You want me to find out.
Let us turn to 1 Peter 2:5.
You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Let us have another simple word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You that we have come before You at the time that You have set for us. It is by Your grace that You have gathered us once again for sustenance from You. We thank You.
In You is fullness of grace, fullness of truth. May we today all see Your glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Listen to our prayer. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, we know that the theme of this conference is “spiritual house, holy priesthood, and acceptable sacrifices.” My responsibility is to speak on the holy priesthood.
Now, what do I mean by the holy priesthood? To understand the holy priesthood, we must allow God’s Word to explain His own Word.
If we continue to read, we see that our Lord is that chosen Stone, a precious cornerstone. Sadly, though this Stone was chosen by God and regarded by Him as most precious, He was rejected by men.
He was not merely rejected by ordinary men; He was rejected by experts. The Bible says:
The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the very cornerstone.
Among all the people of this world, God chose the children of Israel. God gave them His Word and His revelation. If one is to understand God’s will, one must receive His revelation. These people had received more grace and understanding than others.
They were not uneducated people. In God’s Word and in God’s purpose, they had been educated. They were like builders. Yet what God saw, they could not see. What God saw as most precious, they rejected.
They said, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Away with Him! Away with Him!”
The Stone that God saw as precious was rejected by the builders. Therefore, the Bible continues and says that He became a stone of stumbling.
Christ and Him crucified became a stone of stumbling to people. Until today, they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. These were the chosen race, the chosen people of God; yet they were the ones who rejected and crucified our Lord on the cross.
In this background, Peter comes to 1 Peter 2:9:
But you are a chosen race.
Here the Holy Spirit makes a great turn. Yes, in history the children of Israel were the chosen people. They should have understood God’s will. They should have chosen what God chose and found precious what God found precious. But they rejected our Lord and crucified Him on the cross.
It was for these fallen people—and Peter himself was a Jew—that he said, “But you are a chosen race.” This is a tremendous turn in history.
The children of Israel are part of history. God had a covenant with them, and they indeed were His chosen people. But in Christ they fell. Therefore Peter says, “But you are a chosen race.” Who are “you”? They are those referred to in chapter 1: those who have been born again.
We who have been born again are now a chosen race.
When Peter spoke these words, there were three important phrases that told us how we are a chosen race:
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession.
And verse 10 says:
For you once were not a people,
but now you are the people of God.
Before, we were Gentiles and strangers. But now we are the people of God, members of the household of God.
Our Lord is the cornerstone. When we come before Him, we are like living stones. By that Cornerstone, we can be fitted together and built into a spiritual house. The Holy Spirit can dwell among us, and we become His holy temple.
According to Peter, according to Paul, and according to the Bible, we are the household of God. This is a very great turning point. If we do not understand history, we do not know how great the grace is that we have received.
When Peter says that we are the chosen race, he mentions three matters: a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God’s own possession. These speak of something in God’s heart.
God has a purpose, and this purpose is an eternal purpose. Before we were even born, before the foundation of the world, God had already established that purpose.
When Peter wrote these verses, he was opening up the heart of God to us. These phrases come from the Old Testament and have to do with the children of Israel.
God spoke words to Israel that opened His heart to them. Thousands of years later, the Holy Spirit says to us, “But you are a chosen race.” God is speaking to us again what He spoke in the Old Testament.
The people of Israel failed, but God’s will cannot be overturned. No, brothers and sisters. Even though the children of Israel fell, and Christ and the cross became a stumbling block to them, the Holy Spirit has done a wonderful work. God’s will must be accomplished.
The people of Israel thought they were the only chosen people. But after they failed, they could not fulfill God’s heart. Yet God must gain what He desires to gain.
Do not forget: 1 Peter 2 is a great word. It speaks of God’s heart to us.
If you read Exodus 19, you remember that when the children of Israel left Egypt, about fifty days later they arrived at Mount Sinai.
There is a misunderstanding when one reads the Bible in Chinese. It may sound as though three full months had passed, but in the Hebrew it says that they arrived in the third month. If we count carefully, it was actually about the forty-seventh day when they arrived at Mount Sinai.
Before Pharaoh would let them go, the children of Israel were released from his hand through the ten plagues. Then they crossed the Red Sea and arrived in the wilderness of Sinai. About forty-seven days later, they finally arrived at Mount Sinai.
When we read the story of Israel, we understand how they were able to leave Egypt. Actually, it is a picture; it is a type. The children of Israel laboured under Pharaoh, just as we were slaves of sin before we were saved.
Pharaoh typifies Satan. Egypt is a type of the world. Israel is a type of us.
When the people of Israel were in hard labour, their cry reached God’s ears. God sent Moses to save them. Let us turn to Exodus 3.
Exodus 3:7 says:
And the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.”
And then:
So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.
Verse 9 says:
And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.
And God said:
Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.
The story of deliverance begins here. God sent Moses to save the people of Israel and, in the end, to bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey. Canaan was their long-term purpose.
But before entering Canaan, there was a short-term goal. Exodus 3:12 says:
Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.
This mountain is Mount Sinai. God called the children of Israel out of Egypt, and He appointed a mountain where He would meet them. There they would serve and worship Him.
According to Hosea, God said, “Out of Egypt I called My son.” God called them out of Egypt to gather them together. This is God’s heart.
When Stephen reviewed this portion of the Bible, he spoke of “the church in the wilderness.” The church was not born until Pentecost, but the Holy Spirit uses this expression because the Old Testament is a shadow and a type.
The word church means those who are called out and gathered together. When the children of Israel were called out of Egypt and gathered before God at Mount Sinai, the Holy Spirit was showing us a picture.
Before they saw God’s face, the Lord had brought them through the Red Sea. He turned bitter water into sweet water through a tree. Manna fell from heaven. Water flowed from the rock. He gave them victory in battle when Amalek attacked them.
Before they had seen God’s face, they had already been recipients of great grace. We too have eaten of the manna and drunk of the water.
Many times we feel that the waters of our circumstances are bitter. Yet through the cross, our environments become sweet. Even when we are on a sickbed, that bed can become heaven. This is how the bitter water becomes sweet.
Many times we are attacked by the flesh, but the Holy Spirit leads us into victory. God had given so much grace to the children of Israel before they even saw Him.
But God wanted to meet them. When they came to the mountain, they were to serve Him.
Moses knew how to approach Pharaoh. He spoke a very famous phrase again and again—at least six times:
Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
God did not merely say, “Let My people go.” He said, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”
To leave Egypt means that we no longer suffer under the hand of Pharaoh. Once we are saved, we are no longer slaves of sin. Yet God’s purpose is more than deliverance from suffering. He saves us so that we may serve Him.
Egypt had the Nile. It was a land of abundance, and its civilisation was among the greatest of ancient civilisations. But the wilderness had no Nile. In the wilderness, every provision was a miracle from God.
God said, “Let My people go to the wilderness, that they may serve Me.” Pharaoh heard this phrase again and again. Yet the children of Israel themselves often did not understand it.
After leaving Egypt, they began to think of the good food in Egypt. Egypt had not left them, even though they had left Egypt.
This is also true of us. We often describe salvation only from the standpoint of sinners: we suffered under Pharaoh, and one day the Lord saved us. That is true, but we must also hear God’s explanation of salvation.
After about forty-seven days, Israel arrived at Mount Sinai. God wanted to speak. Let us turn to Exodus 19.
Exodus 19:3-4 says:
And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.”
How did the children of Israel walk through the wilderness during those forty-seven days? God explained it to them: “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.”
This is the story of the mother eagle and the eaglets. The mother eagle places her young in a high and safe place, where they can grow.
God did the same for Israel. Remember the covenant that God made with Abraham: his seed would become as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
When Jacob came to Egypt, there were only seventy people. How could they become as numerous as the sand of the sea? They needed to be placed in the right place.
God placed them in the best place in Egypt. Pharaoh gave them the land of Rameses, the land of Goshen, near the delta of the Nile. Egypt is largely desert, but the banks of the Nile are like an oasis.
God put the children of Israel in the best place so that His Word might be fulfilled. After about four hundred years, the children of Israel became numerous and abundant.
But gradually they forgot. They thought Egypt was paradise. They thought that this was the way they would live forever.
Yet God said, “Out of Egypt I called My son.” Life must grow. If the eaglet always remains in the nest, it will never learn to fly. If it never learns to fly, it cannot mature.
Therefore, the mother eagle stirs up the nest. To the eaglets, it may seem like a typhoon. They do not understand what is happening. They ask, “Why does the mother not love me? For so long we had such a beautiful place. Why this suffering?”
But they forget that if they are to grow, they must go through growing pains.
When the children of Israel suffered under Pharaoh, they too said, “We cannot stay here.” For four hundred years they had considered Egypt their paradise. They had forgotten God’s will and His covenant with Abraham.
The mother eagle stirs the nest, and the eaglets begin to fly. But can they fly? If they fall upon the rocks, they will die. Therefore, as the eaglets fall, the mother eagle comes beneath them and catches them with her wings.
This is the meaning of leaving Egypt and entering the wilderness. The children of Israel could not survive by their own strength. God sustained them with His wings.
God said:
I bore you on eagles’ wings,
and brought you to Myself.
Finally, God could meet them face to face. Finally, they could see His face. This is why they were called to serve Him.
The whole way is by grace. The children of Israel may have thought that they walked through the wilderness by their own strength, but God said, “I bore you on eagles’ wings.” We are but eaglets, carried by grace.
Even though God met them at the appointed place and gave them the law, do not forget the beginning point: the whole way was grace.
If we understand this passage, we understand how God worked in the life of Israel and how He works in our lives. The whole way is grace, so that we may come before God, meet Him, and serve Him.
However many people God delivered from Egypt, that was how many people were meant to serve Him. “Let My people go” meant all of My people. God’s enemy heard those words many times.
Now we come to Exodus 19:5:
Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.
God was going to make a covenant with this people because they had experienced His grace. Everything begins from grace.
This covenant at Mount Sinai was different from the covenant with Abraham. When God made covenant with Abraham, Abraham was asleep. God alone passed through the pieces. It was entirely of grace; there were no conditions.
But the covenant at Mount Sinai had conditions. It was ratified with the blood of the covenant, and the children of Israel said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” It was like a contract to which both parties were bound.
If they obeyed God’s Word, God would bless them. If they disobeyed, the curse would come upon them. This was the covenant of Mount Sinai.
God said that if they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant, three things would be true of them:
You shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples.
You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests.
You shall be a holy nation.
A people for God’s own possession means that they would be His special treasure among all the peoples of the earth.
The second matter is this: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests.” The third is: “a holy nation.”
Let us return to 1 Peter 2:9:
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession.
Now we know where this verse comes from. The “people for God’s own possession” corresponds to God’s treasured possession. “A royal priesthood” corresponds to a kingdom of priests. “A holy nation” is the same in both passages.
God has an eternal purpose. What He could not accomplish through Israel, He will accomplish through the church.
God called out the children of Israel not merely to gather them together, but to accomplish three things: that they would be His treasure among all nations, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
A kingdom of priests means that everyone in that kingdom is a priest. This is very important.
If we put Exodus 19 together with 1 Peter 2, the passages explain each other. What is a royal priesthood? It is a kingdom of priests.
In Israel there was a chosen race, but later there was a choice within the choice. Among the twelve tribes, only one tribe was chosen. Within the tribe of Levi, only the household of Aaron was chosen for the priesthood.
But we are not like that. When God says, “You are a chosen race; you are a royal priesthood,” it means that every single one of us is a priest.
In the old temple arrangement, not everyone could draw near. Some could come only to the outer courts. Some could come nearer. Priests could enter the holy place, and only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies once a year, with blood.
God’s original purpose was that His people would be a kingdom of priests. But when they broke the covenant, they could no longer function as a kingdom of priests.
The children of Israel worshipped the golden calf. They had said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do,” but immediately they turned to idolatry.
God’s anger was upon them. Moses reminded God of His covenant with Abraham, and because of that covenant God did not destroy the children of Israel.
But because they had failed, they could not serve as a kingdom of priests. How could they be God’s testimony while worshipping an idol?
Moses called out:
Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!
The sons of Levi gathered to Moses. Among the twelve tribes, God chose Levi. Then, within Levi, the household of Aaron was chosen.
Aaron himself had allowed the people to become out of control and to worship the golden calf. There was no natural reason for God to choose Aaron’s house. It was entirely of grace.
The order of Aaron was not according to God’s original purpose. It came after the failure of the children of Israel. The original thought was a kingdom of priests; after failure, only one tribe served, and then only one household served.
Let us turn to Deuteronomy 10. Moses says:
At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day.
This setting apart of Levi is placed in the context of Israel’s failures: the worship of the golden calf and the later wilderness rebellion. Within the choice there was another choice because the whole people had failed.
Yet God’s will will not fail. Let us turn to Isaiah 61:6:
But you will be called the priests of the Lord;
You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.
This speaks of the millennium. When the Messiah comes, God’s will will finally be accomplished. All Israel will be called priests of the Lord.
But thank the Lord, we do not have to wait until the millennium. Though Israel failed, Peter says to those who have been born again:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.
How many among us have been born again? That is how many holy priests there are. God could not attain this in Israel, but He attains it in the church.
Let us turn to Revelation 1:5-6:
To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—
and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
His blood is the blood of the covenant. Everyone who partakes before the Lord’s table belongs to this kingdom of priests. This covenant, like the covenant with Abraham, has no condition. It is forever.
The covenant at Sinai was made through the blood of animals. Here the Bible says that He used His own blood. We are priests to His God and Father.
Revelation 5:9-10 says:
Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals;
for You were slain,
and purchased for God with Your blood
men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God;
and they will reign upon the earth.
How many priests are there today? The answer is: however many people the Lord purchased with His blood. Through His blood, we have covenant with our Lord. By that blood, we have been purchased.
Therefore, we are a kingdom of priests, and we will reign upon the earth. This is a royal priesthood.
If we turn to Hebrews, this becomes even clearer. The first ten chapters show us that our Lord is the great High Priest.
But He is not a priest according to the order of Aaron, because He is not of the tribe of Levi. The order of Aaron was connected with the old dispensation.
According to God’s eternal purpose, our Lord is the great High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He is also King. He is a royal High Priest.
The final chapters of Hebrews show that He leads many sons into glory. Our Lord is the great High Priest, and we are all priests.
Hebrews 13:15 says:
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.
Who can offer sacrifices? Only priests can offer sacrifices. Therefore, we are all priests.
Hebrews tells us that we can come with confidence before the throne of grace. The throne of grace is in the Holy of Holies.
The Bible tells us that we may come boldly through the veil. Our Lord’s body was broken for us, and He opened a new and living way.
Are we going to remain in the outer court and say that His presence is next door? By His own blood, we can enter the Holy of Holies.
This is the characteristic of a priest: he can come before God. He can come into the Holy of Holies.
Yes, the priest serves, but his strength comes from drawing near to the Lord. Many times, when we speak of service, we think only of work. But the priest works when he is closest to the Lord.
There is no place closer to God than this. Service is not merely activity or outward movement. Many activities are far from God, and that is not priestly service.
The service of a priest is in God’s temple, in the holy place, and in the Holy of Holies. By His blood, we can come with confidence before Him.
We are recipients of such royalty. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. Thank the Lord.
What does a priest do? A priest offers sacrifices.
If you read Leviticus, there are five basic offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.
These sacrifices point to what the Lord did on the cross for us. He bore our sins. He gave Himself completely to God as the burnt offering. On earth, He was like the meal offering; no sin could be found in Him.
All these matters were accomplished on the cross. This is the redemption of the cross.
But God gives us not only the redemption of the cross, but also the fellowship of the cross. We are called to bear the cross and follow Him, entering into the fellowship of His sufferings.
This is our subjective experience. The fellowship of the cross becomes our offering.
Only the Lord could offer the sin offering. Only He could atone for us. We cannot do that. But we can enter into fellowship with Him.
Because He has atoned for sin and accomplished all things on the cross, we can offer to God the sacrifice of praise.
The reason we can pray is because of what He did on the cross. The reason we can offer sacrifice is because He was the sin offering on the cross for us.
We are all priests. We no longer bring animal sacrifices; we offer the sacrifice of praise.
Every time we break bread, we are at a time of offering. Everybody can pray. Everybody can declare the work that was accomplished on the cross. This is a sacrifice of praise.
Hebrews also says that we are not to neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
When the life of Christ is abundant within us, we desire to share that life and give out that life. When we give this life, it becomes our sacrifice.
Paul says:
I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.
This is the burnt offering. The burnt offering is complete consecration. It is not a half-sacrifice. Daily we offer ourselves to Him.
Let us turn to Philippians 2:17:
Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice.
Paul was speaking to those in Philippi. Their faith was an offering to God. But Paul said that, in addition, he was being poured out as a drink offering.
What is a drink offering? After the offering was presented, the priest took wine and poured it upon the sacrifice.
Wine comes from grapes. When the grape becomes ripe, it goes to the winepress. It passes through death and resurrection, and its life is released.
How much we have drunk of this life is measured by how much we are able to give out. Service is not easy. Teaching alone is not enough. Life must be poured out.
“If I am poured out as a drink offering, I rejoice.” Not only is there the burnt offering, but there is also the drink offering. Our life is to be a poured-out life.
The precious blood has saved us and brought us into covenant with God. Whoever has been purchased by His blood is a priest.
By His blood, we can draw near to Him. There is no longer a dividing wall.
Hudson Taylor’s wife, shortly before she died, said, “I thank God that in the past time between the Lord and me there never was a cloud.”
Here is one who lived in the Holy of Holies. Thank the Lord. This is the closest fellowship we can know. This is God’s treasure. It is a great privilege.
This is our position. As our Lord is the royal High Priest, so we are royal priests.
The first thing of a priest is to draw near. Drawing near to Him is coming to the source of life. From Him we receive life.
In Hebrews, the thought of sacrifice is connected with drawing near. Sin prevents us from drawing near, and therefore there is the burnt offering. But fundamentally, as to life, we come to the Source of life.
Because we have received the power of His life, we can serve. However many priests there are, that is how many servants there are. It is not merely a small number of people who serve.
I remember that many years ago someone asked me, “When will you become full-time? When will you come to serve God full-time?”
My answer was, “I have always been full-time.” Our occupations are our avocations; our service to God is our vocation.
If we know God’s will, we know that God wants a kingdom of priests. Therefore, everyone serves God.
On one hand, we bring men before God. On the other hand, for God, we come before men. This is what a priest does.
Paul came before God on behalf of the Philippians, and he brought God’s Word to the Philippians. In this way, Paul was a priest.
This has to do with God’s eternal purpose. The church cannot fail. If the church fails, where is the way for God’s purpose to be fulfilled? Israel failed, so the Lord has put us in this position today.
What God could not attain in Israel, He desires to attain in the church.
Satan wants to take us back to the Old Testament—to an arrangement in which only a few serve and the rest remain far away. But the Lord’s blood has purchased a people, and all whom He has purchased are called to serve Him.
If there are six hundred people in the church, all six hundred can serve, because all can draw near and come to the source of life.
Service gives us an opportunity to draw near to the Lord.
There was a small child who made a mess of his father’s garden. A neighbour asked the father, “Why do you let your child do that?” The father answered, “I am not here to cultivate my garden. I am here to cultivate my son.”
Many times our service makes a mess. We may hurt brothers and sisters. But do not forget: God is not primarily cultivating the garden; He is cultivating us.
This is a holy priesthood. This is royal priesthood. God has given us many opportunities so that we may learn to draw near to Him.
This is God’s will. He has borne us on eagles’ wings. This is the reason we were saved.
God has given us a responsibility. May we listen to Him. Every time we break bread, we come to the appointed place, and there we offer up sacrifices.
Now we slowly understand the holy priesthood and the royal priesthood. Many other words we will leave for tomorrow.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we want to commit these words into Your hands. Lord, we hate that our tongues are so dull. We cannot express what You want us to express.
We ask that Your Holy Spirit will continue to work in each heart, work in each young person, and work in each life that has been purchased by Your blood.
May we draw near to You. May we rise up and serve You. Not only are we holy priests, but we are royal priests.
Glory and love be unto You, God. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.