We're going to deal with the
last one. I'm going to read these verses of scripture and then
we're going to pray. Exodus 28, 36. And thou shalt
make a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it the engravings of a signet,
holiness to the Lord. All those are capitalized. And
thou shalt put upon it blue lace, that it may be upon the miter,
upon the forefront of the miter it shall be. And it shall be
upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the
holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all
their holy gifts. And it shall be always upon his
forehead, excuse me, that they may be accepted before the Lord.
and thou shalt make in broader the coat of fine linen and thou
shalt make the miter of fine linen and thou shalt make the
needlework girdle of needlework this bow heads together and father
it's It's a blessing from you, and we're truly thankful that
we can have this means of gathering with the people of God, that
we can worship together here. And Father, I thank you for those
who are so faithful to tune in and watch us and listen to what
we have to say. I know that there's many brethren
up preaching this way. And they're a blessing, a great
blessing. And we're thankful for it. And
Lord, we're thankful for those who come out to be in the public
service with us. And Lord, please be merciful,
gracious, pitiful to our nation. Save us, for only you can save
us. Turn us, and only you can turn us. And Lord, do for us
what only you can do. We cast ourselves on you as we
always do. Please again, we pray for Don
and Shelby, Bruce and Joe, Bruce and Sandy,
for Dee Dee and her family. Lord, we pray for your blessings
upon them and what an encouragement they've all been to us. We thank
you and bless you. Meet with us tonight and enable
me to speak to your glory and the good of your blessed people.
For Christ's sake, Amen. Amen. Alright look back here
with me now in Exodus 28 and verse 36 The last thing The last
thing that was The high priest had the last bit of clothing
that he had was the mitre And what the mitre was they called
him a bonnet. I called him a bonnet. And what it would do, they took
fine white linen and they wrapped it around his head and made a
turban just to sit right on his head. I guess you can see that, I don't
know if y'all can see that or not. But they wrapped fine linen
around it and then they put blue lace right across his errands. Blue lace. And then they took
a an engraving, a gold piece, one piece of gold. And they put
it over that blue lace and fastened it on there and it said, Holiness
to the Lord. And that word miter means to
wrap or to roll around. And on that miter, as I told
you, is a golden plate. Leviticus calls it the golden
crown, golden crown. And what in the world, and on
that miter was on that gold thing on that blue lace is on the front
of Aaron's miter engraving holiness unto the Lord. What in the world
is this talking about? What does it do? Well, it always
has to do with our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, and I think
one of the first things about it is, is the headdress and even
in the New Testament it talks about a woman's hair being recovering
and you know here the headdress of the high priest showed his
subordination his obedience to God his submission to God's will
and you know even the Jews today and the reason they wear yarmulkes
and they wear hats And the reason they do that, they feel like
that if they can't go to God with their heads uncovered, that
we just the opposite. You know, when we think we're
going to pray or anybody standing around, we're going to have prayer
and people have a cap on or a hat on. In America, we always take
them off. They won't go into the presence
of God without having a yarmulke on or a hat on. And that's maybe
why this is, to show they're under submission, under obedience
to God and submission to His will. And this was made of fine
linen, fine linen. And that tells of the personal
righteousness of the one that stands in the presence of God.
He had to have a righteousness. Now Aaron didn't have a righteousness
of his own. Aaron, before he could even go
into the presence of God, even on behalf of Israel, he had to
first offer a sacrifice for himself. Christ did not have to do that.
Christ did not have to offer sacrifice for himself. But Aaron,
even before he could even represent Israel, he had to go in and offer
a sacrifice first for himself. To make himself acceptable. To
have blood put on the mercy seat for himself. And then he could
go in and offer a sacrifice for Israel. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
he's the only one, only one who had a personal righteousness.
He's the only one, beloved, that can go in the presence of God.
He was in the presence of God, he is in the presence of God,
and will always be in the presence of God. And I tell you, when
he stands in the presence of God, that person has to have
a personal righteousness. And that's one thing you and
I don't have and never will have. Men can talk about living holy
lives and living righteous lives and having the righteousness
of their own. I remember one time we was in
a meeting up in Louisville and there was a preacher got up.
And he preached, you know, said, you know, the imputed righteousness
of Christ and the personal righteousness of the person. Said, you know,
they're like a balancing beam. He said, when you walk on a tightrope,
he said, if you go too far on the imputed righteousness of
Christ, you'll become an antinomian. And if you, you know, go too
far on your personal righteousness, you'll fall off because you'll
become a Pharisee. Needless to say, Needless to
say, that didn't go over very well with a bunch of preachers.
Tim James said, anybody got any gun? And somebody said, a gun? No, we ain't got no gun. But
you know, that's how upsetting it is. But there's men who believe
that and preach that. When there ain't but one righteousness
in the presence of God, and that's the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that fine linen means that
righteousness. And when we talk about finding
the saints of God in Revelations, they have a white linen on which
is the righteousness of the saints which God gives to us. And beloved,
I stand in the presence of God only as I stand in Christ. I
have the righteousness of God only as I have it in Christ.
And I don't have a personal righteousness. You couldn't find a righteous
spot on me. I ain't never had a righteous
thought. It's always tainted by sin. So that's why I'm telling you.
Them fellas can wear these yacamas all they want and hats all they
want. But I want someone, my hat, listen,
a cap ain't gonna make you acceptable to God or unacceptable to God. Whether your head's uncovered,
how many people, what about a bald headed man? Ain't got no hair.
What makes him acceptable to God? Oh my, I know it sounds
ridiculous, but that's the truth. That's the truth. And then our
Lord Jesus Christ, in His pre-existence state, when we're talking about
this miter, He was the same. This is one of the hardest things
for us to grasp. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
pre-existent. When in Genesis, when God said,
let us make man in our own image. He was talking to the Spirit,
He was talking to His Son, and there's three of them. And they're
all exactly the same age. They've all existed as long as
they've existed. The Lord Jesus Christ is as old
as His Father. Equal with His Father. Now how
in the world can that be? Well, He's eternal as the Father.
He's the same age as the Father. And God has no age, and Christ
didn't have no age, and the Holy Spirit don't have no age. But
then the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, second person of the
Godhead, He came into time. He broke into time. And beloved,
what He did, He laid aside He laid aside the form of God, is
what the scripture said. He emptied himself of the form
of God. And I tell you what, and he took
upon himself the form of a servant. Philippians 2 said he took upon
himself the form of a servant. Now our Lord Jesus Christ was
a servant. And I want to show you two things
about Christ being a servant. And I tell you what, and I tell
you He always done the will of God perfectly. Look in Isaiah
42. Isaiah 42, that God had a servant. And that's what Christ came to
do. He came, He was equal with the Father. Eternally so with
the Father. But when He came into this world,
when He went to the cross, He emptied Himself. He emptied Himself
of the form of God. Took that likeness of sinful
flesh. And became a servant. Became a servant. And that's
what he told his disciples when he washed their feet. You know,
and look what he says. God said this about his servant.
Behold my servant. Now who is God's servant? Whom
I uphold. Mine elect. That's his blessed
son. In whom my soul delights. God don't say that about anybody
but his son. He shall bring judgment to the
Gentiles. That means He's going to come
and save the Gentiles. Now here's what servants don't
do. He shall not cry. Servants don't stand up and let
themselves be made known. Don't lift up or cause His voice
to be heard in the street. He don't go around talking about
all He's accomplished and all that. No, no. He was a servant.
And a bruiserie shall He not break, and a smoking flat shall
He not quench, And he shall bring judgment unto truth. And this
is what I love about his being God's servant. He shall not fail. And he shall not be discouraged. Look in Isaiah 52. Talking about
servant. You're talking about a servant.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, that miter showed about Him continually
came to be God's servant. Look in verse 13. Behold my servant. God calls him his righteous servant
in some other place. I can't know where it says. Behold
my servant who shall deal prudently. That means in the margins shall
prosper. He shall be exalted and extolled
and very high. that's after his cross and then
he goes to Isaiah 53 and talks about what happens to God's servant
but I said all this to say that our Lord Jesus Christ when he
came into this world He did not come to do His own will, but
the will of Him that sent Me. And our Lord Jesus Christ, bless
His holy name, it culminated, His life culminated and ended
in supreme obedience to the will of God and what that will was
to bear the sins of His own people and His body on the tree and
die alone on that cross with nothing but sin on him, and even
his own father forsook him." Oh, he is a servant. He served
all the way to death. Became obedient unto death. And
you can't find anybody more submitted to the will of God than that.
And I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ. So this mitre shows that
he's under the obedience of God in every possible way you could
ever imagine. I want to please God. I know you want to please God.
We don't want to displease Him. But I tell you what, the only
one that God ever said, this is the one I delight in, was
His Son. The only one ever pleased Him
was His Son. And then our saviors, Obedience,
perfect obedience, absolute obedience, stands in such stark contrast
to our first father, to the first man. The first man that was born,
you know what he did? He believed Satan's lie, and
you know what the scripture said? He took of that fruit, and what
he was saying was, I will not have this man to reign over me. And man's been doing that ever
since. That's what man's been doing.
And I tell you what, he was the first man. Adam was the first
man who walked after his own will. And ever since then, every
man that's ever been born of Adam does exactly the same thing.
Walks after his own will. Walks after his own self. And
I tell you what, you know Barnard used to say, and I heard Scott
say this one time, he said, men if he had his way, he'd sneak
up behind God with a shotgun and shoot him in the back if
he could. That's how men despise God. And all you got to do is
find out how disobedient, how much they want God out of their
minds. They don't even want the idea
of God to be in their minds. I tell you what all you got to
do is watch man and watch his conduct and watch what he does.
I'll tell you, you know, and I don't want to get off on sins
and what I'd call sins, but here's the thing about it. Man so wants
God out of his life that men marry men, women marry women,
men live with men, and men and women live together without ever
getting married, and they think that that's okay. You know what
they're saying? I don't want God in my life. I live the way I want to live,
I do what I want to do, and I don't care what God thinks about it. And the preachers, you know,
talk about the judgment on this earth. I think the greatest reason,
the greatest manifestation of the judgment of God on our country,
we're talking about this wholeness to the Lord and this miter upon
His head, is in the pulpits across America. that men will stand
up and belittle the Lord Jesus Christ, make Him, make Him the
object of men to be accepted or rejected. They make the wholeness
of God to be something that you got to attain unto, except something
that God gives you to start with. That righteousness is something
you can attain unto, and justification is something you can attain unto,
and sanctification is something you can attain unto, and God
Himself cannot do anything unless you let Him. That's the awfulest
judgment on this world, in my opinion. Is what men are saying
in the pulpits about God and Christ. You know, you get and
listen to people talk about this pandemic now. They say, God knows
what's going on. God knows what's going on. Does
that mean he's looking down and say, well, boy, things in a mess
down there, wonder what I'll do. And that's the way they're looking
at this thing. Well, I'll tell you one thing, beloved, and I
mean this with all my heart, and I don't want to be harsh
or mean about it, but I do know this, that Adam, if God sent
a pandemic and killed half of the people in this world, he'd
still be God, he'd still be on his throne, he'd still be holy,
he'd still be righteous, he'd still be the judge of all the
earth, and everything he does would be right. And it's a miracle that he let
some people stand on this earth with both fists stuck up in his
face and said, no God for me, no God for me, no God for me. And our children's that way,
our grandchildren's that way. Ain't that right? And that's what I
tell you what, the man, if he had the ability, He'd get up
there and take God right off of his throne. And you know who
he'd put in his place? Himself. That's why when Paul
was talking about God's sovereign electing purpose, when he was
talking about God, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated,
the first thing he knowed that this is what man thinks, he said,
the first thing he said to answer objection, who art thou, O man,
that replies against God? You mean to tell me that you're
going to set in judgment upon God? You're going to set in judgment
upon what God does? Who He loves and who He don't
love? Who He'll show mercy to and whom
He won't show mercy to? Is that what you're doing? You're
going to set in judgment on God and tell Him what's right and
what's wrong? Now that's what Adam is. That's
what Adam is. That's what the human race is.
Am I not, you know, and I don't mean to be mean, I don't want
to be mean about it, but I tell you what, it is really, really
a sad state. And that's the man in his best
of states is altogether vanity. And I tell you, beloved, man
set himself, set himself in determination against any possible restraint
of God. He don't even want God in his
thoughts. Scripture said in Genesis 6, 5, it says, man's imagination
is only evil. How? Just every once in a while. You know, two or three times
a day, continually, continually. And the only people that knows
anything about this, about things like this, is people. people,
and that it upsets and it bothers, is people that know Christ. They
know Christ. They want more than anything,
when Paul talked about those true yoked fellows, and them
fellow laborers this morning, to be yoked up together with
Christ, and to be yoked up with fellow believers, and be yoked
up together, and all of us working together for the fairness of
the gospel, of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. And I tell you
what, That's not just them, but that was us. That was us. Do you know when they said crucifying,
crucifying, crucifying? If I'd have been there that day,
I'd have been one of the loudest voices. I'd have been one of
the loudest voices. I know that much about myself.
I know that much about my wicked heart, my sinful self, and my
pride and self-righteousness, and the willfulness of my own
heart. That if I'd have been there,
I'd have been ratting the crowd, crucifying, crucifying. I know
I would have. I know I would have. But I do
know this, because of the way we are and the way human beings
are in this world. The heart's deceitful and desperately
wicked above all things. Someone, someone has to obey
God for us. For you and I don't ever have
any hope. Huh? And that's what that miter covered
the head of that high priest, huh? And our Lord Jesus, he stands
before God as holiness to the Lord. And oh my, he went right, you
know he didn't, I'm gonna say this before I go any further.
Our Lord Jesus didn't need a miter. Didn't worry about her. He didn't
have to have a signet across his head said holiness to the
Lord But this thing speak of our Lord Jesus Christ And our
great high priest, our Lord Jesus, he was obedient in our stead.
And his obedience is such a stark contrast to the disobedience
of Adam. And I wish, oh I wish that preachers
could get this in their brains, in their hearts, and in their
heads. That man without Christ has absolutely no hope. No hope. And then the next thing about
this miter This it was called a plate of pure gold pure gold. That's what it was pure gold
And you know, that's what he said done verse third thou shall
make a plate of pure gold That means beloved without any mixture,
you know if it's pure It's pure there's no fault in it nowhere
no mixture of anything else in it And that plate of pure gold,
they wrote in it, engraved in it, holiness to the Lord. And that tells about our great
glorious high priest. It shows us first and foremost
that he was sacred to God himself. Sacred to God himself. And that
on this he did, he interceded for Israel. And he represented
them in himself. And look what it says down here
in verse 38. And this shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron
may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children
of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And I tell
you what, and this shall be always upon his forehead, that they
may be accepted. Now you think about that. Now
listen, that high priest, when he'd come in, the first thing
he'd do, was after any gift that anybody
bring he had to make it holy. He had to make it holy. You know
when people brought gifts and brought offerings and that Aaron
had to make it holy. Even the holy things that they
brought. And I tell you what and here's
the thing about it. You and I have never done one
thing holy in our lives. And one of the things that just
really, really touched me years and years and years ago when
I come to the realization that I never, ever done one thing
exclusively for the glory of God in my whole life. It's in
my heart to do it, it's in my will to do it, it's in my mind
to do it, is to do something exclusively, entirely of myself
for God's glory. But how can you do that And you know, you and I cannot
do one thing that's holy. In fact, we have to repent over
our tears. If we have tears, He has to make
them holy. He has to make them acceptable.
Whether tears of joy or tears of sorrow. And anything that
you bring in here and you offer to the Lord a prayer, He's got
to make it acceptable. If you offer an offering in your
mind and in your heart, He's got to make it holy. And all
that man does is defiled with sin. And God, God can only accept
that which is suited to His own nature. He can only accept that
which is suited to His own nature. Huh? What's His nature? Holy. Holy, righteous, truth. And then everything offered to
Him has to be able to be accepted of His nature. Now where is He
going to get something acceptable to His nature? You and I ain't
got anything we can give. But I know somebody who did. You know why it did? Because
Christ was of the same nature. He was a man, but oh listen,
his essential nature, the nature that he had, was God Almighty,
was a holy nature. A holy nature. And I tell you
what, everything he offered to God was made acceptable, because
he himself is holy. Like that high priest, that high
priest when he, they all brought gifts. Brought gifts. He had to make them acceptable.
How to make them holy? And you and I are cleansed, washed
in the blood of Christ. And we come with Him and can
come with Him into God's presence. But never, never come in ourselves,
but we can surely come in Him. And look what it says there again.
In verse 38, it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron shall
bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of
Israel. Huh? The iniquity of the holy things.
How do you have iniquity in holy things? Do you sing? Do you pray? Do
you preach? Every one of those things, we
come in here and we worship God. But every one of them that we
do has sin in it. Has sin in it. Not one of us
has ever sat in a service. Not one of us. And I'm talking
about me. And I don't care who's preaching.
That my mind don't wonder. And sometimes, according to who's
preaching, I'll watch my watch. I shouldn't do that, but I do.
And sometimes, you know, while they'll be preaching, I'll fibble
in my pocket and find me a piece of candy and stick it in my mouth.
And those, you know, we gather here to worship. We gather here
to pray. We gather here to sing. We gather
here to read the scriptures. To hear preaching. And there's
sin in all those things. You know what He said? He said,
He shall bear the iniquity of the holy things. Oh my, bless
you Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ, He takes
every prayer we pray, every tear we shed, every time our mind
wanders, every time we don't got our whole heart and soul
in the service, He takes those things and makes them holy and
makes them acceptable. He takes, he has to take my preaching.
Take anybody who's preaching. He's got to take anybody's preaching.
And make it holy, and make it acceptable. There's so much sin
in it. Like Bruce Crampsey said, if anybody says anything good
to me or good about my preaching, he said, my head gets so big.
Oh, that's how we are. That's how we are. Oh, and he
abhors the iniquities of our holy things. You know why? Because he's holy to the Lord.
And he's acceptable to God and our worship is presented through
him. Through him. Only through him. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2 with
me. 1 Peter, I think it's 1 Peter
chapter 2, yes. You know, and it says there that
it will always be upon his forehead that they may be accepted before
the Lord. Our worship is presented through
Him and because of Him. Look what He said here in verse
5. Ye also, as living stones, because
we're coming unto a living stone, men disallowed it. They said,
we don't want it. But God said, this is my stone,
my precious cornerstone. You also as living stones are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, now listen to this,
to offer spiritual sacrifices. That's what we do. We come in
here to offer spiritual sacrifices. Well, how are they acceptable?
To God by Jesus Christ. Wouldn't it be awful to come
in here and leave and feel like, boy, I tell you, we really accomplished
something today. You know, preachers get up sometimes,
I've heard them get up and say, boy, I tell you, the service
was a good day, I didn't even get a chance to preach. Didn't
even have to preach. Well, this golden, golden plate
that was upon his head, it says there in verse 38 again, that
it shall be always upon his forehead, Always. Christ was eternally
holy. Holy when He is on the earth. Holy while He is here and He
is holy in glory. And that's the essential holiness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He could not be anything but
holy. And the scriptures, you know, we are represented by Him. And we are only accepted in Him. And this is what He says. This
is what I love about being accepted. It said we are made accepted.
Made accepted. And the next word I love so much.
In the Beloved. Whose Beloved? God's. Mine. Yours, I am my Beloved
and my Beloved is mine. But we are not just accepted.
He qualifies our acceptance. In the Beloved, in the Beloved. Oh my! And the saints, the people
of God are represented by Him and accepted in Him. And because of this vital, vital,
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Such a union we have with Him.
What He did, we did it. His disciples asked Him one time
when He said, I have a baptism to be baptized with. And they
said, Lord, We want to be baptized. He said
well you think you can be baptized with it? Yes Lord, we think I
can. And what he meant was baptized into the cross, baptized into
his suffering, baptized into his groaning, baptized into that
death. and all the sufferings at the
hands of men. And they said, yes, Lord. And
I tell you what, we were all baptized in Christ. When Christ
suffered, we suffered. When He died, we died. When He
was buried, we was buried. When He was raised up, we was
raised up. When He ascended to glory, we sat down with Him.
That's how close our union is with Christ. Bone of His bone,
flesh of His flesh. And I tell you what, Our whole lives, and this is
what the gospel tells us. It's what we preach all the time.
The gospel tells us to always look away from ourselves, and
look away, and look only to the Lord Jesus Christ and His holiness,
His perfection, His glory, His holiness, His acceptance. If He's accepted, I'm accepted.
If He's holy, then I have holiness. That's what we're talking about.
And when we set our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, we see nothing
but perfection. And we see our eternal acceptance
with God in Christ. And I do know this. That's another
thing. Men say, well, will you accept
the Lord Jesus Christ? There's nothing like that in
the Bible, but it does says that God accepts us in Christ. Oh, will God accept me? Will
He accept me? Yes, He will. Where at? In the
Beloved. In the Beloved. And I certainly
want to be accepted, huh? And I tell you what, our Lord
Jesus Christ, God help you and me to never be entangled again
and have no confidence in the flesh or be entangled with the
yoke of bondage of law. For all we do is exceeding sinful. But I tell you what Hebrews,
what Paul told the Hebrews, let us draw near in a true heart
with full assurance, full assurance Oh my! Enter into the holiest
of all by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? Oh my! We enter into the holiness
not in ourselves, but by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just like that golden altar
with that incense was always burning, I tell you what, the
sweet incense of our Lord Jesus Christ His instance goes up and
makes our prayers acceptable before God. And that's the only
one who can. The only one who can. There's
an old hymn and we sing it here so many times. Holy, holy, holy,
though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man
thy glory may not see, only thou art holy. There is none beside
Thee, perfect in power, love, and purity. Is that our Lord
Jesus Christ? Is that our Lord Jesus Christ?
Oh my, to be accepted, even have our sinful things, sinful things
made acceptable. By preaching to us, made acceptable
through Christ. could. Our Father, thank you
for allowing us another day of worship, another day of gathering
with the people of God. God bless you, dear saints. Lord,
make it possible for us all to meet together again very, very
soon. Lord, I miss the public worship.
I miss the saints of God being here. I miss being able to hug
and be with the people and stay and visit. Lord, I miss us so
much and I know they do but God bless them. Lord, encourage them
and strengthen them and forgive us all. Forgive us all. for just what we are for Christ's
sake. In his name, we pray. Amen. Oh, how merciful. How merciful. blessed lord. How merciful. thou art to me. How merciful. See you Wednesday, God willing. Lord bless you.