Welcome to all our visitors.
Thank you for being with us. It's a great encouragement. Brother
Don Fortner is planning to come join us next year and he sends
his greetings to the saints in Nauru, as does Clay. They want
to be remembered to us. And again, it's just wonderful
reminder to us of the victory of our Lord Jesus. And today
I wanted to talk about what it is for God's children to be carried
by God's priest on the shoulders of God's priest and on the heart
of God's priest into the very presence of God. And the tabernacle
in Exodus is a beautiful building, beautiful on the inside and very
very plain on the outside and every little bit of it is a reflection
of the work of the Lord Jesus and the perfection of that finished
work on behalf of his people. And it's just a wonderful description,
just as with the description of the building of the temple
in Jerusalem, the tabernacle is built in an effortless way. The tabernacle is built according
to the instructions that God had given Moses. And the pattern
that God had given Moses on the mountain is the Lord Jesus and
him crucified. And so everything in the tabernacle
is designed by God to reflect the beauty of the Lord Jesus
and his glory. And the culmination of all of
this building of the tabernacle and setting up of the tabernacle
in Exodus chapter 28 is the clothing of the high priest. A high priest who was chosen
by God. A high priest who in Exodus 28
is described before us as being dressed, dressed by Moses. And if you turn in your Bibles
and look at chapter 28 verse 2, you actually see that these
holy garments, you shall make holy garments for Aaron your
brother. And the holy garments, the purpose
of the holy garments, are for glory and for beauty. And so what I thought we'd do
if the Lord allowed us today, we'd just look through these
garments of Aaron the High Priest. They are mentioned three times
in Exodus and it's interesting that we have a description of
them here in 28. And then if you recall in your
scriptures we have the horrible story of the golden calf And
then we have a description in Exodus 39 of Aaron actually being
clothed. This in 28 is a description of
the making of these garments. In Exodus 39 Aaron is clothed. And then it's repeated again
for us in Leviticus Chapter 8 as the work of the High Priest.
And he cannot go into the Holy of Holies. He cannot go in and
minister continually before God unless he is dressed. And these
dressings that he has, these seven pieces that he has, they're
mostly listed there in 28 verse 4. These are the garments which
I shall make, a breast piece and an ephod, and a robe and
a tunic of chequered work. a turban and a sash. They shall make holy garments
for Aaron, your brother, and his sons, that he may minister
as priest to me." God's people need someone to minister before
God for them. We cannot, as sinful people,
march into the presence of God by ourselves, we must be carried
into the presence of God, by God, God's priest himself, according
to God's ordained way of doing things, for his glory. And so
the whole structure of the tabernacle and the whole structure of the
temple, in a sense, is saying to people, you cannot come near
to God. You cannot come into this place
without blood sacrifice. You cannot come into this place
unless you're one of the redeemed people of God. And only the High
Priest, and only on one day of the year, went into the Holy
of Holies, offering blood for his own sins and then offering
blood for the sins of the people. And on that special day, which
is in Leviticus, mentioned to us in Leviticus 16, Aaron the
high priest didn't wear these robes, he just wore pure white
linen, a linen turban and a linen coat. pure white, signifying
the purity of the Lord Jesus. On that day he went in with blood.
These other days, when he worked continually, he came into this
holy place. He came in with blood, but he
came dressed in these beautiful, beautiful robes. Just read Exodus
28.5 with me. And they shall take the gold
and the blue and the purple and the scarlet material and the
fine linen. They're beautiful materials.
Where did these materials come from? Where was all this got
in the middle of a desert? All of what's required for the
dressing of the priest is provided by God himself. All of this has
come from Egypt. Beautiful, beautiful twisted
linen woven together with gold thread. And then they shall make an ephod
of gold. of blue and purple and scarlet
material and fine twisted linen, the work of skilled workmen,
skilful workmen, workmen who have been skilled by God. In
it shall have two shoulder pieces joined to its end that it may
be joined." And then there will be a woven band on it. and it
shall be like its workmanship, of the same material, of gold
and blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen.
And then you'll take two onyx stones and engrave on them the
names of the sons of God. And so on the shoulders, holding
the front and back parts of this beautiful dress, were these two
onyx stones. And on these stones, set in gold,
you are to engrave the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. It's a great picture of redemption,
isn't it? that God's children are chosen
and they are chosen by name. And they are chosen to be on
the shoulders of the High Priest. And it's a picture of our Lord
Jesus carrying his people on the omnipotent shoulders. I don't
know about you, but I remember fondly my children when they
were little. And they just loved being carried
on my shoulders, carried on my head. And even though it seemed
precarious to them, it was a place of great safety. Nothing's going
to touch them up there. Dad's got them. They're on his
shoulders. They're carried by him. And I think we ought to bear
in mind that these, in verse 12, are for a memorial. They are there to be remembered. They are there for us to remember
that God's purposes are electing purposes. And we do well to think
of who these men are. We do well to think of what these
12 names mean. So each of the names was written
there. But just remember who they are.
They are the chosen children of a man called Jacob, who was
a deceiver. Just think, just think of their
pedigree. Just think of their records of
righteousness. I don't know if you recall, Simon
has been taking us through Exodus, and we've heard the story of
these 12 men. Remarkable stories. You remember
the story of Reuben who slept with his father's concubine. Reuben who slept with his brother's
mother. And then in Genesis 37, the ten
of them can't decide whether to murder their brother Joseph
or fortuitously sell him into slavery. And then they all together
having having sold him into slavery, they then concoct a story for
their father Jacob. A story which robs him of any
hope of seeing Joseph again. They take this special coat of
many colours and they take it back dipped in blood and torn
to Jacob. These are the names of the twelve
who are in there. Later on we find that one of
them sleeps with his daughter-in-law, thinking that she's a shrine
prostitute. So often in religion we are inclined
to think that God looks upon us and smiles upon us because
of the goodness that's in us and the goodness that we do.
We've just read in Psalm 103 that God knows that we are but
dust. And we might look down on Reuben
and we might look down on Judah and we might for an instance
say, well I wouldn't be like that. If I'd been there that
day I would have rescued Joseph. We need to remember that we are
but dust. You would do everything that
these twelve have done. And you do it in an instant,
right now, apart from the grace of God. We are what we are by
the grace of God. So this is for a memorial. These
stones are set on the shoulders of the high priest and then attached
to this shoulder piece, and attached in such a way so it cannot be
removed, is this beautiful breastplate. A beautiful breastplate which
was woven of the same material. 28.15 says, you shall make a
breastplate of judgement, a skilled workman, like the work of the
ephod, you shall make it. of gold, of blue, of purple,
of scarlet material, fine twisted linen you shall make it. It shall
be square and folded double, a span in length and a span in
width. You shall mount on it four rows
of stones. The first row shall be of ruby,
topaz, emerald. The second row of turquoise,
a sapphire, a diamond. And the third row of jacquard,
an agate and an amethyst, the fourth row a beryl and an onyx
and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. The stones shall be according
to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve according to their names.
They shall be like the engravings of a seal, each according to
his name for the twelve tribes. And so this breastplate is set
with the most beautiful of stones. And they are named just like
the shoulder pieces. God's children are set by God
in settings of gold. God's children are carried by
the high priest, carried over his heart. a sign of God's constant
love and care for us. They are set together so that
God's purposes are collective purposes, that the twelve are
together as a unit. God's family is always considered
by God to be one. It's lovely to have visitors
along. It's lovely to have our friends
from America come and minister the word to us. But these are
all reminders, aren't they, that we belong to a family. We belong to the family of God. God's children all belong. They belong because of the work
of the Lord Jesus. He knows us. He knows us by name. He calls his sheep by name and
they hear his voice. They are called individually,
but they are then called to be together. And they are carried. That's
the message I want you guys to take away from us today, that
God's children are carried on the shoulders of omnipotent power
and grace. and they are carried on God's
heart. They are carried on the heart
of the Lord Jesus and they are carried into the Holy of Holies. The one big difference between
the religion the religions of this world, and what this book
says about our Saviour is that God carries his people. God always carries his people. There's a wonderful description
in Isaiah 46 of the difference between the religions of this
world. It doesn't matter what name they have, If they are in the business of
getting people to do things, if they are in the business of
putting a burden upon God's children, it doesn't matter what name they
are. In Isaiah 46, Bell bows down. These are the gods of that land
at that time. Nebo's stoops, their idols were
on the beasts and on the cattle. Their carriage is heavy laden. a burden to the weary beast.
They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden,
but they themselves have gone into captivity. Listen to me,
O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel.
Listen to what God says about what he does with his own. who have been upheld by Me from
birth, who have been carried from the womb, even to your old
age I am He, even to grey hairs I will carry you. I have made
and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you."
That's our God. That's what this picture's about,
isn't it? That God, as the high priest
of his people, comes and picks his people up and sets them in
settings of gold as jewels in his crown and he carries them
into the place where people can only meet with God on the basis
of absolute, strict and perfect justice. They're not only carried
there, they're carried close to God's heart there. And once
he's begun a work of carrying his children, he keeps on carrying
us, the religions of this world, and our own wicked flesh will
continue to say, I must do these things, then God will actually
come along and pick up the pieces. God will respond when I've done
all these things. Just think of the names that
God carries. Reuben, the adulterer, ten cowards,
Judah, sleeping with his daughter-in-law thinking she's a prostitute.
God carries his people despite themselves, despite their activities
and he carries us into a place where we meet with God as dearly
loved children. So this is a beautiful work and
keep remembering what 38 verse 2 says, these are for glory and
for beauty. And so this breastplate is set
in place in verse 28 of chapter 28. It's tied firmly with gold
to the clasps on the shoulders. And it's tied in such a way that
it cannot come loose. It will not come loose from the
ephod. They are as one. In chapter 28 verse 29, Aaron
shall carry the names of the sons of Israel in the breastplate
of judgment over his heart when he enters the holy place for
a memorial before the Lord continually. Don't miss the fact that we are
carried before God into the holy of holies in heaven in our Lord
Jesus Continually. We can't see it. We often live
in this world as if we can't see it. And often it seems like
there is just darkness around us. But the reason for coming
to hear what God says is that we will change our focus and
we'll look at ourselves, we'll look at our brothers and sisters,
we'll look at them and look at us through the eyes of who the
Lord Jesus is and what He does to carry His people. Therefore,
verse 25 of chapter 7 in Hebrews, He is able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God through Him. since he always lives to
make intercession for them. We have such a high priest, for
such a high priest was fitting for us, for God's people who
is holy harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and has
become higher than the heavens. I'm not sure what's going on
in the hearts of people when you speak to them, but do we
Do we, with God's children, rejoice in the fact that we are carried
by God, close to His heart? Or do we look to things that
we have done, things that we must do? The Scriptures cause
us, command us, to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus, who is both
the author and the perfecter of our faith. For Christ has
not entered the holy places with hands, which are the copies of
the true, but in heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God. He doesn't appear there by accident.
He appears there before God, in the presence of God, for us,
on behalf of us, on behalf of God's And he didn't enter, our Lord
Jesus, our great high priest, didn't enter with the blood of
goats and calves, Hebrews 9.12, but with his own blood he entered
the most holy place once for all. Listen to what God says
about the work of the Lord Jesus, having obtained eternal redemption. There is absolutely nothing in
the Book of God that leaves any doubt to what our Saviour did. He obtained eternal redemption.
It is His, on behalf of His people. He enters there for His people,
on their behalf. And He enters, according to Exodus
28, 29, for a memorial before the Lord continually. If we are sinners who know that
we are dust, if we are sinners who can be named with the 12
tribes of Israel, we won't want to be meeting God on the basis
of anything in our record at all. We enter into the Holy of
Holies on the basis of who the Lord Jesus is and what He has
done. And we enter continually I don't
enter ever on the basis of my good works. I don't enter ever
on the basis of anything except the perfect work of the Lord
Jesus. That's why this breastplate is called a breastplate of judgment.
If you turn in your scriptures down to chapter 28 verse 30,
you shall put in the breastplate of judgment. The breastplate
of judgment can refer to both the verdict of God and the discernment
of God. It registered a verdict on behalf
of God's people and it was used of God to give His people discernment
about which way they were to go. But this blessed plate of
judgment had in it the urim and the thummim. And they shall be
over Aaron's heart. So over Aaron's heart are these
12 stones set in gold with the names of God's children on them.
And there is the Urim and the Thummim. Now the Urim and the
Thummim, the scriptures are silent about what they are. We don't
know what they look like. We know that like the Ark of
the Covenant, They disappeared when the Babylonians captured
Jerusalem. And we know that the Ark of the
Covenant was never returned to that new temple that was built.
And we know that the Urim and the Thummim were there. And all
of that was so that God could show his people that something
better than man-made things was coming along. Someone better
was coming. We no longer needed to go to
an Ark of the Covenant when the Lord Jesus was coming. So God
took them away in purpose. But we know what they mean in
Hebrew. They mean lights and they mean perfection. So just remember what's going
on here, that this High Priest goes into the Holy of Holies
with the names of God's children and with lights and perfections
there. As I said earlier, these things
are just representative of the Lord Jesus. There is no light
in this world without the Lord Jesus. There is no natural light
without the Lord Jesus. Hebrews 1 makes it clear the
only reason the sun is shining through that window at the moment
is because the Lord Jesus is sustaining that sun and sustaining
the rays of that sun. So all light is found in Christ
and only in Christ. For it pleased the Father to
have all the fullness dwell in Him. Colossians 2.3 says, in
Him are hidden, in the Lord Jesus are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. So the Lord Jesus is light itself. Without Him we cannot see reality
in this world. This world is darkness to those
who don't see the things of this world in light of who the Lord
Jesus is. He gives natural light but also
He gives true light. He gives the true light of grace.
that comes from Jesus. It's only ever found in Him.
He is the light of the world. The light of grace causes sinners
to see who they are. Without God's grace, you cannot
see yourself clearly. Without the grace of God, you
won't know that you're lost. Without the grace of God, you
won't know the depravity of your heart. Without the grace of God,
the light of God, you won't know that sin is what you are. And sin is only ever seen as
sin in reference to who God is and how holy He is. Without the
light that the Lord Jesus brings, you won't see the need of a Redeemer. And you won't see, without light
from God, the fullness and glory of the Lord Jesus as a Redeemer. And without light from God, you
won't see that it's finished and it's complete. We have to
be like that man in John chapter 9. The one thing I know, that
I was blind. But now I see God's children
are called children of the light because God has called us out
of darkness by irresistible power and has called us into a kingdom
of light. And it just comes as God takes
his people into his presence. Awake, you who sleep. arise from the dead and Christ
shall give you light. So this light to all the world
is a light to the Gentiles. And in his own light we actually
see who God really is. We only see the brightness of
who our God is in the light that the Lord Jesus shows upon him. It's only in his light that we
see him as this perfect high priest. It's only in his light
that we see him as someone who comes and takes his people in
his arms, holds them close to his heart and carries them into
his presence. Continually carries them into
his presence, despite themselves. And that's why it's only through
light that God gives that we will see the treasures, the treasures
of grace and the treasures of glory that are reserved and kept
in heaven for God's children. So there's light. But the Lord
Jesus also carries this breastplate in this breastplate of judgment.
He carries perfections. We know something of the perfections
of God. All of the fullness of God dwells
in our Lord Jesus. The one thing that we want to
proclaim as a church again and again is the deity of our Lord
Jesus. Everything he did, he did with
the fullness of deity. He didn't come and try to do
things on this earth. He sits in heaven ruling things
on this earth. And it's His good pleasure to
save 100 people in Nauru, all the glory will go to Him. It's
His good pleasure to save 10,000 people in Nauru, the glory that
He receives is going to be undiminished. All the perfections of the Triune
God are in Him. All the perfections of grace
that come to God's children are in Him. A verse that we love
to quote here is John 1.16. From His fullness we have all
received grace upon grace. God's children come to a fountain
overflowing with grace. Again and again we come to Him
for perfection. We come to Him who is perfect. We come to Him for our perfection
and we don't look inside of ourselves for anything at all. All the
perfections of blessings and all the promises of God to sinners
are in a covenant of grace. And that's what this priesthood
represents. He represents a covenant which
really represents an eternal covenant, the eternal covenant
in his blood. And so our perfection in this
life is in Jesus. Our perfection and our strength
that we need is in the Lord Jesus. We are like the names on this
breastplate. We are poor. Weak, helpless creatures,
just creatures of flesh, prone to weakness, prone to sickness,
prone to sin. We need something outside of
ourselves. We need someone to look to. We
need someone to carry us, to carry us upon his heart. Someone
who will bring us the perfection of wisdom. Someone who'll bring
us the perfection of joy. Someone who'll bring us the perfection
of comfort and consolation when we stumble and we fall and we
fall and we fall. And so God's children are carried
by this high priest. They're carried upon the heart
of the Lord Jesus. God's children were carried on
his heart from eternity. and we were the objects of his
everlasting love. We were on his heart when he
came into this world to save his people. We were on his heart
when he stitched together a robe of perfect righteousness, not
for himself but for his people. We were on his heart when he
suffered and died at Calvary. And we were on his heart when
he took his seat in heaven We're on his heart now and we'll be
on his heart forever. So everything Christ has done,
everything Christ is doing, everything Christ will do, he does as our
great High Priest. And he does it with the lights
and the perfections. There's nothing that he doesn't
know about his children. He does it as our representative,
our mediator, and our substitute. And he sets his children in settings
of gold. Extraordinary, isn't it, my brothers
and sisters? Set in settings of gold. God's children are the jewels of the Lord Jesus. We are jewels in Christ, we are
jewels with Christ, upon his heart, in his heart in heaven. And the more brilliantly the
light shines upon a diamond, the more it sparkles with radiant
beauty. He has set us as a seal upon
his heart, and he's done it all by grace. He's done it all for the praise
of His glory. He does it all for the praise
of His beauty. There's a great verse in Ecclesiastes
which reminds us of the completion of His wonderful, wonderful work
on behalf of His children. Ecclesiastes 9 is the response
of God's children to being carried into the throne room of God by
a great high priest. Ecclesiastes 9 verse 7, Go, eat
your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, for
God has accepted your works. Let your garments always be white,
and let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully. Live in delight
of a Saviour who is both glorious and is beautiful. And for those
of you who do not have faith in our Redeemer, remember that
He is light. He does know everything. He is
perfection. And he does call on people just
to simply trust a finished work, to trust a perfect saviour, to
rest in a perfect saviour, to be carried by a perfect saviour
to a place that we can never work ourselves to, ever. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we do thank
you that we have a great High Priest. We praise you, our Father,
that he carries us on the shoulders of almighty power. We praise
you that he carries all of his people on his heart, Heavenly
Father, and we praise you that he carries us with the light
of His perfect knowledge of all things and the perfections of
all of what He has done. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
find ourselves hidden in our Saviour, to rejoice, to rest,
to delight in being carried rather than working, our Father, and
give us the peace that You alone can give our Father that passes
understandings as we gaze upon our Redeemer. For we pray in
His precious Name. Amen.