Jesus Christ serves as our great High Priest, a role exemplified by Aaron in the Old Testament, who was called, cleansed, and clothed for his sacred duty. The sermon highlights Christ's divine nature as God manifest in the flesh, possessing omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, as demonstrated by His miracles and knowledge of hearts. His priesthood, unlike Aaron's, is eternal and without beginning or end, reflecting His Alpha and Omega status. Clothed in the symbolic garments of the High Priest, Christ's breastplate signifies His carrying of His people in love and security, His ephod His righteous ministry, the Urim and Thummim His revelation of God's will, His robe His fruitful testimony, His girdle His service, and His crown His inherent holiness, all of which underscore His finished work on the cross and His ongoing intercessory ministry in heaven.
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I've always had a blessed time whenever I've been here to share the word of God with you. And I thought this week that God seemed to lay in my heart the thought of the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ and that we could consider this and consider him during the week, during the morning sessions. This being Christmas Day, a verse that was brought to us at the breakfast table this morning, was that unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. And that was the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world, that He might be a Savior, that He might be a Savior of lost sinners, that He may go to that position that He could take the sinner's penalty upon himself and then that he might deliver that sinner from destruction and from judgment to come.
And you know I praise God this morning that one day he opened my understanding to the fact that I was a sinner lost and undone and that he came for me. I'm thrilled this morning to be able to look back two thousand years ago when God became flesh. when the Lord Jesus took upon him that form of a man, not only that he should die for me, but that he should live for me. And that's what we're going to be considering during the week. The fact that he did die, he was the one who came as a savior for lost sinners.
But now he ever liveth to make intercession for us. What a thrill to my heart to know this morning. that there's one in the heavens, a Savior which is Christ the Lord, who is living to make intercession for us. That He was able to save to the uttermost. And He does make intercession daily. What a position is ours then this morning, as those who would have a high priest in the heavens, one to take up our call. But what a contrast. in being in the glory where he is this morning and coming to the place that he had to come to, to Calvary's cross.
It was certainly for him first the suffering and then the glory. First he had to come and take that form of a man that he could substitute for me. Perhaps you're here this Christmas morning without a Savior and you've never known that Christ died for sinners. Maybe you've heard the message many a time and never came to the realization that he was a personal God who came for persons, that he came for individuals, and that he came to die. And that's what he came for. He didn't come to be ministered unto, and that's what Mark tells us. He didn't come that men would minister to him.
He came as a lowly babe born in a manger. He came as one wrapped in swaddling clothes, even though He was King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He came to that humble position, born of a woman, but born in time that He might redeem every single one of us. He came to minister, and what a ministry was His. What a service was His when He went to Calvary's Cross. where he stooped from that exalted place of being in the heavens and on the throne to the lowliness of that cross and of the tomb. And he did it for us.
He did it for every one of us. To those of us who know him as a Savior this morning, we can say within our heart, hallelujah, what a Savior. But if we're here without the Lord this morning, then this Christmas day means nothing to us. It is just another day on the calendar of men. But if we know them as a Savior, then we can look back to the day when Christ was born. When in the city of Bethlehem was born a Savior which was Christ the Lord. And then in our mind's eye we can come back to a time and a place in our life when our understanding was opened and the light of the glorious gospel shown in.
And we remember that day when we became a new creation in Christ Jesus. Before I take a look at him as intercessor, could we look this morning at your own heart as I question you. Do you have a Savior? Do you have a Savior, which is Christ the Lord? Can you rejoice this morning within your own heart and remember a day when you said to him, Yes, Lord Jesus, I believe, I believe that you came and you went to the cross and there at Calvary you bore the penalty for my sin and you died to set me free.
Can you remember a day like that in your life when you said to him, I'll put my trust in you? If you can't, that's the day. This morning you can sit here in peace knowing sins forgiven. and knowing that the Lord Jesus ever lived to make intercession for Him. There was a work that He came to do, Calvary's Cross, and when He was nailed to that cross, He could cry with a loud voice, finished. It was completed the work that He came to do. That was His finished work, but He has an unfinished work today.
And that work is what He takes up in the heavens. That work is the work of the high priestly intercession that He does for us. That's an unfinished work. When it came to His finished work, He could sit down in all right of the finished work at the right hand of the Majesty on high. But when He comes to that work that's unfinished, He's a high priest that abideth forever. He's a high priest that ministers continually into heaven. And that's what he's doing in his unfinished work for us. I'd like to take a text, a couple of verses that we're going to read every day.
Lord willing, we're going to consider him. And that's what we're going to take as our text. Hebrews chapter three and verse one. Book of the Hebrews, chapter three and verse one. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also made Moses was faithful unto his house. Chapter four. Verse fourteen.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmity, but was in all points tempted, like as we are, sin apart. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for God in the things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin, who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way.
For that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought as for the people so also for himself to offer for sin. And no man taketh this honor to himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron. Aaron is given to us as the type. So let's go back to the book of Leviticus chapter eight. We're going to look at our high priest in pictures for a couple days. And here in Leviticus chapter eight, we have the consecration of the high priest. We have the calling.
We have the cleansing. And we have the consecration of the priest. And this morning we're going to consider him as the one call of God. as the one who stood in the place in figure her as Aaron, as he was washed, and then as the high priest with clothes. Leviticus chapter eight and verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments and the anointing oil, and a bullet for the sin offering, and two rams and a basket of unleavened bread.
and gather thou all to the congregation unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. And the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done. And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. and he put upon him the coat and the girdle with the girdle, and he put on him the coat and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bounded unto him therewith.
And he put the breastplate on him, also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummimim. He put the mitre upon his head. Also upon the mitre, even upon the forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses. And Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them. And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the labor and his foot, to sanctify them.
And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and anointed him to sanctify them. We've got a blessed little picture here before us. It's the picture of the occalling and the sanctifying or the setting apart of Aaron and his sons. as to the high priesthood that they were to be called to. Aaron had a name that meant very high. And so when we take the type of Aaron as the type of the high priest, we see him in the very name that's given to him in his calling as the one who was to represent the one who was very high.
The Lord Jesus Christ, when he left heaven's glory and came here, never ceased to be God. He never ceased to be the one who was God manifest in the flesh. He never set aside any of his right to deity and any of his attributes and any of his character. He ever continued to be the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God. When you take a view of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He came and He walked in this scene, He stood as the omnipotent one.
He proved it in the sense of His walk as He walked. He could command the demons. And as the demons addressed Him, they knew Him as the Holy One of God. He was the one who could cure the diseases of men. He was the one who could command nature. both standing in the boat and commanding peace to be made to the wind and the wind. And at the first miracle, he could command the water to be made wine. He stood there as Creator God, and in just a moment he condensed the processes of time. that would have taken the months for that water to fall from heaven, to go through the vine, to become the fruit, and then to be taken and fermented into wine.
He took those processes of months, and in a moment that water blushed in the presence of the eternal God, and it turned to wine. We can rejoice that the Lord Jesus not only commanded the winds and the waves, On nature itself, he is the one who could say he had power on earth to forgive sins. He stood as the one who could say, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. The Lord Jesus, when he came to this scene, stood as the one all-powerful very high. But he stood as the one who was omniscient as well. He was the all-knowing God.
If you remember in John's Gospel, chapter one, Nathaniel had been under the fig tree. Nathaniel was having a little meditation under that fig tree. Perhaps he was meditating on the day when Israel would be delivered, would be suggestive to that as to the Lord Jesus revealing to it that he was going to see the angels descending and descending on the Son of Man. And so the Lord Jesus, when he sees Nathaniel walking to him, he said, Behold, an Israelite, indeed in whom is no guile. And then Nathaniel said, Whence knewest thou me?
He said, I knew thee when thou wast under the fig tree. And he said, You're going to see greater things than these, Nathaniel. Undoubtedly, Nathaniel could have been meditating on Jacob's view as the place of Bethel, the house of God, where he laid his head on his pillow. And he saw the ladder that led to heaven. And he saw the angels ascending and descending on it. And the Lord said, You're going to see something greater than that. You're going to see those angels descending and ascending on the Son of Man. And so he showed him he was the omniscient one. In chapter two, the Gospel of John, you have the same thing.
He did not commit himself to men, for he knew the heart of men. He didn't commit himself to them because he knew what was in man. And then we see him as the omnipresent one, the one who could be there was Nathaniel under that fig tree. the one that could be with the disciples as they were alone in the boat and knew their feeling, and yet could be the one to come to them and to bring them peace. Don't you see when we're looking at the one who is very high, the one who here is going to typify the Lord Jesus Christ. We see in Aaron in his title the very high one.
And when it comes to the Lord Jesus as he walked here in this scene, He was God manifest in the flesh. And when He sits at the right hand of the Majesty on I today, He sits as the one who is in that exalted position in the glory. And as the one who takes up that intercessory work for us. Oh, Nahab and Abihu had names too. Nahab was willing one. And Abihu is my father as he. And yet they could never stand in the position of the one who was most high. And we saw the favor in them, as God had given them a prescribed way to bring worship unto him.
And they took up that strange fire and brought it before him, and he rained down fire from heaven. But what a difference in Eleazar. He's the one who could have a name and a title that meant help of God. And we see that later on in his life, He stood again in that position of that priest and taking up that work to do. My Aaron was called of God. And we read that the Lord Jesus was that one called of God. The Lord Jesus was the one that was brought here to this scene. To take a body, to walk in that body, and then to be the one who was to be called.
far greater in the sense of Aaron, but then in the sense of the order of a priesthood after Melchizedek. Aaron had a beginning to his priesthood. Aaron had a birth to his priesthood. And all that enter into that priesthood of the Aaronic order were men who were born in the flesh. But when we take a look at the Melchizedek priesthood that he was called to as well, Here's the priesthood that had not beginning or ending. For we do not read of any genealogy of Melchizedek. He appears on the scene suddenly. He is ministered to as he ministers.
And then he disappears from the scene. And he's only mentioned in the Old Testament once after that in the book of the Psalms. And when it comes to the Lord Jesus, he's that one who is the beginning. the alpha and the omega, the one who's the beginning and the ending, the first and the last. You know, I love that title, the alpha and the omega. Sometimes it's a title that's so comprehensive we scratch our mind on it. We begin to wonder what the fullness of it means. And a little girl, I think, once showed me how confounding that the title can really be.
I was having some children's meetings in the city of Lombard some fifteen years ago, perhaps, and this little girl was coming to these children's meetings every day. And she was puzzling how the Lord Jesus could be gone. And so each night she would come with a question, and I'd answer her question. And I could see she was being prompted by someone at home. Every day she'd come back with another question. And so toward the end of the series of meetings, she came to me again and said, Jesus Christ could not just be God.
He had to have a beginning. And every night as I'd ask her some question, she'd stomp her foot and say, No, it couldn't be that way. And so this night I said to her, Honey, what's the first letter in the alphabet? And she said, A. So I stopped my foot. I said, no. Has to be something before A. No, there doesn't, she said. I said, why doesn't there have to be something before A? She said, because A is the first letter. I said, good, I'm glad you can see that. Now, what's the last letter? She said, Z. I said, no, sir. There has to be something after Z. No, there doesn't, she said.
I said, well, why not? You say there doesn't have to be anything before A, and there doesn't have to be anything after Z. Why doesn't there? She says, because it's complete in itself just the way it is. I said, honey, bless your heart, that's God. He's the alpha and the omega. He's complete in himself just the way he is. I'm glad that little girl could see that. Bless your heart, can you see it? Can you see it? He's eternal in the heavens. You have to grasp that. Because if all you can see is a man, then there's opportunity of failure.
If all you can see is a created being, such as Lucifer was created, Michael, the archangel. If all you can see in Christ is a being such as that, then anywhere in the eternal ages to come, he could fail. He could fail. But not my Savior, not my God. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the first and the last. He's the beginning and the ending. He's eternal in the heavens. And the priesthood that he takes up, that he took up, when he ascended into heaven, is that kind of a priesthood.
And there is no failure in him. He is eternal God. And that priesthood is going to abide. And he's going to continue in it forever. It's a priesthood that abideth, continues. And I praise God this morning. He was called to a priesthood like that. Even though he became man, he was eternal. And he became man. in order that he might supplicate for you and me, that he might intercede for us. First he became my sacrifice, and now he stands as my intercessor.
First he became my Savior, and now he intercedes for me. And you know, Aaron was taken with his sons. Now here you can appreciate that Moses stands in the place of the intercessor. Because we're looking at a man, now Aaron, as he was called, with his sons. But I want you to notice that before Aaron's sons were taken, Aaron was anointed before the rest of them. He was set apart. He was one that was set apart even from his sons when it was a calling to this priesthood. And bless your heart, so is the Lord Jesus.
For he said, Both he that sanctify, and they that are sanctified, are both one. And for this cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews two eleven. You see, oh, he takes us and he makes us one with himself. He was the sanctifier, and we are those that have been sanctified. He is the one who set us apart. Because he was set apart. And he set us apart himself. And now in him he's not ashamed to call us brethren. And he said that it was in the midst of the congregation.
Would he declare his name unto his brethren? My. If we take a look at the congregation and we see the Lord Jesus in the midst when it comes to the church. the body of Christ. He was the one that could say to Peter, Upon this rock will I build my church? And again that he could say where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. And in the midst he's declaring his name unto his brethren. And that name is all the authority of the throne of God.
And that name is declared to you and to me as he declares us brethren. I'm amazed. I'm amazed at the grace and the condescending place that our Savior took, that he would come down and that he would to that sense take us up in his family, bringing many sons into glory. and calling us brethren. He was set apart and set apart as a sanctified one who sanctifies. And you and I can be set apart in him.
But then there was the dress for Aaron that was put upon him. And if we took a look from the outside inward, we would see that first of all, he had on him a breastplate. Paul indeed speaks of a breastplate of righteousness in the book of Ephesians. He speaks in First Thessalonians of a breastplate of faith and love. And if we were just to consider the breastplate and the place of faith, of righteousness, and of love, we could see the heart of the Lord Jesus toward his people.
For the breastplate was where that the Israelites were carried representatively. There were stones in the breastplate, twelve of them. And on these twelve stones was written on each stone a name of one of the tribes of the children of Israel. It says to me that as I look at the breastplate that our God carries his own, His children in that place of affection and that place of righteousness and that place of faith. Certainly when it comes to His love toward us, there ought never to be a question in His heart or in our heart that He loved us.
The Word of God tells me He loved us and He gave Himself for us. He loves us. You know, sometimes when we get afflicted and we're laid flat on our back and we begin to wonder, does He really love me? Yes. He loves us. He chasens who, his son, those He loves, everyone He receives. But He carries us in that place. of affection, loved of him.
And he has us secured together as they were secured on that breastplate, with four squares, says to me his love reaches out to each one, but he stands as no respecter of person. He loves us as sons and holds us in that place of security in himself. He carries us in the place of affection. But you know, there was a robe of ephod that this breastplate was carried on, and that ephod was of gold.
It was of linen, and these were woven together. It typified certainly the righteousness and the deity of the Son of God. It gives us that position that he stands and ministers in as our great high priest, as one that ministers in love, that's where he carries his people. He ministers in righteousness and he ministers according to the righteousness of God. Not according to men's righteousness. but that that is of God.
Now, there were also two little pouches that were up here on the shoulder. And in those two little pouches, there were two stones on each shoulder. And each one of them had six of the names of the tribes of the children of Israel in them. And so as they were engraved in these stones, and he carried them there, he carried them in the place of strength. And when the Lord Jesus carries his own, that's where he carries his own in the place of strength. You know, when he went out to look for the one lost sheep, he took that sheep, that lamb, and he placed it on his shoulders.
But when it comes to government, it shall be on his shoulders. We get the beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus as the shepherd, going out and seeking the one lost sheep, and then taking him and putting him in the place of strength on his shoulders and carry them there. You know, one of his sheep shall never be lost, not one. He'll never lose one of his own. There's a beautiful four-fold cord in the Gospel of John, in John's Gospel, chapter ten, that he gives to us of the security of the believer.
And that security there, if you remember, the book of Ecclesiastes tells us a threefold cord is not easily broken. And here he gives us a fourfold cord. It means that if I was to take one cord and pull on it, I could break it. If I was to take two and twist it and pull on it, it would be harder broken. If I was to take three, Solomon says it's not easily broken. And if I'm to take four, it seals it secure. And so now I take them in John's Gospel chapter twenty-eight. What's he saying? My sheep, or John's Gospel chapter ten, verse twenty-eight.
My sheep hear my voice. I know them, they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, first course. They shall never perish, second course. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, third course. And my Father that gave them me as greater than all, no man shall pluck them out of my Father's hand, fourth course. I and the Father are one. A threefold cord is not easily broken. There is a fourfold cord, and that's the security of the believer, and he's carried in the place of strength. That's where God carried his children of old.
And he has made us sons of God, and so in no less place are we carried than in the heart of God and in the place of the strength of God. Beloved this morning, no matter what your trial, no matter what your affliction, no matter what you're going through, you can say, He loves me. And He'll keep me. How long? He said, He's able to save to the uttermost, them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for me. Bless your heart. What a place of security.
What a place of resting. You see, there's a resting place for the believer in Christ as our high priest. There's a resting place as he takes up his work for us. Oh, you know, there was a place in that ephod right at the top of it where there were two stones carried, the Urim and the Thummim. and they were called light and perfection. Whenever the Israelites wanted to know the mind of God in a special way, they would take out these stones. And somehow, I believe because of the names of the stones, lights and perfection, some way through this was revealed to the Israelites the mind of God.
And the Lord Jesus Christ today, stands in that way as our high priest interceding for us and willing and delights in showing us the mind of the Father and the will of the Father through himself because he is the one who stands as light and light. When he came into the world, he was the life of the believer. And as the believer receives him and he receives not only light, but that life was the light of men. And so that light comes to shine in the place of the darkened heart. When men receive Christ as a Savior, he receives that light that stands.
Now there was the robe of the ephod. It was olive blue. And at the bottom of that robe was a pomegranate and a golden bell. It speaks to us of testimony fruitfulness in testimony. The high priest wherever he walked, when he was dressed in those robes for beauty and for glory, for that's what they were. There was the testimony of the work that he accomplished. And when we view the Lord Jesus Christ, there is ever the sounding of the bell, and the testimony of what he did, Not only as he walked about through this scene, because we read that he went about doing good, there was the testimony of his works.
Remember when the priest sent the officers to bring him to? And as the officers went to bring him, and they came back empty-handed, and they said, Where is he? They said, Never man spake like this man. He went about doing good, and he spoke words that men had heard. that never were spoken by any man before. Never man spake like this man. There was the testimony of what he did, and it bore certainly, was a fruitful one. He was the corn of wheat that fell to the ground and died. He died that he might bring forth much fruit. And now as he takes up that witness and that testimony for us, it is one that will bear fruit.
It also had the curious girdle. It was a girdle that again was woven, was beautiful, had the colors of the blue and the purple and the scarlet. It was a girdle that went around them called, first of all, the girdle of the ephod or the curious girdle. The girdle speaks of service. You remember that the Lord Jesus, in John's Gospel chapter thirteen, when the disciples were gathered together with him in that upper room. And the Lord Jesus acted there as the servant, and he ministered to them.
We read that he took off his robe, and he laid it down, and he took up a girdle. He girded himself with a towel. You know, strangely enough, I never read that he took that girdle off. And I see him taking up there that work of ministry that was going to be to them on to reach out to all. And certainly he's done it for every one of them. He showed that example of his own love as he bent before every one of them in humility and washed their feet. And then when we get to chapter thirteen and verse thirty-five, I believe it is, he commanded us to love one another.
And he said, By this shall all men know that you're my disciple, because you have love one toward another. As he ministered, he did it in a ministry of love. He's never ceased that ministry. He's never ceased it. He ministers to us in love as our great high priest. What a ministry that he takes up to do. Then upon his head was put that mitre and that golden crown. And the golden crown had etched across the front of it. Holiness. Holiness unto God.
You know, the Lord Jesus, when he was born, was born into this scene. Before he was born, I should say, when the angels made the announcement of his birth, the announcement they said, That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ was born holy. And when he died, he was the same wood. In his lifetime, he knew no sin, he did no sin, and in him was no sin. He stood as the perfect one, clothed as he walked here in all glory and beauty.
And as he walked, we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Praise God this morning that we have one call and one close. He was called like his errand from among men, but like his Melchizedek without beginning or ending. He was clothed with all the glory and the beauty of God. And as he walked here, we had the opportunity to view it through this blessed word. God caused us more this day to appreciate the one who was born lowly in a bay, lowly in a manger as a bay.
But today is the exalted one in the heaven who abides, a priest, a high priest, interceding for us, shall we pray. Blessed God, we thank thee this morning that we can indeed look back to a day when the Lord Jesus came into this scene, born of a woman, to be born as a sacrifice for sinners. And our thanks would reach to thee this morning, our Father, that Christ died for us, that he bore our sin and that he bore our penalty on his own body on the tree. We thank thee that the infinite became finite.
We thank thee, Father, that the highest of all took the lowly position, that through death he might overcome death, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil. We bless thee this morning, Father, that we can view him as the exalted one in the heavens, now interceding for us, able to say to the uttermost, We thank thee for him. And pray, our Father, that our own hearts would be drawn out the more, drawn out the more in these days. As we view him, our great high priest, we give thanks in his own precious name.