I invite you to turn tonight to the second book of the Bible, Exodus, second book of the Bible, and we will read at verse 20 of chapter 27, and then we'll read through chapter 28, and this is dealing with the priests and their work. Exodus 27, beginning at verse 20. you shall command the people of israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light that a lamp may be regularly be set up to burn the tent of meeting outside the veil that is before the testimony aaron and his son shall tend it from evening to morning before the lord it shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of israel then bring near to aaron your brother and his sons with him from among the people of israel to serve me as priests Aaron and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu Eleazar and Ithamar you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother for glory and for beauty you shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with the spirit of skill that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood these are the garments that they shall make a breast piece an ephod a robe a coat of checker work, a turban and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons to serve me as priests. They shall receive gold, blue and purple, and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen skillfully work. It shall have two shoulder pieces attached to its two edges, so it may be joined together. The skillful woven band on it shall be made like it, and be of one piece with of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet yarns, and fine twine linen, you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone in the order of their birth, as a jeweler engraved signet, so you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel, you shall enclose them in the settings of gold filigree, and you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of israel and aaron shall bear their names before the lord on his two shoulders for remembrance you shall make settings of gold filigree and two chains of pure gold twisted like cords and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings you shall make a breast piece of judgment and skilled work in the style of the ephod you shall make it of gold blue purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen you shall make it it shall be square and double to span its length and a span its breadth you shall set it in the four rows of the stones a row of sardis topaz carbuncle shall be the first row and the second row an emerald sapphire and diamond and the third row jesse and agate and amethyst and the fourth row a barrel an onyx and a jasper they shall be set in gold filigree There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. You shall make for the breast piece twisted chains of cords of pure gold. You shall make for the breast piece two rings of gold and put the two rings on the two edges of the breast piece. And you shall put the two cords of gold and the two rings at the edges of the breast piece. The two ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings of filigree. and so attach it in the front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod. You shall make two rings of gold and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece on the inside edge next to the ephod. And you shall make two rings of gold and attach them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod at its seam above the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and they shall bind the breastpiece and its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue so that it may lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod so that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod so Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord and in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly. You shall make the robe of the ephod of all blue. It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it with a woven binding around the opening like the opening in a garment so that it may not tear. On its hymn, you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns around its hymn with bells of gold between them, a gold bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate around the hymn of the robe. And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord and when he comes out so that he does not die. You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like the engraving of a signet, holy to the Lord. And you shall fasten it on the turban by the cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be on Aaron's forehead. And Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. You shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen. You shall make a turban of fine linen. You shall make a sash embroidered with needlework. For Aaron's sons, you shall make coats and sashes and caps. You shall make them for glory and beauty. And you shall put them on Aaron, your brother, and on his sons with him. And you shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them that they may serve me as priests. You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs, and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place, lest they bear guilt and die. There shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. There's no doubt that one of the big struggles today in the church is the issue of dress, isn't it? You want to get in a heated discussion and talk about what you should look like when you head up on into church. You know that's true. I remember talking with a man years ago who made an excuse about why he doesn't attend church. And his excuse was something I hadn't really faced before, but his excuse was due to the sheer lack of respect that pastors have for what they're doing today. He said, my daughter invited me to her church and I looked up on the stage and there was the pastor in jeans and a tight t-shirt telling me how to live. And he said, you know, I don't know a whole lot about the Bible, but he said, I know those priests in the Old Testament had to wear something a lot nicer than that. interesting he said a pastor should look like a pastor to be honest i've never everyone no one's ever really challenged me in the urc we get kind of the opposite don't we i mean we get that uh we we don't want to attend because we're we think you have to wear coats and ties when you go to the urc that's what what we get and i always say well i've never once have preached a dress code from this pulpit i've never done that that's what people have wanted to do and they have a freedom to do that, don't they? The danger in all the discussion about dress and how heated people get about dress is that it really misses what the Bible is teaching about covering and the covering that we need to come before a holy God. The mentality of often dressing down, I remember years ago a church had in its membership, the members had to sign a vow. Remember I talked about what Pharisees like to do. The members had to sign a vow that they would dress down and never wear a tie. I'd never seen that one either. But I want us to think about it for a minute because the mentality often that comes with I'm going to dress down and it's not about dress often what comes with that is an approach that barges sort of in on god and takes no regard for his holiness that they have come before a king that's what bothers me about the discussion too that i often hear well with that god doesn't care what you look like or what you dress like okay but behind that comes i can come in the house of the lord and come before him any way I want. That's what's usually with that. And so there's no regard for him. There's little regard for holiness. There's little thought about sin. There's little thought about the need for a greater covering. It's all about us. I mean, think about it. Years ago, the ministers used to begin worship by saying, God is in his temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. That's a scripture verse, by the way. That's how old worship used to start. What happened? Why did that go? The truth is, God was teaching Israel a lot about the priestly clothing. They were decked out, let me tell you. Decked out. It's a fascinating study because we see God setting apart certain men, priests to minister on behalf, think about this, minister on behalf of the people for him. You see, as you go through the Bible and begin to put all this together, you see a glaring problem, and I'll just start with this for a minute, with the priesthood in the Old Testament. Hebrews says something that I want you to remember as we go through this. that if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, or under it, the people received the law, he says, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron? So whatever we're about to study was drastically insufficient, says Hebrews, to bring about what was really needed. We needed an entirely different kind of priest from an entirely different kind of order, what Hebrews was saying. The bulls and goats never could remove sins, but also the entire Levitical priesthood couldn't do it. That means that tonight we study this, we learn more about the kind of priest we really need to intercede and to make atonement for us before this holy God, and that the Lord was teaching us something all about this by the setting apart of Aaron and his sons to be priests to serve. Now remember that a priest was one who represents the people before God. So God was setting up a certain order here in Exodus chapter 28 of these men to serve on behalf. And what we have is a graphic, I mean a detailed description of how they were to dress and what their responsibilities were. It's fascinating when you stand back from it and look at the big picture. You can get caught up in all the detail, and there's a lot of meaning in the detail. But we have to begin with here that in chapter 28, what we essentially have is the Lord calling and placing a call on these men's lives to be and serve him as priests. So you'll notice in verse 1, the first thing that comes is the call. Then bring near to you Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests, Aaron and his sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, and you shall make them holy garments. So here was something important to notice that right out of the beginning, when the Lord began to set apart ministry, ordain ministry, it was called by him. He was doing the calling. the priests were to minister in the tabernacle for the people you're going to love what all this symbolized tonight i promise you in a few minutes we'll be done and i hope you say wow you might not have said it when we read it but i hope by the end you say wow because they are doing some amazing things that symbolically represented what jesus does for you i have to say at the beginning aaron did not appoint himself as priest nor did his sons this was a great and an awesome calling from the lord god himself had ordained them and set them apart to be his servants and this was recognized through his prophet Moses. I believe it's important for the church to understand this today, to understand the ministry today, that anyone who serves as a pastor or as an elder or as a deacon, this is not something that you chose ultimately. It's something that God set you apart to do. And today, I think it's helpful to say that we have so many churches that have popped up. It's become common today to put people into pastoral ministry who have had no real training and no real calling from the Lord who simply want to serve God. And everyone is happy about that. And so we put men into the ministry who have not been trained or who have not been taught and or affirmed as called by God. I want you to think about the authority structure that we'll look at here in a minute. That God always worked, and we've recognized this in the church throughout history, that He works by placing an internal and an external call. What do I mean by that? Internally, the Lord works that desire in His servants to be this when He's calling them. Internally. And externally, it's confirmed by His servants, the church. It's confirmed that way. And so the church suffers greatly today when we don't recognize that this calling comes from the Lord and there's an internal and an external aspect to the call of God that happens. The Lord never treated His ministry as a human decision of whoever feels moved. The Lord greatly valued putting the men that he chose into this. And so this is important. It was a sovereign choice of the Lord. And the Lord says here, I chose Aaron of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear the ephod in my presence. Very important. Now you'll notice that the immediate emphasis here is placed on his garments. There's so much detail given to this. In verse 2, that's what he says. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother. Notice this. For glory and for beauty. And you shall speak to all the skillful whom I've filled with the spirit of skill. All this constructing of the tabernacle and everything that we read tonight, the Lord filled people with his spirit to accomplish to the precise detail everything that he had commanded. isn't it remarkable how detailed God is in all of this? I want it to be holy, and I want this dress to be glorious, and I want this dress to be beautiful. Beautiful. I want clothing that symbolizes that these men are set apart by me. That when you looked at them, You saw radiance. You saw beauty. God's kind of beauty. The robes were full of all kinds of colors of gold. Blue, purple, scarlet thread, fine linen. Great dress. These were the best dressed guys in Israel. Let me tell you. It was better than the men's warehouse, I promise. When you looked at them, they embodied the tabernacle. They were servants of the Lord. The design was saying something to Israel. When they saw this, they were learning something about God. That enabled to serve before him, enabled to become before him and do the work in the tabernacle on behalf of the people, which is what the service was. The very servants of the Lord had to be adorned with the very things that spoke of His glory and His attributes. In other words, they were set apart as holy. They were to be beautiful before Him. They had to be glorious in His sight. They were entering the holy place. So important. They were entering the holy place. look at all the detail I think a real clear message is they didn't just barge into God's presence they guarded their steps very carefully in coming before the Lord they were doing one of the most important things what were they doing? they were ministering on behalf of the people you'll see in verses 20 and 21 of chapter 27 on the very end there of chapter 27 that one of their responsibilities was to care for the golden lampstand. You'll notice that. Remember, that lampstand was always to be kept burning. That light was always to be kept burning from evening until morning. It was a statute forever. So they were up in the long hours of the night. They were always watching that lampstand to make sure the thing was burning. He was ensuring that somebody was always ministering on their behalf. Think about this for a minute. God was ensuring and teaching the people somebody was always ministering for them on their behalf. Late hours of the night, tending to that lamp, keeping it burning. What a weighty office it was, wasn't it? The people were to encourage them. People were to pray for them in their calling. They were set apart to represent them before God. That really does fit Psalm 134, doesn't it? Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord. What of you? The priests, they ministered these things and they stayed up at night keeping the fire burning and the Lord understood, I mean the people understood that the Lord, God, had set them apart to offer what? Well, continued praise and intercession to God for them. The principle still stands today. Many writers have noticed this, that pastors and elders and deacons are set apart to minister all these blessings of God to you, to serve you. which in turn trains the people to serve one another. The whole priesthood was to be held in high esteem by God's people. Now here's where it gets really glorious. It already is. On the priests were to go, notice this, a breastplate that was adorned with gemstones over his chest. And then was an ephod, which was really a kind of overall with straps and it went over the breastplate and it was tied to his waist. And these were the outer garments. And then you'll look down and you'll see that under that he wore a robe, a tunic, and linden underclothes. In verses 9 through 13, you'll notice these stones were set in gold and were put on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones held by gold chains or these cords. On the stones were the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. Six on one shoulder, six on the other. Beautifully on the shoulders of the priests. Now think about this for a minute. On the shoulders of the priests were engraved, verse 9, the names of the sons of Israel. Right here. Right here. In grave, in the order of their birth, there's an interesting word that he uses in verse 12. And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance. so the imagery here is this that the priest symbolically when he put on his robes he put on israel and he lifted up the 12 tribes of israel on his shoulders and he carried them to god it's beautiful he was representing the people through his priestly actions and and and all the sacrifices that went on he was he was caring notice this it's amazing he's caring the the the priestly function was to bear the sins of the people on his shoulder and they were the names of israel engraved right there as he carried them into the presence of god notice the breastplate in verse 15 you make this breastplate of judgment colors are all the same Then it goes on to describe these four rows of these precious stones, sardis, topaz, in the first row, emeralds, the second, turquoise, sapphire, diamond, the third row. And I really worked on pronouncing these, and I know I butcher them, even though I worked. Jossink, agate, I got that right, I know I did. Amethyst, fourth barrel, onyx, jasper, those are easy. Then he describes all this detail of how it's to be fastened to the ephod. The breastplate was adorned with gemstones and it went over the high priest's chest and was attached to the ephod by these two chains or ropes. Notice again, verse 21, the breastplate had the names of the children of Israel. Gemstones spoke of what? Well, it's just beautiful. They were precious in his sight. I'll come back to that. The placing of the breastplate conveyed something to the people over the chest. Look at verse 29 of chapter 28. So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. He bore on his heart God's people to bring them before the Lord for remembrance. That's beautiful. On his heart. he bore on the shoulders, he carried their sins. On the other, he wore their names on his chest, signifying, these people are close to my heart. It's repeated three times. Close to the heart, close to the heart, close to the heart. The priest didn't just bear the sins in some kind of cold, abstract manner. God wanted it known. He had set these men apart to demonstrate His love for Israel. And that love was shown through His servants. And they loved doing one other great thing. The responsibility of the priest also was to communicate the will of God to the people. That's how you determine love today, by the way. Is the servant willing to tell God's people the truth? Does the pastor and the elders and the deacon care to communicate the truth, even when it stings? One of the ways that the priests communicated was through the Urim and the Thummim. There were stones so that through the breastplate, the will of God, could be determined, God in various times and in different ways spoke in times past. In other words, the leader would go to the priest with a question and something that was impossible for them to know, and the priest carrying that matter on his heart would inquire of the Lord on their behalf, and God would give an answer and communicate to the people. They would be instructed in righteousness. That was the purpose of the breastplate. now you'll notice in verses 31 to 43 just taking a jet tour through this that he describes the rest of the priestly garments they had to wear a robe of blue with little bells and a pomegranate fruit a linen turban to go around Aaron's forehead with a gold plate that rested on the turban that said holy to the lord and underneath they had to wear a little tunic of a long garment that went down to the ground was a fine linen and and he describes the other garments they're just little boxer shorts you'll notice that cover their nakedness gives a reason for this one of the purposes of the robe with the bells was to announce when the priest was entering into the holy place think about that he would jingle ding ding ding ding ding ding here he comes ding ding ding ding ding did you catch verse 35 why and it shall be when Aaron on Aaron when he ministers and it sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord and when he comes out so that he doesn't die wow you're barging in he wanted things very carefully done The priests had to be very careful in their service, didn't they? This is a brief description tonight of Aaron and his sons decked out in priestly garb to represent the people. There's so much more to spend on tonight. However, I want to get to this. Hebrews says that if perfection were through that priesthood, What further need was there for another priest who would rise up according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called to the order of Aaron? What was wrong with it? Well, you really get a good picture in Joshua 3. Zechariah, excuse me. You know the passage. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing on his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. That's this. The best garments didn't cut it. And was standing before the angel and he answered and spoke to those who stood before him saying take away the filthy garments from him and he said to him see i've removed your iniquity from you and i'll clothe you with rich robes and i said let them put a clean turban on his head well they put a clean turban on his head and they put clothes on him. You tell me what that's all about. You know. What did Jesus do for us? Well, he's the great high priest, isn't he? He was the one who came and he carried on his shoulders all of our sins. This is what Isaiah 53 is describing. He bore our iniquities. He carried them. He carried them right to the cross and nailed them there. He did. You don't nail them. So that when he paid the penalty, the penalty was paid, we paid the penalty because he represented us. And he's not a cold, careless high priest. This high priest is able to sympathize with us in all of our weaknesses. Why? Why is he able to do that? In other words, he cares a lot about you. He carried you in his heart. Ponder that one tonight. You. Now I'm not just saying he died for our sins, he died for, no, he carried you close to his heart. You mattered a great deal to him. That's what Hebrews is talking about. We have such a high priest who's fitting, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. the law appoints as high priest men who have weakness but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the son who's been perfected forever and this is the main point of the things we're saying we have such a high priest who's seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the lord erected not man he prays for you he bears you up he carried your sins and he constantly intercedes on your behalf and he prays for you helping me in all of your weakness and he always lives to make intercession he never goes to sleep tonight you're going to go to sleep he's doing that for you then that's your savior why well i want you to think about this and we'll close tonight in john 19 jesus is going to the cross you know what the soldiers did to him when they crucified jesus they took his garment and they made four parts listen to this to each soldier apart this is this and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam woven from the top in one piece. You know what he's wearing? By saying he's wearing that, John wanted everyone to know that the very undergarments the high priest wore were worn by Christ all the way to the cross. And that this high priest offered his own body on the cross was stripped, naked, paid for the sins so that today he could cover you in those robes. None of us dress nice for God. None of you will ever be able to dress nice enough for God. Get that? That kind of solves the dress issue, doesn't it? It's only Christ's robes that cover you. Do I think that drives me now in how I approach God since I've come into the most holy place? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I come now with real reverence. I come now with real godly fear. I come now because I have access. And because I'm clothed in His righteousness. That boldness does not mean carelessness. It means that the outer dress and my outer life, now I'm being sincere because I know I've been sincerely loved by one who cared enough in his heart to carry all my sins to the cross for me. And when you come to worship with that kind of perspective, With that kind of simple trust, you are worshiping in spirit and in truth and in a way that pleases Him. Let's thank Him tonight. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word today. Again, inspired by the Spirit, and we see what 2 Timothy says, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture, and it's profitable. Especially Exodus 28, which teaches us of the righteousness that we ultimately need. Thank you, oh, our faithful and true high priest who lives to make intercession for us so that we have this kind of access. Thank you for the love you've shown and the care you've given and that ultimately we're never left without the care of a Savior who constantly lives to make this intercession and bear us up on His harp before the throne. It's a marvel to think about tonight. May then we greatly appreciate the ministry you've put in place. And may us who have been called apart to this as pastors and elders and deacons give ourselves to love the people, to pray for them, to serve them, and to speak the will of God in a way that pleases You. Thank You for bearing up Your people, for carrying them on eagle's wings and bringing them to You, for loving them. May they take this this week and go in Your confidence and in Your joy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.