THROUGH THE BIBLE - Exodus 3..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Exodus chapter 39. I'm going to be reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Let's pay attention carefully to each one of the words, and with reverent hearts, let's approach the word of our Savior. Exodus chapter 39. From the blue and purple and scarlet yarns they made finely woven garments for ministering in the holy place. They made the holy garments for Aaron as the Lord had commanded Moses. He made the ephod of gold, blue and purple, and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen.

And they hammered out gold leaf, and he cut it into threads to work into the blue and purple and the scarlet yarns and into the fine twine linen and skill designed. They made for the e-foot attaching solder pieces joined to it at its two edges. And the skillfully woven band on it was of one piece with it. made like it, of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet yarns, and fine twine linen, as the Lord had commanded Moses." Verse 6, "...

they made the onyx stones enclosed in settings of gold filigree, and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel." And he set them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He made the breast piece in a skill work in the style of the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet yarns, and fine twine linen. It was a square they made. The breastpiece doubled, a Spanish length and a Spanish breadth, when doubled.

And they set in it four rows of stone. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row. And the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row, adjacent, an agate, and an amethyst and the fourth row a beryl an onyx and a jasper they were in closing settings of gold filigree There were 12 stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They were like signets, each engraved with its name for the 12 tribes.

And they made on the breastpiece twisted chains like cords of pure gold. And they made two settings of gold filigree and two gold rings and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece. And they put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breast piece. They attach the two ends of the two cords to the two settings of filigree. Thus, they attach it in front to the shoulder pieces of the e-foot.

Then they made two rings of gold and put them at the two ends of the breast piece on its inside edge next to the e-foot. And they made two rings of gold and attached them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the e-foot and its seam above the skillfully woven band of the ephod and they bound the breast piece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue so that it should lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod and that the breast piece should not come loose from the ephod as the Lord had commanded Moses. He also made the rope of the ephod woven all of blue, and the opening of the robin in it was like the opening in a garment, with a binding around the opening so that it might not tear. On them, on the hem of the rope, they made pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twine linen. They also made bells of pure gold and put the bells between the pomegranates all around the hem of the robe between the pomegranates.

a bale and a pomegranate around the hem of the robe for ministering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. They also made the coats woven of fine linen for Aaron and his sons, and the turban of fine linen, and the caps of fine linen, and the linen undergarments of fine twine linen, and the sash of fine twine linen, and of blue and purple and scarlet yarns embroidered with needlework, as the Lord had commanded Moses. They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold and wrote on it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, Holy to the Lord. and they tied to it a cord of blue fastened on the turban above, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the 10th meeting was finished, and the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.

Then they brought a tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases, the covering of ten ram skins and goat skins, and the veil of the screen, the ark of the testimony with its poles and the mercy seat, the table with all its utensils and the bread of the presents, The lampstand with pure gold and its lamp, with the lamp's set and all its utensils, and the oil for the light, the golden altar, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the entrance of the tent, the bronze altar and its grating of bronze, its poles and all its utensils, the basin and its stand, the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court, its courts and its pegs, and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting, the finely worn garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons for their service as priests. According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, So the people of Israel had done all their work, and Moses saw all their work, and behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded. So they had done it, then Moses blessed them." Amen. This is the word of the Lord.

Chapter 39, brothers and sisters. Here in this chapter, we have the conclusion of the putting together of the building, the construction of the tabernacle. We are told in verse 32 of this chapter that that's all the work of the tabernacle of the 10th meeting was finished, and the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did. The people of Israel followed all the instructions that the Lord had given Moses. They did everything according to the divine commandment given from the mouth of the Lord to Moses.

Remember that in order for them to accomplish that, that is to do everything according to the word of the Lord, They were empowered by the Spirit. They were taught by the Spirit. The Spirit of God stirred up their hearts so they were guided into obedience. So they obeyed because the Spirit of God was in them, guiding them to do the things that they were supposed to do. But that was not enough for them because when they concluded everything that they did, as I just read in verse 32, they brought everything to Moses, who was the person who had received the council, the commandment from the mouth of the Lord, and they presented everything to Moses.

And Moses blessed the work of the children of Israel, and they confirmed that they had done everything according to the commandment of the Lord. It is very important also in this chapter that the last thing that the children of Israel put together through the Spirit of God in obedience to the commandment of the Lord is the garments of the priest, all the garments of those who were going to serve as priests. And this is very important, brothers and sisters, because the priest was this person who was going to office, was going to serve the people as the intermediary between God and the people. He was going to represent the people of Israel. He was the high priest and the priest.

If you put your eyes in verse six, for instance, we can see how this ministry of representation or intermediation, we can see it in the garments. or in the things that the priests were supposed to wear. In verse 6, you can see that we have these onyx stones. It says, verse 6, "...they made the onyx stones enclosed in settings of gold filigree, and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel."

So the priest will have these two stones on their shoulders as part of the ephod and the breast piece, and they will have the names of the tribes of Israel. These are these onyx stones. So that would symbolize how the priest was not only representing himself, but also he was representing the people of Israel. If you go to verse 14, there were also given information about those 12 stones that will go in the breast piece that were attached to the ephod. In verse 14, it says, There were twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel.

They were like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes." Each one of those stones that were engraved to the breast piece attached to the e foot represented one of the tribes, that is the 12 tribes of Israel. So the role of the priest was one of representing. He was representing the people of Israel, and you can see that in the garments. But now there's a couple of things that I want us to meditate upon that we can take into the new covenant from the office of the priest and especially taken from the garment that are given here in verse 39.

First of all, let me just focus on the election of God of the priest. These two things that I want to share with you, beloved brothers and sisters. I think are going to help us a lot to understand the vocabulary of the Old Testament when it is applied to the New Testament. So the first thing that I want us to see is the election of the high priest. And also from there, I want us to see the dealings of God with his elected people.

So first, the election of the high priest and second, the dealings of God with his elected people. First of all, we see through the book of Exodus, as we're arriving to the end of the book, that every time that God is going to deal with his people, is going to approach himself to his people, he divides, he separates, and then he consecrates. This is the way that God elects. He divides. Then he chooses, and then he consecrates.

We can see it from the very beginning of the book. The people of Israel were under Egypt, and then God came and divided. He separated the Egyptians from the people of Israel. Then he chose the people of Israel to consecrate those people unto him. And this is exactly the way that the high priest is going to be selected, because from that selection, from that choosing Israel out of Egypt or Israel out of the peoples of the world, then out of the 12 tribes, the Lord is going to do the same thing.

He's going to divide from the tribes. That is, he's going to separate the Levites. He's going to choose the Levites, and he's going to consecrate them to the service. of the Lord. And you remember in Exodus chapter 32 that it was when the Levites used the sword to kill the sinful brethren that Moses said unto the Levites that that act of judgment from God to the sinners, to the sinful and repentant brethren, was means of consecration unto the service of the Lord.

The Lord divided, chose, and then consecrated the Levites for the service unto the Lord. But out of the Levites, not all the Levites were supposed to be the high priest. The Lord is going to do the same thing. The Levites were supposed to serve the Lord and to serve the temple in general, but not all the Levites will be high priest. So the Lord does the same out of the Levites.

He divides, he chooses, and then he consecrates for a particular service. In this case, the high priest service. So out of the Levites, he's going to do that. He separates, he chooses, and then he consecrates Aaron and his sons. This is the way that the Lord chooses separates and then he consecrates those people onto his service.

Then we are told, even if you progress into the book of Leviticus, that even from the family or from the sons of Levi, he is going to choose the line of Eliezer. He's going to be through the line of Eliezer. He's separating, he's dividing, he's choosing, and again, he's consecrating. And then later on in history is through the line of Zadok in times of David. Now, this is very important, brothers and sisters, because the high priest was a very chosen and set apart.

member of the people of Israel to represent the people of God before the Lord. This was the service of the high priest to represent these people. He was holiness unto the Lord. If you put your eyes in verse 30, then we're told about this holy crown that was on the head, of course, of the high priest. And he says, and if the word says verse 30, they made a plate of the holy crown of pure gold.

and wrote on it an inscription like the engraving of a signet, Holy to the Lord." The high priest was holiness unto the Lord, was holy unto the Lord. And as he approached the Lord, representing the people of Israel, then the people of Israel will be sanctified. through the ministry and through the service of the high priest. Now, this is very important because the Lord relates to his people, the people of Israel, through those means.

And now there's something very important that we need to understand, brothers and sisters, that both the people of Israel, the normal people of Israel, and the high priest, both of them were under the covenant given to Moses. As you can see, the first thing that is given in the book of Exodus is the law, and after that comes the high priest. So that means that the people of Israel and the high priest, both of them, were under the law of the Lord. And therefore, both of them were and had to fulfill the requirements of the law. If they did not fulfill the requirements of the law, then the service of the high priest would not be of any service to the people of Israel.

So, for instance, when a person in Israel will commit a sin for which there was no atonement, there was nothing that the high priest could do for that person. So when that person will violate the Sabbath, or when that person will do a high-handed sin, or she will do something that was worth... death, the penalty of death, then there was no atonement that the high priest could offer for that particular person. So the abilities of the high priest were limited to the fulfillment of the law. In the same way, the high priest was under obedience to the law that was given to Moses.

so that the high priest will have to offer a sacrifice for himself so that he will make atonement for himself and then he will be able to offer the sacrifices on behalf of the people. Both of them were under the requirements of the law. Both of them, the relationship of the people and the relationship of the priests, depending upon full obedience to the law. Even to the point that we remember that two of the sons of Aaron will violate the law and they were put to death. And then Aaron and Eliasar are told not to mourn or not to be sad about the death of their two sons or his two sons, Aaron's.

because they had violated the law. Brothers and sisters, the people of Israel and the high priest were under the requirements of the law, and for the high priest to offer a successful ministry of intercession and representation to the people of Israel, He was supposed, just as the people, to fulfill the requirements of the law. Now, as I have shown you in this couple of verses that we have read, the priest represented the people of Israel. The stones in the breast place and the stones on the shoulders represented the people of Israel. So every time that the priest will come to offer the sacrifice, he was not only offering sacrifices for his own, but he was also offering a sacrifice for the people.

Now this is very important because the Bible tells us that the new covenant is a better covenant than the old covenant and it also tells us that Jesus Christ it is the high priest And it also tells us that Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and men. So that is that the office of the priest under the old covenant is a shadow of that which Jesus Christ does under the new covenant. But under the old covenant, both the people and the priests were under the requirements of the law, under offices and operations and workings and everything that they did was submitted to the covenant of Moses. So having that in mind, come with me to Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8.

Brothers and sisters, perhaps what perhaps what I try to do with very limited words, it is to explain to you the relationship between the people of Israel and the high priest. They were attached to the high priest. They were, in a sense, united and connected to the high priest under the law. But then if you read in verse eight, I will try to make my point from there. In Hebrews chapter eight, let's just read, perhaps.

until verse seven, or let's see if perhaps we go more, but let's just read until verse seven. It says, Now the point in what we're saying is this, Hebrews chapter eight. Now the point in what we're saying is this. We have such a high priest. This is Jesus Christ, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

a minister in the holy places." He's a minister in the holy places, in the true tent, that is tabernacle, in the true tabernacle that the Lord set up, not men. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. That's what I was trying to explain to you. for the high priest to offer sacrifices for the people.

He has to make sure that he has submitted to the law and therefore offer a sacrifice for himself. Now, verse 4. Now, if we were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer heat according to the law. They, those sacrifices, they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, that is chapter 39, he was instructed by saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

And they did. They did as the Lord had commanded them. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is has much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been folded, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. Sorry, let's continue reading.

For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue my covenant, and so I shall not conserve for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall not teach." And they shall not teach each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, for the least of them to the greatest.

For I will be merciful toward the inequities, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Brothers and sisters, this is the only thing that I want to communicate to you this evening. The new covenant, it is a better covenant than the old covenant because the relationship of the High Priest and the Covenant members transcends the Covenant.

In the Old Covenant, the relationship between the High Priest and the Covenant members were under the law and both parties, the High Priest and the Covenant members, needed to submit to the regulations of the law. But when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He fulfills all the requirements of the law of Moses. He fulfills everything that was required of men. And because He fulfills all the requirements of the old covenant, then a better covenant can be established. And that bitter covenant is not of the nature of the old covenant given to Moses, but rather the new covenant as Titus chapter 1 and verse 1 and 2 says.

It is the promise of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. The new covenant in Jesus Christ was the result, not of the law, but was the result of a promise that was given from the mouth of God before the ages began, before the foundation of the world. And this is very important. I'm saying to you that the relationship between the high priest and the covenant members and then the new covenant is greater than the relationship of the high priest and the covenant members under the old covenant. This is important because Paul, when he's writing in Ephesians chapter one, verse three, he says, Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us new covenant members with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as He chose us, and then He says, in Him, Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we may be holy and blameless. Brothers and sisters, in the old covenant, people were related to the high priest under the law. In the new covenant, members of the covenant are related to Jesus Christ because of the sovereign grace, eternal love, infinite mercy that God showed to His people, not when they believed, but before the foundation of the world, as they were chosen in union with the person of Jesus Christ. So that covenant is unbreakable because covenant members are not under obedience to the law, but are in the flesh, in the spirit, in the heart. and in the soul of Jesus Christ.

So Peter can say that we are partakers of the divine nature, not only we become gods, but that our souls are so united to Christ that there's nothing in this world that can separate us from the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, brothers and sisters, we are not stones that are attached to passing away garments. We are not stones that are on the shoulders of men who are going to die and sins, but rather we are We are the blood, we are the flesh, we are the heart of the one who is eternal. And we're going to be united to Him, not only when we believe, but until the end of times, that there's no end of times, because He is eternal. So the promise of eternal life is given also to us.

Amen.