Would you turn to Exodus chapter
28? Verse 2. And thou shalt make holy garments
for Aaron, thy brother, for glory and for beauty. I've entitled
this message, Glory and Beauty. In this chapter, we're given
great detail about the clothing of the priests. Look in verse
43 of this same chapter. Last verse of this chapter, and
they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons, these garments
when they come in under the tabernacle of the congregation or when they
come near under the altar to minister in the holy place that
they bear not iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever
unto him and his seed after him. Now, Aaron and his sons were
the priests. Nobody else was. Only the sons
of Aaron could be priests and God killed men. Literally put
them to death when someone other than a son of Aaron tried to
act as a priest. We have many examples of that
in the scripture. Uzziah tried to offer a sacrifice,
God turned him into a leper. King Saul tried to offer a sacrifice
as a priest. He wouldn't wait for Samuel.
God stripped him of the kingdom. That was it for King Saul. And God would kill priests if
they did not wear the proper clothing. I just read that verse
of scripture. He said there to wear these garments
that they die not. Now, God is just. He never punishes
too severely. The punishment always fits the
crime. Do you remember Nadab and Abihu?
They were sons of Aaron and they offered up strange fire to the
Lord. And the scripture says fire came
down from heaven and devoured them and killed them. And you
know what Moses said to Aaron? Don't mourn. Don't wrench your
clothes. He had it coming. That's rough
language, isn't it? But it's so. God's punishment
is always just. Now, what is a priest? These
priestly garments, anointed, consecrated, and sanctified to
him. Look in verse 41. And thou shalt of the same chapter
and thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother and his sons
with him and shalt anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify
them that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. Well, what is a priest? A priest
is a man who represents men to God. Now I've got to have a priest. I know that I can't come into
God's presence on my own. I'm sinful. I'm sinful. He's holy. And the only way that
I can come into his presence is for my high priest to come
into his presence for me in my behalf. You believe that? Do
you have to have a priest? Now, this priest must have something
about him that makes him fit for this. He must be anointed
by God for this. The word consecrated that I just
read in verse 41 is able. He must have the ability to be
a priest and sanctified means clean and holy. Now Aaron was
just a man. He was a sinful man. like you
and I are. As a matter of fact, there's
a lot of his glaring weaknesses. He was a weak man. He was led
about by the crowd. Remember, they talked him into
making that golden calf. And he said, this calf just jumped
out of the fire. He was a weak man, a sinful man. So how can this man be a priest? Well, Aaron was just a man, but
he represented the one man who was qualified. to be priest. And these priestly garments that
he wore represented the great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who had these garments of glory and beauty. And I wish I could
talk about the glory and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ
the way I ought to. Wouldn't that be wonderful to
be able to do that? He is beautiful. I love what David said, One thing
have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Now what he meant by that is
he didn't mean I want to hang out in the temple all day. Christ
Jesus himself is the house of the Lord. He is the tabernacle. He is God's presence. I want to be found in Him. For
this reason, I want to behold his beauty and inquire, ask of
him. You know, I behold his beauty
and I got, I got all, I just continually want to know more
of him. And these priestly garments that
are given to Aaron give us some idea of the beauty of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now for the God of glory to be
able to accept me, I must have a priest who can minister to
him. Look in verse 3 of Exodus chapter
28. And thou shalt speak unto all
that are wise hearted, whom I filled with the spirit of wisdom, that
they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may
minister unto me. in the priest's office, and here
are the garments the high priest would wear in verse 4. And these
are the garments which they shall make a breastplate, and an ephod,
and a robe, and a broidered coat, a miter, and a girdle. And they shall make holy garments
for Aaron, thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto
me in the priest's office. And here's the materials they
were made from, verse five, and they shall take gold and blue
and purple and scarlet and fine linen. Gold, representing the
deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. Blue, representing
heavenly. He's altogether heavenly. purple
representing royalty. He is the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. Scarlet representing his precious
blood and linen representing his perfect righteousness and
how beautiful and how glorious he is. Now the first thing I
want to talk about is the ephod. You've read in the Old Testament
about the ephod of the priest. It was a kind of tunic with straps
over the shoulder with onyx stones in those straps on the shoulder. And in the onyx stones there
were six names in each one, just two stones with the names of
the twelve children of Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel that
the priest bore on his shoulders. And there was a breastplate of
judgment with once again 12 different stones with the name of each
one of the children of Israel engraven in each one of those
stones. And then there was the Urim and
the Thummim attached to it. Very mysterious, isn't it? The
Urim and the Thummim. The word means perfections and
lights. This was on the breastplate of
The priest, now the ephod, like I said, had a tunic or shoulder
straps and look what was in the shoulder straps. Look in verse
six of Exodus chapter 28. And they shall make the ephod.
He first tells about the ephod. It shall be made of gold, of
blue, of purple, of scarlet and fine twine linen with cunning
work. It shall have two shoulder pieces thereof, joined at the
two edges thereof, 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, of blue, and purple,
and scarlet, and fine twine linen. And thou shalt take two onyx
stones, and grave 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 in stone, like the engravings of the 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
for stones of a memorial unto the children of Israel. And Aaron
shalt bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders
for a memorial. Now, when something is on your
shoulders, what's that mean? That means you bear the weight
of it. Your strength is involved in
bearing the weight of it. And the Lord Jesus Christ bears
the weight of every single one of his people on his shoulders.
That means I'm on his shoulders right now. That's a good place
to be, isn't it? On the shoulders of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What strength! Now, my priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ, first of all, bore the weight of my
sin. Who his own self bear, the Scripture
says. That has to do with the weight
pressing down. Who His own self bear our sins
in His own body on the tree. And because of His strength,
He now bears my name before the Father. Now, He brings me into
the Father's presence, bearing, first He bore the weight of my
sin, He put it away, and now He brings me into the very presence
of the Father by His strength, and there I am. I'm in the presence
of God right now in the person of my High Priest. I'm united
to Him, and I'm right there in heaven with Him right now. He's
borne me, borne my name before the Father. You know, the thief
understood this. He said, Lord, remember me. Remember
my name. That's all that needs to be done.
Remember my name when you come into your kingdom. Now, you think
about the Lord Jesus Christ, our priest. He has the names
of every single one of his elect engraved on his shoulders. And
he carries us into the very presence of God. Now, that's a good place
to be. What strength he demonstrates
that he can bring my name, Todd Divert's name, is on his shoulders
and he brings my name before the father and the father accepts
me and embraces me through the strength and the merits of the
Lord Jesus Christ and he bears me up by his strength how strong
our priest is what ability he has that he can bear my name
before the father and the father Be well, please. And the reason
I haven't fallen away up to this point, the reason I'm persevering,
the reason I continue in the faith is because of his strength
causing me to do that. What a wonderful priest we have
bearing our name on his shoulders. Now let's go on reading. Also
connected with the ephod was the breastplate of judgment.
Look in verse 15. And thou shalt make them or thou
shalt make the breastplate of judgment. This was also on this
tunic. It was on the breast. Thou shalt
make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work. After the
work of the ethid, thou shalt make it of gold, of blue, and
of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twine linen, thou shalt
make it. Four squared shall be being doubled. A span shall be
the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof. And thou
shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones. The first row shall be, and he
names the 12 different stones, verse 21. And the stone shall
be with the names of the children of Israel, 12 according to their
names, like the engravings of a signet. Every one with his
name shall they be according to the twelve tribes. And thou
shalt make upon the breastplate chains of the ends of wreathen
work of pure gold. And thou shalt make upon the
breastplate two rings of gold. And thou shalt put the two rings
on the two ends of the breastplate. And thou shalt put the two wreathen
chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the
breastplate. And the other two ends of the two wreathen chains
thou shalt fasten in the two ouches and put them on the shoulder
pad of the ephod to bear it. And thou shalt make Well, you
can go on reading about that, but let's look down at verse
29. And Aaron, on this breastplate, and Aaron shall bear the names
of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment,
where? Where? Upon his heart. Now, I like being on his shoulders,
but here's a place I like being maybe more, on his heart. That's talking about the love
of my High Priest for me. When He brings me into the presence
of the Father in His strength, He also brings one that He loves. Now get that. Only God the Holy
Spirit can enable us to get it. Jesus Christ loves me. And when He brings my name before
the Father, He brings the name of somebody who He Himself loves. And my name is on His heart. And He comes into the very presence
of God with somebody He loves, His tender affection. My great
High Priest loves me. He said in John chapter 15 verse
9, listen to this verse of Scripture. John chapter 15 verse 9. As the
father hath loved me, so have I loved you. I wish I could say what needs
to be said about that. How did the father love the Lord
Jesus Christ? But however, the father loved
the Lord Jesus Christ, I know this when the father sees the
son, he sees someone who's altogether lovely. who's beautiful, who's
glorious. He doesn't love Him freely. He
loves Him because He's lovely. He loves Him because He draws
out the love of His Father because of His perfections, because of
His beauty, because of His holiness, because of His righteousness.
The Father looks at the Son and He's just altogether pleased
with everything He sees in Him. And He says, I love Him. Oh,
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Now, that love
that the Father has to the Son, the Son says, as the Father hath
loved me, so have I loved you. Now, that gives us some idea
how in Christ I am beautiful. In Christ I am lovely. In the Lord Jesus Christ, united
to Him, I actually draw out the love of God. And notice in verse
15 once again, And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment
with cunning work. Now this breastplate who had
the 12 names of the children of Israel inscribed on the heart
of the priest that he comes into the presence of God with, this
is also called a breastplate of judgment. Now that word judgment
means a verdict. a just sentence. What this has
to do with is the great truth of justification. My great high
priest justified me. He made me to where I'm not guilty. He made me to where there's no
punishment for me because truly there's nothing to punish me
for. The reason there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
is they don't have anything to be condemned for. In Christ Jesus,
I am perfectly just. I'm really just. This is the
real me. This is a real me just before God without sin. That's
why it's called the breastplate of judgment. I'm justified before
God. This is what our Redeemer did
for us on the cross. He justified us. He was delivered
for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification. So when our priest represents
us and when you eat that this is something that's been in my
mind. I don't know wherever where I got it thinking of the intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ as a high priest. I think of him as as
being in heaven. And when I sin, He represents
me and says, oh, forgive him again, forgive him again. And
I sin again, and He says, forgive him again. And I sin again, and
He says, oh, forgive him again. But that's not the way my High
Priest represents me. No, He represents me as... He's just. He's just. He doesn't have any sin. He's
perfect through my comeliness. That's the way He represents
me. He's not just bold, let Him get by this time. No, not at
all. He stands before the Father, and I am justified, perfect in
His sight." Now, what a priest that is, that can actually bear
me on his heart, bring me into the very presence of the Father,
and when the Father sees me, He sees somebody without sin. Not sinful with a covering that
keeps Him from seeing it, but somebody that's without sin. That's what the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ does. It actually makes me to be without
sin, not guilty. Now also verse 30 connected to
that breastplate. 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. And Aaron shall
bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before
the Lord continually. The Urim and the Thummim. Now that's mysterious. We only
read about these words three or four times in the Old Testament,
yet it was always on the high priest breastplate. And Urim
means lights. Thummim means perfections. And so as our high priest comes
into the presence of God, there's a lot of light there. I see how my prayers can come
up before God and God hear them and be pleased with what I got
to say and answer me. I got light in my Lord Jesus
Christ. I got light as to how God can
embrace me through the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the perfections, the perfections. I see His perfections? Can't
you see the perfections of God in giving us a priest in the
first place? How He's holy and yet He's merciful, He's gracious,
how He's loved. Oh, the perfections of God. Every
attribute of God is manifested in the priesthood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the one thing about this Urim and Thummim,
There are several times, even David in his time, he said, bring
the ephod and let me inquire of the Lord before the Urim and
the Thummim. And the Lord would answer them
through the Urim and Thummim. And here's the point. God is
not silent through the gospel. Now I dread the thought of a
silent God, a God who won't answer me, who won't have anything to
do with me. And I felt that way before, but do you know that
in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is not silent. He speaks through
his word because of the Urim and the Thummim. Look in verse
31, we read about the robe. And thou shalt make the robe
of the ephod of blue. It's altogether heavenly. 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 it, the whole
of it, as it were, the whole of a Habergian, whatever that
is, that it be not rent. Now, this priest is altogether
heavenly. He was anointed by God for this
purpose. God made him priest. Now there
are men who call themselves priests, but they're not priests. God
never calls them priests. But this is the one God calls my
priest. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. He's a priest because God has
made him priest and he's altogether heavenly. That's his origin.
He didn't come to make a way for God to love. He came because
God did love. Now, look in verse 33, and beneath
upon the hymn of that blue heavenly robe, thou shalt make pomegranates
of blue and of purple and of starlet round about the hymn
thereof, and the bells of gold between them round about, a golden
bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the
hymn 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, when he cometh out that he die
not. Now, I love thinking about this. They had these bells on
them, and the priest would go in. Remember, the people would
be outside. They couldn't come in. And if Aaron did anything
wrong or if any of the priests did anything wrong, you know
what? God would kill them. And so you could hear, as long as
you could hear the sound of those bells while they were ministering
in the priest's office, they knew the priest is still alive. Now, you know, I hear the sound
of my great high priest in the preaching of the gospel. I hear
the sound. And my high priest, I don't have
to worry about him dying. Not like these priests, because
they all did die. But this high priest, I love
Hebrews 7, 25, which says, wherefore he's able to save them to the
uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for them. Now let's look at his miter,
verse 36. And thou shalt make a plate pure
gold and grave upon it, like the engravings
of the signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on
a blue lace. You see, this is altogether heavenly.
that it may be upon the mitre, which was a turban, upon the
forefront of the mitre it shall be. On this turban there was
a golden plate that said, Holiness to the Lord. And it shall be
upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the
holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all
their holy gifts. and it shall be always upon his
forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. Now, this verse
of Scripture gives us some idea of what iniquity means. You know,
there are basically in the Bible three words that describe sin. Sin, trespass or transgression, and
iniquity. Sin, that's my nature. David said, my sin is ever before
me. Transgressions, that's my breaking
of God's law. Sin is the transgression of the
law. When I lie, I transgress. But I think this is very interesting
where he talks about the iniquities of the holy things of the children
of Israel. The only way they can be accepted
is because of this holiness to the Lord. You see my good things,
my righteousness, my faith, my repentance, my good works, my
efforts at spreading the gospel, my zeal for His glory. You take
whatever. I don't care what you're talking about. If I'm in it,
it's iniquity. It's iniquity. It can't be accepted
of Him. And the only way I can be accepted
is through His holiness, holiness to the Lord being presented before
Him and my gifts, my giving, my faith, my whatever, it's accepted
because of my great high priest bringing it in. And I am accepted. It's His holiness. Now remember,
Leviticus chapter 2, 22, 21 says, It shall be perfect to be accepted. And with the holiness of the
Lord, our Redeemer causes us to be accepted in the Beloved. I'm accepted right now. I can't
get any more pleasing to God than I am. Now look in verse
39. And thou shalt embroider the
coat of fine linen, and shall make the miter of fine linen,
and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework." This is the underwear,
as it were. And for Aaron's sons, thou shalt
make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles and bonnets,
shalt thou make them for glory and for beauty. This is talking
about the white linen, his righteousness for glory and beauty. And thou
shalt put them upon Aaron, thy brother, and his sons with him,
and shalt anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them that they
may minister unto me. in the priest's office. Now there
is one who ministers to God right now in the priest's office. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he bears every one of his
people with him. And thou shalt make them linen
britches to cover their nakedness from the loins even into the
thighs that they shall reach. And they shall be upon Aaron
and upon his sons when they come in. into the tabernacle of the
congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister
the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die, it shall
be a statute forever unto him, and a seed after him." Now these
garments are for beauty and for glory. Now I can't describe the
beauty and the glory as odd. I find that so frustrating. I'd
love to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ as He ought to be spoken
of, but my attempts at describing His beauty and His glory fall
to the ground. But you know what? Nobody can
describe His beauty or glory, can they? That's an impossible
task. But I do know this. He is beautiful as my high priest,
and he makes everybody he represents beautiful to God. It's not like
God just tolerates you for Christ's sake. He sees you as ugly, but
for His Son's sake, He'll tolerate you. No, He sees you as altogether
beautiful. Beautiful and glorious through
the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, these are garments
of beauty and glory. Let's pray together.