Will you please turn to Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 44? We will read from verse 15 to the end.
But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah:
They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table, to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge.
And it shall be, that 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, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.
They shall have linen tires upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat.
And when they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they minister, and lay them in the holy chambers; and they shall put on other garments, that they may not sanctify the people with their garments.
Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.
Neither shall any of the priests drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away; but they shall take virgins 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 the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
And in a controversy they shall stand to judge; according to My ordinances shall they judge it: and they shall keep My laws and My statutes in all Mine appointed feasts, and they shall hallow My sabbaths.
And they shall go in to no dead person to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.
And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.
And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord Jehovah.
And they shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession.
They shall eat the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.
And the first of all the firstfruits of every thing, and every oblation of every thing, of all your oblations, shall be for the priests: ye shall also give unto the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on thine house.
The priests shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself, or is torn, whether it be bird or beast.
Will you please turn again to the book of Acts, chapter 13? We will read from the first verse through the third verse.
Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we gather together here in Thy presence, we realize that we are standing on holy ground. By Thy grace, we remove our shoes. We stand humbly before Thee as Thy bondslaves of love, and we do ask Thee, Lord, that Thou wilt speak to us through Thy Word.
Lord, Thou knowest our condition. Thou knowest our hearts. Thou knowest how we do desire that we may be a people that will really please Thee, that will really satisfy Thee, that will really do Thy will.
Oh, Father, we just come, presenting ourselves afresh to Thee, and ask Thee, Lord, that Thou wilt speak to each of us in such a way that we may be completely delivered from what we are now to what Thou wantest us to be.
We do commit this time into Thy hands, knowing that unless Thy Holy Spirit brings Thy Word into our hearts, we will not be able to see, or to hear, or to be lifted up unto Thyself. So we just look to Thee for this morning.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee because Thou art merciful, Thou art gracious, and Thou art ever ready to bring us to Thy will. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
As we mentioned last night, our burden for this time together is on this matter of spiritual ministry.
Now, when we mention the word ministry, probably the first thought that comes to our mind is prophetic ministry, or the ministry of the Word. We remember the apostles said, “We will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.”
But prophetic ministry, or ministry of the Word, is not given to all believers. Even though all believers may prophesy, as we find in 1 Corinthians 14, and we may all be used of God to exhort one another, to encourage one another, and to comfort one another—in this sense, I prophesy—yet to have a prophetic ministry, or to be called to the ministry of the Word, is something that is given to some, but not to all.
So this is not what we are sharing these days. Again, when we name the word ministry, probably it will immediately bring to your mind this matter of so-called ministry: entering into ministry, being ordained into the ministry. Well, again, this is not what we are talking about.
What we are talking about is that spiritual ministry into which every believer, every redeemed one of the Lord, is called. So first of all, I would like to emphasize this point: every child of God, every redeemed one of the Lord, is called into a spiritual ministry. No one of us who is redeemed of the Lord is an exception. Every one of us is called into a spiritual ministry.
After we have settled this, then I think we can go on and talk about this whole matter of spiritual ministry in which we are all involved.
Now, so far as this spiritual ministry is concerned, actually you find that there are two parts. One is ministry unto the Lord, and the other is ministry unto the house of the Lord.
Or, to put it another way, in this ministry in which we are all involved, there is a part which we will call priestly ministry. We know priestly ministry is mainly unto the Lord. Then you find there is another part that we call Levitical ministry, the ministry of the Levites, and it is mainly unto the people, the house of God.
I think it is a very unfortunate thing that, to God’s people today, we are more familiar with ministry unto the house of God than ministry unto the Lord. Probably lots of ministries in which we are involved are in this area of ministry unto the house of God, or ministry unto the people of God. That probably occupies most of our so-called spiritual ministry.
We know very little, and we are involved very little, in this matter of ministry unto the Lord. Probably we even do not know what ministry unto the Lord is.
And yet, brothers and sisters, we know that ministry unto the Lord is the foundation of all ministries. Unless we minister unto the Lord, we cannot minister unto the Lord’s people. Unless we know how to minister unto the Lord, our ministry unto the house of God will be superficial, shallow, and temporary. There will not be that eternal and spiritual value in it.
I think this is a great need among God’s people today. So this morning we would like to focus our attention on this matter of ministry unto the Lord.
We know that when God called the children of Israel out of Egypt, God’s purpose for this redeemed people was for them to become a nation of priests. As priests, their primary occupation was to minister unto the Lord. That is what God really was after in His people.
But unfortunately, as we mentioned last night, because the children of Israel sinned, they forfeited this honor, this privilege, of ministering unto the Lord. Eventually, this whole people was disqualified. God chose one tribe among the twelve, the Levites; and of that tribe of Levi, God chose one family, the family of Aaron.
The family of Aaron were to be priests, and the tribe of Levi were to be Levites, serving the house. When you look into the Old Testament, you find the priests were to offer sacrifices unto the Lord. They were to light the lamp in the holy place, place the showbread on the table, and burn incense at the golden altar of incense. They were the people that drew near to God and ministered unto the Lord.
The Levites were to keep the doors of the tabernacle, to prevent strangers from coming in. They were to serve in the tabernacle, bringing the water, bringing the wood, and doing all the things under the direction of the priests. Their job was to serve the house, the tabernacle. Their job was to serve the people, the people of God. When any child of Israel came to offer a sacrifice, they would help him to slay the animal. That was their work.
The rest of the children of Israel, in a sense, were completely barred from service, both to the house and to the Lord. We know that it was a great failure.
But, brothers and sisters, in the New Testament you find that God does not want us to go back to that system. That was almost, we can say, an emergency measure of God, not God’s original design.
In the New Testament, through the redemption of our Lord Jesus, He is bringing us back to God’s original purpose. That is the reason why, after we are saved, He has made us a kingdom of priests. We are all to serve as priests before God.
Our purpose on this earth is one: we are to minister unto the Lord. But, brothers and sisters, probably we need to ask ourselves this question: Do we really live our life on earth ministering unto the Lord? How do we minister unto the Lord?
One day, when I was reading the book of Acts, I came to Acts 13. There you find the church in Antioch. There were five prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
We know Barnabas. If you go back to Acts 4, you find Barnabas. His former name was Joseph; he was a Levite. But he loved the Lord. He laid everything at the feet of the Lord, and the apostles gave him the name Barnabas, son of consolation.
Barnabas was a man full of the Holy Spirit. He was sent to Antioch to see what the Lord was doing there. When he saw what the Lord did, his heart was warmed. He stayed with them, exhorted them, and encouraged them. That was Barnabas.
Then you find Simeon, who was called Niger. In other words, he must have been a brother who came from Africa. There was Lucius of Cyrene, and there was Manaen, the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch. In other words, he came from a noble family. Lastly, you find Saul, that great Pharisee who met the Lord on the road to Damascus.
So you find the Lord brought these five brothers together, and they were prophets and teachers. What are the functions of prophets and teachers? The functions of prophets and teachers are to speak to the people of God. In other words, as prophets and teachers, they minister to the people of God. They minister the Word of God to God’s people. That is their ministry.
But here you find these five prophets and teachers ministering unto the Lord. They should have been ministering unto the people, but here you find they were ministering unto the Lord. They were not actively engaged in speaking, in prophesying, or in teaching. Instead, they were there ministering unto the Lord.
Now, brothers and sisters, this ministering unto the Lord arrested my heart. I began to ask the Lord, “What does it mean? Why is it these five, who were supposed to be busily engaged in teaching the people, in presenting the will and mind of God to the people, to build them up—there was their work to do—and instead of doing that work, they seemed to be inactive? They were not doing their job. They were there, setting apart themselves, ministering unto the Lord. What were they doing there?”
It dawned upon me that these brothers knew that unless they first ministered unto the Lord, they could not minister unto the people of God.
But, brothers and sisters, how unfortunate that we often think we can minister to the people of God. Did God give us gifts to prophesy? If God gave us gifts to teach, surely we can do the job. But we fail to realize that even though God may call you and gift you, yet if you do not know the first principle of spiritual ministry, your ministry unto the house of God will be ineffective.
We need to minister unto the Lord first, and only afterwards are we able to minister unto the house of God.
I wondered what they did when they ministered unto the Lord. Then I was directed to Ezekiel 44, because in Ezekiel 44 you find a chapter that tells us how to minister unto the Lord—what ministry unto the Lord is.
We know that Ezekiel was a prophet in exile. The children of Israel, because they rebelled against God, were taken into Babylonian captivity, and Ezekiel was among the captives. But God called him to be a prophet.
When you come to the last nine chapters of the book of Ezekiel, from Ezekiel 40 through 48, you find that God gave the prophet Ezekiel a vision—a vision of the final restoration of all things.
God is to restore all things. He will restore the temple. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed completely, but one day He will restore that temple—not the temple that the remnant, after seventy years of captivity, returned and built, but the final temple: not the physical one, but the spiritual. God gave Ezekiel a vision of the temple.
God also desires to restore the priesthood, the service in the temple. God will restore the kingship. God will restore the kingdom, the city. So here you find in these nine chapters of the book of Ezekiel a prophecy of the final restoration. Everything will be restored to God’s original purpose. That is the vision given to the prophet Ezekiel.
In this vision, there is a part that speaks of the restoration of spiritual ministry, and that is in Ezekiel 44.
But before that spiritual ministry is restored, you find, first of all, there is God’s judgment on spiritual ministry. When the children of Israel forsook God and began to worship idols, unfortunately you find the Levites were also led astray. They even helped the people to worship idols.
Not only the Levites, but even among the priests you find they also began to serve at the altars of the idols. This whole matter was such an abomination in the sight of God.
So even when God is to restore spiritual ministry, you find His judgment is still there. He said that because the Levites, when the children of Israel went astray, helped the children of Israel in rebelling against God, therefore the iniquity is upon them. God said He would forgive them, but because of this they would not be able to enter into the sanctuary and minister unto the Lord Himself.
God still allowed them to keep the doors of the future temple. God still allowed them to serve in the temple. God still allowed them to minister to the people. But they were not allowed to minister unto the Lord Himself.
Only the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, could do so. Here you find that the reason the priests, the Levites, are mentioned is to show that not only the Levites would not be able to be restored to God’s original design of ministering unto the Lord; even the priests were not restored. Among the priests, only the sons of Zadok were the ones whom God called to minister unto Himself.
Why? Because during the declension, when the children of Israel fell away from the Lord, and when the Levites and probably most of the priests fell away, the sons of Zadok were faithful to the Lord. They kept the charge of God.
Because of their faithfulness, God said, “In the restoration, they are the ones permitted to draw near to Me, to minister unto Me.” So, brothers and sisters, here you find a spiritual principle: all who are forgiven can minister to the house, but only those who are faithful may minister unto the Lord.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, to minister unto the Lord is not a small thing. The glory of the Lord, as we find in the vision of Ezekiel, entered into the house, the temple. The Lord was there. For people to draw near to Him, to minister unto Him, was an awesome thing.
God is holy. God is righteous. God is full of glory. To be able to come near to Him and really minister unto Him—as if ministering to His needs, to satisfy His heart—brothers and sisters, that is a tremendous honor. It is not something that can be given to anybody. Do not think that ministering unto the Lord is a small thing. It is a tremendous honor.
We, as those who are forgiven, can all minister to the house of God. But, brothers and sisters, only the faithful can minister unto the Lord.
In a sense, the church is still in captivity. The church is in captivity to the world—not only to the world as it is, but also to the religious world.
As you read church history, you find that even though, from generation to generation, there have been some who, by the grace and mercy of God, were brought back, as it were, to Jerusalem, to peace with God, and there were able to be built up as it were a kind of token, an emblem, of the house of God that God is after.
But as you look at Christianity as a whole, even to our day, I think we have to acknowledge that the church is still in captivity.
Who are those who, when the people of God fall away, will be faithful to the Lord and keep the charge of God? When you find there is declension everywhere, who are those people who will be faithful to the original purpose of God, faithful to the testimony of the Lord Jesus? Those who are faithful will be given this privilege of ministry unto the Lord Himself.
You remember, in the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy, he mentioned time and again, especially in 2 Timothy, this matter of the faithful. “Entrust to faithful men”—not to everybody—because people are falling away from God and from His purpose. Therefore, there are some who are faithful; entrust to them the testimony of Jesus.
Now, who are the faithful ones? The church has become a great house. In 1 Timothy, you find the church is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Yet when you come to 2 Timothy, you find the church has become a great house. In the great house, you find vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, vessels of gold and silver and vessels of wood and earth.
The Scripture says that if you have purified yourself, separating yourself from these—that is, from the vessels of dishonor—then you will become sanctified, meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
In other words, brothers and sisters, God is looking today for those who are faithful to His testimony, faithful to His purpose. Those who are faithful have to purify themselves from that which is unfaithful. Only to those who are faithful is there that privilege of ministry unto the Lord.
So, brothers and sisters, before we talk about this matter of ministry unto the Lord, we really need to humble ourselves before Him. Thank God, He has forgiveness. But, brothers and sisters, have we been faithful to Him in this time of declension? If we are faithful, then the Lord says, “You may minister unto Me.”
I wonder whether that is the reason why we see lots of ministry unto the house, but very little, if any, ministry unto the Lord.
Now, what is ministry unto the Lord? In the book of Ezekiel, you find in verse 15:
But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me, to minister unto Me.
The first thing is to approach, to draw near to the Lord. You cannot minister unto the Lord if you are a thousand miles away from Him. You have to draw near to Him to serve Him.
But, you know, in Ezekiel 44 this approaching Him is different from the approaching Him in Hebrews 10. In Hebrews 10, we find that through the blood of our Lord Jesus, because of the new and living way that He has opened for us through the veil—that is, His flesh, His body broken for us—and because He is our great High Priest, interceding for us unceasingly, on the basis of these three things we may approach the holy of holies with boldness. We may come to God with confidence.
But we come, we approach Him, for what reason? We approach Him to receive grace to live. If we do not approach Him, we cannot live even a minute.
Today we are still living; today, by the grace of God, we are still being kept. It is all because of the blood of the Lamb. It is all because of the broken body of our Lord Jesus. It is all because of His high priesthood. It is all because of what He has done for us that we are able to receive grace, even to live on this earth—to receive mercy.
Thank God for this approach. But if you read Ezekiel 44, you find that when God says, “You shall approach unto Me,” it is not in the sense that you may receive grace for your needs, but that you may minister unto Me. Now, that is a great difference.
We all know, and thank God we all experience, that approach unto the Lord to receive grace and mercy for seasonable help. But do we know this approach, this drawing near to Him, not to receive grace to meet our needs, but to minister to Him, as it were, to meet His need?
Only those who live near to Him can serve Him. Even on earth, when the king or the queen is to be served, those people who are chosen to be near him or near her, to serve daily, are privileged. It is an honor. It is not everybody who can do that. Only those chosen are privileged to be companions, as it were, with the king, and to be near him all the time, to minister to him at all times.
How much more is it for us to minister unto Him, to be, as it were, His daily companion: to approach Him at all times and learn to minister to His needs? Dear brothers and sisters, it requires a life that lives very close to Him.
Here we look into our lives, brothers and sisters: how close are we to the Lord? Is it that we find ourselves oftentimes quite distant from Him? The world seems to come upon us and draw us away from the Lord into the world.
Maybe in the early morning, when you have a time with the Lord, you sense that intimacy with Him. But when you step into the world, it seems as if that closeness, that nearness, has vanished.
Can we live our life on this earth, even though we may be busily engaged with external things, and yet in our heart there is a closeness, there is an intimacy, there is a fellowship with the Lord that is unhindered?
We need to live continuously in His presence. In spite of the fact that outwardly we live among the people, even the people of this world, yet we never leave His presence.
Now, this is ministering unto the Lord. What He desires is our being with Him more than what we do for Him.
I wonder if this is the reason why we find it so easy, or comparatively easier, to minister to God’s people, to the house of God, than to minister unto the Lord. Approaching Him, drawing near to Him, living constantly in His presence—that is something that satisfies His heart.
Secondly, they shall stand before Me.
Now, brothers and sisters, again, this standing before Him is different from the judicial standing before Him that we all have. Formerly, we could not stand before Him because we were sinners. If we wanted to stand before Him, we would be smitten to death.
Thank God, through the redemption of our Lord Jesus, we have a standing before God. We can stand before God. Why? Because we are clothed with Christ. When God looks upon us, He does not see us; He sees Christ. That is the reason why we are accepted by God in the Beloved.
Thank God for this standing that we all have. But the standing here is a deeper thing. It is not just a matter that we may be standing there and not be smitten. It is to stand before the Lord in order that we may minister unto Him.
When you read the Old Testament, there is one phrase that will catch your heart. It is what Elijah said: “As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand.” He was a person who stood before God.
Before he stood before Ahab, he stood before God. Even when he stood before Ahab, he was still a person who stood before God. In other words, it was not just an occasional thing; it became almost like a status. That is what he was. He was a man who stood before God.
Do you know what standing before God is? From the eyes of the flesh, standing is inactive; it is passive. Our flesh cannot stand standing. We are on the move all the time.
Not only is that what our flesh is, but we think that only as we are running hither and thither, doing this thing and that thing, and actively involved, is it worthwhile. If we are doing nothing—not even walking, but standing—that is a waste of time.
The flesh cannot stand standing. Try it. Try to stand before the Lord. Of course, the standing here does not mean physically standing; it means an attitude.
To minister unto the Lord, you need to develop an attitude. You need to become a person who is always standing before the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, when you read the Word of God, you find that standing before the Lord is such an honor. Even in the vision that Zechariah saw—a lampstand and two olive trees by the side of the lampstand—the explanation was, “These are the two sons of oil that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
In Psalm 123:
Unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes,
O Thou that sittest in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master,
As the eyes of a maid unto the hand of her mistress;
So our eyes look unto Jehovah our God,
Until He have mercy upon us.
That is standing.
This psalm is written with a background. In the Orient, in the East, you find that when a great master entertains his guests, his servants stand around the room. They are all standing there with their eyes upon the master.
It is considered not a good thing for the master to open his mouth and tell his servants what to do. So the custom was that the servants would stand there, alert, waiting. They were not dreaming or sleeping. They were watchful, their eyes upon the hands of the master.
The master would not say a word. When anything needed to be done, he would just use his hand, make a gesture, and the servants would know exactly what to do and go ahead and do it. Now, that is standing before the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, are we running around? Are we so impatient that we cannot wait upon the Lord?
In so-called ministry today, you find it is just people running around, doing things according to what they think is good, or according to what they think is the will of God. As a matter of fact, you find lots of so-called Christian activities today do not originate from the Master.
It is working for God, not working with God.
Unless we know how to stand before Him, unless we know how to wait upon Him until we receive orders, there is no movement. People will say, “Well, you are lazy. You are idling.” You will be criticized. You will be misunderstood.
But, dear brothers and sisters, only those who know God would rather stand before Him and do nothing than go and do anything before the order is given.
Are you sure that what you are doing is the will of God? Are you certain that God has commanded you to run?
You know, the sin of presumptuousness is the same as the sin of disobedience. If God gives you an order and you do not do it, it is the sin of disobedience. But if the Lord has not given you an order and you go ahead, it is the sin of presumptuousness.
No wonder the psalmist prayed, “Deliver me from presumptuous sins.” Dear brothers and sisters, today God’s people know very little of the sin of presumptuousness. Probably we know that to disobey God is sin; we realize that. But do we realize that without His order, when we do it, it is also sin?
If we can be kept from the sin of presumptuousness, then we will be perfect before Him. That is what the psalmist said.
To wait upon Him, to stand before Him, is to pray: praying to know His will, praying for His kingdom to come, praying for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Again, I say, it is not easy for the flesh. We cannot do it. It is only by the mercies of God that we are able to stand before Him, that we may minister unto Him. This very attitude of standing is a ministry unto the Lord.
Thirdly:
They shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah.
They stand before the Lord in order that they may be able to present unto the Lord the fat and the blood. To understand this, you have to go back to Leviticus. The book of Leviticus is the handbook of the priests.
If you go back to Leviticus 3, you find that when the children of Israel offered a peace offering before God, the blood would be offered, and all the fat of the sacrifice would be burned on the altar as an offering of a sweet savor.
In the same chapter, Leviticus 3, you find that the fat is the food of the offering. It is for God to consume. No child of Israel could eat the fat or drink the blood—no fat, no blood, for the children of Israel. Why? Because the blood and the fat are devoted to the Lord.
Here you find what those who minister unto the Lord do: they are privileged to present unto the Lord the fat and the blood.
Now, what is the fat? What does it signify? Today we do not like fat, but in the Scripture you find fat is a beautiful thing.
You need fuel for your life. When you eat, you put fuel in you and are able to live. But if you have extra, abundance, then you find it is preserved there as fat in your body. So, as a matter of fact, fat signifies the abundance, the excellence, the vitality, the energy of life. That is what fat is.
The fat of the sacrifice is to be consumed by the Lord Himself as His food.
Now, of course, primarily the sacrifice speaks of Christ. When you think of our Lord Jesus, when you think of His life, you find such beauty in His life, such energy in His life, such abundant life in Him. You find His whole life is offered on the altar as food to God.
No wonder God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
In union with Christ, with His life in us, when we are able to experience life abundantly, brothers and sisters, that vitality, that power, that beauty, that strength, that abundance, is not for ourselves to consume, nor to be consumed by anybody else. It is to be completely offered to God to be His food.
Remember, it is not your fat or my fat. It is not our natural energy, natural life, or natural strength. Oh, how we have an abundance of natural strength, an abundance of natural mind, an abundance of natural gifts and natural talents, and we would want to offer all these on the altar. No, these are abominable to God. He does not want them.
Romans 12 says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Fine, okay, I present my body a living sacrifice. But remember, that body is not the body of death, not the body of sin. It is a body redeemed by the Lord.
If you want to offer your original body—that is, your natural body—and all the natural strength in that body, that is your natural fat, and it is no good. It is only that which is of Him, that which is constituted of Christ, that can be offered.
You know, brothers and sisters, most of us give a sense that we are able, as it were, to draw from the Lord just barely enough to live on. There is no abundance. Without that abundance, how can we minister unto the Lord?
For those who are in union with Him, those who know His life abundant, those who have the spiritual reserve, here you find their privilege: to present spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That is the offering of the fat.
Of course, there is the presenting of the blood. The blood is not only in the sense that, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, His blood has atoned for our sins. Thank God for that. But, dear brothers and sisters, the more you live close to the Lord, the more you find the preciousness of the blood. Without the blood, you cannot live a moment.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
We need to present the blood to God continuously. Brother Watchman Nee says, “The blood is to satisfy God’s holiness and righteousness, and the fat is to satisfy God’s glory.”
Are we presenting the blood before the Lord to satisfy God’s holiness and righteousness all the time? When He sees the blood, His holiness and righteousness are satisfied. Are we presenting the fat continuously to Him? When He sees His beloved Son, His glory is satisfied.
This is our daily life: a continuous presenting of the fat and the blood of the Lord Jesus that we have experienced, appreciated, and known.
Number four:
They shall come near to My table.
Now, if the table speaks of the table of showbread, then we know that it is in the holy place. Only the priests could enter into the holy place and put the showbread on that table.
The showbread literally means the bread of the presence. In other words, the showbread is a type of our Lord Jesus. He is the bread of the presence, and He is ever present before the Father. That is the Father’s joy and delight.
After a week, this bread was to be taken away and changed for new bread, and the bread was to be the food of the priests. So, you find that those who minister unto the Lord present Christ to God to be His satisfaction, and at the same time, they are in communion with Christ and are satisfied, filled with Him. It speaks of communion.
We commune with the Lord, and in communing, we are putting the showbread on the table.
Naturally speaking, when a father sees his son, no joy can be compared to that, especially if the son is very loyal and very obedient. How much more our Heavenly Father is pleased when we present Christ to Him as the showbread. He sees Christ continuously in us, and we are in constant communion with the Lord. That is ministry unto the Lord.
Some people say that the table may not speak of the table of showbread because, if you read Ezekiel 41, it seems that the table is the altar of incense. If it speaks of the altar of incense, it means worship and praise. That is our privilege.
Anyway, finally you find that they shall keep My charge.
A charge is a command, a burden, or an office. That is the way it is used in the Scripture. For time’s sake, I will shorten it. When the Lord says, “They shall keep My charge,” to put it in a simpler way, it means they shall keep My testimony.
He will commit Himself to them, and they will keep His testimony faithfully.
Brothers and sisters, this is ministry unto the Lord. Ministering unto the Lord is something so different from our natural concept. Our natural concept is work and activities—that is ministry. But when you think of ministering to the Lord, you find that it is life.
It is your standing before Him. It is your waiting upon Him. It is your keeping His charge, being faithful to His testimony. When the world is falling apart, there are people who are faithful to Him. That satisfies His heart. That is ministry unto the Lord.
We do not have the time to go over the conditions. There should be no wool upon them, only linen—no sweating. Oh, how we sweat today in the Lord’s work! But there is no sweating, no perspiring out of the natural flesh.
You find the reward is that the Lord says, “I am their inheritance. I am their possession. They shall not have any other possession, but I am their possession.” Oh, brothers and sisters, is that not much better than anything else?
So may the Lord help us really to enter into this realm of ministry unto the Lord. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do acknowledge that we know very little of this ministering unto Thee. Lord, we ask Thy forgiveness. We pray for light, for understanding, for revelation, to deliver us out of what we call ministry and really get us down to that one ministry that is so fundamental, that is the only one that really satisfies.