If you will now take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Exodus chapter 28. In verses 15 through 30 of Exodus
chapter 28, God gives His instructions to Moses concerning another article
of dress specifically designed for Aaron, the high priest of
Israel. And he calls this part of the
high priest dress the breastplate of judgment. And we looked at
the ephod last week, which is basically the beginning of this
uniform with its apron and its shoulder pieces and its girdle
and those various parts which make up this outfit which God
calls the ephod. and on which the Lord now will
fashion this article on that apron of blue. He will fashion
this article that He calls the breastplate of judgment. And if you'll recall what we
studied about the shoulder pieces of the ephod, you'll recall that
each side had a rather large onyx stone. It doesn't give the
size or the weight of the gem, but it had to be pretty good
size in order to inscribe six names. So it's pretty good size. And under it, an ooch or a setting
of pure gold fashioned that onyx stone with those names to the
shoulder, six on one side and six on the other. And then attached to those uches
or settings in which this onyx stone sat on the shoulder piece
were two chains of pure gold, Exodus 28, verse 14. Two on the one side, two on the
other, and these two golden chains were to be a wreathen work. See it there in the verse? A
wreathen work. What that means is twisted. It's
to be twisted or woven. And they would be fashioned then
at the top of the breastplate where there were two golden rings.
These two twisted works of pure gold, these two chains, would
come down and pass through the loop of that breastplate, one
on the left side and one on the right. And upon its face, the
face of this, well, actually, I'm getting ahead
of myself. This breastplate, he said, is
four square. In other words, it's a perfect
square. And it's a span wide and a span
high. Now, what is a span? A span is
from here to here, about ten and a half inches. Should be
a half a cubic. according to the scale in the
Bible. But it was from fingertip to
the tip of your thumb, outspread hand. That's a span. And they've used that in the
measurement of horses. They've used that. I couldn't
tell you how often that measurement's been used. But it was four square. So picture, if you will, on this
apron of pure blue, this heavenly garment. That's what that blue
represented. This priest was God's heavenly
priest. And upon that blue apron of the
ephod hung down this piece of cunning work with scarlet and
purple and all the colors that were in the ephod all etched
into this thing with threads of gold that they had beaten
fine and woven into the fabric and the white fine twine linen. All of this in this little square. And upon this thing, upon this ephod,
upon its face were four settings of stones, three in each row,
and in each a gem with the name of one of the sons of Aaron.
I don't know exactly how big these stones were, but they were
pretty good size. And again, I say to be able to
etch in that thing names. And they were not all short names.
Some of them were fairly large. But in this breastplate, here's
four rows, three in each row of these gems. And I looked up
some of these things, like carbuncle and some of these things, just
to see what they looked like. And now I know why they call
that thing that comes on your arm, they call it carbuncle because
it has that look to it. It almost looks like an eyeball.
And that's what these stones look like. And various in color,
various in value, and so on. And then at the bottom there
was a lace. Lace here is not talking about
lace like goes on a tablecloth that you see around the outside
of it. Lace here has to do with lace like you lace up your shoe.
This was a lace of blue linen that they took and wove it into
a rope of a kind, but small, and called it a lace. And that
lace around this epod was a cloth belt. It's called the Curious
Girdle of the Epid. And that girdle was a wide cloth
belt that went around and this blue linen woven into a lace
was attached to that Curious Girdle of the Epid. And the reason
for all of this was to hold this thing over the heart of the high
priest. things kind of went out to the
side and held it down and the two chains at the top fastened
to the shoulder pieces held it in place. No matter what that
priest did, if he was bowing, if he was standing, if he was
walking, no matter what he did, those names never moved. All
those names of that breastplate of judgment stayed right over
his heart. Now tonight I want to give you
five things in the way of this breastplate as a figure which
point forward to that one who is our priest forever, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the first thing I want to
talk to you about is its significance, the significance of the breastplate.
It's called the breastplate of judgment. Now he calls it the
breastplate of judgment, not because the high priest wore
it to judge over Israel's affairs. There were some things that the
high priest did set in judgment over. And one of those things
is what I preached on up in Ashland last year. But that's not why
it was called the breastplate of judgment. And it wasn't to
declare an impending judgment, although it did declare such
a judgment. But rather it was called the breastplate of judgment
because it was the business of him who wore this breastplate
to satisfy the judgment of an offended God. This was a mediator. This high priest was to take
the sacrifice which God decreed, commanded, and instructed him
to take for the sins of Israel. And he was to take that thing
and make atonement for them and appease a holy God. The breastplate of judgment.
David wrote of our God that justice and judgment are the habitation
of His throne. Justice and judgment. And this priest... Now, I'm just
going to keep telling you this all the way through. Hopefully,
it will sink in. This thing represents the heart
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this evening is all
about. And in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ is His elect. But they are not there under
compromise. They are there under strict justice
and strict judgment. And so He was appointed to be
a high priest. Isaiah said He is a just God
and a Savior. And Paul tells us in Romans 3,
24-26, and this is talking about the Old Testament Scriptures
here. You look it up and give it some study, give it some time,
and you'll see that. But he tells us in Romans 3,
verse 24-26, that God has set Christ before us in His priestly
work as the propitiation for our sins to declare His righteousness
for the remission of our sins that He might be just and justify."
You see what my point here? This breastplate of judgment.
He shall bear the judgment of God in his heart always. Always. Now God has purposed to save
a people. When did He purpose that? From
all eternity. And to this end, Christ was given
His office as our great High Priest to bear our names upon
His shoulders and upon His heart before the God of glory. But
in the salvation of God's elect, He will not compromise the glorious
character of God. The very heart of our Savior,
which this breastplate represents, is the heart of righteousness,
justice, and judgment. He said, this is why I came into
the world. This is why I'm here. I pray
that this cup be taken away and nevertheless, thy will be done.
He knew what the will of God was. And Aaron wore this breastplate
of judgment to manifest that our redemption is based upon
judgment satisfied. Judgment satisfied. All that
is displayed upon this breastplate is in perfect harmony with the
character of the true and living God. You couldn't find an Amorite
king's name on there. You couldn't find a Canaanite
king's name on there. But every name on there was in
perfect harmony with the righteousness, justice, and judgment of God.
He did not compromise to have their names there. So first of
all, we see that this brief plate of judgment foreshadows Christ
our great high priest bearing us upon His shoulders and over
His heart, and presenting us before God by way of His blood-bought
atonement. And then secondly, I want to
show you our position in our High Priest. Our position in
Him, first of all, is fixed. It's fixed. Nowhere in the Word
of God does it ever speak of any of those stones ever being
replaced by a different gem, or a different stone, or any
of those names being ground off and other names being written
in. Those names that He put there
stayed there forever. They're fixed. They're fixed. And the Book of Life, that book
which manifests the names of God's elect and the object of
God's love and affection, that book was inseparably connected
with the salvation of God's elect according to Revelation 17-8
was written from the foundation of the world. It said the whole
world wandered after the beast whose names were not written
in this book of life before the foundation of the world. And
you check me out and see if it's not so. I think it's in Revelation
21 where he declares that justice at the end of time, that judgment.
And when everything was said and done, He said, and all those
whose names were not written in the book of life were cast
into the lake of fire. Is that right? That's exactly
right. These names written in the heart
of our great high priest are fixed. They're fixed by God and
they're fixed forever. Our position in Him is fixed. It said in Ephesians chapter
1, He said, The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. He put our names upon the heart
of our Savior. Before Israel ever received the
law of God, God appointed for them a high priest and wrote
their names upon His heart and put their names upon His shoulders
to bear them up before God. Our position is fixed. And it's
fixed upon the shoulders of His power and upon the heart of His
love. Fixed. Both places. And it's
fixed by an eternal redemption, purpose accomplished and accepted
of God. And then fourthly, our position
in Him is fixed in a definite and particular way. Aaron was
not the high priest of whosoever will. Was he? No, sir. Who was he a high priest
of? Israel. Israel. He was not the high priest of
all those who accepted Him as their personal Savior or their
personal high priest. He was not the high priest of
everyone who agreed to call Him the high priest. And He was not the high priest
of everyone who made a profession of faith. He was the high priest
of all the elect of God. And I'm telling you this as clear
as I know how to tell you. You cannot use the typical priesthood
to preach a universal salvation. It just won't fit. And there's
two ways that men go to try to get around that. There's only
two ways that you can go. First, by denying altogether
that the priesthood of Israel was a type of Christ. That's
simple enough. No, I don't believe that. I just
don't believe that. I don't believe he was a type.
I believe this priesthood has to do with the church. It still
has to do with the church. And churches still ought to have
priests. And this whole thing about figures and shadows and
types and all that, I'm just not going to buy into it. Well,
if that be the case, you're going to have to get rid of half the
New Testament. Because a good half of it, and especially the
book of Hebrews, you're just going to have to rip it out,
because that's what it's all about, the priesthood of Christ. And then the second thing, if
you're going to try to get around this, is you must teach the priesthood
of Israel as a dispensational truth. You're going to have to
say, well, there was a priesthood, but that was for that time, and
now this is for this time. The only problem with that is
our God doesn't change, does He? That kind of just blows dispensationalism
out the window as far as I'm concerned. Our God is eternal.
Whatever He redeems in time was purposed from all eternity. Whatever
happens in time was purposed from all eternity. He worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. If this dispensational thing
is true, then Christ was not a high priest of good things
to come, and His sacrifice accomplished nothing, seeing He wasn't appointed
to offer one. And we have no mediator at all,
nor an advocate before God, because those things were just dispensational. You see what happens when you
twist the Scriptures? You distort the Scriptures. Our
Lord said you do it to your own destruction. Now here's the third
thing I want you to see tonight, is the arrangement of these stones.
I kept looking at these stones and some of the writers, I believe
Pink had some things to say about it, but talking about these stones
in accordance with whose name was written on it and so on. But why 12 individual stones? We're talking now about that
breastplate. Why 12 different stones? Why such a wide variety of stones? Why such a distinction in the
value of these stones? My soul, a carbuncle, I looked
that up. It's got nowhere near the kind
of value that a diamond does or an emerald or a sapphire. And I kept looking and looking
and looking. Why such a distinction in the
value of these stones? looking at these stones, trying
to make some rhyme or reason out of them, trying to find some
connection between them and the people whose names were written
on them. And finally, I believe the Holy
Ghost gave me the reason why He put all these stones on this
breastplate, all these various kinds of stones. The distinction
in the stones is to show us that there is no distinction with
God. That's why He put them on there. The distinction in the
gems are all made by men. Is that true? It's man who looks
at a diamond and says, this is a diamond. This is a carbuncle. Or a moonstone. This is a moonstone. Throw it on the table. But this
is a diamond. That's man says that. Man says
that. That distinction in these gems
are all made by men. God takes what men set great
value on and He uses them to describe the common parts of
His heavenly Jerusalem. He said the gates are gates of
pearl, didn't He? And He called the streets what?
Streets of gold. Pure gold. Transparent. So pure
it was transparent gold. Well, what's it used for? It's
used to walk on. You're to welcome. There are no distinctions in
Christ. There's neither male nor female, born nor free, educated
or uneducated, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile. We all have an
equal sitting in the heart of Christ, regardless of our earthly
value. We're all one in Christ Jesus.
Luke was a doctor. He was somebody. He was a doctor.
He was a physician. Peter was a fisherman. Peter was a fisherman. You know,
Peter wrote a lot more books than Luke. He sure did. David was just a shepherd. Just
a shepherd boy. God reminded him of that time
and again. He was just a shepherd. But God
made him a man after his own heart. And upon the heart of
our great high priest, the emerald, the sapphire, and the diamond
are listed beneath the sardis and the topaz and the carbuncle.
They take second row to these common stones. Paul said, what have you gotten
that you have not received? And if you received it, why do
you glory like you didn't? So the distinction is to manifest
no distinction at all. And then think about this. These
stones were not left in their natural condition. Even the diamond
and the emerald have no appeal in the natural state. And they can easily be overlooked.
Easily be overlooked. But these stones were made anew
by the decree and gifts of God. I want you to listen to something
here in Exodus 31. Let me read a few verses of this
to you. This all has to do with the making of the tabernacle
and the making of these various things. And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Beziel, the son of Uriah,
the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I filled him with
the Spirit of God in wisdom, and in understanding, and in
knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning
works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in
the cutting of stones to set them. The stones were taken and
shaped for the glory of God, and to the glory of His high
priest. And these stones were polished and set in place as
God saw fit and by men whom God gifted to do it." That's right. Can you see in that a picture?
What a clear picture that is of the ministry today. Well, how come he gets to preach?
How come he gets to sing? How come he's got a fine voice
and I can't play a radio? God has set us in the body as
He sees fit. And then thirdly, think about
the origin of these stones. Some came from the depth of the
sea. Some from dark pits in the bowels
of the earth. And some just picked up, been
walked on all their life. God just picked them up on the
common path, and there they were. yet all destined to be displayed
over the heart of our great high priest. And then the fourth thing
I want you to see is where these stones are carried. These stones are fashioned over
the heart of our great high priest. You think about that. Everywhere
he went, they went. Everything he did, they did.
Everything he saw, they saw. Everything he received, they
received. They won with him. They were carried to the brazen
altar. That altar upon which the substitutionary
sacrifice must be burned with fire. That altar beneath which
the blood of the sin offering must be poured out. That altar
where the blood was taken in a vessel and carried in under
the veil into the very presence of God. You think about that. These stones on the breast of
our high priest were seated with him in the heaviness. When that
high priest went into the Shekinah glory of God, that same Shekinah
glory that shined on that priest shined on them names, didn't
it? Shined on them stones. That blessed light which shone
upon the countenance of our great High Priest shined in all its
beauty upon these blessed stones. I thought about this this afternoon. That very light which radiated
from the face of the satisfied Father radiated also upon those
twelve stones. We have light. because our great
High Priest has accomplished the will of God on our behalf. And it's the work of our great
High Priest which has bought us the right to be made the sons
of God. And when God looks on His Son,
our great High Priest, He looks at all those in His Son. And
when God speaks to His Son, He speaks to all those in His Son.
Listen to this Scripture here in Hebrews 10. Now He's already
talked about the high priest and why He came and that He was
a figure and that Christ our high priest now has entered into
heavenly places with better sacrifices than that old priest. And by
this one sacrifice for sins forever, He's perfected us. Perfected us forever through
that one sacrifice. Sanctified us forever. And now,
he said, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh,
and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed
with pure water. And then lastly, let's think
about this. It was the person of the great
high priest and his office that gave value to the jewels, not
the other way around. If it were the other way around,
that diamond could look over at that carbuncle and say, I'm
a diamond, and you're just a carbuncle. He could look over at that sapphire
and say, boy, you're something, but you ain't like me. I'm a
diamond. That's not how it worked. That's
not how it worked. It is the person of the great
high priest that gave value to the jewels, not the other way
around. What value, what value would
a worthless worm Try to just imagine for a minute an old wiggling
maggot in the carcass of a dead animal. He's wiggling around. That's what that word worm means
in the Scripture. Wiggling maggot. Look it up.
What would that maggot be worth in the hand of the Son of God? Even that worthless maggot would
be invaluable if he's chosen by the Son of God. and held in
His hand. Paul wrote to the Colossians,
and he said, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Now listen to this. And you are
complete in Him. That's where your value is. That's
where your security is. That's where your growth in grace
is. That's where your knowledge is. That's where your honor is,
that's where your glory is. You're complete in Him who is
the head of all principality and power. What made these jewels
precious was whose heart they were fashioned to. Everything fashioned to this
breastplate went where the priest went, saw what the priest saw,
and received what the priest received. God help us to see
ourselves fixed upon the heart of our Great High Priest. If
we do these trials, you can rest them in His hands and just sit
back and wait. You can just rest them there.
Because we're complete in Him. I'm complete in Him. I don't
have the answer to all our worldly problems and cares and trials.
I don't have them. I go through them just like you
do. But I'll tell you this, you'll never find any comfort until
you cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. And
get hold of this fact. I'm complete in Him. I'm fixed
in Him. Fixed in Him. These stones were
inseparably fixed over the heart of our great High Priest. And
in those names, those names are representative, aren't they?
They're representative of the whole house of Israel. And who
is the whole house of Israel except those who are called by
God to believe and follow Him in faith and repentance?