Now, if you will, turn back with
me to Exodus chapter 28. In verses 6 through 13 of Exodus
28, our Lord gives instruction for the shoulder pieces of the
ephod, which is a part of the ceremonial dress of the high
priest of Israel. Now, the proper interpretation
and application of the types and figures under the ceremonial
law requires no less than the power of God's Holy Spirit to
give us an understanding of what these things mean. Never take
for granted that you can go into the book of Exodus or Leviticus
or any other book for that matter and look into these spiritual
things and in the power of the flesh unravel these mysteries
of God. It takes no less than the power
of God's Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and guidance and to
make these things profitable to our souls. Those wise-hearted
Greeks fed their insatiable flesh in nothing more than meeting
together either to hear or to tell some new thing. That's why
they met. That's why they met. They wanted
to hear about the gods across the ocean, you know, and the
gods of the sky and the gods beneath the earth and all the
strange mysteries and strange ideas of men across the world. And the last thing I want is
to add anything else to the ceremonial carryover of the Old Testament
in fleshly religion today. I don't want to add anything
in that pot of soup. They carried over nearly everything
which our Lord brought to an end except the animal sacrifices. Almost everything under... You'll notice when we go through
the Old Testament and we study the tabernacle and we study all
of these things, You're going to find a carryover in religion
today of almost everything under that law. And it wouldn't surprise
me to see it very soon practiced in the average church, the offering
of animal sacrifices. Wouldn't surprise me in the league.
And the Catholic Church, as well as some of the others, still
practice the use of priests in their ministry to this fallen
world today. So much so is this practice today
that it has a name. It's called sacrodotalism. What is sacrodotalism? Well,
sacrodotalism is the practice of priests acting as mediators
between God and men. And that's what they did. There's
no other reason to have a priest in a church. You might refer
to a bishop as father, although it's forbidden in the Word of
God, but you may do that. You may call him a bishop. You
may call him by some other name. But to call him a priest, a priest,
the only meaning of a priest, the only reason of a priest is
to mediate between God and man. That's what a priest is all about.
Our God anointed the very first priest. And this priest is the
mediator between God and men. Men, and in some cases even women,
act as mediators, peacemakers, pretending to intercede between
God and men. And while this practicing of
priests is active, so is ritualism. So is ritualism, the practice
of holy days, ceremonies, abstinence from meats and drinks. But the one thing practiced and
carried over from the Old Testament priesthood, more than anything
else, is the special dress of the high priest. I meant to bring with me tonight
a book from a store in Texarkana. It's typical, that's not the
only store in the country that does this, but where we bought
our hymnals. They sell religious literature,
they sell Bibles, and they sell all these things. And they sent
me a catalog the other day. And almost 80% of that catalog
had to do with special dress for worship. special dress. Choir
robes, even the choir wears robes. All wore robes. The choir leader
had a special robe, different from the robes of the ones who
sat back here. The preacher wore a robe. He
has robes to wear. And then, of course, you know
all the Catholic dress and the collars and the uniforms and
all of those things that they The one thing practiced and carried
over more than anything else is the special dress set forth
in the Old Testament from the tribe of Levi. All the Levites
were to wear special clothing. And the high priest, very special
clothing. Dress for priests, dress for
altar boys, dress for ministers, robes even for the choir. And
these churches still practice these things. And their people
buy into it and support it because they have no understanding of
what I'm trying to teach you tonight about this priesthood. No understanding whatsoever.
It just stands to them symbolic of worship. And they look at
it and they see a fancy robe just like they built today after
the pattern and their own evil imagination, they build cathedrals. And they take that after that
temple of Solomon, and they put precious things in it, and windows,
and design, and architecture. There's no architecture preserved
in our day like that of churches from days gone by. They're ignorant. They're ignorant of the Old Testament
scriptures, ignorant of the Levitical priesthood and ignorant of the
ceremonial law of Israel. And my goal in these studies
is to set these things in their proper place so that you understand
what the priest was. You understand what these things
were that he wore and what they represented and what this tabernacle
and these posts and all of these things that God ordained in that
tabernacle stood for. They were given to show and figure
and type the person and work of our Redeemer, who is the great
High Priest of God. Now in Hebrews chapter 9 and
verse 10, I don't want to be too repetitious with this, but
we have folks who listen from time to time on the internet
who don't have the foundation that I've laid with you, and
so I'm going to be conscious enough to mention these things
in all of our studies. But here in Hebrews 9, verse
10, talking about the offices and the ceremonial gifts and
sacrifices of that Levitical priesthood, he said, which stood
in meats and drinks and divers' washings and carnal ordinances,
now listen to this word, imposed, imposed on them until the time
of reformation. But Christ, being come a high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood,
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. And for this He is the mediator,
verse 15 of Hebrews chapter 9. He is the mediator of the New
Testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. Verse 24, for Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of
the truth. but into heaven itself now to
appear in the presence of God for us. So we see there that
this tabernacle was built in type. It was built in figure.
And these ceremonies that were designed were designed to point
forward to His priesthood, forward to His work. They were shadows
of good things to come. And then He tells us this, there
is one God. and one mediator. Not 5 or 6,
not 25 or 30, not one in every church. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men. Are you listening? These priests
that you see, these Catholic priests who come out in those
gorgeous robes and they come out and they've got incense burners,
and all of this going on, all this hoop-a-roi going on, and
crowds of hundreds of thousands gathered around to see. These
priests claim to be mediators of God. When the Word of God
tells us plainly there's only one mediator, there's only one
man who can go between God and men. Just one. That's Christ
Jesus. One high priest. Are you with
me? You understand what I'm saying? One high priest between God and
men. One man that you can go to and
he can go before God. And he can come back to you and
minister to you. One man. One mediator between
God and men. Now, not God and man. God and
men. Chosen men. Elect men. Loved
of God. One mediator. The man Christ
Jesus. The man Christ Jesus. And everything
in the ceremony of priesthood pictured the person and work
of Christ. And to carry over anything from
that priesthood denies that Jesus Christ came and fulfilled all
that was written of Him. It says that He was not the Christ.
He was not the Christ. Now tonight, I want us to consider
just the shoulder piece of the And I picture in my mind something
like a football player's shoulder pads. Maybe not in that look,
but very similar in its design. They had one that went on the
left and one that went on the right and fastened together by
golden chains around the neck and the ephod. And this shoulder
piece was part of the vestment, part of the priestly dress of
Abraham the high priest. And they were to take gold and
blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and make this shoulder
piece. Now these are the colors which
speak of the glorious character of God's coming priest. The blue
speaks of his heavenly origin. Where did he come from? Where
did he come from? Well, he was born of a virgin.
Yeah, but where did he come from? Where did he come from? It says that the eternal Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, didn't it? He's of heavenly
origin, and that's what this blue speaks of. And then the
purple of His royal office as Mediator King. He's the king
priest. He's not just a priest. He's
the royal priest. And the scarlet of His priestly
sacrifice. And then the fine twine linen
speaks of His righteousness. And the gold was more than just
a color here. These are talking about colors
of purple and colors of blue and scarlet. And he mentions
the word gold, but gold was not just a color. Yes, it had a color
to it. But it was not just a color.
Turn with me to Exodus 39. Exodus chapter 39. This is not
just a color that was woven into these fabrics. This was real
gold. Now watch this here in Exodus
39 too. And He made the ephod of gold,
blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twine linen. And they did
beat the gold into thin plates and cut it into wires to work
it in the blue and in the purple and in the scarlet and then the
fine twine linen with cunning work. You see that? That was
real gold. The ephod was the outer robe
of the high priest. And it consisted of three pieces.
It had one piece that fit on one shoulder and one on the other.
And then it had these chains that were like wreaths. And they
coupled together with a front piece that hung down over the
front of the priest and a cape that hung down over the back
side of the priest. And so there was three pieces
to this ephod. And the whole ephod was interwoven
with these golden wires. And the interweaving of the gold
into the fabric shows the divinity of Christ interwoven into His
manhood. Our priest was both God and man
in one person. All the way through, all of his
work, all of this dress that this old high priest put on spoke
of the character and work and person, glorious person, of that
coming high priest. What that old priest put on in
garments, our priest was. He was. It was a part of his
character and a part of his glory. And that inner weaving of gold
into the fabric shows the divinity of Christ. interwoven into his
manhood. And to be high priest of Israel
and make intercession for him, he must take upon himself the
form of a man. God could not mediate as the
high priest and do them any good unless he become a man. Become
a man. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
5. The high priest of Israel, as
he appeared at the coming of Christ, to me is nothing like
the high priest was set forth to be. I'm talking about that
high priest in the days when Christ came into this world as
a man, that Israelitish priest. He was cold and judgmental. He
was demanding, overbearing. He was cruel and unforgiving.
Now watch this here in Hebrews 5. as our Lord describes this
priest. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, who
can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof, he ought
as for the people, so also for himself to offer for sins. And
no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called
of God, as was Aaron." Now watch this. So also Christ glorified
Himself, not to be made a high priest, but He that said unto
Him, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten Thee. Now this is
not talking about His birth in Bethlehem. This declaration was
made in Psalm chapter 2 in eternity. When God appointed him as our
high priest, he declared unto him, Thou art my son, today have
I begotten thee. Begotten in the purpose of God. And because he was begotten in
the eternal purpose of God, he was begotten of Mary in the manger
at Bethlehem. As he saith also in another place,
now listen to this, thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. Now Melchizedek sheds a lot more
light on this priesthood of Aaron because Melchizedek had neither
beginning of days or end of days. He was eternal. This was a pre-Bethlehem
appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He appeared to Abraham. You remember, and Abraham paid
tithes to Him. He was the King of Salem, the
King of Peace. And Melchizedek. This was our Lord Jesus Christ.
And He's a priest forever. Forever. He always was a priest.
He was a priest in eternity. He was a priest when He was born
as a man. He was a priest when He died
on the cross. And He's a priest seated at the
right hand of God. He's our priest. He's a priest
forever. And as a man, now listen to me,
he learned suffering. He learned suffering. As a man,
he tasted of that which divinity cannot taste. And though he were
a son, now listen to this, though he were a son, yet learned he
obedience by the things he suffered. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him,
called an high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He must
become a man to mediate between God and man. God can't die and
man can't satisfy, but the God-man can do both. He can do both. And then the second thing I want
you to see about this shoulder piece of this ephod is the two
onyx stones set in the golden ouches upon the shoulder piece.
I don't know if this is true or not, but some of the old writers
say that these onyx stones, these ancient onyx stones, weren't
the same as what we call onyx stones today. But they actually
had the appearance in the light of the sun as a burning fire
when you looked at them. And they were very precious,
very precious. Our onyx today is not a precious
gem, but the onyx in this day was very precious. And they shine in the light of
the sun as a burning fire. And then secondly, into these
stones were engraved the names representatively of the 12 tribes
of Israel. I'm going to give you some homework.
In Revelation chapter 7, we're given in order both the account
of the names of God's elect as they stood in figure and as they
are spiritually understood in the New Testament. First, by representation, He
gives us the heads of the 144,000. There was 12,000
from each tribe. But all 12,000 names were not put on the onyx
stone. Just 12. And so he gives us the
head of this 144,000 to show his representative of all Israel. All Israel. He puts on there
the name Judah, and Reuben, and Gad, and Aser, and Nephilim,
and Manassas, and Simeon, and Levi, and Issachar, Zabulon,
and Joseph, and Benjamin. And then he describes them immediately
after that, talking about those 144,000 of the 12 tribes of Israel. Immediately after that, He describes
them as a number which no man can number, of all nations, kindreds,
people, and tongues. And so by revelation, we see
the names of all Israel engraved into these precious stones. Are you with me? Do you understand
what I'm saying here? These old Israelites, Old ancient Israel. And those
twelve sons of Israel, they stood for the whole house of Israel. They stood as God's elect, representatively. Alright, and then thirdly, these
stones were fastened to the shoulder piece by ouches of gold. What in the world is an ouch?
It's spelt just like ouch. but it's pronounced ooch. Now,
I'd say say, Ralph, to know what this is. An ooch is the setting
of a precious gem. That's what it is. It's the setting
of a precious gem. Now, these oochs of gold speak
of two things. First of all, they manifest the
glory of those gems. You don't go out here and pick
up a rhinestone and set it in a golden ooch, do you? No. You might pick it up and stick
it in a bag. You might go out here and pick
up a rock with a fossil on it and stick it in a bag and take
it home and keep it as a keepsake. Or you might find an old Indian
relic, an old arrowhead or something, and you might stick that in your
cabinet. I've got a few of them at home. But you don't take anything
except precious gems and set them in an ooch. So they were
to manifest the glory of those gems which are set forth in it. Now I want you to listen to this.
In Malachi chapter 3, the Lord speaks of a book of remembrance. Now why were these names written?
Do you recall when I read through Exodus 28 a while ago what these
names were put on His shoulder for? For a memorial. For a memorial. To be remembered. before the Lord. And in Malachi
chapter 3, the Lord speaks of a book of remembrance for them
that feared Him and thought upon His name. They shall be mine,
saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. When I make up my jewels. When were these jewels made up
for the breastplate and for the shoulder piece? when God ordained
the high priest. Can you see what this pictures? God gathered His Jews together
and set them in golden uches upon His high priest when He
ordained Aaron to stand before the people as the figure of Him
who was ordained from eternity. But back in eternity, when He
made up His Jews, He set their names upon the breastplate of
our great high priest and upon his shoulders. And then, fourthly,
they were fastened upon the shoulders of the high priest. And this
speaks of the perfect security of the saints. Now, I want you
to listen to me. This might seem like an oversimplification,
but I assure you it's not. He who carries the universe upon
his shoulders Whose shoulders was the government laid upon?
His shoulders, wasn't it? His shoulders. He who carries
the universe upon his shoulders, carries also the elect of God. Now you think about that. Turn
with me to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. Jesus Christ is not some mystical
spirit being who has no control over things except as he can
influence people to let him do things and have his way in their
lives. I take offense at that. Jesus
Christ is the creator and sustainer of the universe. The sun sets
as it does and all of our solar system revolves around it. by
the power of God, specifically by the Mediator King. He orders
all things, preserves all things, and uses all things to mediate
the unchangeable will of God. Now watch this here in Colossians
1.14. Now he's talking here to a people
who've been delivered out of darkness and translated into
the kingdom of his dear son. talking to a people here who
are called saints in light, being enlightened of God. And he talks
to them about the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in Colossians
1.14, he said, in whom? Talking about Christ. We have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things. And by Him all things consist. And He, this One, who was before
anything was, this One who created all things, who sustains all
things, who preserves all things, who orders all things. He is
the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. He is our security. Pastor, I
don't have any assurance. You need to study Christ. You
need to study Him because upon His shoulder, it's not so much
your perseverance as it is His perseverance. In His perseverance,
He preserves us. We have assurance through Him.
And He who bears the universe bears our names on His shoulder. You know, when He went after
that lost sheep, And he found it. Where'd he put it? He laid
it up on his shoulders. Ain't that what it says? Oh,
that sheep was never, that little lamb was never so secure as it
was on the shoulders of the great shepherd of the sheep. You know,
somebody said to Brother Mahan one time, he hadn't seen him
in many years. And he said, Brother, he said,
are you still saved? And Brother Mahan Kind of looked
down for a minute, and he looked back at him, and here's what
he said in return. He said, if Jesus Christ is still
on the throne, then I'm still saved. Because that's my salvation. Think of the wonder of this one
thing. God who created all things, who
preserves all things, and orders all things, bears my name upon
His shoulders and over His heart. You think, that's security. That's
peace. And that's rest. And when this
world folds up, and my health folds up, and my mind folds up,
I still rest on the shoulders of my unchangeable High Priest
who bears me up before God. And then fifthly, He bore the names of Israel In
such a clear manifestation, if you look at the detailed account
there in Exodus chapter 28 and Exodus chapter 39, these names
were set by an engraver into this onyx and into all of these
gems, into diamonds and all these different gems that made up the
breastplate. You think about that. He bore
the names of Israel in such a clear manifestation upon His dress
that there could be no mistake about who He ministered as a
high priest for. No mistake whatsoever. Nobody
came before the high priest of Israel thinking He was a universal
priest. Nobody. They all knew who He
was. He represented Israel. It was for those represented
by those twelve names and grades in permanent writing and unalterably
fashioned to the high priest of God. Now, they weren't glued
on. These things were not glued on,
lest they fall off. And they weren't sewn on. If
they were sewn on, there might be some chance that he'd bump
something and tear it off. But they were set in golden oochies. And those gold, gold always speaks
of divinity. And it's the divinity of our
high priest that secures our names to his shoulders. Unalterably fashioned to the
high priest of God. And this is an area which men
and women still live in confusion of. Actually, Israel themselves
thought it was their blood ties to Abraham and Israel's twelve
sons that constituted their hope before God. When our Lord began
to question their standing before God, what did they tell Him?
We'd be Abraham's children. That's exactly right. We'd be
Abraham's children. We have Moses to our father. We're blood relatives of these
people. But rather, it spoke of their
faith and their spiritual connection with these men. In Galatians
3, verse 16, I'm going to give you several Scriptures here,
and then I'm going to wind this thing up. In Galatians 3, verse
16, it says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. This is the father of faith,
old Abraham. called out of the land of the
Chaldeans. And to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made, he saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and thy seed,
which is Christ." And then in Romans chapter 9 and verse 7, He says, neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, are you paying attention? That is, these are not the children of
God. Now, I don't know a clearer statement
in all the Scripture than that. I gave that Scripture to a man,
and he turned around and he said, well, just in case you're wrong,
I'm still going to respect it. Well, I'm not wrong. They which
are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God, but the children of the promised. Isaac was the promised
child of God. And he stood for all those who
are the promised children of God. And they're the ones who
counted for the seed. And then in Romans 2, verse 28,
here is another very plain portion of Scripture concerning those
natural Jews. Romans 2, verse 28, For he is
not a Jew, which is one outwardly, Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." I don't know, but I pray that the Lord be pleased to give
us eyes to see the glory as we go through these things. I don't
know how many of these articles of clothing touch on, I'll just
wait as I study and see what the Lord lays on my heart. And
I will promise you this, I've been looking at something down
on the hem of the robe. And you look down there and there's
pomegranates and golden bells. And I believe the Lord's given
me a message on that. I just pray that the Lord will
be pleased to give us eyes to see the glory of our great High
Priest and our unbreakable eternal union with Him.