God of Holiness

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

God begins to command Moses in Exodus 28, verses two and three. You'll kind of see kind of where we are. All the verses are gonna be up here also, just in case you are unable to follow along or whatever. Exodus 28, two and three, it says, and you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, who is the priest, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with a spirit of skill that they make Aaron's garments, priest's garments, to consecrate him for my priesthood. First thing I want you to see is in this verse, it talks about the reason, it says, for glory and for beauty. That the reason that God is doing this, this particular way, is for glory and for beauty. That phrase, for glory and for beauty, is repeated in verse 40 of the same chapter. So God is commanding Moses to do this, and he's saying, I'm gonna do this precisely

because it is beautiful, precisely because it is glorious, and that idea is carried into the next two verses, verses four and five. It says, 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. Excuse me. Okay, clothes made with gold, with blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen, a lot of times, there's another phrase added on there, skillfully worked. That phrase, all of that I just said, from gold all the way to the linen, is repeated 12 times in these chapters.

God really, really, really wants gold, those three yarns, and some fine twined linen. Gold, obviously, very expensive, very rare. We looked at that last week, where a lot of the gold that they received from Egypt, whenever they were leaving Egypt, a lot of people just gave them their gold on the way out, which is kind of crazy when you read it, but it's true. So they kind of had that gold, but they're also getting blue and purple and scarlet yarn. Those three colors were really hard to dye yarn,

that color. Blue and purple in particular, blue is not a very naturally occurring color. Okay, it doesn't, like you can't go out in the yard and find something blue very often. It's not as prevalent as say green, or yellow, or orange, or red, or lots of other colors. Blue is kind of rare, and in that day, blue and purple and scarlet were all expensive. And also fine twined linen skillfully worked. They needed, all of them needed an expert quality. Not just anybody could fashion gold. It wasn't something everybody learned in shop, in middle school, okay? Working gold was an expert's job. Braiding twining linen was an expert job. It would be like for today, it'd be like embroidered lace. It would be like hand-worked silk. It would be like a rare fabric, okay? It would be something really rare. And then he describes each, the ephod, the breastplate, the turban, the sash, et cetera.

I wanna give you a picture of what we're talking about. You're gonna have to bear with me here. This doesn't look very glorious and beautiful to us, I understand. But this is basically what we're talking about. The reason I'm showing you this is to show you that the ephod, the ephod was kind of like this whole thing that went over the top, but it mainly rested on the shoulders. So it was like a robe that rested on the shoulders. Okay, that's what an ephod was. And so there will be no quiz on this later, okay? You don't need to memorize what the ephod was.

But I just want you to get this picture, right, of that they are dressing the priest beautifully and gloriously for a reason. The closest that we could come today would be formal wear at the Met Gala, okay? And if you are unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, there is a big banquet every year, Met Gala, and people put on some statement pieces, okay? So very famously, Octavia Cortez, the senator from New York, wore a white dress, stark white, big, huge train, and on the side of the train was written in red, tax the rich, okay? Those were a famous thing, came out about eight years ago, something like that. But it was a statement piece. She wanted to look beautiful, but she definitely wanted to make sure that everybody understood that she was making a statement to tax the rich and that they're not taxed enough. Okay, I'm not trying to make this a political discussion.

I'm simply trying to show you that there was a statement piece, a more tasteful statement piece that I thought was actually really cool. Blake Lively did this maybe 10 years ago. She wanted to demonstrate pollution. She wanted to demonstrate pollution. And she wanted to demonstrate that pollution was turning the Statue of Liberty green, okay? Or that patina, whatever, that color. So she got a dress, a beautiful dress, and she was kind of dressed like the Statue of Liberty. She had a little scepter and a little tiara, but I mean, it was a gown.

And the gown was copper. And when she goes to the top of the stairs, she flips a switch, and her gown turns into this patina color, this pewter color, to show the effects of oxidation on the Statue of Liberty. And I thought, that's super wild. I wonder how much that costs. That was a lot. But here's what I'm trying to tell you. I'm trying to tell you that these are statement pieces. These are things meant to say something, right? Meant to represent something, meant to show us something deeper. It's not just pretty stones, gold, expensive. Like it's a statement piece. Like we would see maybe at the Met Gala, okay? Let's keep moving. Let's jump into the next chapter, Acts 29, four and five. We're gonna keep seeing this glory and beauty happen right here. It says, you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments and put on Aaron

the coat and the robe and the et cetera, okay? So what he's saying is whenever Aaron is going to come and perform his priestly beauties and his sons, the first thing they're going to do is they're gonna come, they're gonna be washed. And their garments are gonna be washed. Everything's gonna be washed. In fact, it's filled with purity rituals. So they're washed, the clothes are washed. The priests are anointed with oil, which is like a big kind of purifying thing. They wore a crown on the front of that crown, front of that turban. It says, holy to the Lord, on in gold on the front of the crown, okay? We're talking about purity. We're talking about beauty. Why is God making them do all of this? It's glory. God is reflecting in the materials, in the way they're wearing stuff, he's reflecting his own glory. He's reflecting his own value so we can see it, so we can understand what's happening.

Because it's one thing to say that God is beautiful or that God is glorious. And it's another thing to see a dude dressed up in a statement piece going, I'm reflecting the glory and beauty of God right now. It's different, it hits us different, it should. Because God is just trying to lift our eyes enough to see the beginning of his majesty. He's just trying to help us, like just start to look up and understand because on majesty alone, on majesty alone, on his value alone, he is worthy of worship. On his value alone, he is worth the sacrifice that we make. He's worth the time that we give. He's worth the money that we give him. He's worth all the social capital that we lose. He's worth everything on his glory and majesty alone. He is worth us opening our mouth and sharing our story. He's worth us opening our mouth and singing to him. He's worthy of all of that.

This is aside from everything he continues to do for us on a daily basis, aside from all the ways that he has been faithful to us in our past, aside from all the grace that he's given us, aside from all that. You take all of that, that huge load, and you put that to the side and God's still worthy in and of himself. His majesty is enough to receive all glory and honor and praise. It's not just what he's done for us. It's who he is, glory. We have to, if we're gonna understand this process, we have to understand God is glorious. God is beautiful. God's majesty is here and we're not here. We're not even in the same stratosphere. So we need to grasp that. That's what's happening here. Glory, now substitution. Okay, so we've gone from glory, now we're into substitution. And we need to start with the ephod. So like I said, the ephod is kind of that robe. And at the top of the ephod were two black onyx stones

set in the shoulders, okay? Look at Exodus 28 verse 12. We're still kind of jumping back and forth. Sorry guys. It says, 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 the names, bear their names before the Lord on his shoulders for remembrance. Okay, so on the ephod, the priest is literally bearing Israel on his shoulders. And each of those onyx stones,

there were six names and there were six names. All the tribes of Israel, right? There's 12 tribes of Israel, 12 sons of Israel, and their names are engraved on those onyx stones so that the priest can bear Israel before the Lord. It doesn't stop there. Look at the breast piece a couple of verses later in Exodus 28, 21. It says, there shall be 12 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 12 tribes. So you've got six names here, six names here, and then you've got those names doubled. Again, you've got one for each of the 12 stones that's on the front of the breast piece. Okay, and then the next couple of verses spells it out for us, Exodus 28, 29. It says, so in this way, Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place

to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. What he's saying is, he's saying this priest is going to have all of your names on him when he comes before me so that I can remember you. And not like God for God, it's not. So that God can consider you in particular. God is illustrating substitution. It is representative, but it's also more than that. It's representative because the priests in these rituals are doing them on behalf of Israel. All of Israel's not putting on an ephod with stones and the whole bit, it's just the priest, but the priest is doing it as a representative to bring Israel to remembrance before the Lord. But even, catch this, even these representatives must become something more in order to go before the Lord. Let me say it again. They are representing the people, but even in their representative state, they need to become something more

to be worthy of coming before the Lord. In other words, they're not just like voting on a representative and then that person just saunters in to the Holy of Holies and says, hey, God, could you forgive everybody? That's not what's going on. That's not what's going on. That even that representative must become something more. All the ceremonial washing, all the clothes, the heads anointed, all the, everything that they're wearing, all the sacrifices that they do just to approach God. And here's what God's trying to illustrate for us and what we need to see this morning. The foundation of communion with God is substitutionary.

In other words, if you say, I'm going to commune with God, I'm going to relate to God, I'm gonna talk to God and he's gonna talk to me, we're gonna have a relationship, then you must understand the foundation, the whole reason that that relationship is possible is because of substitution. Because someone did what you couldn't do while representing you, the foundation of our communion with God is substitutionary. Because of God's absolute majesty and glory and beauty and purity, there is a danger in approaching him casually. We talked about this last week. We don't just waltz in. And so God creates this system with a substitute built in so that we understand that we need someone to come in and become something else and bear us on their shoulders

so that we can be remembered before the Lord. Biblically speaking, and I alluded to this earlier, biblically speaking, there is a giant chasm between us and God. The Bible's super clear on this. What began in Adam's sin, we were born into and we commit, like we take part in that. It's not like we're just born into sin, but otherwise we'd have been fine. It's that we're born into sin and that we commit sin. And on top of that, it's not just that we're perpetrators, but we're also victims, right? We're hurt by other people's sin. We are slaves to sin, the Bible calls us. So when it comes to sin, when it comes to us being impure, us being un-majestic, us being un-beautiful, all these things that are not God, when it comes to that, the way the Bible talks about that is that we are born into sin. And that in effect, there is nothing, nothing that you and I can muster.

There's no church attendance, there's no Bible memorization, there's no feet, there's no nothing that can somehow convince God that we're good enough or that's gonna impress him to be like, okay, well, I'll let him into heaven. You know, like I'll commune with him. I'll commune with her, look how great she is. That doesn't happen, that's not Christianity. Christianity is substitutionary. Somebody needed to do that for us. And just so that we're clear, all that God is prescribing right now is not exactly solving the problem. In kind of going through this process, they have to kill a bull, they have to kill two rams, they've gotta do a few other things, but they've gotta slaughter animals, they gotta sacrifice and burn animals, right? But what we need to understand is that the chasm between us and God, there's not enough animals to kill to bridge that gap, right?

I can't throw enough bulls on the altar for the Lord to go, okay, that's enough. Even in this, as he's prescribing this, is a grace to us. Hebrews 10-4 says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So what's happening in the Old Testament? Why are we spilling the blood of bulls and goats if it doesn't do anything? Well, it's because God has commanded it, and when we do it in faith, he looks at that and says, okay, you can, high priest, you can bear Israel on your shoulders and represent them before me, and I will be in communion with them through you. Okay, that's what's happening in the Old Testament. Okay, so we've got glory, we got substitution, and now the gore, the gore. I would like for you to try to keep track of all the blood here, got some blood. I'm gonna read a bunch of verses all in a row. So Exodus 29, we're gonna be in 29,

pretty much going through a couple of different verses. 29, 11, and 12, it says, 29, 11, and 12, it says, then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting and take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar. The altar had four kind of golden horns kind of coming out like that. So put the blood of the bull on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood, you shall pour out at the base of the altar. Okay, a lot of blood, bulls are big, and they bleed a lot. Okay, so it's going on the altar horns, and you're pouring it at the base. Look at verse 16, it says, and you shall kill the ram and shall take its blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. So we have two rams, this is the first one, you slaughter that ram and then you take the blood and you slaughter, you slosh it basically

against the side of the altar. Look at verse 20, it says, and you shall kill the ram, this is the second ram, and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. Okay, so now we have all, right, it's getting bloody, now we have all the priests that on their right ear, right thumb, right big toe have blood on it. Okay, we're not done. Verse 21, then you shall take part of the blood on the altar and of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, the garments that were just washed, we just washed these, Lord, and his sons and his sons' garments with him.

He and his garments shall be holy and his sons and his sons' garments with him. Okay, so if you're keeping track, we got blood on the altar horns, we got blood pooling at the base, we got blood sloshed against the sides of the altar, we got blood sprinkled, excuse me, we got blood on the right earlobe, right thumb, right big toe, and we have blood mixed with anointing oil sprinkled all over the priest's garment. We got blood everywhere, and the smell alone would cause visceral reactions. Some of you are gagging right now, it's gross. It's super gross. I don't know if you've ever smelled that much blood, it's gross. Like it's, listen, this is meant to be gory. This isn't like some really clean procession where everything's all pretty. So in this way, it's very different than college football. It's not a laser light show where there's 3,000 drones and they make the UT symbol in the sky.

This isn't that, this is blood. This is animal blood that is just everywhere, gross. In the pageantry and the pomp and the circumstance and the tradition that God is doing to make a way for us, He's displaying the glory and the beauty and the priest's garments, and that is gonna remind us of this unapproachable majesty that He has. He's illustrating the need for a substitute that God is graciously creating a pathway kind of for us to walk in that we can't, that we need a substitute to walk in for us. But what He's showing us here is that the substitution's pathway is a bloodbath.

It is disgusting. It smells bad. And just so we're clear, just so we're clear. Even people that grew up on a farm are still gonna be a little squeamish about slaughtering an animal and smearing its blood everywhere and throwing it against the side of stuff, okay? I don't care if you watch like baby calves being born and you were on a farm in Cleburne or wherever, that's fine, listen, that's fine. This is still going to make your stomach turn. This is still going to be gross. I mean, to wit, ending a life of any kind is still disturbing. If there were a small child killing animals and smearing its blood everywhere, the counselor's getting called, okay? Like it's not normal. This isn't like normal everyday life, kind of like teachers, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You see that and you're like, let's call home. This is not okay. All of this gore, it should help us understand

the price of forgiving sin. It should bring upon us the weight of what it took to forgive what we've done against the Lord. It's a way to illustrate the carnage that happens in our relationship with the Lord, but also the carnage that happens relationally between you and other people. Because in that big fight with that friend that you still haven't spoken to ever again, there might not have been a drop of blood dropped, but the carnage was real. The silence is real. The broken relationship is real and it's hard.

And whenever we sin, it's just a little bit, we just get this taste of the absolute destruction it would bring us. The emotional pain that we feel, the relational pain that we suffer, the spiritual pain that we go through, all of that points toward the price of sin. This pangs of guilt that we feel whenever we do something that we don't need to do. And just to make this absolutely 100% here in this scenario, in this scenario, we are the unclean people that need substitution. We are the ones that need someone else to bring our name written on them before the Lord so that the Lord can remember us. It's not just that we can't go to God on our own, it's that, I mean, if we stepped into His presence, we would turn into a grease spot. He's just that powerful. He's that majestic. We are the ones who need blood to be spilled and splattered and we are the ones who need the lesson.

We are the ones who need to read Exodus 28 and 29 and 39 and to understand in all of this, in all that the priest is doing, in the way that the priest is dressed up and all that, that our sin costs a life. Whether it is our life, or a life taken by a substitute, or the life of a substitute, this is the offer of the gospel, quite simply, as plain as I could say it. The offer of the gospel is the exchange between your sin, every way that you don't measure up, everything that you've ever done wrong, all the price in that, all the carnage, you wrap that up, you just say, this is it. This is all I've got, just gross smelling, unusable filth, and you give that to God.

And God says, okay, I'm gonna receive that and in exchange, I'm gonna give you a new life. I'm gonna give you remembrance before the Lord. I'm gonna give you a relationship. But none of that is possible without a substitute doing that for us. We needed a mediator.