Amen, what a joy to sing of the truth of God's Word. Let me invite you to take God's Word now and turn with me to the book of Exodus. Continuing our journey through Exodus, we find ourselves at the end of chapter 27. For now, Exodus 28 and verse 1. Exodus 28 in verse 1, place your finger there and also look at Hebrews chapter 4 beginning in verse 14. Exodus 28 verse 1, hear now the word of the living God. Now take Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him. from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as priest. Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Hebrews 4, verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, who is passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is the word of the living God, and we say thanks be to God. Amen. Please be seated. Let's pray now. and ask for God's aid on the preaching of his word. Now, oh, Lord, we pray that your spirit would move among us, that you would overwhelm us by a sense of Christ, a spiritual vision of him, that our blind hearts may once again or for the first time see the blessed Savior, our great high priest. Leave us not unchanged. Lord, Help the hearing and the preaching of your word to stay, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. As we journey through the book of Exodus, we've seen God take a people, Abraham's family, and bring them out of slavery in Egypt, a cruel taskmaster, as they made bricks in the dirt for hundreds of years. Bring about a crushing blow to their enemy, Pharaoh, casting all of his minions into the sea. And then bring this people safely on dry land through the waters of the Red Sea. Give them a law and a covenant. Now, we've read over these last weeks that God is going to plan to meet with them. He's going to place them in the land that he's promised to give them and he's going to meet with them in the centerpiece of their dwelling place will be the tabernacle, the tent. It's literally a tent, boys and girls set up in the wilderness. This tent would be the place where once a year the high priest of God. With minister. Representing the people to God and representing God to the people, God's presence would be made known there. This tent would be surrounded by an outer court and these people of God would bring their offerings in and out of the court. They would bring their songs of praise in and out of the court. They would have a life of worship as God's people. We talked about the furniture of this tent. We talked about the tent, the court today. I want you to see the priest. I want you to see the priest of the Old Testament, but I want you ultimately to see the great high priest. Because without the priest and his role of acting as a mediator, of offering sacrifices, of offering intercession, of standing there as the people of God offered their gifts, their sacrifices, the whole thing would mean nothing. Because more than anything, we need to see that as God's creatures in our sin, we must have a covering. And there must be one who stands between us and God. Of course, the ultimate high priest is Christ, as we've heard read from Hebrews 4. But all of these pictures in the book of Exodus are like shadows on a wall. They help us to see something that is greater. Think about it. It's almost evening time. Perhaps the sun is shining still. You might see a variety of shapes, persons, animals, and you see their shadows. You kind of have an understanding of what they are. There's something greater that they point to, and that's what this entire section of tent and court and priest and ark and sacrifices have all been about. The book of Exodus preaches the name of Christ. So let's see one more of these shadows. The priest. Turn with me to Exodus 27, where we left off last week. Verse 20. After instructions on building the courtyard, building the tabernacle, building the tent, now we get instructions for the priests. That will occupy the next few chapters. Year after year. For centuries, this people would live in the promised land and there would be sacrifices regularly made. The priests would oversee the entirety of this worship. But they would also care for the meeting place of God. Look at verse 20. And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn continually in the tabernacle. The tent of meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony. Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel." Now we're getting instructions on what these men are to do. They're to be the ones that have perpetual service before God. Serving God on behalf of the people. Representing the people to God as we will see. And notice the light. of the lampstand will be cared for day and night by these priests. These priests would come from a particular family, they would come from Aaron's family. We began to read of them in chapter 28. Much of the Old Testament speaks to the priests of God. But I want us to walk through this chapter briefly and close with three lessons today. So let's look at the various things related to these priests. The first thing that we see in verses 1 through 4 is that they had a particular kind of clothing. They wore a particular kind of dress. Look there at verse 2. You shall make the holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister to me as a priest. And these are the garments which you shall make, a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban and a sash. So they shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother and his sons, that he may minister to me as priest. Notice that the first instruction is that these garments are for glory and beauty. One Puritan wrote this about this phrase, quote, such as are glorious and beautiful, partly to mind or remind the people of the dignity and excellency of their office and employment, and principally to represent the glorious robes wherewith Christ is both clothed himself and clotheth all his people who are made priests unto God. I want you to think about this as we walk through this chapter. In the New Testament, there's two mentions of priests. There's the mention of Christ. He is the great high priest. He fulfills all of this. He is the breastplate. He is the ephod. He is the clothes. He is the sacrifice. He is the altar. He is the tabernacle. But the New Testament also says now in His blood, we are priests. We're a kingdom of priests, the Bible says. We offer sacrifices to God. We serve Him. We come through His Son and have access to Him. So there's a glory and a beauty about these clothing items. They are meant to display something of great wonder. Notice in verse three, God says that he's going to fill with wisdom by his spirit certain artisans. There are actually going to be seamstresses, whatever the male form of that is, who are going to make these clothing items. They're going to deck these items with glory and splendor enabled by God. garments of glory and beauty. But secondly, notice the ephod. What is an ephod, boys and girls? Let's look at verse 5. They shall take the gold, purple, blue, and scarlet thread and the fine linen, and they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen artistically worked. It shall have two shoulder straps joined at its two edges, and so it shall be joined together. And the intricately woven band of the ephod which is on it shall be of the same workmanship made of gold, blue, purple and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. Now, the ephod throughout the pages of the Old Testament was a layer of this garment associated with making judgments. It represented the fact that there were going to be certain kinds of decisions that would need to be made. And if you looked at the fabric, don't get lost in the details, but don't miss them either. If you looked at the fabric that we just read, you've seen this before. This fabric, these materials for the clothing, were the same kind of materials that were used for the tabernacle. The priest is like a living tabernacle. He is the place, as it were, where God's people would meet and be represented before God. The text continues in verse nine. We read of some extra kinds of decorations on these clothing items. Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave them on the names of the sons of Israel. Six of their names on one stone and six names on the other stone in order of their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold and you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders. As a memorial. You shall also make settings of gold. And you shall make two chains of pure gold like braided cords and fasten the braided chains to the settings. My brothers and sisters, if you've read your Bible, I can hardly pronounce these verses without being immediately fixed on a coming reality. Will there ever be a priest who will bear the names of God's people before the living God forever? There will be. It's Christ, I can't help but get ahead of myself. But notice in verse 11, the names of the sons of Israel will be listed there, the tribes. Not only is this priest wearing holy garments, he's wearing an ephod. And this particular item that he wears. Identifies him as like a place where God meets with man. But not only does the priest act like a living tabernacle, he represents Israel. All of Israel is represented. Can you imagine year after year as the great moment occurs where the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies? All of the people of God who had sense to see it and hear it stood outside and they could say to themselves, he is taking my name before God. So the priest represents Israel. So we have garments, and we have an ephod. But boys and girls, there are more clothing items. It's almost as if this priest was getting dressed for cold weather because the layers are growing here. In addition to the clothing and the ephod, we have the breastplate. Look at verse 15. You shall make the breastplate of judgment, artistically woven according to the workmanship of the ephod. You shall make of it of gold, blue, purple and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. You shall make it. It shall be doubled into a square. A span shall be its length and a span shall be its width. And you shall put settings of stones in it. Four rows of stones. The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald. This shall be the first row. The second row shall be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond. The third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold settings. And the stone shall have the names of the sons of Israel, 12 according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, each one with its own name. They shall be according to the 12 tribes. This is a square-shaped item. Now, is there anything else in this design that is square? Well, yes, the Holy of Holies. The innermost part of the tabernacle is a square. Now, this priest, who is like a living tabernacle, as it were, is wearing this square-like breastplate that is bedazzled with gems. Now brothers and sisters, we might read this at first glance and think to ourselves, that must have been beautiful. If you know anything about these kinds of stones in various English translations, render them differently, but they were colorful stones. They were shimmering. Can you imagine the light from the lampstand hitting the stones on the breastplate? of the high priest, the splendor that would happen, meeting the gold of all the other items, we might think, ah, the Lord is really wanting to decorate this. But there's something else going on here. The Lord is laying a foundation for something that you're going to see later because you will see these stones later in the Bible. You know where you're gonna see these stones? The very last page of the Bible. Because the stones of the breastplate of the high priest here in Exodus 28 mirror the stones that are located in the wall of the great city in Revelation 21 19. It's almost as if God's plan from the beginning is to set a shadow in place so that the glorious reality of God dwelling with his people forever and ever and ever can be seen. The walls of the city of the New Jerusalem are encrusted as it were. with these glorious stones. You see, the Lord throughout this book is giving us a visual, shadow after shadow after shadow to say, in just a few moments, he will walk around the corner and there will be no more shadows and you will see the true and living substance. That's what we have here in Exodus. Well, verse 21 says, again, the names of the 12 tribes, are worn on the breastplate, the chest, the bosom of the high priest. It's almost as if the priest is carrying on his heart the people that he's representing to God. Could it be, perhaps, by accident, that today we sang that great hymn? Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love. Whoever lives and pleads for me, my name is graven on his hands. My name is written. Where's your name? On his heart. He is the true and living high priest who forever bears your name, Christian, before God. The safest place for you to be is on the heart of the living Christ. Well, this instruction of the breastplate continues. Look at verse 22. You shall make chains for the breastplate at the end like braided cords of pure gold. And you shall make two rings of gold for the breastplate and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. Then you shall put the two braided chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate. And the other two ends of the two braided chains you shall fasten to the two settings. put them on the shoulder straps of the ephod in the front. You shall make two rings of gold and put on the two ends of the breastplate on the edge of it, which are on the inner side of the ephod, and two other rings of gold you shall make and put them on the shoulder straps underneath the ephod towards its front, right at the seam above the intricately woven band of the ephod. They shall bind the breastplate by means of its rings to the rings of the ephod using a blue cord. So that it is above the intricately woven band of the effort and so that the breastplate does not come loose from the effort. So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart when he goes into the holy place as a memorial before the Lord continually. We're told that this is going to be like a memorial. Now, this is a way of saying a reminder to God. Now, boys and girls, God knows all things. He doesn't forget things. He doesn't need to be reminded like I do every day of things that I easily forget. But this is a symbolic way of saying God is making it so that there will always be a regular reminder. Before him. Of his people, of his promises to his people. We read some interesting words then in verse 30. And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim. They shall be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually. Now, what are Urim and Thummim? Well, just about any commentary you pick up, old or new, is going to say something like this, we don't fully know. And in one sense, we don't need to know because this is old covenant material. But it seems as though these unknown items And by unknown items, I just mean we don't fully know all of what they were used for. It seems as though they were used to discern God's words or the will of God. Interestingly enough, in Hebrew, the word Urim begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And you can probably imagine what I'm going to say next. Thummim begins with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, kind of like Alpha and Omega in the New Testament. But let's just look at one instance where it seems like we get a picture of what these substances were used for. Turn over to Numbers later in the Old Testament, Numbers 27 verse 21. There we read this. And you shall give some of your authority to him that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. He shall stand before Eliezer, the priest, who shall inquire before the Lord for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word, they shall go out and at his word, they shall come in. He and all the children of Israel with him, all the congregation. You can read similarly of this in places like 1 Samuel 14. It seems as if these items were used symbolically as a part of the understanding that there's going to be the need to pray to God and to discern God's will on behalf of His people. Well, we've seen garments, we've seen the ephod, we've seen the breastplate bedazzled with stones and urim and thumim. We get more instruction on these priestly garments. Look at verse 31. You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. There shall be an opening for his head in the middle of it. It shall be a woven binding all around its opening like the opening in a coat of mail so that it does not tear. And upon its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet all around its hem and bells of gold between them all around. a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe all around, and it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, that he may not die. We shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, holiness to the Lord. The priest of old literally wore The phrase holiness to the Lord. I wonder if there will ever be a place in the New Testament that speaks to a phrase written on us. Verse 37, and you shall put it on a blue cord that it may be on the turban. It shall be on the front of the turban. So it shall be on Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall always be on his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. So in verse 34, we read that these priests are going to have bells. Bells that will ring and jingle as they do their work. They're going to be offering works, priestly works to God, which resound with sounds of praise. Pomegranates. Depending on who you read, you may get a variety of opinions on this. Some argue that this was a food item that kind of pointed to life, fruitfulness. So the artwork is full of splendor. The turban on the priest's head is marked holy. But every last one of these priests had to offer sacrifices for himself before doing his priestly work. Because what man is there that is holy to the Lord perfectly and completely? In fact, year after year, generation after generation, you get a bunch of sinners who must be cleansed before they can enter in on behalf of God's people. Will there ever be an end to this cycle? Will there ever be a priest who in and of himself is actually holy to the Lord? Notice in verse 38. The priest is said as bearing the iniquity. Now you might think, I might think, as we first read this, oh yeah, the priest is the one who's gonna kind of deal with the sin of God's people, but there's a particular kind of sin and iniquity referenced here. Bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts. In other words, the priest's service is going to be that as the people of God bring their gifts of praise, Those gifts, those sacrifices are going to have imperfections. They're not going to be fully perfect, but in the priest, they will be received by God. Now, does this sound familiar to you? Our brother Blake, just last Sunday night, preached about good works. I commend the sermon to you, just a doctrinal sermon about good works. And one of the final points that we saw, it's a point that our confession of faith points out. is that our good works as Christians now are imperfect, aren't they? What work do you do that is absolutely without error, absolutely without sin? None. But in Christ, our great high priest, those works are received as delightful to God. There's a picture here. Think about the works that you do, sometimes tainted, With sin, you want to do them, but you kind of still don't want to. You want to pray, but you don't want to. You want to help this person, but you kind of don't want to. Or what you do ends up not being perfect. And yet in Christ, they are received. Here there's a picture of it. Aaron is going to bear the iniquity. Perhaps there would be an animal brought for sacrifice that, unbeknownst to the giver, had a blemish. Maybe the one bringing the sacrifice could have brought something slightly better. The priest is going to make it so that as these people sacrifice year in and year out, as they offer gifts of praise to God, they are accepted because he bears the iniquity of the holy gifts. Well, we finish this chapter with a final description of the clothing of the other priests. Look at verse 40. For Aaron's sons, you shall make tunics and you shall make sashes for them and you shall make them hats for glory and beauty. So you shall put them on Aaron, your brother, and on his sons with him. You shall anoint them, consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister to me as priests. And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness. We shall reach from the waist to the thighs. They shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they come into the tabernacle of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place that they do not incur iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and his descendants after him. Notice the clothing is designed to cover nakedness. Have we ever seen the theme of nakedness before in the Bible? Of course, God made us without clothing. Adam and Eve, our first parents, walked in the garden without clothing. And then the moment that they sinned, what did they recognize? They recognized that they were naked and there was shame. Now a complete openness before God and others must be covered here. God has designed a plan for the priests who minister to have their nakedness covered up. There won't be any times when the priest's nakedness will be seen because his nakedness, his shame will be covered. It's hard for us to imagine such themes because we live in a day where increasingly people do kind of want to take off more and more of their covering. It's going to become commonplace. to not really wear much clothing. Here we see that the design in this place is that their shame is covered. So let's just take a moment before we look at three closing lessons to summarize what we've seen. A representative on behalf of God's people who is dressed in such a way that he is seen as holy before the Lord, making it so that God's people have access to God, that even their very gifts will be accepted to God, imperfect though they may be. He will represent God's presence with the people. He will go in and make atonement for sin. His clothing means that not only is the glory of God and his presence with his people seen, but the shame of his people is covered. Now all of these elements come together in one particular place in the Bible. All of it. Shame. Sacrifice for sin. Meeting with God. A place where God meets with his people. Sacrifices that need to be accomplished. All of them meet together in one place. Jesus Christ. And when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman. born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. And the word became flesh. And what did he do? He tabernacled among us. Or as the preacher of Hebrew says, since we have such a great high priest, let us come in boldly. Christ is the fulfillment of all of these things. In fact, if you were to just look at a variety of Psalms, You can see his name echoed on the pages there. Psalm 15, for instance. A question is asked, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? The answer is only Christ. And I would argue that in Psalm 15, we get a description of Christ. He walks uprightly and righteously. He speaks truth. He doesn't backbite. He does good to his friends. He's not vile. He honors and fears the Lord. He doesn't swear. He doesn't covet. The answer to Psalm 15 is only Christ can dwell in the tabernacle of God. So a question for you to consider, friend, is are you on the chest of Christ? Are you graven there? Well, the lessons for us, then, as we consider these clothing items, and clothes are many, but let me just give you three. The first is this. Because Christ is our forever High Priest, our names are carried on His body. Just think about this. In the old covenant, the people of God regularly knew that there was a representative that God had chosen from among them to enter into his presence on their behalf, to offer another sacrifice because of many more impurities since the last one, so that God would still dwell with his people and so that they could be ceremonially pure. And as they stood there, for any of them who had the wherewithal to see what God was doing, perhaps old covenant saints, They could stand there and say, my name is in there. My tribe is in there. We can't go in there, but our tribe is in there. Benjamin, Levi, Reuben, Manasseh. Our tribe is in there. My name is in there. Fast forward thousands of years to the current time. The book of Hebrews says, there is a heavenly tent, and our Christ has gone there, and He bears the names of His people before the living God. This week, perhaps for you, has been one of spiritual joy. Maybe you've had highs like you haven't had before. You've been walking with the Lord, reading His Word, sweet times of prayer. Others of you in this room, you may not have had sweet times of prayer. You may not even be able to find yourself able to pray. You haven't touched His Word since the last sermon. You've been impatient with your kids. You've thought all kinds of things you shouldn't think. And in both cases, spiritual high, spiritual low, you have a high priest who bears your name before God. Your name is their believer. You see, the beauty of the priestly system is that as we stand outside the courts of God, looking to our Savior, We have one who based on his merits and his qualifications carries us in before God. The strength of my faith, the speed of my sanctification, my good works and the level thereof are not why my name is before God. It is there because graven on his chest is my name. And the beauty of the glory of the gospel is that Christ says to any of you, Any of you, I will carry you in there. Come. Come. I will carry you in there. I will carry you and all of your faults and sins before the living God. Trust in me. Look to me. Let me be your covering for sin. And I will carry you in. And you will never not be safe. See, this is an implication, isn't it? Of Christ as our high priest. There is never a moment where the believer is not secure in their great high priest. There's never a moment when the stone with your name is going to fall out of the heart of the living Christ. I know there are many who read the Bible, and many of them are our brothers and sisters, and they tend to view it as you can be saved, but you can kind of lose that salvation. And then you can get saved again. You can kind of go in and out of salvation. And the whole of Scripture, to include this chapter, points to the reality that if you are on the breast, the bosom of the High Priest, you will not be lost. So because our Christ is our forever High Priest, our names are carried on His body, but secondly, Because Christ is our forever High Priest, we have a constant intercessor. Now that word, boys and girls, means someone who prays for us, someone who pleads for us, someone who does something for us. The New Testament speaks to this. Turn over to Hebrews. Hebrews is a great companion as you're reading the book of Exodus. Hebrews interprets Exodus and many other Old Testament books for you. Hebrews 7.25. There, the writer of Hebrews says this, also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, that is Jesus, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost. We could just camp out all afternoon on that phrase. He doesn't save almost. He doesn't save just about. He saves to the uttermost those who come to God through him since or because he always lives to do what? Make intercession for them. Or how about what Paul says elsewhere? In the book of Romans. Romans chapter eight, there we read these glorious words, Romans chapter eight. Verse thirty four, who is he who condemns it is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Consider what this means in your suffering, Christian. Right now, the earth, the world, it may seem to you, is closing in on you. You don't have answers to a thousand questions. You don't know what to do from day to day in your suffering, whether physical, mental, relational. And a rock-solid reality is that even now, as blind as you may think that you are in understanding how to walk through this suffering, Christ is interceding for you. You are not lost. You are not outside of his prayers. We might go so far as to say even your weak prayer life does not limit him. Imagine the centuries where there would be tribal problems. This year hasn't been a good year for the tribe of Benjamin. This year hasn't been a good year for the tribe of Levi. All the other tribes are gossiping. You wouldn't believe what happened in the tribe of Manasseh this year. Can you believe these people? And yet every year, every last name was on the bosom of the priest. Some of you are at your lowest. And yet, because you are in Christ, your name is before the living God. on the bosom, graven on the bosom of your high priest. Well, there's a third and final reality that we must say, and that is this. Because Christ is our forever high priest, our searing shame is covered. You know, I thought about that phrase this week. It could have been easy to say, our shame is covered. But sometimes the Lord allows us in varying degrees to really experience the shame of our sins. Do you know what I mean? Some of you can think back to certain sins and you almost just kind of tremble. You think, how can I do that? Oh, that's so bad. And perhaps that sin has been on display for others to see. There's literally a spiritual nakedness And you stand there, as it were, in shame. The shame of the sins of God's people was covered. It was covered by the priest. And yours are covered in Christ. And He has made you a priest. And what has He done with your shame? He's covered it. Remember one of the terms of the New Covenant that we read in Hebrews 8? God is said to not remember your sins. It's not as though God is forgetful. Remember that. But God is said to not even bring to mind your sins. The big ones, the bad ones. You know, it strikes me that in the body of Christ, sometimes we have We have the ability to kind of deal with the little stuff. We have the ability to share the little stuff. Oh yeah, I used to be a gossip. I've been frustrated with my kids this week. And those are good things. It's good to confess our sins to one another. The scripture encourages us to do that. But there's a reality about the people of God. That a lot of us have some really bad, shameful, sinful stuff. In our lives. And we have a high priest who has covered our shame, who enters in with our name. And he clothes us in the fine linen of his work. So that the worst of sins, whatever you consider that to be, is covered. Our past sins are no longer what is engraven on us. What would be engraven on your head in your own robes? What would it be? All kinds of wickedness written here for the world to see. And yet, The Bible says that because we have a great high priest who has made us a kingdom of priests, we are clothed and written, because of Christ, on our heads, is a phrase. Holiness to the Lord. Holiness to the Lord. Our past sins are no longer our identity. And as priests, as we offer sacrifices, Romans 12, 1, I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your lives as living sacrifices as our priestly work in his new covenant continues. And there are imperfections in our offerings to God. Half-hearted motivations. Imperfect abilities, whether natural or spiritual. Try to help someone, but you're mixed in your motivation. You try to pray, but you can't pray. How many times have you stopped praying because you said, I'm not doing it well enough. And at that very moment, unbeknownst to you, you had a high priest that made your offering of praise and prayer to the living God acceptable. Attempt A court, a priest, some clothes, all of it. All of it. Seems like a lot. Threads, materials, certain kind of animal skins, pomegranates, bells, all of it. What are we to do with that? Each sentence is a shadow that points us to Christ. The forever high priest. So here we all are, encamped as God's people. Maybe you've come into this place today, friend, you've just kind of pulled up your tent and here you are with us. And we're all looking to our high priest and we're saying things like, my name is there. He is my high priest and you're asking questions. Let me let me just ask you. Is Christ yours? Is he yours? The Bible shouts his name on every page. Is Christ yours? And you may say, you know, I really wish that he was. Well, then hear him, John six. Anyone who comes to me. I will not cast out. Is he yours? Let's pray. Living God grant saving faith and repentance to your people today. Both those who came in knowing the blessed and beautiful Christ and those who haven't. May the great high priest. Who makes a kingdom of priests, holy and acceptable to God covers their shame and makes their sacrifices acceptable in his presence. May that high priest be glorified today and savored for who he is. Help us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.