Will you please turn to Exodus chapter 19.
Exodus chapter 19.
We'll read from verse 1 through verse 6.
Exodus chapter 19 verse 1.
In the third month after the departure of
the children of Israel out of the land
of Egypt, the same day came they into
the wilderness of Sinai.
They departed from Rephidim and came into the
wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in the wilderness,
and Israel encamped there before the mountain.
And Moses went up to God, and Jehovah
called to him out of the mountain, saying,
Thou shalt say, Thus shalt thou say to
the house of Jacob, and tell the children
of Israel, Ye have seen what I have
done to the Egyptians, and how I have
borne you on eagles' wings, and brought you
to Myself.
And now, if you will hearken to My
voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then shall
it be My own possession out of all
the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.
And ye shall be to Me a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words which thou shalt speak
to the children of Israel.
The same book, Chapter 28, Exodus 28.
We'll read from verse 1 through verse 4.
28, verse 1.
And thou shalt take thee Aaron thy brother,
and his sons with him, from among the
children of Israel, that he may serve Me
as priest, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and
Ithamah, Aaron's sons.
And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron
thy brother, for glory and for ornament.
And thou shalt speak with all that are
wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the
spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's
garments to hallow him, that he may serve
Me as priest.
And these are the garments which they shall
make, a breastplate, and an epault, and a
cloak, and a checkered vest, a turban, and
a girdle.
And they shall make holy garments for Aaron
thy brother and his sons, that he may
serve Me as priest.
Same chapter, verse 40.
And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make vests,
and thou shalt make for them girdles, and
high caps shalt thou make for them, for
glory and for ornament.
And thou shalt clothe with them Aaron thy
brother and his sons with him, and shalt
anoint them, and consecrate them, and hallow them,
that they may serve Me as priest.
And thou shalt make them leaning trousers to
cover the flesh of nakedness.
From the loins even to the hips shall
they reach.
And they shall be upon Aaron and his
sons when they enter into the tent of
meeting, or when they come near through the
altar to serve in the sanctuary, that they
may not bear iniquity and die, an everlasting
statue for him and his seed after him.
And finally the book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel chapter 44.
We begin with verse 15.
Ezekiel 44, verse 15.
But the priests, the Levites, the sons of
Zedek, that keep the charge, kept the charge
of My sanctuary, when the children of Israel
went astray from Me, they shall approach unto
Me to minister unto Me, and they shall
stand before Me to present unto Me the
fat and the blood, said the Lord Jehovah.
They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they
shall approach unto My table to minister unto
Me, and they shall keep My charge.
And it shall come to pass, when they
enter in at the gates of the inner
court, they shall be clothed with linen garments,
and no wool shall come upon them when
they minister in the gates of the inner
court and towards the house.
They shall have linen tires upon their heads,
and shall have linen breeches upon their loins.
They shall not gird on anything that causes
sweat.
Verse 20.
Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer
their locks to grow long, they shall duly
pull their heads.
Neither shall any priest drink wine when they
enter into the inner court.
And they shall not take for their wives
a widow, nor her that is put away,
but they shall take maidens of the seed
of the house of Israel, or a widow
that is the widow of a priest.
And they shall teach My people the difference
between holy and profane, and cause them to
discern between unclean and clean.
And in controversy they shall stand to judge.
They shall judge it according to My judgments,
and they shall keep My law and My
statutes in all My solemnities, and they shall
hallow My Sabbath.
Let us look to the Lord in prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, we do worship Thee, that
we may come to Thee to hear Thy
word.
We ask Thee, O Lord, that we may
not only hear Thy word, but we may
hear Thy voice.
We ask that Thou will speak to us
by Thy Holy Spirit.
We pray that this morning we may meet
Thee through Thy word.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
We have been considering for some time using
different persons in the Old Testament to find
out what is the man that is after
God's own heart.
We know that God is after the man
of His own heart.
And no doubt, that man is our Lord
Jesus.
And all those who are patterned after the
Lord Jesus.
Indeed, God has to work lots of works
in our lives in order to bring us
to be that man who is after His
own heart.
The eight persons in the Old Testament are
persons we find in the book of Genesis.
Show to us that how God works patiently,
incessantly, until finally He has the one whom
He wants.
Now that is our being.
Because God always emphasizes our being more than
our doing.
Or to put it in another way, our
being is unless God gets us, He is
not able to use us.
First of all, we must be what He
wants us to be.
A man in Christ.
A man after God's own heart.
And then, without doubt, out of such a
man, God is able to do the work
that He intend to do.
So after we finish Genesis, we come to
Exodus.
And there we find Moses, the servant of
the Lord.
Moses speaks of servanthood.
We who are the Lord's, we are His
servants.
We are called to serve Him in His
house, as Moses was faithful in all God's
house.
But we are not only servants, we are
also soldiers.
And this is typified by Joshua, a soldier's
soldier.
We are to fight the good fight.
We are to bring the purpose of God
from heaven upon this earth.
Now this morning we would like to go
to the third aspect of a man after
God's own heart.
What is it that God wants him to
do?
And that is, we who are the Lord's
are a priesthood.
Aaron and his sons typify the priesthood that
we as believers have before God.
Now of course we know that after God
had redeemed the children of Israel out of
Egypt, He brought them to Mount Sinai.
And according to chapter 19 of Exodus, God
called Moses to the mountain.
And there He revealed His mind through Moses
to the children of Israel.
God said, I have brought you out of
Egypt with a mighty hand.
I have borne you upon Me as on
eagle's wing.
I have brought you to Myself.
Now if you will keep My covenant, if
you will keep My commandment, then you will
be a peculiar people for Me.
And I will make you a kingdom of
priests.
Now this is God's mind concerning those whom
He redeemed.
The mind of God concerning those whom He
redeemed was that they should be a kingdom
of priests.
In other words, every citizen of the nation
of Israel, young and old, man and woman,
of whatever tribe he or she may belong
to, everyone who is in the nation of
Israel is to be a priest unto God.
That is to say, to minister unto God.
This is God's original purpose.
But unfortunately while Moses was receiving the law
on the mountain, the children of Israel on
the plain, they broke God's law.
They worshipped a golden calf.
And because of this, they disqualified themselves to
be priests unto God.
Now not in any sense that God did
not want them to be priests, but only
in the sense that they themselves made themselves
disqualified from being priests unto God.
So God called out of the twelve tribes,
out of the nation of Israel, one family,
Aaron and his sons to be priests.
Now remember brothers and sisters, this is not
God's original purpose.
This is only God's emergency measure.
After the children of Israel sinned against God,
we remember Moses came down from the mountain.
He saw the sin.
He broke the two tables of law.
He ground the golden calf into powder, cast
them upon the water and asked the children
of Israel to drink of their own sin.
Then Moses stood at the gate of the
camp and he said, Who is on the
Lord's side?
Stand with me.
And of all the tribes of Israel, only
the tribe of Levi, they came out of
the camp, a camp that was defiled.
They came out of the camp, stood with
Moses and they girded themselves with swords, went
into the camp from one end to the
other and smoked anyone that they met.
And by that they purified themselves.
So God set apart the tribe of Levi
and the family of Aaron to be priests
unto God.
The rest of the children of Israel were
disqualified.
They could not minister unto God.
They had to come unto God through the
mediatorship of the Levites and of Aaron and
his sons.
Again I say, this is God's emergency measure,
not God's original design.
And I do believe that one day God's
original purpose for the nation of Israel will
yet be fulfilled.
Because if we read Isaiah chapter 66, you
will find there it is said that God
will make Israel priests unto him.
And if you read Zechariah chapter 14, you
will find that every part in Jerusalem and
in the land of Judea will be sacred.
In other words, the whole nation will be
a nation of priests.
Because God always fulfilled what he had designed.
Now brothers and sisters, under the law there
was emergency measure.
Because the law never makes people perfect.
But under grace there is no provision for
emergency.
In other words, under grace, by the grace
of God in Christ Jesus, he has made
us priests unto God.
And there is no provision for any lack.
You remember in Revelation chapter 1 verse 6.
Unto him who has loved us, and has
washed us with his blood, and has made
us a kingdom, priests unto God.
And again in Revelation chapter 5 verse 9
and verse 10 it is said, How God
has purchased us by the precious blood of
the Lamb, out of every tribe, every tongue,
every people, every nation, and has made us
kings and priests unto God.
And again in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse
5 it is said, As we come to
the Lord Jesus, we become living stones.
We are being built up a spirit house,
a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ.
In other words, under grace, under the new
covenant, through the finished work of Christ, everyone
who is redeemed of the Lord, every child
of God, every born again believer is made
a priest.
This is what the Lord has done.
Because this is God's original will.
And he makes no provision for any otherwise.
That is to say, through grace, we all
are made priests unto God.
There is no such thing as, because of
our weakness, God will raise up a house,
a special family, or a special tribe to
be priests, and the rest of the redeemed
are just laity or common people who do
not serve God.
There is no such thing in the New
Testament.
In under the Old Testament, God did make
such provision.
But remember brothers and sisters, under the new
covenant there is no such provision.
There is no such distinction as to laity
and sacred class.
Because God does not provide for such failure.
Furthermore, not only God has not provided for
some believers to be priests unto God, and
the rest of the believers not to be
priests unto God, but according to the New
Testament, we find that this kind of distinction
or difference is something aided by God.
You remember in Revelation chapter two, to the
church in Ephesus, God said, there is one
thing that you hate, which I also hate,
the works of the Nicolaitans.
And again, in the same chapter, verse sixteen,
you find to the church in Pergamos, God
said, there are among you who have followed
the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which God hates.
Now who are the Nicolaitans?
In church history, we could not find any
record of something called Nicolaitans.
There is no such record in church history.
Therefore, the only interpretation that we can do,
and you find this is not only true
in this case, but in other cases too,
and that is, the Spirit of God is
coining words together, put words together in order
to teach us something.
Nicol means conquer, laitans or laity means common
people.
Nicolaitans mean conquering the common people.
In other words, you find that gradually in
the church, there has arisen a class of
people, a special class of people, called sacred
class.
They conquer the common people.
They are the holy people.
They are the ones who minister unto God.
They monopolize all the spiritual work, and the
rest of the people are just laity or
commoners.
They cannot, they have no privilege, they have
no opportunity, they are not allowed to minister
unto God.
These are the Nicolaitans.
In the beginning, it was just the works
of the Nicolaitans.
In other words, there wasn't such a teaching
yet, but there are people who are doing
such a thing, but gradually this work has
developed into a doctrine, a teaching.
It is something being taught, saying that not
all God's people can serve God as priests.
Only those who are specially trained, holy, sacred,
they can minister unto God.
But the rest of you people, now you
have to be contented just to be ministered
to and not to minister unto God.
Now this is something that the Lord said,
I hate too.
It is something God hates.
Now brothers and sisters, isn't it very strange
that how many of God's people today are
so contented with what God is not satisfied?
We should never be contented if God is
not satisfied.
Only when God is satisfied then we are
satisfied.
But strange to say, you find among God's
people there are so many, or may I
put it in this way, the majority of
God's people, the majority of the redeemed of
the Lord, seem to be so contented not
to function as priests unto God and let
a special class, a few, a minority to
minister unto the Lord.
Why is it?
Is it because we do not want to
take responsibility?
Is it because responsibility does cost something?
We like to be babes.
We like to remain as babes because babes
can enjoy, be served and never take any
responsibility and there doesn't seem to be much
cost involved.
Babes cost other people a lot but it
doesn't seem to cost them anything.
Now isn't it the reason why you find
even in today Christianity is such that we
take for granted God's people are divided into
two groups.
The larger group are laity, the smarter group
the sacred class.
Remember brothers and sisters, there is no such
thing in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, yes, under the law
God allows such thing to happen.
But ultimately, eventually, God will still make Israel
a nation of priests.
But under the New Covenant, in the New
Testament, under grace, dear brothers and sisters, I
do want you to see this and impress
upon your heart, deeply inscribe upon your heart
that in the New Testament there is no
such distinction.
And God does not allow such a thing.
There is no emergency measure.
God has only one measure and that is
His permanent will.
So remember, every child of God, every believer,
young and old, the moment you are saved,
you don't need to wait until five years
later, the moment you are saved, remember God
has made you a priest unto Him.
You are a priest.
Now you may not like to call yourself
a priest because that title priest is so
misused, abused, but in actuality before God you
are a priest.
Every believer is a priest.
The universal priesthood of believers is the teaching
of the New Testament.
Now do you know that even at the
time of reformation, you know we know in
the 16th century when God raised up the
reformers?
Now even in the 16th century, Martin Luther,
he saw the universal priesthood of believers.
Now you probably can believe it because as
you look at Lutheran today, or as you
look at the Protestant churches today, you even
cannot believe it.
But if you go back to history, you
will find that even in the 16th century
when God raised up Martin Luther, he preached
not only an open Bible, justification by faith,
but he also preached the universal priesthood of
believers.
But unfortunately it was not received.
Now we are in the 16th century.
Four hundred years have passed and still you
find among God's people, we do not see
the universal priesthood of believers.
Or may I put it in another way,
we may hear it, we may understand it,
but we never act on it.
Do you know that you are a priest
unto God?
Do you not know that you have such
a high honor and privilege to minister unto
God?
Now why is it that we despise our
privilege?
Why is it that we do not fulfill
our responsibility?
I think it is time for God's people
to wake up, that every believer must rise
up and minister unto the Lord.
Unless this happens, you do not see the
reality of the Church of God.
Aaron and his sons, in one sense typifies
the priesthood, the holy priesthood today.
Christ is our high priest.
Aaron is a type of Christ.
Christ is our high priest.
Aaron's sons are the types of early Christians.
They are just believers.
We are the children of God and we
are the sons.
So in one sense Aaron and his sons
typify Christ, our high priest, and we as
priests.
Of course in another sense, Aaron and his
son are actually a contrast to Christ and
to his people.
Aaron and his sons, their priesthood are very
limited, but our priesthood in Christ is full.
But anyway, we would like to take Aaron
and his sons from the Old Testament as
a type of the holy priesthood of the
believers today.
Now we will not go into the high
priesthood of our Lord Jesus, which is a
subject by itself.
And I do believe that this is something
that we should look into, because in Hebrews
chapter 5 and chapter 7, in these two
chapters you find especially the high priesthood of
our Lord Jesus is being described.
And this is most important, because unless we
know Christ as our high priest, we cannot
live on earth as a Christian.
But this is not what we would like
to enter in this morning.
We would like to concentrate ourselves on Aaron's
sons.
In other words, the priesthood in Christ Jesus.
First of all, we must remember it is
a priesthood.
By a priesthood it simply means that it
is not just one priest, nor is it
many priests, but each doing his or her
work separately, independently and unrelatedly.
Now, we find Aaron and his sons.
That shows that the holy priesthood is a
priesthood.
That is to say, we who are priests,
many, and yet we are one priesthood under
the direction of the great high priest.
Now that is the way that we minister
unto the Lord.
You know sometimes when we think of priests,
or priests, as we find in the Bible,
God has made us priests unto God.
Immediately we think of our being priests individually,
unrelatedly, each doing something to the Lord, instead
of seeing that the priests serve together as
a priesthood under the direction of the great
high priest.
We are told that in the time of
Christ, you know the temple was restored, and
there were thousands, thousands of priests serving in
the temple.
They served in the temple in twenty-four
courses, and they served in turns.
And we are told that the course of
priests that served for that day, usually before
day dawn, the priests for that day were
gathered together in a large room, and there
they were cast lots to determine who was
to do what, because in a temple there
were many things to do.
So they were to be determined as to
their works for the day by casting lots.
And after the lots were cast, then each
priest knew what to do for that day,
and they all worked together, coordinately, under the
direction of the high priest.
And this was done before dawn, before the
temple gates were opened.
So when the gates were opened, you find
the priests were all ready, and they were
all in their posts, and they knew what
to do, in related with the other priests.
So God might be served.
Now this is the Old Testament picture, but
the New Testament reality is, we who are
the Lord, we are a priesthood.
And we serve God together.
We do not serve separately.
We serve God together in His house, and
we are His house, a spiritual house, a
holy priesthood.
On the one hand we are a spiritual
house, not this building, but we are God's
house, and we are a holy priesthood.
And we serve under our high priest, our
Lord Jesus.
Now today of course, we do not cast
lots anymore.
Why?
Because there is no need for it.
We have the Holy Spirit in us, and
the Holy Spirit in us will reveal to
us what is the mind of our high
priest, our head.
So in other words, we serve together under
Christ, by the direction of the Holy Spirit.
And if everyone will take order from the
Lord, through the Holy Spirit, then you will
find how we can minister unto the Lord
together.
And what a harmony, what a beauty it
will be.
This holy priesthood, represented by Aaron and his
son.
As we come to Exodus chapter 28, you
will notice three things.
How were Aaron and his son made priests
unto God?
First of all, in Exodus chapter 28, verse
1, And thou shalt take thee, Aaron thy
brother, and his sons with him from among
the children of Israel, and he may serve
thee as priest.
Thou shalt take thee, Aaron thy brother, and
his sons with him.
In other words, first of all, you will
find, God's original purpose is to take the
whole nation as a kingdom of priests.
But because of the failure of the children
of Israel, so God takes Aaron and his
sons from among the children of Israel.
The principle behind it is, that God has
made us.
We are made priests, not because of what
we are, but because of His mercy and
grace.
Not because we deserve it, but because He
favors us.
He calls us to be priests unto Him.
Aaron and his sons do not deserve to
be priests.
As a matter of fact, in the worship
of the golden calf, Aaron was a chief
sinner.
Why?
It was Aaron who made the golden calf.
But strangely, you will find that in spite
of the failure of Aaron and his sons,
just as the rest of the children of
Israel, God chose Aaron and his sons to
be priests unto Him.
Why?
Not because they had not sinned, but because
they repented.
But because they came out of the camp.
They stood on the Lord's side.
But because they were willing to slay their
own people, for God's sake, to purify themselves.
So brothers and sisters, let us remember first
of all, we are made priests because we
are redeemed.
Not because we are better than anybody else.
We are redeemed.
He has redeemed us, and because He has
redeemed us, He has called us to be
priests.
But many of the redeemed do not function
as priests.
Why?
Probably that rule still is good.
Many are called, but few are chosen.
So let us remember, all the redeemed are
called, but few are chosen.
Now why?
Why are the few chosen?
If we can transfer what we find in
the Old Testament to apply to us, probably
we will say, all the redeemed of the
Lord are called to be priests by the
grace of God.
This privilege is the portion of all believers.
We are all being called.
But why is it that few are chosen?
Now why are the few chosen?
The few who repent.
We have all failed.
But if we repent, just like you find
in Revelation 2 and 3, you find in
these churches, you find how the churches have
failed, and God is calling people to repent,
and those who repent will be chosen.
Come out of the camp.
The camp is defiled.
Stand on the Lord's side.
Now who is willing to stand on the
Lord's side?
Probably most people would like to stand with
the crowd.
But who are willing to stand on the
Lord's side and be unpopular?
Who are willing to cut all the fleshly
relationship off, drastically?
In other words, who are willing to accept
the cross, to work in their lives, that
the flesh may be cut off, and in
so doing they will find themselves chosen.
But anyway, you will find, first of all,
the redeemed are called to be priests.
Then secondly, you will find here in verse
2, garments for Aaron, thy brother, for glory
and for ornament.
Verse 4, And these are the garments which
they shall make, a breastplate and an ephod,
and a cloak and a checkered vest, a
turban and a girdle, and they shall make
holy garments for Aaron, thy brother, and his
sons, that he may serve me as priest.
You find not only the redeemed are called,
but you find that Aaron and his sons,
before they could serve God as priests, must
be called to be priests.
Clothed with holy garments for beauty and for
glory.
Now these are priestly garments.
In other words, if they do not wear
these garments, as you find in the 43rd
verse of the same chapter, and they shall
be upon Aaron and his sons when they
enter into the tent of meeting, or when
they come near to the altar to serve
in the sanctuary, that they may not bear
iniquity and die.
An everlasting statue for him, and a seed
after him.
In other words, if Aaron and his sons,
they are not clothed with the priestly garments,
and enter into the sanctuary to serve, they
will bear iniquity and die.
Now what does it mean?
It means that not only we must be
redeemed in order to be priests, but we
must also be sanctified.
Sanctified by the holy garments.
They have to take off their old garments
and put on the priestly garment, being covered
with the priestly garment in order to serve
as priests.
Now if you return to Colossians chapter 3.
Colossians chapter 3 verse 9.
Do not lie to one another, having put
off the old man with his deeds, and
having put on the new, renewed into full
knowledge according to the image of him that
has created him.
Here we find we are exhorted to put
off the old man with his deeds, and
to put on the new, and the new
man is renewed into full knowledge according to
his image.
Now again Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4 verse 22.
You are having put off according to the
former conversation, the old man which corrupts itself
according to the deceitful lust, and being renewed
in the spirit of your mind, and you
are having put on the new man, which
according to God is created in truthful righteousness
and holiness.
Now I do believe that this can be
applied as the priestly garments that we must
put on today, if we are to serve
as priests, and not to bear our iniquity
and die.
In other words, if we enter into the
sanctuary, if we try to minister unto God
with the old garments, that is with the
old man and his deeds, with our fresh,
freshly wisdom, energy, opinions, methods, ways,
formulas, if we are to serve the Lord
with the old man and his deeds, which
is corrupted, we will bear our sin and
die spiritually.
We must put off the old man, the
old garments, and we must put on the
new man, which is created, recreated according to
the image of Christ in holiness and righteousness,
and only when we put on Christ in
holiness and righteousness, and serve Him in the
wisdom and the power of the new man,
then we will not die, but our ministry
unto Him will be accepted.
This garment is for glory and for beauty.
Now, what is meant by glory and beauty?
To be glorified, to be beautified, spiritually means
we are being transformed and conformed to the
image of Christ.
Now, this is glory, it is from glory
to glory, and this is beauty.
Do you not know that our flesh is
shameful?
Do you not know?
Any time that our flesh is exposed, it
is naked before God, it is shameful.
Whether it is your bad flesh, or your
good flesh, but remember, when our flesh is
exposed, it is shameful, it is naked before
God.
But when Christ is expressed, it is beautiful,
it is beautiful, it is glory.
So we must be sanctified.
What is sanctification?
Sanctification simply means we are set apart from
God.
It simply means the old man is put
off, and the new man is put on.
It simply means that we are being transformed
and conformed to the image of Christ.
Now that is sanctification, that is holiness.
And unless we are holy, we cannot serve
God, because our God is holy.
Then thirdly, you find Aaron and his sons,
they are not only called, taken, they are
not only sanctified, put on the priestly garments,
but according to Exodus chapter twenty-eight, we
find in verse forty-one, And thou shalt
clothe with them, Aaron thy brother, and his
sons with him, and shalt anoint him, and
consecrate him, and hallow him, that he may
serve me as priest.
Aaron must not only be redeemed and taken,
not only be sanctified and put on the
priestly garments, but he must also be anointed
and consecrated and hallowed, in order to serve
God as priest.
So the third thing is to be anointed.
Now when you apply it to us today,
how are we to be anointed and made
priest unto God, redeemed, sanctified and anointed?
We need to be anointed.
By anointed it simply means, in the Old
Testament you find it is the holy oil.
The holy oil will be poured upon Aaron.
And according to the Old Testament, when Aaron
was anointed, the ointment was just poured upon
him.
A large amount of ointment poured upon his
head, and it flows down his beard and
all over his garment.
And this is the picture.
If we want to minister unto the Lord
as priest, we need to receive that anointing.
And thank God that anointing is ours.
Because when our Lord Jesus was risen from
the dead and ascended upon high, you remember
God has anointed him as Lord and Christ.
And the anointment, that is the Holy Spirit,
came down on the day of Pentecost.
And not only upon those on the day
of Pentecost, but it flows down to the
skirt of the garment.
That is to say, every believer is in
the good of that anointing.
We are in the anointing.
And because we are in the anointing, therefore
we are quickened by the Holy Spirit to
minister unto God.
You know one thing, as you read Exodus,
you'll find in the tabernacle.
After the tabernacle and all the pieces of
furniture were put in their proper places, the
whole place had to be anointed.
Everything had to be anointed.
Not only the priest must be anointed, every
piece of furniture in the tabernacle had to
be anointed.
And after everything was anointed, then you'll find
that tabernacle became a living tabernacle.
Service began to flow.
So brothers and sisters, how can we serve
as priests?
We can serve as priests only because we
are in the anointing.
We can serve only when we obey the
anointing.
When we follow the anointing.
When we serve in the power of the
anointing.
That is to say, in the power of
the Holy Spirit.
The flesh has no part in God's service.
Only the Spirit.
Not by might, nor by power, but by
my Spirit, said the Lord.
Now another thing we would like to enter
in this morning is this.
What are the functions of the priesthood?
We are priests.
We are ready to minister.
Now what are the functions of the priests?
Now first of all, we must remember that
the functions of the priesthood are primarily towards
God.
If you read Hebrews chapter 5.
Hebrews chapter 5 verse 1.
For every high priest taken from among men
is established for man in things relating to
God, that he may offer both gifts and
sacrifices for sin.
And in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 6,
chapter 2 verse 5, it is said, yourselves
also as living stones are being built up
together a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.
Priestly functions are mainly towards God.
To put it in other words, a priest
is to minister unto the Lord.
Not unto the house, not unto man, but
unto God.
That is the basic understanding of the functions
of the priesthood.
In Old Testament you find the priesthood and
the Levitical service.
The priestly service is unto God.
The Levitical service is unto the house of
God.
The priestly service is unto the Lord.
The Levitical service is unto the people.
The priestly service is spiritual in nature.
The Levitical service is physical in nature.
Now of course that doesn't mean that priestly
service has nothing to do with man.
You will find that it does.
But primarily, basically, essentially, priestly service is ministering
unto the Lord.
And Levitical service is basically unto man, even
though it is not exclusively so.
So I do hope that you will first
of all let us remember, we are priests.
What do we do?
We minister unto the Lord.
That is the basic concept.
Not unto man, we will.
Not unto the house, we do.
But we must remember that priestly function is
basically, essentially, primarily, spiritual.
We are mainly unto God.
Minister unto the Lord.
Now this is priesthood.
Now do we minister unto the Lord?
In Ezekiel chapter forty-four you will notice
three things concerning priesthood.
You know the Levites and the other sons
of Aaron, the sons of Aaron, the sons
of Aaron they were barred from the priesthood
because of their unfaithfulness.
But the priests, the Levites, the sons of
Zadok, the family of Zadok, that kept the
charge of my sanctuary when the children of
Israel went astray from me, they shall approach
unto me to minister unto me.
Now that's priesthood.
The sons of Zadok shall approach unto me
to minister unto the Lord.
To minister unto the Lord.
Now how?
What do they do?
Three things.
Number one, they shall stand before me to
present unto me the flesh and the blood
said the Lord Jehovah.
Number two, they shall enter into my sanctuary
and they shall approach unto my table to
minister unto me and they shall keep my
charge.
Number three, verse twenty-three, and they shall
teach my people the difference between holy and
profane and cause them to discern between unclean
and unclean and in controversy they shall stand
to judge, they shall judge it according to
my judgment and they shall keep my laws
and my statutes in all my solemnities and
they shall hallow my Sabbath.
So here you'll find the priestly works are
threefold.
Number one, they shall stand before the Lord
to present to the Lord the flesh and
the blood.
Now of course we know this is connected
with the altar.
With the altar you'll find the priest will
come.
They will present the blood of the sacrifice
and also the fat must be burned on
the altar and the work of the priest
is to present the blood and the fat
unto the Lord.
Now often times we think of sacrifice in
terms of what it does to us.
Now thank God, sacrifice does many things to
us.
Now of course today we do not offer
bullocks or sheep or lamb or animals anymore.
Why?
Because all these sacrifices that you find in
the Old Testament are types of Christ.
Christ is the sacrifice and the gift.
So what we do today is to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
We do not need to offer bullocks, we
do not need to offer lambs, but we
do offer Christ.
You know we often think of sacrifice in
terms of what it does to us.
Now it does a lot to us.
Through the blood our sins are forgiven and
the meat.
Some sacrifice is a gift.
Some sacrifices have to be burned, but others
you'll find they are meat for us to
enjoy.
Now that's true, but remember here you'll find
Aaron and his sons are to present the
blood and the fat unto God.
In other words the blood is for God,
the fat is for God.
It is for God to be satisfied and
to be pleased.
Blood speaks of the blood of our Lord
Jesus that washes our sins away, yes, but
it is the blood that satisfies the righteousness
of God.
Blood first of all is unto God and
then unto us.
The blood of the Paschal Lamb was put
on the house side of the doorposts and
the lintels.
That is to say not for you to
see, but for God to see.
The blood is basically to satisfy God's righteousness,
so that God can righteously justify us.
It is to satisfy God's own righteousness.
And the fat, you know what the fat
is today?
We don't like to have fat.
But you know in the Old Testament terms
you know the fat speaks of abundant life.
When life is so abundant it becomes fat.
And you know in the Old Testament nobody
can eat any fat.
Fat is for God.
All the fat of the sacrifices have to
be burned for God.
In other words, it is to give God
the life of our Lord Jesus is like
fat.
So abundant, so rich and it is all
for the pleasure of His blood.
I come to do thy will.
The fat is for God.
And the priests, they are to offer the
blood and the fat.
Now what does it mean?
Brothers and sisters, do we not know that
we are priests?
And it is our duty, our privilege to
present Christ back to God.
The Christ is our Lord that we know
and experience.
His blood, His forgiving grace, His fat, His
life, His abundant life that we know and
experience.
These are like blood and fat ascending continuously
to God for His satisfaction and pleasure.
Daily we stand before God, not on our
merits.
We have none.
Daily we stand before God presenting the blood.
It is because of the blood of Christ
that we can approach the throne of grace.
This satisfies God's heart.
And daily we stand before God presenting Christ
as our life to Him.
Whenever Christ, our life, is being expressed and
offered up to God, God is not only
satisfied but well pleased.
You know if we try to present ourselves
we are presenting the sacrifice of Cain.
We will be completely rejected.
But if we present Christ we will be
accepted.
Because only Christ can satisfy God.
Spiritual sacrifices.
We know Christ as the burn offering, voluntarily
offering Himself without spot to God.
And in union with Him we offer ourselves.
We know Christ as our meal offering.
His life upon this earth is so pure.
And in union with Him His life becomes
our life and we present it to God.
We know Christ as our peace offering.
He has made peace for us between us
and God and between us with one another.
And today we present Christ to Him as
our peace offering.
We are at peace with God and we
are at peace with one another.
We present Christ as our sin offering, as
our trespass offering.
Our sins all forgiven.
Our daily sins all washed away so that
we can commune with God.
Brothers and sisters, daily we stand before God
presenting we offer, constantly we offer.
We do not just offer on Sunday.
When we come together to worship the Lord
then we offer up the blood and the
flesh.
No.
We are priests.
We are in God's house, wherever you are,
wherever God's people are, we are constantly, continuously
offering up the blood and the flesh.
We are constantly offering up Christ to God.
This is our worship.
Remember brothers and sisters, our worship is not
limited just to an hour on the Lord's
day.
Our worship is in spirit and in truth.
Our whole life is a worship because we
are constantly offering up Christ back to God.
Not ourselves.
God will never accept us in ourselves, but
Christ.
We appreciate His blood, we appreciate His flesh,
His life.
And that is something that we need to
offer constantly.
That is the first thing.
Then the second thing.
They shall enter into my sanctuary and they
shall approach unto my table to minister unto
me and they shall keep my charge.
Now the emphasis here is the table.
Actually in the holy place there are three
things.
The lamp stand, the table and the golden
altar of incense.
But the table is especially emphasized here.
Why?
Because this table speaks of communion.
Communion.
Brothers and sisters, as priests, what is our
function?
Our function is to commune with God.
Not just in the morning when you get
up, not just in the evening when you
go to bed, you pray, but throughout the
day.
We should be ministering to God.
We should minister unto Him at the table.
We should be in communion, in fellowship with
Him all the time.
And as we fellowship with Him.
Now this is priestly function.
We are functioning as priests.
And of course, when you commune with Him,
you cannot but praise and thank Him.
Especially at the Lord's table, this is the
time that we commune with Him.
The Lord said, this is my blood, the
communion of my blood, the communion of my
body.
And as we commune with Him, we render
our worship, our praise to Him.
This is priestly function.
Brothers and sisters, in our daily life, are
we functioning as priests?
Do we commune with Him?
Through the day, through the week?
Now if we do, then when we come
together to remember the Lord at the table,
there will not be any lack of worship,
of praise, of thanks to Him.
Together with the table, you have the golden
altar of incense.
That's prayer.
Not praying for yourself, we should pray for
ourselves.
But as priests, this prayer is intercessory prayer.
Because the priests, when they burn incense at
the altar, they pray for the nation of
Israel.
So brothers and sisters, we are priests.
Do we pray?
Do we function as priests?
Yes, we pray individually, ourselves.
But when we come together, do we come
and pray together?
Do we take up intercessory prayer?
That is to intercede, just like in Timothy.
Timothy, you'll find Paul said, I exhort you,
first of all, to pray for all people.
Pray, intercede, supplicate with thanksgiving.
And also the golden lampstand, that is the
testimony, to keep the charge.
We as priests are to keep the testimony
of Jesus.
That the testimony of Jesus may shine and
the world may know Him.
Now these are priestly functions.
Then thirdly, they shall teach my people the
difference between holy and profane, and cause them
to discern between unclean and clean.
And in controversy they shall stand to judge,
they shall judge it according to my judgment,
and they shall keep my laws and my
statutes in all my solemnities, and they shall
hallow my sabbath.
Now here you'll find, the priestly functions are
not only Godward, primarily yes, but they are
also manward.
So because they are ministering unto the Lord,
therefore it follows they begin to minister unto
the house, the people of God.
They shall teach the people to discern between
the holy and the profane, the clean and
the unclean.
And they shall also judge the people according
to the judgment of God.
So this is also partly our priestly function.
Unless we minister unto the Lord first, our
ministry unto the house of the Lord's people
will not be effective.
First we must minister unto the Lord, and
then out of that we minister unto man.
Then we are able to teach people what
is holy, what is unholy, what is clean,
what is unclean.
It is not just a bookish knowledge, it
is an experiential knowledge of God, that you
learn when you draw near to Him.
And also you have the discernment to judge
according to the judgment of God.
So brothers and sisters, do remember this, that
we are all priests.
And it is God's will that we should
function as priests, not only on the Lord's
day, but every day of the week.
Shall we pray?
Our Heavenly Father, how we do praise and
thank Thee, that Thou has called us with
a high calling.
Thou has even called us into that holy
priesthood.
We do pray that we may not neglect
our duty, but we may by Thy grace
take up our responsibility, that we may function
as priests, daily and together, in the name
of our Lord Jesus.
Amen.