Series: Exodus
Title: When Christ Met the Law
Scripture: Ex 4: 27-31
Date: April 9, 2017
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Exodus 4: 27: And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him. 28: And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. 29: And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: 30: And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31: And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
What a happy reunion this must have been for these two brothers after 40 years apart. But there is more here.
Proposition: This passage gives us a picture of how Christ our High Priest and Mediator met the law and causes his people to believe and worship him.
Moses is a type of the law. The one the law came through. And Moses was a prophet. So we will look at Moses as representing both the law and the prophets. Aaron is the Elder Brother, the High Priest. Aaron is a type of Christ the Firstborn, our High Priest, our Mediator. The children of Israel are a picture of God’s true, elect, spiritual Israel to whom he sends the good news of the gospel and causes to believe on Christ.
GOD SENT CHRIST
Exodus 4: 27: And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness…
It was the LORD who sent his Son, Christ Jesus, into this world to meet the law and fulfill it in place of his people. So it was God who sent his Son, Christ Jesus into this world.
He sent Christ meet the law for his people because we had broken the law. We needed to propitiate God for our sins. Propitiation is the act of appeasing and satisfying God. God’s elect people could not make propitiation because we were the offenders, guilty sinners who did not love God but rather hated God.
1 John 4: 10: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
We could not fulfill the law and the law could not justify us. So God sent his Son to fulfill the righteousness of the law for us and purge us of all our sins, so that we can never again be condemned by the law.
Romans 8: 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
God sent Christ to redeem his people from the law’s curse by being made a curse for us so that God might send his Spirit and give us life and receive us as his sons.
Galatians 4: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
God sent his Son that his people might live through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.
1 John 4:9: In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
CHRIST OBEYED
Exodus 4: 27: And he went, and met him in the mount of God,…
Christ obeyed. He came and met the law in the mount of God on the cross. Aaron typifies Christ our High Priest, our Mediator. Moses typifies the law. So in Aaron being sent of God to meet the law, we see a type of Christ being sent of God our Father to meet the law on behalf of his people.
We had broken God’s law. God will not clear the guilty. But God will show his people mercy. This is the essence of the gospel. How can man be just with God? How can God honor his justice while showing guilty sinners mercy? This is what scripture refers to when it says the purpose of God sending his Son was to declare the righteousness of God.
Romans 3: 26: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
In order to be just, the substitute for his people had to be spotless himself. So having been proven the spotless Lamb of God, Christ the just willingly gave himself for God’s unjust elect people.
1 Peter 3: 18: For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
Isaiah 53:9: And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
So the spotless Lamb of God presented himself to God to be made the sin of his people that God might be just in pouring out justice on him in our place so that God might be just in making us the righteousness of God in him.
Isaiah 53: 5: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
2 Corinthians 5: 21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Isaiah 53: Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE HAVE KISSED
Exodus 4: 27: And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.
By Christ’s finished work righteousness and peace are in harmony. Christ satisfied God’s law declaring God just; and because in Christ God is the Justifer of his people.
Psalm 85: 10: Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Psalm 89: 13: Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. 14: Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 15: Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. 16: In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. 17: For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted. 18: For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS
Exodus 4: 28: And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.
Everything the law and the prophets declared throughout the old covenant, Christ fulfilled. Just as “Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him”, the law and the prophets told Christ all the words of the LORD which Christ was to fulfill for us and Christ fulfilled it. Christ said,
Matthew 5: 17: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Everything Christ did on this earth was Christ fulfilling the law and the prophets. He declared to the men on the road to Emmaus that he had done so.
Luke 24: 25: Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Romans 1: 1…the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3: Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,…
Christ is the Seed of Woman. Christ is our High Priest and the Spotless Lamb and the Mercy Seat and the Tabernacle. Christ was lifted up like the brazen serpent in the wilderness. Christ fulfilled all the prophets lke he fulfilled Isaiah 53. Isaiah’s prophecy of the new heavens and new earth was fulfilled by Christ. Daniel’s 70 weeks ending the transgression and putting away our sin and bring in everlasting righteousness for his people, Christ is the fulfillment. Christ fulfilled all the law and the prophets. Since Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets,
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 which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Therefore all who believe, have come to the end of the law, Christ our Righteousness!
Romans 10: 1: Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2: For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3: For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
CHRIST MAKES US HEAR AND BELIEVE
Exodus 4: 29: And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: 30: And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
We cannot hear the law and the prophets, until Christ comes with the law and the prophets and teaches us what they say by speaking effectually into our hearts. Remember, Moses typifies the law and the prophets. Aaron typifies Christ our High Priest-he mediates with God for us and with his people for God.
“Moses and Aaron went”—Christ comes to his people with the law and the prophets—that is, to teach us the law and the prophets.
They “gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.” Christ gathers all his people together. As the gospel is preached, Christ speaks into our hearts all the words the LORD spoke through the law and the prophets making us hear the gospel for the first time!
Christ works all the signs we saw in the rod of God—through the Holy Spirit. We are made to behold Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. We are made to behold Christ is our Righteousness and Holiness. By his grace we are given new hearts.
BOW AND WORSHIP
Exodus 4: 31: And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
When Christ makes us hear and behold him, Christ makes us willing by his power to believe on him. We only bow and worship when we hear Christ and behold Christ and bow and worship Christ by resting in him and confessing he is all our salvation.
Brethren, have you believed when you heard that the LORD has visited his people and looked on our affliction through Christ his Son?
Acts 13: 38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
What is it to bow our head and worship God? It is to count all our former religion vanity and dung.
Philippians 3: 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,…
It is to have one desire, to be found in Christ in the day of judgment.
Philippians 3:9: And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
AMEN!