high priest wore. He said, the first thing that you make for the high priest is you make him britches and you make him a coat out of fine linen. And you know what that white fine linen is a picture of. It's a picture of holiness. And the coat, the word coat there, it's translated coat in our Bibles, but it means a tunic or it's a long shirt. It's pants and a shirt. And that's what the high priest, just like we do, you put your pants and your shirt on first and then other pieces of clothing over top of it. That's what the high priest did.

In all of his glorious garments, the very first thing he put on was those white linen breeches and that white tunic that he would wear. And it would be right up against his skin. And that's given to us as a picture of the inner holiness of Christ. It's the personal holiness of Christ our Savior. And it's the foundation of everything about him and everything that he ever did. Every other glorious garment that the high priest put on, he put on over top of the white tunic and the white britches. And that's a picture. Everything our Lord Jesus Christ did during His earthly ministry hung upon His holiness.

That ephod that we studied with all the glorious different colors of it and the pictures of all the glorious attributes of Christ, showing Him to be the complete Savior that we need. He's the God-man. He can satisfy God and He can identify with men. He can be the representative and the substitute for sinful men and women like we are. That glorious ephod, the foundation of it is the personal holiness of Christ.

The bells and the pomegranates that were on the bottom of the road, you know, the high priest would move around as he was doing the service of the Lord. And particularly on the day of atonement, when nobody could be in the tabernacle except the high priest, when he's in there in the Holy of Holies, and the people wonder, is God accepting the sacrifice? If he doesn't accept the sacrifice the high priest is offering, we're doomed. As long as they heard those bells ringing, they knew the high priest was still moving around, still doing the service of God, that he was still being accepted. And that sound, the sound of our Lord Jesus Christ is the sweet sound of the gospel that declares a successful savior. That success, those bells still ringing, and that success of our Savior in saving all of his people from their sin, it's founded upon the personal holiness of Christ.

And then the high priest wore the ephod. Remember, it was in two parts, and it had two onyx buttons on his shoulders. On each button were six names. In total, 12 names, the 12 tribes of Israel. And over the breastplate, He had the 12 names of Israel over his heart. A picture of Christ, our high priest, bearing all of his people. He's the one that accomplished all of the salvation of all of his people. He's the one that is gonna carry us to the Father and that will be accepted because of Christ, our high priest, because of what he's accomplished for his people. And the foundation of that is the personal holiness of Christ. Without his personal holiness, nothing else he did would have made any difference.

Christ, our great high priest, the man Jesus of Nazareth, is holy. He never sinned. He never even wanted to sin. He never even thought about sin. And it always confuses me why people argue, could Christ sin? Well, I mean, it doesn't matter, because he didn't. But no, he can't sin. He can't sin because his nature is holy. That's his nature. And I tell you, it's a good thing it is. It's a good thing his nature is holy because he'd die if he was not holy. Look at the end of verse 43 there. It says, Aaron, his sons will have these white britches and this white tunic on that they bear not iniquity and die. Christ our Savior could not come to the Father and minister to the Father for us without his personal holiness. If he wasn't perfectly holy, the Father never would have accepted him and he never would have accepted us in him. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ is and did and is doing is all founded upon his personal holiness.

Now you and I can get some understanding of that, can't we? But not by experience. He's separate from sinners. He's different from us. He's other than us, isn't he? But his nature is holiness.

And the crowning glory, secondly, of Christ, our great high priest, is his holiness. Look back at 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 in other places in scripture, you read about this plate of pure gold, it's called a crown, the high priest's crown. It's a crown of holiness. And the mitre, the hat that the high priest wore was made of pure linen, white. And it was like a turban, you know, it would just wrap around the head of the high priest, and that gold plate on the front of it, Big, great, big letters, holiness to the Lord. That's the crowning glory of Christ, our great high priest, is his personal holiness.

And when Christ, our high priest, looks at us, and we look at him, we look at him in the face, you know what we see? Holiness. Holiness to the Lord. That was what that, that was represented by that high priest, what was on his head. And more importantly, when Christ, our great high priest, went before the father. When he took his blood into heaven itself and offered it on the altar before the father, and he placed the blood on the altar, and he looked at his father, you know what the father saw? Pure holiness. Holiness to the Lord.

And that, what the Jews called it a crown, that golden plate that was on there, was tied around the high priest's head with a blue fabric of some sort, verse 37 says, and thou shalt put it on blue lace, that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront of the miter it shall be. And you know, as we've gone through all this study of the tabernacle, you already know what this blue represents, don't you? It represents, blue is the color of heaven. Not only did Christ come from heaven, which is the only way he can be holy, remember there's only one who's holy, it's God. He had to come from heaven to earth to have this personal holiness.

But even more than that, that shows us that Christ is the high priest that offers a sacrifice for sin in heaven itself. This is not in picture, not in tabernacles made by sinful hands, but in heaven itself. He came from heaven to offer a sacrifice for men, and he offered that sacrifice in heaven for sinful men and women.

And you know why that sacrifice was accepted? You know why the father accepted his sacrifice as payment in full for all of God's elect? It's the personal holiness of Christ. His perfection. The father accepted his son and he accepted all of his people in his son because the blood of Christ washed all of his people white as snow. Made them holy. Now get a hold of your seats. as holy as the Son of God. That's a statement. I mean, that's a statement. But there are no degrees of holiness. You either are holy or you're not. If you are holy, you're as holy as the Son of God himself.

Now Gary, when I look at me, I don't see that. I mean, I just don't. I can't understand that. I mean, I can in some way understand the concept of it, but the only way you can swallow that, that if Christ died for you, you're as holy as a son of God is by faith. You can't understand it. You just believe it and you can't believe it unless God's pleased to give you faith to believe it.

But the crowning glory of Christ, our great high priest is his personal holiness. All right. Now we come to this third point, and the Lord's given me more light on this this week than ever before. I've probably preached through this three or four other times, but I believe I got more light on this than ever before.

It's Christ's holiness that enables him to bear the iniquities of his people. Now look what he says here in verse eight. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts, and it shall be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord.

Now these holy garments, and the Lord's particularly here talking about the mitre and this golden plate holiness to the Lord, they allow the high priest to bear the iniquity of the children of Israel and still be accepted by God. It's the personal holiness. And that was just a picture. We all understand that. But the picture was fulfilled in Christ our Savior. The personal holiness of Jesus of Nazareth, Christ our great high priest, that's what enabled him to bear the sin of his people. and still have his sacrifice for sin accepted by his father.

He had to be perfectly holy in order to bear our iniquities, and he has to be perfectly holy to have his sacrifice accepted before the father. And this is, the more I've thought about this, the more thrilled that I've become. It's so mysterious, it's so mysterious that Christ is holy, and never stopped being holy, but still yet bore the iniquity of his people. That's mysterious, and it's glorious, and I'm not the sharpest tool in the box, but I know this, that's the only way salvation can be accomplished in truth. It's the only way.

When Christ was made sin for his people, he was made sin. He was made sin itself. He was made to be all of the sin of his people. Isaiah said he was numbered with the transgressors. Now please listen to me. Christ our Savior was never personally a transgressor. He never sinned. Never. I just, I don't know why people keep going on and on and on about that. I don't know anybody that says Christ was a sinner. I don't even know false prophets who say Christ was a sinner. Nobody's saying that Christ was a sinner. His nature was never anything but holy.

But this is also true. The Father still made him guilty of the sin of his people, and he punished him as the transgressor. He punished him just like he was the one that had actually committed all that sin. but he never committed any sin. And that's what makes him the holy sacrifice. Do you see that? I hope that thrills you like it does me, that this is something only God can do. I mean, it takes the power of God Almighty to save sinners like you and me, to do something we can't fathom, to make his son sin for his people, And when the father punished him, he wasn't playing games. Now he was made guilty of that sin, but he's still holy because his nature is holy. And that's the only way that the Lord Jesus Christ could save sinners like you and me. He could not bear our sin if he had any sin of his own. See, he had to be personally holy. And he was, he is. That's what enabled him to bear the sin of his people And since even when he was made sin, his nature was holy, that's what enabled him to put away our sin by his precious, holy, sinless blood and wash sinners like you and me white as snow. He was made sin for us so he could take our sin away from us and make us the righteousness of God in him by his holy sacrifice. And the only way any of that was possible is if Christ is holy in his nature. And even when he was made sin, he was still holy in his nature.

Now I'll repeat, that cannot be understood. I mean, I'm trying to explain something to you that I can't understand either. It can only be believed. And the only way we can believe it is if God gives us faith to believe it. But if he gives us faith to believe it, that's the most glorious thing you've ever heard. That the son of God was willing to be made sin for us so that he could put our sin away by his holy sacrifice. You just never can get over it.

But if you want to see the real depth of this thing, the depth of our sin, the depth of the sin death that Christ had to pay with his precious blood. Look again at verse 38. And it should be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things with which the children of Israel shall hollow in all their holy gifts. Aaron had to have these garments on, these garments that are pictures of the personal holiness of Christ so that he could bear the iniquity of the holy things that the children of Israel gave in the worship of God.

You know, our iniquity, the iniquity that Christ had to put away, it's not just rebellion, what we call open rebellion. It's not even refusing to believe Christ, it's unbelief. It's not idolatry. It's not even breaking the Ten Commandments.

If I get here, I usually do early on a Wednesday evening, I'll make a confession to you. I get on sermon audio because somehow I keep thinking I'm going to find somebody that I don't know preaching the gospel. And I stumbled on this guy tonight. And this was his definition of sin, breaking the Ten Commandments. That's it. That's all there is to sin is breaking those Ten Commandments. That's not what that says. That's not what God says.

Sin is not even those things that are so repugnant to us that we just think, oh, I couldn't stand to be around that. I couldn't stand to have somebody acting like that in my house or in my life. God says here, He must bear the iniquity of the holy things. Our high priest must bear the iniquity of our worship, of our giving, of our repentance.

I mean, how many times do your preachers say, we gotta repent of our repentance? This is the definition of total depravity. Everything about us. Everything that we are, everything that we do, everything that we think is iniquity, is sin.

I mean, you think about what thing that you might think is the best thing that you've ever done. You know, you hear about somebody, you know, in trouble and you designate a gift to them and you really do, out of your heart and love and care and concern for them. And boy, you do it right. You slip it to the treasurer so nobody knows who gave it, or you give it in cash so nobody knows who gave it. You just think, oh, you know.

And you're so faithful to come out to the service on a Wednesday night, and not because somebody's keeping score, but because you genuinely, from the heart, want to worship Christ. You genuinely want to hear the gospel of Christ. Everybody in the tri-state area don't have that desire, do they? I mean, what a wonderful thing.

Christ our Savior had to pay that sin debt, too, for the best things we've ever done, and he was able to do it. He was able to do it because of his personal holiness. You know, most of our sin, I'll speak for myself, maybe you're more astute than me, but most of my sin, I don't even know about. I mean, I just commit sin and drink iniquity like water so free that I don't even know about most of my sin. Christ paid the debt for that too because of his personal holiness.

And then here's the last thing. Here's the result of all this. Christ's personal holiness is what makes his people holy. Look at verse 40. 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 beauty. See, all these pictures of Christ's personal holiness is his glory and his beauty. 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 in the priest's office.

Now Aaron's the high priest. Aaron is set apart from everybody in Israel. I mean, you just imagine this guy walking through the camp with that mitre and that breastplate and that ephod and these glorious, glorious garments. Everybody knows, I mean, it's easy to spot, that's the high priest. But Aaron's sons were dressed just like Aaron. Now, they didn't have the breastplate, they didn't have the ephod, they didn't have, but they had the exact same linen breeches, the exact same tunic, and the exact same white turban that their father Aaron had.

Christ, our great high priest, has made all of his sons and all of his daughters holy, just like he is. Perfectly holy, as holy as Christ himself. I had a man, he and I were talking about this one time, and I really thought We're coming to blows on this thing. I mean, this guy's going to beat me up, you know. And he said, well, you're saying you're little gods. Absolutely not. I mean, who is deluded enough to think that they're like God? I mean, if you find somebody like that, you better put them in an asylum somewhere. No believer would ever say that. No believer would ever dare think there's anything about me as glorious as Christ our Savior. Not by a long shot. Now or ever.

But Christ has made us holy. Christ has made his people holy. And brother, he better have, because the only way you and I will ever be accepted in the presence of the Father is if Christ made us holy. And he did. He dressed all of his people just like himself, in his personal holiness, so that when the Father looks at you and me, all he sees is his son. He doesn't even see me dressed up like his son. He sees his son, righteous and holy, loved and accepted. Now if God would give us the faith to get a hold of that and believe that. I think a lot about dying. I do, I think a lot about dying. was at my doctor's one time a couple years ago. And you know, they got to ask all these mental health questions now. And he said, well, do you think a lot about dying? And I said, oh, I sure do. And he looked up like, you know, nobody answers yes to that question because, you know, I said, yes, I do. And he said, oh, you're a preacher. I remember. I think a lot about dying. I do.

And you know what gives the believer confidence? To lay down on their deathbed and know, I'm dying. I'm leaving this world. And be able to do it with peace of heart. The father's gonna accept me. Because when I close my eyes in death, and I appear before his presence in glory, he's gonna see his son. And he's gonna say welcome. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Not because anything I've done, it's the personal holiness of Christ. And I hope God bless that to your heart and thrill you as much as it did me as I studied it this week.

Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we don't even have human language to express our thanksgiving. our thanksgiving for the holiness of Christ our Savior, that he's made his people, he sanctified us in him, that he is our holiness, he is our sanctification. It's not in something that we do or we don't do or we turn over a new leaf and start living better, but it's in Christ, our great high priest. Father, we thank you. Father, we thank you for this good news that you've given to us in your word. Oh, I pray you don't ever let us take for granted the opportunity to hear the good news of Christ our Savior from your word. And Father, I pray you'd bless it to our hearts, that you'd bless it to our hearts by enabling each of us to see the glory and beauty of Christ our Savior. Father, it's in his name, for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen.

All right. After that, I can't think of a better hymn for us to sing than hymn number 70. And we'll stand as we sing holy, holy, holy. Hymn number 70.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,

God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and Seraphim falling down before thee,
which wert and art and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy. There is none beside Thee,
perfect in power, in love and purity.

Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.