 Amen, so keep your place there in Exodus chapter 28. So we're going through the garments of the high priest and we're looking at each of these garments and the detail that God gives us in this chapter and nothing in the Bible is on accident. So we're looking at the details of this. Why did God give all this detail? We're looking at how these garments apply to us in our Christian lives, how the Bible says in Revelation 1-6 that we are kings and priests. So how does this affect us? What does it all mean? There's no detail that God puts in the Bible that is there just for nothing. Okay, and we've seen that when we looked at the robe so far, we looked at the robe and all the details of the robe. We looked at the mitre last week, the headpiece. We saw that by the way in Revelation chapter 22 and we read that this morning. We saw that again Jesus seals people in their foreheads and that's where that plate was to go with the mitre. So the whole idea of the mitre was the plate, it was the plate where it was holiness unto the Lord. It was not a tall hat to bring glory upon yourself. It was to show that the priest belonged to the Lord and we see that with the mitre. So tonight we're going to look at the breastplate. We're going to look at the breastplate, look down at verse number 15 and remember now. The location on the body is super important for these garments. It means something with every garment. So let's read starting in verse 15 through verse 30 talks about this breastplate. Let's start reading at verse number 15 in your Bibles. The Bible says, And thou shalt make the breastplate, it's not just any breastplate though, look what it says already here. It says the breastplate of judgment with cunning work. That means it's to be, cunning means it's to be skillful. This isn't to be something that's slapped together. It's to be very specific, very nicely made. The breastplate of judgment with cunning work, after the work of the ephod, thou shalt make it of gold of blue of purple and of scarlet and of fine twine linen that shall make it. So notice what it's called right away. It's called the breastplate of judgment. So this is showing, number one, that the priest, this priest, and by the way, you're a priest, so whenever we're going through this series, just think of yourself. We are kings and priests. This is the priesthood of the believer that we're living as we've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and we're saved tonight. So it's called the breastplate of judgment. So judgment is something that is going to be needed. But that's something that you're told that you should not have today, that you should have no judgment, which is like the dumbest thing ever. To say that anyone shouldn't have judgment. Who would? I mean, think about, isn't that what people say today though, don't judge, don't judge, don't ever judge. How would you like to raise your children without having, isn't that what everyone's trying to instill in their children is to have good judgment? What judgment means is to discern, to be able to tell good from evil. Being able to tell what's good and what's bad. Should I go this way? Should I go that way? All I'm trying to do is raise children with good judgment. Yet everyone's saying, you know, look, it's a wicked person that's telling you not to judge anything. To have no judgment. All right, turn to Matthew chapter seven real quickly and I want to show you some King James Bible language now that I taught you how to read the King James Bible this morning in that two minute grammar lesson. Go to Matthew chapter seven. This is what people will use to say that you should never judge. Don't judge, don't judge. Go to Matthew chapter seven and look at verse number one. The Bible says, the Bible says in Matthew chapter seven, now just remember, you're yeas and you're use, okay? You know that everyone has to change the Bible and we have to have 170 different Bible versions because no one can understand the these and the vows of the King James Bible. The yeas and the use are plural, the these and the vows are singular. There you go. Now you can read the King James Bible, okay? Look at verse number one of Matthew chapter seven. Talking about judgment here real quickly before we get started. Judge not that ye be not judged. So who's Jesus talking about here? So the yeas, the yeas you will always see with the use. The yeas and the use go together. So one is the subject and one is the object, okay? Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Jesus here is talking about, if you have a red letter Bible, these are red letters. He's talking to a group of people, okay? He's talking to a group of people. So he's not saying never judge. He's saying judge not that ye be not judged. And then if we keep reading, remember the context as well, whenever somebody throws out some verse at you, just read a couple verses before and a couple verses after and get the context. It says for what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged. The Bible here is telling you not to be a hypocrite. It's not saying you have no judgment. It's saying don't be a hypocrite. Then he gives an example. He gives a specific example now. Notice the switch in the yeas to the these and vows. Look what he says. And why behold us thou? Now he's talking to a single person. He's giving an example to a single person. He's saying behold us thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but consider us not the beam that is in thine own eye. So now we're talking about a single situation, okay? So here's a person that is, you know, being judgmental about something with somebody, but they've got a major sin in their own eye, a moat being a sliver and a beam being a huge, you know, railroad tire, whatever you want to look at there, okay? It says thou hypocrite, don't ever judge. Is that what it says? No, it says thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye. See the idea with judgment here is to get the moat out of your brother's eye. Is to help get that, I mean we're talking about sin here. We're talking about getting the sin out of someone's life or helping your brothers and sisters get something right in their life. You can't do that when you have that sin in your life. I mean how effective is it going to be to try to get, you know, your kids to stop sinning a certain sin, you know, don't drink kids. Don't drink as they've watched you drink for 18 years. This is what this is saying. This is what this is talking about. It's like, it's just, it's not going to work. Kids are hypocrite detectors, by the way. Kids will tell a hypocrite when they're like four years old. It's ridiculous. I mean, God's put that in their heart. They can just see hypocrites like that. And Jesus is warning us of that. But notice how he switches, just the language. Notice how he switches talking to the group to giving an individual example with somebody. That's the beauty of the detail of the King James Bible, okay? Just by changing that to a single word like you, it would be very confusing reading something like this. You would lose, you would lose that. You would lose, you would get it. There's a rounding error. You know, you round 12.137 to 12. The next person I give 12 to, they have no idea what those other numbers are. That information is gone. It's lost. Okay? So, look, but the Bible is saying here, you should have judgment. It's just saying, hey, clean your act up first, and then you can actually help somebody. It's very similar actually to James chapter two that people misunderstand. James chapter two is talking about being a prophet to somebody. How can I profit my brother? It's like, look, if your faith, if you're not out there working your faith, if you're not out there showing your faith, it's not that you're not saved because your works have nothing to do with you being saved. It's about whether or not you're going to be a benefit to anybody. That's it. It's very similar, Matthew chapter seven to James chapter two in that sense. So, look, there's a need for judgment. That's why the breastplate is called the breastplate of judgment, okay? Go back to Exodus chapter 28. It's important, look, judgment is super important, especially for a leader. Especially for a leader. Men, you are all leaders of your family tonight. I hate to break it to you, but go to 1 Kings chapter three, and I'm going to prove this to you how important judgment is. How important good judgment is. Go to 1 Kings chapter three. This is Solomon's prayer. Solomon just, he's a young man. He's somewhere, you know, he's probably less than 20 years old. He takes over the kingdom, and look at where Solomon's state of mind is right now. Look at 1 Kings chapter three, look at verse number five. First Kings chapter three, look at verse number five. Solomon has just taken over, David is gone, and Solomon is just taking over the kingdom. And look what the Bible says. It says, in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ask what I shall give thee. He says the same thing to us, by the way. So you should be praying every single day. Just a side note. Look at verse number six. So God says to Solomon in a dream, ask me what you want, and I'll give it to you. And Solomon said, thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee, who's he talking to? Is he talking to a group of people? No, he's talking to God, singular, he's talking to a single person. As he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, righteousness, by the way, and I want to, just righteousness here is talking about the work of exercising good judgment, okay? That's what righteousness would be. If you walk and exercise good judgment all the time, which we don't because we sin all the time, but righteousness would be, it could be characterized as exercising good judgment. So look what he says. You know, David, he's talking about his father. He said, he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of what? Of heart. Don't forget that. With thee, with God, and thou has kept him for this great kindness, and thou has given him a son to sit on his throne, he's talking about himself, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. He said, I know nothing. Humbleness is a good place to start, always, when you're talking to the Lord. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou has chosen a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Now look at verse number nine. One of the greatest verses in the Bible, in my opinion. He says, what is he asked for? What is this kid asked for? Can you imagine, if you go find, pull some kid off the street, who's fourteen years old, and say, what do you want? You can have anything. What would they say? Would they say this? Look at verse number nine. He says, give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to what? Why? Why does he need an understanding heart? To judge thy people. He's the king. He's a leader. He wants to have proper, righteous judgment. He wants to be able to exercise judgment correctly. That I may discern, what is judgment? Here it is. That I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to again judge this, thy so great a people? I'm sure, and that made God very happy. Look at the next verse. And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, because thou had asked this thing, and asked not for thyself a long life, neither has asked riches for thyself, nor has asked for the life of thine enemies, but has asked for thyself an understanding to discern judgment again. Behold, I have done according to thy words, lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart. So here's what you need to understand. Wisdom and understanding equals proper judgment. So that's what God gave him so he would have proper judgment. And then that's why, this is where Solomon became so wise and so smart that people come from all over the world to give him gold and to listen to his proverbs so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. All right, so look. Wisdom and understanding equals judging properly. And we see that it all comes from where? Go to Exodus chapter 28, go back there. Go back to Exodus chapter 28. Understanding and wise judgment is what the priest needs. Now where does the garment go? Let's look at the place that the garment goes because that's very important. Exodus chapter 28 and verse number 6, let's go through. Let's look at verse number 16, gives us some detail about it. It says, four square, it shall be being doubled. A span shall be the length thereof and a span shall be the breadth thereof. All this is saying is that a span, they say a span is from your pinky to your thumb. They say about nine inches. So that's how big it is. And it says it's four square. Four square in the King James Bible means that it's a square. It means the Bible kind of defines itself here. It says four square shall be being doubled. A span shall be the length and a span shall be the breadth. So it's the same wide as it is tall, nine inches. So it's a nine inch square. Now look at verse number 17. Verse number 17, the Bible says, and thou shalt set in the settings of stones, even four rows of stones. The first row shall be a sardis, a topaz, a carbuncle. This shall be the first row. The second row should be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. The third row, a ligar, an agate, and an amethyst. The fourth row, a barrel, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold in there in closings. When it says gold ouches, ouches of gold, what that means is that's the insetting where the stones sit. So an ouch is the gold setting, as you would. If you have a diamond ring, the ouch would be where the diamond sits down in the ring. And the stones shall be with the name of the children of Israel, 12, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet. Everyone with his name shall be according to the 12 tribes. Now I'd study the stones for you, but we don't know which name went on which stone. So we'll just have to go use the sermon series that we had on the 12 tribes of Israel for that, because we don't know which stone goes with each tribe. But go to verse number 22. But the point is, is that the names of the 12 tribes sit on the breastplate. That's the important thing that you need to know. So the breastplate of judgment, this shows you what is the judgment towards? What is his judgment to be used for? His judgment is to be used for the 12 tribes. His judgment is to be used for the nation. We're talking about the high priest here. Look at verse 22. And now shall make upon the breastplate chains at the end of the reathen work of pure gold. And shall make upon the breastrate two rings of gold, and shall put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. So there's rings on each side, and it's connected here, and it's connected down to his girdle. And now shall put the two reathen chains of gold in the two rings, which are on the ends of the breastplate. In the other two ends, the two reathen chains shall now fashion in the two ouches and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod before it. Those are the top chains. And now shall make two rings of gold, and shall put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof, which is in the side of the ephod inward. And the other two rings of gold shall now make and put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the forefront thereof, over against the other coupling thereof, above the curious girdle of the ephod. And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod, with a lace of blue. This is what connects the rings, that they may be above the curious girdle of the ephod, in that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod. It's just showing you how it's to be attached to his location. Now look at verse number 29. This is the important part. Verse number 29, it says, And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment where, upon his heart, when he goeth into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord, continually. Remember Solomon, what did he ask for? He asked for this wise and understanding, what? A wise and understanding heart. And here the breastplate of judgment is to be over the priest, what? Over his heart, okay? The Bible talks about the heart as the place. Actually, let's look at a few verses. We could look at 100 verses on the heart, but let's look at the verses on the heart. The Bible verses on the heart are super important in the Christian life. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 17. The heart, and look, it's a location in the body. It's a part of the body that is used for a specific picture in the Bible. And I wanna show that to you tonight. Look at Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse number nine. So Solomon asked for a wise and understanding heart to exercise judgment, to properly judge. The priest wears the breastplate of judgment over his heart that has the names of all the tribes of Israel on these stones. Look at Jeremiah 17 and verse number nine. The Bible says a lot about the heart. So let's look at what it's talking about here. The Bible says Jeremiah 17.9. It says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Now look, what is that saying? Is the heart a good thing or is the heart a bad thing? Okay, what is the heart? When the Bible talks about the heart, let's look at what it is first. Turn to Romans chapter 10 and verse number nine. Look, the Bible here in Jeremiah 17.9 is saying that Satan, the great deceiver, is gonna come after this thing. He's gonna come after your heart. Why? Go to Romans 10 and chapter number nine. Romans 10 and chapter number nine. If you're a soul winner, this is a very popular verse. I'm sure you have it memorized. But look at Romans 10.9. And let's look at Romans 10.9 and Romans 10.10. I always like to take soul winning verses. And every now and then, you kind of repeat these verses so many times. And you say these verses so many times. I always like to go and read. You read the verses before and after every now and then to get the context of these soul winning verses. But look at verse number nine. So we're talking about the heart and why Satan tries to deceive our heart and why the heart can be so deceitful. Look at verse number nine. It says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and what? What's the important thing of salvation here? What's the important thing of salvation? It says, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. To be saved, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that belief comes from where? It comes from your heart. Okay, it comes from your heart. Look at verse number 10. Four, now it's gonna tell us what the heart actually is. Okay, what it's used for. Okay, for with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The Bible here is telling us is that the heart is the tool that your body uses to believe things. It's the philosophical origin of your belief. Is what the Bible is saying here. What the Bible is talking about when it says the heart, the heart, the heart. It's where your beliefs come from. Is what Romans 10, 10 just told us. This is why Satan comes after your heart. This is why Satan attacks your heart. Go to Matthew chapter five, I'm gonna read for you Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse number 10. The very next verse of the one we just read. You go to Matthew chapter five. In Jeremiah 17, 10, the Bible says, I the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. So look, only God sees your heart. We go out and we give the gospel to people and they'll tell us, yes, I believe that. And then we'll help them, you know, we'll help them confess their beliefs to the Lord and we will do that with them. But ultimately we don't see the heart. Ultimately I have no idea what anybody in this room believes. I mean, I'm taking you at your word, you know, that we're all believing the same things that we've all trusted on Jesus Christ but ultimately it's only God that can search the heart. It's only God that knows what you believe. And your belief, think about this for a second. You are saved by belief alone. And this is just my opinion. But I believe that the reason God made it that way is because your belief is the only thing that is uniquely yours. No matter what I do, I can't make you believe anything. Throughout history, men have done terrible things. They've arrested people and tortured people. And in the martyr's mirror that we talked about this morning they even made people sign confessions but they can't make you believe anything. They can make you sign something. They can make you say something but they can't make you believe anything. That's yours and that's why I believe God has it by belief. Look at Matthew chapter five and verse number eight. So here's what we want our heart to be. Jesus says, he says Matthew five eight. He says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Turn to Hebrews chapter four. Turn to Hebrews chapter four. So here's the idea folks is the heart is where your belief comes from. The heart is where that righteous judgment needs to come from as well and that's why that place sits on the heart of the priest. Look at Hebrews chapter four and verse number 12. You say, how could you possibly get somebody to change what they believe? How could you get somebody to change what they believe? You say, I have some people in my life that I love they're not saved and I would like them to be saved. How in the world could I get them to change the belief in their heart? Well, the Bible says that there's only one thing that has power over the heart. Look at Hebrews chapter four. Look at verse number 12. The Bible says this. It says, this is why by the way, this is why the word of God being pure is so important. This is why that the NIV being this corrupted version is something that we don't wanna have anything to do with or any of these other versions. And it's important as the front of your bulletin says in Psalm 12, six, that the words of the Lord be pure words. Why? Because they have power, that's why. What kind of power? I'm talking actual physical power to do what? To change the heart. You say, why? How do you know that? Well, let's read the Bible. Look at verse 12. For the word of God is quick. You know what that means? You know what quick means? It means it can make things alive. How many things that you know can make things alive? How about this? Nothing. Nothing can make things alive. The most technology on planet earth that they have today, they can't make one cell alive. But the Bible says that the word of God can. The word of God is quick. You know, you're dead in your sins. You know, when somebody preached the gospel to you and you believed it, you became alive. Why? Because the word of God is powerful, that's why. The word of God created the world. The word got, let there be heat. And God said, God said, and God said, Jesus Christ, the word created the world. That's power. Hey, that's physical power. I mean, to actually speak things into existence is actual physical power. Let's keep reading. The word of God is quick. And what? And powerful. And sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing. Even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Look, it can get into someone's spirit and into their soul. And physically, look at this. And to the, of the joints and the marrow. And as a discerner, uh-oh. Of the thoughts and intents of what? Heart. It's a discerner. You know what that means? It means it's a detector. It means it's a detector. The word of God will detect a bad heart or a good heart. Is what the Bible is saying here. The Bible will discern between good and evil. You know why? You know why? You know one that you get in a Bible preaching church that preaches like everything. Like everything in the Bible. Like if you're fairly new here, you're gonna hear the whole thing here. There's gonna be stuff that you hear preached here and you're gonna be like, never heard that before. But look, if it's in the Bible, it's gonna be preached here. But the point is, is that if you have a bad heart, it's gonna clash with the Bible. It's gonna, if you have a bad heart, it's just gonna like, it's just not gonna fit. It's gonna, it's gonna, but that's the idea of the Bible. It's supposed to, it's supposed to hit you and discern your heart so you change. You fix your heart. You know, that's why you hear sin preached and you hear just hard preaching on sin and you're in that sin and you're like, ah! It hits you. But hey, that's the idea, because the Bible is a discerner. It's a discerner. Yes, the gospel, yes, salvation. But hey, we're trying to live a Christian life here too. And it's here to help you discern and judge your Christian life as you walk forward. That's why some liberal church that doesn't tell you what the Bible says isn't doing you any favors. They're actually hurting you. They don't care about you. I mean, how many times you got out soul-wining, you get somebody saved and they've been going to some church for eight or nine years and you're like, you know, they never told you how to get to heaven at your church. Those people don't love you. Just sending people straight to hell. And the worst, the worst is where the pastor might actually be saved and he's not telling the people how to get to heaven. It's crazy to even think about it, but it happens all the time. So the Bible here is saying is that the word the word of God can change, can fix, can affect the heart. It has the power to do that. It's the only thing. That's why when we go out, what do we do? We don't go out with our own words. We don't go out and just like, just like explain stuff to people. We use the word of God. Yes, and we explain, but we use God's word because it's God's word that has power, not ours. It's God's word. Go to Proverbs chapter four. See say, you know, give me a break preacher, I'm saved. Leave me alone. Go to Proverbs chapter four. Look folks, this idea of the heart. I'm telling you, if I could preach anything until I was blue in the face, it would be this. This is the Christian problem right here is keeping your heart clear. Look at Proverbs chapter four and verse 23. I mean, the Bible tells us this. Don't take my word for it. The Bible says in Proverbs 4, 23, it says, keep thy heart with all diligence. You know what diligence means? Diligence means persistence over time. If you're a diligent worker, it doesn't mean you work hard on Monday. It means you go to work and you work hard every single hour of every single day. That's diligence. The Bible is saying you must be diligent about your heart. You can't just be like, oh, you know, I got saved and I just, I'm so excited for a church and I'm so excited to get into the Christian life and you know, I'm gonna get baptized and I'm gonna get soul winning and I'm gonna do this. And you know why Christians are, you know, bottle rocket Christians? They start out and they're like, and then it's like pop. They say the average Christian life lasts about two or three years. That's what they say. You talk to a pastor who's pastor for 20 years, he'll tell you the same thing. People that just burn out why? Because they don't keep their heart. That's why. Because the devil, look, if you're saved tonight, the devil can't send you to hell. He can't take away your salvation. You know what he can do? He can take your heart away. He can deceive your heart. And he can get you to care about other things. He can drag you into sin. You know, a lot of people think like, you know what, I'm just gonna, I'm saved, maybe I'll just, I'm just gonna go into some sin for a while. The problem is your heart. That's the problem. Sin will steal your heart. It'll take it away. And look, that's why people, that's why people, they're like, hey, I'm gonna go into a little bit of sin. They get into sin, it steals their heart, and they never come back. It's a terrible thing. You have to keep your heart with diligence. This is the Christian problem right here. Again and again and again, it is the same thing. You ask any Bible preaching Baptist pastor and he'll tell you the same thing. Turn back to Exodus chapter 28. Protect your heart. Actually, turn to First Kings chapter 11. Let's beat this one to death. Turn to First Kings chapter 11. We talked about marriage this morning. Did we not? Did we talk about marriage this morning? Look, you wanna talk about keeping your heart, but look, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 17 that a king is to not multiply wives. Okay? A king is not to multiply wives. Let's look at Solomon. We were just studying Solomon, right? Look at First Kings chapter 11. Let's talk about this idea of your heart for just a couple more minutes. Go to chapter 11. So we saw Solomon when he was young. He was humble. He asked the Lord for wise and understanding heart. Look at verse number one of First Kings chapter 11. Look what happened to him. But King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites of the nations concerning what the Lord said under the children of Israel. He should not go in unto them, neither shall they come in unto you. For surely they will what? They will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon claved to these in love. And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives, what? They turned away his heart. First of all, you will find no man in the Bible that has multiple wives that had a good marriage. I mean, doesn't that make sense? You will find no Solomon, he actually was married to Pharaoh's daughter first and read the book of Song of Solomon. It's just this great love story between him and his first wife. And then he goes and he does this. And at the end of his life, he says I've not found one woman that I could have a good life with, basically. You will not find one man who married multiple wives in the Bible who had a great loving relationship with one of his wives. It was just chaos. It was just chaos in their homes, in their households, chaos. I mean, it's like you read some of the patriarchs and it's like you're reading a soap opera. It's just chaos, jealousy, favoritism. But the main problem God said was this. It said these wives will turn away your heart from me. He says, they'll turn your heart away from the Lord. It says in his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. As was the heart of David his father. For Solomon, then it talks about how he went off after all these false gods and all this type of stuff. Just because of his wives. They turned away his heart from the Lord. Look folks, this could be anything. This could be money. This could be your career. This could be anything of this world that is thorns that chokes your spiritual life because it's not just I'm gonna go and I'm just gonna, hey, I'm just gonna go make money for five years. I'm just gonna go make money for five years and then I'm gonna get back into the Christian life. I'm gonna give a bunch of money to church. No, your heart will be gone and you'll never come back. That's what will happen. Satan is after your heart and guess what? He's gonna steal it where he knows he can steal it with you. He knows where your cracks are. He knows whatever can get you out of church and get you out of this Christian life, that's where he's gonna hit you. So you need to think about that. What can get me out of the Christian life? What do I care about more than the Lord? That's what's gonna come after you. Especially, look, especially as you get effective in the Christian life. You get effective in the Christian life. You start making a difference for the kingdom of God on earth, Satan's coming after you and he knows where to poke. He knows where to pull on your heart. It's a serious thing. Please, I mean, please listen to me. It's a serious thing. And I mean, anybody that's been in this Christian life for a while has known people that have fallen to this. Look, they're as saved as you and me, but they've been taken out of the fight. They've been taken out of the fight. You have to guard your heart, folks. Turn back to Exodus chapter 28. So the breastplate of judgment is upon the priest's heart. We see that he is to execute good judgment towards the nation. Look at Exodus chapter 28. In verse number 30. So that's his idea. He's supposed to, I mean, imagine, imagine if you had a leader whose heart was turned. Imagine if you had a leader over a nation whose heart was turned. I mean, imagine if you had a leader over, I mean, you'll laugh. Imagine if we had a leader over a nation that had no judgment. Welcome to America. But I mean, this is what you get. Imagine if we had a godly leader of a nation, of our nation. You know what kind of difference that would make? Just imagine. I mean, we haven't had that for a long time. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to get into that, but look at verse 30. And thou shalt put the breastplate of judgment, I'm sorry, thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thurum, Thumen. And they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth before the Lord and Aaron shall bear judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually. You're like, what in the world? Urim and Thumen, what is that? All right, now look. I don't read Bible commentary, okay? I don't read Bible commentary, and this is a perfect reason why. You can go read all kinds of crazy stuff on what these two things are. Let's just look at what the Bible says. And look, sometimes you just need to be okay with like, you know, God didn't tell us a lot on this. God just didn't, you know, if God didn't give us a lot of detail, it means that it's just not that important. We just don't need to know everything, all right? But turn to Leviticus chapter eight. First of all, the words mean light and perfection, okay? So there's some type of objects that go inside the breastplate, okay? Let's look at, I mean, the Bible does talk about them. And I think we can kind of infer, and I'll show you my theory, all right? We think we can kind of infer what these things are. But turn to Leviticus chapter eight. Look at verse number eight. Leviticus eight, verse number eight. Remember, the priest has exercised what? That it goes on his heart, and he's to exercise judgment. He's to exercise judgment on the people, okay? Which means he's to be able to discern good and evil. If somebody comes to him, he's to be able to decide things. If, you know, two people come with a conflict or whatever, or, you know, just direction of the nation in general, he's to be able to tell good from evil. Look at verse number eight. It says he put the breastplate upon him. He also put in the breastplate, the irum and the thumen. Now turn to Numbers chapter 27. Numbers chapter 27. It talks about it there as well. In Numbers chapter 27, look at verse 21. Numbers chapter 27, verse 21. It says that he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of irum before the Lord. So now we see that this irum has something to do with the actual judgment or the decision itself, okay? And his word shall they go out and at his word shall they come in, both he and the children of Israel with him and even all the congregation. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 33. Let me show you one more example where this is at in the Bible, okay? Deuteronomy 33 and look at verse number eight. Deuteronomy 33 and verse number eight. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 33, eight, it says, and of Levi he said, let thy thumen and thy irum be with the holy one, whom thoust did prove at Massa and whom thoust did strive at the waters of Maraba, who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children, for they have observed thy word and kept thy covenant. So here we see this irum and thurum is with Levi, it's with the priesthood here, okay? So look, we know that just from these examples that they have something to do with the judgment, okay? They have something to do with the priest executing judgment and they're directly related to keeping God's word as we see in Deuteronomy 33. Now let me just give you some possible examples here, all right? Here's kind of an example that I think is possible. This is my opinion, okay? This is my opinion. This isn't decisive from the Bible, but turn to Joshua chapter seven. So in Joshua chapter seven, we've just, in Joshua chapter six, they've just invaded Jericho, the walls came down and what were they supposed to do? They were supposed to destroy every living thing, okay? They were supposed to destroy man, woman, child, all the cattle, everything. They were to take nothing, okay? Look at Joshua chapter seven and look at verse number 14, okay? So the problem was in Joshua chapter seven that after they stacked Jerusalem, or not Jerusalem, Jericho in Joshua chapter six, somebody took something, okay? Somebody took some stuff, you know, they call it the accursed thing in the Bible. So there was somebody, and then they went to AI, so they were just like crushing everybody, right? The walls came down, God's fighting for them. All of a sudden they go up against AI and they lose and they're like, what's going on? And God tells them like, look, somebody took something. This is why, okay? Look at verse number 14. So here God gives instruction to how they are supposed to find the person that took something, okay? Look at verse number 14. It says, in the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according to your tribes and it shall be that the tribe which, now underline these words in your Bible, if you don't mind writing in your Bible, I mean, if not, don't, but it says that the tribe which, what does it say? It says, the Lord taketh. Shall come according to the families thereof and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man. So here the Bible is telling us that, I mean, look, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions of people here, okay? The nation of Israel at this point. And the Bible is saying, bring the tribes. Bring the tribes. It says, bring the families. And then it says, bring the households, okay? But it says that the Lord is gonna choose a tribe. The Lord is gonna choose a family and the Lord is gonna choose a household. Look, not every single person is gonna go past here. It's like the Lord is gonna make some decisions here. You're like, okay, how's he gonna do that? Initial B, he that is taken with the accursed things shall be burnt with fire. But if you look further, if you look further and you look at verse number 18, now it actually happens. Joshua, it says in verse, look at 17. It says, and he brought the family of Judah. No, look what he says. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, verse 16, and brought Israel by their tribes and the tribe of Judah was taken. That means the tribe of Judah was chosen by the Lord. So they didn't go through all 12 tribes. It's just Judah was chosen, just like we saw in verse 14 and 15. And he brought the family of Judah and he took the family of the Zehrites. See, it's being narrowed down here because certain ones are being chosen here. And he brought the family of Zehrites man by man and Zabdi was taken. And he brought his household. So now we see a man's house was taken, man by man and Achan. The son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zara, the tribe of Judah was taken. Now we know by was taken in verse 14 and 15 that the Lord took him. So here's my theory here. Is that this Urim and Theurim is some way for God to communicate his choices, his judgment to the priest? That's my theory because the Lord is choosing people here. The Lord is choosing Judah, he's choosing the family here, he's choosing the household and then finally he chooses Achan. Otherwise they would have had to search like hundreds of thousands of people. So God is helping them out. I think that this Urim and Thumen is used in this type of scenario. It's just some way, because look, here's the thing. How is the priest supposed to know as a man if two people come to him and one person's saying he stole $20 from me and the other person's like, no I didn't, because here I had to break it to you folks. People will lie to your face. They'll lie straight to your face. So I mean, a man needs to be able to have some judgment. I think it's just some way God used to, you know, I mean, another example is in Leviticus chapter 16 where he cast lots on top of the two goats and God chooses, I think maybe that was the Urim and the Thumen. You know, that was the lots that the priest, that Aaron, or the high priest used to let God make the decision. Okay, so it was some way where God made decisions and communicated that to the high priest. That's all that to say that, okay? So look, what about today? You say, I wanna have good judgment. What about today? We'll turn to Deuteronomy chapter 17. So let me give you some, let me give you some, you're like, we don't have these stones or these rocks or whatever these things are to help God communicate good judgment to us. We do have the Bible though, okay? We do have the Bible. So let's look at what the Bible says and how we can have good judgment in situations that might seem difficult. You say, I wanna have good judgment, but you know, sometimes people don't say things that are true and all this. Deuteronomy 19, I'm sorry. Deuteronomy 19, look at verse number 15 of Deuteronomy chapter 19. So the Bible gives us some philosophies to follow in our lives, to have good judgment when it comes to difficult situations, especially concerning people, okay? The Bible says in Deuteronomy 19, 15, it says, one witness shall not rise up again against a man for iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinned. Then it says, at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. So the Bible here is just kind of giving us some advice that if somebody is gonna be accused of something, there better be more than two people that have seen the sin, okay? We're not talking about somebody that saw a sin and then went and told a bunch of people. That's not like 10 witnesses, okay? The person that saw the iniquity is a witness, all right? And there needs to be more than two, the Bible says. The mouth of two or three. Turn to Matthew chapter 18. I mean, 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 says the same thing. You turn to Matthew 18. And 2nd Corinthians 13, Paul says, it is the third time I'm coming to you in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Same thing in 1 Timothy chapter five, talking about an accusation against an elder. You know, there better be two or three witnesses there, okay? So this begs the question of, even in Matthew 18, 16, you're gonna keep your place in Matthew 18 because we're gonna go further into that. But it says, but if you will not hear the, talking about a conflict amongst brothers, then take with thee one or two more. Just that power, that power that, now we're not talking about iniquity, we're talking about just like, so one or two more can hear the matter, okay? Can hear the matter between these two that have a conflict, okay? So the question becomes, like what if it's word against word? What if you end up in a situation like you parents, you're gonna end up in a situation like this, I guarantee it. You're gonna have kids that are like, you know, like, he punched me, you know? And the other kid's gonna be like, no I didn't, and he's like, what do you do? All right, and then there's like blood coming out of the nose of the one or whatever. But I mean, you're gonna have to pass judgment in situations like that. But notice Matthew chapter 18, it just says that every word be established. It says, those aren't necessarily witnesses to iniquity, they're just to hear the matter and help with judgment. But the point is, the point is if it's somebody talking about using somebody of iniquity and there's only one person, you just can't pass sentence. I mean, that's why our justice system is the way it is where there's, you know, 12 jurors. You know, and there's witnesses, you can't just have like one witness in a crime, there must be more than one witness because, I mean, it's biblical. A lot of these things come from the Bible, all right? But in cases, like in cases where it's just case against case, like two brothers, I mean, if there's a conflict of somebody in the church and, you know, brother so-and-so says, you know, he stole my car and brother so-and-so says, no, I didn't. Then in that case, you know, Matthew chapter 18 is talking about, you know, if you have a conflict with your brother, you know, if, and there's no, you know, there's not two or three witnesses, it says you're to just go to your brother in Matthew chapter 18. Look at Matthew 18, let's just look at it real quick. Because this is super important that you get this right as well. So I mean, there's no problem of having a conflict, it's just you have to go through the proper channels and do the biblical thing to resolve it. Especially in the Christian life, in the church. Look at Matthew chapter 18 and look at verse number 15. It says, moreover, if that brother shall trespass against thee, it says, go and tell him. Does go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone? If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained a brother. So most of the time, look, 99% of the time, you're gonna go up to your brother and be like, hey, you know, when we were talking the other day and you said that thing, I was really offended. He's gonna be like, oh, I'm sorry, and that's it. That's the end of it. All right, but in a case where he's like, I don't think of anything wrong and you wanna push it further, the Bible says, suffer yourself to be defrauded. That's always an option too. But go talk to the pastor. Go talk to the pastor, sit down and we'll talk through the situation. And ultimately, it can go to the point where somebody that's just done something horribly wrong that's not gonna admit fault, they could be actually put out of the church for it. The Bible does say here, okay? But the point is that Matthew 18 is always an option if it's just word against word, okay? Just go to your brother and tell him what your conflicts are. But you can't pass sentence on somebody for iniquity with just one witness, okay? So, judgment. This is what this is talking about here, this breastplate of judgment. It's not, and it's not just about people. It's not just about conflicts with people. The importance of good judgment is all about just making choices in your life. The importance of good judgment is directly connected with your heart. And the Bible says that if your heart gets deceived, your judgment is gonna go out the window. I hope you see the connection here. Your judgment's gonna go out the window. Look, you'll see people get backslidden in the Christian life and you'll look at what they're doing and you'll just be like, what in the world is going on there? And it's because their heart's been deceived and their judgment is gone. That's what happens, okay? That's why there's so many passages in the Bible about your heart. And that's why the breastplate of judgment goes on the priest's heart. Because God wants you to guard your heart. You're a priest. You're a king. You're a priest. You ladies, you have a priesthood of the believer as well. It's not just for guys. It's a spiritual priesthood we're talking about here. And the judgment is connected to your heart. So guard your heart. Watch what you're doing. Get the sin out of your life. Watch what you're looking at. Watch what you're reading. Watch what you're getting involved in because it's not something that you can just go and get involved in for a while. It's gonna steal your heart away. That's why the breastplate goes on the priest's heart. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.