Well, I remember those who requested
prayer. Add to your prayer list the Lambert
family. Peggy died and was buried today.
She was 88 years old. And I also remember Jan. She was here on Sunday. And she
fell walking in Cherokee somewhere Sunday and broke her nose and
her hand. So I banged her up pretty good. So remember her in your prayers
also. My cousin Carla was also passed away this morning. Who? Is this your kinfolk? Yeah. His real name is Steven Sanuk.
He's Rudy's boy. Okay. That's Carlos Sanuk and
his family. Remember that family in your
prayers also. Let's just sing one hymn tonight
since he's just a quintet. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah.
291. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, But Thou art mighty,
hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain
which the healing steam does flow. Let the fire and cloudy
pillar lead me o'er my journey. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and
shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan,
♪ I dare me to say goodbye the
swelling current, land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to the 28th chapter of Exodus. I'm going to read from
verse 40 in chapter 28 through the 6th verse of chapter 29. Exodus 28, 40. And for Aaron's sons, thou shalt
make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles and bonnets,
shalt thou make for them for the glory and for beauty. Now shall put them upon Aaron
thy brother and his sons with him, and shall anoint them, and
consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister
unto me in the priest's office. Now shall make them linen breeches
to cover their nakedness from the loins even to the thighs
they shall reach. And shall be upon Aaron and upon
his sons when they come into the tabernacle of the congregation,
or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy
place that they bear not iniquity and die. And it shall be a statute
forever unto him and his seed after him. This is the thing
that thou shalt do unto them, to hallow them, to minister unto
the priest's office. Take one young bullock and two
rams without blemish, and unleavened bread and cakes, unleavened,
tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened, anointed with oil,
of wheat and flour shalt thou make them. And thou shalt put
them into one basket, and bring them in the basket with the bullock
and the two rams. And Aaron and his son shall bring
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation the salt
wash, or shalt wash them with water. Now shall take garments,
and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe, and the ephod,
and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird with the curious girdle
of the ephod. And thou shalt put upon the mitre
upon his head, and put the Holy Crown upon the mitre. Let us
pray. Our Father in Heaven, we bless
you and thank you for great grace, for mercy that is new every day.
We confess that we are sinners. Our sins are ever before us.
But thou knowest our frame and remember'st that we are dust.
You have not dealt with us after our iniquities. You removed our
sin as far from us as the east is from the west, buried them
at the bottom of the sea and cast them behind your back. We cannot begin to fathom the
glory of that, but we have a foretaste as we read your word and hear
your gospel. We know because of the work of
Jesus Christ and only because of his work that we are forgiven
and accepted in your presence. indeed welcomed as your children
adopted in Jesus Christ and born of your spirit. We thank you
for all you've done for us and continue to do for us. We thank
you that you are a God of purpose and a covenant God. And once
the covenant is established, it is never broken. We pray,
Father, tonight for those who are sick, those loved ones. Pray
for the Lambert family, the Salute family. Pray that you'd be with
them. Pray you'd be with Sister Carver. She's had this accident, broke
her nose and her hand. We pray you'd be with her and
bring her back to a good measure of health. Pray for the others
who requested prayer, for those who are going to be traveling.
We pray you'll give them grace to arrive safely and return home
safely. We pray for ourselves tonight
as we look at your words, you'll give us a glimpse of the Savior.
See him in his glory. For glory and for beauty. He
who is altogether lovely, the chiefest among 10,000, the lily
of the valley and the bright and morning star. We praise you
and thank you through Jesus Christ who sits at your right hand having
purged our sins. It's in His blessed name and
through His blood that we approach you and pray unto you. Hear our
prayer, O Lord, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now in 1 Peter chapter 2, the
church is called a holy priesthood. A holy priesthood. Now we just read about the closing
of the sign to the sons of Aaron, and that is indicative of the
holiness that is applied to the priesthood. to the church. This
clothing was white linen, even to the underwear, the linen breeches.
It was to be worn by all that ministered unto the Lord in the
holy place. This ministry involved the maintenance
of the lampstand, the golden altar, and the table of showbread.
This did not involve ministering in the holy of holies. That was
ministered only by the high priest when he wore the total high priest
garb. and went into the holy of holies with the blood of a
lamb and a censer. The clothing was for a covering,
to cover their nakedness, is what it says in chapter 28 and
verse 42. And thou shalt make them linen
breeches to cover their nakedness, to cover their nakedness. And
that's also referred to in verse 43, their nakedness is referred
to as their iniquity, iniquity. We saw, alas, that the high priest
on the day of atonement wore the golden plate inscribed with
holiness unto the Lord to bear the iniquity of the holy things. The covering of the nakedness
harkens back to the garden. When Adam sinned, and though
previously naked, because of sin suddenly discovered that
he was naked and was ashamed of it, Nakedness is of itself
not sinful. Job said, naked came I into this
world and naked I shall return. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Nakedness in itself
is not sinful. But being ashamed is indicative
of what we have done making us feel a need to be covered. Sin makes us feel a need to be
covered, to hide. We know that the only place to
hide from God is to hide in God, and that is pictured with this
atoning or covering clothing that the priest wore. The clothing of fig leaves that
Adam made did not meet the need. It took for God to intervene
and shed blood to take the skins of a slain beast to cover his
sinful pair. And that covering action pictured
the death of Christ and the result of righteousness that was imputed
to his elect, which is pictured by the white linen clothing that
these men wear. That righteousness, which is
Christ, is what was symbolized by these linen coverings. Now
to appear before God without this covering meant death. what
it says in verse forty three and thou shalt be upon Abram
they shall be upon Abram and upon his sons when they come
into the tabernacle of the congregation or when they come near to an
altar to minister in the holy place that they bear not iniquity
and die so these are warned so they would live over in second
Corinthians chapter five the same type of language is used
in the New Testament of approaching unto God In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 in
verse 3 it says, it says, for if it be so that being
clothed we shall not be found naked. We're clothed but not
found naked over in Revelation 16. Revelation 16 and verse 15 it
says this, Behold I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. So that concept is there of when
we discover we are naked we see a need for a covering and we
know the covering in the Old Testament pictured the atonement.
These coverings were for glory and for beauty, it says in verse
40 of chapter 28, which means that their righteousness was
of God. Our Lord said that in Isaiah
54 and verse 17. He said, no weapon formed against
you shall prosper. You shall judge them in the last
day and your righteousness is of me. is of me. We know in Jeremiah verses 23,
5 and 33, 19 it says the Lord is our righteousness. The glory
and beauty were attributed to God. That's where the glory and
beauty comes from and where it returns to. Chapter 9 addresses
the preparation of the priests. Preparation of the priests for
their ministrations. verse 41 it says chapter 28 it
says and thou shalt put them upon Abraham thy brother and
his sons and thou shalt anoint them anoint them and consecrate
them and sanctify them that they may minister unto the priests
office that's the preparation now what the elements of the
preparation are mentioned in the first part of chapter 29
as being unleavened cakes and bread that are anointed with
oil, or tempered with oil, and a bullock and two rams without
spot or blemish. These we will talk about later.
We'll look at that the next time. But for now, I want us to draw
our attention to the description and designation of that golden
plate mentioned in chapter 28 that spoke of, that had inscribed
upon it the words holiness to the Lord. Now here in verse 6
of chapter 9, it's described differently. Same plate, the
golden plate that was attached to the miter or the turban, but
here it's described differently. It says in verse 6 of chapter
9, thou shalt put the miter upon his head and put the holy crown
upon the miter. Still talking about the same
thing. One place it's called a plate. The other place it's
called a holy crown. Speaks of the golden plate is
an interesting item. It's interesting in what it means.
It had to do with catching the eye for the eye to be fixed on
something. When the priest came in, he wore
these gloriously, beautifully woven and embroidered garments.
And he had that breastplate with the twelve stones on it and the
twelve names written on the ouches on his shoulder. But what your
eye immediately went to is this gleaming thing because the first
thing we look at a person generally is his face. And what you see
on his mitre is this glorious, gleaming thing. It had to do
with catching the eye or draw attention to a particular object. This speaks to the faith of the
viewer or the believer whose object is Jesus Christ and He
is the center of attention. Scripture says, Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now
set down on the Father." Our joy in this world is when we
see Christ as He's revealed in this world. We don't see Him
with these eyes. We see Him with the eyes of faith
that God has given us as He's revealed here. And there's where
our peace is. There's where our comfort is. There's where our
conviction is. There's where our consolation
is. Always when we see and look to Christ, that's where our assurance
is. It's not in what we do or don't
do. It's looking to Him. If He's sitting at the right
hand of the Father, that means He has purged our sins. When
He had purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the
Father. There's our assurance. Is He at the right hand of God?
Then our sins are gone. Our sins are gone. The word plate
in the original has several meanings. And all of them point to Christ
as the object of our attention and our affection. Our eyes of
faith are drawn to Him as the eyes were drawn to this plate.
One of the meanings of the plate is a flower or a bloom or a flourish
of flowers. A plant draws our attention when?
When it blooms. Therein is its beauty. A plant
is just a green thing or a brown thing. In the wintertime, when
there's nothing going on, it may turn green in the spring,
but what draws our attention to it, what makes us pay attention
to it, is not in its greenery, but when it blossoms. That's
what draws our eyes. That's the intimation about this
golden plate. It draws our eyes to it. A plant draws our attention when
it blooms. Therefore, there's where its beauty and its glory
lie. If you look over at the house now, you'll see the house
is surrounded by forsythia bushes, and they don't look like much
right now. It's midwinter, and they're just a tangled bunch
of brown sticks all wound together. But come spring, it'll be different. It'll be different. They will
bloom bright yellow like the sun, and we'll fix our eyes on
them. That's when they'll be beautiful. Draw eyes are drawn
to the flower when it blooms. Just as the eyes were drawn to
that golden plate. That's one of the meanings of
it. So is with Christ. Why? Because He's the Lily of
the Valley. He's the Rose of Sharon. In full resurrected bloom
our eyes are fixed on Him. Another meaning of the plate
is shining. Something that's shiny or shining. Shining things
catch the eye. We can be walking down the street
and walking in a forest. If we see something that shines,
our eyes are automatically fixed on it. Something's shining. Wonder
what that is. Wonder what that is. Scripture
declares out of Zion our God hath shined. Christ in his description
in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 2 speaks of his glory, his shining,
his effulgent glory of God. Christ is the Shining One. He's
the Shining One. He's the Day Star, the Bright
and Morning Star. His brilliance is too bright
to look upon when He's fully risen, but at dawn and at sunset
He's become the subject of many painting and photographs. These
things fix our eyes on the sublime. I love it certain times of year
when the sun sets here in the Big Cove and everything turns
pink. It's beautiful. The sky turns pink and all the
The air and the trees and everything have a pink hue to them. It's
beautiful. Our eyes are fixed on things like that. You know
there are people that pay thousands and thousands of dollars just
to go to Key West Florida to see the sunsets. Just to see
the sunsets. These things fix our eyes on
the sublime. Another meaning of the word plate
in the original is to gaze or to make the eyes sparkle. fix your eyes to gaze upon sin.
That's the language of love. And what does Colossians chapter
3 and verses 2 and 4 say? 2 through 4 say, set your affection
on things above and not on things of the earth. For Christ is.
And Christ when he shall appear, Christ who is our life shall
appear. We shall also appear with him in glory. Now in verse
6 of chapter 29, the plate is called the Holy Crown. the Holy
Crown. Before it was as a flower, a
thing to fix our eyes upon, as a shiny thing, as a thing to
gaze upon, to draw our attention to. What's drawing our attention
to? The holiness to the Lord. That draws our attention. That
is what stands us in good stead before God as our High Priest
and Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, appears before God with
this upon His forehead, holiness to the Lord. He is that holiness
to the Lord and that is our acceptance with God. But now it is called
a golden crown. Same thing, but it is called
a holy crown. And the word means precisely
that. It is the ornament for the head of the king and for
the head of the king only. This picture is Christ. in the
Hebrews economy, God had ordained that a priest could not be a
king. A priest and a king, you had one who dealt with spiritual
matters and another who dealt with political and governmental
matters and wars and things like that. The priesthood dealt with
the tabernacle, with offerings unto God, with the maintenance
of the tabernacle. And later the maintenance of
the temple. But God said a priest could not be a king. Could not
be a king. Uzziah whom God made a great
king, decided one day that he would take a censor and enter
into the Holy of Holies and do the work of the priest. Now God
had made him a great king and he was a great king. Uzziah was
kind of his PR man. I mean Isaiah was kind of his
PR man. He wrote down everything Uzziah did. He paid attention
to Uzziah. But Uzziah decided he was going
to be a priest. God said no. Over 80 priests
tried to stop him going into that temple. Over 80 of them. Don't go in there. This does
not pertain to you. This is not what your office
is. This is not what you're to do. They tried to stop him because
this did not pertain to his office. But he would not be denied. The
result of he did, he took that censure and he went to the Holy
of Holies. The Lord let him live. Normally
he would have just killed him. Well, he did kill him and he
killed him slowly. The result of his hubris was that God smote
him with leprosy until the day of his death. He came out from
under there as a full-on leper. It was this incident in Isaiah
that caused Isaiah to turn his eyes from Uzziah and turn them
to the Lord. In Isaiah chapter 6, you're familiar
with this passage. Isaiah chapter six it says in
the year or in the time that it took in the year that King
Uzziah died I saw also so he had been looking at Uzziah now
he's looking at someone else I saw also the Lord sitting upon
his throne and high and lifted up and his train filled the temple
And above it stood seraphims, each one had six wings, with
twain it covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he didn't fly. And they cried unto another,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is
full of his glory. What does that mean? When Isaiah
wrote that, what was he saying in his heart? When I saw Uzziah
walk out of that, holy, holy, a leper, because he hadn't done
what God had said. and he'd gone against God. I
realize this. God is holy. He's holy, holy,
holy. As the posts of the doors moved
at the voice of him that cried and the houses filled with smoke.
Then said I woe is me for I am undone because I'm a man of unclean
lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. How
does he know that? How does he know he's he's unclean
and he dwells among unclean people because he says mine eyes have
seen the king the lord of hosts if you ever see Christ if God
ever opens your eyes to see Christ the first thing you will see
is you shouldn't even be looking at him you're vile and unclean
and undone when did he say that? when Uzziah died what did Uzziah
die? he tried to be a king and a priest
not according to God's economy, but here in our text, the high
priest is said to be wearing a holy crown, a holy crown. This picture is Christ, who is
our great high priest, who is also the King of Kings. In Deuteronomy 18 and Acts chapter
3 and 4, he is that prophet And here he is high priest and he's
a king wearing a crown. And he's the only one whom this
title rightfully belongs. There was another king who was
a priest, a strange character mentioned once in Genesis 18
and then again Psalm 110 and then in two chapters in the book
of Hebrews, a king called Melchizedek. Now he was a king and a priest. He was the King of Jerusalem,
or King of Salem, and the King of Peace. His name means Melchizedek,
the Lord our Righteousness. That's what his name means, the
King of Righteousness, Melchizedek. But he was not a high priest,
because a high priest did not exist yet, except in eternity,
sitting at the right hand of the Father. He was a priest,
but not a high priest. But he was a priest and king.
But Christ, as King of Kings, is our Sovereign. As King of
Kings, He is our Sovereign. He is Lord over all. And not
only is He Sovereign over us, He is Sovereign over everything
that is. over all things, over the entire
universe that He has made, our great High Priest. And as great
High Priest, He is our intercessor and representative and advocate
with the Father. Now here He is, He's the King.
He's the Prophet who tells us about God. He's the King who
rules all things. And He's the High Priest who
represents us. Here in this passage, Aaron in
his magnificent garments prefigures Christ as our High Priest and
King, the title alone. belongs to Christ, our great
high priest. He's mentioned in a different
way in the prophet Zechariah in chapter 6 and we'll close
with that. In Zechariah chapter 6 verse 12 it's one of the four
times he's called the branch, with capital letters all the
way across, Christ is called the branch. Verse 12 says, And
speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,
Behold the man, the man Christ is, who is the branch, and he
shall grow up out of his place, and shall build the temple of
God. What is the temple of God? It's
the body of Jesus Christ. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, He shall bear the glory. He will get the glory
for it. And He shall sit and rule upon His throne. He shall
be a priest upon His throne. He is on the throne. And the
counsel of peace shall be between them. Who sits on the throne?
The priest does not sit on the throne. The king sits on the
throne. He is a priest and he's king. This is what gives us peace and
consolation. Our king is our great high priest. What does that assure us of?
His work is effectual. It will and has got the job done. Father bless us to understand
him. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.