In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of finding the Savior in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. He mentions that the story of Abraham is followed for about fifteen chapters in the Book of Genesis. He highlights that all the men in the Bible are presented in pairs, emphasizing their significance. The preacher also reads from the Book of Exodus, specifically chapter 28, where the Lord speaks to Moses about Aaron and his sons serving in the priest's office. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the importance of studying the Bible to find the Savior and highlights the early types of the Lord Jesus found in the Old Testament.

Now, you have a very special welcome for coming out that wild night. We're glad to see you. We make you very, very welcome in the Lord's name. And we trust that you will come back again, and that you'll find the ministry of the Word interesting, and that you'll have to come back again as we continue to look for the Lord Jesus. We are trying to, in some respects, follow His example when He went through the Old Testament Scriptures with that couple on the way to Emmaus, and He showed them that in all the Scriptures He was to be found. And this is what we are just trying to prove, that He is indeed in all types of Holy Scripture, in all sections of our Bible, we can find the Lord Jesus. And if we can encourage especially those that are younger in Christ to get to a reading of the Word and to find the Savior there, well, then our meetings will not have been in vain. So, we are looking for the Savior in various parts of our Bible. Tomorrow evening, God willing, we want to have a little look in an introductory kind of way at the offerings. I want to look at the offerings generally, and to look at one offering in particular. When we say the offerings, of course, we think of the five principal offerings in the early chapters of the book of Leviticus. So, we want to look for the Savior there. This is not very difficult. He is there in all parts of those chapters that deal with the offerings and some beautiful things concerning Him indeed. On Wednesday evening, we want to find Him in the prophets, and I think especially the prophet Isaiah, to see his presentation of the Savior. And then on Thursday evening, to have a little look at the Psalms and to see how the Savior is there as well. There are certain Psalms that we call messianic, and in these, of course, particularly the Lord Jesus is to be found. But I think that wherever you read of the blessed man in the Psalms, or wherever you read of the perfect man, wherever you read of that man that delights the heart of God, whether that Psalm be strictly messianic or not, I'm sure we can find the Savior there. And then on Friday evening, just a little look into the Song of Songs, which is the great poem of the Old Testament, and to find the Savior there. Now, on Sunday, the Lord's Day, our brother Edward Jemison will be here to preach the Gospel, and then our meetings continue the following week again, God willing, when we come to the New Testament of the Gospels, and the Acts, and the Romans, and the Hebrews, and the book of Revelation, again to find the Savior there. Now tonight, please, I want to read from the book of Genesis, and also from the book of Exodus, and to see something of these early types of the Lord Jesus. And from the book of Genesis, chapter 14, first of all, Genesis chapter 14. Now, a fairly familiar story. There has been a battle of the kings in the early part of this chapter, and at verse 12, we discover that not only the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, but also Lot, and many other of the people have been taken as well. They come, and they tell Abram about it in verse 13, and we are reading from verse 14. When Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. Now, that's a long way. Abram is traveling from Beersheba, a way down on a level with Beersheba, and from there right up beyond the border, and in verse 15, as far as Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the woman also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Sheder-le-Omer, and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheba, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand, and he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abram rich. And in chapter 15, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Now the book of Exodus, please, to another very interesting man, in chapter 28. Exodus chapter 28. And at verse 1, the Lord is speaking to Moses, And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. Now I want to point out that little expression that has often been pointed out before, and it occurs four times in this chapter. Down at verse 12, the stones that are put upon the shoulders of the priest, the ephod, the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel. And here is the expression, Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. So Aaron carries like a burden the names of the people upon his shoulders. Now we go a way down, and further down the chapter, the breastplate is being described, and then at verse 29. And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually. So he carries like a burden the names of the same people upon his heart. And verse 30, thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the urine and the thymine, and they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord, and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually. So he carries another burden. Verse 36, and thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre, upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity, another burden, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. Now, the Lord will bless the reading of those typical scriptures. Now, as most of you know, this very interesting book of Genesis is full of types. Not only types of the Lord, but types of the church, types of his people. And I'm sure that they become very interesting when once we have the knowledge that we now have from the New Testament, and we can see, as others have said, that the New Testament has indeed been concealed in the old. There are so many interesting pictures and lovely types of New Testament things in these old books. Now, again, we have New Testament authority for seeing this, and for seeing these two men that we have read of this evening as being typical men, that is the man Aaron and the man Melchizedek, well, of course, we have only to go to the epistles of the Hebrews, and I don't think there is any doubt that there, these two men are seen as typical men. They are both of them priests only, one as a king, as well as a priest. And when we put the two of them together, we do get, I think, that double-sided view, that full view of the priestly order, and the priestly ministry, and the greatness of the person of the Lord Jesus as a priest. Now, we are going to look at these two men this evening, but I want to suggest some little things about the book of Genesis before we actually come to look at these two individuals. We have got to remember that principally, when we are looking at Aaron, it is his ministry that we are looking at, and the ministry there has been fulfilled, and it has been superseded, and the old Levitical order now, well, all that has been accomplished, fulfilled in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. When we come to Melchizedek, although we are going to look a little bit at Melchizedek's ministry, I think I am right in saying that in the New Testament, it is not so much Melchizedek's ministry that is treated as being typical, but rather it is Melchizedek's person, and the order, the superiority of his priesthood. So that you might say that in one it is the ministry, in the other it is the order. In the one it is the man, in the other it is his ministry, and we need both Aaron and Melchizedek to get a full view of the priest and his ministry as we see it in the Lord Jesus. So we are going to look at these two men, but first of all, a little look at the book of Genesis, that other things concerning types might be suggested. Now, the book of Genesis is really built around eight men, and I think that after Adam, we have our authority for the others in the epistle to the Hebrews and in chapter 11. Adam is not mentioned there. He is not listed with the men of faith, but nevertheless, he is treated in other scriptures in 1 Corinthians 15 and in Romans chapter 5. There is no doubt that we are to see something typical in Adam as well. But after Adam, we find the other men of the book of Genesis, the other seven, are all mentioned, and they are mentioned in order in Hebrews chapter 11. And with that as authority, I think we can say that the whole of this book has got to do with eight men. Now, Adam is the first man, as we have said. And immediately after Adam, of course, we have Abel. And then after Abel, we leave Cain, of course, because the line follows through Abel now. And we come to Enoch and then Noah. And then the other three names that go so much together, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And then the last one is Joseph. And so many chapters are given over to the story of Joseph. And I think he would be very naïve and short-sighted who would not agree that Joseph was a very beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. The details are almost exhaustless in connection with Joseph. And we see in him a lovely type of the Lord Jesus. Now, these men, they may not all be types of the Savior, but they are all typical men and very, very important stories. This book of Genesis, although built around eight men, is actually divided into two parts. And from chapters 1 to 11, that is the first part. And that has got to do with nations, in the plural, that have sprung from Adam. But when you come to chapter 12, there is a very distinct difference now. And God is not concerned now with nations in the plural. He is being concerned now with a nation in the singular. And that nation begins with the man and his family in chapter 12 with the calling out of Abraham. The book of Genesis takes a very, very markedly different turn. And so the rest of the book from chapter 12 right through to chapter 50 has got to do with a nation which comes from Abraham. So the first part of it springs from Adam, and the second part of it springs from Abraham. But then all these other persons, we have got to fit them into, of course, into the story of the book of Genesis. Now, I think you might say that every one of these men represents something, and that there is something very predominant in the stories of each of these men. I think if I were to ask you for an immediate reaction and ask you what you think about when I mention the name of Adam, I do not think there would be any doubt that you would immediately say sin. And I am sure that when we come to the New Testament, although Adam is seen as a federal head, and in that sense perhaps might be contrasted with the Lord Jesus, compared if you like in some ways, nevertheless, it is Adam's sin that seems to be predominant. And here is the very seedbed of all the vice and iniquity that ever afterwards plagues this old world of ours. So Adam, certainly, it is sin and its entry that we get there. But when you come to Abel, if I were to ask you immediately for your reaction with regard to Abel, well, I think you would say salvation, redemption, if you like. And immediately you think of Abel's lamb, and you think of the blood-shedding. Immediately, of course, we think of salvation when we think of Abel. Then, of course, when we come to the other two men that follow, Enoch and Noah, these have often been presented. Enoch as the man who is raptured away, and I think again the coincidence is rather a bit too much just to be coincidental, that before the judgment does come, Enoch is translated, God takes him away, but leaves Noah to go through the judgment and to come out at the other side to a new earth. He comes out to bring his offering, his burnt offering. He comes out to repopulate a new earth, as it were. It seems a very beautiful picture again of what God is doing in this present time. Now, when the book changes the pattern then, and you come to the story of Abraham, Abraham was an idolater, as you know, but God called him out. And what a lovely story then begins with Abraham, and for about 15 chapters then we follow the story of Abraham, but it might be now that we've got to see at this point that all of these men, these eight men, they're all presented in pairs. Now, the first pair, of course, Adam and Abel, you can see sin and salvation there. That's very, very easy to see without any stretching of the imagination. There is sin coming in, and there is the remedy in Abel, so sin and salvation are in the first pair. When you come to the second pair, Enoch and Noah, you've got the raptured people and the delivered remnant eventually, again a pair that go together. And now, when you come to the next pair, they again sort of link themselves naturally together, Abraham and Isaac, and we've got the story of a father and a son. And this is lovely, that we have Abraham and Isaac together, and that lovely story, of course, of chapter 22, where the father and the son together go to the altar. The father and his only Isaac, his beloved son. I would think that Isaac particularly is a very beautiful type and a New Testament picture of the Lord Jesus, and I would think that our brethren, perhaps, if you don't mind me saying it, would need to reconsider that idea of preaching Isaac as a sinner and the Lamb, or the Ram, as his substitute. I would think that you would be hard-pressed now to fit that into any part of the New Testament, and maybe indeed you're confusing the issue by preaching Isaac as a picture of the sinner. Personally, I wouldn't do it. You feel free to do it if you will, but I think that that would need to be considered. When we come to the New Testament, Isaac is without doubt a picture of the Son. And Abraham and Isaac together go to the altar, and Isaac, like as if he had been raised from the dead, he comes back from the altar again. And of course, in the meantime, you know that we have the death of Sarah, the setting aside of the mother, the setting aside of Israel, as it were, and then the bringing in of a bride for Isaac, the risen Son. And all this is so very beautiful, it must be too much really to say that it is coincidental. And so we see Abraham and Isaac together. Now another interesting thing before we leave Abraham and Isaac, and it is this. Fifteen chapters are devoted to the story of Abraham, and you'll find that those chapters are punctuated by the raising up of altars. And I think you'll find that Abraham is the man who builds the altars, and there are four of them, and I think in each case he gives them names, which again is very interesting for altars that Abraham builds, and he gives them names. When you come to the story of Isaac, you find that though Isaac may have built altars, I don't know, but that's not predominant in the story of Isaac. When you come to the story of Isaac, he's the man who digs wells, and again you'll find that if Abraham had four altars, that Isaac's story is punctuated by the digging of four wells. So you'll see then that there is life, and water, and refreshment there connected with Isaac, the picture of the sun. So there are four wells with Isaac, and four altars with Abraham, and like as the altars are named, so the wells are named in connection with Isaac. But now you come to another pair, and you come now to Jacob and also to Joseph, and I think that Jacob and Joseph would again be linked together. It might be that Jacob is the man who's linked with witness, and Joseph is the man who's linked rather with worship, and with exaltation, and with glory. And when we come to Jacob, we find that he's not building altars, not predominantly, and he's not digging wells either, but you'll find that Jacob is the man who raises pillars, and four times he raises a pillar. I don't know that these are named, but he raises four pillars four times. He raises a pillar as a kind of a memorial, whereas Isaac digs wells four times, and Abraham builds altars likewise four times. Now when you come to Joseph, you find him, he's not connected with either altars, or wells, and neither is he connected with pillars, but I think you'll find that the number four is continuing still, whatever be the meaning of that, and the number four is continued because there are four mentions, I think, of the bones of Joseph. Joseph, you know, didn't want his bones left in Egypt, and he gave commandment concerning them, and the bones of Joseph are mentioned four times. These again are a kind of a memorial of Egypt, and you remember how the people carried them about with them. The bones of Joseph were carried like a memorial until eventually they rested. So these eight men then are certainly typical, if not of the Lord Jesus always, they are typical of great principles, or of great things that are afterwards developed in the New Testament, and if you keep these eight men in mind, and see them in pairs, well they fairly well gather together the whole content of the book of Genesis, and as the young believer gets to reading, then read about Adam and Abel, and keep them together like sin and salvation. When you read about Enoch and Noah, keep them together too, and Abram and Isaac, the father and the son, and keep Jacob and Joseph together as well, like witness and worship, and you'll find the book of Genesis becoming a most interesting book indeed to read. So that is the book of Genesis as perhaps one of the greatest typical books, the great heartland of types perhaps, in the Old Testament it seems to all go back here to the book of Genesis. Now we are picking out tonight this one incident here, and it is the well-known story of Abram as he was then, his name has not changed yet, he's still Abram, and he goes out of course, and is met by two kings it would seem on the very same afternoon. Now it's a very human story, and it's very very easy to interpret, and it is indeed interpreted for us when we go over to the epistles of the Hebrews and chapter 7. And the story is of course of a man who has journeyed quite a lot, he has traveled perhaps 150 miles from Beersheba right up to the Syrian border, and over into Damascus, and now he has come right away down again, and how far exactly I suppose we're not exactly sure, but he comes right away down again a good distance. So we might say that he's traveled a couple of hundred miles at least, and you can imagine that he's fairly weary. He has not only traveled, but he has actually engaged in combat with these enemies, and you might say that he's battle-worn, and he's weary, and when a man is battle-worn and weary, that man is very vulnerable and very open to temptation. Here is a man who is returning in weakness, and this is the very moment when the king of Sodom, Beera, king of Sodom, will go out to meet him, Abraham. Abraham, the vulnerable, weak, battle-worn, and weary man, and that is the very time now that the king of Sodom will confront him, and he's got a certain proposition to put to Abraham, and it seems as if he's going to trap Abraham. He's going to bring him into a trap very, very simply, because you see, when a man is tired, and when he's battle-worn and weary like Abraham is, he's off his guard perhaps now. He's had enough of journeying, and struggling, and fighting, and this is the time now for him to yield very simply to the proposition that the king of Sodom is going to put to him. But before the king of Sodom gets out to meet Abraham, there's another king who meets him first, and this other king is a strange person. We don't know much about him. Indeed, really, we don't know anything more about him than what we have read here, but Melchizedek was a king, and he reigned in Salem, which I take to be old Jerusalem, and before the king of Sodom goes out and meets Abraham, King Melchizedek, the king of Salem, he gets there first. He confronts Abraham mercifully before the king of Sodom reaches him. Now, he brings out bread and wine, and he refreshes him, and I think again, brethren have often pointed out this very interesting thing, that this is the first mention of bread and wine together. The first mention of bread in our Bible, and it's linked with a curse. You remember in the early chapters of Genesis, and the man has sinned, and the judgment is, by the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread. That's the first mention of bread, and it's linked with a curse. The first mention of wine, likewise, is linked with shame and with sin. The first mention of wine is in connection with Noah, and you remember that sad story of Noah getting drunken, and it's a very sad, and rather shameful story, and that's the first mention of wine. But, when you come to Genesis 14, this is the first mention of bread and wine together, and it seems that after that, maybe almost until you come to the book of the Revelation, that bread and wine together are always linked with blessing now. Sometimes they are concealed, you've got to search for them, like as perhaps when you read about plowshares and pruning hooks, and that of course is bread and wine. When that day comes, you know, men will beat their swords into plowshares, that's for bread, and their spears into pruning hooks, that's to produce wine. And you get bread and wine mentioned in a veiled kind of way like that, and then you get mentioned very distinctly, corn and wine, you get, as has been pointed out, when God called Gideon, he was thrashing wheat by the wine press. There's bread and wine again, in a rather concealed sort of way. But it seems that always, the bread and wine is linked with blessing now, until, eventually, you come to Armageddon, in the book of Revelation, chapter 14, and there we read of a harvest and a vintage, bread and wine, harvest and vintage. And there, of course, it's linked with judgment, as if to say that God has now finished, he has waited in patience while he presented the bread and wine of blessing to the people, to the nations, all down the centuries. But now, God is waiting no more, God is finished, his patience has run out, and now God at Armageddon is the God of the harvest and the vintage, and he comes in judgment. But anyway, this is not judgment in Genesis 14, this is bread and wine, the bread and wine of blessing. Sometimes we speak about bread to strengthen and wine to cheer. Just one little thing, and I hope I'm not quibbling, but in the New Testament, in connection with the Lord's you never read of bread and wine. You read of bread and the cup, you give thanks for the loaf, and you give thanks for the cup, and it's an interesting question as to why we never give thanks for the wine. That is not, in scriptural language, we don't give thanks for the wine, we give thanks for the cup. An interesting point, but it's not in our subject this evening. Anyway, Melchizedek brings out this bread and wine, and he refreshes, and he strengthens Abram, but he does another thing. He gives Abram certain words, you might almost say that he puts words into Abram's mouth. And he says to Abram, Abram, he said, blessed be Abram of the most high God, the God most high, the highest, the God most high, is now bestowing blessing through Melchizedek upon Abram. And then this encouraging word that the God who blesses Abram is the possessor of heaven and earth. Now what more can a man want than that? The very blessing of the God most high, who possesses heaven and earth. He has blessed Abram, and in the dignity of all that, Abram goes on, having of course given tithes, first of all, to Melchizedek. Now, he's not long left Melchizedek, it would seem, but the king of Sodom now, Bera his name is, from the early verses, he goes out and he meets him. And the king of Sodom says, Abram, I've got a proposition. Oh, you think now, if the king of Sodom had just got in before Melchizedek, who knows what Abram might have done? Well, it's only conjecture, but he would have been more vulnerable then. But you see, Abram's refreshed now, and Abram's been in touch with Melchizedek, and Abram has got a very definite and a very distinctive blessing from the God who possesses everything, and he has been linked with that God by the blessing of Melchizedek. And Abram, I think I see him raising himself up in some dignity, and he looks at Bera, king of Sodom, and he says, look, he said, I want you to know, he said, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, not a shoelace, he says, will I take from you. He said, you'll never say that you have made Abram rich, and Abram is able in dignity, but very definitely to withstand the proposition of the king of Sodom. Well, what a lovely picture then is this. Here we are in an old world, and we constantly do battle, and I repeat again, you know, that we battle constantly with the world, and the flesh, and the devil, and if there are some believers who think they have reached a high plane, and they don't do battle like that anymore, I don't understand it, because it would seem that right until the very end we shall battle with the world, and the flesh, and the devil. And then what makes it more complicated, the devil, of course, he doesn't always come in the same form. And to make it even more complicated, the world doesn't always present itself in the same form. And then to make it even more complicated still, I don't even understand my own heart. It's deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked still, and even it can deceive me. So you see, if it was just a straight out enemy, and if I was doing battle with an enemy that I knew, well that would be difficult enough, but at least you'd know where you are. But when you don't know how the devil's coming, and you don't know your own heart, and you don't know what form the world's going to take with its proposition, well then of course that makes it very complicated, and very difficult, and is it any wonder that believers sometimes are discouraged, and weary, and frustrated, and that is the very time when the devil will come. Now the king of Sodom, I think of course he represents one particular aspect of the world. There are three types of the world in the Old Testament, three aspects of the world in which we live. One of course is Sodom, of which we have just read, and that's a very terrible, evil, wicked aspect of the world. But then of course there is Egypt, and we mustn't forget that. Egypt is a nicer thing than Sodom, and you know, and there are some who would not be attracted by the gross wickedness and evil of Sodom, they may not be vulnerable maybe to temptations like that, they may even be critical of those that are, but at the same time it might well be that they are very deeply involved with the world as Egypt. You see, that's its pleasure, and its treasure, and the nice things, the more sophisticated aspect of the world is in Egypt. And you might well think, you know, that when Moses turned his back upon Egypt, he wasn't turning his back upon gross evil and iniquity and sin, he was turning his back upon the luxury of the court. He was turning his back upon a very sophisticated thing, but he nevertheless had to abandon it, just as we have to resist Sodom. And then of course there's the other thing, and that is Babylon, and that's another type of the world. And I trust that none of us are very enticed or attracted to Babylon. I'm sure that we have seen so much of Babylon all about us that we are glad to get to the simplicity of the assembly, and we are not attracted much to Babylon. So, we can turn our backs perhaps on Babylon, we can turn our backs upon Egypt, we can turn our backs upon Sodom, I hope, but don't forget that while you struggle, you become a little battle-worn sometimes, and when perhaps you get like that, that's the very time that the king of Sodom, representative of the world here, is going out to meet the believer. Now, Ibram, you say, that was a very bold and a very courageous refusal that you give the king of Sodom. And then you look at those words again, and you say, Ibram, tell me, where did you get that nice little speech that you made, those lovely words that you gave to the king of Sodom, where did you learn, where did you get those? And Ibram would say, well, you know, it was Melchizedek, he actually put those words right into my mouth. I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. And you say, Ibram, would I be right in saying that if you had never met Melchizedek, you never would have had those words? And Ibram would say, I suppose that's right. If I had never met Melchizedek, I would never have had those words to speak to the king of Sodom. So then I say, Ibram, I can conclude then that it was only in the measure that you were emboldened and strengthened by Melchizedek that you were able to withstand the propositions of the king of Sodom. And Ibram would say, that is exactly right. The measure in which I communed with Melchizedek, that was the very measure in which I withstood Bera, king of Sodom. Now, isn't the lesson there, isn't the type very plain and the lesson very simple? That it's only in the measure that we are in communion with the heavenly Melchizedek that we can withstand the pressures and the advances of the king of Sodom. There is no point, in your own strength and trying to resist and assure that you neglect communion with the heavenly Melchizedek and try meeting this old world in your own strength. Then you begin to drift and eventually you begin to yield to the propositions. And it's a very insidious and a very subtle thing. People are not just immediately dragged down overnight. Oh, I know what might happen. That a man might be tripped up. I know that. And that suddenly perhaps he might fall into sin. That might well be. But that's not the usual pattern. Not the usual pattern. The usual pattern is that there's a little bit of neglect of something and then that leads to neglect of something else and of something else. And subtly and slowly but surely that man is thrown away until he finds that he's far away. He has become now very vulnerable. And there are some people who are very, very unhappy today just because they began to drift and began to get cold. And then the devil watched his moment and just withered his time and in their weakness got them and caught them. And so many today, well, when you look back, how many shipwrecks there are? You've only got to look back over a number of years and you see them strewn all along the way. Those that used to run well with us and enjoyed the things of God with us. We mustn't be too hard upon them, brethren, too critical. I know that a man might make profession for a while and perhaps never be saved at all and go back again to the old haunts. I know that. But there is the other side. I met a fellow some time ago and he used to run well with us and he doesn't now. At least he's gone home now, but for a long time after that, he didn't run well. And one day I very literally bumped into him, literally, actually, I bumped into him at the corner. I came one street, he came the other, and I just met him like that right at the corner. And we stopped and we chatted for a wee while. And and I said to him, I said, David, tell me, I said, what really are your thoughts? I said, tell me, between, we were good friends, I said, tell me, between you and me, I said, how is it really? What, what really are your thoughts? He started to weep at the corner, started to weep. Oh, he said, I would love to be back. I would love to be back. In the mercy of God, eventually, he did get back. And then the Lord took him home. But how many there are just like him in the world today? And what, what happened was this, that perhaps the prayer meetings, the first thing to neglect, leave it, you see, you not be missed too much, miss the prayer meeting. And then, I don't know, maybe, maybe miss an odd gospel meeting. You look back and you see the pattern, miss the gospel meeting, miss it now and again, just, you know, become a little bit irregular. Then, well, you can leave the Bible reading, miss it too. And eventually then, well, you're coming and the brethren know now that you're only coming on the Lord's Day morning. And that seems to be a kind of a formality, just that's the last meeting that people give up for some reason, the Lord's Supper. They keep coming. It seems to maintain a link somehow with the assembly. And then eventually it begins to get missed too. But where did it all start? It all started a way back in the secret place in a neglecting of communion with the heavenly Melchizedek. Only in the measure, I repeat, that we commune with Melchizedek can we withstand Bera, king of Sodom. You say, Ibram, you got those words from Melchizedek. Isn't it well you met him? And Ibram would agree, it was well that I met Melchizedek and got those words from him. And so, a lovely picture of the present ministry of the Lord Jesus. I repeat that probably in the epistles of the Hebrews, it is the superiority of the person and the order of Melchizedek's priesthood that is the real type. But nevertheless, here is a lovely ministry of a priest who intercepts and intercedes and blesses Ibram and gives him strength to withstand the king of Sodom. Now, you leave Melchizedek and you come to another priest. He's not a king, but he's a priest nevertheless. And here is the priest now who is linked with the tabernacle that we were talking about yesterday. And among the very many things that Aaron did and the many things that Aaron was and the things that Aaron wore, these four things stand out very beautifully, the four burdens that Aaron wore. Now, can I suggest that before this, if you have read of offerings and read of sacrifices as you have done in the book of Genesis, they're not sin offerings. I put it to you very categorically that there are no sin offerings before the Levitical priesthood. It is the priest that makes atonement. And the offerings in the book of Genesis and the offerings likewise in the book of Job, which is contemporary with Genesis, these are burnt offerings. And when Noah comes out, it's a burnt offering he offers. And if Abel's offering is seen, it's an approach offering, an offering by which he draws near and is accepted in his offering. But there is no such thing as a specific sin offering before the Levitical priesthood. I think that that is fairly clear and fairly definite. You never read of sin offering until you come to the Levitical priesthood. But now we come to this man Aaron, and apart from his offerings for sin and his ministry as a sacrificing priest, there were other things that priests did too. The priests had a ministry of comfort, and the priests had a ministry of intercession. There were other things they did as well as offering sacrifice. And when we come here, we see the burdens that Aaron carried, and at least four burdens he carried for this people that he represented. Now, I suppose that these relay would require a whole meeting, but I just want to suggest, it might be new to some, and some of my brethren have seen it so often before, but I make the suggestion just again that here is the fourfold burden of Aaron, a type of the Lord Jesus, in his burden-bearing ministry for his people today. And here are the four burdens now that Aaron carries. On his shoulders he has two onyx stones, and engraven on these stones he has the names of the children of Israel. Now, here is of course the burden of their security, no doubt about that. Here are the strong shoulders of the priests, and on these shoulders carried on them the names of all the tribes. They're all there, and when Aaron goes into the holy place, he never wore these garments in the holiest of all, by the way, but the veils rent now, you see, so it doesn't matter. He wore them in the holy place, and when he went in before the Lord in the holy place, he actually carried the people of God on his shoulders. Here is that strong security that we have in the ministry of one who represents us up there. The burden of my security depends upon him not upon me. Oh, I trust that we can rest there, and I trust that if there is a... I was going to say young believer, but older believers too get into doubt sometimes. And if there is anyone in our meeting this evening, and you're in doubt, remember that's the very same old devil again coming in another way. And I trust that you'll be able to look up to the glory tonight and remember that your security, just like your salvation, is dependent upon him. And like as you came one night and rested on him for salvation, keep resting on him for security and leave it all there, and remember that really none of it depends upon you. It all depends upon him. I find it rather sad that over the country and over the province, so many of the Lord's people are constantly in doubt. I think we should be sympathetic. I'm sure that maybe sometimes there may be someone who makes a false profession, and I think I find it almost an invariable principle that that person knows it from the very beginning. There are not many people, in my experience, that are deceived. And as far as anyone coming to the and enjoying the meetings and enjoying the Lord, and going on like that for maybe 10, 15, 20 years, enjoying the things of God, and then suddenly deciding that maybe I'm not saved, you know, I find it very hard to believe. I think I see again the temptings of the old devil, and I think when I think of it, I always remember this, that our late dear brother, Mr. Hawthorne Bailey, was plagued with doubts until the end of his days. Now, there's a tremendous thing, and when we think of Mr. Bailey, we think of holiness. That's the word we link with him, and if you ask those who know him, that is what invariably they say. A holy man, if ever there was one, Mr. Bailey. But how the old devil knows exactly how to get at every one of us, and we must be sympathetic toward those that are troubled with doubts. And of course, that always is, you know, when you're occupied with yourself, when you get into those moments where you wonder, did I believe in the right way? Did I come in the right way? Did I accept in the right way? Did I, I, I? And when you get occupied with yourself, then of course, you're liable to doubt. But you know, there is a sense, and do not misunderstand me, but there is a sense in which even those doubts could become an assurance. Now, that seems a rather contradictory thing to say, but I'll tell you what I mean. I told this story to a young girl recently. I say a young girl, a young, young married woman, young still, but a very young married woman, and she waited one night after a meeting, not so many weeks ago, and she waited, and she wept, wept, sobbed like a child after the meeting because she felt that she wasn't saved. You know, there wasn't another one in the assembly doubted her salvation, only herself. We remembered when she was saved years ago, and we see her progress, and see her character, and there wasn't one in the meeting doubted her salvation, but she had gotten into that state of mind. And I told her this story. My father-in-law used to tell me, when he was a working man, he's gone home to heaven now, when he was a working man, all his working days, he worked in the shipyard. And in those early days, you know, there was something like about 30,000 men employed in the Belfast shipyard, and most of those men walked home. They walked home in droves. They came through those little streets in East Belfast, in Bellarmine Carrot, and they walked in hundreds, in droves, they walked through those little streets in those days. Now, said my father-in-law, he said, you know, he said, we were paid every Friday night. We got our envelope, our pay every Friday night. And he said, what I did with it was this, he said, it went into this pocket here in my boiler suit, and then, he said, I buttoned it up, and there it was every Friday night, it was there. We started to walk home. You know, he said, several, oh, very, very often on the way home, he said, every now and again, I would do this here, you see. Walk on, you see, lots of men on this side, men on that side, and you're walking along. Every now and again, he said, I would do that there, just to check, you know, that it was still there. But he said, the remarkable thing was that I never did that on a Monday night. He said, I walked home on a Tuesday night, but I never did that on a Tuesday night. I never did that on a Thursday. It was only on the Friday night, he said, when I knew I had it, that somehow I checked if it was there. And this girl, I told her the story. She began to laugh. She laughed out loud. Laughed through her tears. Said she, I'm stupid. Well, I said, that's one way to put it, but she said, I'll never doubt him again. I'll never doubt him again. There you are. Well, remember that sometimes your very doubts might, in fact, be an encouragement that you have the thing all right. Because, you see, unsafe people don't have any doubts. They don't have any doubts. I think the unsafe person will know that he hasn't got it. It's not doubts, another word I think you must use for him. So, the burden of my security is with him. He carries my name on his shoulders. What a lovely truth tonight, that there's a man in the glory who carries me, and I leave it with him. He saved me, he'll keep me, and we go on communing with him. But he carries another burden, and all those names that were on the shoulders, whether they're in the same order or not, I'm never very sure, but the same names I know were on his heart. Here they were, all these rows of precious stones, and the names were engraven upon them. And the man who carries me on his shoulders and bears the burden of my security, he carries me on his heart and bears the burden of sympathy for me as well. What a tremendous truth is this. In every meeting there are broken hearts. I keep saying this because I think it's something that us men don't realize for a long time. In every meeting, every gathered company, there are hearts that are breaking. That is a fact. That is an indisputable fact, that in every gathering of the Lord's people, there are broken hearts. Now that's very sad. And perhaps in ministry we neglect the broken hearts. And sometimes I sit in a meeting and I see across the meeting one whom I know is sitting with a heart breaking and bleeding. And I listen to the ministry and I look across and I wonder, what does that mean to her? If a man asks bread, do we give him stones? Let us not neglect the broken, breaking hearts of the Lord's people. They are everywhere, in every company. And sometimes, I tell you, they hide behind a hearty handshake. They hide behind a smile. But the hearts are heavy, broken, nevertheless. That's very sad. I heard a young man say to his two little girls, not so long ago, last year, he said, be kind to your mother. It's the last Christmas we'd have her. Nobody in the meeting knew. But there it was, a terminal illness. And here he was struggling to try to tell his two little girls. No one in the meeting knew. Now she's gone. The broken hearts are left. And they're in every meeting, brethren, in every meeting. Wherever the broken heart is tonight in our meeting, let me tell you that if sometimes we don't seem to be very feeling, there's a man in the glory and he carries your name on his heart. Place of sympathy, of affection, of love. He feels for you. And the one thing he says through every assembly of the seven in the book of Revelation, he says, I know, I know. I know. That's the only thing in common in the seven letters. They've all got their different problems, their different circumstances, different environments. They're all different. And the one thing in common is, he says, I know, I know. So if your heart is heavy tonight, hear him say, I know. And remember, he carries your name on his heart. He has you there on his heart. He carries another burden. Time is gone. I must leave you with this thought, just that as well as the burden of our security and the burden of our sympathy and our sorrow, he carries the burden of the guidance of the Lord's people in the thumb. Now, we don't know what these were. Brethren, I think they were stones. We don't even know that. All we know is that whatever they were, they were used somehow for the guidance of the Lord's people. We don't know how they were used. Were they stones that sparkled an affirmative or lay just flat and dead when the answer was a negative? It might have been. Or did the priest put his hand, because the breastplate doubled up, you see, to become a pouch? Or did he put his hand in and bring one out and was one an affirmative and the other a negative? We don't know. We don't know. We just don't really know much about the Urim and the Thummim. Anything is conjecture. But what we do know is this, that when the people wanted guidance, they consulted the Urim and the Thummim. They were concerned somehow with the guidance of the Lord's people. And I just state this principle and leave it, that you can't live any old way six days and then on the seventh day come and ask God for guidance about something. You can't do that. It's not logic. It's not fair. It's not spiritual. It's not right. And it won't work. But if you keep in touch with the priest, keep in touch with our Lord Jesus, keep in touch in his ministry, and keep near to him, and by various ways that means really that you're consulting the Urim and the Thummim, you see, and he'll guide you. He'll guide you. He'll arrange the circumstances. He'll give you an inward conviction. He'll give you desires for his glory. And somehow, in a mysterious way that others don't know anything about, he'll give you the assurance that you're doing the right thing. And it's inexplicable. But somehow you have it. There might be a mystery about it, but there it is. It's the guidance of the Lord's people. But it's only in the measure that you're in touch with the priest and enjoying his ministry that you know his guidance. I repeat, it's not fair. It's not right. And it doesn't work to live any old way and then out of the blue come and ask him for guidance about something. Can't do that. You've got to go along in touch with the priest and then the guidance will come. So he bears the burden of guidance of his people. The last burden that he bears is this. He has a golden plate upon the miter. It's tied with blue lace up here on his farm. And on this golden plate it says, Holiness to the Lord. And as long as he carries that burden, that is the burden of the acceptance of the people. Not their guidance now, but their very acceptance before God. He bears the burden of that. And it seems to me that that priest there with the holiness to the Lord upon his miter, upon the plate, well, this is exactly what we have in John's epistle chapter 1. It is Jesus Christ the righteous and it is Paul's letter to the Ephesians. We are accepted in the beloved. And as long as he is there, I'm accepted in him and the burden of my acceptance is his burden and I leave it entirely with him. So Melchizedek helps us practically and Aaron carries our burdens. Here are lovely typical scriptures and I trust that they're not only an immediate blessing, but an encouragement for us to go to the types again and again. That we might find the Lord Jesus. May the Lord bless us.