Turn with me again to Exodus
28. We'll be looking at verses 29 and 30 tonight. Exodus 28,
verse 29. And Aaron shall bear the names
of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon
his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place for a memorial
before the Lord continually. And thou shalt put in the breastplate
of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be upon
Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord. And Aaron shall
bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before
the Lord continually. Now tonight we come to another
piece of the high priest garments called the Urim and the Thummim. The Urim and the Thummim are
two of the most mysterious yet important pieces of the high
priest dress. And we're not told for certain
in the scriptures what they are. Were they stones? We're not told. Were they pieces of metal? Don't know. Were they pieces
of cloth? Well, nowhere in the word of
God does it say. We're not told anything about
their size. We're not told how they were
fastened to the breastplate, even though we know they were
somehow made a part of the breastplate of judgment. The Urim and the
Thummim are mentioned only five times in all the scriptures.
So what do we know about these mysterious pieces of the high
priest's dress? Well, first we know what their
names mean. Urim means lights and Thummim
means perfections. So the two words together means
light and perfection. So immediately we see that they
picture our Lord and Savior, our great high priest, the Lord
Jesus. Secondly, we know that the Urim
and the Thummim were put in. Some commentators think that
they were kept where the breastplate was folded in two. Remember last
time we saw that the breastplate was a certain size but folded
in two to make that size for strength to hold the stones on
the breastplate. Some of the commentators think
that the Urim and the Thummim were placed inside the fold,
but there again, we're not told for sure. But those stones, those
gems that we looked at in detail last week, as you know, pictured
all the names of God's elect. So we see that these lights and
these perfections are somehow directly related to the elect
of God as they're represented in their great high priest. We
see that along with God's people, the Urim and the Thummim, were
upon the high priest's heart when he went before the Lord.
Verse 30 says, and he did so continually. And there's no doubt
that there's a marvelous connection here between the lights and the
perfections and the one that carried them on his heart. So
Thirdly, as we've already answered, the third thing that we know
is that they were located over the heart of Aaron, the high
priest. They weren't wrapped around his
head. They weren't attached to his feet. They weren't worn as
a bracelet around his arms or around his neck. They were carried
over his heart when he went before the Lord continually. And then
fourthly, we know that God gave direction to the children of
Israel and he settled all the important matters of judgment
and justice. In the book of Numbers chapter
27, we see just that. Go ahead and turn there with
me if you would. Numbers 27 holds your place in
Exodus 28. But we see that Joshua was required
to follow the direction of God's priest who sought counsel by
the Urim before the Lord. Well, first look at verse 18
of Numbers 27. God told Moses here to take Joshua,
the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and to lay his
hand upon him and to set him before Eleazar, the priest. Then in verse 21, we read this.
And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask," now
look at this, counsel for him, after the judgment of the Urim,
before the Lord. "'At his word shall they go out,
and at his word "'they shall come in, both he and all the
children "'of Israel with him, even all the congregation.'"
And as you know, Joshua is a very obvious type of the Lord Jesus. He bore the same name as the
Lord. Joshua and Jesus being the same
name, Jesus being the New Testament interpretation or name for Joshua. And as you also know, Joshua
was God's appointed leader. He was a man of war. He was one who went forth to
lead and to conquer Israel's enemies in the land of Canaan.
We studied through the book of Joshua. It's been quite several
years now, but I'm sure you remember that very well. Before he did
though, however, we're told here that he was to seek counsel after
the judgment of the light or the Urim. So there's no doubt
that this represents the light and the revelation and the counsel
of God somewhat. And it seems that the mind and
the will and the purpose of God was communicated through the
Urim and the Thummim. Now, you don't have to turn here,
but in Samuel chapter 28, which is another one of the five places
that speaks about this Urim and Thummim, we're told that King
Saul, when he inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not. neither by dreams, and then it
says, nor by the Urim, nor by the prophets. So from those two
passages, we can only deduct that the Urim or light that was
in the breastplate of the high priest somehow gave counsel or
prophetic guidance from God. And then fifthly, according to
the book of Ezra, the Urim and the Thummim were lost during
Babylonian captivity and never again recovered. Babylon being
a symbol of false religion, the false religion of this world.
And by this, we see that false religion does what false religion
does to true worship. It destroys the light of God
and it tears down the perfections of God. False religion leaves
men and women without the light of God and with no true spiritual
discernment. And in false religion, we have
basically the blind leading the blind. That's what the Lord said.
With no light, no revelation, no guidance into the perfections
that are found in Christ alone. So the light and the perfections
of God are seen only in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
seems here that when the priesthood becomes mixed with Babylonian
idolatry, the religion of the world, the lights and the perfections
of God are gone forever. False religion leaves men and
women setting their own standard, trusting in their own works,
and leaves them with no revelation in Christ who is the only way
a sinner can be perfected forever. in God's sight. So we clearly
see, I believe that Jesus Christ, who is our high priest, and he's
the one who bears the Urim and the Thummim of God forever. Now I do want you to turn to
this passage with me, Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy chapter 33. And I want you to look with me
at verse eight, And it's here that we see that the counsels,
the lights and the perfections of God cannot be carried by man
because men can't be trusted because of their sin. Man can't
keep the Urim and the Thummim. Look at verse eight. And of Levi,
he said, let the Thummim and the Urim be with the Holy One. And we know who that is, Christ
is the Holy One. Now look at this, it said, let
the Thummim and the Urim be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst
prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters
of Meribah. Now, Massah, at the waters of
Meribah is where Israel murmured and complained against God because
they didn't have any water. Remember what they said? You
brought us out here in this wilderness to just let us die. They didn't have anything to
drink. And it's there that they rebuked Moses and were ready
to do away with him and would have if God hadn't intervened.
But it was there that God told Moses to take his rod and to
smite that rock. And water came forth from the
smitten rock. And we know that that rock was
Christ. Now stay with me on this, this
is a blessing. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10,
verse four, that Christ was that rock that followed them. This
Holy One that this verse speaks of being the Lord Jesus, the
very one that they did tempt and try. And Massa is where this
happened, and they strived with God at the waters of Meribah.
You say, well, they really strived with Moses, didn't they? No,
they strived with God. And the gospel was preached to
Israel in the smiting of that rock. You better believe it was. That's the gospel message. You see the waters of life come
only from the smitten Christ. That's what the message that
was given here to Israel at Massa at the waters of Meribah. In
Hebrews chapter 3 and chapter 4, if you read them carefully,
and I encourage you to do so, Paul talks about what happened
there at the waters of Meribah. They did not see Christ the rock. That's what God was showing them. Christ is the smitten rock. It's
from him that the rivers of life flow free. He explained that
many in Israel did not enter into the land of promise. Do
you remember why? They entered not into Christ's
rest, nor did it profit them, because the word preached to
them in the smiting of that rock was not mixed with faith in them
that heard. They didn't enter into the land
of promise nor into God's rest because of one thing, unbelief. That's the one thing that will
keep a man and a woman out of heaven's glory, unbelief. And
the scriptures say in Hebrews four, verse six, that their carcasses
fell in the wilderness. Now it's here in Deuteronomy
chapter 33, that God is saying this, let your Urim and your
Thummim be with the Holy One. And that's speaking of Christ.
Let your light and let your perfections be found only in Christ. Let
your union with Christ be your light and your perfection. For
your high priest represents you before God in the holy place."
This just all goes together so beautifully. The holy one proven
and strived against in the wilderness was none other than Christ, our
great high priest. And it was the same Christ who
said in Psalms chapter 95 verses seven through nine, today, if
you will hear his voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation,
as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Talking about
that very day in Deuteronomy 33. Don't Harden your heart as in the provocation,
as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers
tempted me, proved me, and saw my work." What work did they
see? They saw water come from a rock. Don't harden your heart when
you see that in the scriptures. It's the smitten Christ who life
flows through. All light and perfection are
found only in Christ, our great high priest. And apart from him,
we have no light or perfection of any kind. No wonder Paul said,
for it pleased the father that in him, speaking of Christ, should
all fullness dwell. Colossians 119. In who? In Christ are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Christ is the Urim. He's the
light in whom all light is found and from whom all light comes. You know, I was reading again
today in lieu and light of this subject of God creating light
in Genesis one. We know that from Genesis chapter
one, verse two, that the earth was without form. It was void
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, let
there be light. And there was light. Anytime
God says, let there be, there is. You can count on that. But
did you know, and I know you did, but I didn't really think
about this. Did you know that the sun was not created until
the fourth day? God didn't create the sun until
the fourth day. So where did the light from this
first day to the fourth day come from? I'm gonna tell you. It came from the Urim, It came
from the light of Christ. And the new creation is the same. All light comes from Christ,
the son of righteousness. Yes, all natural light comes
from Christ and all spiritual light comes from Christ. Christ
is the light and the life of man. There's no natural life
without Christ the light. You take away the son, and I'm
telling you, we'll all die. And there's no spiritual life
apart or without Christ, the light. Now, I want you to turn
with me now to the gospel of John, if you would, chapter one.
Most of you know right where I'm going. John chapter one. Look at this with me. In light
and lieu of these things. Beginning in verse one. I know
you know these scriptures, but I want us to see this light in
the light of these verses. Now, speaking of the first creation
here, John writes, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with God and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is God's Word. He is the Word of God. The same
was in the beginning with God and all things were made by Him. All things in the first creation
were made by the Lord Jesus. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. And in Him was life, and the
life was the light of men." Now, the word light here in verse
four speaks of a light that Christ sustains to all men. Christ is
their light. Every man, even in their natural
state, are enlightened by Christ in this sense. Christ is the
light of our conscience. That light cannot save, but it
makes all men and women without excuse. Brother Mahan and his
commentary on John said that every rational man is morally
enlightened and accountable which is confirmed by what we read
in verse nine. Look down at verse nine. Again,
speaking of Christ and the first creation, John writes that Christ
Jesus was the true light, which lighted every man that cometh
into the world. Now we know that God doesn't
give spiritual light to all men and women. He doesn't save every
man and woman. So that's not, I don't believe
what he's talking about here. And I think the apostle Paul
very well explains This means in Romans chapter one, verse
20, I won't turn you there, but let me read it to you. For the
invisible things of him, speaking of God, from the creation of
the world are clearly seen. How are they clearly seen? By
Christ the light, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they, speaking of all
men and women, are without excuse. You see, Christ gives that light
so that all are without excuse, just like the light that God
created on the first day of creation that shines upon all. not to
save men and women, but to clearly show them that it was God who
in sovereign power made the world. Knowing that God made and created
all things, it should cause every man and woman, every man and
woman in this world to believe and worship God. When a man looks
at the sun and looks at the stars and looks at the moon and sees
the creation of God deep in their heart, there's enough light to
show them that God's behind it all and that there is a God that's
worthy of their worship and their praise. So they're without excuse. They're without excuse. But the
light of grace is another light. And it comes later. It comes
from Christ. Believers, like all others, are
born in spiritual darkness. There's no difference in any
of us by nature. Only the difference that God
makes. It's only in Christ, the light. It's only in Christ, the
son of righteousness, that we see our lost condition. It's
only in Christ, our Urim, that we see the sin and the depravity
of our hearts. I was just like everybody else,
skipping right along on my way to hell. And if you had told
me I was a sinner, I would have probably told you, well, I used
to be, but I've straightened up and I'm flying right now.
But God showed me what I was. Oh, and I remember when he did.
You see, it's only in the revealed light of our Savior that we see
the guilt of sin, that we see that we are ourselves guilty,
all our sins against God. We've offended God. And it's
then that we see by the light of Christ, That spiritual light
that only comes from Him, our necessity of a Redeemer. You'll
never see your need of a Savior till you see that you have need.
The redeemed of the Lord are made children of light, only
by Christ being their light and the one who gives them light.
Every child of God will tell you that. This is not something
that we worked up or that we did for ourselves, God gave it
to us. God showed us these things. We
are given the Urim, the light of Christ, so that we might be
able to see the Thummim, which is the perfections of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's only by the light of
Christ that we can see that he's the brightness of his father's
glory and the express image of his person. We talked Sunday
about who Christ is. He's God, but I'm telling you,
God has to give you the light to see that. He really does. It's only in the light of Christ
that we can behold the exceeding riches of God's grace and mercy
and love. You can't see that or enter into
that without the light. How do we see the sun, S-U-N,
in our solar system? Apart from the sun's own light,
it's so far away, we would never see it, but we see it because
of the light that it shines for. And it's the same with Christ
the Son, S-O-N. It's impossible for us to see
Christ the Son except by his own light. Psalm 36 verse nine
says this, in thy light shall we see light. It's only when
he gives us light do we see the light of the gospel. And it's
in the light of Christ, our Urim, that we see Christ as our only
mediator before God. I read that scripture for years,
never paid it a bit of mind. Christ is our one mediator, the
one mediator between God and man. Now I know what that means. And it's only because Christ
shined his light on my heart. And that's what John is saying
here in verse 14 of John chapter one. And the word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. We saw
His glory. How did we see it? By the Urim. The Urim, the light of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We beheld His glory. The glory
is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. You see, the light of the gospel
is seen in Christ, our Urim. Christ is the light by which
we understand the scriptures. And with David, we say, Open
thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. We used to look at the law of
God and we'd just, we'd go, how am I gonna keep that? Or we went
the other extreme and said, oh, I've kept all them since my birth.
But now we look at the law of God and we see that it wasn't
given for us to keep, but to show us our inability and to
bring us to Christ, our schoolmaster. so that we might be brought to
God by Him. The light of heaven is Christ. It's sin and iniquity that causes
darkness in and over this world, it really is. But there'll be
no sin, no iniquity, or no darkness in heaven's glory. And that's
because Christ is our light. The only light of Christ, our
Urim, will be there. Isaiah 60, verse 19, says this. The sun shall be no more. Thy
light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto
thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and
thy God thy glory." Yes, Jesus Christ is our Urim, and He's
our Thummim. He's all light, and He's all
the perfection that God requires. You know that. as God's given
you like to see it. All perfection, divine perfections
in the Lord Jesus, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Colossians 2.19. Perfect omnipotence
and power, perfect omniscience, knowledge, perfect omnipresence,
Christ is everywhere. Perfect immutability. Christ
is the same yesterday and today and forever. He never changes.
He's the Lord that changeth not. Christ is our perfect justification. He's our perfect sanctification. We're perfectly preserved in
Him. Perfection. And one day very
soon, coming soon for all of us, Perfect glorification will
also be ours. Oh, I can't wait. God will give
me a body that has no sin. Can't imagine, can't imagine. Now, I want you to look back
at Exodus 28 verse 30 one more time, and I want to just make
a couple more comments, and then I'll finish. Exodus 28 verse
30. "'And thou shalt put in the breastplate
of judgment, "'the Urim and the Thummim, "'and they shall be
upon Aaron's heart, "'when he goeth in before the Lord, "'and
Aaron shall bear the judgment "'of the children of Israel upon
his heart "'before the Lord continually.'" Christ, our great high priest,
carries his people upon his heart into judgment. That word judgment
here means verdict. That's a word that we've all
heard. We've all seen the movies where the jury hears the evidence
or the judge hears the evidence. Then the attorneys make their
case and give their closing arguments. And then the jury goes into their
chambers to deliberate. And everybody patiently waits
for the verdict to come back. The verdict is the judgment that
either the jury or the judge makes. Same word in the original
Hebrew. Now, the marvelous and amazing
thing about God's judgment and God's verdict is that our Lord
and Savior, Christ, our great high priest, already knows what
the verdict is. He already knows what it is,
how? Because He Himself has accomplished everything that the law that
judged us required of us. And He has already obtained eternal
redemption for us with His own blood. He's already fulfilled
the judgment and the justice of the law that condemned you
and I. And He knows each and every one
of His sheep by name. I love to think about that. He
knows all of us by name. And He has those names written
upon His heart, engraved upon His heart. And He's bore our
judgment and verdict and the names of the innocent that have
been continually on His heart since before the foundation of
the world. That's mind boggling, isn't it? Before the foundation of the
world, we were on his heart because he was the believer's sacrificial
lamb that was slain. And this is what blows my little
sinful finite mind. Now you listen to this. Our verdict
was, determined, purposed, and given before the charges against
us was ever made. Now you try to, you chew on that
for a while. Before we were ever charged,
before there was ever a sinner, there was a savior. And at the appointed time, God
shows his elect people the Urim, the light. And he shows them
the Thumen, Christ's perfections. And he enables them to rest and
to have great peace in both. What a mysterious part of the
high priest garment. We cannot come to God any other
way than by Christ's delight and perfection. the perfection
of Christ. You cannot come any other way.
Why? You know, I tell you all the
time, it's gotta be perfect to be accepted. And only Christ
the light can reveal that to you, that he himself is our perfection,
the perfection that God will accept. And when God accepts
the sacrifice of our great high priest, who is the light and
perfection of his people, he also accepts all those that are
written on his heart, where their names are forever engraved. And
we come to God through Christ in faith, believing and trusting
in him to lead and direct us by his light and perfection for
all our days. I'm trusting in Christ right
now, and by His grace, I'm gonna get up in the morning and start
trusting Him again. Because even when I'm asleep,
I see Him. I need Him every single hour
of every single day. I must trust in the light that
He's revealed to me concerning His perfection. Christ bears
the Urim and the Thummim of God for us. We don't have them. We lost them. We lost them. Just like Israel did. But Christ
not only has them, he is them. May God not only be pleased to
reveal these things to us, but to make them effectual to our
heart. I don't want just a head knowledge
of these things. I want God to drop that about
15, 16 inches down into my heart. Don't you? Well, pray that he
will. God reveal, make this effectual
to my heart. Make me truly believe these things
and trust in you for everything. Okay, I appreciate your attention.