Exodus chapter twenty eight, three. Exodus chapter twenty eight. And verse thirty-three, Exodus thirty-eight and thirty-three. Exodus the second book in your Bible, twenty-eight chapter thirty-third verse, and beneath upon the hem of it, that is the garments worn by the high priest of Israel, Thou shalt make pomegranates of blue and of purple and of scarlet round about the hem thereof, and bells of gold between them round about. A golden bell and a pomegranate. Now a pomegranate was a fruit, so you have here sound and sweetness. A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe round about. and it shall be upon Aaron to minister, and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in. Notice that, into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not. Our next passage is over in Leviticus chapter twenty-five. Leviticus chapter twenty-five. and verse eight. Leviticus twenty-five and eight. Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee seven times seven years. And the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee. Notice that word Jubilee. Jubilation, the trumpet of the Jubilee, to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month in the day of atonement, shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a Jubilee unto you. And ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A Jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you. Ye shall not sow neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thine undress. For it is the Jubilee. It shall be wholly unto you. Ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this Jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell-ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest off of thy neighbor's hand, Ye shall not oppress one another. According to the number of the years after the Jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of the years of the fruits, ye shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of years, thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the eunuch of years, thou shalt diminish the price of it. For according to the number of the years of the fruits, thou shalt sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God, for I am the Lord thy God." That language seems a little strange, but it certainly means this, that everything took at value from that year of Jubilee, that fiftieth year, to the very interesting subject. Now this morning we want to speak on those golden bells. possibly not in the sense that that hymn, that old-fashioned southern hymn, presents it when they ring those golden bells for you and me. That message is very precious to the Christian. It has a dispensational application. It simply means the time is going to come when those bells will ring. They will be heard. and only God's people will hear them, and only God's people will respond to their chiming. First of all, let us think of the day when these bells were rung or heard in Israel's bygone history, a way back in the Old Testament. God said there was to be a day, it came once in the years, called the Great Day of Atonement. We read that. And that great day of atonement that happened every year was an unusual day. And only on that day could the high priest of Israel go into the inner court of the tabernacle. Now that Old Testament tabernacle, and by the way, we have a man coming in June, Mr. Brown from England, who has an electric model all lit up of that beautiful tabernacle, and he'll be here for about two weeks taking that up. it'll be a marvelous thing for you to see and to hear. But those Old Testament shadows and types are beautiful when applied to New Testament truth, especially to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only once a year do you find that high priest of Israel passing through the court, and then that tabernacle was divided into two. The first place was called the Holy Place. The next, the latter place behind the Holy of Holies, which was the very presence of God where the throne of God was, and that place did not have any electric light. It had no natural light. It was illuminated by the presence of God known as the Shekinah Glory. Now says, God, I want the whole nation to meet on this great day of atonement, and that was a great nation of approximately two and a half million people. They assembled round about the tabernacle, and God was going to be there in the midst. A crowd ascended up out of the tabernacle to indicate God's presence in the midst of his people. Now this solemn occasion, God says this is the day of atonement when the children of Israel are going to have to have an atonement made or a sacrifice offered to put all the sins of the past year away as a nation. And this was the procedure on that wonderful day. The high priest of Israel usually attired in those beautiful garments of glory and beauty. By there were wonderful garments. And we read just a little about them over in Exodus twenty eight. If you want to read the whole chapter, it's a wonderful chapter to read. The garments worn by the high priest of Israel. Well, these beautiful garments of glory speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. Aaron's garments were made for him. They were borrowed. But our Lord Jesus Christ, the great high priest, his glories were not borrowed. They were not made by man. His glories were inherent. They were his from eternity past. But that high priest of Israel, he had to take off those beautiful garments of glory and beauty, and he put on linen garments, because in those linen garments he was going to offer a sacrifice for the children of Israel. He was going to shed blood, and he couldn't do it in those wonderful, gorgeous garments of glory and beauty. He took them off. He laid them aside, and he attired himself in garments of linen, pure white linen. Does that have any meaning? You know, to me, it's amazing the wonders of this blessed book. Why Christians are not delving into it, studying it because of its riches, I do not know. What is the story behind what I've told you? In eternity past, the Lord Jesus Christ, in all his beauty and his glory, as he ever dwelt in the bosom of the Father. He was the Father's fellow, the Father's companion, and as the Father says, rejoicing always before me. But he couldn't come to earth that way. Had the Lord Jesus came down, had he come down with all that glory and beauty, man could not have stood in his presence. He flashed a little of that glory one day when here, when they came to apprehend them led by Judas, he says, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I am he. He flashed just a tiny little bulb of his glory, and they went backward and fell to the ground. For God says, No man shall see my face and live. Man could not stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ had he flashed his eternal glory. Man would have withered up like a crisp before him had he flashed it all. He just allowed a little glimmer on that occasion. They went back and they fell to the ground. Why, even the Apostle Paul, when he saw some of it, he was blind for three days. He fell to the ground. Then he said the second time, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth, and they must have said it with trembling voice. He says, I am he. And he didn't flash his glory this time. They took him, and eventually mailed him to the cross. But in order that men might tabernacle among the Lord Jesus, in order that a woman might touch his garment and be healed instead of sick and dead, in order that the Lord Jesus might touch the leper and cleanse him without the leper dying, in order that little children might clamber up upon his knee, he had to attire himself in other robes than that which he wore in eternity past. That was the garment, the linen garment of humanity. That's what he assumed when he came into this world nineteen hundred years ago as a day. The priest laid aside his garments of glory and beauty. and he took on himself linen gowns that he might offer that sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ, in order to die, he had to assume the garment of humanity. For before he came into this world, he was a spirit. You can't nail a spirit for the cross. A spirit cannot suffer the death of crucifixion. The Lord Jesus Christ then took not upon himself the nature of angels, you read in Ephesians, Hebrews two. He took upon himself the seed of Abraham. Why did Christ assume the garment of humanity? Why did he assume a body like yours and mine, that he might die, that he might experience death? He tasted death for every man. That's why they had something material and tangible that they could strike to the cross. They couldn't have nailed the Spirit there. Jesus Christ had to become man. God manifest in the flesh. So God had to assume humanity. And the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus took upon himself a body in the grave of Bethlehem. And he grew up... And how white was that garment? This high priest of Israel had garments of linen, pure white linen. Speaking of purity, the Lord Jesus Christ for thirty-three years displayed a whiteness that had never been seen on earth before. Pure white loveliness. The spotless, sinless, holy light of the Lord Jesus Christ. so sinless, no spotless he could say to his enemies, which one of you contented me as it did. Can you find a speck on my character? Can you find a smudge on my whole life? No, you can't. You can't recall a word I uttered that was wrong. You can't point to a deed that I did which was a mistake. And if you were to read my thoughts, you couldn't extract one thought from all my thoughts that was evil. Which one of you convinced of me of sin, not one? The pure white linen of spotless humanity haven't actually appeared among men for thirty-three years. He had to assume that to die. Not only did he have to have a body to die, he had to manifest a sinless life, to be qualified to die for you and for me to satisfy a holy God. attire the priest goes to the altar. If you were to read the story fully, it's a beautiful story. There are two goats taken. Two goats. The one the Lord's lot fell upon. We read it. The Lord's lot fell upon one of these goats. Here are the two. Strange isn't it that the Lord's had cast a lot on the lot's tell of this one. What is it, Pete? It teaches that Christ was God's choice. His selection would be the sacrifice of sin. Not man's choice. It was God's choice. God chose his own son. He chose the Lord Jesus. He selected him to come into this world and to take your sin and mine upon himself and suffer for those sins upon the cross. If you were to watch that seen back in Israel's history, this was what would happen. Here is this priest, and here is this goat, and he confesses the sins of the nation over that glide rope. He confesses all their sins for that past year. What a ceremony that was. As each Israelite stood there and looked on, and he said, That man is my representative. He's laying my sins. on that goat. He's laying my sins upon that animal. That animal's going to die and suffer from my sins. That's exactly what did happen, friend. Nineteen hundred years ago, God laid your sins on His Son. You know, sometimes we sing hymns that are hardly scriptural. There's one that goes like this. I laid my sins on Jesus. He never did. No man ever laid his sins on Jesus. When were your sins laid on Jesus? Nineteen hundred years ago you weren't alive then. How could you lay your sins on Jesus? Where is Christ now? He's in heaven at God's right hand. No sin can enter heaven. You can't lay your sins on Christ. He's now in glory. No sin can enter there. When were your sins laid on Jesus? nineteen hundred years ago. Who laid them on Jesus? God laid them on Jesus. All my sins were laid upon him. Jesus bore them on the tree. God knew them, laid them on him, and believing I am free. Do you have Bible for that? Certainly you do. I have fifty-three and six. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way. But Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all. I Peter two twenty four who with those thou bear our sins in his own body on the tree that's where our sins were laid on Jesus and so you watch this ceremony now what does the priest do he takes that blood from that slain animal in a basin and now he proceeds to mark into the presence of God. He's got to go into that tabernacle. And everybody watches as a hush over the great audience as the priest proceeds to go in. Why are they so serious and sober? If a burst of flame meets that priest as he opens the tabernacle, they know that that sacrifice is not sufficient to meet God's demands and God will strike them dead. And if that priest is stricken dead, it means God has rejected the nation and their sins are not forgiven. So you can understand the solemnity of the moment as the representative of that people with that blood in the basin proceeds into the presence of God. He passes through the gate and he passes on in to the first day. Everything's all right. He disappears into the first compartment. Then the second compartment, the human eye can't see it. The second compartment is veiled by the first veil. He's got to go through the second veil, as the Bible says. And inside that second veil is the ark, the mercy seat, the throne of God. And the cherry of him is overshadowing. And a hush is almost so tense that you can cut into the night. Has he passed the second day? And time says yes. Nothing happened. God has accepted it. Well then, God has forgiven us. God has accepted us. My priest of Israel passes into the holy of bullies and he takes the blood and he sprinkles it upon the throne of God, the mercy priest. And after he does that, he stands back and he sprinkles it seven times upon the ground before the throne. And then he steps upon that ground, sprinkled with blood. What does all this mean? It's something beautiful, friend. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did nineteen hundred years ago. He laid aside his garments of deity of glory, not deity in the sense that he left his deity behind. He brought his deity with him. He left behind the glory of that deity in its full display. And he veiled that deity in human flesh and form. And he went to the cross. And in this case, he was the sacrifice. Christ was not only the one who offered the sacrifice. He was the sacrifice himself because the Bible says he offered himself. In that day the priest offered a goat in connection with Jesus Christ. He offered himself. That's what the Bible says. Then he satisfied God. Satisfied God with everything. Where did the priest put the blood first? On the throne. On the throne. Meeting God's requirements. Meeting God's demands. Then the blood sprinkled before the throne on the ground where he stood means that he now has a righteous standing in the presence of God. He stands on ground, redemption ground. Ground has been redeemed by precious blood. And the priest stands upon that ground, stained by blood. He looks upon an altar, stained by blood. Blood has met all the claims of God and met all man's needs. That's true of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We sing carols at Christmas time, don't we? Think of that one text around which so many carols are written and sung. Glory to God in the highest. On earth, peace, goodwill to men. Who came first? Glory to God in the highest. Who came second? Peace on earth, goodwill to men. Where did the priest sprinkle the blood first on the throne? Glory to God in the highest. Next on the ground. Peace on earth. Goodwill to men. God must be satisfied before man can be satisfied. God must be satisfied before man can be saved. Why, when that priest went in there, and the people knew he was accepted, what a relief. Friend, all my sins. were laid upon the Lord Jesus the cross. God laid them on them. And you know, if God hadn't have been satisfied with what Jesus Christ did, if it hadn't have been perfect, and if God found he couldn't be righteous in saving a poor sinner like me when I accepted Christ, he never would have accepted Jesus Christ back into heaven. But the very fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead proved God's approval. We'll be speaking on that next Sunday morning. God's resurrection of his Son proved his approval, his satisfaction with the work that Jesus did at Calvary and the fact that he took him up to heaven and stood in his own right hand as further evidence of God's satisfaction in the work of Jesus Christ. And anyone who trusts that precious blood, God says, I'll save him. I'll put away a sin. I'll forgive him. He'll have everlasting life. What a wonderful picture that was. Sometimes I try and picture that piece, and I'd like you to think about it. Supposing you were in his shoes because he was a human being, what would be in your thoughts as you approached the presence of God? What would be in your thoughts? Would you think about your past life? Well, you might. If you find no comfort, no consolation there, you're going in, you're going to face Almighty God in a few seconds. Those eyes that can pierce and penetrate the thickest armor that man can put on in the way of self-righteousness and human sufficient, say, you're going to face those eyes. Would you get any comfort and consolation of it the way you've lived for the past some years, twenty, thirty, forty years? No, friend. If you're depending on your life, you'll wither up like that when you meet God. Your life won't give you a standing in God's presence. I've been preaching the gospel now for about thirty-five years, and I'm not depending on one sermon I preach. And from the time God saved me, there are things I've never done since. Things I used to do before I was saved. I've never done since then. But that doesn't mean that that's going to give me any standing in the presence of God. It's not my life that I've sought to live since I was saved. It's not my labor's preaching the gospel and when he goes to Christ, that does not in any way qualify me. for acceptance with God. I'm not depending upon it. Perish the thought. When I come to die, if I have a deathbed, you think I'm going to reflect back upon my life and say, well, I hope God will accept me on the strength of the way I've lived. No, friend, I won't have a thought like that. I don't have it now. What about you? You depending upon your past life, to give you acceptance with God, if you are depending on that, you're lost right now. Do you think that priest would be thinking about his family? No. He wasn't thinking about them. Do you think he was thinking about good times? No. I think he was thinking about some plans he had. He was going to execute? No. Do you think he was... admiring his lovely robe, his lovely garment. So what had that priest on his mind to give him favor and acceptance with God one day what he had in that basin of blood? The New Testament says in Hebrews, he entered the holiest of God once a year, not without blood. That was his confidence. That was his boast. Not his life, not his labor. Nothing he thought. Nothing he did. It was that blood that gave him acceptance in the presence of God, because that blood speaks of debt, of punishment for a man's sake. Friend, I'll say this. The only thing I'm trusting, the only thing I have any confidence in, as to my exceptions with God is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleansed us from all sin. Unless you're trusting in that blood, you'll be expelled from God's cleanse instead of admitting. God looking for that. Because that speaks of sin punished. That speaks of the penalty paid. God says without the shedding of blood that is moved, remission of sin. And God says the light of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it upon an altar. The altar to make an atonement for your soul, for it is the blood to make an atonement for your soul. That's what God did. So the priest has gone in. After God's claims have been met, he's coming out now. I want to say this, that man who has thus accepted Jesus Christ has a perfect standing. Isn't it very significant? He sprinkled the blood seven times before the altar. Seven is the number of perfection. Seven is the number of completion. God always did things in seven. If you have the six days of creation, God rested on the seventh day. Jesus Christ gives us seven remarkable parables in Matthew thirteen. He uttered seven cries upon the cross. You have the seven churches of Asia and one could go on. Everything seems to be in seven. because seven is the number of completion. It simply means this, if I trust the precious blood of Christ, I have perfect standing in the presence of God, complete acceptance. That's what seven is. And he sprinkled the blood seven times before the offering. Now the moment arrives for the priest to come out. The people of Israel are listening. They heard the bells as they faded into the holiest of all. But now, let's listen. Are the bells coming out? Why, when they see the priest, they know now they're accepted. Some might think he's lying in there, stretched out on the floor, dead. We won't know fully until he comes out. How they walked the entrance. They listened to those beds. And they listened and looked for the parking of those curtains. Then someone said, ah, I hear the bed. He's coming up. He's coming up. I hear the bed. For they were on the skirts of his garment. And every step he took, they rang. You know, Christians, nineteen hundred years ago the Lord Jesus went in he entered heaven the Bible says by his own blood that he's coming out and I can hear the bells what are the bells signs of his approach indications he's coming one of these days we're going to see him by the time I'll take up a number of bells For instance, to take up the bell of the return of the Jewish nation of Palestine, the Jewish bell. My, that's a lovely bell. It's a Jewish bell. And it's been ringing. It's ringing louder every day. One could take up also the political bell. Every sign politically points to the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ, the stress of nations. men's hearts failing them for fear because of those things that are coming up on the earth. That bell is ringing very loudly every day. Then there's the religious bell. You know this is very significant. Here's a clipping out of last Saturday's paper week or yesterday by James Gray. Those of you who've been coming to chapel for nine years. know that I've been preaching this and I've been preaching it for thirty-five years and there were fundamental preachers preaching it long before I was born and if you read books two hundred years old written by fundamental gospel preachers they wrote the same thing that before the end time there was to be a uniting of all Christendom under one head all denominations coming together under one head and that head would be rolled Do you find that in Revelation, Seventeen and Eighteenth? I've been preaching it. Ever since I've been saved, I never dreamed I'd lived to see the day. I thought it was a way on after my day. I never dreamed I'd see the day when I'd read it. And what we've been seeing in the last two or three years, the ecumenical council, listen. The pace of ecumenical movement within the Christian church heightens everywhere. put in motion by warm-hearted Pope John XXIII of the Roman Catholic Church. The outreach of Catholicism toward Orthodoxy and Protestantism is being widened by Pope Paul VI. This week the Pontiff chose the occasion of the four hundredth anniversary of the Council of Trent to call for a dialogue between Catholics and Protestants with the objective of finding common ground on which to meet for eventual union. Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston has of late visited and prayed in Episcopal churches of Boston, and that the Roman and Anglican bishops of Georgia and Savannah have appeared jointly at intercommunion sessions, and that Roman and Episcopal priests are exchanging parish visits at the diocesan level. Doubtless the trend will heighten and expand, reaching finally to all Protestant denominations. Are we going back? An old godly man, Mr. Bidford, with a big white beard, said to me not long after I was saved, you live to be overnightly, and he used to tell me a lot of things from the Bible. He said, Brother Lester, Protestantism is going back to Rome. He said, I won't live to see it, but you will. And I'm living to see it. There's a bell for you. Friend, it's ringing loud that Jesus is coming out. He's going to appear one of these days. I could go on and speak of the pleasure bell. I could speak of the moral bell. And you don't have to go to New York to hear this bell ringing of the end time, the moral decadence of our nation and our people. Only in the last two or three weeks are you decent, respectable parents crying out against what they've been their children have been looking at on modern screens. You know what I'm talking about. The owner of those two theaters said this. He said, I can't show anything else and make money. If I show clean good films, people won't come. The more immortal and the more lurid and the more lustful, the film, the bigger crowds I get. What a sad commentary upon the morals of the people of Auburn and the nation. Let me tell you this. The man who owns those theatres has never got a dime out of my pocket, and he never will. All he's interested in is money, not your sons and daughters. They can go to hell if they want to, as long as he gets his dollar. And whatever they want, he'll see. Oh, the mortal bell that's all over the world, ringing the end is here. Then there's another bell that never struck me till just recently. In the book of Revelation you read this. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, for the devil has come down in great wrath because he knoweth he hath but a short time. What's he doing? He casts out water like a flood. out to this mouth. I never saw this, and I've been studying the book of Revelation for thirty years. It never impressed me in this past week. The devil, knowing he has but a short time, that is, the day of doom's approaching, what's he doing? He's casting out waters out of his mouth. Now that speaks of words out of his mouth. Did you ever know a time in the history of the world when so many people could read? and so much literature was printed to meet that demand? Think of the words going out of his mouth. The floods of false doctrine. Sure it indicates the last day, for the Bible says in the last day there will be knowledge increase. Knowledge shall increase in the last day just before Jesus comes, just before he appears. We have never lived in such a day. and the devil's making hay because he knows he has but a short time. I'm going to mention just one in detail. The Jehovah's Witness started with Russell, then Judge Rutherford, called millennial dogs, and then two or three other names, and then Jehovah's Witness. They were known as Jehovah's Witnesses really back in nineteen thirty. Do you know what happened? by nineteen fifty seven that movement had spread to a hundred and sixty two countries with fifty five million pieces of literature being scattered in one year that was in nineteen fifty seven what's happened since then seven years have passed the devil casting out waters words like a flood trying to encode the minds of men and add to that if you will Christian science, Mormonism, and then Communism, and a lot of other isms, inspired by the devil and all the people that are being swallowed up, encroached by these waters out of the mouth of the devil because he knows he has but a short time. There's a bell that's ringing and it's ringing loud. All you can say is the Christians got one text. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against them. The only bulwark, the only wall, the dam against this flood, coming out of the mouth of the devil, deceiving millions, is the Holy Spirit presenting the message of this book. Enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard of him. Friend, I say to you this morning, the bells are ringing loud. He's coming out. And then they saw the curtains move. Flower behind here and started to move those curtains. You know I was about to plant them. Not only do we hear the bells ringing, we see the moving of the curtains in world events. The curtains are moving. the next thing Jesus will appear. And when he comes, every born again Christian is going to rise to meet him in the air. Only redeemed people saw this priest come out. Only redeemed people saw and go in. And only saved people saw Jesus Christ ascend to heaven. You know the one saved I saw the Son of God after he was nailed on that cross. No sinner saw him after he rose from the dead. First Corinthians fifteen tells you the witnesses who saw him after he rose from the dead, and only his own saw him go up to heaven from Mount Olivet, and only those born again are going to see him when he comes again. He'll come in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, and all redeemed by precious blood shall rise to meet him. Those of you who are not saved, you won't see him this trip. Secretly and silently he'll catch his own away, and you who are unsaved left behind to see him at a later day when he'll come in judgment, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He'll come for his own first. He'll take them out of the world, and then, after those awful judgments of revelation, He'll come back with his people for the battle of Armageddon. Then every eye shall see him, and all kindles of yours shall wail because of him. Yes, friend, he's coming up. I hear the bells. Don't you hear those bells of ringing? Don't you hear those angels singing? It is the glorious hallelujah. The Christians can say that. One of these days we'd see him that he parts the curtain, that he parts the clouds, and Jesus Christ will come to the church. Those all who are saved and born again shall rise from here. He has glorious hallelujah then, for the world is left behind in justice, for justice. That means you who are not born again this morning, you who have entrusted that precious blood. left behind and lost forever. There's no second chance. You've had your day and you've missed it. You had your opportunity and you didn't grasp it. What are you going to do this morning with the Lord Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? What will your answer be? He's coming up. He's in their nineteen hundred years. But then the bells indicate he's coming. The bells of world events. And the curtains are beginning to move. You better hurry. He's coming. Are you ready? If you're not born again, I don't care about you being a member of the church. You can be a member of all the church in Albany. That must grow opinion unless you're born again. Going to the Albany Gospel Chapel won't take you a step near heaven unless you know Jesus Christ is your personal Savior. If you're baptized in that baptismal tank back there a dozen times, it won't wash away one's sin. It's only the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that meant it all to you. Will you open your heart right now and trust Jesus Christ as your personal see?