SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_01: Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delant, Florida.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's your host, Pastor James W.
SPEAKER_01: Knox.
SPEAKER_00: Here.
SPEAKER_00: I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.
SPEAKER_00: Happy that you tuned in today.
SPEAKER_00: Hope you can stay with us.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a great chapter sitting in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: We've been studying the Bible book of Exodus together, and some of it's been a bit difficult.
SPEAKER_00: We started out running with all that Pharaoh and Moses and plagues and miracles and Passover blood and Red Sea crossing, but we've bogged down just a little as we've run into these instructions for the building of the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we would do well to suggest that if we learn something from the Bible, it's that it's far more exciting to read about what God is doing for us than it is to read about what God has asked us to do for him.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably a great lesson to be found in that.
SPEAKER_00: But as we come to the 28th chapter of Exodus today, Exodus chapter 28, we begin to look at what the Bible has to say about the high priest and the high priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: And I trust that you'll be able to stay with us as we enjoy this material together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Exodus 28:1.
SPEAKER_00: And take thou unto thee 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, and Abihu, Eliezer, and Ithamar, Aaron's sons, and thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the New Testament church, everybody is a priest, and so our ministers don't wear special garments and costumes.
SPEAKER_00: We are all one in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, they had a high priest that was separated from and elevated above his brethren, and he was identified as such by special garments.
SPEAKER_00: Sad that so few people understand the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, but we thought we'd have to point that out.
SPEAKER_00: You see a man running around in fancy clothes to identify himself as a minister.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I'm above you.
SPEAKER_00: And in the New Testament, Jesus put a uh took a towel and girded himself and got down and washed his disciples' feet and said, We're not doing it that way in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of people don't understand that.
SPEAKER_00: All right, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: And these are the garments which they shall make, a breastplate and an ephod and a robe, an embroidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle.
SPEAKER_00: And they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.
SPEAKER_00: And they shall take gold and blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen.
SPEAKER_00: And they shall make the ephod of gold of blue of purple of scarlet of fine twine linen with cunning work.
SPEAKER_00: It shall have two shoulder pieces thereof, joined at the two edges thereof, and so it uh shall be joined together.
SPEAKER_00: And the curious girdle, the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof, even of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twine linen.
SPEAKER_00: And thou shalt take two onyx stones, engrave on them the names of the children of Israel, six of their names on the one stone, the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth.
SPEAKER_00: With the work of the engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold, and thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of a memorial unto the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So there's eight items in all.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read about the rest of them in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Just take a little break from the reading.
SPEAKER_00: There's the miter, that's the uh hat piece, the head piece, with its plate.
SPEAKER_00: There's the breastplate.
SPEAKER_00: There's the ephod, that's the uh outer garment.
SPEAKER_00: There's the robe of the ephod over top that outer garment.
SPEAKER_00: There's the turban wrapped about the head, there's the girdle to uh uh hold the garments in place while uh the priest is ministering, offering sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: There's the breeches, that's the uh pants underneath, and there's the coat, uh, topping it all off.
SPEAKER_00: Now this was worn, this ephod of gold, or an ephod was worn by Aaron the priest, Samuel the prophet, 1 Samuel 2.18, and David the King, 2 Samuel 6.14, the three offices which speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, our prophet, priest, and king.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the names of the tribes were born upon the shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: That's the place of strength, the place of strength.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, and thou shalt make ouches of gold and two chains of pure gold at the ends of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreath and chains to the ouches, and thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work, after the work of the Ephod, thou shalt make it of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, a fine twine linen shalt thou make it, four square it shall be, being doubled, a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof, and thou shalt set in it settings for stones.
SPEAKER_00: Four rows of stones.
SPEAKER_00: The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle.
SPEAKER_00: This shall be the first row.
SPEAKER_00: The second row should be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond, and the third row a Lyger, an agate, and an amethyst, and the fourth row a burl, an onyx, and a jasper, and they shall be set in their enclosings, and the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.
SPEAKER_00: So collectively the names were born on the shoulders, the place of strength.
SPEAKER_00: Individually they were worn on the breastplate over the heart, the place of love.
SPEAKER_00: And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreath and work of pure gold, and thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate, and thou shalt put the two wreath and chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate, and the other two ends of the two wreathen chains thou shalt fasten in the two ouches and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod before it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's uh let's stop for a minute and think about this high priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: There are two great priests in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Melchizedek, he ministered to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He was the first and last of his order.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 7, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: There's none before him, there's none after him.
SPEAKER_00: The second of the two great priests was Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: He ministered to Israel, the nation, and his order continued through the sons born unto him.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Levites were given to Aaron and his sons to minister to them.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers 3, 9.
SPEAKER_00: And so Aaron's sons are set forth as one unit with their father.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice the uh unusual wording in verse 1?
SPEAKER_00: Aaron and his sons with him, that he may minister unto me.
SPEAKER_00: So there is one priesthood, though the sons participate.
SPEAKER_00: Now the list of the sons which follow links them with the high priest and sets off a series of types or pictures that speak of the believer's union with the great high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Now keep in mind, Aaron, the high priest, pictures Jesus Christ, whom Hebrews 2, verses 11 and 12 says is our great high priest.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament is very, very clear on this, that we no longer have a family line of Israelite priests who minister at a Jewish altar for one nation on the earth, but we now have a great high priest who ministers in the presence of God the Father for all saved men and women everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 2.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, let's read three first of all.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
SPEAKER_00: For this man, Jesus Christ, was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus Christ is clearly our great high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 12, 11, and 12, for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is our high priest, as Aaron was Israel's high priest.
SPEAKER_00: We have union, believers, born-again Christians, we have union with our high priest, just as Aaron's sons had union with him, as he served as the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Aaron, like Jesus, was chosen of God.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 5, verses 1 and 4.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't take the honor to himself, it was given to him by God.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus Christ is not the great high priest because he opted to take that honor to himself or to wrest it from someone else.
SPEAKER_00: That place was given to him by God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Then we see that Aaron was anointed to be the representative of the people.
SPEAKER_00: And so was Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews 2.17 and Hebrews 5.1, we read that of Aaron's anointing and that of Jesus Christ, and you'll recall at his baptism in Luke 4.19, when God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit, descending upon Jesus like a dove, said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: And so Aaron and Jesus are both anointed to be representative of the people.
SPEAKER_00: Third, Jesus is our perfect representative.
SPEAKER_00: He sorrowed with us.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_00: He died with and for us, Romans 6.
SPEAKER_00: He rose with and for us, Ephesians 2, 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_00: He intercedes for us.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy 2, 5.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't live for himself.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
SPEAKER_00: No, he lives for us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the priest has to have something to offer.
SPEAKER_00: And so our great high priest offered himself.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't offer the blood of a bullock or a ram.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't offer grain or meal.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He offered himself.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 8 and verse number 3.
SPEAKER_00: For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore it is of necessity that this man, Jesus Christ, have someone also to offer.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what would that be?
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 7, verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Who needeth not daily as those high priests offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the peoples, for this he did once when he offered up himself.
SPEAKER_00: How about that?
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 9 12.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: But Christ being common high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood.
SPEAKER_00: He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
SPEAKER_00: And then in Hebrews 10, verse 10, the scripture says, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
SPEAKER_00: So he offered himself, Hebrews 7, 27, his body, Hebrews 10.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this offering was sinless.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Hebrews 7, verse 27, or 26, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: For such is an such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, his offering was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, his offering was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 9 25, nor yet.
SPEAKER_00: That he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others.
SPEAKER_00: For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now, once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
SPEAKER_00: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, his intercession is prevailing, and his priesthood is unchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: Unchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 7, verse 23, and they truly were many priests, Aaron, his sons, their sons, and they just kept dying because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
SPEAKER_00: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: So, out of all the people of the earth, God chose that nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Out of all the people in that nation, God chose a tribe, Levi.
SPEAKER_00: Out of all the Levites, God chose a man, Aaron and his sons, and said that that one man would minister in the Holy of Holies, in the presence of God, on behalf of God's chosen nation, the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the New Testament, Jesus Christ the Lord, one man, chosen, anointed, ordained of God, to minister in the presence of God on behalf of the people of God, not an earthly people, not a physically generated nationality, but a spiritually generated church, and we don't have popes, and we don't have high priests, and we don't have fathers and rabbis and masters.
SPEAKER_00: We have one Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, Aaron, the high priest, he could go in once, once each year, and stay briefly.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus Christ, he entered once, and he ever lives, he ever abides, he never leaves the presence of God the Father, and there where he lives, he ever lives to make intercession for us.
SPEAKER_00: What a marvel that God should care so much.
SPEAKER_00: What a marvel that God should make such a way for us to be saved and for us to fellowship with himself.
SPEAKER_00: Just incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Just just a wonder to ponder.
SPEAKER_00: Now moving from the high priest, just for the time being, we read about those stones.
SPEAKER_00: The twelve stones on the breastplate of the high priest bearing the names of the tribes of Israel upon his heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's Sardis, it's an onyx of a fleshy or yellowish color.
SPEAKER_00: Topaz, yellowish.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh pellucid, it admits the passage of light.
SPEAKER_00: It's not clear, you can't see objects through it, but light and color can come through it.
SPEAKER_00: It has green eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Blue shades.
SPEAKER_00: The carbuncle, deep red or scarlet.
SPEAKER_00: When held up to the sun, it loses its deep tinge and becomes exactly the color of a burning coal.
SPEAKER_00: The emerald is rich green.
SPEAKER_00: The sapphire, pure crystallized alumina.
SPEAKER_00: It's white with a bluish tinge.
SPEAKER_00: The diamond, crystallized carmine.
SPEAKER_00: That carbon's generally clear, sometimes colored, even black, but rarely.
SPEAKER_00: The ligure is a hard transparent gem.
SPEAKER_00: Agate is an uncrystallized quartz, various tints, different colors.
SPEAKER_00: It can be arranged in stripes or bands.
SPEAKER_00: The amethyst, the blue violet color, the burl, green or bluish green.
SPEAKER_00: The onyx, parallel layers of different colors.
SPEAKER_00: The jasper, opaque.
SPEAKER_00: Can be red or yellow or another color, but it's a it's a dull color.
SPEAKER_00: The sardonyx, reddish yellow, nearly orange stone.
SPEAKER_00: Chrysalite, glassy grain compound.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mineral of pale green to bottle green.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's the massive quart that uh Chrisphus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you read about that in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Has little luster, it's grayish or leak green in color.
SPEAKER_00: There's adjacent.
SPEAKER_00: That's the uh red variety of uh zircon, and then there's chalcedony, translucent quartz, whitish, wax-like in luster.
SPEAKER_00: God made all these stones.
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh our God, he he could have made one type of rock, and he could have made that rock all one color, and we would have been compelled to marvel at the strength and the majesty and the texture and the uh just the wonder of that rock that God made, that that type of rock.
SPEAKER_00: And as we looked upon the color of the thing and realized that uh there's no way that man could have made something like that, or accident or chance could have resulted in something like that, we we would give glory to God for the one type of rock that God and only God could make, and for the one color with which he colored that rock as only God could do, and we would praise his name.
SPEAKER_00: But my friend, when you consider the countless varieties of rocks, their different strengths and textures, and uh the composite nature of this one and the and the fantastic uh preparation of that one, and then you see all the different colors.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been to a museum where they display rocks, the different types of rocks and mineral?
SPEAKER_00: Why it's beyond description in its beauty and and the the varied textures and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: That's our God.
SPEAKER_00: And you know something?
SPEAKER_00: All you've seen is just a little tiny display of his handiwork.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few little places we've been on one little planet.
SPEAKER_00: So much to be seen, so much to behold, so much to fill our hearts and minds with wonder.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you, I'm glad I've got eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I've got that glorified body to look forward to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I get to spend forever and ever, not just praising God, but seeing ever, ever new reasons to praise Him.
SPEAKER_00: Think of all the different fish, all the different plants and trees, all the different flowers, all the different birds and animals, all the different insects, all the different rocks.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that you can see with your mortal eye in one short lifetime in one little corner of God's vast creation.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what glory, what glory awaits the saved child of God when we step from this temporary scene and into that life everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: What a what a thrilling, what a thrilling thing to ponder our future.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh just to read a few more verses here, we've got a little bit of time left.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt put the breastplate of judgment, the Urim and Thummim, and they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth before the Lord, and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.
SPEAKER_00: There's our Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what he does?
SPEAKER_00: He goes in before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what he does when he goes in before the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: He bears the judgment of his people.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know where he bears the judgment of his people?
SPEAKER_00: He bears it upon his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know in whose presence he bears the judgment of his people upon his heart?
SPEAKER_00: In the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know how long he will do that?
SPEAKER_00: He will do it continually.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, are you saved?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the Lord is your Savior?
SPEAKER_00: Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior?
SPEAKER_00: You know what the Bible says?
SPEAKER_00: That he, he, goes in before God the Father, and there he bears your judgment that pleads your cause, speaks on your behalf, acts as your advocate, he bears your judgment there before the Lord, because he has you upon his heart, and this is not a momentary passing emotion, it is the continual activity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is the continual condition and desire and working of his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Glory be to God.
SPEAKER_00: What a friend we have in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All our sins and griefs to bear, and what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer through our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know him?
SPEAKER_00: He died to pay for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: He was buried, and three days and three nights later he rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He has the power and the desire to give you everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: But you must believe on him.
SPEAKER_00: You must trust him.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
SPEAKER_00: Will you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: If you will, the Bible says, Thou shalt be saved.
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SPEAKER_00: Until then, I'm Brother James.
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