Exodus - God Takes Holiness Seriously - Exodus: 28-31

Good to see you guys. How we doing. Guys, got

your bibles? We're gonna need them. Well, Welcome to the

roots where it's all about Jesus. We love God, we

love people, We reach the lost, and we make disciples.

We also all lost an hour of sleep last night.

How we doing? We surviving?

Daylight saving time starting was always scary to me when

we had morning services, because it's kind of a gamble

if anyone's gonna show up on time, or if they're

all going to show up an hour late.

It was always risky and real talk. I wish we'd

just pick.

One and stick with it. Anybody else for that. I

don't know really why, but you know, just pick one.

We'll just figure it out from there. Anyway. I don't

know why I'm talking about that, but that's what it is.

But we've been going through the Book of Exodus. We've

been in a series called Exodus, and in the Book

of exists you see three major movements or three different

sections of the book where God delivers, God demands, and

God dwells. First, he delivered his people from captivity in

Egypt under severe oppression and this terrible harsh slavery.

And after delivering them.

He brings them out in the wilderness and takes them

to Mount Sinai, where he makes demands of his people.

He gets to spend time with them and actually walking

him through his expectation of the people, through the law

that he gives them. It's what they should be living

by as His people. In the last moment. A movement

in the book is God finally dwelling among his people,

where he actually fulfills the promise that he made to

them and dwells among him. And currently we're in that

second section where God is making demands of his people

and this is where it's all in preparation for him

to dwell among his people. And last week we got

to talk through part of where Moses is up in

the cloud with God on the mountain, the forty days

and forty nights in the cloud, where God is giving

him instructions, but we only covered the first half of them.

We got to see half of the instructions for Moses

for the people, for how they were to build the

tabernacle or the dwelling Place for God. This is the

holy place where the people were to go to meet

with God, where they would offer sacrifices for sins, to

receive forgiveness for breaking God's laws, for breaking his commandments,

for breaking his covenant. Because God is omniscient, he knows

his people are going to sin. Omniscient means you all knowing.

He knows everything. He knows his people will sin. Just

like parents putting a bib on a baby. Am I

calling the children of viserbal babies? Maybe a little bit,

just a little bit. We put a bib on a

baby because we know they're going to spill the food, right,

That's why we do it. God knows that people will

break the covenants that he set with them or he

made with them, and they're going to sin, so he

sets up the entire sacrificial system. But we saw that

God had very specific instructions for how everything must be,

and Pastor Duncan did a great job preaching of a

few weeks ago that God sets the terms and conditions

for how we are to approach him. He sets those

terms and conditions. And so where we're going to pick

it up today is in Exist chapter twenty eight, in

the second half of Moses's time up in the cloud

with God. And if you don't have a Bible. We

have a bunch of them at the resource desk. Please

go gravel and want you to take that and keep it.

But we're going to be in Exodus chapter twenty eight,

and before we get into it, I want to pray

and ask God to guide our time and his word today.

So God, we just come to you right now and

thank you for your word. We think you that you've

given it to us. You didn't leave us wondering. You

tell us exactly what you want in your word. You've

revealed yourself in your word. You're revealed who Christ is

in your word. So we thank you for that. And

as we spend time reading it today, God give us

ears to hear, open our hearts to receive from you,

to be challenged by what you'd have us be challenged

by today, and to take seriously the things you take serious.

So God, we thank you for this time in your

word and give it all to you for your glory.

In Jesus name. Everybody said a men.

So like I said, today we're going to be in

the second half of Moses instructions from God in the

cloud while he's on top of the mountain, and the

instructions actually take a little bit of a shift because

we talked all about the tabernacle stuff first, and now

it's going to shift and focus more on Aaron and

his sons as priests on the process of sanctifying them.

The process of sanctifying everything in the tabernacle and the

whole priestly order is kind of a big deal. It's

kind of a big deal for the people. A priest

is someone whose job was to mediate in religious service.

It's literally the definition of it.

But what that means is that they would manage and

they would execute everything that happened in the tabernacle and

then in the future in the temple. But it wasn't

just that they wouldn't just do the stuff that needed

to be done. They would also stand as representatives before

God for the people, which is really important. And do

you remember what happened when God spoke directly to the people.

The people they were terrified, completely terrified. They said, Moses,

you talk to God. We don't want to talk to

him directly. You talk to him and will talk to you.

The unholy people of God were terrified to stand before

a holy God when all he did was speak to them.

They need a representative, They needed a mediator. And so

that's what God's setting up here with the priests, what

He's doing in the tabernacle. But here's a thing. The

priests are unholy too. So there's a problem there, isn't there.

The priests are also unholy. So what God is actually

setting up as a way for the priests to be

made holy, He's setting up a way for the people

to be made holy before him, and for even all

the items in the tabernacle to be made holy before him,

before him to make everything, every single thing about his

dwelling place holy. So what I think we're going to

see very clearly today is that God takes holiness seriously.

That God takes holiness seriously. The whole text is going

to scream this and we're going to see it. And

if he takes it seriously, so should you.

So should you.

I think that the lengths you go to for something,

or the lengths you will go to for something, yeah,

shows how serious you take it or how much it

means to you, or how important it is to you.

So my question is what lengths would you go to

for your children? I bet most of you would say

that there's literally nothing you would not do for your children.

I think it's how all of us would respond. We

I have a kind of a silly story. I didn't

tell Lindsay. I was going to say this, but she's

in the story. We liked in the summer, we like

to go to ocean shores and sometimes we'll just stay

the night, and we decide to stay in the hotel

that's there on Ocean Shores, and so we went to

the pool. We let all the kids swim in the pool.

The parents are sitting on the outside watching, And this

is when our kids were a little bit smaller. And

so June was in the pool and she's pretty tall,

for you know, her dad's one hundred fet tall, right,

so she's pretty tall. But she's in a pool that

goes to deeper than she is tall. So she's tiptoeing

her way towards the you know, the slope that goes

down to the deep end. And we're all watching, and

Lindsay's like, June, watch where you're going. And she just

starts tiptoeing and starts to kind of tiptoe down this thing,

and all of a sudden, her head goes under. So

Lindsay jumps up, runs over and like basically like slides

like she's sliding into first and goes like half into

the water, upper half is in the water. She grabs June.

She also almost drowns another kid who's in the water.

We'll just skip past that part.

She pulls June out of the water, and she's soaking wet.

She's fully yeah, she's fully clothed. Hopefully her cell phone

wasn't in her pocket, but she's fully clothed. But look

at the length she would go to for her kid.

We would do this, and what does that prove that

her kid's very important to her?

Right?

She's okay, she says, And this is kind of a

funny example. But if there's a rabid dog running after

my son, I'm going to jump in front of it.

If my kid's about to get hit by a car,

I will push the kid out of the way, even

if that means I get hit. I will go to

whatever the length for my children. That shows how much

they mean to me. Shows how much June means to Lindsay,

shows how important our children are to us. And this

is how I know how important holiness is to God.

This is how I know that he takes it seriously.

Because look at the links that he will go to

make sure that every single thing around him is holy,

to make sure that all of his people are holy,

and to make sure that they all remember that he

is holy. In Chapter twenty eight starts with God calling

for Aaron and his sons. Their names are Nadab and

a bee Who or a bye who, Eliezar and Ifhamar,

and he calls them to serve him as priests.

But before they can serve as priests, there's.

A lot of stuff that's got to happen. And how

all this stuff starts is with their garments. Whereas God

puts it, they're holy garments. So look at Exodus chapter

twenty eight. We're gonna start in verse two and it

says this, and you shall make holy garments, Say 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. Chapter thirty one is

going to name these skilled men that they may that

they make Erin's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.

And to consecrate means to set apart, to make clean,

to sanctify, to prepare, to dedicate to make holy. They

make Erin's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.

Verse four.

These are the garments that they shall make a breastpiece,

an epod, which is just like an apron, a robe,

a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash.

They shall make holy garments for air and your brother

and his sons to serve me as priests. So these

aren't just regular old clothes that people wear.

These are different.

These are special. They're set apart as special. These are

holy garments to be worn before the Lord for his

purposes only. That's what these garments are set apart for.

They are beautiful and glorious. They're made of beautiful colors

of yarn and fine twined linen. It says, and on

each shoulder of the epod that apron was an onyx

stone set on gold filigree. I had to look up

a lot of words because I didn't know a lot

of this meant. I also have never sewed or made

any clothes in my life. Gold filigree is like a

gold decorative setting, like sometimes really thin parts of gold

and kind of decoratively woven together.

But it's beautiful.

These onyx stones are set on gold filigree, and on

each of these stones was engraved the names of the

sons of Israel, six on one and six on the other,

for the twelve tribes of Israel. This is beautiful, this

is glorious. But skip down and look at verse twelve.

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. So this

part of the Holy Garment is to remind erin of

something he needs to remember when he is before the Lord.

He needs to remember that he's representing the people of God.

He's standing before God for the people. He's mediating between

God and the people. But this isn't the only reminder

in this Holy Garment. Also, the breast piece was another reminder.

It had the twelve beautiful stones on it, one for

each of the tribes of Israel. And it's set in

four rows of three, so one, two, three, four, five, six,

seventy nine, ten, eleven, twelve. And these stones, some of

which I've never even heard of, Sardis topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, jacinth, agate, amethyst,

baryl Onyx, and jasper. These are all really valuable, precious

and beautiful stones specifically chosen.

For this breast piece.

And they're all engraved with the names of the tribes

of Israel. And if that wasn't beautiful enough, they're hung

on the epod with chains of gold. This is no

ordinary garment. This is different. But it's crazy. Is you

know what this chess piece was called. It was called

the breast piece of judgment. Look at verse twenty nine.

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 breast piece

of judgment you shall put the urim and the Thummim.

Not fully sure exactly what those are, but the worse

things that were used for consulting with the Lord and

asking him for things, And much like casting lots.

They had two words that they're escaping me for what their.

Meaning is, and I can't remember at the moment, but

it was something like casting lots to ask the Lord

for his direction on things. But they shall be on

Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. Thus,

Erin shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel

on his heart before the Lord regularly. So this is

another reminder that Erin was representing the people before God.

The people need a representation before God, but not only

like we just read. Not only is he representing them,

but he's also bearing their judgment. So that's a little

bit more important. That makes it a little bit more severe.

As Aaron goes before Holy God in the holy place,

it's all to bear the judgment of the people and

represent them, but before he does any of that, he

has to be covered in this holy garment. Text goes

on and describes a beautiful robe with pomegranates and bells

on it. On the turban or the cap was a

gold plate or a diadem. It's like a crown, and

they were to engrave on it holy to the Lord,

Holy to the Lord. Look at verse thirty eight. 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. Pause In our text today,

the word holy appears fifty three times fifty three times.

Holiness.

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. Aaron's the one who brings the

sacrifices of the people before the Lord their holy gifts,

And this gold plate on his head was a constant

declaration that what he was bringing before the Lord was

holy to the Lord, and that he was consecrated as

holy to the Lord. Every single part of Aaron's garment

here was for a purpose. It was special, was set apart,

it was holy to the Lord, and it was to

be worn when he was in service as the priest

of the Lord. Have you guys seen the movie The

hurt Locker. It's not a new movie, it's kind of old,

but it's about an army bomb squad. When did the

guys put on the eod suit or the bomb suit?

When did they put that on?

So when it's time to go to work, they're going

to diffuse a bomb or some dangerous situation. So just

think of Aaron's garments like that.

He put on his holy suit.

So he did and explode before the Lord for being unholy,

because God takes holiness seriously. He takes holiness seriously. So

this whole chapter that we're reading through is about this

glorious and beautiful holy garment for Aaron and the high priest,

and similar garments for his sons. They're not quite as elaborate,

but similar set apart garments. But hold on, what makes

these garments actually holy? What makes them holy? Aren't they

just like regular things you can find out in the world.

Sure they're beautiful and precious things, but they're still just

things you can find. Well. What makes them holy is

what they're used for and what God tells the people

to do in the next chapter, because chapter twenty nine

is all about how to consecrate the priests. And again

the definition for to consecrate is to set apart, to sanctify,

to prepare to dedicate, to make them holy. So the

first part of this consecration processes, God says, grab some animals,

get them ready to be sacrificed, a bowl and a

couple of rams, and grab some food items. Then Aaron

and his sons were first to wash themselves clean, completely

wash yourself and then put on all the holy garments,

and once they're dressed, God tells them to pour the

anointing oil all over Aaron's head. And this anointing oil,

we're going to learn how it's made here a little bit,

because God's going to tell Moses exactly how to make

it the next chapter. But then they're supposed to sacrifice

the animals, which is when things get a little bloody.

So if you follow and read any of the Old Testament,

we know things do get a little bloody. Some of

the blood's going to go on the horns of the

altar sacrificial altar. On the base of the altar, more

blood will be put and then some more blood will

be put on the sides of the altar. But then

get this, some of the blood actually goes on Aaron

and his son's right ear. Write thumb and write big toe.

I don't know why. Most of the smart people that

I read said has something to do with the dominant

strong side being your right side in Jewish history. But

it's that being sanctified, the strength of man being sanctified

to the Lord. And if that wasn't enough blood, there's more. Oh,

we just wait, there's more blood all over the place.

Look at chapter twenty nine, and look at verse twenty one.

And then you shall take part of the blood that

is on the altar and of the anointing oil, and

sprinkle it on Erin and his garments and on his

sons and his son's garments with him. He and he

and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and

his son's garments with him. So Erin his sons are

sprinkled with blood too, just putting blood on everything. But

it's to make them and their garments holy. And this

is quite the process, but it's not even over yet,

this consecration process. They offer to the Lord what's called

a wave offering, where they'll take food and they'll wave

of food offering before the Lord, and then the actually

get to eat some of it, which is kind of nice.

Will boil some of the animals and get to eat it.

But this whole process, this whole consecration process, is a

week long.

It's a week long. Look at verse thirty five.

Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons

according to all that I've commanded you. Through seven days,

shall you ordain them. And every day you shall offer

a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also, you

shall purify the altar when you make atonement for it,

and shall anoint it to consecrate it. Seven days you

shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and

the altar shall be most holy. Whoever touches the altar

shall become holy. So this is like a lot of

stuff to go through. Again, this is the lengths God

is going to go to to make sure that the

priests are holy, that is, alter is holy, to be

constantly consecrated, that his tabernacle is holy. Why because God

takes holiness seriously. God takes holiness seriously. Chapter thirty is

going to continue on the same theme. It talks about

the bronze basin. This is where the priests would wash

before and during their all their priestly tasks to make

sure they weren't unclean before the Lord. Chapter thirty also

talks about a census tax. Even that, like receiving money

from the people, was rooted in atonement for sin or

cleansing from sin. The money they would use to keep

the services going or the services of the tabernacle going

to buy all the things necessary for the oil and

the incense.

This was called atonement money. That's what it's called atonement money.

Even that was part of God's process for making the

people holy, for setting them apart. The biggest piece in

chapter thirty that I want to look at is about

this anointing oil, this incense and the altar of incense.

Because God has the people build an altar of incense

burn continually before him. And if you read all other

places in scripture, the incense or the prayers, like the

prayers of the people always going up to the Lord,

ever before him. But he has them build this altar

and it's right outside the veil that goes into the

Holy of Holies. And I remember last week that the

only thing in the Holy of Holies is the ark

of the Covenant. But chapter thirty, verse ten, God says

that this alter is most holy to the Lord.

The only incense that they.

Can burn on this altar is the exact incense that

God tells him how to make.

Nothing else can touch it.

You don't pour any drink offering on it, you don't

burn any other incense on it. You do nothing else

but this because it's most holy to the Lord. Look

at this incense and what God says about it in

chapter thirty, verse thirty four.

And there's a ton of words in here. I did

not how to say, so I totally looked him up.

The Lord said to Moses, take sweet spices, stack tea

and anika and gal gal bottom.

There it is galbottom.

Yeah, sweet spices with pure frankincense. Of each of each,

shall there be an equal part, and make an incense

blended as by the perfumer, seasoned.

With salt, pure and holy. Say pure and holy.

You shall beat some of it very small, and put

part of it before the testimony in the tent of

meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be

most holy for you. And the incense that you shall

make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves.

It shall be for you holy to the Lord. Whoever

makes any like it to use his perfume shall be

cut off from his people.

Copy that, don't make it for ourselves. Don't want to

screw that one up. God is serious about his incense.

It's meant to be pure and holy, most holy for them,

and holy to him God. God takes holiness seriously. The

anointing oil is no different. It's the exact same thing.

Look back a few verses the same chapter, but in

verse twenty five, and you shall make a vise a

sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer. It shall

be a holy anointing oil. With it, you shall anoint

the tentive meeting, and the arc of the testimony, and

the table and all its utensils, and a lampstand and

its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar

of burnt offering with it, or with all its utensils,

and the basin and its stand. You shall consecrate them

that they may be most holy. Whoever touches them will

become holy. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and

consecrate them that they may serve me as priests. And

you shall say to the people of Israel, this shall

be my holy anointing oil through your generations. It shall

not be poured on the body of an ordinary person,

and you shall make no other like it. In composition,

it is holy, and it shall be holy to you.

Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of

it on an outsider, shall.

Be cut off from his people.

Because the purpose of this oil is to set apart

everything that's poured on as holy to the Lord. Basically,

everything in the tabernacle is just covered in this oil.

Everything is set apart as holy. The tent, the altars,

the tables, the utensils, the basin, the stands, the priests,

all of it covered in oil, anointed, set apart, holy

to the Lord. And when I was writing this, I

came up with a really terrible example I'm excited to

share with you, but I love the Lord of the rings,

so here it goes. The anointing oil is like the

white hand of sermon. Everything covered in the white hand

of sourmon belongs to the Eisngard Army. And if this

doesn't make any sense to you, you're fine.

You're just not a giant nerd.

That's totally okay. But he who has ears let him hear.

The important part to understand is everything that was covered

in the anointing oil is what it's holy to the Lord.

That's the point of the anointing oil. God is going

to great lengths to make sure that everything is exactly

the way he wants it, because he's holy and he

takes holiness seriously. I mean, he even hand picks the

guys and personally fills them with the spirit who is

going to build everything for the tabernacle and the priestly garments.

In all of it, he hand picks them all. Look

at chapter thirty one, starting right there in verse one,

the Lord said to Moses, see, I have called by

name Basileel, the son of Uri, son of her of

the tribe of Judah, and I've filled him with the

spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and

all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold,

silver and bronze, and cutting stones for setting, and in

carving wood to work in every craft man, that's a

guy you want to have on your quick call list

for fixing stuff at the house. Right verse six, And behold,

i have appointed him with a holy ab son of

Ahassamakh of the tribe of Dan. And I've given to

all able men ability that they may make all that

I've commanded you. And then he goes on to list

everything in the tabernacle. He lists everything to make it all,

God himself called and filled the men that he wanted

to make sure that everything was built exactly the way

he wanted. God orchestrated all of it, every single piece

every single part got a sovereign over it all. God

provides everything needed to do what He's called his people

to do. So whatever you think you're lacking to walk

in obedience to the Lord, you're not. Let me say

that again. Whatever you think you're lacking to walk in

obedience to the Lord, you're not. You have everything you need.

You have everything you need to be a godly parent.

You have everything you need to be a godly spouse.

You have everything you need to be a godly employee

or a boss. You have everything you need to pray

for someone, even if it's a stranger. You have everything

you need to share the good news of the Gospel

with someone. You actually have everything you need to be holy.

It's right there in front of you. You just have

to know where to look. And there's a hint. It's

all found in the Word of God. And who does

the word of God point us to say loud? Jesus.

It's all about Jesus. It always has been, it always

is and always has been. Our text today ends with

God reminding the people one more time about how serious

he takes holiness. It's a reminder of the Sabbath the

Covenant that he made with his people. God just finished

giving Moses all the instructions for the tabernacle, which is

a lot of work. Forty days have gone by, and

the last thing that he tells the Moses to tell

the people is, even though I just gave you all

this work, don't forget the Sabbath.

Don't forget the Sabbath.

Look at Exodus thirty one, starting in verse twelve, and

the Lord said to Moses, you are to speak to

the people of Israel and say, above all you shall

keep my Sabbaths. For this is a sign between me

and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I,

the Lord sanctify you shall keep the Sabbath because it

is what for you. It's holy for you. Everyone who

profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any

work on it, that soul shall be cut off from

among his people. Six days shall work be done, but

the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy

to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath

or the Sabbath day shall be put to death. The

Sabbath is holy to the Lord. Therefore it is to

be holy for the people. God is so serious about

it that he says, anyone who breaks it should be

put to death. That's pretty serious. The severity of the

punishment should give us an indication of the severity of

the offense. Punishment for running a stop sign is different

than robbing a bank. The consequences for not eating all

your vegetables is different than for punching your brother. They're different.

How severe the punishment is helps us understand how grave.

The offense is.

So if the consequence with the children of Israel breaking

the Sabbath is death, then what does that tell us

about how big of an offense it is against God?

God takes holiness seriously. What's the point of day's message?

Nailed it? I told my wife to say that I

gave her an extra five bucks, just kidding.

It's all right there. God takes holiness serious seriously. Everything

in the tabernacle must be holy before him. The priests

he selected must be holy before him, the garments they

wear must be.

Holy before him.

The whole purpose of the tabernacle is to make the

people holy before him. Also he can dwell among them.

So if God takes holiness this seriously, are you holy

enough to stand before him? Are you holy enough to

stand before him on your own, you aren't. Every single

one of us is born in Adam, so we've inherited

a sin nature. That means you are a sinner by birth.

Welcome to the club. A sinner by birth in iniquity.

You form me in my mother's womb. And if that

wasn't bad enough, first John One tells us, if any

of us claim to be without sin, not only are

we deceived ourself, like you are just deceived yourself, but

you're also calling God a liar. And we know this

to be true. Every single one of us has sin

in our life. I had a great conversation kind of

about this with my youngest. He's ten, by the way,

but Grayson, and we're talking about all of us being

born in Adam, so we're all born sinners. And then

I said, but also we sin by choice too. I said,

how many bad things have you done.

In your life? And he's like, oh, so many. I

was like, you're ten, bro, But he gets it.

He's ten. He's like, so many things. We all have sin.

We are all unholy before God. We've broken his commandments.

And because we've broken his commandments, we deserve eternal death

for sinning against an eternal God. You can't repay a

debt from someone who dies, right, So if you owe

so many money and they bite the dust, you don't

owe him any more money. God doesn't die, He's eternal.

Our offense against eternal God has an eternal consequence. So

the answer is a clear no. We aren't holy enough

to stand before God like the children of Israel. We

need a representative. We need someone else to stand before

God for us, and we need to be made holy.

We need to be made holy. Aaron and his sons

went before the Lord for the people. He wore the

names of the twelve tribes of Israel on him before

the Lord is remembrance. He bore their judgment. But Erin

wasn't holy. He had to do so much stuff just

to be made right so he could stand before the Lord.

And he had to do it again and again and again.

And because of that, he is not the perfect person

for the job. Aaron and his sons and every descendant

in his line, but they're not the perfect person for

the job. But there is one person who is perfect

for that job. Spoiler alert, it's Jesus. I'm talking about Jesus.

He is the better high priest. He's the perfect one

to stand before God on our behalf or on behalf

of His people. And I want to look at Hebrews

chapter seven. You guys can actually turn there in your bibles,

Hebrews chapter seven, and it's going to be verse twenty

six starting there. For it was indeed fitting that we

should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated

from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no

need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily for

his own sin and then for those of the people,

since he did this once for all when he offered

up himself. And then I want you to turn over

two more chapters, chapter nine. So Hebrews chapter nine, and

look at verse eleven, because it's explained beautifully. But when

Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that

have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent,

not made with hands, that is not of this creation.

And when we say tent, they're talking about the tabernacle.

Verse twelve. He entered once for all into the holy places,

not by means of the blood of goats and ki halves,

but by means of his own blood, thus securing an

eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls

and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of

a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how

much more will the blood of Christ, who through the

eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, purify are

conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore,

he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that

those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance,

since a death has occurred that redeems them from the

transgressions committed under the first covenant. Do you guys see

the kind of language it's being used here? This is

showing us how Jesus fulfilled, or he's fulfilling all the

purposes of the priests and the tabernacle, all the things

of the tabernacle, or only copies or shadows of these

heavenly things. And that's why they needed all these rituals

to be made pure. But the true heavenly things, Jesus

is the fulfillment of those. He is the greater sacrifice

required for the eternal heavenly things. He is the true

High Priest who stands as mediator for us before God.

Skip down to verse twenty four. It keeps going, for

Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands,

which are copies of the true things, but into Heaven itself,

now to appear in the presence of God, on whose behalf,

speaking to believers, on our behalf. Nor was it to

offer himself repeatedly. He doesn't have to, as the High

Priest enters the Holy Place every year with blood not

his own for he for then he would have had

to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But

as it is, He's appeared once for all at the

end of the ages, to put away sin by the

sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for

man to die once, and after that comes judgment.

That's how this works. We only die once, and then

it's judgment.

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins

of many, will appear a second time, not to deal

with sin, but to save those.

Who eagerly wait for him. You waiting for him eagerly.

Jesus is perfect, holy, innocent, unstained. That makes him the

only one who can actually stand before God on his

own to represent his people to bear their judgment, and

is through his death that he has secured an eternal inheritance,

an eternal redemption for those who are called, and he

mediates a new covenant. We talk about this every time

we take communion, a new covenant through his blood. That's

why he died, because without the shedding of blood, there

is no forgiveness of sins. That's also in Hebrews it

last week. So Jesus shed his blood, his own blood

on our behalf, and he rose from the dead, and

he will return one day, and on that day it

will be to save those who eagerly wait for him.

It's only those who are waiting for him that he

stands as a representative for those who have put faith

in him, who trust in him. So again I will ask,

if God takes holiness so seriously, are you holy enough

to stand before Him?

And I need the worship team to come up.

Please, are you holy enough to stand before Holy God?

And if you've repented of your sins and trust in

Jesus for salvation, then the answer is yes. The answer

is yes. You are made holy through faith in Jesus

and his finished work on the cross. Unlikely the blood

of animals, which continually how to be sacrificed over and

over and over again for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus

blood cleanses us from all our sin eternally. That's forever,

all sins, past, present, in future, all of them. You

remember my bomb squad example, the bombsuit. We don't put

on a holy priestly garment. That's not our bombsuit. Our

bombsuit is the blood of Jesus. We cover ourselves in

the blood of Jesus. That's how we don't explode in

the presence of God. We are made holy by the

blood of Jesus. That is the only way we can

stand before God and not perish. A holy God who

takes holiness seriously. And because God takes holiness so seriously.

So should you. So should you, so should I.

We should take the security of our lives seriously. Don't

corrupt ourselves with the profane things. You know, what things

are impure and ungodly. I don't have to tell you

what those are. You know, have nothing to do with

those things, have nothing to do with those things. He's

washed us clean. We should fight to stay that way,

fight tooth and nail to remove all the sin that's

in our lives.

So what sin are you still holding on? To get

rid of it?

Let it go, Ask a brother or sister to hold

you accountable and pray with you and for you. It's

something we kind of forget in our accountability meetings. We

forget to pray for one another. Set up roadblocks for

sin and temptation. If you struggle with alcohol, don't go

to places where they serve it. If you struggle with gossip,

stop hanging around people who do. If you struggle with lust,

have a brother or sister down your phone, give them

the password. If your right eye or right hand causes

you to sin, Jesus tells us to cut it off.

And I don't think I need to explain. He's not

really telling you to cut your hand off. He's saying,

cut the sin out of your life. Be serious about it.

Maybe it's not a premeditated sin. Maybe it's a sin

of reaction that you say is out of your control.

Put that to death, too, Put those sins.

Of reaction to death.

If you react in anger, make a habit of apologizing

and repenting, Or maybe you react by being petty or subversive,

Apologize and repent, because having to repent constantly gets old fast.

You will want to stop very quickly if you take

seriously this repentance and apology, apologizing, and just on this

idea of reactionary sins. What's in your heart is what

comes out. What's in your heart is what comes out

of your heart is what's already in there. So start

putting God's word in your heart by constantly reading and meditating.

Don't skip it. Do not skip your spiritual meal. You

need it. Your spirit needs its food. One of my

favorite verses in the Bible, Psalm one, nineteen eleven, I've

hidden your word in my heart that I might not

sin against you. I am convinced that our hearts are sponges,

and a sponge, whatever's inside it, when it's put under pressure,

is going to come out of it. So we need

our hearts to be so full of God's word that

when we squeeze it we put under pressure, or when

someone comes at me sideways, what comes out of my heart.

I want it to be God's word. I want it

to be obedience to him. So Number one, we should

take purity seriously. Number two, he is washed us clean.

We should fight to stay that way. And number three

is we've been set apart for the Lord. We've been

set apart for him, for the Lord, set apart for

his purposes. He's prepared good works for us to do

in advance before the foundations of the world. When He

chose you, he set up a job for you. We

should be busy with those things. Our time should be

filled with those things. We have been bought with a price.

We are no longer our own. We belong to God,

and we should present our bodies to Him as living sacrifices.

I basically just quoted a bunch of scripture at you

without citing it. Those are all verses, Those are all

things God says for you. Our aim should always be

to walk in obedience to everything that will Lord demands

of us. And I love how Peter puts our pursuit

of holiness in first Peter one.

You can turn there if you want. It'll also be

on the screen.

One Peter one, starting in verse thirteen. Therefore, prepare your

minds for action, Be sober minded, say your hope fully

on the grace that will be brought to you at

the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children do not

be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But

as he who called you is holy, you also be

holy in all your conduct, how much of your conduct,

all of it. Since it is written you shall be

holy for I am holy.

That's our goal.

That's our goal, as obedient children to Lord. You shall

be holy for I am holy. But it's in this

conversation where I feel like I do need to make

some clarifications here that our obedience to the Lord or

our holiness isn't in order for us to be made clean,

because He already made you clean.

You put faith in him. He made you clean.

But it's precisely because He made us clean that we

desire to obey him. Our pursuit of holiness is always

a response to our salvation. It's never a prerequisite for it.

Let me say that again. That's something you should write

down and memorize. That our pursuit of holiness is always

a response to our salvation. It's never a prerequisite for it.

We are saved purely by the grace of God through

faith in Christ, by grace alone, through faith alone, in

Christ alone, there is no amount of works that you

can do to make God owe you salvation. You could try,

and you still can't make it. You transgress one piece

of the law, and you are a law breaker. You

go one mile an hour over the speed limit. And

even if the argument's always like, well the cops never

gonna give me a ticket, but you're still breaking the law.

You're a lawbreaker. It's the same thing with God's law.

A little white lie, you broke God's law. There's no

amount of works that we can do to save us.

But because God saved us, because he has set us apart,

because he has made us wholly in his sight, we

now work to keep in step with the spirit and

to walk in obedience to everything He's commanded us as

obedient children. But I hate to break it to you.

You're going to fail. I'm going to fail. We're all

going to fail at doing this. But this is where

John gives us some really good encouragement. It's in First John,

chapter two. He says, my little children, I'm writing these

things to you. So he's writing this letter to these people.

He says, my little children, I'm writing these things to

you so that you may not sin. But if anyone

does sin, we have an advocate with the father Jesus

Christ the Righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins,

and not for ours only, but also for the sins

of the whole world. Our goal is to not sin,

that's our goal. But if slash when we do, we

have an advocate. We have an advocate. It's Jesus, the

Righteous One, our representative before Holy God.

So continue to to him in faith.

Never stop clinging to him in faith, Repent and get

right back to obeying the Lord. Where sin abounds, grace

abounds all the more. The grace of God and Jesus

will always overpower sin. But does that mean we should

go on sinning? What does Paul say, by no means

stop it? That's the modern translation.

Stop it?

Just because wherever sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

That does not mean we go on sinning. That's spitting

on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

We don't do that.

We don't return to our former ways. Those ways are

put to death. We've crucified the flesh with the sinful desires.

They're done for that's the old us. We walk his

obedient children, desiring to be holy. By no means do

we continue sinning. And after today, when you see how

serious that God takes holiness. I don't know how anyone

could ever come to the conclusion that continuing in sin

willingly is what God desires.

I don't know anyone who could come to that conclusion.

You would have to be plugging your ears and closing

your eyes to what God has clearly said and clearly demonstrated.

In his word.

Just look at the Tabernacle and all that it is

and all that it represents. God takes holiness seriously, say it,

and so should we.

Amen. Can you guys please stand your feet