I can remember a time in my life when I would have really run from such an opportunity. But the Lord has granted this grace, not the least of which is not to run. It does not mean we are less hesitant or less nervous about it, but at least He has given us grace not to run.
We do want to take this opportunity, since last evening we did not, to say thank you to all those brothers and sisters who made their way to the time that we had together at Roslyn. You know, we sometimes think, “Well, these are just empty words,” but in reality, brothers and sisters, unless you had come, there would not have been such a time.
We just want to say thank you to all of those who made the effort and came, and also thank you to you brothers and sisters who were so faithful to pray for this time. We are just so grateful. The Lord was merciful to us. He heard the prayers of His people, and He did meet with us in a wonderful way.
And I do believe—I know we tend to say this all the time—but I believe the Lord met with us in such a way that He wrote some things in our hearts that will not go away. They will be there, and for this we are really grateful.
This morning, there are a few Scriptures I would like for us to consider together. The first one is in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, chapter 19.
You know, brothers and sisters, it really is the heart of God that every one of us would live in a place where He could begin to share some of the very throb that is in His heart. There is something that God has longed for from eternity past, from the very beginning.
There has always been lodged in the heart of God this desire to have a people who would live in such harmonious fellowship with Himself that He could share with them even the deepest secrets that He has in His heart. And if we have been privileged along the way to be in a place where God could unveil some of those secrets to us, then we are a blessed people.
The Word of God is so consistent. God has, in many ways, hidden some of these secrets, but many of them He has revealed—some of them not so easily seen. But as we fellowship with Him and maintain that kind of harmonious relationship with Him that He desires, then by His Spirit He is pleased to uncover some of these things that are so important to Him.
Now, I know that when we first come to know the Lord, our whole focus is about what we get. It is only natural. When we were born into the world naturally, the only thing we wanted was somebody to take care of us. The only thing we were concerned about was our own need.
That is true in the spiritual realm as well. When you and I come to know God as our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, our whole focus is around ourselves. But if we are faithful to allow the Holy Spirit to do His work, He will draw us to a place and grow us up where we can begin to see that there is something beyond our own personal needs that God wants to share with us.
He will bring us into fellowship with Himself, where He will begin to unveil before our very eyes the secrets that are in His own heart. This morning, I would like to call attention to one aspect of this purpose that God has in His heart, which He is seeking to work out.
From the very beginning, before there was ever any such thing as a universe, there was in the heart of God a desire to have a people who were priests—priests unto Him. So this morning I want us to look at some Scriptures and focus on various aspects of this matter that is in the heart of God.
In the third month after the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
And when they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the Lord commanded him.
And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people unto the Lord.
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth.
Which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;
whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
to whom also Abraham divided a tenth part of all; being first, by interpretation, King of righteousness, and then also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.
Who hath been made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,
ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Can we pray together, please?
Father, we want to tell You this morning once again how grateful we are to You for gathering us here this day in the name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus, and for putting it in our hearts by Your Spirit to offer praise and thanksgiving and worship to Him.
We just want to thank You, Lord, that as Your Spirit has been here, we have found Him to be our portion and our help. And now, as we continue in Your presence, we look to You to enable us to see more clearly into Your very heart and understand something about what You are seeking to accomplish in our day.
Lord, may we find ourselves right there where You are working, cooperating with You. We do thank You that there is an anointing upon the entire Body of Christ, which was first poured out upon our Head and has run down all the way to the hem of the garment and has included us.
By faith right now, we stand in that, that Your purpose will be accomplished and You will be glorified. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
When the Lord brought the children of Israel out of their Egyptian bondage, you can be pretty well assured that they were very thrilled about what God had done. Just like us in the beginning of our Christian life, they were preoccupied with this matter of having been delivered from Egyptian bondage.
But God brings them to the foot of the mountain and decides that it is now time for Him to tell them why He really brought them out of the land. It was true that God heard their cry, but it was also true that God had made a covenant with Abraham prior to that: these people would be His people.
They found themselves in slavery to the Egyptians, and so God brought them out to the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses went up into the mountain, and there God shared with Moses the real reason, the real motivation, for bringing this Hebrew people out of the land of Egypt.
He said to them, “I have brought you unto Myself.” And He said, “I want you to be a kingdom of priests.” Brothers and sisters, I think that when we look at that, we see once again God expressing this longing that is in His heart: to have a people who, in a corporate sense, are a priesthood.
But He wanted every one of them—however many there may have been, anywhere from two to six million people whom God delivered—He wanted every one of them to be priests unto Himself. This is something that God has long longed for.
Now, you know, brothers and sisters, when we look at that, we might even question the wisdom of saying such a thing to a nation of people who had been in slavery for four hundred years. Being in that position does something to you. It robs you of your initiative. It can make you self-centered.
When you get free of slavery, one of the first things you want to do is go out and express your liberty: “I’m free!” But here God immediately shares with them the thing that is in His own heart: He wants this people to be a kingdom of priests.
It is interesting. For whatever reason—we are not told why—the people said through the elders to God, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” They said, in effect, “We accept it. We say amen. He wants us to be priests; we want to be priests.”
Well, we know the story. It was not many days hence until the whole thing began to change. Remember, Moses went up into the mountain to receive the commandment, and while he was up there, the people persuaded Aaron to build them a golden calf.
They very, very quickly forgot this commitment they had made—that they were going to be priests unto God. Remember how God had to pronounce judgment and take some very serious action because of their action.
The final result was that out of the twelve tribes, God disqualified eleven of them. Only one tribe, the sons of Levi, would God allow to serve as priests. That does not mean that God gave up the idea of having all of His people serve as priests.
When you look at it, brothers and sisters, it was only an act of God’s mercy. He could have disqualified the whole nation. Because there were those who were willing to stand with Him, God manifested His mercy and allowed that one tribe to serve on behalf of all the others.
But God never gave up the desire that He had for all His people to be priests.
So we move from those verses all the way over to the book of Revelation—Revelation 1 and Revelation 5. We find some very marvellous words in those verses that we read.
It says that Jesus not only loved us and released us from our sins through His blood, but He also made us to be a kingdom and priests. You find that in Revelation 1:5-6, and then over in Revelation 5:9-10.
He called men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. He not only cleansed them and made them to stand righteous before God, but in addition to that, He made them to be priests.
One of the interesting things, brothers and sisters, is that, as many of you are aware, there was a time in history called the Reformation. You remember that the church went through a long period of darkness—about a thousand years—when there was very little evidence of the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ in the church.
Not only did the church suffer, but the whole earth suffered. It was a period of darkness, and it ought to say something to us. You see, when the church fails to be what the Lord Jesus has called it to be, it affects the entire civilization.
But through the moving of the Spirit of God, God began to recover some very basic and fundamental truths regarding Christian life and the church. For instance, salvation by faith and not by works.
We take that truth for granted, but there was a period of a thousand years when salvation was understood to be on the basis of what you did—sometimes by paying money for indulgences. We take for granted today that we can come, by a simple act of faith, and receive full forgiveness.
But there was a period of about a thousand years when people did not even know that. God, in His mercy, has recovered that truth.
Another truth that was recovered was the truth of the priesthood of every believer. Now, the interesting thing is, many people today are living in the good of salvation by faith, but not many of God’s people are living in the truth that was also recovered: the priesthood of every believer—that every believer is a priest.
This priesthood that you and I have been called to be a part of, and the very fact that you and I are priests, is based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary.
It has nothing to do with your bloodline. It has nothing to do with your mother and father. It has nothing to do with your education, or the lack of it. It has nothing to do with your ability. It has everything to do with the finished work of the Lord Jesus on Calvary.
He made us to be priests. Inherent in our receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior is this calling, this commission, and this standing before God to be priests.
Now, you remember that very early in the history of the church, there began to emerge a division—a division between what is now called clergy and laity.
I know that we cannot be absolutely dogmatic regarding the statement our Lord Jesus makes in Revelation 2, where He says, “I hate the works of the Nicolaitans.” But there is pretty good evidence to indicate that the deeds of the Nicolaitans have to do with this matter of distinction between clergy and laity.
In the very beginning of the church, there began to emerge a group of people who were the so-called spiritual ones, and then you had the mass of the people. All the so-called spiritual ones did the spiritual service for all the rest.
It is a reversion, going back to the old system in the Old Testament. So we need to understand today that, because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has started something new in terms of this matter of priesthood.
Every believer, without exception, has been made to be a priest because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary.
Our brother Lance, as he was sharing with us in these times together, pointed out that one of our big problems is what is in our head—our concepts. The way he puts it is, concepts govern behavior.
Many of us do not behave as priests. We do not function as priests because, in our minds, we do not really believe that we are.
Many of us would be very upset if somehow many of God’s people were not living daily in the reality of the finished work of Jesus in terms of the forgiveness of their sins. Our hearts would be disturbed if we knew brothers and sisters who every day were concerned and burdened down about the guilt of their sins, even though they read the verses that say He has released us from our sins by His blood.
But why do we not get just as stirred about the fact that many of God’s people are not living in the good of this positive aspect of the finished work of Jesus on Calvary: that He made us to be priests?
That means, brothers and sisters, that Almighty God—the Most High God—has said to you, a mere creature, a fallen creature, but redeemed, “You are My priest.”
Many times we cannot believe it. It is too good to be true. We are overwhelmed by even the thought of it. We say, “It just could not be true.” But I believe the Word of God makes it very clear: it is true. It is good news.
God, by the finished work of Jesus, has made you a priest. If I could somehow make it personal: with all my weakness, with all my inability, with all my idiosyncrasies, I am a priest of Almighty God.
I believe it would revolutionize the way we live our lives if this truth could somehow find its way into our hearts. And I hope it will.
So we read there in Hebrews 6 and 7 about our Lord Jesus Christ as being the High Priest. Again, this is something that somehow slips by much of our life as Christians.
We sing about Him being Lord. We sing about Him being King of kings. We sing about Him being our Savior. All of these are true, and it is good that we sing about them. But how long has it been since you have heard the people of God express Jesus Christ as our High Priest?
It is a whole realm that somehow has been missed by the people of God. I believe that we are coming into an hour when God, by His Spirit, is wanting to make us aware of this aspect of the finished work of Christ and the position that He presently occupies.
He sits at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, but also as a High Priest.
Now, He is not the High Priest according to the order of Levi or according to the order of Aaron. His priesthood is a completely different kind of priesthood.
The priesthood that we find in the Old Testament was only a shadow, a pattern, of the real. The writer of the book of Hebrews makes this very clear to us. The priesthood that we find in Aaron’s priesthood was only a pattern.
It was patterned after what? What did God tell Moses to build the tabernacle according to? According to the pattern that he saw on the mountain.
All of heaven, in a sense, is constructed according to that heavenly reality. Those who live in that heavenly realm are priests unto God in the fullest sense of the word. So the priesthood of which our Lord Jesus Christ is now the High Priest is a heavenly priesthood.
The writer of the book of Hebrews, in trying to introduce us to this matter of the Lord Jesus being superior to the other priesthoods that had existed previously, tells us that He is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
We need to go back to the book of Genesis. There we discover this man who appears and then disappears. Abraham was coming back from a battle. He had been very successful in the battle, and somehow there was an encounter between Abraham and this man, Melchizedek.
Melchizedek was priest of the Most High God. He was king of Salem, king of righteousness, king of peace. Abraham offered tithes to this priest.
Now, the Spirit of God, through the writer of the book of Hebrews, has told us that our Lord Jesus Christ is now the High Priest of that order—the order of Melchizedek.
Why the order of Melchizedek? Because of Melchizedek, we have no record of his birth, no record of his genealogy. We do not know whether he had a mother or a father. We have no record of his death.
In other words, he represents a perpetual and eternal priesthood that is always existing. Jesus Christ, our Lord, is High Priest over this order of priests.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, good news: you and I are priests in that order. Jesus is our High Priest in that order. You and I, by our faith in Him and His finished work on Calvary, have been called into and placed into this order of priests according to the order of Melchizedek.
The writer goes on to tell us that the real issue at stake in this matter of Jesus being the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek does not have to do with His lineage, in terms of the tribe into which He was born.
Actually, our Lord Jesus was born into the tribe of Judah, and there are no priests who come out of the tribe of Judah. But the thing that is really at stake is that He functions on the basis of an indestructible life.
It is not on the basis of the fact that He was born from this person or that person. No, it has to do with the life that is in Him.
Oh, dear people of God, if somehow this truth could lay hold of our hearts: you and I, whether we are aware of it or not, are in this priesthood—a priesthood that is based upon an indestructible life.
When you and I become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, God in His great, triumphant power brings into us the very life of Jesus Christ. The uncreated life of God, an indestructible life, comes into you.
That qualifies you to be a priest in this order of Melchizedek.
You know, in 2 Corinthians 4, the apostle points out to us that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. He then goes on to talk about how we carry about in our body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Now, as priests, we are to be involved in the activity of ministering none other than the life of Jesus Himself.
Oh, how this needs to really lay hold of us.
You know, brothers and sisters, some of us would be overwhelmed with joy and all other kinds of feelings if this afternoon President Ronald Reagan called you on the phone and said to you, “I want you to be a bellhop in my administration.”
Regardless of your political persuasion, most of us would jump at the chance to be part of something like that. You know the point I am trying to make.
But do we understand? The Most High God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has made you, called you, equipped you, anointed you, and put into your hands what you need in order to be a priest of the Most High God.
There is only one thing in the whole universe that really satisfies God. When we come into our times of worship, whether it be privately, in our families, or when we gather with the family in this way, do you know what God is really looking for?
The only thing that really satisfies the heart of God is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Nothing else.
Now, I know that sounds so spiritual. It sounds so lofty and high. But I do not mean it that way. It is so simple.
As priests, all we have is an indestructible life in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our worship of Him needs to be Christ—Christ through us being expressed to the Father.
Part of our priesthood has to do with our ministry to others in the Body of Christ. Do you know the best thing, brothers and sisters, that I can do for you, and that you can do for me?
It is that somehow Christ could be transmitted from you to me, and from me to you.
Please forgive me for putting it this way, but even as I stand at this pulpit, if I did not believe that in some way beyond my understanding the Holy Spirit is using this time to minister Christ, I would walk out and forget it.
I am not a public speaker. I am not an entertainer. But I am a priest. I do not want to merely carry out a responsibility as an act. I want somehow, through this, there to be a ministry of Christ.
Just look at it when you and I are in fellowship with one another. I know that sometimes God puts us in a place where we have to minister Christ to somebody we believe does not deserve it.
But that is no way to the issue, is it? The fact is, they may not deserve it, but they desperately need it. We do not deserve it either, but we desperately need it.
So fellowship in Christ is ministering Christ one to another. When we talk about edifying, building up, we are not just talking about making people feel good about themselves and have a bloated ego. No.
We are talking about there being a ministry of Christ through our fellowship and our service that imparts Christ to that other person.
What about the people you work with, the people you and I come in contact with? Let us not just be theoretical about this thing. What is it that they really need?
The fact is, you have Christ in you. It does not mean you have to go walking around buttonholing somebody and trying to lead them down the Roman road.
Do you know, brothers and sisters, sometimes just through a simple act of kindness, you minister Christ to that person. It does not mean they will necessarily receive it at that point, but you minister Christ.
And this is our responsibility.
Now, being priests according to the order of Melchizedek is all-inclusive. It is all-inclusive in terms of who the priests are: every believer.
You cannot excuse yourself. I cannot find anything in the Word of God where any believer is excused from functioning in this matter of being a priest. I do not say that to make you feel guilty, but to encourage you.
It means that every one of us, without exception, regardless of your family, regardless of all the weaknesses that you have, has been made by Jesus to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. He has placed in you an indestructible life.
Warnings are not fun, but I just want us to be warned. One day, you—without anybody else standing around—will stand before the High Priest and give an account of how you functioned in your priesthood.
That ought to be something you anticipate with great joy, provided that we are in the business of living as priests, for Him to be able to say to us, “Well done, good and faithful priest. You were faithful.”
That is why the Holy Spirit has been sent: to enable you and me, as mere creatures with all our weaknesses, to manifest faithfulness.
This matter of being a priest in the order of Melchizedek is also all-inclusive in terms of the functions that we carry out. Again, brothers and sisters, I hope that the Spirit of God will broaden our understanding.
Many of us still think—even those who have come to see that they are priests—only in terms of the Sunday morning meeting. We gather together, and we believe we are free, and it is true. How we need to come in with our hands full of Christ to minister to God.
But what about the other times in our lives? What about our responsibilities in our homes, on our jobs, and in our relationships with people? Are we priests then, or somehow, when we leave Sunday morning, do we take off our priestly garments, lay them aside, and go out into the world to do other things?
Unfortunately, that is really the mentality of some of us.
Do we understand when our Lord Jesus actually began His priesthood? The wonderful thing about our Lord Jesus is that He set quite a wonderful example for us: He, as a priest of the Most High God, could take the most mundane situations and make them live. He could transform them from normal, everyday human experiences into something eternal.
Why would He change water into wine at a wedding? He could come into a normal situation and, functioning as a priest, touch something that was normal and temporal so that it could become eternal.
What about our responsibilities in our homes as parents and homemakers? If somehow we could see that this is a part of our priesthood, our priestly responsibility, and carry it out as priests, we would find God, through this indestructible life that is in us, taking that simple family situation and making something eternal.
How about our jobs? How about you businessmen? How about you brothers and sisters who have to go out into the workforce? Many of us think, “Oh, if I just did not have to go out, I could be such a good Christian. I could do so much for the Lord.”
Do you know why the Lord probably has you there? He has you there as a priest. In that temporal situation, as you carry out your functions as a priest, you can touch that simple situation, and something of eternity can begin to affect it.
Mothers and wives, over the years I have encouraged sisters that when they are cleaning the bathroom—it is not a very good job, is it? It is not one that most of us would choose.
But do we understand what can happen if we are doing that as a priest unto God?
Now, I do not want to go too far, brothers and sisters. I really do not want to push this thing. But I believe a sister who really sees her function as a mother and a homemaker as the responsibility of a priest of God, and who begins to undertake her tasks energized by this indestructible life that is in her, can begin to transform her house or home into something that speaks of God Himself.
The atmosphere, the décor—it does not have to have signs on the wall with Scripture verses. I am not saying that is wrong, but that is not what is going to do it.
It is when that sister understands that God has called her to function as a priest in this way.
How about in the Body of Christ, in our fellowship with other brothers and sisters where we gather? How about some of the menial tasks of setting up the chairs?
Do you think it will make any difference at all whether the chairs are set up by someone who just does it because they were assigned the responsibility, or by someone who understands that it is a task they are performing as a priest in the order of Melchizedek?
Do you think it will make any difference? Brothers and sisters, I believe with all my being that it will.
Again, I do not want to push this too far, but it can make such a difference. When people come in and sit down in those chairs, they can encounter Christ and not merely your success.
Something of heaven has come into that temporal, mundane situation because somebody was there functioning as a priest of the Most High God.
It is a simple thing. There may be no recognition. Nobody knows about it. But they faithfully carry out their task as a priest of the Most High God.
Oh, dear people of God, I do hope that somehow the Spirit of God will continue to move among us and stir our hearts, as many times as necessary, until every one of us without exception begins to see that our whole life—every bit of it, even our recreation—belongs within this priesthood.
You know, sometimes—I do not share these things openly with anybody—but sometimes I begin to think and say to myself, “I wonder if Jesus would have enjoyed playing golf.” When He got a bad shot, I am sure He would not have thrown His club off.
But what do you suppose happens to our Lord who is indwelling us when we do these things? When we go on vacation, does He step around and just pout? No, not at all. He wants to be involved.
I do not want to push too far. I just want you to know that we need to see this as part of being a priest of the Most High God.
Then, in those verses in 1 Peter 2, we are introduced to the corporate dimension of this matter of priesthood. We are a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood. That is, corporately.
It is good for us to see ourselves as an assembly. It is good to see ourselves as a chapel family. But how often do we really see ourselves as a holy, royal priesthood?
You will discover in those verses that Peter points out to us that the responsibilities of this priesthood are, first of all, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
Spiritual sacrifices do not include just Sunday morning. They include every aspect of our life together, energized by the Spirit and energized by this indestructible life that is in us, enabling us to carry out our responsibilities—doing the tape, setting up the chairs, cleaning the building.
My heart has been greatly blessed to hear how the Lord has led you brothers and sisters here in Richmond. Various sections of the brothers and sisters are now taking on the responsibility of caring for the building.
But may our hearts again be attuned to the fact that we are carrying it out as priests, not just to get a job done. It will make all the difference in the world.
There may be those among us who may never have any other responsibility in terms of the Body of Christ than doing some of these menial tasks. I want to tell you that if that brother or sister carries it out unto the Lord as a priest of the Most High God, they will receive just as much of a “Well done” as the one who travels worldwide and has a well-known ministry.
It will not make any difference.
So we are a holy priesthood—a priesthood characterized by the very character of God Himself, whose qualities are manifested in the lives of these priests.
We are a royal priesthood. You find again and again, from Exodus 19 onward, that somehow in the mind of God, priesthood and kingship were linked together: a kingdom of priests.
You find over in Revelation 20:6, talking about those who are part of the first resurrection, that they shall be priests unto God and unto Christ, and they shall reign upon the earth for a thousand years.
So they are a royal priesthood. Their priesthood is linked to government, with the kingdom of God. Somehow Christ puts these two together. That is why our Lord Jesus is not only King; He is High Priest. He is both at the same time, and our priesthood is the same.
What a calling has been given to us. From the youngest to the oldest, from the least talented to the most talented, the calling is the same.
We are priests of the Most High God according to the order of Melchizedek, and God has privileged us and honored us that we would have the opportunity to serve Him in this way.
Now, if it is a calling, too, it is a place where we have responsibility. In the Lord Jesus Christ, God has done all that is needed in order for us to be totally cleansed.
Do you remember in the old covenant, the priest had to go through various ceremonies of offerings and sacrifice for himself? Then there would be blood sprinkled here and oil sprinkled there. They would have to bathe themselves and wear various garments.
Oh, dear people, all of that has been taken care of in the Lord Jesus Christ. He took care of all of that.
As we find ourselves clothed in the righteousness of Christ, then we have the proper garment. Well, what about the anointing oil? Has that been taken care of as well?
What happened after our High Priest took His position at the right hand of God? He did not leave us here without the anointing. That anointing which was poured out on Him, which we read about in Psalm 133, was poured out upon His head, ran down onto His beard, and all the way down to the hem of His garment.
It includes you and me if we are in touch with Him. The anointing you need is there.
As a matter of fact, brothers and sisters, it seems to me that if we look at this thing, there is no legitimate reason for you and me not to function as priests of the Most High God.
God has made every provision. He has taken away all the things that disqualified us from being priests, and He has given us, in His Son, everything without exception that is necessary to be the kind of priest He has longed for from the very beginning.
What is lacking? What is lacking is a response on the part of those who are called.
We need to actually respond and declare from our hearts, “According to the Word of God and the witness of God’s Spirit in my heart, God in His mercy has made me a priest.”
Then, in my heart, I am going to acknowledge that. I am going to confess it with my mouth. I am going to trust the Holy Spirit of God to begin to work in me and teach me how to carry this out in all the aspects of my life.
You know, brothers and sisters, when we go back to those earlier chapters in Hebrews, before the writer begins to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ being the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, there is a little verse there in Hebrews 5.
It says that He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
You know why some of us will not enter into our priesthood? We cannot do it right the first time. We hate to fail. We hate to make mistakes.
But what encouragement it ought to be to our hearts that our Lord Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Most of us do not suffer any hurt when we fall flat on our faces and make mistakes. It is a big bruise to our ego; it is hard for us to take.
We can trust the Holy Spirit of God to begin to arrange the circumstances in your life and in mine so that you and I can begin to learn.
Please understand: it is so important that you get it into your mind and into your heart that you are probably going to make more mistakes in the beginning than you ever thought was possible for you to make.
If you are going to start counting the mistakes over against the successes, you are never going to get started.
But if you will just program it all in there, this matter of priesthood means that many times we have to do it wrong before we can do it right. We have to learn.
As one brother among other brothers and sisters, it is in my heart today to encourage us to accept what God has done and, with all our hearts, say, “Lord, I hear Your call.”
“By faith, I want to appropriate it, and I am going to begin to live in the good of the reality that You accomplished for me when the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.”
That reality is not only the removal of my sin and complete cleansing. It is that He has made me a priest of the Most High God according to the order of Melchizedek.