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All right, take your Bibles this
morning and turn to Exodus chapter 28. And I want to thank Pastor John for
asking me to preach this morning. It's a great responsibility to
preach here, but it is an honor and a privilege. Always has been,
always will be, as far as I know. And he's young. He doesn't know. I was trying to refrain from
saying things like that. It is the truth. And I'm old. I don't know either. That goes
both ways. We're both off the hook now.
And it is up to the Lord this morning to speak to your heart
or do anything with any of us. Sometimes I marvel that God,
if you stop and consider the number of people that we have,
the number of various situations and circumstances, And all of
the things that happened just previous to coming to church
this morning, not including all the things last week and farther
in the past. I marvel that God can use any
of us and that he can accomplish anything in our presence. It's
only as we yield to him. So I would ask that you would
bow your heads with me this morning and pray, pray for me specifically,
but pray as well that you receive what God has for you this morning
from his word. Heavenly father, this morning,
Lord, we thank you God for Your presence that is promised in
the scriptures, that where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst of them. We seek that presence
regularly, God, and of course this morning I ask that you would
honor us with your presence in regards to the preaching. Help
me, God, give me liberty. Give me the freedom of speech
to say the things that you desire to be said. Give me your mind
and your heart in regards to the subject of holiness. And
God, I pray that these people would be receptive to all that
you might require of them. And I must confess, I have no
idea what that might be. I know how you have dealt with
my heart in regards to the preparation. But I pray, God, that Hope Baptist
Church would be a lighthouse of holiness that would bring
honor and glory to thee. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Exodus chapter 28 and verse 36. The Bible says, and thou shalt
make a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it, like the engravings
of a signet, holiness to the Lord. Thou shalt put it on a
blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre, upon the forefront
of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things,
which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy
gifts. And it shall be always upon his forehead. that they
may be accepted before the Lord. Holiness to the Lord in verse
36 is where I would draw your attention to this morning in
regards to having a text to preach, something to preach about. Obviously,
the subject is holiness. Modern Christianity, maybe I
should say American Christianity, knows very little of the holiness
of God. We have kind of disenfranchised ourselves from it, we've become
void and vapid in our lives in regards to holy living. It used
to be that preachers preached a lot about it, but I lamented
myself this week that it's been a long time since I've heard
someone preach on holiness. Not that we don't have that standard,
we just don't talk about it. We've kind of all agreed that
I don't know anybody that's holy, you don't know anybody that's
holy, therefore we just don't talk about that. And I don't
blame the church primarily, I blame preachers. And I think there
are several reasons why preachers have left off preaching on holiness. There are some unpopular topics
in the scripture that even preachers don't like to preach on. Hell
is one of them. No one likes to think about that.
But it is a necessity that we preach on hell when we preach
the gospel. It is a necessity, then, that once someone is saved,
that we emphasize holiness in the life of that individual.
Where is holiness alive, then? I say holiness is alive in heaven.
It is alive in the very spirit of God. It is alive within our
midst. It's just that sometimes we don't
seem to be affected by it. And I think there are several
reasons why we are negligent and hesitant to preach on holiness. Number one, I think the subject
is too weighty. I think I discovered that this
week. Pastor John spoke to me, asked me if I was ready. You
know, that's just one of the dumbest questions anyone can
ask a preacher, especially when he knows what I'm preaching on.
It is crushing to deal with the subject of holiness. You know,
if our job is, and it is, to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ,
do you know to lift up a physical body without any aid, without
any help, takes physical strength? And for us to lift up a spiritual
body of the stature of Jesus Christ, it takes extreme spiritual
strength. The strength that I don't know
even a godly man would struggle with the subject of holiness.
But we're going to tackle it this morning. Because I realized
that if the word of God is like bread and like milk and like
meat, we just can't drink the milk. We can't pick and choose. You know, as a kid, I used to
push things off my plate as much as possible, peas. I got an amen there, thank you.
I wouldn't eat them. I couldn't eat them. They made
me sick. I tried to prove that to my mother.
Eventually, she stopped giving me peas. She sought other means
to get nutritional food into my body. But the truth is, I
like cookies and milk. But we cannot continue to push
portions of nourishment off of our plate that will only do what
only those nutritional elements will do in the diet of a Christian.
We must have an exposure to holiness or we create a weak and anemic
Christianity, a cookies and cream Christian that can do nothing. And it's not very practical either.
You know, this is the day of practicality. We have so much
preaching on practical things, but have we not just about mired
ourselves in the pit of practicality to the point where we can't even
perform the simplest task as Christians? Everything becomes
too complicated. Everything is too hard for us.
Again, it goes back to the diet. We need the nutrition that is
found in certain portions of the scripture and when as preachers
we neglect to, and I don't intend to force feed the congregation
this morning, but you need to taste and see how good God is
in His holiness. I have just sampled this week,
and God is good. And then on top of all that,
we become discouraged. We are so easily discouraged
in this life. We think that we cannot, we concede
to the devil, but we're like the team that never shows up.
Football, basketball, whatever your favorite sport is, if you
don't show up and play, you don't win. You concede the victory
to the other. It's the easiest victory anyone
can have. We're like the army that never
takes the field. Sure, we've got the armor on,
we're in battle array, but we never take the field, we never
get the victory, and we rest in the fact that Jesus Christ
has gained the victory for us. But could I just say this, as
a father and as a mother, you sit in here today, you expect
something from your children, do you not? You have protected them,
provided for them. God expects something from his
church. God expects something from every
believer that he has gone to the trouble to save. And of course, you're sitting
here this morning and reasoning, well, if you don't know anything
about holiness, and nobody you know knows anything about holiness,
and you're not holy, then what can we expect to learn about
holiness? And what gives you the right
to speak to me about holiness? Well, the first question will,
the only thing I can say to answer that question is I have about
45 minutes to an hour to show what I've learned about holiness.
And it's not much, but that answers that question. And as far as
the second question goes, what right do I have to speak to you?
I have no right. And I don't intend to speak to
you. I expect the Holy Spirit of God to speak to your heart,
to maybe have a private word with you while I'm saying a few
things this morning, because that is his job and not mine. My job is only to preach the
Word of God and in essence prepare you for what He may have for
you. Exodus chapter 23 and verse 36. What are we talking about
when we talk about holiness? One of the things that we have
to do nowadays is define our terms. I'm going to do the best
that I can. It may take me the whole service
just to do that, to define Holiness, what it is in my mind, what do
I expect to carry through in the way of this message this
morning for you to keep in mind. We're in a portion of Scripture
where there are some preparations being made for the tabernacle.
God is preparing Israel, He's brought them out of Egypt, He's
preparing them to worship Him in the manner that He desires
to be worshipped in. He has every right to demand
of us to worship Him in holiness if He so desires, and we will
discover that He does. The preparations for the priesthood
are here. The tabernacle, the furnishings, the table of showbread,
the candlestick, the covers, the bowls, the spoons, on and
on and on. Every piece that God requires
in His worship has to be declared holy. Holy. And, of course, God
takes care of that. All of these things that are
being prepared are holy, including the priests' garments and the
priests themselves. They have to be cleansed. They have to
be declared holy. What does it mean to be holy?
Well, for that, we'll go to the first mention in Scripture, Exodus
chapter 3 and verse 1. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 1.
The Bible says, Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside
of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb,
this is Sinai. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he
looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. Moses said, I will now turn aside and see
this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord
saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the
midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. Holy crap, what did that mean
to Moses? Moses had been traipsing all
around this mountain, maybe up on the mountain. Later on, we
find out that God's very serious about his holiness. This is his
habitation. There was no neon sign saying,
God lives here out in the middle of the wilderness. Moses had
no idea. He was drawn by a phenomenon,
a burning bush. He was drawn to it. God exhibiting his holiness. And then he approaches it and he hears his
name called. God, of course, knew Moses' name. He was a murderer. And God was looking for him.
He was a young man, a unique young man that God had saved.
and desired to use him, and in his self-will, I believe, he
nearly spoiled the plan of God. I always say that Moses decided
to take out the Egyptians, but he was gonna take them out one
at a time. And God's plan was so much better. In God's wisdom,
he said, no, no, no, no, no, you can't take them out all at
once. You go to the wilderness for 40 years, I'll teach you
a few lessons. I wanna take them out all at once. That way I get
the glory. I mean, Moses could have been
one of the greatest hit men that we know in history, taking out
Egyptians one at a time. Could he not? I mean, they would
have made a movie about him, called him a mechanic or something.
But the strangest thing happens when he approaches God, when
he's drawn to God, he hears the voice of God saying, put off
thy shoes, draw not nigh hither, for the place whereon thou stand
is his. Do you suppose God meant what he said? I can't imagine
that he didn't. What do you suppose would have
happened if Moses had, it doesn't say that he did, but I'm guessing
that he did because he lived to tell about it. What do you
suppose would have happened if he hadn't taken his sandals off
or his shoes off? You say, well, God would have
dropped him like a bad habit. I guess so, but I'm not sure. I don't
know. He complied. He submitted to the will of God.
And so God was able to use him. Can you imagine the tension in
this moment? Because Moses knows who he is.
You know, child of God, you know who you are. God knows who you
are. And if he calls your name this
morning, it's a call to holiness of life. holiness in the life
of the believer that will honor God, that will bring glory to
Him. What we are reading right here
is a confrontation with Moses, the lawgiver, and of course he's
not aware of God's plan for him, but it's a confrontation with
the holiness of God. and I believe this with all my
heart. God desires to confront, if he's going to use Hope Baptist
Church, he desires to confront Hope Baptist Church with the
holiness of God. And we'll see. Are you curious? That's what drew Moses to that
burning bush. Curiosity. God will use a simple
thing like curiosity. Why did you come to church this
morning? Why do you come Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after
Sunday? Some of you on Sunday night,
some of you on Wednesday. Why do you continue to come?
Do you know what you're in for? Someone's going to take the word
of God and rip your face off. We're going to sing the same
songs in spite of the fact we're incorporating some new music
into our repertoire. Did I say that right? That's
probably French, probably just blaspheming the Lord. We're going to sing the same
songs. We're going to have the same conversation. I'm going
to preach the same Bible, Pastor John. No matter who's in the
pulpit, we've got the same book. Why did you come? Same reason
I come. I'm curious. I'm not curious
who's going to be here. I'm not necessarily interested
in that other than I am curious if the Lord's going to be here.
I'm curious if God's going to show up. I hunger and thirst. for righteousness because he's
righteous. I'm looking for a thrill, I'm
looking for some excitement myself. But at my age, I'm having difficulty
just you talking about being exciting doesn't excite me that
much. I want to see God, I want to
be, you know, I believe God enjoys the tension that he creates by
just manifesting himself. And he cannot manifest himself
in any other manner than in his holiness. He doesn't come to
give us the warm fuzzies. He comes in our presence to make
you, the word Pastor John uses is awkward, awkward moment. God loves to create awkward moments. That's how I know Pastor John
is following God because he creates awkward moments. on a regular
basis. But the God who is love, the
God who is rich in mercy, the God who is the I am, the God
who is, is ablaze with holiness. You and I cannot look, no wonder
in the Old Testament everyone that came into contact with God
was afraid they would die. I don't know if you play with
fire, but it's not advisable. I have some experience along
those lines. In Exodus, we read about holiness. It gets to the
point, though, where it's holy, holy, holy this, holy that. What made the difference? This
mountain was not holy the day before Moses showed up and God
declared it to be holy. What makes these things holy? In heaven, we're told in the
book of Revelation that the angels, the seraphim, the cherubim, they
surround the throne of God crying, holy, holy, holy, so that the
atmosphere of heaven is holy in the presence of a holy God.
But what makes the difference? This isn't a mountain. This is
the church. This isn't heaven. This is the
church. We live in reality. What makes
the difference? What made the difference? Before it's all over
with, God declares that an assembly of the nation of Israel would
be holy. Are you kidding? But that's what
we have here. And that's what we think week
after week. I know I am in the pulpit this morning preaching
about holiness and some of you have had that thought, are you
kidding? I know this guy. Are you kidding? I say the same
thing. Because I'm confronted with preaching
about holiness to Hope Baptist Church, my home church. And I
look around and I make the same judgments that you do. I'm sarcastic,
I'm cynical. I'm not as good at it, so I don't
try to show off. But I say the same thing. God,
are you kidding? You want this group to be holy?
You want me to preach on holiness and be taken seriously? I know
I'm not taken seriously, no matter what I say anyway, but what made
the difference? It was God declaring that these
things were holy. It was an association. You know,
holiness is like a brand with God. When I was growing up, Levi's
were a brand, probably one of the first brands. You're all
acquainted with brands now. You don't buy anything that's
not a brand now. But man, when I was a kid, Levi's, the first
pair was made in 1890. I think I got my first pair in
1891. Maybe it was 1992. I don't know. But here's the thing. Levi's
and blue jeans became synonymous. If you said blue jeans, they'd
wear Levi's. I know there are other brands now, and I'll wear
another brand to work, but if it's for good, like church. I
mean, I'm wearing Levi's. It's got a red tag. What made
the difference? God's association, God's declaration,
God's branding something to be holy. That ground was holy because
God declared it to be so. God, that mountain was holy because
God's presence was found there. God, that mountain was holy because
God's associating himself with this mountain now in the presence
of Moses. Holiness and God, God and holiness. It's like Levi's. You say, God,
you're talking about holiness. You say, Jeans, you're talking
about Levi's. You ain't talking about no other Jeans. If you're
talking to me, you're talking about holiness. You're talking
about God, our God, your God. In Exodus chapter 15 and verse
11, we find out that after all this talking about holiness and
being in the presence of a holy God and watching him work and
move in their midst, delivering them out of Egypt, Israel gets
the message. God is holy. Look at this. The
Egyptians are dead on the seashore behind them. They walked across
on dry ground. The water stood up like a wall
on each side. God led them by a pillar of fire.
And they sing a song on the other side. Who is like unto thee,
O Lord? Verse 11. Among the gods who is like thee,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Exodus chapter 30 verse 29 says,
and thou shalt sanctify them that they may be most holy. God doesn't just stop at holiness
when he's declaring things to be holy, but there are some things,
there are degrees of holiness to the point that some things
become most holy. And I did a little studying on
that and those most holy things had the power to consecrate and
make holy other things. So that if you touch them, you
know the old preachers used to talk about the touch of God.
Holiness, being touched by God, meant you were touched by holiness.
I have known some people in my lifetime, my grandmother for
one. Her prayers immediately brought
you into the presence of God. She had a son that I'm told favored his father. And when
he prayed, he brought you immediately into the presence of God, into
the presence of holiness. I never thought about those two
individuals the same way I think about other people. They had
the touch of God on them. I've known some preachers at
times who had that touch. Some of them lost it. But being
made holy by touching This holiness here that we're reading about
in Exodus chapter 30 was brought on by a holy ointment, holy oil,
a type. May I remind you of the Holy
Spirit of God that indwells each believer. Can you live with the
Holy Spirit every day and not be touched by the Holy Spirit
of God? There is something about you
that God desires to make holy, or maybe not most holy. He doesn't
want to make a priest out of you or anything. Oh, too late.
already are because you've been declared priests and kings. So
what we're looking at here in regards to the garments of Aaron
And some people say that, well, Aaron was sanctified. And I've
done enough study in the scripture to realize sanctification is
very close to holiness. But it didn't fit for me. It
didn't work. God was more than sanctification. It was more than
getting into heaven and saying, sanctified, sanctified, sanctified,
set apart, set apart, set apart, consecrated, consecrated, consecrated. That just didn't do anything
for me. So I continued to read and study. One of the preachers that I listened
to said that the holiness of God was the otherness of God. It didn't do anything for you
either, did it? The otherness of God, it's what makes God unique. It's what makes him different.
Holiness is what makes God different. This world knows nothing of holiness.
We don't necessarily practice a holy life. We've lost the concept
of holiness ourselves. It's what makes God different. He's the creator. Sure, he's
apart from his creation that's established in the book of Genesis,
but he's also more than that. He's more than omnipotent. He's
more than omniscient. He's more than any of the qualities
that I could come up with. But as I thought, I began to
think, I read 1 Peter 1, verse 15. And I found that God requires
me to be holy. So I had best figure out what
holiness is, if he's requiring it of me. he says in first peter
one verse fifteen but as he which hath called you is holy so be
ye holy in all manner of conversation it's not just enough that i'm
holy in one aspect of my life god demands holiness and this
is peter writing this is new testament this is not old testament
you have no excuse peter says and wasn't he holy peter says under the inspiration
of the holy spirit of god that God expects you to be holy in
all manner of conversation, meaning everything that you do in your
life, your walk and your talk. He's quoting, of course, Leviticus
chapter 11, some instruction to the priests, and farther down
in Leviticus chapter 11, verse 47, God says to make difference
between the unclean and the clean. So again, I'm being led to believe
that, okay, it's more than sanctification, it's to be clean, right? So then
in heaven, the angels are saying, clean, clean, clean. That's the
difference between us and God. It doesn't fit. It doesn't do
that. It doesn't sum everything up
for me. And then I began to read again in Genesis, Genesis chapter
17 and verse one about another man who was confronted with God.
Genesis chapter 17 and verse 1, the Bible says, And Abram
was ninety years old and nine. The Lord appeared to Abram and
said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou
perfect. But as I read that, because my
mind was on holiness, I wanted to jump to conclusion. I almost
supplied the word holy there. And I don't think I'd be too
far off the mark. Obviously, there are warnings in the Bible
against doing such things. But I wonder if I'm not too far
off the mark by supplying the word holy or defining the word
holy as being perfect. Jesus Christ, when he came, I've
already mentioned, was holy. It's what made the difference
between him. He spoke as one having authority. He had authority
because he had holiness. He possessed that virtue of God.
But he was also perfect. He did not sin. And we can't
apply it to us as being sinless. That's the mistake the holiness
movement makes. I'm talking about some wildfire like Hothnai and
Phineas. I'm not intending to get anybody
killed in here because you think you can go out, break your neck,
trying to live a holy life. Without the help of Jesus Christ,
there'll be no holiness found within any of us, within a mile
of us. Those things that we admire about
God are called His graces, His almightiness, His all-knowing,
His all-mercy. And these graces, bear with me,
I'm trying to define what holiness is so we can deal with it. And
these graces are all whole, perfect. In other words, every grace that
God possesses is perfect. You may possess a grace of God
to a certain degree, but it's not perfected in you, is it?
But the heart of God is this, John chapter 17 and verse 23
says, I in them and thou in me and that they may be made perfect
in one. I know I've mentioned this before
in some of my teaching that God expects perfection from us. God desires in the end to make
you perfect. And in the process, he makes
you holy. And when we speak of the holiness
of God, here's what I believe. We speak of the sum total of
the perfections of perfection. God has taken perfection to use
the buzzword to the next level. Perfect perfections. We have the kids sing, he's still
working on me. Maybe you sing that song from
time to time when you fall down like a little kid. Righteous
man falls seven times. Don't deny you fall down because
we all fall down. If you're a righteous man, you
do. If you have no righteousness, if you don't know Jesus Christ
and you fall down, there's nobody there to help you up. I've found
that's been good for me. Been good for my wife, I can
tell you that. Good to have somebody to help you up from time to time.
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 3 says, are you so foolish having
begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? You know, we look at the Galatians,
we read that letter, we see Paul scolding them, and at the same
time we go out and we make the same mistake they did, don't
we, every week. Try to perfect what God wants to work out in
our lives in the flesh. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 8
says, though we were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered and being made perfect and I discovered it depends
on how you read that when was he made perfect you can read
that that he was made perfect by his obedience or you can you
can read it that he was made perfect therefore he was obedient
and I don't care how you read it it's still impressive And
being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him. This perfect book that we have
in our laps this morning was written by a perfect man who
lived a perfect life, who was a holy God in his entirety. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
40 says, God having provided some better thing for us that
they without us should not be made perfect. Aaron is the example
that we have of the great high priest. Was he perfect? He certainly
was not. But God declared him holy. So
like us, God's still working. God went through the process
of working on Moses and Aaron. We have all the examples in the
Old Testament of imperfect people. that God's working on, and we
see how God brought them to places of great service to Him when
they submitted to His will. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
23 says, "...to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect." God desires perfection
in your life so much that this is just a warm-up. This is just
a dress rehearsal. This maybe is just to test how
badly you really want it. How badly do you really want
God? I know I've seen some people go after God, and it always didn't
turn out the way they intended, but I'll tell you one thing,
in the end, when this thing is all over, those individuals,
along with you and me, whether you like it or not, you're gonna
be made perfect. God said so in his word. Someday, we're gonna
be perfect. Now stop thinking about that
one person you know that's perfect right now. We all know somebody
that's perfect. You know, if you were perfect,
we couldn't stand you. But the good thing about it is those
people that are perfect, they don't know it. So don't tip your hand,
don't let them know that nobody likes them. But we're looking
at the prototype, of course, of Jesus Christ and Aaron, the
high priest. And specifically, we're leading
up to the New Testament where Paul says, as Aaron put on those
holy garments, Paul instructs us, commands us through the Holy
Spirit, says, put ye on. The Lord Jesus Christ, if there's
anything perfect about you, if there's anything that I can admire
about you spiritually, and I'm not talking about spiritual beauty, I'm telling you that you owe
God for it. Danny Hall and his wife used to sing a song that
he put off the old coat and he put on the new. He was an old
drunk out in Chicago and got saved. His wife traveled around
the country And they were a blessing to the body of Christ. They were
a blessing to the church. He had a tough life, though.
He had a rough road to hoe. It wasn't a rose-strewn pathway
for Danny. He died diseased. His wife, I
think, is still alive. But he was a blessing to the
church. He used what God gave him to the nth degree. Back in Exodus chapter 28 and
verse 36. Again, let's look at it. Holiness
is the sum total of all the perfections of God's graces, the perfection
of perfections. And it's been placed on the head,
on the miter of Aaron, the high priest, the priest of God. Aaron
stands in holiness to speak to God for the nation of Israel. God in His holiness speaks to
Aaron. Much the same relation that the
preacher has today, but God speaks to priests. Don't forget, Revelation. You're a priest. You're a king.
The veil is rent. Keep that in mind. This is not
exclusionary. This includes you. And we're
not told in the verses that I read, but in the next chapter, in Exodus
chapter 29 and verse 6, we learn this. in verse six, and thou
shalt put the miter upon his head and put the holy crown upon
the miter. The crown is peculiar to the
high priest in our text here that we're reading. But if you
are a priest, then you have a crown. You have a crown of holiness
that is displayed to everyone else you may not be aware of.
God desires you to be a witness and a testimony to his holiness
in this unholy world. And the church has come to the
conclusion that it must not be very important. If you think
about the way you live your daily life, how often do you think
about, well, I wonder if God would approve of what I'm doing?
How often do we just go about our daily business thinking and
believing and convincing ourselves we're so deceitful? Telling ourselves,
God's okay with this, God's okay with that, God's okay with this.
But could I remind you, everything that we've looked at here so
far, Aaron's garments, Moses' shoes, God says, take this off,
put this on, and I'm not gonna make a point of this, but God's
interested in how individuals dress. I know that's not a popular
topic, but we're not in a contemporary church, so I don't have to be
popular. God's interested in what you wear. God's interested
in how you live your life. God's interested in your conversation,
what comes out of your mouth, but your walk. God wants the
church to look good. And sometimes we don't help God.
Sometimes we do not help God. Let me remind you and get to
my point. I only have a couple, but the
crown represents the holiness of God. And holiness is important
to God, I believe, because it is pictured as a crown. Crown
is a very important part of the king's wardrobe or the priest's
wardrobe. And it is important because this
crown, this holiness is vested in a crown. It's important. Whether
or not it's important to us up here in the year 2020, Whether
or not we think it's important doesn't change the fact that
it's important to God. And this crown is a crown of
ponderance. To ponder means to weigh in the
mind, to be a weight, something that you carry with you. And
certainly it was. The Bible says that in verse
36, "...and thou shalt make a plate of pure gold." It is fashioned
out of a plate, beaten out of a plate of gold. It is obviously
beaten fairly thin. It is worn on the mitre, on the
headdress, on the forehead. We find out later. But it is
fashioned from gold. And gold is a very precious metal. But it is also a very heavy metal. I was just looking for a response
there to see if we had any heavy metal fans. I'm a fan of gold
myself. I love heavy metal myself. Wish
I had some. Gold is a heavy metal, one of
the heaviest metals. In fact, on the chart that I looked at,
tungsten was the only thing that came close. Everything else was
about half the weight of gold. So that you could see, well,
it didn't add a lot of weight, but it did add some. And I just guarantee
you that the idea or the fact or the thought that Aaron had
in his mind was, you're putting a gold crown on my head that
says, holiness to the Lord is something that Aaron thought
about. when he ministered in the table.
It was something that when his sons put on those holy garments
thought about. They had to cleanse themselves
before they were robed in holy garments. That cleansing was
taken care of by them. Can you imagine if they cleaned
themselves the way we do? I mean, when I was a kid, I always
missed a spot. I still miss spots sometimes. I find myself sometimes
in church here on a Wednesday night or a Sunday morning digging
some glue off my hand. That's after several baths, probably.
But the glue sticks. This world has a way of sticking
to us. And we have a way of thinking, oh, I'm OK. I'm clean. I jumped
in. I jumped out. I got my hair dry. I'm ready
to go. We're in a hurry, often too much of a hurry. Crowds of
monarchs these days are only worn on special occasions. But
I'm telling you, Aaron. wore the crown every day. God
expects you to wear the crown of holiness every day. Not just
on special occasions. Not just on Sunday when we go
to church. Not just if we're going to a
funeral or a wedding or we're around family. Every day God
expects us to represent holiness. That could be a weighty proposition.
You know, I read some things about the royal crown. One of
those crowns weighs almost five pounds. England has a queen now,
Queen Elizabeth. She's not that big. She might
be really big. I don't know. But I don't think
she's that big. But she said this about that crown when she
gave an interview in regards to it. She said, they put it
on your head. It just stays there. It's awkward. It's unwieldy. Five pounds. Imagine that on your head. We
can't imagine it because we've never carried anything like that.
The lesser crown weighs about two and a half, almost three
pounds. But it has diamonds, emeralds, pearls, the black prince's
ruby mounted on it. All of this regalia for special
occasions for the queen. Very unwieldy, she said. In fact,
she said, I had to give a speech. And she said, I had to hold a
speech up because if I was to lean my neck down, the crown
would break my neck. or it would fall off. Better keep your head up. Holiness
will break your neck. The weight, the thought of holiness
can break your neck. Keep your head up in this world.
You know, so much of the church is walking around with its head
down in a defeated disposition so that You know that holiness
crown, one of the things about it, you know, the queen is always
seen in public. But you have to be close to the queen to see
that crown and appreciate it. You'd have to be close to the
high priest. I know there were some public displays of the garments
that they wore and there were some functions that they tended
to. But again, always that crown
was upon his head when he went through the daily duties of the
worship of God there in the tabernacle, most of the time in private.
Even in private. Son of God, the Lord expects
you to represent him in holiness. He confronts you with that this
morning. Always, it says in verse 38, always on the forehead. And what were the ramifications?
I tell you, we talk about the Old Testament. I'm so glad we
weren't in the Old Testament for various reasons. But when
we get a load of this, look, in verse 35 of chapter 28, It
says, and it shall be upon Aaron the minister, and his sound shall
be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord,
and when he cometh out, that he die not. Think about the last
time you represented holiness in your own life, that small
window, and then recognize the fact that if we were living in
the Old Testament, it would mean death for us all, death for us
all. Exodus 28 and verse 43 says,
And they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons, when they
come in into the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they
come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place, that they
bear not iniquity and die. Now they were bearing the iniquity
of the nation of Israel, but it still shows you how serious
God is about His holiness. Don't put on the right garments,
don't dress the right way, And God says, I will destroy you
and your worship. You'll never worship me again
that way. And again, none of that applies to us as modern
Christians. It's all Old Testament. But the
Bible does say in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14, follow peace
with all men, holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. And I believe that's probably
in the context speaking of someone that needs to be saved. But if
you're wondering why you haven't seen God in a while, why he hasn't
shown up in your life to help you, why he doesn't manifest
himself here or when you pray, when you have a legitimate need,
when you've cried out to him and he's not answering, you don't
see him, might be a lack of holiness, might be a lack of effort on
your part to please God. It might be that you have laid
that crown aside and decided that's not a part of my wardrobe
anymore. I just don't, that's out of fashion. There are far
better things to wear now. It is amazing, isn't it, that
God is interested in how men in the tabernacle are clothed.
I mean, it's almost like that's kind of strange, isn't it? Men
that are caught up too much with their dressing these days, that's
kind of strange, isn't it? I mean, really. You're going
off the deep end if you think about it too much. But think
about it this way. You're representing God. Should
we not give some thought to it? Should we not? Should we not
imitate the Lord Jesus Christ when he came robed in righteousness,
in holiness, when he spoke as one that had authority? And then
I will say that holiness is important to God and should be important
to us as well because of its prominence. In priority, you
don't notice that the holiness of the crown is not mentioned
first. It's not the first garment made.
There are a whole series of things that are gone through God declares
holy before he even gets to the garments of Aaron and his sons.
But because of its prominence, it sits here. It would be one of the first
things that you would probably notice about the high priest. And it would be the only thing
that you could read. You couldn't read the stones
and the ouches on the shoulders. You couldn't see the Urim and
Thummim. It was enclosed. You couldn't see the linen breeches. You couldn't see so much, but
you would be able to see that plate. It would glisten. And
it would draw your attention. You would be curious about it.
You would want to read it. It's not the first thing mentioned.
It's almost, even in the narrative, it's almost like it's an accessory.
It's like something that we would put on like a watch, or we would
put on like cufflinks, or ladies, you might put something on as
an accessory, a bracelet or a necklace. But it's far more important than
that. It is not an accessory. It is an absolute necessity or
the priest dies. Holiness is absolute necessity
in the life of the believer. And it has a beauty to it that
the king can appreciate. In Psalm chapter 96 in verse
9, the Bible says, Oh, worship the Lord. David was a king in
the beauty of holiness. David was a man after God's own
heart. David knew God. Fear before him all the earth.
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. It had a functional
feature as well as just the beauty that you could appreciate. Holiness
on that crown that the priest wore said the Lord reigneth. holiness in the life of a believer
testifies to the world and every other believer that the Lord
reigns if no place else in that life if God didn't reign any
place else but on that Mount Horeb or on that Mount Sinai
before Moses he reigned there he struck a claim this is my
mount you touch it you don't submit to me, you're dead. You're dead. I think it's the
answer to why we are so dead spiritually. I think it's the
answer to why we can be described and sometimes thrown in with
the Laodicean church. We don't see the beauty and holiness
like David did. Therefore, we leave it out of
our wardrobe, our everyday attire, as well as our Sunday best. Isaiah says in verse 2 of chapter
53, For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as
a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty. The world doesn't
see any beauty in Christ. I didn't see any beauty in Christ
until I got saved. And my eyes were opened. Like
the blind man that I was, I saw God for the first time. And could
I tell you this? I saw him in his holiness like
Isaiah and said, woe is me, just like him. I wasn't dealing with
another human being. I wasn't dealing with my wife
who I thought I knew how to handle. I wasn't dealing with my father.
I wasn't dealing with my mother who I was able to get around.
I wasn't dealing with any human being, I was dealing with a holy
God. Enough to cause me to tremble. Enough though to draw me to Him. Holiness to the Lord. Bible says,
Genesis chapter 17, I've already referenced it, but God told Abram,
walk before me, be thou perfect. Walk before me. It was as if
God was inspecting every step, as if God were looking Abram
over for the perfection that he demanded and required. How important is holiness? Are
you curious enough this morning to want to experiment in your
own life personally this week? and tried to develop some holiness
that might please God. The holiness on that crown was
not seen by a lot of people, most of it within the private
duties of Aaron there in the temple and the tabernacle, but
God saw that crown. God saw, God knew that it was
in place every time. The Bible says that the world
is blind to the beauty that's in Christ Jesus, and certainly
we know that is true. And in Ezekiel chapter 16 and
verse 14, the Bible says, and thy renown, speaking of Jerusalem,
went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect
through my comeliness. We're all about beauty. We're
all about looking good. We're all about styling, but
that's not what this is about. God finds beauty in comeliness. the comely parts, the members of the body that
don't get any attention, members of the body that God sees holiness
in that life. And I tell you, you get discouraged.
We all get discouraged. But the beauty of a life is often
in the unseen, not in the seen. In the unseen service and sufferings,
of one that's submitted to the holiness of God. That's what
you'll see if you live long enough. I've lived long enough to see
it a few times. I recognize it when I see it. I don't always
acknowledge it, but I do appreciate it. And I do know that God sees
it. He loves it. He admires it because he sees
one that is trying to please him. So much of the world, so
much of the church is not trying to please God. Don't make the
effort. And I'm not talking about a work
salvation. I'm not talking about gaining favor with God. But wouldn't
you like to please Him? Every one of us could do something.
Bobby taught in Sunday school this morning, showed us how we
could serve God. Different avenues, within the
church, without the church. All of us have some way. You
know, the crown had to get crooked once in a while, didn't it? I
mean in the activities that Aaron was involved in. He's waving
a wave offering. He's conducting the choir, whatever
he's doing. That crown gets crooked unless
somebody helps him, unless somebody straightens it. You know what
God does for us? That holy crown that God has
put upon us when we go out before the world. Sometimes in our pride,
we kind of slip it off to the side. We wear it kind of jauntily
like we're proud of it, you know? We strut a little bit. And then
God slaps you upside the head and straightens that crown. Or
maybe you slip and fall and you're not even aware it's tied on that
blue ribbon that associates and attaches it to God himself in
holiness, in his royalty. And he will straighten it for
you so that no one gets the wrong idea about the holiness of God.
It's not something slipshod. It's not something that we're
not careful about. It's a cover for us for the fiery darts. Look at this, in verse 37, it
says, thou shalt put it on the blue lace that it may be upon
the mitre upon the forefront. I say it's important because
it's prominent, because it's preeminent, because it's permanent.
Look at this, on the forefront of the mitre it shall be, and
it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, showing you the exact position
where holiness should be displayed. You know, in the front of the
tabernacle, there were curtains, five of them, the sixth one was
doubled. You know what the crown of holiness does? It protects
the mind. It's on the forehead. It's in
the forefront. Shame on us, Christian, if God's
holiness is not in the forefront of our thoughts as we go out
to serve him. Shame on us, Christians, if that's
not the first thought on our mind that we might touch or we
might tarnish the holiness of God, that we might not be the
witness that he wants us to be. It was in the forefront. The forefront of the battle is
where it's the hottest. The forefront of the battle is
where David sent Uriah and he died. The forefront, it should
not be pushed to the back of your mind. It should be in the
forefront always. It should be a curtain that keeps
the world out, the culture from creeping into the mind and thoughts
of believers today. And that is a battle. The mind
is vulnerable. The heart is vulnerable to the
attacks of the devil. It will protect you from the
fiery darts. It is the ultimate piece of the
king's attire. It's one of the last things that
they put on, Aaron. It's what makes a king royalty. It's argued that kings didn't
wear their crowns in the battle, but legend has it that Henry
V wore the black prince's ruby in a crown that was built into
his armor at Azencourt. The details of the battle say
they were outnumbered six to one, maybe even higher odds than
that. There's some discrepancy there,
but maybe tremendous odds. But the English were victorious.
But King Henry V engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and the crown was bent. It suffered some damage. But
King Henry and the English were victorious over the French, and
was welcomed with a hero's welcome. But I say that if it's argued
that kings did not or would not wear a crown into battle, it's
because they don't consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he
wore a crown of holiness into battle and gained the victory
for us at Calvary. And our great high priest and
king did just that. So should we not imitate him?
when we go forth this afternoon or tomorrow to battle, it might
help you to face Monday morning if you think about yourself in
a chivalrous way. I don't know if I pronounced
that right, but if I didn't, forgive me. But like a popular
credit card today, don't leave home without it. I wouldn't leave
home without knowing, reminding myself that I represent God in
holiness. Look again at our text, holiness.
Look at it in verse 36. It says that grave upon it, like
the engravings of a signet. It is engraved. Can I tell you
what that means? Tell you what it means to me
at some point in my study here, it was revealed to me that it's
written. It is written to be read of all
men. Holiness to the Lord is written
on the crown so that every man can see it, every man can read
it, so that there needs to be no question as long as that man
can read. And God Almighty is the protector
of it. In Genesis 17, where we've already quoted, He shows up in
His holiness to a sandaled servant on a starry night In Ezekiel
chapter 10 and verse 5 the Bible says the sound of the cherubim's
wings were heard even to the outer court as the voice of the
Almighty God when he speaketh. There he's on his throne in his
holiness and he has to speak over the sound of angels and
cherubim's wings. Revelation 19 tells us that the
Almighty God he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written
King of Kings and Lord of Lords and there in his holiness he's
in battle dress. so that although we have the
New Testament armor, it has to be polished, it has to be bright,
a crown built into it, so that you and I can represent God in
His perfection, in His holiness to an imperfect, lost, and dying
world, and to be an encouragement to each other as well. In John
chapter 10 and verse 28, the Bible says, and I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." You
and I should agree this morning to covenant with God, so to speak,
to be more holy, to represent Him in holiness from this day
forward until He comes. The British crown jewels have
been kept in various places, Westminster Abbey, the Tower
of London. But they've always been threatened by theft. Some
attempts have been made in the past on them. Right now, they
are in the Tower of London in the Jewel House. There are 20,000
visitors a day to see the regalia, is what they call it, of the
king and queen. 22 strong tower guards since
1845 have been guarding. those treasures, those jewels.
38 warders who help with the crowds, but they're ex-military,
and their job is to protect the jewels. The jewels are removed
only on authority and only handled by the jeweler himself. Only he can handle them. Police
officers are often on hand. But even with all this protection,
hundreds of cameras surveying the crowd every day, surveillance. But I would say they're still
in jeopardy. Someone somewhere, like Colonel
Thomas Blood, who disguised himself years ago as a clergyman, I found
that amusing, dressed up like an Anglican church clergyman,
passed himself off as a priest. and actually did steal the crown
jewels. Damaged them in his escape, but he never got far. They caught
him, but they gave him a pardon. He didn't actually serve any
time for what he did. I'm not encouraging anybody to think
about stealing the crown jewels in here. I know how your mind
works. In World War II, they actually hid them. King George
VI had the jewels hid in a compartment, a vault, underneath one of the
entrances to Westminster Abbey, I believe it was. and hid them
from the Germans who they thought would steal them because London
was being bombed at the time. And that recently came out, I
guess, in some kind of a series that they showed on the PBS network. But the crown of holiness is
secure. The original grace is the forehead
of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are his
representatives in this world. He demands some things of us. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter
four in verse 11, and we'll close. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints. In second Corinthians chapter
seven in verse one, it says this, having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. How is it that we, you, I, can
accomplish anything holy in these lives that we live? Outside of
the help of Jesus Christ, we can't. It is going to be accomplished. The Bible says in Psalm 50 and
verse 2, out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. We
know we have God to look to to help us. He is with us. In Psalm 119 and verse 9, wherewithal
shall a young man take his, taking heed, cleanse his way by taking
heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have
I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy
commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not
sin against thee. David had the desire not to sin
against God. The route to it was cleansing.
If we confess our sins, John says, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Preacher years ago preached about
that. And how easy that is, just to
bow your head and ask God to cleanse you, to restore you,
to restore that crown of holiness for His praise and glory. Prior
to this verse, when he talks here about, the difference between
us and the Old Testament is the promises that we have. Prior
to this verse, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul says, And what
concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk
in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
That's a special verse to me in regards to the King James
Bible. But in verse 18, he says, and I will be a father unto you.
Promise, I will be a father unto you. And ye shall be my sons
and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And again, expressing
his power. David says in Psalm 1715, as
for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy holiness. David knew the Lord
as his father. We know the Lord as our father. I don't know if you've ever thought
about it or not, but you're in here this morning, and I don't
suppose you have, but I know something about you without knowing
anything about you. I might not even know you. You
may not even know me, but I know something about you. You look
like your father. Or you act like your father,
to one degree or another. People used to tell me that all
the time. You look just like your dad. And I always used to
respond, he's a good looking guy, isn't he? I got about the
same response. It was pretty hit or miss, 50-50.
Sometimes they just couldn't believe I would say something
like that. But you know, I don't ever remember
trying to look like my father. I just hung out with him my whole
life. I watched him walk and somehow I just picked it up.
I watched him talk and sometimes, you know, if you're like me,
you know what you do sometimes. You're not trying to be like, those
are childish notions. You put on your dad's shoes or your mother's
high heels and you walk around. You're not like them but you
admire them. Those notions go away pretty
much about the time you hit the teenage years. You start being
ashamed of your parents instead of proud of them. Stop trying
to be like them and try to be your own thing or whatever they're
being now, I don't know. But I grew up to be just like
my dad. I'm not ashamed of it now. Probably I was at one time. I gave them some abuse. But I
didn't work at it. I didn't work at it. I just woke
up one day and realized, you know what? All these things these
people have been saying about you are true. Look at that picture. Look at you. Look at that picture.
Look at you. You look like you're dead. I
think I could scare some people. I'm driving his car now. I think
I could scare some people if I went down, if I went down to
McComb and drove around I'd have to put on that white farmer hat,
which I hated wearing. But I would have to put on that
farmer hat and drive around. But I guarantee you, I could drive
around in that car and I'd give some people willies. Double take. They'd think dad was back from
the grave. You know, relax, David says that
he was going to awake with his likeness. Do what you can in
this life to be like God. Be as holy as you can. Don't
get discouraged because someday God's going to work all that
perfection out just like that. I'm not telling you not to try.
I'm not telling you not to please God. I'm not telling you that
he'll kill you if you don't. What I'm telling you is that
we ought to represent God in holiness and wear that crown
of holiness with pride and keep our heads up. I'm gonna ask Pastor John to
come at this time, take the invitation. Maybe you need to come. Maybe
there's someone in here this morning that doesn't know Jesus
Christ as their personal savior. And if you don't, that same cleansing
that is promised to the saint is available for the sinner.
The blood of Jesus Christ still cleanses you from sins. It's how I got in. It's how Pastor
John got in. It's how every believer in this
auditorium got in. They came, they confessed, and
they were cleansed and made clean and holy and fit for use.
Holiness
| Sermon ID | 127202211216442 |
| Duration | 1:07:11 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Exodus 28:36 |
| Language | English |
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