Exodus chapter 28, though, is where I would
like to ask you to turn.
And I want to look at our great
high priest, the one who goes into the
holy place for us, the one who takes
us in before him, as his great work
of atonement is accomplished.
But here, Exodus chapter 28, I'll read out
of there.
Hear the Lord speaking to Moses, giving him
instructions on the ministry going on within the
tabernacle, and here specifically of the ministry of
the great high priest.
And 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,
Behu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.
And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron
thy brother, for glory and for beauty.
And thou shalt speak unto all that are
wise hearted, whom I have filled with the
spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's
garments to consecrate him, that he may minister
unto me in the priest's office.
And these are the garments which thou shalt
make, a breastplate, and an ephod, a robe,
and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a
girdle.
They shall make holy garments for Aaron thy
brother and his sons, that he may minister
unto me in the priest's office.
And they shall take gold, and blue, and
purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.
They shall make the ephod of gold, and
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined
linen with cunning work.
And it shall have the two shoulder pieces
thereof joined at the two edges thereof, and
so shall it be joined together.
And the curious girdle of the ephod which
is upon it shall be of the same
according to the work thereof, even of the
gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, and
fine twined linen.
Thou shalt take two onyx stones, and engrave
on them the names of the children of
Israel.
Six of their names on one stone, and
the other six names on the rest on
the other stone, according to their birth.
With the work of an engraver and stone,
like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou
engrave the two stones with the names of
the children of Israel, and thou shalt make
them to be set in pouches of gold.
We'll hold it there and catch up with
it here.
One of the things that I heard, I
believe it was way back in Bible school
many years ago, but a wonderful little phrase
about the Bible, that the new is in
the old contained, and the old is in
the new explained.
And it's really quite true.
In one sense, there's not an awfully lot
that is new in the New Testament.
Much of what is in the New Testament
is already contained in the Old Testament.
Some of the New Testament really merely records
for us that so many things that were
prophesied and laid out in the Old Testament
did happen.
Hold keeps the record straight.
And so there isn't an awfully lot new
in the New Testament.
And so in one sense, you can say
the new is in the old contained, but
also the old is in the new explained.
That is, there's many wonderful pictures, types, symbols
in the Old Testament that gain their understanding
in the new.
The writer of Hebrews says, God who at
sundry times in diverse manners spake unto us
by his prophets, now hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son.
But here the writer tells us that at
different times in different ways, it was all
God speaking there by his prophets.
But now all that the prophets were really
speaking of, where it's finally fulfilled in Christ,
he's now his son has come to make
it quite clear.
That's why Jesus, of course, later on in
the Sermon on the Mount, as we are
usually going through, he tells him, think not
that I've come to destroy the law of
the prophets.
He says, far from it.
There won't be one jot or one tittle
that I won't fulfill.
And there as far as Jesus is the
fulfillment of the Old Testament.
Jesus once, of course, told the Pharisees, he
said, you know, you search the scriptures for
in them you think you have eternal life,
but they are they that speak of me.
The Old Testament, it's all about Christ.
It's all pointing to him.
And many times when we look at it
in the Old Testament, we don't quite understand
it as well as when we have the
New Testament to look at those two together.
Whether it is, of course, the Passover lamb,
which is perhaps the central and perhaps one
of the greatest types of Christ in all
the Bible, that there are these hundreds of
thousands and indeed millions upon millions, tens of
millions of animals, of lambs sacrificed year in
and year out at the Passover.
And yet finally there is John the Baptist
when he looked upon Jesus, his first words,
behold, the lamb of God that takes away
the sins of the world.
Man had presented his lambs by the millions,
but now all of those were merely pointing
towards the lamb that one day would come.
We know that whether that the children of
Israel, whether, you know, the rock from which
they drank, we're told in first Corinthians five,
that it was Christ.
It was all about Christ.
He was the he's the water of life.
He is the bread of life.
He is the man of there is so
many things that he fulfills that are so
beautiful.
And I suppose one of the most remarkable
and wonderful things that we have of all
is the high priest of which, of course,
is one of the greatest pictures to me
of Jesus and his glory and his ministry,
I suppose, in all of the Old Testament.
And we know, of course, now as we
pick up the New Testament, the writer of
Hebrews tells us in Hebrews three, one, it
says, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider they're the apostle and high priest
of our calling, Christ Jesus.
He said there when we are now looking
at Jesus, we are looking at the high
priest and hear the high priest in the
Old Testament.
He was merely a type and a symbol
of the great high priest that would one
day come.
We know from Hebrews four, 14 says, Therefore,
it's a scene then that we have a
great high priest that is passed into the
heavens.
Jesus, the son of God.
Here he tells us that our great high
priest is not merely one that was, but
he is a high priest right now.
This very moment he is passed into the
heavens.
And perhaps one of the most wonderful pictures
is the book of Revelation tells us there
of the tabernacle that is right now in
heaven and that there it sits.
It is merely the way it's a picture
in the Old Testament.
We're looking at that tabernacle there of the
real tabernacle that is in heaven, that when
here we have Aaron dressed up in all
of these robes and so beautifully standing out
there and all of human glory that you
try to put together, it is something there
that is to speak of the heavenly glory
and of the ultimate high priest doing his
work in heaven.
Jesus for us in Hebrews 9, 11, it
says, But Christ being become a high priest
of good things to come by a greater
and a more perfect tabernacle not made with
hands, that is to say, not this building
here.
He says that right now Christ is it
is as a high priest in the heavens
in a heavenly real tabernacle.
And so when we're looking here at Hebrews
or pardon me, at Exodus 28 with the
wonderful thing is now we can look at
it and realize it's all about Christ.
It's all about Jesus Christ.
When we are looking at it at him
and we're looking at this, everything that we
see of it in there to be able
to realize it is a portrayal in one
way or another of our Lord reveals something
of him.
And so we're not stealing or changing or
messing with it at all than when we're
merely wanting to see all we can of
Jesus.
And so here when we're looking here at
the high priest and we see these garments,
as God speaks to Moses, these are going
to be garments for Aaron and for his
sons.
And he says there that they are to
have a glory about them.
And I suppose there's a couple aspects of
the glory.
There's a natural glory, but there's also a
spiritual glory, I think, as we'll see as
we get into it.
First of all, there's a natural glory in
the sense that they were made of the
costliest and the most beautiful of materials, gold,
blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen.
Here, these were all of these things were
of the greatest and the most beautiful of
all materials.
The blue and the purple and the scarlet
were colors essentially usually set aside for royalty.
And if you are aware, you probably know
that back in the Old Testament time, the
deepest and the richest and the most beautiful
of dyes were also very costly.
That just to have an outfit of a
natural color was, you know, just taken of
the wool or of something that they would
make it of, of the fabric was no
great expense.
But to come up with the richest and
the deepest of dyes like purple and blue
and scarlet, these were extremely extravagant.
Uh, processes, very costly.
We go buy an outfit and the color
isn't fit into the price very much, but
it certainly did then.
And the, the deepest and the richest, that's
why they were, they themselves were set aside
for royalty and very beautiful, very expensive.
And also notice that there's a sense there's
no expense of labor or of riches there
to make these.
And of course, the reason now we know
is here, God is making these unbelievably beautiful
garments as we'll see, as we look at
them.
There are ones that they're simply speaking of
Christ, but now to look at them a
little closer here in verse six, it says,
and they shall make an ephod of gold,
of blue, of purple, of scarlet and fine
twined linen with cunning work.
And it shall have two shoulder pieces thereof
joined at the two edges thereof.
And so shall it be joined together.
The curious girdle of the ephod, which is
upon it, shall be the same according to
the work thereof, even of the gold, blue
and purple and scarlet and fine, uh, twined
linen.
But here we have, once again, these materials,
the richest and the deepest there that go
into the ephod is it is first of
all given to us, but then as this,
this, this first garment is made, it is
a, a covering essentially there that covered Aaron
from head to foot, a single piece there
of a garment joined together, uh, there with
the edges there of it is joined, uh,
there for him.
But essentially as his head would kind of
come through it, it was essentially like a
robe that covered him entirely.
Here, Aaron, of course, uh, being a human
being representative there of our Lord, he had
to therefore be covered essentially, you might say,
and hidden entirely that when he went before
God, it wasn't Aaron, it was there a
picture of our great high priest and all
the royalty and all the beauty and all
the wealth and all the preciousness of Jesus
Christ as he went in.
And I suppose, again, that when you would
stop to look at the high priest, uh,
there are the real high priest, Jesus, obviously
we have got to be looking at the
costliest of all materials there have ever been.
Who could even begin to, to dream of
telling a price for him?
How could you begin to put a price
on his redemptive love for you and me?
How could you begin to put a price
on his sacrificial act, you know, of offering
up his life for us?
How could you begin to put a price
on the, on the fine twined linen of
his spotless obedience?
Here's something there is even the of linen
again, an extremely precious fabric, and particularly if
it was fine twine linen, there's something where
it absolutely perfect.
And, you know, many of their fabrics, uh,
you know, they'd have all sorts of inconsistencies.
The, the wool would be thick and thin
and all sorts of things.
Even as in many of our garments still
sometimes, but linen, particularly a fine twined linen,
absolutely perfect.
Absolutely consistent.
You could look at it and just see
that the magnificence of it.
And here, when you were, again, we're looking
at Christ, we're looking at one that you
can't even begin to guess the price, how
would he have all the things that you
would ever put a price on and all
the world of all the things, what could
ever become near to the story of our
redemption, the story of God's love for you,
of his sacrifice of his life for you,
of his promise to come and gather you
together unto himself, to take him home, to
take you home, to be with him forever,
and there one day to wake up in
his likeness, to be conformed into his image
and to share his life forever.
How could you guess the price?
It's priceless.
It's beyond anything.
Notice as well of the ephod that it
was something there as were all of the
garments, but they essentially, they were, they were
spiritually made, made by God's spirit for it
says in verse three, and thou shalt speak
unto all that are wise hard to do
my filled with the spirit of wisdom, that
they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him,
that he may minister unto me in the
priest's office.
But notice here that the, each one of
these people actually making these garments is as
good as they may normally be at their
craft, as good as they may be working
with stones and polishing the stones and as
wonderful as they may be working with gold
and as talented as they may be at,
you know, at weaving the fabrics and making
the linens and dying the, uh, the fabrics
or at sewing and putting things together, we
are told here about this specific garment that
the endowed them with wisdom, the craft there
to do it.
All the skill of heaven is gone into
making this garment.
And of course, when you stop and realize
here is those that have the spirit of
wisdom again, what a wonderful picture.
I think as we stop and we're looking
again at Jesus, the spirit of wisdom going
in there to making the great or making
the high priest, because there's never been a
wiser act, I suppose, a greater act, a
greater proof of wisdom than has gone once
again into our great high priest.
Sit there and realize that when you and
I are looking at Jesus Christ, we are
looking at the wisdom of God.
As the Bible says, Christ was the power
and the wisdom of God.
And to think here, a holy God, a
pure God who could not so much as
look upon sin.
And yet there he loved fallen man, sinful
to the core, hopelessly lost.
How do you take a holy God and
not infringe for a moment on his holiness
and yet allow his love to capture and
redeem and to restore the hearts of his
loss back to himself?
And yet there, when you're looking at Jesus
Christ, you are realizing all the wisdom of
the ages has gone into this wonderful ministry
of our high priest, who he is, on
how we can come and love and approach
sinful men, all of our weaknesses, all of
our inconsistencies, all of our wretchedness.
And yet there, when you look at him,
you realize that that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself, the Bible says.
The wonderful thing is we see this high
priest, what wisdom.
No wonder the angels, Peter tells us in
the new Testament, the angels love to just
sit in heaven and they literally watched the
unfolding drama of redemption.
Is there the angels looked and watched?
How is God going to do this?
Even themselves couldn't understand that there was such
wisdom that was to be revealed that, that
the angels themselves would see, but yet they
did notice as well that this garment essentially
has already said it covered the, the priest
completely.
And once again, we're speaking of Jesus in
a sense there that what Jesus is, what
he was, what he will be, he, you
know, he, he is completely always totally.
There's no shadow of turning in him.
What he is, he just is thoroughly, totally
the high, the ministry of being a high
priest is something when you pick up your
Bible and you begin to look at it,
you realize that this role covered Jesus from
eternity past all the way into the incarnation.
It covered him from cradle to cross, to
an empty tomb, to the ascension.
And now he ever lives to make intercession
for us.
He has no other service.
He has no other ministry.
In a sense, you might say it entirely
is overtaking him.
What Jesus is, he's a high priest and
he's it from cover to core.
He's it thoroughly, totally, completely.
He's entirely covered in it.
When you watch and you realize his life
day in and day out, every day that's
recorded for us, you watch the high priest
wake up and go out to minister, love,
restore, redeem, encourage, fill, draw people to himself
unendingly so.
And you know, that's the wonderful thing is
the Bible tells us one day he'll take
us in his glorious image and we'll awaken
his likeness.
His, when his ministry of being high priest
is done, when it is at his fullest
point, every one of us will awaken his
likeness.
I remember years ago, my mother, she'd say,
I don't know why she said it, but
I can remember her saying at times, you
know, maybe there's something that would happen.
And she'd say, boy, I'd love to be
a fly on the wall for that one,
whatever it was.
And, uh, and I, you know, that's when
you're, you go to bed at night and
you look at your brothers and say, Hey,
something's wrong with mom.
She wants to be a fly on a
wall.
That's not much to look forward to.
But, uh, you know, I think a lot
of us, we actually, even when you think
of heaven, many of us, we'd be willing
just to be a fly on the wall.
If I could just go, if I could
just be there to wake up in heaven,
I just, just to know I can go
and be there.
I don't, I'm just a fly on a
wall, but let me tell you, Jesus will
have none of that.
He'll have none of that.
Every one of us, when we will awaken
his likeness, we will share his identity.
We will share his glory.
We will have all of his life within
us, nothing less.
And that's his high priesthood ministry.
He couldn't stand to have it anything different
than that.
And the think there that that is his
business.
And he is somebody that he being a
lover of men, a forgiver of sins, being
an advocate, being an intercessor for us.
It's not a side job with Jesus.
It's not like it's something that he can
just do when it's called upon, but he
has another occupation or another interest.
Redeeming, restoring, forgiving, interceding, being an advocate, presenting
faultless.
It's all he does.
It's all he wants to do.
It's all he seems to be really concerned
about.
And that's his ultimate glory.
That's his ultimate identity of having a love
that is so selfless and into our conversion
and our restoration.
Into our, for the full measure of every
one of our lives today, how it ought
to be as we prepare our own hearts
for communion to realize this is his work
tonight.
Is our priest to want to take us
before God and they want to pour out
his love upon us.
Are we sinners?
Of course.
And nobody, the only qualification you fundamentally have
to take communion is you got to be
a sinner.
What is, what's communion to anybody but a
sinner.
It's certainly not much of a meal if
you're hungry.
You know what I mean?
That when you start to look, what else
could this be?
It is of only a value to a
sinner who needs an intercessor, who needs a
high priest.
That's the qualification.
And tonight, as we take a communion to
realize that there is one who's not just
stepping aside and say, Oh, it's the first
Thursday of the month.
And it's time now for me to put
on my priestly robe and to go and
do my duty of cleaning up these dirty
sinners, you know, or something.
So, and then get back to something else.
He had nothing else.
This is what he does.
This is what he loves doing.
And when you think there, you know, how
phenomenal this is, then notice as well, verse
nine of chapter 28, there he says, and
thou shalt take two onyx stones engrave on
them, the names of the children of Israel,
six of their names on one stone and
the other six names of the rest on
the other stone, according to their birth with
the work of an engraver and stone, like
an engraving of a signet, thou shalt engrave
the stones with the names of the children
of Israel.
Thou shall make them to be set in
pouches of gold.
Now we have here is the high priest
came in before God, as he would stand
her into the holiest of all there.
He didn't come in with the, for himself
or his own glory for his own beauty.
He didn't come in for that.
He came in with his people, with his
loved people, his redeemed people.
And how wonderful here is we see the
high priest notice there that a couple of
things about, as he came in with these
stones that first of all, they were precious
stones, precious stones.
You know, as we look at these onyx
stones that are there and there's something there
where I think the wonderful thing, he doesn't
go out and just get a, you know,
go get just some dirt or go get
some stones or go get a piece of
granite and do something.
No, he was instructed there.
These, God instructed Moses.
He said, you get onyx, you get these
beautiful stones there.
And as you get them, because this is
something that this is representing the redeemed, two
stones, one on each shoulder, six of the
first, the first six that according to their
birth, and then the other six according to
their birth on the other shoulder.
But there, as they came in, it was
something there as the high priest presented them,
he presented them as precious before God, precious
before him.
Malachi 317, the Lord says to the children
of Israel, they should be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts.
When I make up my jewels, God looks
there at his own redeemed.
He looks at his people.
He says, when I make up my treasures,
my jewels, you'll be mine.
They weren't acting like it.
Exodus 19, five, the Lord says, he says,
you should be a peculiar people to me
above all people.
All the earth is mine.
He says, but you, you're peculiar.
You are special to me.
Oh, maybe some are in the, as we
would look around.
And I suppose you can look around tonight
and, you know, some are handsome or cuter
or prettier or smarter or, uh, more talented
or a little more or less of all
of this other stuff as we measure each
other.
But the wonderful thing is from God's perspective,
in his eyes, there's none so fair when
he looks at you tonight and he looks
at another, his, the, the preciousness that you
have in his eyes.
It is no less precious than any other
being.
I suppose one of the most astounding truths
to me of all the Bible, and I
wouldn't believe it if it wasn't for Jesus
saying it himself, I couldn't, I don't think
anybody else could convince me of it, but
in John 17, and when Jesus is praying
for us, he says, father, for thou lovest
them as thou lovest me.
Now that's an amazing thing.
I mean, to sit there and to think
that God looks at you tonight and he
loves you as much as he loves his
own son.
Again, I would think that would be heresy
to say it if it wasn't that Jesus
said it.
And then I've got, you know, to realize
this is what he said.
It wasn't Paul who I could argue with
him.
Paul, I think that's blasphemous.
But to think there that as far as
Jesus is concerned, he looks and God is
no respecter of persons.
Maybe as you would look up and down
the aisle, you can see why I know
why God would love them, or I think
I know why I may love them, but
to stop and realize from God's perspective, he
sees something that none of us, none of
us have seen.
He sees the pearl of great price in
Matthew chapter 13, or as well, the treasure
that was hid in a field that there,
the merchant, the man there who found the
fee when he found this treasure in his
field, he went and he sold all that
he had to buy the whole field for
a treasure that was hidden it right now.
You know, you and I were, we're like
a pearl in a sense that we don't
see anything, you know, a pearl, all it
really is a pearl is just a piece
of sand that somehow another got in an
oyster and started causing a great irritation so
that it begins to cover it over to
try to soften there the tender and insides
there of the oyster and there because of
the pain it covers it and it covers
it over and over and over and there
he is certainly there that piece of sand
knows that it's very core I'm just a
piece of sand I don't know what's going
on around me it doesn't see the pearl
that is being formed it doesn't see the
beauty that one day there in heaven when
that it's oyster is opened up and what
it has become by the by the making
of that oyster by the way a pearl
is the only precious stone that actually cost
the life of the creator of it and
that's what you and I are we're precious
we cost the life of the one who
created us and the one who gave us
and converts us and and makes us what
we shall be but at the same time
he looks in the at it and from
his perspective what he's doing we see ourself
we're just buried out in the field or
something God sees a treasure hidden it buys
the whole field dies for the sins of
the whole world for those that will come
to him how precious we are and wonderfully
and I'm so grateful that beauty is in
the eyes of the beholder I'm so grateful
that God looks and he says I'll decide
who's beautiful not you I'd certainly mark myself
out and as I look around number of
you too no but the but I mean
we'd look there and when we wanna if
we were doing the picking who would who
would think of this but God the wonderful
thing is God has an eye like no
other eye God doesn't just simply see what
it is he sees what it will be
I remember I had been married very long
only a couple of months it's that we've
been married 34 years now 34 wonderful years
for me about five or six for my
wife I think but anyway the but we
hadn't been married very long and I was
at a time in my life where I
thought I understood women I think a lot
of guys for the first couple months of
marriage think that and then you give up
after a while but the but I had
something happen to me after only a couple
of months of marriage one of the most
phenomenal things I think ever happens to human
being their entire lifetime first of all we
got married and we're dirt poor so what
extra gifts we had are things we didn't
want there we had duplicates of we took
him back to get all the cash we
could and we got a pretty good haul
there you know that but wanted to see
the wisdom of God in all of this
one day an opportunity came to me that
I think most most people never have in
their entire life but an opportunity was granted
to me by God to do something and
again few people ever even dream of having
happened but an opportunity came for me to
buy a 1953 Porsche and that and all
of our money was enough to get this
I mean talk about God's hand you know
doing something and to me I'll never forget
is I went and did this no discussion
with the other parties of the house and
I came home with this thing I was
out of you know this world in this
I couldn't believe what had happened this is
so exciting to me and I it wasn't
a great shape either but it it actually
we figured it about 10 paint jobs that
it had during its lifetime so far because
you could see about that many different colors
of paint somewhere on the car it had
a few dents in it and the interior
was pretty rotten and the headliner I remember
how it kind of hung down and the
fabric of that and it sounded pretty bad
and burned oil and leaked oil and the
brake squeaked and the clutch slipped but other
than that but I remember when I came
home with this thing I was just a
huge and you never seen a human being
more thrilled more blessed than when I drove
up in when Jean looks at this thing
she walks out and she's of course mystified
but she says what is this I said
honey don't say that out loud somebody might
hear that you don't know what this is
you know how can you talk this way
this is a Porsche it's a 53 Porsche
do you these are not around these are
not available for mirroring humans once in a
while somebody is bequeathed a blessing like this
and this is us and she's what well
how did we how did we come by
this God provided for everything with what well
the money what money well the you know
the money you mean the money that was
for food and for for utensils and for
table and a chair to eat on and
and pots and pans to cook with I
said I'm looking there said that's the problem
with so many people you can get that
stuff anywhere anytime that is always going to
be around 53 Porsches are not around and
then I realized the difference between men and
women and one of the major differences to
me is I look there and I realized
that my wife as precious as she is
had no faith had no comprehension of either
what this was and what it was going
to be yet again she just had worldly
eyes that just saw it for as it
sat there I had no such eyes I
would literally sit out this is true I
would sit out I had a little beach
chair and I would sit out there and
just stare at this thing I was so
excited with this and this thing what she
saw what I saw were entirely different I
could go right up to that Porsche and
I could go up there and just kind
of you know brush it with and I
could see through 15 coats of lacquer my
face shining right back at me smiling in
this beautiful paint job I could listen that
engine and it just purred like a kitten
hmm I could sit inside of it and
smell the new leather and just and she
couldn't do any of that she looked at
it and she saw it for it was
I saw it for what it was going
to be it never did become that in
my keeping but to tell you the truth
is an issue she does remember this is
that we didn't sell it for enough that
bought our tickets going to and back from
England to school over there so God provided
and did use it and you wouldn't have
got anything for old pots and pans I
assured her that but the but the thing
is so but the wonderful thing is is
he did you see Jesus when he looks
at you and when you're upon his shoulder
he sees two things you've never seen he
sees your created glory from which we all
fell and he also sees your future glory
that only he can restore you to we
don't see that but there is a preciousness
there is a beauty that is there within
each one of his redeemed there that when
you sit and realize now and to him
who is able to present you thoughtless without
flaw to realize that one day you and
I will awake in his likeness in his
image there will be something that the beauty
that we would look at it and what
we see of our life now and as
we see it dented and scarred and the
engine you know makes noise and we burn
oil and drip oil or all the you
know and we're the brakes squeak and the
transmission slips and everything seems to fail we
say what could God ever see in this
well God made it God made you and
what he sees you will yet see notice
as well that these stones that they're fastened
there there their settings and gold and they're
fastened with chains there's that they're set upon
the high priest shoulder and set in these
wonderful beautiful you know pouches of gold to
fasten their God he tells the children of
Israel and Jeremiah says therefore with loving-kindness
have I have I drawn thee and the
wonderful thing to realize that God's love he
looks at you and he looks at me
seeing and knowing what only he can see
and know mystery to the rest of us
but there is he sees he sees something
that he says I'm going to draw you
to me I'm going to draw you to
my love and when we stop and realize
how great the love of Christ is no
wonder Paul once said the love of Christ
constrains me to think that there's somebody who
sees in me what I have yet to
see who has a plan for me that
I have yet to imagine it unfolding that
has yet for me what no one in
the world would even suspect let alone me
and yet what he sees he loves and
I'm upon his shoulder the wonderful thing notice
as well about them is that these stones
as I said they're on the high priest
shoulders he puts the redeemed and the strongest
part of his body you know you go
maybe buy something you some things you maybe
carry out with a finger you know you
go to the market and give you one
a little plastic bag you hook your finger
through it and you walk out with it
some things you may take your whole hand
some things you may take two hands but
there when there's something there that there that
when you take it and you put the
full weight of it on your shoulder you
are now putting it upon the strongest part
of your body even as Jesus tells in
the parable of the lost sheep there that
when the shepherd went and he found the
sheep what did he do he laid it
upon his shoulders rejoicing that's what he does
with you that just to think there if
a shepherd would just do it with a
sheep how much more to realize that God
takes you and me and he puts us
on his shoulders and he rejoices over Isaiah
46 for Isaiah says even in your old
age I am he even your to your
gray hairs will I carry you I have
made and I will bear and even I
will carry and deliver you God looks at
you and he says I'll carry you even
when you're old when the gray hairs are
there when your strength you know it would
would wane that makes no difference to him
he said I made you I will bear
you I will carry you I deliver you
that's what he thinks of us do you
know that he carries you right now do
you know that this very moment this very
hour you have no need to carry yourself
not at all and yet I wonder how
many of us walking here tonight feel or
theoretically or theologically knowing that but in actual
reality of our own life we are carrying
the way to the world whether it's our
marriage our husband or a wife our children
whether it's our career our health there it
weighs upon us and we're like the story
perhaps you heard of a hitchhiker there is
one day out there hitchhiking and a farmer
pulls over in his pickup truck sees him
there swings the door open he says come
on in I'll give you a ride and
you're this hitchhiker so grateful that he pulled
over and gave him a ride as he
gets in the hitchhiker sits down but he's
got his knapsack and he's holding on to
the knapsack and he's driving down the road
the farmer looks over and realized well this
fellow still he's holding up his knapsack he's
straining under didn't see he's sweating what's this
is crazy and he looks over at me
says young man he says why don't you
put your knapsack down on the floor young
man looks at me says no I am
so grateful that you picked me up I
couldn't ask you to carry my knapsack too
but is that not how many of us
are what is it that on one hand
Jesus is carrying our entire life right now
and yet our arms are weary our hearts
are weary our minds are weary we've come
tired tonight and he says I'm on you
you're on my shoulders I want to carry
you an old poem says bear not a
single care thyself one is too much for
thee the work is mine and mine alone
thy work is to rest in me and
when you and I when we find there
you know that God designed us in such
a way not to carry anything but our
entire life to be resting in our high
priest then notice as well the breastplate there
of the high priest in verse 15 it
says and thou shalt make the breastplate of
judgment with cunning work and after the work
of the ephod thou shalt make it of
gold of blue of purple scarlet fine twine
linen thou shalt make it four squares shall
it be doubled a span shall be the
length thereof and a span the breadth thereof
and thou shalt set it in settings of
gold of four rows of stones the first
throne shall be shall be sardis and topaz
and carbuncle and so forth as now he
gives these four rows of stones and going
over into verse 21 it says in the
stone shall be with the names of the
children of Israel twelve according to their names
like the engraving of a signet one stone
with his name shall they be according to
the twelve tribes now once again here here
we have now these stones not on the
high priest shoulders but now upon his heart
and here we have do your four rows
of twelve three in a row or twelve
stones this time all precious all different and
each one of them with one individual name
of the tribes of the children of Israel
once again all precious but now no two
are alike every every one of them was
created for a different dimension of beauty every
one of these stones though all of them
precious all of them reveal a different beauty
than another and something there I think that
for us to stop and realize is that
that's again how I believe God looks at
us no two of us are alike that
makes the many of us maybe say you
know I know that but I wish that
there was two of somebody else and none
of me I wonder how many of us
tonight I'd love it if there was you
know two Chuck Smiths none of me and
maybe your wife would say I'll go for
that you know or something but the well
I wish there was two K Smiths well
we'll both go for those you know or
whatever we both trade with anybody else but
oftentimes when we stop there and realize from
God's perspective he created every one of us
and every one of us very very different
and every one of us has a different
story eternally to share of God's as he
takes us in as he molded us and
he fashioned us as he polished us that
one day every one of us the stone
in its finest hour when it's all converted
totally and in his image every one of
us will reveal a different glory we'll have
a different story there will be one glory
of an Abraham and another and I was
in and another of a Jacob and another
of a Sarah and another of an Esther
and another of a Hannah and they will
all have something of God's revealed glory that
only they could reveal some story of redemption
that only they eternally in heaven could really
share that all every one of us will
have a different story and whether it says
well for the woman caught in the act
of adultery they'll be something of God's mercy
and of his glorious mercy that she'll reveal
that that Sarah or Abraham or Esther never
could there'll be something there is the light
shines off the diamond of her converted and
restored perfectly restored life in heaven the story
of God's love that nobody else could tell
there'll be something there the thief on the
cross there at the last moment of God's
instantaneous grace poured out that nobody else could
reveal it like he will as he's perfected
and he's in his image or the demoniac
filled with the demons and yet there's something
of God's power that he'll have a story
of in in heaven again only his no
one else will have it God made every
one of us that way there is a
story that he is fashioning he is forming
that one day when every one of us
wake in his likeness and each one of
us there won't be see any of us
it'll still kind of be gnarly or you
know a stone under process or somebody say
are you sure that's a diamond there I
don't think that's a diamond I've seen diamonds
that's not a diamond you know or that
couldn't be a ruby that couldn't be and
I don't know diamond ruby I'm sure there's
others I just can't think of their stones
but I should ask when you women I
suppose but the but all these different stones
every one of them when they're polished and
they're finished they reveal something the wonderful thing
is is from God as he looks at
us these are things that are these stones
as well they're not only individual but they're
bound to his heart they're bound to God's
heart he loves them he just doesn't carry
them it's not just a duty it is
a passion no wonder David asked what is
man that thou art mindful of him with
a son of man that thou visited as
him God why are you so consumed with
man and then David of course actually in
Psalm 80 goes on he answers there is
God that give the glory that he created
us to have and the plan that he
still has yet for us but the wonderful
thing is is that God is unbelievably obsessed
with us in Psalm 49 15 he says
can a woman forget her suckling child that
she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb yay they may forget yet
I will not forget you God looks and
he says I know you and I can't
forget you you see once one child is
climbed up on his lap once you sat
there for a moment can't forget you never
forget that you've been there once you know
it's something there of his love he's been
known to you some time ago I was
on an airplane returning home from a conference
or something sitting next to me was a
fallen I started talking to him and one
thing came to another and I asked him
what he did and he said he was
an attorney asked me what I did and
I was I said I'm a preacher and
so we both said well we got a
lot of jokes to share and but after
we talked for a few minutes and I
asked him if he was a Christian or
anything he said well I once was I
said tell me about it he says back
in the 60s I was going to Yale
and he says I my life was all
messed up and there was a very good
friend of mine who lived in Washington state
of Washington and he called me and shared
with me how his life had been transformed
by Christ so much so as he got
me literally at the end of the the
for the summer vacation or the beginning of
it I got on a plane I went
out I was so moved by the change
I heard about his life I went out
there with him and I no sooner got
that I received Christ and I spent that
summer every day we were in the Bible
every day he says I couldn't get enough
of God so much so is when I
returned back to Yale I changed my major
to religious studies but it wasn't long till
back there there was no fellowship and they
didn't seem to believe the Bible and one
thing led to another and after a while
I changed my major and went into law
now I'm a land-use attorney for the
city of San Jose told me and I
said do you ever think about the Lord
he says I read my Bible now then
I said what do you think he thinks
of you he said I don't know I
said I can tell you what he thinks
of you he's never forgotten you the day
you open your heart to him he's never
forgot you you may have left him and
you may be far but you're not far
from his love and far from his memory
and and coming home is not far he'll
never forget you and I shared with him
out of Isaiah can a mother forget her
suckling child and even Isaiah said well they
may I won't forget you and he turned
to me and I can remember just as
his eyes kind of lit up with a
thought he says do you think they could
be true I said I know it's true
the Bible says it but maybe some of
us tonight do you know how much he
loves you I don't care where you've been
I care we've been then notice as well
it's time to have communion here so just
two things quickly the plate pure gold on
the high priest you know on this on
his forehead over in verse 36 it says
there and thou shalt make a plate of
pure gold and engrave upon it the engravings
of the signet holiness to the Lord here
is the high priest would come in and
there he'd have the the names on his
shoulders to carry upon his heart to love
there upon his you know over his forehead
this wonderful solid gold no no no nothing
plated here this was through and through holiness
to the Lord he brought these people in
representing them absolutely holy absolutely clean that's what
was on Aaron's forehead and as Jesus brings
you and I as he carries us into
his presence revealing us to God he and
now he ever liveth to make intercession for
us and presents us and then also in
verse 33 and 5 I just realized I
skipped by that but he says beneath upon
the hem thou shalt make pomegranates of blue
and purple and scarlet and around to the
hem thereof and bells of gold between them
round about golden bell and a pomegranate golden
bell and pomegranate upon the hem of the
robe round about and here there was something
now as the priest came in he came
in with his bells in the pomegranates or
bells and smells fragrance but the wonderful thing
here is here to realize there that maybe
you and I we may think tonight when
we take communion God will you forgive me
you got to be angry you must be
disappointed with me I'll tell you when Aaron
came in with them there were bells smells
there was a melody there is music and
a fragrance when Aaron came in with them
they were a song to God's heart a
sweet smelling savor under his nostrils to think
that when you and I just as a
sinner we come and say God will you
forgive me and to think it's not just
well I'm willing oh well do you mean
it of course I do listen to the
music of heaven listen to my love come
home come home the interesting thing about this
I suppose about the most interesting thing to
me is only four chapters later in the
book of Exodus these very same people that
in the quietness and the beauty of the
Holy of Holies these wonderful stones were actually
down the hill begging Aaron Moses isn't back
make us a God that we can worship
and here they are half drunk and half
naked dancing around in an idolatrous life not
even thinking of God but yet to realize
there is God looks at you and I
were somewhere in there but how he looks
there and he and his very same people
that are outside the tabernacle outside arguing with
each other not getting along having their strife
and their struggles and their burdens in the
holy place of all they're loved and they're
perfect and they're accepted and that is the
power of the bread in the cup that
is you and I as we have communion
together tonight maybe some of you maybe we
need to come and realize Lord I am
precious I don't know what you see I
have no idea of what my story of
redemption could be what it is that I
could ever reveal of your love that nobody
else in all the world could but I
want to know it maybe some of you
you come tonight and you're carrying things in
your own arms when here we come to
communion and the high priest says put it
on my shoulders I will carry you your
old age and your gray hairs I deliver
you I'll carry you I'll bear you up
but for all of us I forgive you
and I love forgiving you it's all I
do and I love doing it he can
look and say with every one of us
if you'll just let me be who I
am all you have to do is be
who you are no lies I won't lie
about me you don't have to lie about
you I'll forgive you now come and the
love of Christ will constrain you I promise
father we thank you for your love we
thank you dear Lord for your desire tonight
to take us into communion with you in
a wonderful way and Lord we ask that
as we do take it you touch your
heart you'd polish the stone a little he
carries upon your shoulder and upon your heart
Lord we just thank you and praise you
for this opportunity you have given to us
made none of us miss it we ask
it in Jesus name