Approaching the Holy God

[0:00] Okay. I've gotten a bunch of comments already about the fact I'm wearing a tie. I knew when I arrived in Squamish, this town isn't really known for dressing up.

[0:13] And what surprised me on coming here is that there really is no occasion when someone here is expected to dress formally. There really isn't. Not even at a wedding, not even at a funeral, is a man expected to wear a suit and tie.

[0:28] And I can only speak for men because I'm not a woman. So I don't know. Maybe there are occasions when women are really, really expected to dress up very formally. The only times I've ever seen a man expected to wear a suit and tie is if he is the groom at the wedding or if he is the guy in the coffin at the funeral.

[0:48] So why am I wearing this tie? Is this some sort of announcement one way or another on my part? It is not. Just making an observation here that this is a town, this is a church where people don't dress up very often.

[1:02] But maybe some of you come from a time, some of you come from a place when you were expected to dress up on occasions like weddings or funerals. Or you were expected to dress up when you attended church on Sunday morning.

[1:15] Maybe you remember that fondly. Maybe you remember that not so fondly. Either way, you dressed up for a reason. You dressed up in order to communicate something.

[1:27] You realize our clothes communicate something. Maybe you were communicating something about yourself. Maybe you were trying to leave a good impression on other people. Maybe you're trying to leave an impression that you're a person of wealth or a person of good taste.

[1:45] Or maybe your dress communicated your role. Your role as a person of significance. Like you were, for example, a family member at a wedding or a funeral. And your dress would indicate that.

[1:56] Another possibility is that rather than communicating something about yourself, maybe you were communicating about someone or about something else.

[2:07] For example, you dress up at a wedding to show honor to the couple who are getting married, to express that this is a momentous occasion and so I want to show that this is really important to me and that I'm going to dress up for this.

[2:21] Or maybe you do the same at a funeral to express solemn feelings as a grieving friend or family member. Maybe you dress up when you came to church to worship.

[2:31] You wanted to show a sense of reverence that you were encountering the living God in a church service. Regardless, everyone understands that the clothes that you wear, they communicate something about you and about the people, the places, the events surrounding you.

[2:49] And we're going to be talking about clothing in Exodus chapter 39. And the thought occurred to me this morning too that because I just know exactly how these discussions are going to go down in our growth groups, there's always going to be one person in every growth group who's like, yeah, you know, they're going to want to talk about what clothes we wear at a church.

[3:07] So remind me to circle, I'm hopefully will remember to circle back to that at the end of the sermon. It's not in the manuscript. So if I do forget, come up to me afterwards and talk to me about it if you're that person who wants to talk about that.

[3:18] So hopefully I'll remember. If I don't, then I guess, well, hey, we'll see if the Holy Spirit brings that to mind. Exodus chapter 39, we're reading about the clothing that is prepared for the priests of God's people Israel.

[3:36] And so as we just established it, just examined, we would do well to consider that all clothing is communicating. It's communicating about these priests, first, who these priests are, and second, about the God whom the priests serve, the God who is with us.

[3:56] And we've learned from the book of Exodus that this God is great. This God overpowered the empire of Egypt. This God rescued his people from slavery in the land of Egypt.

[4:07] We've learned that this God is great. We've also learned that this God is good. He brought his people safely through the desert. He gave them his good law. He gave them this new covenant relationship with them at Mount Sinai.

[4:22] And now we're learning that God is not only great, he's not only good, but that God is with us. God is giving his people instructions for his royal home, the tabernacle, where he makes his residence among his people.

[4:39] He's giving instructions for his royal servants, the priests. And God is doing this so that a holy God can dwell among a sinful people. So that he can dwell among a sinful people and bring blessing to them and bring life to them.

[4:55] Rather than destroying them for their sin, for that rebellion against him that we've seen so clearly in the book of Exodus. We've been following along in the last few chapters of the book of Exodus as God's people build his tabernacle, the furniture in the tabernacle, and now they're creating the garments for his priests in Exodus chapter 39.

[5:16] Now, this chapter tells us a lot about how the artisans, how the weavers, they fully obeyed all of the specific commandments and instructions of the Lord. This chapter, though, doesn't really go into a lot of detail about why the Lord gave these specific instructions.

[5:31] Why are the garments constructed the way they are? And so we're going to actually be spending a lot of time through most of the sermon referring back to chapter 28. That's when God gave these instructions to Moses.

[5:45] And when he gave the instructions to Moses, to the leader of God's people, the Lord also explained the purpose of each of the garments, of each of the decorations.

[5:56] He explained that all the features of these garments had significance. And they had not only held significance to the people of Israel in that generation, but they hold significance to you and me today.

[6:10] Now, in Exodus, nearly all the instructions are about the garments of one specific man. There are garments being made for all the priests, but most of the detail goes into one particular set of garments. There's a man who holds the office of high priest, the high priest.

[6:25] And so the single most obvious thing that we're going to learn is that the Lord has appointed a high priest on behalf of his people. You can't have garments for a high priest unless you also have a high priest.

[6:37] So the Lord has appointed a high priest on behalf of his people. Now, in chapter 28, the Lord tells Moses who this first high priest is going to be. Exodus chapter 28, verses 1 through 3.

[6:51] Then bring near to you Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests, Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer and Ithamar.

[7:05] And you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.

[7:21] So from this, we learn that this high priest, this is not an office that is gained in the way that people gain public office in our country, in our civilization.

[7:32] You don't gain the office of high priest by gathering public support, by going door to door, by taking out ads, by amassing enough votes.

[7:44] And you certainly don't gain it the way the public office is gained in many other countries in the world today, by staging a military coup or by showing that you're the strong man. The high priest is an office that is not gained by human effort and initiative.

[7:57] It is not gained by popularity, it is gained by appointment. It is appointed by the Lord God. God chooses Aaron, Moses' brother, as his first high priest.

[8:12] And in chapter 29, the very next chapter, the Lord tells Moses, The priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. So as long as this covenant continues, this priesthood is theirs.

[8:25] It's Aaron and his sons after him, the descendants of Aaron. So it is the Lord who is appointing a high priest on behalf of his people.

[8:37] The high priest doesn't choose to run for office. The people don't choose their own high priest. The Lord selects him. He decides who will be the chief mediator between him and his people.

[8:49] Now we've seen over and over in Exodus that God is entirely sovereign. God is entirely in control. God is entirely free in how he chooses to relate to his people.

[9:03] He is not constrained by anything. And God chooses to appoint a high priest who can stand before him on behalf of the entire people of God. And so it is today.

[9:15] That's how it is today for the people of God as well. We've learned that we relate to God. We don't have this old covenant that is laid out in the book of Exodus. We have a newer and better covenant. We have a newer and better relationship with God because he's given us a new and better high priest.

[9:33] He's given us the man Jesus Christ. Now in the New Testament of the Bible, in Hebrews chapter 5, we read that it was God that appointed Jesus as high priest.

[9:45] It wasn't you. It wasn't me. It wasn't even Jesus himself. Sometimes we talk about Jesus as though you make him Lord of your life as though he isn't already Lord of everything.

[9:57] God appointed him high priest. We don't select him as such. He is. No one but God the Father put him in that position because God alone has that authority.

[10:08] In Hebrews chapter 5, the author of Hebrews writes this. No one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son.

[10:28] Today I have begotten you. Jesus was selected by God as a high priest, as a mediator on behalf of his people.

[10:41] Now when we say the high priest has been appointed on behalf of God's people, what we mean by that is that the high priest relates to God and he relates to God's people in three ways.

[10:55] So the first way that he relates to God and to God's people is this. The high priest first is appointed to rule God's people. He's first appointed to rule God's people. Now if we learn nothing else, if you're just skimming through this passage and you learn nothing else from the garments that are made for Aaron, that's what we learn.

[11:12] The high priest has been granted a position of authority by the Lord. In Exodus chapter 39, the craftsmen make the garments and they're making these garments using expensive and valuable materials.

[11:26] So some of the garments, there's this thing called an ephod that seems to be this simple garment that covered the priest's body from shoulder down to thigh. And like most of the other garments, this ephod is made up of materials that are described in verse 2 of chapter 39.

[11:43] Gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. These would have been very expensive, very fine garments in that period of time. This would not have been easy to make.

[11:54] This would have been expensive. Verse 6, the shoulder pieces of the ephod, they're decorated with onyx stones enclosed in settings of gold filigree and engraved like the engravings of a signet.

[12:07] Now even to us today, we get that. That's expensive material. That's really prestigious stuff. Verses 10 through 14, they describe a breast piece. It's set with 12 gemstones in it.

[12:19] And then to top it off, verses 30 through 31 tell us, 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.

[12:32] And they tied to it a cord of blue to fasten it on the turban above as the Lord had commanded Moses. So we've got all of this expensive material, all this fine material, the kind of thing that only royalty nobility had in that day.

[12:46] And the effect of all these fine garments, all this gold, all these gemstones, is to demonstrate that the wearer is a person of enormous significance. He's a man of royal authority in the community.

[13:01] Just as this tabernacle, it's a royal residence for the Lord. So the high priest is a royal servant of the Lord, serving in his home. It's no coincidence that the materials that went into the construction of the tabernacle, all those materials are also used to create the garments of the high priest.

[13:20] One commentator, he makes this observation. He says, So he's a walking, talking human tabernacle.

[13:41] The place where God is present with his people. The high priest acts as the presence of God among his people. He rules them. He instructs them with divine authority.

[13:51] And so too, Jesus Christ has been given authority. He's been given authority not only over the people of God, but authority over the whole world, even over those who rebel against his rule.

[14:06] In Hebrews chapter 10, we read, That's quite a vivid word picture, isn't it?

[14:27] When, you know, when the kings of the ancient world, when they subjugated an enemy, what they would often do is they would bring that enemy before them. The king of the people they subjugated would come before him in chains, and they would have that king bow down, and then the king would prop up his feet on him.

[14:42] He'd become a footstool. You know, I think my dad may have done that to me when I was a young boy, trying to wrestle him for supremacy in our house. You ever had that happen to you?

[14:53] You know, any young men, you know, your dad wrestled you, and then he puts his feet up on you. He shows that he has the power, he has the authority over you. The Lord has appointed a high priest to rule all the world, and specifically on our behalf to rule God's people.

[15:12] So that's the first aspect of the high priest's relationship with God and with his people. Second, the Lord has appointed a high priest on our behalf to represent God's people.

[15:24] To represent God's people. In Exodus chapter 28, the Lord explains to Moses, all the gemstones on the high priest's garments are meant to represent the people of God.

[15:36] So Exodus chapter 28, verse 9. You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone in the order of their birth.

[15:52] As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree, and you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel.

[16:10] And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance. So these two onyx stones, they have inscribed on them the names of the twelve sons of Israel who are now represented by the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.

[16:29] The two onyx stones taken together, they represent all of God's people in their entirety. Think of it like this is, it's like the high priest is bringing in a family photo.

[16:43] Think of it like a family photo that's been taped to the door of your fridge, and every time you go to the fridge, you see that, and it constantly brings to mind your entire family whenever you see it. Aaron is carrying their names into the Lord's presence.

[16:58] So without even a word, Aaron is asking the Lord to show favor, to show care for all of the people of God as a nation. And then in addition to these two onyx stones, there are twelve gemstones.

[17:14] They're set in the breast piece in verses 17 through 21. You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row, and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond, and the third row adjacent, an agate, and an amethyst, and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper.

[17:34] They shall be set in gold filigree. There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like cygnets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. So you might be reading that thinking, well, he already had these two onyx stones.

[17:49] Why now do we need twelve more gemstones with the names of the twelve tribes on them? Well, if the two onyx stones, they represent God's people as a united whole, multiple names written on two stones.

[18:02] These twelve gemstones represent God's people in their smaller divisions. Each gemstone has a single tribe on it, a single clan. It represents God's people as clans and as families, as individuals.

[18:15] So the high priest, he not only represents God's people as this one big united mass, as a big whole, a collective, but he also represents God's people as individual tribes, as individual clans, as individual families, as individual people among the people of God.

[18:35] So think about it like this. If the onyx stones are like that family photo on the door of your fridge, the twelve gemstones are like individual portraits of each family member stuck next to that family photo.

[18:48] Maybe many of you have a fridge that's like that. It's covered in photos of friends and family, not just of them as a group, but as individuals too. When the high priest, he enters the tabernacle, he's entering God's presence, he's carrying the names of all of God's people, and without even a word, he's asking the Lord to show favor and care for each and every person who is bound to him by their covenant relationship.

[19:17] The Lord cares for them and blesses them as a group, as an entirety, and as individuals and as families. And so Jesus relates to us in the same way as well.

[19:29] Jesus also represents, as a group, all human beings who believe in him, all who trust that he has paid the penalty of our sins on the cross through his death, that he has satisfied the wrath of God against all our evil thoughts, against all our evil words and evil actions.

[19:48] In other words, Jesus has made what we call propitiation for our sins on our behalf, satisfying God's wrath, his right anger. And so Jesus represents the people of God as our high priest.

[20:04] Jesus represents all of us as a group. And Jesus represents each one of us as individuals. In Hebrews chapter 2, we read about this about Jesus.

[20:15] Jesus has been made like us.

[20:40] He became a man, a human. And that's what we're celebrating this Christmas season, that he became our high priest on our behalf. Jesus is a great high priest who not only rules the people of God because he is God, but he also represents us because he is also fully man.

[21:00] He represents us. He stands on our behalf. And he does it with a kind, a gentle spirit. He came as a baby. And he suffered as we have suffered.

[21:14] And so he's able to help us when we are tempted to sin. He's able to help us when our suffering becomes too much to bear. And he's able to speak to God on our behalf.

[21:27] The Lord has appointed a high priest on our behalf to represent God's people. Now, it's thanks to Jesus that we are not only acceptable to the Lord, but we are welcomed into his presence as his dearly loved family.

[21:44] It's thanks to Jesus that we can enter God's presence at all. In Exodus chapter 28, the high priest robe, it has, down at the hem, it's got a whole series of little golden bells.

[21:57] You know, all the jingle bells, Christmas reference. And they ring, they jingle, jingle, jingle, as he walks into the tabernacle tent. And you think, well, that's kind of annoying. Why would you have that?

[22:09] Well, there's a purpose for that. Think about it like this. Maybe you have experience of going out hiking, and it's almost always somebody who never sets out into the bush. But there's somebody who's hiking along this path behind you, and they've got one of those little bear bells.

[22:24] And it's jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingling, and it never stops jingling, and it's driving you nuts. Why is that person wearing that? Well, this person is trying to protect themselves from bears.

[22:36] Right? They're trying to alert, let the bears know ahead of time, hey, I'm a hiker, I'm coming, so the bear is not surprised by them, because bears are dangerous. Why does the high priest wear a noisy robe?

[22:49] Well, here's the explanation that's given. Exodus chapter 28, verse 35. It shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, so that he does not die.

[23:04] So these little bells, they serve a similar purpose. They're a noise that call attention, that alert, that say, hey, I'm coming in. Hey, I'm going out. It calls attention to the fact that the high priest is entering the tent where the Lord is present.

[23:19] Now, the Lord is not like a bear who is going to get surprised and who you can sneak up on. That's not the situation here. It's not that the Lord needs to be alerted that the high priest is coming in.

[23:31] The Lord already knows that. The bells are not for his benefit. The bells are for our benefit. They show that entering the presence of the Lord is actually a dangerous thing.

[23:45] It's a dangerous thing. It's like, it's dangerous like running into a bear on a mountain trail. You tread carefully when you are in the presence of the God who is great.

[23:58] You don't just casually stroll in. You announce that you're coming. You let him know. The bells show that the tabernacle tent is the Lord's house. It's not your place.

[24:08] It's his place. Even the high priest is a guest there. And when you're a guest in someone's house, you ring the doorbell to let them know you've arrived.

[24:22] So the bells prevent the high priest from becoming too familiar, from becoming too casual with the presence of the Lord. They remind the high priest and all the people of God that entering the presence of the Lord is no small and light thing.

[24:34] And given this danger, given that sense of distance, how can we feel that we are acceptable, that we are even welcomed into the presence of the Lord?

[24:46] Well, the high priest has on his head, strapped to that turban, that crown that he's wearing, he has this gold plate. And in chapter 28, verses 36 through 38, we read what is written on this gold plate and what this gold plate signifies to the people of God.

[25:05] You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, holy to the Lord. And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue.

[25:19] It shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord.

[25:35] So that plate, it reads on it, engraved right on it, holy to the Lord. And that plate means that Aaron, as Aaron comes in, he is bearing the guilt of all the people.

[25:47] He is acting as their representative. He is offering a substitute sacrifice as that propitiation for their sins. And through that sacrifice, the people of God are made holy.

[26:03] They are set apart purely for him and for his service and called his own, that they may be accepted before the Lord. Now, one of the Old Testament prophets, he looked forward to a day when all of God's people would be marked out as holy to the Lord, not just the high priest.

[26:26] All of God's people would be marked out as holy. Zechariah chapter 14, we read, On that day, there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, holy to the Lord.

[26:38] And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bulls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all whose sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them.

[26:54] And so Zechariah, he is saying, he's using this imagery to say that there is coming a day when all of God's people are going to be set apart as holy, purely devoted to him, clean, freed from shame, freed from contamination, freed from defilement, so that even the bells of the horses, even the pots in their homes, even that kind of nasty, gross pot that you never really use and you probably should throw out, even they're like these golden vessels of the tabernacle.

[27:24] Even they are set apart and special and sacred. That all of the activities of God's people are righteous and holy. None of it's tainted by sin anymore. Zechariah is using this imagery to say that God's people will be fully and totally accepted by the Lord.

[27:43] All of their worship, all that they do will be good and holy. Don't we long for that day when we are made perfectly holy and righteous? And even now, even though our worship, I've talked to people who feel like, you know, my worship is distorted because I just have wrong views of God.

[28:06] My worship is distorted because there is sin in my life. There's contamination. How can God accept what I say? How can he accept my praise? How can he accept my service to him? Yet Jesus Christ has done all of that in our place so that our worship is acceptable.

[28:23] Jesus Christ has offered worship to God that is perfect and holy and freed from contamination. Jesus has done this on our behalf so that we are accepted and our worship as we approach God is welcomed and accepted by God.

[28:41] Our high priest has served faithfully and so our own imperfect service, yours and mine, it's accepted by God and even welcomed by God. And so we are given a great promise of new life.

[28:55] When Jesus Christ returns to earth, he's going to make all things new once again. He's going to make us perfect once again. He's going to set all things right. All the heartache, all the shame, all the brokenness that's brought into this world by sin, by my sin, by yours, it's going to be set right again.

[29:20] God will give us a new heavens and a new earth. In the book of Revelation, in chapter 21, at the very end of the Bible, the apostle John sees a vision of a city and he calls that city New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

[29:33] John identifies a city with the people of God and he says this about the city. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.

[29:46] The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.

[30:00] The city's foundations are made out of twelve gemstones. Just like the twelve gemstones on the breastpiece of the high priest. And the point being made is this.

[30:13] The image here is telling us this, that the people of God, they're not only represented by the high priest, but they are given this new eternal life by the high priest.

[30:23] They are saved by him. So that you and I will be with God in his new creation forever and ever. That's my eternal destiny.

[30:35] That's your eternal destiny. If you believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Lord has appointed a high priest on our behalf to represent God's people.

[30:46] So he's appointed this high priest to rule God's people, to represent God's people, and then third of all, the Lord has appointed a high priest on our behalf to request God's will.

[30:58] To request God's will. Exodus chapter 28 mentions one of the purposes of the breastpiece. It was folded over in half and there was a pocket in it. And in that pocket, there was some sort of object or objects, and they're called the urim and the thummim.

[31:14] And you see that in verse 30. In the breastpiece of judgment, you shall put the urim and the thummim, and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly.

[31:30] Now, if you're thinking, well, that sounds kind of weird, and what are these urim and the thummim? Well, there are as many speculations as there are commentators.

[31:40] We're not actually 100% sure. Maybe the most likely scenario is that they were some sort of lots. They were used by the high priest to seek instructions from the Lord for a specific decision or for a specific judgment that needed to be made.

[31:56] You know, so think about them like this. Imagine that they're like, you know, they're like a magic eight ball almost, except the difference is the magic eight ball is a bunch of garbage. These actually work. This is actually a way that God had chosen to communicate his will to the high priest.

[32:13] And so the high priest, he had the urim and the thummim with him at all times in his breast piece. And the reason for that is given in this verse. It's because the high priest is meant to bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord.

[32:28] So in other words, the high priest, in order to lead the people, in order to make judgments and decisions that need to be made, in order to judge between right and wrong and good and evil in the cases that come before him.

[32:41] He needs to know the Lord's will. He needs to know the Lord's will in order to lead the people. The high priest is meant to tell the people what God's instructions for them are.

[32:53] The Lord has appointed a high priest on our behalf to request God's will. So how this works is the Lord gives the high priest knowledge of his will, knowledge of what he wants, us to do, so that the high priest will have an authority to judge, an authority that is recognized by the people of God.

[33:14] It may not surprise you to know that is exactly what God the Father has done for his Son, Jesus Christ. In John chapter 5, Jesus speaks about the authority that he has to execute judgment.

[33:28] John chapter 5, verses 19 through 23. Truly, truly, I say to you, this is Jesus speaking, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.

[33:42] For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.

[33:53] And greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

[34:07] For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

[34:18] Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. And down in verses 27 and 30. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.

[34:33] And then Jesus says about himself, I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

[34:47] Jesus goes to his Father. All that Jesus wants to do, he wants to do because his Father wants it. Our great high priest does the will of God and seeks the will of God.

[35:01] God has appointed his Son as our great high priest who reveals to us his will. So Jesus reveals to you and to me how we can live a life that is pleasing to God.

[35:14] And the more that you and I open our Bibles, open God's Word, read about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, come to know him, come to have a real relationship with him, learn to walk as he walked, the more we're learning and training ourselves to live as citizens of God's kingdom.

[35:36] We're learning our new way of life. The more we learn our new way of life as members of God's family, now that we've been accepted into his kingdom and into his family.

[35:48] The Lord has appointed a high priest on our behalf to rule his people, to represent his people, and to request his will. Now, I just mentioned that we've been accepted into God's kingdom, into God's family.

[36:02] We're accepted precisely because our ruling high priest who represents us has fully accomplished, fully done the will of God on our behalf.

[36:12] He's done it all on our behalf. He's done everything God requires of a human being. The Lord has appointed a high priest on behalf of his people, so we trust the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

[36:27] We trust the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ on our behalf. God's faithful. This obedience, this obedience, it brings blessing.

[36:39] This perfect obedience brings acceptance from God. It brings words of favor from God, words of honor from God. People in our culture, we crave this.

[36:51] These words of favor, these words of honor, the words that are saying, well done, I am pleased with you. people twist their lives around to get words of favor from others.

[37:06] People hold parades so that people will shower them with words of favor. We crave this. We crave this blessing. But it's this obedience that brings it.

[37:19] This obedience brings blessing. And we see a preview of this in Exodus chapter 39. The people of Israel have obeyed all of God's instructions regarding the tabernacle, regarding the garments of the priests.

[37:32] And in Exodus chapter 39, verse 32, we read this. Thus, all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished. And the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

[37:44] So they did. Then, we read in verses 42 and 43, now that they've done everything exactly as Moses had requested them to do.

[37:56] According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it.

[38:07] As the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them. So they've obeyed. I mean, it's kind of hard to miss that whole they've done it, they've done it, they've done all the work.

[38:19] I mean, we just spent chapter after chapter after chapter reiterating all the instructions and saying they did this and they did this and they did this and they did this and they did this. And the response to this obedience is that Moses inspects the work on behalf of the Lord as the Lord's representative and Moses finds it satisfactory.

[38:37] He says, this is right. This is exactly the way it should be. So the Lord blesses the people through the words of Moses. He speaks words of favor. And so it is with us.

[38:50] Our great high priest Jesus Christ, he has been blessed by God. When he was baptized, we read in Mark chapter 1, when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son.

[39:14] with you, I am well pleased. With you, I am well pleased, beloved son, one whom I love. These are words every child wishes to hear from their parents.

[39:32] I dearly love you and I am pleased with you. You bring me satisfaction and joy. These are the words that God the Son hears from his Father.

[39:48] He perfectly obeys him and he receives a blessing for his obedience. And he's our representative. Jesus represents you and me, the people of God, and so he brings God's blessing through him to us.

[40:07] He brings eternal salvation. He brings eternal life, the good life of a never-ending, new covenant relationship with God.

[40:20] Jesus does this because he was made a human being, just like you and me. He was born as a baby in the town of Bethlehem, learning and growing to adulthood just as you and I did, doing all things perfectly as Jesus learned and grew.

[40:37] In Hebrews chapter 5, we read about Jesus, although he was a son. He learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest.

[40:53] So if you want to receive the favor and blessing of God, if you want to receive the good news of great joy that will be for all the people, if you want to receive the promise of peace among those with whom God is pleased, you entrust your life to the faithful high priest Jesus Christ.

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