Our Old Testament lesson comes from Exodus chapter 28. Exodus chapter 28. Hear now the word of our God. Then bring near to you Aaron your brother and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests. Aaron and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the garments that they shall make, a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checkerwork, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons to serve me as priests. They shall receive gold, blue and purple, and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. and they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen skillfully worked. It shall have two shoulder pieces attached to its two edges so that it may be joined together, and the skillfully woven band on it shall be made like it and be of one piece with it, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other stone in the order of their birth. As a jeweler engraves signets, so you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree. And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance. You shall make settings of gold filigree and two chains of pure gold twisted like cords. And you shall attach the corded chains to the settings. You shall make a breastpiece of judgment in skilled work. In the style of the ephod you shall make it of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen you shall make it. It shall be square and doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth. You shall set in it four rows of stones, a row of sardius, topaz and carbuncle shall be the first row, and the second row an emerald, a sapphire and a diamond, and the third row a jacinth, an agate and an amethyst. And the fourth row, a barrel, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. You shall make for the breastpiece twisted chains like cords of pure gold. And you shall make for the breastpiece two rings of gold, and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece. And you shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece. The two ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings of filigree, and so attach it in front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod. You shall make two rings of gold and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece on its inside edge next to the ephod. And you shall make two rings of gold and attach them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod at its seam above the skillfully woven band of the ephod. And they shall bind the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue so that it may lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod so that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod. So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. and in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly. You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it with a woven binding around the opening like the opening in a garment so that it may not tear. On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem with bells of gold between them, a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe. And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, so that he does not die. You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like the engraving of a signet, holy to the Lord. And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be on Aaron's forehead. And Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. You shall weave the coat in checkerwork of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash embroidered with needlework. For Aaron's sons, you shall make coats and sashes and caps. You shall make them for glory and beauty. And you shall put them on Aaron, your brother, and on his sons with them, and shall anoint them, and ordain them, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs. And they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him." This is the word of our God. Some of this language sounds rather obscure to us nowadays, so let me just give you a very brief overview of what this looks like. All the priests are wearing these linen undergarments, and along with the fine linen coats, which think of a tunic, a simple garment, along with a cap and a sash. Then the high priest also wears over that a robe of blue. And over that robe of blue is the ephod, which is a piece of clothing which covers basically from shoulder to thigh. Think of an elaborate vest, would be our term for it. The breast piece, then, is a very large pocket which is attached to the front of the ephod at the breast piece. So, what is God doing with all this? God says that these priestly garments are for glory and for beauty. Now, in order to understand how these priestly garments function, we're going to be singing Psalm 132 because Psalm 132 speaks of how the priests are clothed with righteousness and clothed with salvation. That's what Exodus just described. It's admittedly in language that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us. But that's what Exodus just described. Psalm 132 is a song of the temple. It's a song remembering how David longed to build a temple for the mighty one of Jacob. And when God comes to dwell in the midst of His people, when the Lord establishes a dwelling place where God is with His people, Psalm 132 speaks of how God will clothe His priests with salvation. Because that's what Aaron's wearing. Aaron is wearing salvation. He is clothed with salvation. You can go all the way back to Genesis 3 to see the beginning of this. When after Adam and Eve sinned, they had clothed themselves with fig leaves. But fig leaves could not cover their sin. And so God himself clothed them in animal skins, showing us how being clothed with salvation requires the shedding of blood. And what's happening here is as God is setting up the clothing of the priests, He's beginning to show us more. The first thing God shows in the animal skins of Genesis 3 is there must be shedding of blood. And now we're seeing, and there's a whole lot more. Our New Testament lesson comes from Hebrews chapter 4, starting in verse 14. Hebrews chapter 4, starting in verse 14. Hear now the word of our God. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you. As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek." This is the word of our God. What you wear says something about you. That's true. When Joel Irvin walks into an Elkhart coffee shop wearing a clerical collar, everybody looks at him and says, ah, he's some sort of clergy. When you go to a wedding, everybody knows who the bride is. She's the one in the white dress. Whether it's a suit, whether it's a hoodie, whether it's khakis, whatever you wear says something about You, your clothes, communicate something. And that's not a bad thing. I know we live in a day when everybody wants to, oh, don't judge me based on my clothes. People can't help it. They look at you, they see what you're wearing, and that communicates something. Whether you want it to or not, it does. I wear a wedding ring because I want to communicate the fact that I'm married. People sometimes ask, well, why do you wear that black gown? Well, it's important for pastors to wear something. I think we'd all agree on that. And each choice will communicate something about what we think. A business suit would connect me with the professional world. If I wore plaid and skinny jeans, I'd be connected to the hipster world. In that sense, the Geneva gown connects me to the Reformation. And indeed, beyond that, even to the medieval church, where the black gown was the preacher's garb. In the Middle Ages, Roman Catholic priests generally wore white when conducting the Mass, and black for their preaching services. And that was where Reformed pastors in the 16th century wanted to emphasize the priesthood of all believers. So they generally shied away from the white robes and wore the black in order to communicate the pastor's role primarily as preacher rather than as priest, because the priestly role in the late Middle Ages was increasingly becoming the priest as mediator between man and God. And the Reformation wanted to say, no, the pastor is not a mediator between man and God. I should add that I think things have changed since the 16th century. I don't have a problem with pastors wearing white robes today. In fact, when I've preached in Reformed churches where the pastor wears a white robe, I've worn a white robe. Obviously, we live in a different century than the 16th century, so it communicates something a little different, but it's also part of the reason why I wear the white stole. because the stole is historically the sign of ordination, with its roots go all the way back, if you want to trace them all the way, all the way back here to Exodus 28, with the sash that the priest is wearing in Exodus 28. And as we'll see here in our text today, there's a reason why clothing has meaning. It's not just because culturally people think this, It's because clothing is made from created substances. I know that's a big shock. But where do you get clothing from? You get clothing from created substances. Things that God made. And everything that God made has meaning. Has meaning that God has given it. As God speaks, as you think about how everything God has made God has given significance, and we see some of that in scripture. We also see some of that in history, in nature, in the way that we have understood and reinterpreted things that God has made. And if you think about it, our clothing options are limited. We have certainly gone way beyond, in the ancient world, clothing options were, you're going to wear a tunic. There you go. And there wasn't a whole lot of variation. When you look at the variation in even ancient Roman clothing, there's not a huge array of options. Our options are far more widespread today, but they're still limited. They're limited by what can you find in nature and do something with to make it become clothing. Your color options are limited by the spectrum of colors that people can see. I mean, I suppose you could wear ultraviolet clothing, but then nobody could see it, which would be a problem, wouldn't it? But you can mix and match, but you're limited to the range of options that exist in the world that God made. And so therefore, what we wear is connected to everything else. And so no wonder it says something about you. So what does it mean when God says to Moses, make holy garments for Aaron your brother? Holy garments? How can garments be holy? Well, we're going to see this. They're holy garments for glory and for beauty. Why are they holy? Well, first, they're made from the same material as the curtains of the tabernacle. Fine twined linen with gold, with blue and purple and scarlet yarns. And as we saw last time as we were looking through the tabernacle, we can see that part of this is, it's expensive. But it's also to be made with great skill. Glory and beauty are woven together in these garments. Isaiah speaks of the restoration of Zion in Isaiah chapter 60, when God restores His people from exile. In chapter 60 verse 19, God says, No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light, but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your beauty. God is displaying His beauty in the restoration of His people as He says in verse 7 of the same chapter, I will beautify my beautiful house. God was teaching His people through Moses about glory and beauty. First in the tabernacle, later in the temple. These were designed to show Israel the glory and the beauty of God. A glory and beauty that's now found in the church, in the people of God. Because, as Hebrews 3 tells us, we are His house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and our hope. We are the temple of the living God. So, if you want to see where all this is going, Aaron's clothing is ultimately pointing to you. It's pointing to us as God's people. In verse 3, the Lord says that Moses shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with the spirit of skill. Now, the word translated skill here could also be translated wisdom. Skill is the right translation here, but you should understand that when you think about the book of Proverbs and all the discussion of wisdom throughout the scriptures, it's the same word as the word for skill. Because in Hebrew, you use the same word to describe somebody, whether they are a skilled craftsman, or whether they're a wise craftsman. Because the whole point is, somebody who is skilled is wise. He knows how to do things. And when it comes to life, a wise man is one who knows how to do things. Knows how to live properly in God's world. So the skilled craftsman is wise in his craft. And God says that he has given the spirit of wisdom or the spirit of skill to certain craftsmen. And we'll hear in a couple chapters about Bezalel and Aholiab, the two chief craftsmen in particular. And I should note, some people have said, ah, well, so being a craftsman can be a spiritual gift. Well, yes, if you're building a tabernacle or a temple to the Lord, if you're building a place for God's holy name to dwell, then yes, your craft can be a spiritual gift. Because that's Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 3.10, when Paul says, according to the grace of God given to me, according to his spiritual gift, like a skilled or wise master builder, I laid a foundation. and someone else is building upon it. Paul uses the same language of the skilled craftsman, the wise craftsman who is engaged in building a spiritual house, a place for God's holy name to dwell. Because God has given you gifts. He's given to everyone in the church gifts for the building up of the body. So all of us have been given spiritual gifts of crafting. not necessarily crafting with art, but crafting with each other, crafting in building up the body of Christ, in building a holy place, a holy dwelling place for the Spirit as we engage with one another. And as we go through the garments of the priests, we need to see that what God is doing here is beautifying his beautiful house, giving his people spiritual gifts for building up one another into a holy temple, a holy dwelling place for the spirit. Because the holy garments of the high priest are made from the same material as the tabernacle. And the priest, the holy place and the holy person are both brought together through the same material. The priestly garments are made of the same fabric as the curtain of the tabernacle. Blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. The tabernacle and the priest fit together, they match. And there's really just one thing about this ephod that goes beyond the material of the tabernacle, this vest that the priest wears. And that's these two onyx stones on his shoulders, set in gold filigree. Now, we've been seeing all sorts of connections between the creation and the tabernacle. Well, here's another one. Because in Genesis 2, As we hear about the river of Eden, it tells us there was gold and bdellium and onyx along one of the rivers that flowed out from the garden. And now those onyx stones are brought into the ephod of the high priest, because the high priest is the one who will walk past the cherubim back into the Holy of Holies. Remember that outside of the garden, there's the cherubim with the flaming sword. You can't get back in. But the high priest, wearing the two onyx stones from Genesis 2, is now the one who can get past the cherubim into the holy of holies. How can a descendant of Adam do this? Only if he's wearing the ephod. And that's why these two onyx stones on his shoulders matter so much, because they are engraved with the twelve names of the sons of Israel. They are called stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, so that Aaron may bear their names before the Lord. Back in Eden, in the garden, Adam was the image of God in the most holy place. Since Adam's fall, there is no image worthy of being placed in the holy of holies. But now, God has said, back in Exodus 4, Israel is my Son, my firstborn. Let my Son go that He may worship me, that He may serve me. God has called Israel into His presence. Israel is here portrayed as the second Adam. Israel is now called to come back into the Holy of Holies. Well, only problem is, Israel is not worthy. Israel is not holy. How can Israel get there? Well, we go through all of this complicated process in order to get a priest consecrated, set apart, but now he will bear the names of the twelve tribes. Israel will come into the holy of holies when the high priest bears their names on his shoulders. And not only does he bear their names on his shoulders, he also bears their judgment, which we see in the breast piece in verses 15 to 30. The breast piece is attached to the ephod, so that actually in all future references to this in the scriptures, these two garments are referred to simply by one name, usually it's called simply the ephod, because once they're attached, it's basically going to function as one garment. Now the breast piece is made of the same material as the ephod. The difference here is that it has four rows of three precious stones each. Twelve stones in all, according to the names of the sons of Israel, each stone with a name engraved upon it. So there's twelve precious stones arrayed, again, connecting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And what's going on? Why are there twelve stones? What's the point of this? Well, precious stones are often times in the scriptures used to describe the dwelling place of God. Just a few weeks ago in Exodus 24 we heard that the elders of Israel saw God as the Lord descended from heaven as he came down to meet with them on the mountain and they saw under his feet a pavement like sapphire as clear as the body of the heavens. What was that about? Well, it is though God took a piece of the heavens, that big blue dome above us, and rode it down to Mount Sinai so that they see under his feet a piece of the sky. That blue dome above you, what does it remind you of? Well, if you've ever seen a sapphire, a really beautiful big blue sapphire, think of the sky as this gigantic sapphire above your head. You should. This sapphire dome that God has made. And then, in the morning, when the sun is rising, or in the evening, when the sun is setting, there are rubies and amethysts glowing in the heavens. At night, there are diamonds. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, like a diamond in the sky. We teach our children these things, but we've forgotten them are for ourselves. You should be seeing the amethysts and the sapphires and the emeralds and the glory of God revealed in these precious stones that shine in the night sky. Both Josephus and Philo understood the jewels of the priestly breastpiece to be even symbolic of the twelve constellations. After all, God, when he had created the sun, moon, and stars, had said, let them be for signs and for seasons. For signs. We rightly say, oh, that astrology stuff is a bunch of hogwash. True. But there still are signs in the heavens. God put the stars there. He put the planets there as signs in the heavens so that we could read what God is saying in the heavens. And that's why God puts 12 stones. Why are there 12 tribes? All these things are connected. The high priest himself is a microcosm. He is a small picture of the whole world. And for that matter, Think of the sign of the Noahic Covenant, the rainbow, which takes all the colors of the precious stones and brings them together. Or maybe I should say that the precious stones reflect all the colors of the rainbow. And now that I've got the physicist thinking again, think about how light and glory and beauty all fit together. God's heavenly dwelling is the archetype, the pattern for all creation, and especially for His sanctuary, His earthly dwelling. God has established this sapphire dome above the earth in order to show forth His mighty power and glory. And this is not merely speaking of the tabernacle. Sure, in one sense you have this, the whole earth is the dwelling place of God, There was the Garden of Eden that was the particular location, but it's not just the tabernacle or the temple or the holy place, it's also the priest himself. Because as we've seen, the difference between Israel's holy place and the temples of the nations is that there is no image in the holy of holies. Or to put it more accurately, there is an image in the holy of holies. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, When the High Priest, the son of Adam, who was created in the image of God, when he enters into the Holy of Holies, there is an image of God in the Holy of Holies. The problem is, the High Priest can't stay there. He has to go back out again. We need a high priest. We need an image to be in the Holy of Holies. In fact, that's kind of what the whole point of the book of Hebrews is. That this is what Jesus has done. Jesus is the high priest, is the image of God who has entered into the Holy of Holies and now remains there forever. But, when the high priest in the Old Testament entered the Holy of Holies, he is wearing the twelve tribes of Israel, he is wearing the whole of God's people, and indeed the whole of creation on his breast. As the twelve stones are representative not just of the twelve tribes, but also all of creation comes with him. But remember, God's promise to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed through his seed. So the high priest has the 12 tribes of Israel on his breast piece. What about the rest of humanity? If you want to understand this, just turn over for a moment to Ezekiel 28. Because Ezekiel 28 uses the imagery of the breast piece and the cherubim, all this temple imagery, to begin talking about the inclusion of the Gentiles and the failure of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 28, 11-19, the Lord calls Ezekiel to take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and in order to understand the background to this, it's important to know that Hiram, king of Tyre, had been the first Gentile king to to become basically a worshipper of God. He was David's greatest ally and friend. Hiram had helped David gather all the materials for the temple. He had assisted Solomon with the building of the temple. If ever there was a time in Old Testament history when a Gentile nation became converted, it was Tyre under the rule of Hiram. And so, listen to verses 11 to 14 with that in mind. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. Sardius, topaz, and diamond. Beryl, onyx, and jasper. Sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle. And crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God. In the midst of the stones of fire, you walked. Some people have thought this is talking about Satan in the Garden of Eden. But verse 12 makes it clear. This is the lamentation over the king of Tyre. And if you think about it, if David was the son of God, the anointed king, then Hiram was the guardian cherub, the one who protected the holy places, the one who protected the holy city. Hiram, king of Tyre, was the first Gentile king to be a protector and fellow builder of God's holy dwelling place. But after the days of Hiram, the subsequent kings of Tyre fell from their cherubic status. Indeed, the very next verses, in verses 15 to 19, the Lord says, You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned. And so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. If this was talking about Satan, why is it talking about trade? How did Satan engage in trade? This is the trading center of the ancient world. And because the guardian cherub used his economic power to harm and destroy, so God says he's bringing Tyre to a dreadful end. Ezekiel 28 shows us how the beginning of the engrafting of the Gentiles with Hiram of Tyre fell short and turned out to be something of a replay of the Garden of Eden where Adam sinned and was cast out of the Garden. So we're going to need something better than Hiram. And there's one more place where Scripture uses all these precious stones. Revelation 21 19 says there are 12 foundations of the wall of the heavenly city and These 12 foundations of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem match the the 12 stones on the breastpiece of the high priest But now, it's not just the breast piece of the high priest, it's now the foundations of the wall. You think, remember, we saw the sapphire of the heavens, this massive sapphire. Well, the foundations, remember how massive the heavenly city is? This city that's a thousand miles high and wide and long? It's got twelve foundations for the wall. These are massive stones. The biggest precious stones you could imagine. The glory and the beauty of God and of the Lamb is now brought to fruition. The high priest could only bring these twelve stones into the Holy of Holies once a year. Now, these stones are at the foundation of the city of God, of the people of God, because we are that holy city being built together into a holy dwelling place for God. Well, how? How does God do this? Well, remember what the breast piece is called. It's called, in verses 15 and 29 of Exodus 28, it's referred to as the breast piece of judgment. And verse 30 explains what this means. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly. The high priest bears the judgment of the people. When Aaron comes into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement once a year, he comes with all the sin of his people that he bears into the presence of God, which is a frightening thing. Because if you're coming into the presence of the Holy God with all the sin loaded on you, what's going to happen to you? Indeed, as we heard in Hebrews, the problem is that the high priest has to make atonement for his own sin as well. He is an imperfect high priest, and so he bears the judgment of Israel imperfectly. But God is showing us the need for a high priest who will bear our sin perfectly, one who bears our judgment on his heart before the Lord forever. And so at the beginning of the book of Revelation in chapters 4 and 5, we see the heavenly worship begin with the Lamb standing as though it had been slain. And yes, that is a strange statement. Usually when you've been slain, you're no longer standing. But this is the High Priest who has borne the judgment of His people, and this is the sacrifice who has been offered, and yet now is raised from the dead. Jesus has borne the judgment of His people once for all. The high priests kept dying. And so long as they kept dying, there would be no end of sin and misery. But Jesus has been raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. Therefore, He has put away sin by the one sacrifice of Himself. I want you to take that seriously. Because if Jesus has really done this, then that means that your sin has been forgiven. God no longer holds it against you. You may now come into the presence of God with a clean conscience. And you might say, but wait a second, but I did that sin. Oh sure, you did that sin. There's no question about that. We're sinners. Okay, fine. But God says, I do not hold that sin against you because Jesus paid the price. And so when you try to say back, oh, but I, God says, but what? I paid for that. My son has covered that sin. You cannot hold it against yourself any longer because I don't hold it against you. If you have been forgiven, you are forgiven. And that means, sure, you need to As Jesus said to the woman, go in sin no more, don't keep doing it. And then you say, but I did keep doing it. Well, then repent, turn away, believe his promises. God's forgiveness is not something that you can sort of say, well, he'll bring it back up again later. No, when he has forgiven you, he has set your sin apart away as far as the east is from the west. But the problem of the death of the High Priest is highlighted in verses 31 to 35 of Exodus as it speaks of the robe. The robe of the ephod is all of blue. And yes, you should think of this as the High Priest is wearing the heavens as his garment. And he's got a breast piece of precious stones, of the stars shining in the firmament with blue and purple and scarlet yarns, the colors of the sunset. And all around on the hem of his robe there are pomegranates and golden bells. Pomegranates like the fruit trees in the Garden of Eden. And golden bells, which as a function of beauty, but also a very practical reason as well, After all, what would happen if Aaron should die while in the Most Holy Place? If the bells stop ringing, then everybody knows we've got a problem. Later on, the priest will decide to tie a rope around the ankle of the high priest, because if he should die while he's in there, we've got to figure out some way of getting him out. But the focus here is actually on preventing his death, because Aaron is entering into God's dwelling place. And when you're walking into somebody's house, it's polite to ring the doorbell. The high priest wears these bells so that God can hear him coming. Now, in one sense you might say, oh, but God doesn't need to hear, I mean, God knows everything. Well, sure. It's not that God doesn't know, but it's that we should not treat God as though He's not there. We do this all the time, you know. When you go to God in prayer and you completely ignore who he is and you just sort of use him as your personal genie to sort of like, I've got my little wish list here, I can do this, this, this, thanks, appreciate that, big guy. That's not the way you treat the holy God of the universe. Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Jesus taught us to acknowledge who he is in our prayers. When you pray, take time to ring the bell first, to approach Him with humility, recognizing that He's God, you're not. And we come to Him as a child to our Heavenly Father. as a priest, entering into the Holy of Holies through the blood of Jesus. Because in Jesus, you are now holy to the Lord. You are now that little golden plate inscribed in the turban of Aaron with the words, Holy to the Lord. In the same way, God doesn't need a bell to tell him the High Priest is coming, so also God doesn't need to read the words, Holy to the Lord, on Aaron's forehead. When we have fallen short, when our lives do not reflect the holiness of God, we need a priest who bears our guilt on his forehead, who comes into the holy places holy to the Lord. Okay, now that we've heard this, I want you to hear what Paul says in Colossians 3 with new ears. Because Paul says in Colossians, earlier in chapter 2, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come but the substance, the body that casts the shadow belongs to Christ. So Paul's thinking about Old Testament rituals and ceremonies and saying that they're shadows of Jesus and then a few verses later in chapter 3 verse 1 Paul says this, If then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, where Christ has gone as the great High Priest who has entered into the Holy of Holies once for all. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. And Paul then goes on to talk about what you're wearing. In chapter 3 verse 12, put on then, what are you wearing? Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything in perfect harmony. What are you wearing? Ultimately, it's not really a question about your outer garments, but about your character. Are you wearing compassion, kindness, humility, meekness? Are you wearing forgiveness? Is your priestly sash, which binds everything together in unity and harmony, is it the sash of love? When you think about it, that was the point of Aaron's garments in the first place. should conform to the inward. The outward and the inward should match as how we live, including what we wear, should connect with who Jesus is. The firstborn of creation, the firstborn from the dead, the one who unites all things together in him. That how we walk should reflect both inside and out what Jesus has done in his priestly intercession for us. Let us pray. O Lord our God, have mercy on us, because we forget and we do not seek first your kingdom and we do not seek first the righteousness of your Son, but we so quickly turn aside to our own selfish ways. Have mercy, O Lord. Forgive us and renew us and refresh us by your grace. We ask, O Lord, that you would fill us with your Spirit, that we might be conformed to the likeness of your beloved Son who sits at your right hand, we might put on these holy garments of compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and love, that we might show forth the grace and the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ in the way that we walk before You. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.