Well, that's what it said, sir.
It was an error of sound. Well, it's good to see everybody
out this evening. Remember those who requested
prayer, add to your prayer list the Pender family of Greg uh,
is, uh, committed suicide, what? Two, three, Sunday. Sunday? Uh, and, uh, they were without
their father, so remember that family in your prayers, if you
will. And I just got word that, uh, my mom and dad's next door
neighbor, Harry, uh, was so good to mom and dad while they were
living there in that house. He died today. He's 88 years
old, real sweet fella. So remember that family. One
of my cousins died. In Alabama? Is that where you're
going this weekend? You're traveling a lot, honey.
Be careful. Carebeefle. Let's begin our work
service with hymn number 118, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count
but loss And poor contentment should boast, save in the death
of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them See from his head, his hands,
his feet Sorrow and love flow mingled down Did e'er such love
and sorrow meet? ? O'er thorns composed so rich
a crown ? ? Were the whole realm of nature mine ? ? That were
a present far too small ? ? Love so amazing demands my soul, my life, my
all. Hymn number 46. Oh, for a thousand
tongues to sing. ? For a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise ? ? The glories of my God and King ?
? The triumphs of His grace ? ? My gracious Master and my God assist
me to proclaim ? ? To spread through all the world ? The honors
of thy name ? Jesus the name that charms our fears ? That
leads our sorrows to ease ? Tis music in the sinner's ears ?
Tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of cancelled
sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood availed for me. Your lucent tongues employ, Ye
blind behold your Savior come, And deeply lay for joy. Glory to God and praise and love
be ever, ever give my saints below and saints above the church
in earth and heaven. Turn in your Bibles if you will.
Exodus 28 chapter. We are going to deal with verses
1-30 tonight. We are not going to read them
all. We will read them as we go along pointing out the different
things. Let's read just a little bit
here. Take thou unto the Aaron thy brother and his sons with
him from among the children of Israel that He may minister unto
me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar,
and the Ithemar, Aaron's sons. Thou shalt make holy garments
for Aaron thy brother, for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt
speak unto all their wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit
of wisdom, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that
he may minister to me in the priest's office, and these are
the garments which thou shalt make, a breastplate, an ephod,
and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, 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, let us
pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank
you and praise you for mercy and for grace. that meets every
need that we have. We thank you Father that we know
that whatever comes our way is according to your good pleasure
in your hand and will always work for our good and for your
glory. We thank you for the shed blood
of Jesus Christ for that perfect sacrifice offered unto you which
put away our sins that remitted our sins, that
perfected us forever in your sight, so much so that our sins
are considered gone behind your back as far as the east is from
the west, even at the bottom of the sea, and you will remember
them no more. The very thought of this overwhelms
us. breaks us in our hearts, but
we know we sin against you continually, and yet you don't record it,
you don't impute it to us. We thank you for such a wondrous
truth. Father, we pray for those of
our company who are sick, going through trials and tribulation.
I'll know us to every case in our congregation. We pray you'd
be with them, comfort them in Jesus Christ, Those who've lost
loved ones, family members, we ask your help for them. We would
help their hearts if we could, but we know that we can only
go so far as fellow human beings. We can't weep with those who
weep and mourn with those who mourn and laugh with those who
laugh, but you can touch the hearts and minds of men and women
and soothe where we can't. We pray you do so. Father, we
ask tonight as we look at your word that you might show us our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can catch but a glimpse of
him in his glory, in his majesty, in his sovereignty, in his saviorhood. Our souls will be lightened and
strengthened in Jesus Christ. Help us, we pray tonight, to
worship you. in Christ's name, Amen. The title of this message is
found in verse 2, that these things made for the priests were
for glory and beauty. Now I've skipped a lot in chapter
27, I'll probably get back to it later, but some things wait
on that. But in chapters 27 verses 7 through 21 they describe the
materials used to make the outer court in which the elements of
the tabernacle will contain. And Debbie and I were talking
about as we read these different elements and how they're put
together it's difficult to picture them in our mind how these things
look. But thanks to the internet you
can Google Exodus Tabernacle. Go ahead and Google it when you
get home. And you can see how it looks, you can get several
illustrations of what the erected tabernacle looked like. The same
applies to the garment of the high priest, as it's described
in these verses between here and verse 30, here in chapter
28. Reading it, it is difficult to
picture exactly how it looks. When I showed Debbie a picture
off the internet today, she said, well, I never imagined it looked
like that. But if you have an internet and you have a Google,
look up Jewish high priest garments and it'll tell you exactly the
whole outfit and what it looks like. You'll find several illustrations. What I'm going to try to do is
find where I can copy and print some of these things, maybe give
us some handouts so you'll get an idea of what we're looking
at. Because I know in reading these things myself, You know,
I'm going to wonder how that looks, wonder how that goes,
so that's one way you can find out. But tonight we'll begin
to look at the garments that were assigned to the high priest.
Later you'll find the garments that were assigned to the priesthood.
What we're dealing with tonight is the garments for the high
priest, the one who goes into the Holy of Holies once a year
before God wearing these garments as prescribed by God. each one
of these things in their own way represents some aspect of
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ who we know is our
great High Priest who is the one who is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. All these things in some way
point to Him and this is mirrored in the book of Hebrews in chapters
9 and 10 after you read this tonight and hear this message
or go home and read Hebrews 9 and 10 again you'll see what this
is talking about in the New Testament language. The garments were to
be specifically employed on the Day of Atonement. That's what
these garments were made for. When the High Priest alone entered
into the Most Holy Place as the representative of the elect people. He's the only one who went in
there. He represented all the people of Israel and Judah. was the only one who went in
there and met with God. He was the representative of
His people, or in that case, like a federal head. And on that
day, the Holy God dealt with all the sins of all His people
in this one person and dealt with it for a year, for this
This sacrifice of the Day of Atonement was repeated yearly
because sin was not put away by the blood of bulls and goats.
and so this was also a remembrance of sin every year as these things
that sin had not been put away because it's going to have to
be atoned for again in a year. We know the difference being
that when Jesus Christ made one offering for sin forever he sat
down on the right hand of God having perfected them that were
sanctified But this is what these garments represent. He alone
stood before the shekinah glory of God, the high priest, dressed
in these garments with the blood of the sacrifice and the censer
with coals from the altar and incense from the golden altar.
Now these two things stand out as the bookends in the description
of this apparel. In verse 2, the garments were
said to be for glory and beauty. It says, And thou shalt make
holy garments for Aaron, thy brother for glory and for beauty. These things are attributed to
Christ in Scripture. And in verse 35, the elements
of the garment were to be worn that the priest dies not. That's
how these two are booked together. In verse 35 it says, And it shall
be upon Aaron to minister, and his sounds shall be heard, that's
talking about the bells on the garment, when he goeth into the
holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die
not. So this is what the bookends
are. He would go into that place with these bells on the bottom
of his robe, and the people could hear him going into the place.
And if they didn't hear him come out, they'd know he had died
in the place. He had a rope tied to his leg, and they'd drag him
out. But the bells were designed to sound out that the priest
had made the sacrifice and that it was accepted. These two things
give great gravity to the work of the high priest. These are
called holy garments. Now what makes them holy? They
make them holy because God has separated them unto His service,
unto His work. That's what makes anything holy.
We are separated unto God, and we are called holy and are holy
because God has said we belong to Him, and we are here for His
use and His employment. Therefore, we are God's holy
people. When He said, Be ye holy, He's
talking about a state of being. Be ye holy for I am holy. He
has made us holy. The word holy and sanctified
are the same word because of the word sanctus. It comes from
the same word, holy and sanctified, and Jesus Christ is our sanctification. He does not say He is our sanctifying.
He says He is our sanctification. Whatever holiness is, Jesus Christ
is that to us who have been made to be that. These are holy garments
because God has set them aside particularly for the high priest
to be used in this service on the Holy of Holies, in the Holy
of Holies on that Lord's Day. Now the greatest amount of description
in these garments is given to the breastplate, to the singular
breastplate that the priest wore over his heart. Now the reason
being that it bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel
who were represented by the high priests on the Day of Atonement.
When he went under that veil, this breastplate was upon his
breast. and it had twelve stones on it,
and each stone had a name of the tribe of Israel, whether
it be the tribe of Benjamin, or the tribe of Judah, or Asher,
or Ithaca, or whoever, all these things, these names were on these
twelve stones. So what would happen, when he
went under that curtain, those twelve tribes were there with
him, over his heart, as he stood before the Lord. The reason being
that it bore these twelve tribes on the Day of Atonement, this
particular piece of wardrobe. Now that's discussed starting
in verse, let's see, if I can find that. It is discussed in verses seven
through fifteen. It is where it is found, this
breastplate. It says in verse six, And now
shall make an ephod of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine linen. And it shall be two shoulder
pieces thereof, joined at the two edges thereof, and the curious
girdle of the ephod which is upon it. And now shall make two
onyx stones, and engrave them, and six of the names on each
stone. That is the two ashes on the shoulder. and thou shalt
put uh... and with the work of an engraver
stone like these uh... two stone verse twelve and thou
shalt put the two uh... two stones of the shoulder out
I still haven't got where I'm going yet here it is uh... thou shalt verse fifteen I got
that wrong it's fifteen through twenty nine thou shalt make the
breastplate of judgment with the cunning work after the work
of the ephod that thou shalt make it of gold and the ephod
was made of of embroidered colored threads of gold and blue and
purple and scarlet and fine twine linen thou shalt make it. Four
square it shall be, being doubled, that is to say it was like, had
one side and another side and there was a pouch in there. The
inside was like a pouch. The first row sardis and then
topaz and carbuncle, this shall be the first row. And the second
row shall be emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. The third row
a figure of agate and amethyst, and fourth row of beryl, and
onyx, and jasper, and they shall be set in goods. So you had four
rows of three each in a row. No, three rows of four each in
a row. And these stones, and each one of them had a name.
This was the breastplate. And it goes on to describe it
much more in the next verses up to verse 29. It was a very
important piece of the furniture. though not in order how they
were worn, the garments were donned in this manner. The first
garment worn underneath the wrist was a white linen robe. That
was the first garment. It pictured the righteousness
of Christ. It reached all the way down to
just above the feet of the priest. He went into this place unshod
because the ground where he only stood was holy ground. The next
garment worn over the white robe was a blue coat. a blue coat
that came to about mid-calf length, and attached to the bottom of
the hem were a series of colorful things, colorful pomegranates
and golden bells. Pomegranates and golden bells,
you see that in verse 33. It says, 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. So you had a white robe and then
a blue coat. And on the hem of the blue coat
you had these pomegranates and these bells hanging down all
around the robe. Now that was interesting. The
bells were there so the priest could be heard, we know, entering
and leaving the holy place. So when he came out, the bells
rung. They knew that the sacrifice that he offered to the Christ
Holy God had been accepted. The atonement had been made.
It was a happy sound for these bells to be heard. They picture
Christ resurrection as he went into the grave and came forth.
Now pomegranates are a fruit red in color and when opened
up they are full of seeds floating in red liquid. If you've ever
seen a pomegranate you open it up all the pomegranate seeds
are right in the middle of it and it's floating in red liquid.
Now why would they use that? This pictured the effectual work
of Jesus Christ and his blood and all his seed, his people
are washed in his blood. That's a picture why these pomegranates
were used. These were surrounded, this coat
and this robe were surrounded at the waist with an embroidered
girdle or a sash, or a sash or a belt we might call it. This
represented the strength of Christ for his work. He was given authority
over all flesh, girded as it were, with great power. Next
was another garment called an ephod. It was kind of like those
garments that just have a hole in the top and there's one piece
of garment and there's a hole for your head and it hangs on
both sides. I forget what you call them.
My aunt sent me one from Chile one time. I can't remember, but
the Mexicans and the Spanish wear a lot of those garments.
But that's what it was, an ephod, and it hung on both sides on
the back, and it was sleeveless. It didn't have any sleeves. It
was split down the sides. It was one piece of cloth. That's
how it was made. It was, as I said, it covered
the front and the back and was attached to the shoulders with
two woven settings called ouches. And each one of those woven settings
had a stone in it. And these stones also bore six
names of the tribes of Israel on one and six names of the other,
six tribes of Israel on the other. These were also engraved stones. they had the twelve tribes of
Israel. This picture of the LORD bearing up His people is often
used to when it says in John 3, 3 or 3, 5, 1st John 3, 5 when
it says, He taketh away our sins, that word is ERO which means
to bear up. He bore up under our sins. He bears our sins and bears us
on His shoulders. That's what these ouches represented.
And these pictures of the LORD bearing up His people. The evening
was woven of many colors, it says in verse 6. and girded with
the embroidered, or curious girdle, the word curious there means
embroidered girdle, of the same colored materials as the ephod.
Now underneath all this were linen breeches. We get our word
breeches from them. Linen breeches, basically they
were boxer-like underwear. That's basically what they were,
just linen breeches, so that they wouldn't be naked underneath
all these garments. Now attached to the ephod hung
from the shoulder stones With the gold chains was this breastplate. This breastplate with four rows
of stones, three stones in each row. And upon each stone was
engraved the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. And
this was worn over the heart of the high priest. And that's
how it's described. It would be worn over the heart
of the high priest. And it signified whom he loved
and whom he represented. This is seen in verses 15 through
29. You can read it and I hope you will. This signified those
for whom Christ died in the day that He made atonement or propitiation
for the sins of the elect. These are the people He represented.
Now God dealt with Him as the High Priest because He represented
these people. It was as if once He put on this
breastplate and went under that curtain, it was as if every one
of the twelve tribes of Israel was in that room with Him. Every
one of them. For God was dealing with the
sins of those people also for the sins of Aaron because he
was also a sinner, unlike our Lord Jesus Christ, our great
High Priest, but he was also a sinner. He had to sprinkle
the blood on himself, but all those people was if they stood
there, they were as it s called in Scripture representing the
elect under grace, those are IN Jesus Christ. They were IN
Christ on Calvary, they were IN Christ when He came to this
world, They were in Christ when He went to the grave. They were
in Christ when He rose again. They were in Christ when He rose
up to heaven, and they are sitting in heavenly places in Christ
today. When you are in Christ, when you are in Christ, you are
represented by Christ, and God sees you in Christ. In other
words, He is looking to the Great High Priest because He has got
your name on the breastplate. He made atonement on the day
of propitiation. No one but the elect was represented
or atoned for by this high priest. Nobody but Israel. There were
tons of nations all around. The Moabites, the Hittites, the
Jebusites, and all those people, all kinds of people, the Canaanites,
the Babylonians, all kinds of people, all the Egyptians were
around. But here in this 15 by 15 foot cubicle, one day a year,
one man came into that place before the Thrice Holy God in
His Shekinah Glory and stood for God's chosen people. He did not stand for the Egyptians.
He did not stand for the Moabites. He did not stand for the Hittites
or the Jebusites. He stood for God's people. That
is what the High Priest does. None but the elect are represented
and atoned for. by the Lord Jesus Christ on that
day when it speaks, and He pronounced Him going into the holy place,
not weighed with hands. He did not go in there for everybody.
He went in there for His people, His sheep, His church, His elect,
His chosen. That is how they are described
in Scripture. This breastplate was worn over the heart of the
high priest, and it said it was worn over the heart as a memorial
to God, as a memorial to God CONTINUED. Look at verse 29.
It says, And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of
Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when
he goeth into the holy place for a memorial before the LORD
continually. This picture is where the heart
of the Lord is and always has been. And what do we do in memorial
as children of God? We have the Lord's table which
represents His blood and His body. We have the baptism which
represents His death, burial, and resurrection. And we have
the preaching of the gospel which sets forth all those things representing
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But God has always loved His
people. They have always been upon His heart. He said to Jeremiah,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and because I love you,
I have drawn you to me. I have LOVED you! And when you
find the word LOVE of God in Scripture, it is only in the
present tense just a few times. Ninety-nine percent of the times
you see the word GOD LOVED, it is GOD LOVED. Now, we know He
does not change. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. So if he ever loved
anyone, he will always love that person. That's why love is almost always
in the past tense in Scripture. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. It says that in Isaiah to about
the Israelites. He said, I have loved thee. I
have loved thee, you are precious in my sight, and I gave nations
for you. I've killed people for you. Inside
the pocket of this breastplate was placed two stones. Two stones. They were called the Urim and
the Thummim. Historically, they were said
to be a black stone and a white stone. They were a very interesting
way of governing a people. They were designed to give a
yes or no answer to a question that was asked of the Lord. A
very simple system of judgment that allows no room for debate
and refers to absolute authority of the Word of God and the measure
of the believer's allegiance to it. Yes or no? What did the Lord say to His
people? That you're yea be yea and you're nay be nay. Everything
else is evil. That's what He says in Matthew
5, verse 37. Now in verses 15, 29 and 30, let's read those. In verse 15 it says, Thou shalt
make a breastplate of judgment. That's what it's called, breastplate
of judgment. Then in verse 29, Thou shalt
bear the names of the children of God in the breastplate of
judgment. Then in verse 30 it says, Thou
shalt put in the breastplate of judgment. That's how it's
described. It's not just the breastplate
with the names upon it, which it is, but this breastplate had
a particular purpose, and that was judgment. Because remember,
when it's worn, Remember what day it was worn and what took
place on the day that it was worn? It was the Day of Atonement.
Day of Atonement. This refers to God's judgment
of His people's sins in Jesus Christ, the High Priest. Because
this is what settles everything for us, you see. That's why we
celebrate His death. That's why we memorialize His
death because it's the judgment of our sins in Jesus Christ that
set us free. The judgment of our sins. So
this breastplate upon the heart of the high priest, what was
his heart? Why did he come to this world?
He didn't come here to set up a kingdom. He did not come here
to be the sweet guy that everybody likes. He came here to die in
the room instead of His people. He came as a sovereign substitute
for His people. That was upon His heart. That
was upon His heart. Here we see the true emphasis
and application of the breastplate. It was about judgment, and if
it was about judgment, and only the high priest and the chosen
people were referred to in this judgment, the breastplate worn
by the high priest was about the salvation of God's elect.
what this Breastplate is all about. On the cross of Calvary
our great High Priest was made to be sin for His people and
He bore their judgment as He bore them upon His heart. He
bore their judgment. Judgment fell upon Him for the
sins of His people and there He made atonement or propitiated
God for those names written on the Breastplate and in the New
Testament written in the Lamb's Book of Life in Heaven from the
foundation of the world. These are the garments and the
reason for them is to exalt and glorify Jesus Christ for beauty
and for glory. Next time we'll look at the glorious
result of that perfect sacrifice as seen in the last few elements
of these garments. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.