Good morning. It is a beautiful Sabbath day here in Sacramento, California and so we welcome you extra special this morning as we open up God's Word and we study together here at Sacramento central Seventh-day Adventist Church. We welcome those of you who are joining us this morning on the internet, live watching at saccentral.org, or on the various television networks, or listening on the radio. However you are joining us, on dvd as well, we welcome you and we're so glad that you are tuning in and a part of our extended family across the country and around the world this morning. Behind me we have our own central church choir, all their bright, smiling faces.
And they're joining with us again this morning which is a treat for me and of course those of you here. And we look forward to worshipping in music right now with two songs. First one is 251, "he lives." This is from mildred, mae and sylvia in bahamas, jerry in California, jojoya in england, perlie in Massachusetts, beverly in Montana, ngalula, carolyn and sandra in New York, jamie and jenny in North Carolina, mary in Oklahoma, nessie and alberte in Pennsylvania, and Christine in south africa, 251. We're going to do all three stanzas, "I serve a risen Savior. He's in the world today.
" [Music] Does he live within your heart this morning? Amen. If you have a favorite song that you would like to sing with us on an upcoming Sabbath, it's very, very simple. You go on our website at saccentral.org, and click on the "contact us" link. And you can send in any request from the hymnal. And we will do our best to sing that for you--with you on an upcoming Sabbath.
255 Is our next song. This is a beautiful song. This is from Daniel and shannele in australia, jessica in California, filbert in Canada, Sarah in england, jim, dianne, jamie and buffy in florida, dewayne and darlene in Indiana, kondike in jamaica, bill in Massachusetts, Karen in Missouri, beulah in netherlands, Christine and Lukelo in new zealand, emmanuel, ayuba--in nigeria, luann and sandy in New York, rosena and jannel in saint lucia, kylie in South Dakota, Samuel jr., Carey, lyn and randy in trinidad and tobago, and also justin and emily, 255, first, second and fourth stanza, "I cannot tell why." [Music] Father in Heaven, we look forward to that day when we will go as a sea of humanity through the gates of heaven. And our voices will be joined with the voices of the angels as we cast our crowns at your feet and we sing, "holy, holy, worthy is the lamb." Father, we look forward to that day so much. I pray that we will each be there to see your face.
There's nothing that compares to that. And I pray that we will never lose sight of that as we go out, as we go through our days until we see you coming in the clouds of heaven. I pray that you'll be with us this morning as we study Your Word. Be with our speaker, Pastor Doug. And we thank you so much for his ministry here at central and around the world.
I pray that you will continue to bless him with health and strength. In Jesus' Name, amen. At this time, our lesson study will be brought to us by our senior pastor here at Sacramento central church, Pastor Doug Batchelor. Morning. I thought I'd say "hi" from over here.
How is everyone? I hope some of the choir is going to maybe fill in the empty pews up here. It's just an ongoing struggle for pastors, it won't change, to try and fill the front pews. It doesn't matter how much deodorant I use, or how thoroughly I floss and brush, I still can't seem to get people out of the bleachers in the church. But we just want our friends who are watching on tv to know there really are people here. They're back in the shadows.
Happy Sabbath, friends. Welcome to central church. Welcome to Sabbath school. Now while we're having this class here, in case you don't know, we have classes all over the facility. This is just a--the pastor's class that we have here.
And we're able to get the cameras and lights in here so we can broadcast this for our friends who are studying the Word of God with us around the country, and also for other members of Sacramento central. We've got a number of you who are watching from around the world who don't have a local church you're able to attend. And we've adopted you. We actually have pastors here on the staff that interact and e-mail and answer questions and counsel with our international team. And I want to welcome you again.
By the way, I should probably make a little disclaimer here. It's springtime in Sacramento. Pastor Doug has some residual hay fever. I don't have a cold. It's not contagious.
But I was just singing that lost song in bass. It felt kind of good. [Sings] da-da-da-daa. But just the pollen in the air. Some of you maybe have hay fever you know this is the time.
And so I was actually standing next to somebody yesterday who was mowing a lawn. And I knew oh, I'm going to feel this later. And I do. But I feel okay. If you can stand it.
The voice is a little low. We're studying our lesson dealing with garments of grace and dealing with clothing imagery in the Bible. Today we're on lesson number 5, and we have a free offer. That offer if you're watching on tv is on the screen. It's called "the armor of God," "the armor of God.
" And just call, we'll send it to you. If you've not already sent for it, and if you don't have the book. And so this is for those of you who maybe have never received this book, it's 866-study-more, 866-788-3966. Amazing Facts just sends these out to help people enhance their personal Bible study. And the lesson today is lesson 5, "the priestly garments of grace," "the priestly garments of grace.
" And we have a memory verse. And the memory verse is actually one of my favorite verses. From time to time I share my testimony as a I travel and this is the verse I read. I love this verse. It's 1 Peter 2:9.
And I invite you to say that with me. You ready? 1 Peter 2:9, "but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Now when we're talking about the high priest in the Bible, you can't really separate that from the sanctuary. I want to talk just for a moment about the sanctuary. The sanctuary that Moses built, the tabernacle, was a very unique building. And every aspect of that building had meaning.
And it all said something about salvation. It was not designed to be a flamboyant building, though there was much beautiful about it. But in some ways it was very simple. But everything about the dimensions and the structure said something about salvation. So it was with the garments of the priest.
The priest, and we're going to talk about his garments, was not trying to make a fashion statement. He did not take some cloth to paris, to the designers, pierre cardin or calvin klein or somebody, and say, "make me something for the academy awards that will really turn heads." He was not making a fashion statement. He had nothing to do with the design. It's the design that came from God. And so these garments said something about salvation, everything from the way they were hemmed to their colors, to the breastplate, to the turban.
All was saying something about the holiness of God and the plan of salvation. So keep that in mind when you talk about it. Now while we're talking about these garments that the priests wore, we're really talking not just about the ancient priesthood. We could talk a little bit about pastors today or priests today, but even more this verse that we just read. I'll read it for you again.
And by the way, this was sort of a battle-cry of the reformation when they said the priesthood of all believers, that we are all spiritual priests in a sense. "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people; that you might proclaim the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." So something about these garments we wear, robes of righteousness to begin with, are proclaiming the praises of the one who has called us. Alright, read for me now Exodus 19:6. "And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Now which verse came first, Exodus 19 or 1 Peter 2? Who do you think Peter is referring to when he makes his statement? It was not a new concept. It goes all the way back to the second book in the Bible, that God called the nation of Israel, not because--you know the jews were called the chosen people, but why were they chosen? Were they chosen because he liked their dna better? Were they chosen because God was discriminating? Or were they chosen because he was going to teach them something that would prepare them to be a nation to reach the other nations? They were a nation of Kings and priests.
Now--well I guess it comes up a little later and so I'll see if I can control myself. And I'll wait for that. The next verse we want to consider here is go with me in your Bibles to Exodus 32, and we're going to read--and this is in your lesson--verses 1 to 6, Exodus 32:1-6. And this is a very famous verse. Background: Moses says to the children of Israel, God's called me up to the mountain to get a written copy of the covenant you've agreed to.
He spoke the Ten Commandments. The people said, "all the Lord has said we will do." You find that in Exodus 20. So after they agreed to the terms of the covenant, Moses goes to get a written copy. You know, if you're going to enter into a contract with somebody, you're wasting a lot of time if you write up a contract with them not being involved, and you say, "here's a contract." You say, "well, why don't we talk about it first, get some, you know, verbal terms of agreement. Then let's write it down.
" So God first, there's an oral agreement. Then the written copy. And so Moses now goes up the mountain. And there's been some debate about how many copies there were. And I don't want to take this too far, but just it's trivia that fits right here.
Ten Commandments, how many stones? Everyone agree: two stones? That's what it says. How many sides were they written on? Both, written on the front and the back the Bible says. So whenever you see pictures of the Ten Commandments, we've got somebody who's actually cutting us some real Ten Commandments out of stone, a member here. And we're going to mount them up there and we're going to have the Bible on this side and the Ten Commandments on that side. And we thought that'd be really neat.
And we'll light 'em. But it won't be written on the back. And usually when you see displays of the Ten Commandments, you usually think of them as having four on one panel, right? And you got six on the other. But according to the Bible, it's very possible that there were four on one and six on the back, four on one, six on the back. It's like have you ever made a contract with somebody? Whenever I write a book or an article and the publishers send me a contract, they say, "sign both.
We'll send one back." Or sometimes they say, "keep one," 'cause they've already signed it. "So you got a copy; we got a copy." So I don't know. Some have said there were actually two copies: God's copy and their copy. I just thought I'd share that with you, something to think about. The jury's out, but it's just something--those are the facts: two stones, written on both sides, right? Where you go with that, you just pray about it.
So Moses goes up the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, the written copy. And he says, "I'll be back," but he doesn't say when. Now Jesus went up, and he said, "I'm coming back," right? But what happened in chapter 32? "When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down the mountain." It's taking longer than they thought. Could that happen to God's people in the last days? God's commandment keeping people? God's people that were born out of a renewal to the covenant of the Ten Commandments. Could that happen again? Why do you think Jesus says in Matthew 24, "if that evil servant says in his heart, 'my Lord delays his coming.
'" I think Jesus is referring back to what happened. Samuel told king Saul, "wait for me before you go out to battle against the philistines. After seven days I'll come." When the seventh day came and Samuel wasn't there yet, Saul became impatient, when Samuel was delayed. And he changed worship. And he made the sacrifice that only the priest was supposed to do.
Samuel was the priest, as well as a prophet. When Moses didn't come down in time, they adjusted their worship. And there's several examples in the Bible. When the bridegroom was delayed, what did those ten virgins do? They went to sleep. People are saying, "we thought Jesus would have come by now.
Where is he? Is he late?" You know, the way I read the Bible, it factors in a predicted delay as part of the final scenario. So God's people wondering what's taking so long is what these stories in the Bible warn us. Back in 1999--i was in New York city last week for the first time since 9/11. And it's really something. And I remember when we did the net '99 program, boy everyone had millennial fever.
Jesus is gonna come, 2000. You all remember y2k? It was y-2-zero really. Nothing happened. And, but boy there was, "is this it? Is this the year?" People were pulling their money out of the banks. I know folks that just sold everything, went up to the hills.
And I actually--I'm not bragging about it, but I actually said on camera in front of everybody, "he's not coming this year." You don't want to do that, but I mean, you don't want to say the Lord's coming--he could have come for me, I don't know. But you know what I mean? But I said the reason I don't think he's coming is because Jesus said in such an hour you think not. And it seems like it's coming when there's this feeling of delay. So the people said Moses delayed coming down. And they went to aaron the priest, "they said, 'come make us Gods that will go before us; and as for this Moses, this man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him.
' And aaron--" wanting to appease them, said, "break off the golden earrings in your ears of your wives, and your sons." A few years ago when we read that we would have thought, "oh boy, isn't that something? Even the boys were wearing 'em." And now that doesn't surprise us. "And your daughters, and bring them to me." And the people broke off the golden earrings that were in their ears and brought them to aaron." Please refer to sermon number 26 for that subject. I'm going to move right along. "And he received the gold from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. And he said, 'this is your God, o Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt!' So when aaron saw it, they built an altar before it, and aaron made a proclamation, said tomorrow is a feast of the Lord.
And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings." That's good. "And they brought peace offerings." That's good, that's biblical. "And the people sat down to eat and drink," had a potluck. "And they rose up to play." Now by the time they get done with this worship, someone look up Exodus 32:25. Exodus 32:25, "now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies.
" Oh, you know, I thought this might happen. What version are you reading, new king James? Uh huh. You want to read the old? Yeah, you know this is one place where--and unrestrained is not really a bad translation. But who has it in the King James? Just tell me what it says. Naked.
Naked. It says that when he saw the people were naked, unrestrained. And so, you know, that word can be translated both ways. But matter of fact, I've got it in my lesson here. It can mean that they were defenseless, unarmed, unrestrained, naked before God.
They evidently had quite a hootenanny in their worship service when they rose up to play. And it was totally out of hand. And I think that's one reason when Moses came down the mountain he saw what was going on. What did Joshua say about their worship service? Joshua is up the mountain there, he met Moses part way. And when Moses was coming down he met Joshua.
And Joshua said, "we'd better hurry. There's the sound of--" what? "War in the camp!" Their worship service, they couldn't tell the difference between their worship and war. And Moses with a broken heart said it's not the sound of those that cry from being overcome that you hear. Neither is it the sound of those who shout for victory. Now either of those are okay in the church.
If you hear people who are repenting because they've been overcome, and they're sighing and crying, that's okay. If you hear the voice of those who are praising God because of victory over sin, that's okay. I think we should praise God at times in church. I wish we heard more of that genuine holy praise. But he said, "you're hearing the voice of them that sing.
" It was a hootenanny they were having down there. You ever seen a church service like that before? It was just a bedlam, couldn't tell whether it was war or rejoicing or mourning or what was going on. And so the people had lost their garments in this worship service. And that ought to tell you something about it. Let's read on here in--matter of fact, in Exodus 32:25, it says, "when Moses saw all the people were out of control--" that's a new American standard version-- "for aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies.
" They were unprepared for worship in their clothing. And they were unprepared for battle in their clothing. Now let's go on to section two, dealing with the priesthood. Let me just ask. Should there be a distinction in the clothes that a pastor wears? I'm not--this is not a yes or a no, good or bad, fail or pass answer.
I'm just curious what you're going to say. This class you can kind of interact. Do you think there should be a distinction in the clothes that a pastor wears? How many say yes? Compared to what? How many say no? Was Jesus a pastor? Were his clothing different? Did they save his robe? It was seamless. Well, I'm not trying to make too big a deal out of this. I'm just trying to get you to think.
Are we a nation of priests? If we're involved in worship, should our clothing in worship be different than our clothing during the week. Ah, trick question. Um, you know when you read in--one reason that some protestants identify Revelation 17 with the catholic church, it says this woman is adorned with gold and pearls and scarlet and purple. And the highest offices in the catholic church, the pope sometimes will wear alternately scarlet and purple. And the cardinals, like a cardinal bird, they wear the scarlet, the red.
And the bishops wear purple. And so many have said, "bingo." And you know, the other thing is that part of the reformation there was quite a stir because the priest was wearing flamboyant robes and he was being carried around on a litter. And Jesus, and then they'd show a picture of Jesus who was kind of going around in the dusty robes of a carpenter. And they said, "is this really representative of Jesus? And so you've got two extremes. First of all, did God say in the word that the priests were to wear in the old testament unique clothing? What was the purpose of that? Well, of course, the purity of their clothing was to represent the purity of Christ.
Does it matter what a bride wears? Sometimes wedding dresses are not very practical. How many would agree? Practical, I mean you don't want to go horseback riding in your wedding dress. They're not practical in some ways. Anyone ever seen a bride trip over her train? It's not practical in that sense, but it's supposed to be meaningful. It's supposed to mean this represents purity, her virginity.
And that her love now is going to be pure for her husband. And God is coming for a bride-- is it biblical-- without spot or wrinkle, speaking of garments. So it means something. This priest who is a mediator between God and man, when he was engaged in his office, he wore clothing that was representative of that. So without taking that too far, I think if you are a nation of priests, as Christians, wherever we are should we be conscious of what we wear? I think so.
I think we want to be respectful. I think we want to be representative. I mean obviously if you're going horseback riding you want to wear appropriate clothing. But you don't need a tank top and a speedo bathing suit. You know what I mean? So Christians ought to be representative in what they wear.
And I think we ought to be respectful. When we come to worship the Lord every Christian ought to be respectful. If all you've got is, you know, t-shirt and blue jeans, and that's all you own, you should come. God wants you there. But you shouldn't wear your best for your boss during the week and dress like you're going to the beach for God.
And that's what I see happening. I have no burden for ties. Last week, I guess it's not a secret, I can tell you what I was doing in New York city is I flew with a friend and met with the president of sirius xm radio about Amazing Facts being on this channel. That was very interesting. And I told my friend, I said, you know, "you're meeting with the ceo of this company that's all over the country.
" And I said, "what should I wear?" I said, "you know, in New York I see a lot of the people, they wear just a sport coat and the open collar," I said-- he said, "no doug," he said, "you better wear a suit and tie." I said, "fine with me. I just wasn't sure. I wanted to know what to wear." And so you want to dress appropriate for the occasion, right? And so if I'm going to come before the ceo of a media company, and I think I'm going to need have the appropriate thing I'm told, by those that know is you wear a suit and a tie when you make your presentation. And I'm going to come before God and worship the King of the universe in his boardroom, then who deserves the greatest respect? Now what's been happening-- and I'm not here to condemn, but I just think it's something to mention. What's been happening is people are just so secular.
Pastors are desperate to get people to church. And they're trying their best to make people come and be comfortable. When we do evangelistic meetings, we tell people, "we know you're coming from work. You come as you are. You come in your overalls.
You come as you are. We want you at those meetings." Amen? And along the way you want to teach people that now when we come to worship God, we want to dress appropriately. Is that right? But I understand the desperate sense that some churches have. They're saying, "look, if it means Sunday morning you come in your shorts and your t-shirt, and that's the only way we can get you here, come however you are." But I really think people ought to be taught reverence and respect. And so, you know, that's something that goes all across the board for us as Christians in both church and through the week we want to be representative.
Anyway, I guess I finished that part about aaron. Now go to Exodus 28:1, and we're going to learn something else here about the robes. And he says, "take now your brother, and his sons with him, form among the children of Israel, that he might minister to me as a priest." You'll notice Exodus 32, aaron's already got his robes, but he had corrupted things there. It's Exodus 28, it talks about his special robes that he would wear. "Take aaron your brother, and his sons, from among the children of Israel that he might minister to me as a priest, aaron and his sons: nadab and abidhu, eleazar and ithamar.
And you shall make holy garments for aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty." They were to be beautiful. They were to be pure and glorious. "So you will speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the Spirit of wisdom, that they may make aaron's garments, to sanctify him, that he might minister to me as a priest." Now part of the reason for that is he was to be a representative of Christ. If Jesus should suddenly appear right now, well, let me just ask you. When you read in the Bible, the appearances of Christ, who saw Jesus, in his glory? Now there's several occasions.
Name one. John in Revelation saw Jesus in his glory. Does it mention his clothing? Yes, it's glorious. Who else? Daniel. Did Daniel see the Lord? Does it mention his clothing? It says he's glorious.
Did Peter, James and John, I hear someone say, see Jesus? Does it say something about his clothing? They came white, shining like the sun. Mark says like no soap on earth. You know, tide would love to have a commercial like that. "No soap on earth can get it this white." So there's a connection between the glory of God and the purity of his garments. And so, you know, Moses is telling them here, or the Lord is really saying through him, "you are to make holy garments for aaron for glory and beauty.
Get the best artisans that they might minister to me as a priest. These are the garments that they shall make: a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, skillfully woven tunic, a turban, a sash. So they'll make holy garments for aaron your brother and his sons, that they might minister to me as a priest. And they'll take gold and blue and purple and scarlet." By the way, this is where the catholic church gets this. "They'll take gold and blue and purple and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and they'll make an ephod of gold and blue and purple and scarlet thread, and fine linen.
" There was this vest, vestment that was worn, "that are artistically woven. And it will have shoulder straps joined at its edges, and so they'll be joined together, intricately woven bands of the ephod." And you know, I don't know if I have time to read all that. And then it talks about that he was to wear a breastplate. "And you'll take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of The Sons of Israel: six of their names on one stone and the remaining six of the names on the other stones according to their birth. The word of an engraver in a stone, like the engravings of a signet.
" You had to use actually a diamond to engrave back then. The Bible talks about writing something with a diamond pen. And so they knew the hardest substance they had back was a diamond for etching, so they etch in these gems that were also very hard. They'd etch the names in diamond. The word of an engraver.
And these stones with the 12 tribes were to be on the shoulders. Why on the shoulders? You ever heard someone say he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders? When you bear a load, if you carry a backpack, the straps resting on your shoulders, it's a lot better than if you were to carry it on your belt. And so you're able to bear weight like that, and it's like the Lord is bearing his people on his shoulders. And then on the breast he had this, he wore this ephod and he had a breastplate. And in the breastplate were 12 stones, all precious stones.
And those 12 stones talked about, they represented the 12 tribes. What do you think on the chest represents? By the heart. And so where does the Lord carry his people? On the heart. Why were they made on precious gems and not river rock? What's the difference between precious gem and river pebbles? Value. What was the most precious kind of mineral that was enduring that they had? It was their gems.
Not only were they precious, 'cause they were enduring. There are some gems that are very enduring, but they're not very pretty. But these were both precious, enduring and beautiful. So how does the Lord view his people? Beautiful, precious, close to his heart. You ever seen an ugly baby? Don't answer that question.
Have you ever had a mother say that she thought her baby was ugly? Don't they say, "isn't he precious?" Ha-ha-ha. And--ha-ha--i apologize, ha-ha, but I always am reluctant to say this, but I had a wasted childhood. I watched "I love lucy" when I was growing up, and there was this one segment where somebody showed lucy their baby. And it was a very ugly baby. And she was trying to find a way of being honest and getting around saying that.
And when they showed the baby, she went, "oh!" And then at the end she said, "can he peel bananas with his feet?" Now that doesn't have a lot of relevance to our study today except that the Lord sees all of his children as precious and beautiful, even though others may not see them that way. Because what makes 'em so precious? What makes a stone valuable? You know, there was a boy named conrad reed that he played hooky one day from church. Should have been at church, and he went fishing that Sunday morning. And while fishing he found a big, black rock in the river. And he thought it was odd looking it didn't look like the other rocks around, so he brought it home.
And later his parents thought, "boy, that's the heaviest rock." They used it to keep the door open for three years. And one day somebody recognized what it was and they offered to buy it. And this gem dealer bought their doorstop, and it turned out to be the largest nugget that had been discovered on the east coast. And it was solid gold, but you know gold doesn't always appear bright and yellow. This actually appeared black.
And they didn't know the value of it. Well the Lord knows your value. What makes it so valuable? It's not always its look; it's what someone will pay for it. By the way, they only gave conrad reed and his family $3 for the gem, which was worth infinitely more. What makes us so valuable? I hear about these art dealers, and they have these paintings.
And they'll pay $10 million for a painting. And it's probably because my artistic eye is not refined. But I look at it and I go, "you've got to be kidding me," especially some of those picasso's or some of this impressionist art that just, it looks like, you know, a paint can blew up. And people say, "oh no there's a--oh, beautiful! $10 Million!" At sutherbees they're auctioning for this. Well, once someone pays $10 million for it, no matter what the painting looks like, it now is a very valuable painting.
And you hang it somewhere special. So he, the most prominent place, right there where the kevlar would be, he puts you and i, on his heart. It's in the forefront. It's where everyone could see his appreciation for it. And you know, sometimes a person will have a ring on their hand and depending on the occasion will spin it around and hide the gem.
But the Lord doesn't hide his love for us. It's right out front for everyone to see. Now while we're talking about the vestments, there was to be pure white. There was to be blue. Blue is a symbol for loyalty and obedience in the Bible.
They had a hem of blue, and that represented loyalty. Purple represents royalty. Now how do you, if you mix colors, how do you get purple? Red and blue, the sacrifice of Christ and obedience, you get them together and you get the royalty of that color. Matter of fact, back in the time of the caesar's, only royalty was allowed to wear purple. If you were caught wearing purple, you could get in trouble.
And so certain colors were thought to be only royal. And something else about the priests' clothing. You read here in Leviticus 21:7. It says, "they shall not take a woman who is profane by harlotry, nor shall they take a woman that is divorced from her husband; for he is holy to God." Now why was the priest's requirements for marriage different from others? Who does the priest represent? Jesus. Who does the bride of Christ represent? The church.
And what is the expectation of Christ for the church? Purity, faithfulness, devotion. So the priest was not to take someone who had been divorced or who was a harlot obviously. "You shall consecrate him, therefore he offers the bread of your God." Representing the Bible, the bread of God. "He shall be holy to you, for I am the Lord, who sanctifies you. I am holy.
Also the daughter of any priest." Now this is serious. "If she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire." This was the most severe judgment that you find in the Bible. It was worse than stoning. So the daughter of the priest, the preacher's daughter, there were very high expectations.
You know, it's kind of hard on preacher's kids, isn't it? People always say, "oh, he's a preacher's kid. Even more is expected of you because you're the preacher's kid." You know, and I do think it's important that pastors do instill within their family, we are in ministry together, that we all represent each other. And every parent, doesn't every parent sort of believe that you have a certain name and reputation, and your children have that same name. And you hope they're going to respect it and make good of it or improve upon it. Isn't that desire of every parent? But sometimes I think that within a church setting, there are unrealistic expectations put on the p.
k.s, the preacher's kids. More than once, the bachelor boys have cut up and someone said, "you should know better. You're the pastor's kid." While that may be true, please don't say that to them. It's not helping friends, trust me. Alright, the other part, it says, "and the priest who is the highest among his brethren on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes.
" The high priest was never to tear his clothes. What did a jew do when he was in mourning? What did job do when he lost his kids? Rent his clothes. They would rend their garments when they were in mourning. The people in nineveh, they'd rent their clothes as a sign of mourning. But not the priest.
Why? Wasn't he allowed to mourn? His clothes represented holiness. They represented righteousness. They represented his job as an intercessor and Christ's righteousness, which is not to be torn, which is why he-- any of you ever tear cloth? You know, I wear out my t-shirts, I like to use 'em second generation in the shop. I use 'em for my windshield. And you got to tear 'em up in little pieces.
Does--sometimes it's easier to tear something on a seam, right? What about Christ's robe? Did it have a seam? Not to be torn. Now this is very interesting. Alright, I haven't forgotten you, samantha. Read Leviticus 21:23. "Only he shall not go into the veil or come near the altar, because he has a defect, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.
" All kinds of people could worship God, but among the priests, they were not to have any physical blemish. The offering in the lamb that was made was to be without blemish. And this all represents Christ, our high priest, and Jesus the lamb of God who is without blemish. He is sinless. It wasn't saying God was discriminating against people that had some defect or handicap.
It was saying their office represented perfection and purity, so there was this requirement. Now don't mention here we just read concerning the high priest, "do not tear your clothes." And it says, "he'll not go into the veil." Clothes and veil connected with the priest. If you go to Matthew 26, speaking of the trial of Christ. Verse 65 and 66, Matthew 26, it's the end of Matthew, almost the end, verse 65 and 66. After Jesus says, "hereafter--" he says to caiaphas, the high priest, who's wearing the priestly robes, he says, "hereafter, you will see The Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven on the right hand of power.
" And what does the high priest do? "Then the high priest tore his robes, saying, 'he's blaspheming! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you've heard his blasphemy! What do you think?' They said, 'he's deserving of death.'" And then someone read for me Matthew 27:51. Who'd we give that to? Matthew 27:51, "and, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split." Thank you very much. The point I'm making here is in the old priesthood, the veil was not to be ripped and the high priests' clothes were not to be torn. So you've got the sanctuary and the priesthood. The old temple, what happened to it? What did Jesus say would happen to the old temple? He said, "ichabod, the glory is departed.
Your house is left unto you desolate." He said, "destroy this temple made with hands. Three days I'll make one without hands. What? Don't you know you are the temple of God." So it's not only true you are the temple of God. You are also a royal priesthood. So there's a new temple, and there's a new priesthood on earth I'm speaking of.
Right? The old are torn. The veil was torn. The priest's clothes were torn. And now God is conferred on his people that we are a nation of priests. We are the temple of God.
And so I just thought that was an important point. And Jesus is a priest after the order of--now wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I want to say this differently. What tribe did aaron and his sons come from? Levi. What tribe did Jesus come from? Judah.
So if Christ is our great high priest, then why did he come from the tribe of judah and not levi, related to Moses? He came through the line of David. David came of course from judah. But then it says Christ is a priest in Genesis--it's actually in Hebrews. He's a priest after the order of melchizedek. Now melchizedek was a king priest.
Bible doesn't really tell us what melchizedek wore. But there must have been something different about him. You know, there's a lot of connections in the Bible time between a king and a priest. Let me just give you something to think about. Was Jacob a king? Kind of.
What did it mean to be a king back during the time of the patriarchs? Abraham, did he have an army? Did Abraham offer sacrifice for the family? So was Abraham the priest of the family? Did he have a big household? It's huge. He had his own army with over 300 people in it. It's not like our army in the u.s., But he had, you know for them back then. The sheik in a family, the head of these families, these big clans, they were like Kings and priests in their own right. And so in the same way, Jacob was sort of a king.
Isaac, it says he waxed very great. They would offer sacrifices. Job, this--he was the basically the--i don't want to say sheik. He was the sultan, I don't know what you'd call him. But you know, he was the chief of his tribe.
They were like king priests back then. So when you think of king, you kind of think of england, don't you? It's maybe a little different visual picture, but they were king priests. Melchizedek was the King priest of salem. He is a type of Christ. It says he brought out bread and wine.
And Christ, in the new covenant, he brings out the bread and the grape juice. Jesus--melchizedek means king of righteousness. And he's from salem. That's later known as Jerusalem. That means peace.
Jesus is our king of righteousness, king of peace. And Abraham even pays tithe to him. So Christ is a priest after the order of melchizedek. We don't know what melchizedek wore. And if we are priests following Christ, and if Jesus wore the clothes of the working man, you see where I'm heading with this? Then you are part of that royal priesthood now, even though you may not have purple and scarlet on.
We're all called to be part of that royal priesthood. The urim and the thummim. And I don't even know if I've ever pronounced that right. Is that how you say it? Urim and thummim. It's, you know, it's hard to sing a song about that.
The priests also had these two either extra stones. And you know that scholars are all about this, that were somehow almost like supernatural. And they either had two bags they wore that had stones in them, that had two flat stones that would kind of like you might flip a coin that would say "yes" on them, and two said, "no." And they would ask God questions that had "yes" or "no" answer. David when he wanted to go to battle, he consulted the priest. You remember when abiathar fled, he took the ephod with them so that David could consult the Lord with yes-or-no questions about things.
Sometimes God said no when they consulted, sometimes he said yes, and sometimes there was no answer. And they say that that was because if you got two yeses and two nos it was a neutral and you had no answer. That's one theory. The other theory is they weren't stones in pouches, they were stones that were additional stones. They may have been on the shoulder, different colors.
And when they would pray, one would begin to glow and say that meant yes, the yes stone would glow. And when it wasn't God's will, they'd pray for God's guidance, and the other one would glow. And that meant no. Remember just before Saul's death he consulted the priest and God would not speak to him. Neither stone glowed.
And it seemed like it disappeared. It's maybe one of the vestments that's captured by Nebuchadnezzar, because when Ezra comes back, there was a group of people they didn't know how to relate to them. And they said we don't know what to do with these folks until we find--and by the way, that's in Ezra 2:63. "And the governor said that they should not eat of the most holy things till a priest can consult with the urim and the thummim. They had not found that.
They had not recovered that, and it sort of disappears from history. But there was this part of a vestment that also revealed the will of God. Do we sometimes come to Jesus and pray about his will? Sometimes in the Bible it doesn't tell you whether it wants you to be a carpenter or a fisherman. Well, we're all supposed to be fisherman. You know what I mean.
And so you got good options, and you're saying, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" And you know, we're supposed to pray for that divine guidance and the Holy Spirit gives it to us. And maybe that's one of the signs of the urim and the thummim, that it was spirit-led guidance that came from the vestments. So there's so much more here. And I have-- I've run out of time. So apologize if I didn't cover it all.
I think I got most of it. Jesus, of course, is our high priest. I think we covered that point, right? One more time for those who joined us on the way and did not hear. We have a free offer. It's called, "the armor of God.
" And just call the number: 866-study-more. That's 866-788-3966. We'll send that to you. God bless you and thank you for studying with us today. In six days, God created the heavens and the earth.
For thousands of years man has worshipped God on the seventh day of the week. Now each week millions of people worship on the first day. What happened? Why did God create a day of rest? Does it really matter what day we worship? Who is behind this great shift? Discover the truth behind God's law and how it was changed. Visit Sabbathtruth.com.