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.