and so we have this tabernacle
and we have this blessed breastplate here we see this glorious breastplate
and it was made of the same material as the ephod and had that gold
in it and lots of gold and it was a square bag let me show
it to you again and I know you won't be able to see it but there's
little gold rings at the top and the bottom and there's the
rose of stones, four rows of stone and then stones up on the
shoulder patches up here at the top and they had the name and
those were set in gold and so it was and it told us here that
these precious stones on the front were twelve precious stones
and four rows of each and on each one of those stones was
the name of a tribe of Israel and they were precious stones,
precious stones And in that bag, when he had that doubled over,
he had a bag in here and he could put down in there what they call
the Urim and the Thummim. And the Urim and the Thummim
is called Perfections and Light, or Lights and Perfections. And
we don't know, the Bible don't have a whole lot to say about
it. Maybe I can deal with it later. But I do know that the
priest used these lights and perfections, this Urim and Thummim,
to obtain answers from the Lord concerning questions that he
had to the Lord. And the Lord would answer him
through the Thummim and the Urim. And the breastplate was fastened
to the front of the ephod by golden chains. Golden chains
down here at the bottom that went around to the back. And
it hooked to that ephod back there. And golden chains up here
that hooked to the two ouches that went up on his shoulders.
Golden rings was on them. And the breastplate was secured
to those rings by a lace of blue. And the curious girdle went around
them and bound it all together. and the breastplate and the ephod
and the shoulder pieces and the breastplate and all these things
when he had all these things on and when this high priest
put on his breastplate he didn't wear it all the time he only
wore it when he went into the holiest of holies on the day
of the year but I tell you the day of atonement but when he
did carry it he was carrying the names of Israel both on his
shoulder and on his heart Now, what in the world does this mean?
Well, I think it's pretty self-explanatory. I mean, if the Lord Jesus Christ,
if this high priest, Aaron the high priest, had the names of
the children of Israel there upon his shoulders, and he carried
them on his shoulders, and he had them on his breastplate,
in the front of him, well, that lights in perfection. And shoulders
always signifies strength. It's a symbol of strength. and
I tell you what the scriptures tells us so clearly when we were
yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly you
know you and I we have no strength we had no strength to give ourselves
life we had no strength to give ourselves light we had no strength
to do anything spiritually so the Lord Jesus Christ God gave
him a sheep, gave him some sheep. And he came into this world as
the great shepherd, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd.
And that good shepherd came into this world. And he said, the
good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. And then
he talked about there in Luke 15 that there was a lost sheep.
If any man has a lost sheep, if it's 99% sure and safe, if
he's just got one lost, he'll go into the wilderness and look
for that lost sheep. And when he finds that lost sheep,
he lays it upon his shoulder. And that's what, beloved, because
that sheep, Christ is the only one that can bear his sheep,
carry the weight of his sheep, and he carries all of his sheep
on his own shoulders. And you know, The Scriptures
tells us, talking about being without strength. You know, Paul
says, I can do all things through Christ, through Christ, which
strengthens me. He says, you know, he said, I
asked the Lord Jesus Christ when he had a thorn in the flesh.
He said, Lord, would you take it away from me? He says, no,
my grace is sufficient for you. For my strength, Christ said,
my strength is made perfect in your weakness. So beloved, people
talking about having strengths. I guess as human beings we have
some strength as husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and
that. But as when it comes before God, we're without strength.
And we ain't got no spiritual strength. We may have physical
strength in it, but we have no spiritual strength. And all of
our strength has to come from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And that's why, beloved, and we'll be that way. He'll carry
us. Then we're without strength until
one of these days when He'll land us in glory. When He takes
His sheep, He'll not set them down until He sets them down
in glory Himself. And we'll have His perfection.
Now, you keep Exodus and look in Isaiah. 46 let me show you
something about Christ care and you're talking about his shoulder
Over in Isaiah 9 it says there that he carries the government
the government upon his shoulder And look in Isaiah 46 in verse
3. Oh You'll love this He do you
know the scripture says he has everlasting strength and You
know, when we get to glory, we'll still, still look to Christ. Still have only Christ. Christ will be our strength throughout
eternity. He's our everlasting strength.
And look what he says here in verse 3 of Isaiah 46. Hearken
unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house
of Israel, which are born by me. That word born means carried.
Born by me from the belly from the womb you're carried from
the womb. How long does he carry us from
the womb? Even to your old age I am he
And even to your hell whore hairs that means gray hairs I will
I carry you I have made and I will bear even I will carry and I
will deliver so you see beloved oh I thank God I tell you what
the Lord Jesus Christ he is so glorious so powerful so mighty
that he can carry all of his people all at the same time no
matter where they're at that's how glorious and mighty if he
can uphold the world just by the word of his power it's very
easy for him to carry all of his people at one time that's
how much power how much glory how much might our Lord Jesus
Christ has so he carries them on his shoulders and that's what
Aaron did And our Lord Jesus Christ carries our names and
our weight upon his shoulders He's the one with all the strength
all the strength And then it tells us also back over in our
text here that he carried him on his heart Carried him on his
heart And look what it says says three things about him carrying
us upon his heart in verse 29. I And Aaron shall bear the names
of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon
his heart. And that's where he carries on.
And when he goeth in unto the holy place, so here's the first
thing is, when he goes into the holy place, into the presence
of God himself, for a memorial before the Lord
continually. What does that mean? So that
our names are before the Lord continually. You know people
think about we may forget our name but God won't ever forget
us. You know why? Because Christ
carries us on his heart. You know we may forget our brothers
and sisters and I've seen a lot of people do those kind of things.
They forget who they are much less anybody else. And I tell
you what, and he said, when he goes into the presence of God,
he carries those names as a memorial. And God sees every name. He knows
every name. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
he calls his sheep by name. And God told Jacob, he said,
Jacob, I gave you the name. He gave Jacob his name of Israel. He gave Abraham and Sarah their
name. He named Isaac. He named Jacob. He named his blessed son Jesus. Why? Because Jesus means Savior. God our Savior. And He gave Christ
His own name. He said, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus. Why? Because He's Jehovah's Savior. He's going to save His people
from their sin. And I tell you, He carried them
on His heart. And here's not only as a memorial before Him,
but look what it says in 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 here's
the second thing now that he does not only as a memorial but
Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon
his heart before the Lord continually if the high priest bears the
judgment well that means the children that he represents you
know they've already had the judgment because the high priest
bears the judgment of the children of Israel and our Lord Jesus
Christ bless his holy name is our great high priest He has
us on his heart. Oh what a heart our Lord Jesus
Christ has. He had a heart full of compassion.
A heart as a father pitieth his children, even so the Lord pitieth
them that know him and he knows. And oh beloved, he bears us on
his heart. You know people think that when
he's in heaven, bearing our name as a memorial. and remembered
us always before God. He don't go through a routine
work and just sit there like he's not doing anything. No,
no. He bears as Aaron bore the names
of the children of Israel in judgment and in memorial. Our
Lord Jesus Christ bore us, bore us in all of our names and all
of His elect. and all of his people on his
heart and the judgment and beloved if God judged Christ for our
sin if Christ bore the judgment of our sin when he entered into
that holy place and he went in there not with the blood of bulls
and goats as Aaron did but he entered once into the holy place
with his own blood with His own blood. Beloved, do listen to
me. God is a just God. A blessedly
just God. He's the judge of all the earth.
And He must do right. And so if He judged the Lord
Jesus Christ for every man whom He judged sin in, and Christ
bore the judgment of all His people on His heart, I'll guarantee
you this, that God Almighty will never judge judge his people
because Christ has already been judged for. He cannot judge his
people again. People say, well I'm afraid of
the judgment. Well I'll tell you one thing, the scriptures
tells us we've already been judged. Judged in Christ. And I'll tell
you one thing, we'll not face the judgment at the last day.
And the only judgment we've ever faced, we've faced it in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'll not face my sins at the
judgment. Christ done faced them. I'll
not have to deal with them when I face God. No more than I have
to deal with them right now. And I tell you, beloved, our
Lord Jesus Christ, when He took our names upon His heart, And
I tell you, this is the thing about it. He, you know, He knows
all of our names. He said, I call my sheep by name.
I know them. And they know me. I call them
by name. And He told us in Revelation,
He's going to give us a new name. A new name. He knows our names. And I tell you what, He's the
Lord of glory. And for God to ever, ever, God
would be unjust. to condemn sin and judge sin
in his own son and punish us in his stead and then come around
and tell us that he wants to judge us? Oh my! That's why the scripture
says we'll need not be ashamed before him at his appearing and
perfect love casteth out fear Who's perfect love casts out
fear? Not my love, my love's not perfect, but Christ's love
is perfect. And if Christ's love casts out
all fear of judgment for me and you, then, beloved, we are trusting
in Him and Him alone. And I'm not afraid of the judgment
seat. Oh, we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. Here's the blessed thing about
it. It's called the judgment seat of Christ. So the one who
bore my sin and bore your sin and was judged in our room instead,
that's the one we're going to stand before the judgment. The
one who's already done the work. Well, how do you think he's going
to treat us when we get there? You know what he's going to say?
Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. Come, enter into the kingdom
prepared for you before and from the foundation of the world.
Oh listen, He's got us on His heart. Oh my, what a heart our
Lord Jesus has. Oh what a blessed heart our Lord
Jesus has. And I tell you what, He represents
us. Before God, He intercedes for
us. Sometimes we don't even know
how to pray as we ought to pray. Don't know how to put things
into words. We just groan, wake up and ask
for mercy and just say, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, be merciful.
And sometimes we don't know how to pray, but our Lord Jesus Christ,
He knows the groans of our heart. He knows the aches of our heart.
He knows the fears of our hearts, the anxieties of our hearts,
the burdens of our hearts. He knows everything about us,
and beloved, He still carries us on His heart. And He intercedes
for us. And you know, when our Lord Jesus
Christ intercedes for us, I mean, beloved, He maintains that now,
while we live in this world, He maintains our standing before
God. Our standing before God is maintained
and kept up by the Lord Jesus Christ interceding for us. Why
do we have a perfect standing before God? Because we got a
perfect Savior and a perfect High Priest in the sight of God.
And that's because He's sitting at the right hand of God and
interceding for us. Taking up our case and taking
up our cause and taking up our name and taking up our burdens
and our worries and our fears and our anxieties and our troubles.
He maintains our standing perfect before God continually. Continually right now. And I
tell you something else he does with us as he intercedes for
us. He maintains our character. He maintains our character. Gary
Spracker and I were talking this afternoon. about how that a believer,
when he's dealing in business in any way, that he is meticulous
about telling the truth, regardless of what it cost him. He don't
want to extort anybody, have anything that's not his. And
how in the world does we maintain a character like that? How's
that character maintained? Christ in you. Christ maintains
that character. He will not let His sheep, He
will not let us. We may fall, but I tell you one
thing, beloved, He picks us right back up and He maintains our
character as it is right now. a spiritual character, a spiritual
life, a spiritual heart, a heart of love. The love of Christ constrains
us, compels us to be true, to be right, and to honor God in
all of our dealings in this life. And I'll tell you what, and He
keeps us with a heart of love. And our Savior, look in Jude,
look in Jude 24, that last little book right before Revelation.
Look here at this wonderful, wonderful text, talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He does this, and He deals
with His people with joy and delight. Oh my. Oh my our Lord Jesus look what
it said here in verse 24 of Jude 24 you talking about and he does
this with exceeding joy and delight he delights in his people his
father delights in his people we accept it in the beloved and
look what he says now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling. And where does He do that at?
Standing in glory, sitting on His throne, setting their inner
seat for us. And then look what else He does,
and to present you faultless. I got more faults. Oh my goodness. I can't count them all. Can't
count them all. I tell you what, there's not
enough of me to even talk about that's got anything right about
it. But oh Lord, listen, he said,
and to keep you from falling, to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory, and listen to this, with exceeding
joy. He has joy in doing that for
his people. Joy in interceding for his people
and keeping his people. And his shoulder and his heart
are both shown in the scripture. We're on his shoulders to bear.
We're on his heart to bear. And his work is a heart work. His work is a heart work. And
may God keep our hearts. committed to him. Oh Lord, tune
my heart, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Oh my, to sing thy
grace. And how in the world if you're
a believer before God, oh when God looks on that high priest
sitting at his right hand and when God looked on that high
priest when he went behind the veil, and the reason he had those
bells and pomegranates so that they could hear him moving around
there in that holiest of holy when he went behind that veil
and he went in there with the names of the children of Israel
with all those precious jewels and he went in there and I tell
you what When he went in there, when he was accepted, all of
Israel was accepted. When Christ went into the holiest
of holies, God looked upon him, and God looks upon Christ, and
I tell you what, and he beholds his people on his heart and on
his shoulders. And I tell you what, he was beautiful
in all of his garments. Beautiful in all of his garments.
And beloved, we're beautiful, beautiful, beautiful in the garments
that the Lord Jesus Christ put on us. Oh, I tell you that high
priest, all he did, he had on earthly garments. Beautiful garments. But I tell you what, we got on
a heavenly garment. A spiritual garment. A glorious
garment. The garment of righteousness.
Christ Himself clothed us with His own righteousness. Put His
blessed Spirit in us. Put His nature in us. And called
us. And keeps us day by day. And
when our Lord Jesus Christ, He presents us to the Father as
He presents Himself. As He presents Himself. Huh? We're those for whom He died.
And He cleansed us with His own precious blood. And you know
an advocate who says that little children, I write unto you that
you sin not. But if any man sin, we have an
advocate. And an advocate is a lawyer.
Someone who takes up another person's case. And I'll tell
you what, our Lord Jesus Christ just says that Little children
right under your sin not but if we if you're seeing we have
an advocate and listen to this with the father We have somebody
an advocate with the father Who is he Jesus Christ the righteous? And you want an advocate does
They're supposed to when you're in a court get you off Try to
find you innocent Well, we're already guiltless, but what happens
is when our advocate and when our adversary, when Satan accuses
us before the Father, and he says, listen, I saw that child
of God down there. I saw your child. I heard him
say some things he ought not said. I seen him go somewhere
he shouldn't have went. I seen him act a way that he
shouldn't have acted. I seen him treat somebody the
way that he shouldn't have treated them. And you know what the Lord
Jesus Christ does? He said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's... But oh, listen. Our Lord Jesus
stands up and He says, I'm going to tell you. See these nail prints
in my hands? They've already answered for
that. See this rip in my side? A blood's been shed for that. So no matter what Satan says
and whatever accusation comes against us, if God be for us,
who can be against us? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? You know why they can't? Because
it's Christ that died. Yea rather, not only did he die,
but yea rather he's risen again. And what is he doing? Sitting
at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. And so God can't look on his
son without looking on us. And I tell you what, when our
Lord Jesus Christ, when he says, I'll in no wise, no wise, he
that cometh unto me, I shall in no wise cast him out. And that word wise means no way. under no circumstances will I
cast them out and I'll tell you what the gospel teaches us and
it teaches us clearly and plainly God's Word teaches us clearly
and plainly that our Lord Jesus Christ He bore all of our sin
past, present and future all my sins were taken care of before
I was even born I read there to you in Isaiah he said I borne
you from your belly carried you from the womb carried you all
the way down to you as an old man and your hair was gray and
so beloved and he told Jeremiah I knew you before you was formed
in the belly and Paul was one of God's elect before he ever
when he was brought down on the Damascus road so before we all
existed Christ had already bore all of our sin And all of my
sins when Christ died, every single one of them was future.
All of them were future. And so if a man, let me give
you an illustration. If a man takes cease today, you
find a fellow and he says, well today, I'm not going to sin anymore. I'm not going to sin anymore.
And if he could possibly live the rest of his life from that
day and never sin again, who's going to take care of the sins
that he did in the past? So all your sins and all my sins
were future when Christ died for me. All of them were. So
when the scripture says Christ bore all our sins in his own
body on the tree. That's exactly what it means.
He bore all of them. He put away all of our sin by
the sacrifice of himself. And he said he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now you can't beat that. I'm
telling you what, you nailed that down right there. And then no wonder the apostle
said, Oh, to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. And what does that mean to consider
in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 1? To consider the Apostle and
High Priest of our profession. And what that means is, let's
look at and consider that High Priest, our Apostle, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and our High Priest, consider Him. He's the one that
we profess. He's the one that we confess. Profess and confess is the same
thing in that particular. And I'll tell you what I missed.
Oh, consider Him. Consider Him. We confess Him. We profess Him to be our Apostle.
Once sin of God, anointed of God, used of God. And He's our
High Priest. And we confess that He's our
High Priest. And He appears right now in the
presence of God for us. In the presence of Heaven. Now
you consider Him in the midst of all the turmoil that's going
on in this world right now. Consider Him in all of our disappointments
and all the perplexities that this life throws our way. And I tell you what, there's
a lot of perplexing things going in this world right now. And
you think about, consider Him when it comes time to die. Oh my! Think on Him. Oh, we confess Him. We look to Him. we confess he's
our high priest and beloved we forget no we don't never forget
and God help us never to forget that we have one on high who
in his blessed grace and power and mercy cares for us oh how
he cares for us and watches over those who are walking this path
down here that our Lord Jesus Christ himself one day walked
this earth Oh, he walked this earth. He trod this earth. And
yet he was without sin. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. So he knows what we go through
in this life. All the perplexity and all the
disappointment and all the heartaches and all the turmoil and all the
ups and downs that we go through. And I tell you what, he still,
he still tells us that we're accepted and beloved. We're sealed
by him. And I tell you what, you know
He's got love, He's got power. Let me tell you something. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is willing, willing to do everything for
us. I'll tell you something else,
He's got the power to carry out the will. If you got the will and ain't
got the power, it ain't gonna do you any good. But if you got
the will and then you got the power, then you can accomplish
your will and Christ has got all power and when he said father
I will believe me he's got the power to carry out that will
and let me tell you something when he talks about these jewels
did you hear some of those jewels oh an emerald, a sapphire, a
diamond, pearl, an arnic, a jasper, amethyst Topaz, Sardius, all
these are precious jewels. Precious jewels, precious gems.
In Malachi chapter 3, that last book of the Old Testament, look
what it says here about God. You know, we're called Christ's
jewels, we're jewels of God. And He calls us His jewels, precious
gems. And He had these precious gems,
these precious jewels. on his breastplate and look what
God says about us here now in verse Malachi 3 16 and 17
then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another oh
we talk about Christ that's what we're doing now talking about
Christ and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance
was written before him That's that memorial we're talking about.
Huh? For for him that feared them,
the Lord, feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And
listen to this now. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my jewels. You know a diamond, when you
go into a store with a diamond and you know I've never, if I
bought one it had to be a very very cheap one. But if you go
in to look at a real expensive diamond, they put that diamond
against some black cloth or some deep blue cloth to make it shine
that much brighter and that much brilliant. Well our Lord Jesus
Christ us as jewels and on our darkness in the light of his
glorious power and how we only shine because he shines and he
said when I make up my jewels and that's what we are we're
his jewels precious stem and he selected them he's the one
that selected them he told them where to be put at and he said
set them in gold and I tell you what our faith is as gold precious
gold and I tell you beloved and our Lord Jesus Christ how dear
his people is to him how dear it is to him his jewels precious
jewels and I tell you our Lord Jesus Christ I don't want to
I hope I say this right but I know that people say you know that
that you got to give everything up to get the pearl of great
price. Now, I think Christ was the pearl of great price and
he's the one that was through his suffering saved us and washed
us from our sins. You know, a pearl is made through
suffering. And it gets a grain of sand in
there, in that oyster. And a grain of sand, that thing
starts crying. It starts hurting. And it's through
those tears and that suffering of that grain getting in there
that that pearl is made. And that pearl comes out of that
thing, and that's the way our Lord Jesus Christ was. Oh, He
suffered. And you know what He had that
caused Him to suffer? Our sin. Our nature. Our darkness. And I tell you,
it caused Him to suffer. What could I possibly do to purchase
a pearl of great price? But He was that pearl of great
price. And He was the one that bought us and paid for us through
His suffering. And I tell you, that's the way
I hope. And I know people say, but listen. He's the only one that's got
any jewels. And He calls us His jewels. And
He called all these jewels and told them where to be put, what
to be put in, what row to put them in. And God knows every
one of His children. He knows where they are, whether
they're a diamond, whether they're an amethyst, whether they're
an emerald, or whether they're a carbuncle, whether they're
a jasper. I don't care which one I am as long as I'm one of
His jewels. That's all it makes any difference.
That's all that I care about, as long as I'm a jewel. As long
as I'm a Jew, that's what I want to be, a Jew. And I tell you
what, God sees His people. And those stones were so beautiful.
And God sees His people. Oh, in the beauty of the Lord
Jesus Christ. How precious Christ is to His
people. And God sees them, sees them
in the true light only as they're acceptable to Him. The believer
Righteousness is not His own. Nothing we have is our own but
our sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ with
His omnipotent power and His blessed, blessed almighty grace,
free grace, carries us on His shoulder, carries us upon His
heart. And how long does He do it? He
did it before we were. He does it now and one of these
days, beloved, will be in his presence. Those jewels, when
he makes up his jewels. Who but the Almighty God could
take someone off of a dunghill and set him among princes? Only
God can do that. Let me close with this. Trust
in Him, you saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor guile can sever
those He loves from Him. God bless you all. I wish we
could meet next Sunday. And I can't hardly wait for the
day when we all get to meet in here again. But I love you. Pray for you. Give thanks for
you. And may God bless every single
one of you. And all those that are frail
and weak among us, we continue to pray for Bruce and Joe, Don
and Shelby, Bruce and Sandy, and any others that I forget,
remember them among us. We love you and God bless you
for Christ's sake. Amen.