Alright, now Moses, here's the
prophet in Israel. And the prophet, he speaks for
God to men. And in that way, Moses is a type,
a picture of Christ. God told Moses, one day there's
coming a prophet like unto you. I'll raise him up. Him the people
will hear. Then Aaron, Moses' brother, God
chose him to be the high priest. And the high priest ministers
to God for men. Now, if you look, hold your finger
there in Exodus 20 and come right back to Hebrews chapter 5. The
priesthood of Aaron is a type of Christ. Christ was chosen
by the Father to be the High Priest. Exodus 5, beginning in verse
4, And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is
called of God, as was Aaron, so also. Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. As he said also in another
place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So God the Father chose his son
to be the high priest, the great high priest that was pictured
by Aaron. Now, Aaron was a high priest
for sinful men. And sinful men need a priest. But it's interesting, Aaron was
from the tribe of Levi, and Levi was under the curse. The tribe
of Levi was under a curse from way back there when Jacob was
still alive. Levi and Simeon, when they were
young men, they killed a man in anger, and their father Jacob
put them under a curse. So their tribe is under a curse. Yet God still chose the high
priest from this sinful tribe. Because the high priest is the
priest for sinful people. And that's Christ our high priest.
He's the high priest for his people who are under the curse.
Now, we're under the curse because of the sin of our father Adam.
Just like the tribe of Levi was under the curse because of their
father, Levi. And the specific type of Christ
I want us to look at this morning is the garments of the high priest. And beginning in Exodus 28, verse
2. These are the instructions that
God gave Moses, and thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron
thy brother for glory and for beauty. Now, the first thing
that the high priest put on, these garments are for beauty
and for glory, the first thing he put on is linen breeches and
a linen coat, and we read about that in verse 42 of chapter 28. And thou shalt make them linen
breeches to cover their nakedness from the loins even unto the
thighs, they shall reach." Now, these are linen coats and linen
breeches. They're white linen, which as
we've seen it over and over and over again, this is a picture
of holiness. And these linen breeches, this
linen coat, these are the inner garments. All the other garments
went on then. They're the inner garments. And
that's a picture of the inner righteousness, the personal righteousness
of Christ. As a man, he was perfectly righteous
and holy. And these are the inner garments.
All the other garments hung on these white garments, these white
inner garments. Everything Christ did, everything,
hung upon his holiness, hung upon his personal righteousness
that he would impute to his people. Even sinful men had to admit
it. Even sinful men saw it. Pilate, three times, said, I
find no fault in it. Herod was a wicked man. Even Herod said, this man hasn't
done anything worthy of death. Even Herod said that. The thief
on the cross, the one who said, I'm getting what I deserve, said,
this man's done nothing amiss. Lord, will you remember me when
you come into your kingdom? That's the beauty of holiness
that's found in our Lord Jesus Christ. So they've got these
white breeches and white coat on, then on top of that they
put this blue, that's what you see hanging out here, the blue
robe of the ephod. Now look at verse 31, that says
28. And thou shalt make the robe
of the ephod all of blue, and there shall be a hole in the
top of it, in the midst thereof. It shall have a binding of woven
work. round about the whole of it,
as it were the whole of a tabergon, that it be not rent. And beneath,
upon the hem of it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and
of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof, and bells
of gold between them, round about, a gold bell and a pomegranate,
a gold bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe, round
about. And it shall be upon Aaron to
minister." And his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto
the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that
he die not." Now this robe of the ephod, you see it hanging
out down here, it was all blue and it was just made of one piece
and a hole in the middle for the head to go through. And it's
interesting, this is the first time the word robe is used in
the Bible. And it's the robe of the ephod
worn by the high priest. And the color of that robe is
all blue. There's no other color in it.
It's all blue. And that blue stands in contrast to man. The
first man, Adam, he was of the earth, earthy. The second man,
he's the Lord from heaven. And that's this blue picture,
it's the color of the sky, Christ coming from heaven. And Christ
is the heavenly high priest. Now Aaron, he just always ministered
here below, on the earth, in this tabernacle. Christ never
ministered there. Christ ministers in the tabernacle
above. He took His blood before the
Father. That's where He ministered is
in heaven. And Christ offers sacrifices.
He offered His one sacrifice for sin for His people before
the Father. Aaron just always served out
here below. And on the bottom of this, there were the bells
and pomegranates alternating all around the hymn of it. Bells
and pomegranates. And when the high priest went
into the Holy of Holies, he was out of sight of sinful man. Man
couldn't see him. And that's all right, because
man didn't need to see him. He wasn't doing anything in there
offering his sacrifices in the blood. He wasn't ministering
in there to men. He was ministering for men to
God. So he was out of sight of man.
Man didn't need to see him. But they could hear those bells.
As long as that priest was moving around in the holy place, they
could hear those bells. And when they heard the bells,
They knew the high priest was alive. They knew he was still
moving around, so he was alive. And if he's alive, then they
knew that God was accepting what that high priest was doing for
them in the holy place. And the sound of the bells, that's
communication. Just like words are communication,
the sound of bells can be used for communication. And the perfect
example of it is clocks. You hear the bells ringing. If
you listen, they'll tell you what time it is. It's a form
of communication. Well, how do we know today that
Christ, our high priest, is ministering for his people in heaven? How
do we know the Father is still accepting the sacrifice and the
intercession of Christ, our high priest? Christ is not there.
The Lord Jesus is not wearing bells that we can hear. How do
we know? The sound of the gospel. The
sound of the gospel still rings. The gospel that you hear preached
is the sound of those bells ringing. God with sundry times and diverse
manners. He spake in time past to the
fathers by the prophets. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son." It's through his gospel that we hear. When
you hear that sound of the gospel, it's those bells ringing. And
the bells, they rang because they hit the pomegranates. The
bells didn't have a clapper inside of them that rang. They rang
when they hit the pomegranate. When Dan and I were in Mexico,
Several mornings we had pomegranate juice. Winnow would have a variety
of juices and things for us to drink. We had pomegranate juice.
I always chose pomegranate because I was supposed to be bringing
this lesson a couple weeks ago and we got snowed out. But those
pomegranates, people call them the perfect fruit. And that's
the perfection of Christ. How God's elect are made perfect
in Christ. And if you cut a pomegranate
in two and open it up, You'll find the pomegranate seeds are
floating inside the fruit there in this red juice. Pomegranates
are red. And that's a picture of the seed
of Christ is going to prosper. Because every one of them is
found washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those,
the perfect fruit, those pomegranates, they would hit those bells to
make the sound. Well, that's the sound of the
gospel. the perfect fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ ringing
forth in the gospel. That's what those pomegranates
and bells, when the high priest is moving around, that's the
sound that it pictured. Then there was the ephod, if
you look in the verse 6 of Exodus 28. And they shall make the ephod
of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, and fine twine linen
with cunning work. and it shall have the two shoulder
pieces thereof joined to the two edges thereof, and so it
shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the
ephod which is upon it shall be of the same, according to
the work thereof, even of gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine twine linen. And thou shalt take two onyx
stones, and engrave on them the names of the children of Israel,
six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the
rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work
of an engraver and stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt
thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of
Israel. Thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold.
And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod,
or stones of memorial, unto the children of Israel. And Aaron
shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders
for memorial." sleeveless tunic with all the
colors hanging on, you see most of covering the high priest,
that's the ethan. It had two pieces, it was made
of two pieces, and they fastened it together with these stones,
like buttons on the shoulders. And that's a picture of believers. Now those two stones had the
names of the twelve tribes of Israel engraved on them, and
it's put on the high priest's shoulders. That tells us believers. How? We're in Christ by birth. Now those names were put on those
stones by birth order. Believers are in Christ by birth.
But it's the new birth. It's not our natural birth. It's
the new birth. And no matter what our birth order is, every
believer is found on the shoulder of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
shows us the security that a believer has in Christ. Our sin is a great
burden. I mean, we are a burden to be
lugged along. The Lord Jesus Christ bears that
burden, puts his people on his shoulders, and it's no burden
to him because of his strength. The shoulder is the place where
you bear the burden. If you're going to carry something
heavy, you put it on your shoulder. Well, that's Christ bearing the
burden of his people. And I can promise you, you can
rest assured, Every one of those people that have been put on
the shoulder of the Lord Jesus Christ are going to be brought
safely home because He's got the strength to do it. And we're
secure there on His shoulder. Isaiah 9 says, speaking of Christ,
the government should be upon His shoulder. And I always point
this out. It doesn't say shoulders, does
it? It says shoulder. The strength of Christ, He puts
them on one shoulder. The whole world, the weight of
that is on His one shoulder. That's His strength. And that
shoulder that carries us is plenty strong. Peter said, we're kept
by the power of God. That's Christ. Christ is the
power of God. And Paul said, I know this. He's
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. Safe on his shoulder. Now this ephod that is joined
together with those stones was a beautiful garment. It was a
stunningly beautiful garment. It was in scriptures, sometimes
it's called the curious ephod or the cunning ephod because
of how skillfully it was made. And the way they made this is
they took gold and they beat it into real fine plates and
then they cut those plates into like gold strings and they wove
those strings together with the fine twine linen and the blue
strings and the purple strings and the scarlet strings to make
this ephod. So all in this ephod there's
gold. This is a picture of the deity of Christ. There's linen,
the white linen, his sinless humanity. There's the color blue,
the Lord from heaven, the Savior come from heaven. There's the
scarlet, which is a color of blood, but it's also the color
of man. And Adam was made from the red
clay, the color of man. He's a man that has blood to
be offered. And then there's purple, the
color of royalty. The Lord Jesus Christ is king. Now, he came to be a sacrifice
for his people. Don't ever confuse him giving
himself to be sacrificed as weakness. Don't ever think that. Don't
ever think anybody did anything to him against his will. Everything
that happened to him at Calvary, all that false trial that they
had, all the accusation, all the beating, all the torture,
everything that happened to him was according to his will. It
wasn't according to will of man. It was according to His will.
He gave Himself to be sacrificed. He gave up the ghost and died,
but He never ceased to be King. Ever. He's King. And that purple,
remember, is also, to get purple you put blue and red together
to make purple. That purple is also a picture
of Christ the God-man. He's 100% God and 100% man. The
math of that don't work. But it's so. He's 100% God and
100% man. And that's what this ephod pictured.
Now, God gave instruction. We read it. That ephod is never
to be torn. Don't you ever tear it. And the
reason for that is you can't separate Christ. You can't separate
His deity and His humanity. You can't do it. He's one. You
can't say, well, He's God and He's man. No. He's both. He's the God-man. You cannot
separate Him. If Christ was only a man, he's
the greatest imposter that ever lived, because he said he's God.
He said he was holy. He said he was perfect. He said
he came to save his people from their sins. Well, if he's just
a man, he can't do that, because he doesn't have the power of
God to accomplish it. But if he's only God and he's not a
man, well, then he can't accomplish his purpose, to save his people
from their sins. Because if he's only God, he
can't be a substitute for a man like you and me. So he's got
to be both, the God-man. And together, you put God's man
together in one, now you've got to save your sinners. Now you've
got one who's both willing and able to save. If you put both
of them together, now you've got a high priest who can be
touched with the feeling of our infirmity, because he's a man
just like we are. But he's God, so he can be the
high priest. Now look at Matthew chapter 26.
God gave this commandment. that the ephod was never to be
torn. And for all those years, it wasn't. But finally, it was
torn. And the moment it was torn, the
priesthood was over. Look at Matthew 26, verse 63. Look at verse 62. And the high
priest arose and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What
is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. He didn't say a word. And the
high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the
living God, that thou tellest whether thou be the Christ, the
Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said. Nevertheless,
I say unto you hereafter, shall ye see the Son of Man sitting
on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Then the high priest rent his clothes," he rent these clothes
he was wearing, he rent that ephod, he tore it in two, saying
he had spoken blasphemy. What further need have we witnesses?
The old, now you've heard is blasphemy. And from that moment,
the priesthood was over. There's no more high priest.
Because Christ has fulfilled all those Old Testament types
and pictures. He's our high priest ascended
into heaven. We don't need a priest on earth anymore. Don't you ever
bow yourself to a priest of this earth. I see people bowing themselves
and taking that wafer dipped in wine from their priest. ever
do it. They're not a priest on this
earth anymore. Now, God's given us pastors and
elders and teachers, but they're not a priest anymore. Christ
is the high priest. And the moment that man tore
that throne, tore that ethod, that priesthood was over. But
this ethod, I mean, it was a glorious, cunning creation. God gave somebody
special skill to be able to make this thing. And it's a picture
of Christ, the God-man. You'd think the wisdom of God
for the God-man to be born of a virgin. What wisdom? You talk about a cunning creation.
There'd never been another person like our Lord Jesus. Never another
one. And while this priest was wearing this ephod, if he turned
one way, all you'd see is gold. You wouldn't see any thread.
And then the light would shine on him a different way, you wouldn't
see any gold. All you'd see is thread. That's a picture of Christ. Sometimes you look at him and
you see God. Other times you look at him and you see he's
man. Think about our Lord sitting there at Jacob's well. And that
woman of Samaria comes up to him. He's tired and he's thirsty.
He asked her to give him a drink. That's man, isn't it? But watch
him a few minutes longer and you see him tell her everything
she ever did. Oh, he's God. Remember that night, the disciples
were out in their boat as the storm came up. Lord Jesus was
in the bottom of that boat, fast asleep. He was so tired. That
storm didn't wake him up. Now, the disciples, they're experienced
sailors. That storm scared them to death.
They didn't even wake up our Lord. He was so tired. He's man,
isn't he? But watch him a minute. Disciples
go down and get him and say, Lord, don't you care we perish?
And he comes up on deck and he says, peace, be still. Instantly,
the ocean was glass. The wind quit blowing. The rain
quit falling. Oh, he's God. What manner of
man is this? Even the wind and waves obey
him. He's God. Look at Christ at Lazarus' tomb. They came and told him. He told
his disciples, Lazarus is dead. He had that discussion with Martha. He went to the tomb and he wept. Why, I don't know. I don't know
if he wept because of the sorrow of the family. Could be he wept
because he was getting ready to bring Lazarus back to this
world. I don't know. But either way, he wept. Our
Lord had emotions just like we do. Now they weren't sinful like
ours, but he had emotions just like there's a man standing outside
that tomb weeping. But watch just a minute. He said,
Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth.
Oh, he's God, isn't he? This man is God. Then look at
Christ, at Calvary. You see him hanging there in
bloody agony on that cross. Blood, the blood of a man. He
suffered physical pain, the pain of a man. And he gave up the
ghost and he died. There hung a lifeless body. Looks like a man, doesn't he?
And as he died, the sun refused to shine. When he died, the earthquake,
the rocks rent in two, and the centurion and the thief saw God,
didn't they? That thief said, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. That thief saw God hanging there.
The centurion said, surely this man was the son of God. He saw
God. And that's what's in this epitome.
Sometimes you see all gold. Sometimes you see all those glorious,
colorful threads. The God-man. And this girdle
was made out of the same thing. The girdle is a sash or a belt. It's not like, don't you all
say anything, sometimes your mother might wear a girdle. That's
not what this is. This is a belt. We won't talk
about who does or who doesn't, but this wasn't a girdle like
what we think. It's a belt. If you look in Luke
17, show you what that belt is a picture of. It's a picture
of service. Well, I would have swore I checked
all these. Well, I wrote down the long scripture. You know the story when our Lord
washed the feet of his disciples. And before he did, he girded
himself. And he told them that he was
doing that as their servant. When he girded himself, that's
what the servant did. He girded himself. And our Lord
did that for this reason. To give us an example that we
should follow. That we're to serve one another.
Now you think about it. Is any service beneath us? Somebody
here needs something. Well, these things they need,
is that too low for you? Could you say, well, I know they
need that, but I'm too good for that kind of work. Really? Believers ought not think that
way. How high and glorious is our Lord. He so glorious heaven
cannot contain his glory. And he came to this earth in
the form of a servant, a humble servant in order to redeem his
people from their sins. You know, I just don't believe
any service is too low for me. If saving me was not too low
for Christ to come, then anything you need in the way of a servant
is not too low for me. Our Lord said the Son of Man
didn't come to be ministered unto, but to minister and give
his life a ransom for many. And the last thing that the high
priest put on here is the breastplate. You see that square there? The
breastplate is the most important and costly garment that the high
priest wore. It was made out of the same materials
that made the ephod, the gold and all the different threads,
and it was a square bag, about a hand-breadth wide square bag. On that bag were twelve precious
gems put on it, and each one of those gems had the name of
Israel inscribed on it, and it was arranged by order of the
king. You see him here. He was attached to those onyx
buttons there, on his shoulders, by those gold chains. And this is a picture of Christ.
Now, I don't care where you are in the camp. I don't care what
your birth order is in spiritual Israel. Where are you? Right over the heart of the high
priest. That's where every believer is,
right over the heart of Christ our high priest. with an everlasting
love. And everywhere this priest went,
he carried the twelve tribes of Israel over his heart. And
everywhere our Lord Jesus went, everything he did, everywhere
he went, he went in love. Everywhere, everything he did,
he did in love for his people to redeem them from their sins.
And we also see the security of believers pictured on this
press plate. They got those twelve stones
They didn't get a magic marker and write the names on there
that maybe they could be erased or maybe they'd fade eventually.
They engraved those names on those stones so they'd be there
forever. A child of God is held secure
both by the love of Christ and by the power of Christ. They're
connected to those stones on the shoulders that are a picture
of his power. We're held secure by his power and his love. And that's security, because
you think, well, I know he's got the power to keep me, but
what if I sin and he decides to cast me out? Well, he won't
do that because of his love for his people. Secure both in his
power and his love. And these precious gems, if you
read about what each of them are, they didn't just pick those
things up in the desert where they were. They came from all
over the world. Now, how'd they get those? There
they are in the desert. How did they get these stones
from all over the whole world? Remember, God sent down to Egypt
the slaves, didn't he? Egypt did worldwide trade. And
they got these stones from all over the world in trade. And
then, after the Passover, Israel left Egypt. And those Egyptians
gave them all their precious things. That's where these stones
came from. They came from Egypt. And Egypt
got them in trade from all over the whole world. And those stones
are God's elect. Malachi chapter 3 calls God's
elect Jewels. Now you want to talk about amazing
grace. That God would gather His people
from over the whole world and call a sinner like me one of
His jewels. Now that's grace. That's God's
grace to His people. Then inside this bag were two
stones that are called the Urim and the Thummim. And Urim means
light. Thummim means perfection. Well,
that's Christ, the light of the world, and Christ the only perfect
man. If the high priest wanted to
inquire of the Lord, what should we do? Which way should we go?
He would draw out one of those stones out of that bag, and he
would get his answer from the Lord that way. Now, how do we
know the will of God? Do we need to, like, draw stones
out and, you know, kind of like by lot decide what we're going
to do? No. The way we know the will
of God is very simple. If you want to know the will
of God, look to Christ. Just look to Him. It's so simple.
If you want to know what way you should go, look to Christ. If you want to know the way of
salvation, how can God save a sinner like me? Look to Christ. You want to know what our message
is in preaching? What's our message be this morning?
Look to Christ. Just preach Him. Just whatever
text the Lord lays on your heart, that's fine. But this is your
message. Christ. Just look to Him. If
you want to know the Father, look to Christ. He's the manifestation
of the Father. Our Lord said, He that has seen
me has seen the Father. If you want to know what way
you should go, just look to Christ. Then on the high priest's head,
he had what's called a mitre, and this is actually a turban
that they would wrap around his head, and the Hebrew word for
translated mitre is diadem, like a crown. Now, no priest was ever
king. He could never be king and priest,
except for Christ. He came as the king priest. Now, why could Christ be the
king priest? Because he's not a priest after the Word of Aaron.
He's a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was king
of Salem, king of peace, and king of righteousness. And then
on that turban is this golden plate. On that golden plate was
inscribed, Holiness to the Lord. Now we end our lesson exactly
where we began it, with holiness. The first thing the high priest
put on was those linen breeches and linen coat, a picture of
his holiness. on his mitre was that gold plate
that said, Holiness to the Lord. Now everything God does is done
in holiness. Everything. And everywhere anyone
who looked at that high priest, what did they see? They saw that
plate, Holiness to the Lord. It was shining out from his mitre,
from his hat, telling everyone, God's holy. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming who will be the holiness of God. Christ our
High Priest is holiness. When God saw Aaron offering those
sacrifices, and Aaron came in to the Holy of Holies to sprinkle
blood upon the mercy seat, God didn't see Aaron. God saw on
his miter, he saw Christ. Holiness to the Lord. And when
God sees a believer, thank God, Wayne, thank God he doesn't see
me. He sees holiness to the Lord. He sees a believer in his Son,
washed in his blood, in his holiness, because Christ bore all of our
iniquity. Just like Aaron bore the iniquity
of the people and made sacrifices for it, Christ bore the iniquity
of his people. But different than Aaron, Christ
took it away to where it is no more, and God sees his people
as holiness to the Lord. All because of our Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, well, God bless that to you.