Ministering Priests

Sermon Transcript

Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. And, Lord, we're excited because we know that every time that your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, Lord, that you speak. And so we're praying today, Lord, that you would speak, Lord, that you would speak. Through these two chapters, we're going to look at that. Oftentimes we overlook or gloss over because we don't see the significance for our lives.

So, Lord, I'm asking you this morning, be helpful to me and be helpful to us as we hear that we would get a true picture of. Of who you are and your holiness. And so now, for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord, who will believe what he says to you, and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen. Amen. Well, this morning, we are back in the book of Exodus.

And those that have been with us for a while, we've been journeying through this entire book word by word. And we're in chapter 28 today. And while you're turning to chapter 28 today in your Bible, I'll just give you an overview. God had a love and still has a love for the nation of Israel. And God wanted to deliver the nation of Israel from the slavery and bondage they were under under Pharaoh.

Pharaoh didn't like the idea of what was going to happen. And he was getting wind that God was gonna bring a deliverer. So he had all the Hebrew boys under the age of two murdered. But not for Moses. Mom.

Moses. Mom. You remember? Put him in a basket, sent him down the river. It was as if God was saying, you think you're gonna stop my work?

Not only am I gonna bring a deliverer, he's gonna be raised in your house. Moses was raised in the house of Pharaoh. At the age of 40, murdered an Egyptian or murdered an Egyptian. It was found out. So he fled to the wilderness for 40 years.

It was there 40 years later, when he was 80 years old, he was called at a burning bush to go back to Egypt and be the deliverer. God takes him back to Egypt, and we see all of these amazing things take place through Moses leadership. God rains down 10 different plagues over the different gods of the nation, showing that he is the one and only God. And every time, Moses kept saying, let my people go. Sometimes Pharaoh would relent a little bit, but then he'd harden his heart, say, no way.

The final straw was when the firstborn were killed of every single family that didn't have blood on the doorposts. And Pharaoh finally said, you can go. But then he hardened his heart. Remember, he chased them down. And now they're standing at the Red Sea.

There's no way forward. There's no way back. And God miraculously parts the Red Sea, brings Israel through, crushes the Egyptian army, and they worship him on the bank of the river. Then God provides food, he provides bread, he provides meat, he provides water, he provides deliverance from their enemies, and he leads them all the way to Mount Sinai, where at Mount Sinai, God is going to show them who he is. The people, when they experience some of the presence of God, are quaking in their boots because God is so powerful and so holy and so strong.

And God calls Moses up. And God begins to reveal to Moses, here's how I want my people to relate to me. And God needed Moses to relate to the people this. That he's holy and that he's worthy and that he's unlike any other God. And there is a specific way that they're going to need to relate to him.

When we la. When we left off last time, we looked at chapters 25, 26, and 27 about the building of the tabernacle. Do you remember? And how everything in the tabernacle was a representation of who our God is and ultimately how it was going to be fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Today we're going to be in chapter 28 and 29, and here's what we're going to discuss.

We're going to discuss priestly garments. Priestly garments. Unless you're a tailor or you work at a clothing store, you would probably read through this and you would get to 28 and 29, be like, I get it. I'm moving on. Why do I need to know anything?

But I believe that every single word of God's word is important. And I love pastoring a church like Brave because I know you'd want me to teach you what these two ver. What these two chapters have to say. Amen. So this morning, we're going to take a look at priestly garments, and we're going to take a look at God's ministering priests and who they are and why God chose them.

And we're going to take a look at four areas as to why God chose priests and what he was trying to tell us through this. And what you're going to see in this. This entire thing is that every bit of clothing and every article that he's doing represents the resurrected and glorified Jesus Christ. Because what the high priest did in the Old Testament, we're going to see that Jesus Christ finished at the cross. And all of this was a foreshadowing to who Jesus Christ was going to be on our behalf.

And what we see here in the text is that God created Israel to be a theocracy. In other words, God wanted them to worship him so that he could rule. Eventually, Egypt relented and said, we don't want to just worship you. We want to be like all the other nations. We want a king.

And so God allowed them to have a king. And that didn't go very well for them. And it's never gone very well for them. God wanted them to be a theocracy and basically say, if you'll worship me, I'll give you all the direction that you need as a nation. By the way, the same thing's true today.

If we would just worship the Lord, he would give us everything we need as a nation. Amen. And that's what he was trying to teach them, because he was trying to teach them about his character. And what you're going to see in the text today is our God is unlike any other God that anybody's ever tried to invent or create on their own. Our God is holy, our God is righteous, Our God is good, Our God is loving.

Our God is set apart. And he's unlike any other. So as we look in Exodus chapter 28, as he's just finished up the the teaching of what this tabernacle was going to look like and how they were to keep this tent of meeting lit up. He begins to talk about what these garments of the priest should look like. And here's the first point I want to make that God chose priests to be ministers and mediators between God and his people.

He chose priests to be mediators between and ministers between God and his people. If God wanted to get the message to his people, he needed to go between. He needed somebody to hear who he was and relate that to the people. He needed somebody that was going to minister and worship him and teach people how to worship Him. And this is what we see in the text.

Notice chapter 28, verse 1. As God instructs Moses, he says, then bring near to yourself, Aaron, your brother, that's his older brother, and his sons with him from among the sons of Israel to minister as priests to me, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons. You shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful persons whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate them, that. That he may minister as a priest to me.

These are the garments which they shall a breastpiece and an ephod, a robe and a tunic of checkered work, a turban and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons, that he may minister as a priest to me. And this is what we see. God's going to be the one that chooses the priests. In other words, to be a priest, you had to come from the Levitical line.

Jacob had 12 sons. One of his sons was Levi. You had to come from the tribe of Levi in order to be a priest. Not everybody in the tribe of Levi was a priest, but in order to be a priest, you had to come from the tribe of Levi. I mean, John the Baptist comes from the tribe of Levi, but he wasn't a priest.

He was a prophet. But everybody had to come. Why? Because God is the one who selected who he wanted to represent him. That's the way that God works.

So God is selecting priests to minister unto him, to worship him, to teach people how to worship him, and to be a mediator or a communicator to the people of God. As to what God expects from you, that's the role and responsibility of the priest. Now, the beauty of all this is what you're going to see is all of this represents Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know about you, but when we study the tabernacle, I'm not a general contractor. So, yeah, it takes me a little extra time to read it and understand what it looks like to be put together.

And even after reading those three chapters, that's not what I would have constructed. Because God says in the text, you know, choose people, skillful persons, who have endowed with the spirit of wisdom. I don't have the spirit of wisdom for clothing either. Some of you do. Some of you would know how to make clothes, some of you know how to dress better, all those kind of things.

In other words, here's what God's saying. Everybody has different gifts. God's created you with different gifts. Some of the gifts that you have are different than anybody else. And what comes super easy for you is difficult for others.

I was talking to a friend of mine who's a general contractor after we taught on the tabernacle, and. And he said, I could see it in my mind as you were preaching and I'm like, I preached it twice and I still don't see it in my mind without a picture. So I wanted to show you a picture today of what we're trying to construct or build. This is an artist rendering of what a priest would have looked like. This is what we're trying to construct where you can see the turban on his head all the way down to the ephod in front of him and all the breastplate that we're going to talk about and the sashes, all those different things.

Is it coming up on the screen? Yeah. Praise God. I don't have to dress like that on Sunday morning. Right?

But we're going to look at this and we're going to see this and we're going to see. This is how Jesus rep was represented in the person of the high priest. And what you're also going to see is when Jesus Christ came and fulfilled everything and he died on the cross and he rose from the dead. He became what the high priest. There are no need for any more high priests.

Jesus Christ is our high priest and he's the fulfillment and what the high priest would offer to God and what the high priest would sacrifice to God and how the high priest would communicate on God's behalf. Guess what? We now have the Lord Jesus Christ who has fulfilled it all. When he died on the cross, you remember the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom, opening up the holy of holies, meaning now there's access for everybody. What was only accessible to the high priest is now accessible to all of us through.

Through Jesus Christ. You wonder where do we get all this information from today? Okay, this is what we're going to be talking about. And we read in, you know, first Timothy 2, 5, for there's, you know, one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. We don't need to go through a high priest anymore.

We can go directly to Jesus. Everything we're going to read about today say, man, I need a high priest. I need a high. You have one. If you've repented and believed.

Jesus Christ is your mediator, Jesus Christ is your minister. Jesus Christ will teach you how to worship and lead you into God's presence. Jesus Christ will be the one who ministers to God for you. Jesus Christ will be the one who is your mediator between God and you. That's why Jesus had to be fully human so he could fulfill the role of being the high priest.

That's why he had to be fully God in order to tear down that curtain so that we could have access into the holiness of God. That's who Jesus is. So God chose priests to be ministers and mediators between God and his people until Jesus Christ came and fulfilled it. And now we're going to get into what they wore. And when we see this, we're going to see that God chose priests to be representatives that demonstrated God's heart and declared his direction.

They demonstrated God's heart. They were representatives that demonstrated God's heart and represented and declared his direction. Notice what he says in verse five. They shall take the gold and the blue and the purple and the scarlet material and the fine linen. They should also make the ephod of gold, of blue, of purple and scarlet material, and fine twisted linen, the work of a skillful workman.

In other words, just like today, God had people in the camp that were skilled at doing all this. Now, we talked some about these colors last time. We're adding gold. Gold represents God's glory. Gold represents God's glory.

Blue represents deity. Purple represents royalty. And red represents blood or the humanity. Do you see how Jesus Christ fulfilled all of these? Jesus Christ came full of glory.

Jesus Christ is the glory and representation of God. Jesus Christ is full deity. In Christ, the full deity of God dwells. Jesus Christ is royalty. He's the king of the universe.

Jesus Christ shed his blood on a cross. All of these colors are representative of everything that Jesus was going to be. Now, an ephod, in case you don't have one in your closet, is a sleeveless garment that the priests were to wear it attached at the shoulders. And you're going to hear all about it in great detail here in just a. Just a minute.

Verse 7 says, it shall have two shoulder pieces joined to its ends, that it may be joined. The skillful woven band which is on it shall be like its workmanship, of the same material, of gold, of blue, of purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen. You see the same colors. You shall take two onyx stones and engrave them on the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone of the names remaining, six on the other stone according to their birth, as a jeweler engraves a signet. You shall engrave the two stones according to the names of the sons of Israel.

You shall set them in filigree settings of gold. You shall put the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord. On his shoulders, as a memorial, you shall make filigree settings of gold. You shall have two chains of pure gold.

You shall make them of twisted cordage work. You shall shut the corded chains on the filigree settings. And you say, why all that? Here's why. Because God cares about all his people.

God cared about the entire nation of Israel. God didn't care which of the 12 tribes you came from. He wanted to make sure on these onyx stones, six of the tribes were listed on one and six of the tribes were listed on another. Which meant this. It represented everybody's name in Israel.

And how did he have them done? He had them done by a fine craftsman, a jeweler. It wasn't just to be sketched with a little stone or twig or put the names in there. It had to be done perfectly. Why?

Because when they were on the shoulders, God could look down from heaven. He would perfectly see all the names. When the priest would go in and minister on behalf of the people, he was ministering on behalf of everybody. A good priest ministers on behalf of who? Not just himself.

He's ministering on behalf of all of God's people. This was representative of the fact that God had all the names of his people represented. And he was carrying the covenant. He was carrying the people. He was carrying it on his shoulders.

Fast forward to the New Testament. Do we see our high priest and king carry anything on his shoulders? Yeah. He carried a cross on his shoulders and he carried it all the way out into Jerusalem until he was hung on it. And why did he do that?

Because he had you and I on his mind. He was carrying and bearing the sin for the weight of. Of the entire world. Right. This is what this is representing.

It was representing God's love for all of his people. He was having it done with excellence. He was having it done with jewelry. He was having it done with gold cords because he wanted people to know. All my people matter to me.

And that's not the last time you're going to see it. So that's how the ephod was attached. This garment that hung in front and back with these two onyx stones. Now we're going to talk about the breastpiece. Notice what he says in verse 15.

He says, you shall make a breastpiece of judgment, the work of a skillful workman. Like the work of an ephod. You shall make it of gold, of blue, of purple. Can you guess what next color is? It's scarlet.

Just see if you're paying attention. And fine twisted linen you shall make it. It shall be square and folded double, a span in length and a span and width. You shall mount it on four rows of stones. The first row shall be a row of ruby, topaz and emerald.

The second row, a row of turquoise and sapphire and a diamond. And the third row, a row of jacinth and agite and amethyst. And on the fourth row, a beryl and an onyx and a Jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. The stones shall be according to the names of the sons of Israel, 12 according to their names.

They shall be like the engravings of a seal, each according to his name for the 12 tribes. So not only are we going to have the names of all the 12 tribes on the shoulder, guess what we're going to have right on this breastplate? We're going to have 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel right over the heart of the high priest. Why? Because the high priest would carry the names of all Israel on his heart.

When Jesus Christ came, what did he carry on his heart? He carried the names of all the people. I mean, you've heard it said when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he had your name on his mind, right? He carried that. So everywhere the priest went, there was no mistake that he was ministering to God.

But who was he ministering on behalf of? He was ministering on behalf of all the people of Israel. Who was he ministering to? Who was he mediating for? He was mediating to God on behalf of all the people.

Right? That's what he was doing. And we see this. And it wasn't just, yeah, pick up some stones somewhere, make them representative. I mean, these were special jewels.

Even if you go fast forward and you read through the Book of Revelation, you see all the different stones and you see all these different things. Why, it's representative of how much God cares about his people. You say, what's my takeaway? God cares about you. God thinks about you.

God loved you so much, he sent his only son in the world to be a sacrifice for you. That's who our God is. Now, notice what he says about this in verse 20, 23 or 22. You shall make on the breast piece chains of twisted cordage, work in pure gold. You shall make on the breast piece two rings of gold.

And you shall put two rings on the two ends of the breast piece. You shall put the two cords of gold on the two rings at the end of the breast piece. You shall put the other two ends of the two cords on the two filigree settings and put them on shoulder pieces of the ephod. At the front of it, you shall make two gold rings, shall place them on the two ends of the breast piece. On the edge of it, which is toward the inner side of the ephod, you shall make two rings of gold and put them on the bottom of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod.

On the front of it, close to the place where it is joined above the skillfully woven band of the ephod. They shall bind the breastpiece and the rings of the ephod with the blue cord so that it'll be skillfully woven band of the ephod and that the breast piece will not come loose from the ephod. Now tell me this. How many of you, if that was your Bible study this morning, would read the whole thing? I mean, we just scanned like, why?

Why so many words? Tell them to put on an ephod, for heaven's sakes. Tell them to put on a breast piece with 12. Why so much detail? Because God is so detailed.

Because God cares about everybody. And God wants to make sure that the high priest knows and that the people of Israel know. When you put it on, it's going to stay there. It's going to be fastened there. It's not going anywhere.

There's a permanence to it. In the New Testament. You know what your great high priest said? That when you believe in him, no one will be able to snatch you out of his Father's hand. You know what he says?

No one will be able to snatch you out of his hand. It means when you repent by faith and believe in Jesus and you're growing with him, nobody can take you away from him. Why? Because it's permanent. His love for his people is permanent.

You can't lose his love. Is that good news or what? That's what he was foreshadowing here. That's what he was telling us about. That's why when we read this, we have to read looking back through the lens of our great high priest, through the lens of the cross, through the lens of Jesus.

Otherwise, we're going to read this and we'll say, well, I'm not very skilled at this kind of stuff, and I don't understand what a difference between an ephod and a breast piece is. And what difference is it make? You may not understand that, and chances are you may never go back and study Exodus 28 and 29 again. I get it. But I want you to see from this, how holy our God is and how much he cares about you.

That's what's important here. That's what he's showing us. Notice what he says to Aaron or to Moses about Aaron. He says in verse 29, he says, Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment over his heart. He enters the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually.

When Aaron goes in to minister, what's going to be over his heart? All the names of his people. For how long? Every single time, he ministers. Well, what's our great high priest doing today?

You remember in the book of Hebrews, when we studied the book of Hebrews? In Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 25, here's what Jesus is doing right now. It says this. Therefore he is able to save from forever those who draw near to God through Him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Do you know what Jesus Christ was doing last night when you went to bed?

He was interceding for you. You know what he was doing when you woke up and got ready to come to church this morning? He was interceding for you. Do you know what he's doing right now while you're listening to this message? He's interceding for you.

Why? Because your name's on his heart. Because he created you and he loves you. And if you don't know him, he's praying that you would repent and trust him. And if you do know him, you belong to him.

And he's praying that you'll hear him and continue to take steps of faith in your journey with him. That's our great high priest. That's what Aaron was representing. Continually bringing the names of the people on his heart before the Lord. Notice what he says in verse 30.

In verse 30, he says, you shall put in the breastpiece of judgment the Urim and the Thummim. And they shall be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. And Aaron shall carry the judgments of the sons of Israel over his heart continually. Now, Urim and Thummim mean light and perfections. That's what it means.

Nobody knows what the Urim and Thummim was. We know it gave God's judgment on things. In other words, if God was going to say, I want you to go in this war, I don't want you to go in this war. If God was going to give special revelation that he hadn't given them already, the high priest would inquire, using the Urim and the Thummim. Nobody knows what it is.

I mean, we don't know if it was just a couple stones. Did they. They light up. I mean, when I read this, I think about back when I was a kid, they had that magic eight ball and you ask it questions and shake it up, and then it would turn and be like, not necessarily so, or whatever, you know, Nobody knows. What we do know is that God allowed the high priest to use these two stones for times when they were inquiring of the Lord because they didn't know what to do.

Now you might say, where do I find those? Here's where. How many have been in a situation this week where you just don't know what to do? Right. One of you.

That's great.

You felt lonely when you raised your hand, didn't you? The good news is we have a great high priest that we can go to when something is not directly written in the Bible. Marry this person and it gives them their name, or take this job and it gives the name of the company. Where do we go? We can inquire of the Lord and God through his word through another person that can come alongside.

Through wisdom, through revelation, through. Through speaking to your spirit can give you the confidence to take the step or not take the step. We have a great high priest. We don't need the Urim and the Thummim anymore. You'll read about in the Old Testament with Samuel and others that are inquiring of the Lord and the high priest is the one that's going before the Lord.

Why? Because it's what God says that's important and not what the world says today. Nothing has changed. We go through Jesus as our great mediator when we're trying to get answers to things that aren't directly spelled out in scripture. So he can tell us, yeah, do that.

Stop that, do that. But do it a little bit differently. All those things that we're growing in, we have Jesus Christ. But in the Old Testament times, they would go to the great high priest. They would say, we don't know what to do as a nation.

We don't know where to go. God hasn't been specific on this. Tell us. And he would use that Urim and the Thummim to do that. Verse 31 says, you shall make the robe.

Now we're getting into the robe. We shall make this robe of the Ephod, all of blue, make the robe of Deity. Isn't it great? When you fast forward to the New Testament, what are we Robed in. We are robed in the righteousness of Christ.

We are robed in Christ's deity, not because of any good thing that we've done, but because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. We don't see the blue robe, but if you trust it in the blood of Jesus, you have that blue robe on you. It says there shall be an opening at its top, and in the middle of it, around its opening, there should be a binding of woven work, like the opening of a coat of mail, so that it will not be torn. It needs to be protected. You shall make on its hem pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet material all around its hem and bells of gold between them all around a golden bell and a pomegranate.

A golden bell and a pomegranate all around the hem of the robe. It shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its tinkling shall be heard when he enters and leaves the holy place before the Lord. Notice this so that he will not die. You say, why do you have pomegranates and bells on? Well, pomegranates represented fruitfulness or God's abundance for some reason.

You can ask God, when you get to heaven, why did you have him put pomegranates on it? And God will tell you, right? But it represented God's faithfulness, his fruitfulness, his abundance. But the bells were to represent the fact that we knew where the high priest was ministering. Now, did God.

I mean, God's holy presence is so holy, you can't be cavalier about just cruising in. So there were bells on the high priest so that when he went in, I mean, the tinkling sound of the bells would know. I let God know I'm approaching. Now, question for you. Did God need to hear the bells to know that the high priest was approaching?

No, it was symbolic of how holy he was and what was necessary for him to get in. Also, if the high priest approached in a manner that was unworthy and died while he was there, people would know, I'm not hearing any bells. We better pull them out. He's dead, right? God gave him bells because he said, my presence is so holy, you can't just cavalier walk in it.

You can't just come into my presence. There has to be atonement for sin. You can't just come. I got to know you're coming. There's a way in, and the way in is my way.

Now, here's the problem. We live in a culture where People make up gods in their own image all the time. And here's what they'll say. Your God's so exclusive, he's so mean. He's so all these things.

My God would let anybody come in. That's because your God is no God at all, because he's not holy. The God of the Bible is so holy and so righteous and so good. The only access we have is through our great high priest, Jesus Christ. There is no other way to God except through Jesus.

So all of these things on the robe were reminders of, and foreshadowing too, how holy our God is. Friends, listen. Jesus said in John 15, I have called you friends. If you've repented and trusted in the Lord, you are his friend. Make no mistake about that.

But also make no mistake about the fact that your friend is the holy God of the universe and he needs to be approached as such. Because I find sometimes we get so cavalier and, well, I know I'm forgiven anyway. Well, it's no big deal. Well, it's no big deal. It's such a big deal that priests would give their life if they didn't approach correctly.

It was such a big deal that Jesus Christ had to give his life so that we could approach. So when we approach God, we should never be cavalier about it. A price has been paid with blood so that we can approach the holiness of God. And that's what the robe was representing. That's what the pomegranates and the bells were representing.

Verse 36. He's going to talk about what's going to go on this turban. Now he says, you shall also make a plate of pure gold and shall engrave on it like the engravings of a seal, holy to the Lord. You shall fasten it on a blue cord and it shall be on the turban. It shall be at the front of the turban.

It shall be on Aaron's forehead. And Aaron shall take away the iniquity of the holy things which the sons of Israel consecrate with regard to their holy gifts. And it shall always be on his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. What's God going to have? He's going to have this gold bar on his turban.

Holy unto the Lord. Holy to the Lord. Why? Because sin is so pervasive. The Bible says even our best works are like filthy rags.

Even if you say, man, this week I killed it for Jesus, I was awesome this week you're still sick in your sin. And, yeah, you're A saint. And yeah, God sees you as righteous and he sees you as good. But on our own, we're never going to arrive there. And we need to be reminded that God is holy.

And so when the high priest ministered, he always had that bar of gold right on his forehead as a reminder to him, holy is the God that I'm serving. What do we need? You need a reminder written on your forehead, too. Now, you don't need to write it, you can just remember it. But that everywhere you go, the thoughts that you think and the things that you look at and how you operate your hands and what you taste and touch.

Holy unto the Lord, our God is holy. He's righteous, he's good. He's different than me. His expectations are higher than what I can bring. And while I don't deserve to be in his presence, thank you, Jesus, for making the way for me to be in.

And I want to honor you as holy. That's what he was saying. That was the point of the turban or the hat that he was wearing. He says, you shall fasten it, etc. Verse 39 says, you shall weave the tunic of checkered work of fine linen, and shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash, the work of a weaver.

Tunic's just a loose garment. It was like a short coat that reached down to your knees. He says, for Aaron's son, you shall make the tunic. You shall also make sashes for them, and you shall make caps for them. For glory and for beauty.

All of this stuff that God is doing is for glory and beauty. For who? It's not so that the priest would flaunt his clothing and say, look at me. Glorious and beautiful. God was dressing him in such a way so that the people would know that our God is glorious and our God is beautiful.

Right? It wasn't to draw attention to the high priest. It was to draw attention to our great God. Do you see that? That's what he told him to do.

He even goes so far as to tell him how he should dress in his undergarments. Notice this verse 42. You shall make them linen breeches to cover their bare flesh, that they shall reach from the loins even to the thighs. They shall be on Aaron and his sons when they enter the tent of meeting or when they approach the altar to minister in the holy place, so that they do not incur guilt and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and to his descendants after him.

God is saying, hey, I'm Holy. I'm righteous. I'm good. You need to dress in a pure fashion. The only thing that you will see bare in this entire section are the feet of the priests.

Everything else is covered. And the reason the feet stay bare is why? Because they're standing on holy ground. That's it. So he's telling them from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet, including their undergarments, here's how you need to come before me.

Why? Because everything needs to be covered correctly. Everything needs to reflect my glory. When Jesus Christ came, did he wear a turban? He wore a crown of thorns on his head.

When Jesus Christ came, he was covered all over, but he was covered in scars and he was covered in bruises. And the great high priest was sacrificed on a cross so that three days later, he could get up out of the dead and he could minister and be our mediator, the one true God of the universe. That's what these clothings represent. That's what these colors represent. It was that one day the Messiah is coming.

There'll be no more need for a high priest. Because what Jesus Christ did on the cross, he just did everything that the high priest was modeling for the nation. Jesus Christ accomplished once and for all. Amen. And this is what we see here.

And we see how Jesus Christ is our representative. He demonstrates God's heart. He demonstrates God's direction. We know through Christ how God feels about the world. We know through Christ how He loves the world.

And he demonstrated that by dying on the cross. We know direction from Jesus by reading his word of what he expects from us. And that's what he wanted us to see today, that we're his ambassadors, we're his representatives, as though Jesus were making his appeal through us. And because Jesus is our great high priest, we're representatives of Him. Why?

Because in the New Testament, we don't have the temple anymore. We don't have the tabernacle anymore. What do we have? If you've trusted Christ, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He's the one ministering all these things through you.

And if you're listening to this today, say, thank goodness I don't have to live like that. I don't have to be that kind of holy priest, set apart and all these kind of things. No, you do. Because this is what Jesus Christ modeled for you and represented for you. Amen.

Jesus Christ is our minister. He's our mediator. We see his heart, we see his direction. As we get into chapter 29, notice this God chose priests to be consecrated servants without any distractions. God chose his priests to be consecrated servants without any distractions.

It means he wanted them solo focused on him. Notice chapter 29, verse 1. Now this is what the Lord shall do to them to consecrate them to minister as priests to me. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread and unleavened cakes with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and you shall make them with wheat flour. You shall put them in one basket and you shall present the basket along with the bull and two rams.

You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and you shall wash them with water. In other words, before they put on the garments ceremonially, they need to be clean. Clean too. I mean, we're going through this ritual to demonstrate how pure you need to be to be in the presence of God. Verse 5.

You shall then take the garments and put on. And put on Aaron the tunic and the robe of the Ephod and the Ephod and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. And you shall set a turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Now, what is this anointing oil for?

This anointing oil is how God's going to have the minister. In the Old Testament, the oil oftentimes represents the Holy Spirit and his ministry. And we know that the Holy Spirit's ministry is to magnify the resurrected Christ. This oil is a symbol of pouring this over this minister's life so that he magnifies the resurrected Christ. Even better.

Verse 8. You shall bring his sons and put tunics on them. You shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them. And they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. And you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.

What does God want? Consecrated servants to God without any distraction. Consecrated means to be set apart. It means to be holy. It means to be unlike any other.

And you might say, well, praise God, I'm not called to the ministry. Well, let me tell you what the New Testament tells you.

In Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, it says, Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Living sacrifice seems like an Oxymoron, right? If you're a sacrifice, you're dead. All sacrifices die. He says, be a living sacrifice.

What does that mean? That means when you come to Christ, you die to you and you allow Christ to live through you. So you've made a choice to die. That's why Paul says, I've already been crucified with Christ. No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

For me to live is Christ. To die is gain. I've already died as a Christian spiritually. Because you are dead in your sins. When you trust Christ, you've already died to sin.

And you've been raised to life with Christ. You've been seated in the heavenly places. And what does God want from you? He wants your life to reflect him wholeheartedly. Whether you're called to serve in a local church or outside the local church, there are myriads of occupations that you can serve and give God glory.

24, 7 myriads. It just means in whatever your occupation is or whatever your season of life is that you're in, that you may only be in for a couple months or a couple years in that season. How do you glorify God with everything you have right now? And if you were to say, I can't glorify God in the job I'm doing right now, here's what God would tell you. Then quit your job and go find one that you can.

Because God wants your whole service. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added. God wants your wholehearted allegiance. In the same way priests, high priests and priests were ordained in the Old Testament to be set apart completely for God. That's what he's calling us to be.

The high priest didn't have, well, you know, Saturdays, I'll go into the tabernacle, I'll go into the temple, I'll serve God. But, you know, Monday through Friday I'm going to be a football coach. Or Monday through Friday I'm going to do some paralegal work. No, you're set apart to do this. What are you set apart to do?

You're set apart for the gospel of God. You're set apart to share the good news. You're set apart to go into all the world and teach the gospel. That's what you're set apart to do. And you can do it in a myriad of settings.

It doesn't mean that you're called to church in the sense of taking a paycheck from the church, but all of us are called to Christ himself. And all of us are in the body of Christ, and all of us are called to serve him to the full. Amen. That's what he was telling us. And as he goes back and he starts highlighting what this looks like in chapter 29, he starts showing this is what a big deal it is.

He's going to talk about a bull and two rams that they're going to need. And this would be the part that you would skip over. So we're going to go through it fast. Okay? Now notice what he's going to say.

He says, then you shall bring the bull before the tent of Meeting. And Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. By laying their hands on the head of the bull, they're symbolically transferring their sin to that bull. You shall slaughter the bull before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of Meeting. You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar.

You shall take all the fat that covers the entrails and, and the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and offer them up and smoke on the altar. But the flesh of the bull and its hide and its refuse you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering. You shall also take one Ram, and Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, again symbolically transferring sin. And you shall slaughter the ram and shall take all its blood and sprinkle it around the altar.

Then you shall cut the ram into pieces and wash its entrails and legs and put them with its pieces and its head. You shall offer up in smoke the whole Ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a soothing aroma in offering by fire to the Lord. Then you shall take the other ram.

This is the second Ram. And Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of that ram. You shall slaughter the ram and take some of the blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the lobe of his son's right ear and on the thumbs of his right hand and on the big toes of their right feet and sprinkle the rest of the blood around the altar. Then you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments and on his sons and on his son's garments with him, so that he and his garments shall be consecrated as well, with his son's garments with him. Take a deep breath.

Excited about that? Now think about this for a second. Why does God tell Moses to go into all this grand detail? We've lost a bull and two rams in those verses. What would that have been like?

I mean, if we were going to reenact that sacrifice here this morning, what would that have looked like? I mean, you bring a bull up here and have to slaughter it, how long is that going to take? What kind of sounds are you going to hear? How much blood is going to be spilled? How are you going to get all that stuff out of the bull and sacrifice this out outside the camp and burn all this?

And then we're going to do the same with the ram. And then we're going to do it again with the ram. And oh, by the way, if you were the one who was the seamstress for all the garments or the tailor that put them all together, what you're going to notice when they're done is then they're going to take a bunch of that blood after putting it on the altar and on the right thumb and on the right big toe. And what are they going to do? They're going to take that and anointing oil and take all the blood and all the oil and throw it all over the garments that you just spent all that time doing.

How would you feel about that? Now, why does God go into all this detail? Because without the shedding of blood, no one can approach God. And shedding of blood is serious business. And sin atonement was a big business.

And if you lived in Israel at the time of the tabernacle, what you would have smelled all day long in the center of the nation is burning of animal flesh all day long, every day, which was soothing the Lord, saying, these people are taking serious their sin, and. And these people are sacrificing to me. And these people recognize the need for blood, and they recognize there's no other way to come to me except through the blood. And that's what you would have smelled all day long. And to think about being a priest wasn't just an academic exercise.

You had to slaughter animals, you had to burn animals, you had to field dress animals. I mean, some of you guys are hunters. You like to do all that and go out and field dress and you'll tell me, pastor Jeff, I was field dressing a deer and all that. Good for you. I went to the avs Game.

It was more fun. But do you see how long it would take? I mean, it would take a long time. Why? Because sin is so pervasive in our life.

And God wanted Israel to know sin is hindering your relationship with me. Moses, tell the people how great a big deal it is that blood has to cover their sin. And if you would have seen the millions and billions of animals that were sacrificed before Jesus and the gallons and oceans of blood that were spilled to cover sin, then you would understand when Jesus Christ went to the cross and shed his blood once and for all, what an awesome sacrifice that was. Amen. And that anybody that understood the holiness of God and anybody that recognized their sin would find a pathway through Jesus Christ into that holiness of God.

Because there is no other way to approach the holiness of God except through Jesus. And for those of you that are here today that say, well, I don't know that I believe that, I think I'll be fine when you're dead, you will know that you were wrong for all eternity. And I'm persuading you, and I am warning you because I love you and because God loves you to repent of your sin and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Because you do not want to stand before the holiness of God without your sin being cleansed. Amen.

And if you haven't done that, do it right now, right where you're sitting. Tell God I'm sorry for my sin and I need you, Jesus, as my covering. I need you to cleanse me from my sin. And he will wash you clean right now. Notice what he says.

He's going to go on. Verse 22. You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them and the right thigh. For it is a ram of ordination and a cake of bread, and one cake of bread mixed with oil and one wafer from the basket of the unleavened bread which is set before the Lord. And and you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his Son, and shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord.

You shall take them from their hands and offer them up in smoke on the altar, on the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before the Lord. It is an offering by fire to the Lord. Then you shall take the breast of Aaron's ram for ordination and wave it as a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion and you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering which was waved and which was offered from the ram of ordination, from the one which was for Aaron and from the one which was for his sons. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and their portion forever from the sons of Israel. For it is a heave offering and it shall be a heave offering from the sons of Israel, from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their heave offering to the Lord.

Now what is all this? I mean, now they're going to take this offering and there's a methodology for how they're going to wave it before the Lord to show you're my provider. And a heave offering where they're going to lift it up and down saying you're the one that's brought me peace. Why go through all these motions? Because they're demonstrating something on the outside to show what God wants to do for them as a nation.

Great detail in how God is displaying. Here's how I want my worship done. And friends, this is just for ordination. I mean, that's why when we fast forward in chapters two of Aaron's sons are going to die because they were in the tabernacle playing with strange fire, they were goofing around. And God's holy and he doesn't like his holiness being taken for granted.

That's why when David brought the ark back to Jerusalem and it was going to tip and Uzzah reached out and touched it, he wasn't of the right tribe. He shouldn't have been carting it on a wheel anyway. And he died immediately. And we're like, oh, what a mean God. No, what a holy God.

People in our culture ask the wrong question. They ask this question, how could a loving God send people to hell? Well, your made up loving God wouldn't. Here's the bigger question. How could the holy God of the Bible ever welcome even one person into his presence?

And here's his answer, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And that's the only way. And you better come through him. That's why he's going in great detail to understand so that Israel will know there's only one way to me and I'm holy and you're not. And this is the way that we can relate to one another.

Verse 29. The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, that in them they may be anointed and even ordained for seven days. The one of his sons who is a priest in his stead shall put them on when he enters the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place. So this ordination was going to last seven days. If it wasn't Aaron that was going to be in there that day, whatever son was had to wear the same clothing, had to be covered in the same blood.

They had to go through the same ritual and routine. Why? Because God has a specific way that he wants to be approached. But God also provides for those that serve him. Notice what he says in verse 31.

You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of a ram and the bread that is in the basket at the doorway of the tent of meeting. They shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration. But a layman shall not eat them because they are holy. If any of the flesh of the ordination or any of the bread remains until morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire.

It shall not be eaten because it is holy. Thus you shall do to Aaron and his sons according to all that I've commanded you. You shall ordain them through seven days. Each of you shall offer a bull and a sin offering for atonement. And you shall purify the altar when you make atonement for it.

And you shall anoint it and consecrate it for seven days. You shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy. Do you see how holy our God is? I mean, if I were Moses, I would think.

Man, I'm Cliff. Note this. I mean, there's a couple points here we need to make. I mean, Moses is going to go back. He's going to spell all of this out for the people.

And anytime there's an ordination, this is what's going to go on. And this bull needs to be sacrificed. And these two rams need to be sacrificed, and they need to be sacrificed in this way. And your clothing needs to be covered with blood and with oil. And don't worry, God is your provider.

He's going to provide you with the meat that you need. He's going to provide you with the bread that you need. He'll take care of all of that. If you're going to serve him, he'll take care of you. What's the translation for today?

If you serve God with everything you have, he'll take care of you. If you give God your best, he will take care of you. If you consecrate yourself unto the Lord, he will take care of you. Even when you say, well, if I do that, how's this going to work out? He will take care of you.

His job is to take care of you. Your job is to worship him and tell other people about our King Jesus. Amen. That's what he's trying to show us now. Here we see in Jesus life.

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan to identify himself with his father. He then went out and was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. And then he came back as an anointed servant of the Lord as the Holy Spirit descended upon him after his baptism. And he went out and did what? Everything that we've been talking about.

He ministered to the people. He mediated to the people. He was the one who was with the people. He was a representative of God's heart and God's direction. He told people how God felt about every different thing.

He directed the people. He was a consecrated servant that didn't have any other distractions. Many of us in our life have so many distractions that even though we'd say we love God. We're way too busy to love God. We're way too busy to give God our best.

I'm a sinner, just like you. I love the Lord. And there's times in my life where I still get busy doing things that are meaningless, that don't give God my best. And I remember when God was calling me to ministry to serve him as a pastor and a preacher, that I would think I don't want to do. I mean, I'll do that on the side.

I'll preach, I'll teach. But here's what I want my life to be. And I want you to bless that God. Because I had that false lie in my head that if I go all in with God this way, I'm not going to be happy on the inside. Maybe I won't be provided for.

Maybe I won't enjoy this. Here's the truth. Whatever God prompts you to do, whenever God prompts you to do it, if you walk in obedience, he always provides, he always protects, and he's always there ministering, showing you what the next step looks like. And the greatest joy you can ever experience in your life is living in full obedience and full surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. Regardless of what your vocation or lot in life is, regardless of what your socioeconomic background looks like, regardless of what nation you're in, regardless if you're a Male or a female, whatever you are in Christ, God wants you to be the fullness of that by putting Jesus Christ first.

Amen. Now here's where we're going to get to the final point as we wrap up these verses. You guys have done great. I mean, we're doing like 89 verses today or something like that. Here's what you see here, finally, is that God chose priests to be models for sin's atonement and for God's presence.

The high priest was a model for what sin's atonement looked like and for God's presence. Notice verse 38. Now this is what you shall offer on the altar when you're going to make an offering. Two one year old lambs. Each day continuously.

There shall be one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. And there shall be 1/10 of an ephah of fine flour mixed with 1/4 of a hint of beaten oil and 1/4 of a hin of wine. A drink offering with one lamb. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, what did he say? Behold the Lamb of God.

That does what? Takes away the sin of the world. Until Jesus came, a lamb was offered in the morning and a lamb was offered at night. When Jesus Christ came, he was the Lamb of God that was offered at twilight. This is foreshadowing to what Christ would do once and for all.

There would be no longer a need to sacrifice a lamb every morning and every night. Because the Passover lamb, the true Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, would give his life and shed his blood once and for all, for all the people. First John 4:10 says, this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice or a propitiation for our sin. Then he says this.

He says, it shall be a continual burnt offering throughout all generations at the doorway of the Tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you and speak to you there. Say man, I'd love to have the Lord meet me and speak with me. Guess what? Through our great High Priest, he'll still meet with you and speak with you. That's what he does.

Through his atonement, we can experience God's presence. God speaks through his living and active word, all 66 books that make up this Bible. He speaks through it. Sometimes he speaks through other believers. Sometimes he speaks through our circumstance.

Sometimes he speaks subjectively to our heart and lets us know what it aligns with the Word. That's what we know. Notice what he says, next, it will be there with the sons of Israel. I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by my glory. I will consecrate the tents of meeting and the altar.

I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to me. I will dwell among the sons of Israel and be their God. They shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Now, if you are with me today and you are like man, what the heck was that about today?

You know, I came into church today and I have burdens. I have burdens as a single person. I wonder where my spouse is and how come God is not providing. I came in as a married person today and my marriage is really having a tough time. I came in because one of my children is wayward.

I came in because we are having a financial crisis. I came in today because things aren't going very well in my life and relationships are blowing up. And I came in in hopes that you would tell me something that would help me. I just did. I just told you that our holy God, who is completely unapproachable, who is a consuming fire, loved you so much and had your name on his heart that he sent Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of everything that you would ever need.

He died on the cross for your sins. He rose from the dead. Through repentance of your sin and faith in Jesus, you have pure access to God, full access to God, where you can come freely and boldly before the throne of grace. You can ask him anything you want, and he will meet with you. Amen.

That's what this text is about. That's what our God does. So at the end of the day, you might not be able to draw a picture of priestly garments, and you might not remember all the pieces that are there. And that doesn't matter. What matters is, you know, the one who represented those pieces, the Lord Jesus Christ who came and carried the burden for you.

The one that it says about in 2nd Corinthians 5:21, that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There are two things you need to remember today. The first is one we oft forget. Our God is holy. You can't come near Him.

You can't approach Him. You can't see God or you would die. He's that holy. Nobody can come to Him. You also need to remember this, that our God is so loving and so kind and so merciful that he made a way for you to have direct access to Him.

But you need to know the only access is Jesus. Jesus, the Holy One of God, who laid down his life and rose from the dead is how you who are sin stained not only need to get covered in the blood, but you can be completely cleansed by his blood. And there's a permanence to that. That high priest says that no one can snatch you out of his hand. He'll be with you forever.

So here's my question. Do you know that great High Priest? Do you know the one who came and fulfilled God's covenant by dying on the cross for you and rising from the dead, dead? Do you know today, do you have 100% certainty that if you were to die today and you were standing before that holy God, that he would welcome you with open arms because of the shed blood of Jesus? If not, why don't you make that your time right now?

I didn't ask you to get religion. I didn't ask you to join a church. I didn't even ask you for a good person. I ask you if you've ever crossed over from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. And if you haven't, we want to give you an opportunity to do that today.

And if you have, would you just pray and remind yourself of how awesome and wonderful and kind and good our holy God is to each and every one of you. Would you stand with me as we pray? Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And Lord, we look on these two chapters in Exodus that will never have to directly apply because the ceremonial law is not good for us anymore. Because you, you fulfilled all of it.

And yet, Lord, your holiness doesn't change, but your access does. And we now have access to Jesus. If you're here today and you've never had access to God or you've been trying to find your own way, and you realize today Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, here's how you can pray. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I know you're God and holy, right now I want to turn from my sin and repent of it. And, and I want to trust you as my personal Lord and Savior.

Come into my life and save me and give me access in relationship with you. Father, if we're here today and we know you here's how we pray. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for letting us live in this dispensation where we don't have to continually offer sacrifices every day. Because once for all, you made that sacrifice.

We give you glory, honor and praise because you and you alone are the One Holy One. We honor you, we praise you, and we bless.