Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleHallowed Priest
Bible TextExodus 29:1-9
Synopsis In the true church of God Christ is our High Priest who has hallowed every true believer so that all are priests unto God. Listen
Date15-Mar-2020
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Hallowed Priest (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Hallowed Priest (128 kbps)
Length 40 min.
 
Series: Exodus 
Title: Hallowed Priests 
Text: Exodus 29: 1-9 
Date: March 15, 2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
Exodus 29: 1: And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest’s office:
 
Subject: Hallowed Priests 
 
In Aaronwe have a picture of Christ who is hallowed (sanctified, consecrated) to God as High Priest of God’s spiritual Israel. In Aaron’s sonswe see a picture of  how Christ hallows his people that we might minister unto God in the priest’s office. 
  
Proposition: In the true church of God Christ is our High Priest who has hallowed every true believer so that all are priests unto God. 
  
Exodus 29: 1:…Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish, 2: And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour [the finest, sifted, best flour] shalt thou make them. 3: And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams.
  
It takes many objects to picture Christ.  All these things must be combined together to typify Christ our Sanctifier and our Sanctification.  The unleavened bread in the one basket, brought with the bullock and two rams, is a good picture of the gospel we preach.  There is but one gospel in which is brought Christ our one Unleavened Bread in whom all his people are one unleavened bread, Christ is our one Sin-offering, and Christ our Burnt-Offering.  As we come to each of these items we will see how they picture Christ and his people.  But we will not get to all of them today.  
  
Today we will look at three things by which Christ hallows his people.  This is how God gets all the glory for sanctifying his people.  He alone makes his people holy.  God alone makes his people pure. 
 
Divisions: 1) Washing 2) Clothing 3) Anointing 
  
HALLOWED BY WASHING
 
Exodus 29: 4: And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. 
 
Salvation is by God’s electing grace.  God says, “And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring…”  The same as God chose Aaron and his sons, God chose Christ and God elected in Christ who he would.  God chose who he would call out from among sinners and make priests unto himself.
  
Hebrews 5: 4: And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. 5: So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. 
  
John 15:16: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit,… 
  
But though chosen by God the Father from the foundation of the world, in time, each of God’s elect must be brought by the Holy Spirit to Christ the Door—"And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”  Get this in your mind’s eye.  The door of the tabernacle stood between the priests in the courtyard and God in the holiest of holies.  The only way to approach God was through the door.  Christ is the Door.  Christ is the Mediator between God and men.  Christ said, “No man cometh to the Father but by me”  But those Christ makes priests are born spiritually dead—how then shall we believe on Christ?  “You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins.”  In Song of Solomon the bride glories in her Husband, saying, 
  
Song of Solomon 2:4  He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 
  
John 6:44: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:... 
  
Bringing us to Christ, God washes us making us hallowed—"And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water.”   God is holy!  He cannot be served by unclean sinners: we must be hallowed—made pure, made holy.  Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.  God alone can make us holy, sanctified
  
We are first washed in regeneration by the Holy Spirit. 
  
Titus 3: 3: For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4: But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6: Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7: That being [having been] justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life 
  
No sinner has life until washed in regeneration by the Spirit of God and renewed.  Notice our washing is through Jesus Christ.  Having been justified by his grace, we should be made heirs.  We should be washed, brought to believe on Christ because satisfied justice says we must.  Not one for whom Christ died shall perish in unbelief.  God shall wash each one in regeneration because Christ satisfied justice for us so justice demands each one be brought to faith in Christ. 
  
When washed in regeneration we are washed in Christ’s blood and made willing to wash in Christ’s blood by believing on him. 
  
Hebrews 9:14: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 
  
Zechariah 13:1: In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. 
  
By purging our conscience with Christ’s blood through the preaching of the gospel we are made willing to plunge into that fountain, believing on Christ. God shows us that all our sin and uncleanness is washed away before God the Judge and his righteous law.  Then we glory in Christ alone: 
  
Revelation 1: 5…To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
  
Revelation 7: 13: And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14: And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
  
Here the whole body of the priests was washed by another by immersion.  Afterward, they only had to wash their hands and feet.  What does that teach us?  Christ Jesus washed the believer completely clean in the sight of God the Judge, once and for all time.  We are washed before the law (notice the law, Moses, washed them here.) The Lord Jesus said, “He who is washed only needs to wash his feet, for he is clean every whit.”  Scripture says “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.” (Heb 10:22)  Christ has completely washed us in his blood as we see typified in our text.  But when we pray we ask God to forgive us our sins?   But remember, the Lord Jesus has already washed away all our sins before God the Judge before the law.  We are asking God to cleanse our hands and our feet from daily sins from being in this flesh in this world. 
  
1 John 1: 7: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
  
HALLOWED BY CLOTHING
 
Exodus 29: 5: And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod: 6: And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre. 8: And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them. 9: And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest’s office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute: 
 
Christ makes us holy by clothing us in his beautiful garments.  
  
First, we see Christ our High Priest robed in his righteousness and holiness with the crown of holiness upon his head—"And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod: 6: And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.” Since we covered each item of clothing in great detail last time, this time let me say, the coat, the robe of the ephod, the ephod and the breastplate typify Christ as the perfect God Man Mediator, the righteousness and holiness of his people.  The girdle of the ephod typifies Christ as the strength and faithfulness of his people.  The mitre and holy crown which read “Holiness to the Lord” declares Christ is our holy King and High Priest who alone is our Advocate with our Father in the holiest of holies.  As we see Moses (law and prophet of God) put these garments upon the high priest, we see the law and the prophets bear witness that Christ is the righteousness of God.
  
Romans 3: 21: But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being WITNESSED BY THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS; 22: Even THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD BY FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 
  
Then we see every believer clothed as we see Aaron’s sons clothed—"And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them. And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest’s office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute.”  Remember, each priest was clothed with the same garments—outer and inner garments.  So believers are complete in Christ!  Christ is our righteousness and our holiness.  We are all equally clothed in Christ.  
  
Also, they had nothing to do with making these garments nor with putting them on—boasting is excluded: our righteousness and holiness is Christ himself, made by Christ himself, put on us by Christ himself.
  
Again, Moses (law) clothed the priests—Christ provided righteousness for his people by fulfilling the law for each of God’s chosen people.  “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH” (Ro 10:4).  The coat represents the righteousness of Christ freely imputed to us through faith.  “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness.”  (Ps 132:9) 

“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress: 
  
Girdles were belts—Christ is our Girdle which holds up our robe of righteousness from without and our girdle of faithfulness and strength within.  The bonnet, or turban, was for glory and beauty to distinguish the priest from others.  With Christ’s garments on we are glorious and beautiful in his own eyes—"Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee…Thou hast ravished my heart” (Song of Solomon 4:7, 9). That which distinguishes those truly sanctified from all others who profess to be is that we declare all our glory and beauty comes from Christ alone 
  
We see a picture of glorying only in Christ by what these priests did NOT wear—none had on shoes.  God told Moses, “put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Ex 3:5).  This is holy ground to those truly sanctified.  Reverence and fear come only to those truly sanctified.  By the Spirit of God, we cannot trample under-foot the blood of the covenant by calling it common for all sinners.  “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor 12: 3).  Notice again, “the priests office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute.”—we shall be Christ’s priests for all eternity! 
 
HALLOWED BY ANOINTING
 
Exodus 29: 7: Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him…9…thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons
  
With all the high priests’ garments on this anointing oil was poured upon his head and anointed him.  In another place we will see the priests at this time were anointed with oil.  But first they watched as the fragrant oil poured upon Aaron on their behalf—"the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments” (Ps 133:2 “Messiah” means anointed—by faith we see Christ our Head was anointed with oil of the Holy Spirit without measure.  To Christ it is said, 

Psalm 45: 7: Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. 8: All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. 
  
As the Psalmist said in Psalm 133:2 this anointing is our precious unity with one another in Christ and it is from Christ.  The priests watched as the oil flowed down upon all Aaron’s members: we are members of Christ’s body and the Holy Spirit comes down upon us through Christ from Christ.   Believers are the branches: the sap comes to us through the vine.  
  
1 John 2:20: But ye have an unction FROM the Holy One, and ye know all things. 
  
1 John 2:27: But the anointing which ye have received OF HIM abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. 
  
So every true priest is hallowed, sanctified by God our Father, through Christ our High Priest, through the Spirit: in election we were hallowed/sanctified, set apart and separated unto God for his holy purpose (Jude 1); in redemption we were declared holy by the blood of Christ (Heb 10:10); in regeneration, pictured here, we are made holy by the Holy Spirit creating in us a holy nature (2 Thess 2:13). 
  
Thus “thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons”—consecrate means “fill up the hands.”  After this hallowing, and by this hallowing, their hands were filled with the sacrifices of God in his service in his tabernacle.  By making us hallowed priests, God has filled our hands with one sacrifice, Christ Jesus, who we worship and serve as his spiritual house forever. 
  
1 Peter 2:5: Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 
 
Amen!