Will you please turn to the book of Revelation?
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
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 they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy 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.
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:
Who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we want to praise and thank Thee for all that Thou hast done for us. We thank Thee for Thy amazing love. We thank Thee for redeeming us, forgiving all our sins, and we thank Thee for Thy purpose upon us. It is great and glorious.
Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we pray that Thy Spirit will open Thy Word to our hearts and bring us into Thy truth, that Thou mayest be glorified. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
This morning, we would like to fellowship on a subject that I feel is very basic to us Christians, and it is this matter of the universal priesthood of believers. Even though this term is not found in the Bible, the truth is there: the universal priesthood of believers.
Now, in order to understand this truth, we would like to go back to the Old Testament. Do you remember, as God delivered His children, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, He brought them to Himself as on eagles’ wings, to Mount Sinai?
There, in Exodus 19, He declared to His people His thought for them. He said:
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.
In other words, God’s thought for His own people, for His redeemed ones, is to make them a kingdom of priests. This means every citizen in that kingdom is a priest. Young and old, male and female, everyone in that kingdom is a priest.
In other words, God’s desire for His people is that they may serve Him. This is a great privilege and honor that God bestows upon man.
But unfortunately, when Moses went to Mount Sinai to receive the two tables of the law, the children of Israel on the plain worshipped the golden calf.
So when Moses came down and saw this situation, he broke the two tables of stone. In other words, they had broken God’s law. He commanded the people to drink the result of their sins. The golden calf was melted, spread in the river, and the children of Israel had to drink their own sins.
Now, in doing that, they disqualified themselves completely from serving the Lord as priests.
You remember the story. Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Only the tribe of Levi stood with him. They were commanded to go from gate to gate, to slay everyone that they met, whoever that person might be. The children of Levi did it. In a sense, they purified themselves from their sins.
As an emergency measure, God set apart the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, to be priests. In other words, the whole nation was not fit to serve God, and God, in His grace and mercy, chose one tribe, one family, to be priests.
But this was not God’s original design. This was God’s emergency measure. Yet, to show the heart of God—how He desired that His people would serve Him—you remember in Numbers 6, God opened a back door.
In Numbers 6, God said that if any man or woman would take the vow of the Nazarite, to consecrate himself or herself to the Lord, they could do it.
Now, what is the vow of the Nazarite? It is a vow to separate himself or herself, to devote their lives to the Lord. Maybe that vow is only for a month, but it can be for life.
So the vow of the Nazarite is God opening a way for anyone who loves the Lord and still wants to serve Him. He or she may do so. Dear brothers and sisters, in this vow of the Nazarite we can see the heart of God. God’s heart is that all who are redeemed should be priests and serve Him.
Now, when you come to the New Testament, we remember that when our Lord Jesus came, He came to restore all things back to God’s original design. That is the work of our Lord Jesus.
So when He came, we find that He has not only loved us and redeemed us, washing us from our sins in His blood, but He has made us a kingdom of priests unto God and Father.
Out of every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and every people, God has brought a people unto Himself and has made them kings and priests unto God.
And you find in 1 Peter that Peter says, as we come to the Lord, we are as living stones, being built up together into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer gifts acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are a chosen people, a holy nation, a kingly priesthood.
Now there is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God declared His purpose to the children of Israel. He wanted them to be a nation, a kingdom of priests. But it was a promise; it was conditional.
God said, “Now, if you hearken to My voice and if you keep My covenant, then I will make you a kingdom of priests.” But unfortunately, they forfeited that promise.
Now with us today, it is different. It is more than a promise; it is a fact. The Lord has redeemed us and has made us priests unto God.
So, brothers and sisters, today we are so privileged. We who are redeemed of the Lord are a kingdom of priests. Every one of us is a priest. This is our birthright. This is what God, by grace, has already given to us.
We may not have the title. We may not have the position. But certainly, we have the reality. Every one of us who is redeemed, purchased by the blood of our Lord Jesus—whether you are young or old, whether you are a man or a woman—everyone is a priest by birth, by birthright. This is what we are.
God has given us a priestly life. The very new life that has been given to us is a priestly life. In other words, in that life there is a nature, a desire, a wish, to serve God. It is not something put upon us from outside; it is something that comes from within us, from our very life, that we want to serve Him. Now, thank God for such a thing.
But sadly, as we come to church history, we find that almost the same thing happened to the church as happened to the children of Israel.
Even at the end of the first century, we know the seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3. These are addressed to the seven churches in Asia toward the end of the first century. They were actual churches there.
Now, even there, you find in the church in Ephesus that the Lord commended the church in many things. Even though He was against them for one thing—that they had left their first love—you find that at least they had one thing which the Lord commended. In Revelation 2:6, the Lord said:
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
When you go into church history, you do not find a group or a sect called Nicolaitans. People try to say that one of the seven deacons in Acts 6 was Nicolas, and therefore some people say the Nicolaitans came from Nicolas—that there became a sect. But truly, you find there is no evidence for that.
In the seven letters, there are several names mentioned, but you cannot find them in history. For instance, the name Antipas—you cannot find Antipas in church history. So perhaps there is one way to understand it: these names are not necessarily actual persons or names of groups, but they convey something to us by the meaning of the names.
“Nicolaitans” means: nikao means to overcome or conquer, and laos means the laity, the common people. In other words, it means conquering or overcoming the laity, the common people.
A class is raised up; a few chosen people, as it were, begin to rule over the common people and take charge of all spiritual things. The Nicolaitans represent the beginning of a class—the so-called sacred class—and the common people in the church. That is something our Lord hates.
And fortunately, the church in Ephesus, however fallen they were, still hated the same thing that God hated. But when you come to the church in Pergamum, you find that it is different.
In Ephesus, it is only the works of the Nicolaitans. In other words, there were certain people who began to act like that. But in the church in Pergamum, it became the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
Gradually, it turned into a doctrine, a teaching. Something that was done developed into a teaching, a doctrine. In the church in Pergamum, the Nicolaitan practice became a doctrine. In other words, it had become solidified.
Now, this happened toward the end of the first century. But as church history went on, when you come to the fourth century, you find that during the second and third centuries the church went through great persecutions from the Roman Empire.
But at the end of the third century and the beginning of the fourth century, Constantine the Great became the Roman emperor, and he endorsed Christianity. He encouraged people to join Christianity, and because there was royal preference and favor, people flocked into Christianity.
But they were not born again. They were not saved. They were not redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. They did not really belong to the family of God. And for them to serve God, it was impossible.
So, in order to meet this situation, a certain group of people was trained to do the so-called sacred work instead of the multitude. The great multitude became the laity, and a few chosen ones, specially trained, became the second class that would do all the so-called religious, sacred works for the whole people.
This began to develop. So, in the sixth century, the Roman Catholic Church was formally established. In that system, you have the so-called priest or father class—a class of people specially trained to do the so-called sacred work. They are called priests or fathers.
The rest of the Catholic people were simply being served, and they let the few represent them before God. It was a failure. It was a forfeiture of our birthright.
Now, during the Reformation in the sixteenth century, thank God for the Reformation: an open Bible and justification by faith. Actually, Martin Luther, the reformer, saw the universal priesthood of believers. He believed that all believers are priests.
But why did he not practice it? Because he looked at the situation and saw that, in the so-called churches, most of the people did not know the Lord. How could you practice the universal priesthood of believers? So he taught it, but he did not practice it.
And unfortunately, because it was not practiced, in the Protestant churches you find that they just followed the old tradition. In churches such as the Anglican Church, they still call these people priests. In other denominations, they call them pastors.
It is the same thing: a small group substituting for the people of God in the service of God. And this was something that our Lord hated.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we believe that the truth in the Word of God is the universal priesthood of believers. Every believer is a priest, and this has to be recovered.
Thank God, in spite of the failure of the churches of Christianity, when you read church history—not the official history, but the hidden history—you find that throughout the centuries there have been people who believed in the universal priesthood of believers and practiced it.
Brothers and sisters, do you know who you are? Do you know that you are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? Do you know that you have been made priests unto God? Do you know that being a priest is your birthright? You have been given that birthright. But do you fulfill it?
Now, what is a priest? A priest is someone who is separated to serve God. That is a priest. He is separated—separated from all other things, from all other services—with the sole purpose of serving God.
A priest is one who is bringing people to God, and at the same time, bringing God to the people. He or she is to bring God and people together. That is the work of a priest.
Now, if you use the Old Testament type, you realize what the works of the priest are. When the children of Israel were convicted of something they had done wrong and needed to be redeemed, they would bring their sacrifice—a sin offering or a trespass offering—to the Lord.
But they could not offer it themselves because they were disqualified. They had to do it through the hands of the priest. The priest would offer for them the sin offering or the trespass offering, to make atonement for their sins.
Or, if a child of Israel was touched by something God had done for him and wanted to express his gratitude, he could not do it for himself. He had to bring his gifts or sacrifices—a burnt offering, peace offering, or other offering—to the priest. The priest would offer these things to God for him, for him to be accepted.
So the work of a priest is to help bring the people to God.
A priest would go into the holy place and set the shewbread upon the golden table. You remember that the shewbread was twelve in number. On one side it represents Christ in His perfection; yet on the other hand, it represents the children of Israel, God’s redeemed people.
In other words, the priest would present the children of Israel as shewbread before God, laying them before God. He would light the lamps. In other words, he would teach the people the light of God, the Word of God, that they might know what God’s will is.
He would also offer incense at the golden altar. In other words, he would pray for the people. The people could pray, but they had to join their prayer with the priest for it to be effective.
And once a year, the high priest would enter behind the veil into the holiest of all, to atone for the sins of the nation. That is the work of the priest. In this, you find that he was leading the children of Israel from the outer court to the holy place, and from the holy place to the holiest of all—to the very presence of God.
That is one way. There is another way. After the high priest had atoned for the nation, he would come out from the presence of God and bless the people. In other words, he would bring God to the people.
The priests were also set up as judges. They would judge the people; that is to say, they would bring the judgment of God to the people. They were also instructors and teachers of the people. They would explain the Word of God to the children of Israel.
They would tell the people what is holy and what is unholy, what is clean and what is unclean, so that the children of Israel might be a holy nation. All these are the works of the priest. They represent the priestly work of mediation, bringing God and man together.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, we who are priests today—suppose a person suddenly came to you and said, “Priest so-and-so.” Well, you would be frightened. You would say, “Oh, no, no, I am not a priest.”
Well, if you deny that you are a priest, you are right and you are wrong. You are right because you have not been ordained by man as a priest. You do not have that title; you do not have the office. But you are wrong because you are ordained by God to be a priest.
You are a priest. That is what you are. That is your person. Do not forget that.
Now, if you are a priest, what is your work? You are separated to serve God. You are not your own; you are bought with a price. You are saved to serve God.
From the day that you are saved and born again, you are separated from everything—separated unto God. So your occupation, your vocation, is serving God.
No believer has the right to serve anything else but God. We have no right to serve the world. We may work in the world, and we may do things as for ourselves, but strictly speaking, we as priests have been separated from everything to serve God. This is our vocation.
As to in what area and in what way God wants us to serve Him, that is our avocation. Maybe God wants you to be a doctor. Maybe God wants you to be an engineer. Maybe God wants you to be a nurse. Maybe God wants you to be a housewife. Maybe at this moment God wants you to be a student. Whatever that may be, your life vocation is to serve God.
Daniel might have been the prime minister of the greatest empire in the world—both the Babylonian Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire—yet even the Persian emperor said, “Daniel, the God whom you serve, is He able to deliver you?”
Dear brothers and sisters, we have forgotten who we are. And because we have forgotten who we are, we are not fulfilling our functions.
So first and foremost, dear brothers and sisters, we need to be reminded of who we are. We are priests unto God—not unto man, but unto God.
Our work is to bring men to God. This is the reason why we should be witnesses. We witness our Lord Jesus to the world. This is the reason why we preach the gospel. We try to bring people to Christ.
We are helping people to have their sins forgiven by the blood of the Lord Jesus. We are helping them toward God: to present them to God, to enlighten them, to pray for them, to bring them to the very presence of God.
Our work is not to bring people to ourselves. Our work is to bring people to our Lord, to help our brothers and sisters know more of Christ—not merely to know, but to be transformed, to be changed into His likeness.
We are to encourage, to exhort, and to comfort brothers and sisters. Help them to know the Lord.
We are also to bring God to the people. We are all to wash our brothers’ feet, to bring the love of God to His people, to serve them, and to let them know how much God loves them.
Brothers and sisters, every one of us is to be engaged in such work, because we are priests.
Now, how are we going to fulfill our function? First, we need to remember that we are born again to be priests.
You know, in Numbers 3, God separated the tribe of Levi to substitute for all the firstborn of Israel. You remember, when Israel was in Egypt and the angel of destruction passed through all Egypt at night to kill all the firstborn, the firstborn of the children of Israel were saved because of the blood of the Lamb.
And yet, after the Passover, God said, “All the firstborn are Mine,” because they were delivered. They belonged to God. Then God used the tribe of Levi to substitute for all the firstborn of the children of Israel.
When God numbered the children of Israel, He numbered them from twenty years old and upward because they were to be soldiers. But when He numbered the tribe of Levi, it was from one month old and upward.
In other words, the Levites were born to serve God. From the very time they were born, they were to serve God. They were separated. That was what they were.
So a child born to the tribe of Levi, after he was born and raised up, was raised with the sole purpose of serving God. His whole education centered upon this matter of service.
Then, when he was twenty-five years old, he would enter into the tabernacle to serve as an apprentice. When he was thirty, he became fully engaged in Levitical service.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is a picture. It is a picture of us. The moment you are born again, your destiny is fixed. Your whole life is toward serving God. All your education is in that direction. You may not know it, but God knows it.
So whatever profession you may be in later on, God is using you to serve His purpose, to serve Him. So never forget that.
But for a priest to begin his service in the house of God, to be born in the family of Aaron was not enough. He had to go through a ceremony before he could serve.
You find that in Leviticus 8 and Exodus 29. It is called the ceremony of consecration. We will not go into the details. I hope you will read them yourselves. It is very interesting.
The main thing you find in the ceremony consists of three things. First, the priest had to be clothed with priestly garments. He could not serve merely in ordinary garments; he had to be clothed with priestly garments for glory and for beauty.
Then you find that he had to be anointed with oil. After that, he had to present a ram of consecration, the second ram. When the second ram was killed, the fat, the right shoulder of that ram, and some unleavened cakes would fill the hands of the priest. They would wave them before the Lord. This was called the consecration offering.
After that, they would begin their service in the tabernacle. Now, what does all this mean? You know, this is a picture. When you come to the New Testament, that is what Romans 12:1-2 tells us:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Then, following that chapter, you find the matter of service. So, brothers and sisters, we who are born again, who are born priests, are supposed to serve God as our life vocation. How do we start that? We need to consecrate our lives to the Lord.
You know, consecration is not for a few. That is a grave error. When I was first saved, that was the wrong teaching I received. I was told that I needed to consecrate myself if I wanted to serve God as a preacher. That is not true.
“Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God”—all who have received the mercies of God, all who have been touched by the compassions of God—present voluntarily and willingly your bodies, yourselves, as a living sacrifice.
That is to say, from now on, you live for Him. You allow Him to work out His purpose in your life.
Without consecration, you do not begin your priestly service. That is the reason why consecration is so important. Every believer must not withhold his or her consecration.
May the love of Christ constrain us, knowing that One died for all, that we all died; and we live today not for ourselves, but for Him who died and lives for us.
Dear brothers and sisters, have you consecrated yourself wholly to the Lord?
If you do not fill your hands with Christ, what fills your hands? May Christ fill our hearts and fill our hands, that we may wave Him before the Lord, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Finally, a kingdom of priests is a holy priesthood. You know, priests work together as a priesthood, as a kingdom. We are not called to serve God independently of each other. We are not called to serve each according to his or her own liking. We are to serve as a priesthood.
Now, in Old Testament times, you find that there were thousands of priests, but they served under the high priest. In other words, it was a priesthood. They served in twenty-four courses, but all under the direction of the high priest.
We are told that in the time of our Lord Jesus, that was the way the priests functioned. When one of the twenty-four courses was on duty, how did they know what part of the service they should be engaged in?
Before daylight, before the doors of the temple were opened, that course of priests on duty would gather in a room, and they would cast lots. Wherever the lot fell determined the work of that certain priest that day, because in the temple there were many works to be done.
Some were to praise God. Some were to offer sacrifices. Some were to burn incense, and so forth. How did they know what to do, which work to be engaged in? They did not choose for themselves.
Under the direction of the high priest, they cast lots, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come. They cast lots before God and let God direct them. Then each would work, but they worked as a team, as a priesthood, according to the direction of the high priest.
Now today, brothers and sisters, we are a priesthood. How are we going to serve God? We have one great High Priest, our Lord Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus in heaven today is our great High Priest. He makes intercession for us unceasingly. He is able to save us to the uttermost. At the same time, He is the High Priest directing us as priests in how to serve Him.
Today we do not cast lots anymore, because the Holy Spirit has already come. He is in each one of us, and He is in the church.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit gives gifts to every one of the redeemed. Do not say that you have no gift. We are not talking about natural talent. We believe that natural talents are given providentially by God.
But you cannot serve with your natural talent. Your natural talent has to go through death and resurrection for God to use it.
Over and above our natural talents, God gives us spiritual gifts—the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, as you find in 1 Corinthians 12. Manifestation of the Holy Spirit, not of you, but of the Holy Spirit. He gives gifts to each one of us, all different.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord.
And there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all.
God has given us all different gifts. Yet even with the gifts, we ought to function under the direction of our High Priest. How? Today, through the Holy Spirit.
So when we wait together before the Lord, He, by His Spirit, will direct us as to what we are to do. And we all faithfully do our parts.
We work together as one under our great High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ. And, brothers and sisters, you will find that the body will build itself up in love.
So may the Lord help us that we do not forfeit our birthright. Let us use our birthright and function according to the will of God.
Because this is God’s heart. This is God’s thought. This is God’s original purpose for His people. Just think of that.
Who are we, that God would give us such privilege and honor to serve Him? As one brother used to say, we need to crawl to God and say, “Lord, why dost Thou give us such honor?”
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, Thou art the living Head, and we are Thy living body. We pray that our life in the body, in all the members of the body, may be expressed in service unto Thyself.
We do commit ourselves into Thy hand. Lord, bring us into Thy truth. Make this a living reality among Thy people, so that Thou mayest be glorified. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.