Well, good evening, brothers, again. How quickly these weekends fly.
As we prepare to look again into the Word of the Lord, I remind my own heart, and I remind you, of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable: total reliance upon the Holy Spirit. It is His Bible. He has inspired it, and only God can reveal God.
He has promised that He would open up His Word, put the spotlight on our Lord Jesus, and give us eyes to see if we would ask Him.
Let me share a couple of verses with you. One is Psalm 35:3:
Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
Nothing short of a divine testimony is ever going to content the remnant heart—your heart or mine. I hope by the time tonight is over, I have said to your soul, “The Lord is your salvation.” But you did not come here to hear me say to you, “The Lord is your salvation.”
Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
We need to hear God say that to us, not any human instrument.
John 3:27 says:
A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven.
Given from above.
Now, the fact that it is not possible to receive more than God gives—that is true. It is not possible. But God has given us the option to receive less.
And we do not want to receive less. We want to receive all that He has to give. So let us trust the Lord now and ask Him to say to our souls, “I am thy salvation.”
Father, again, we praise You so much for the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, who desires to show us the things of our Lord Jesus Christ—to unveil Him in fresh ways, that we might know the Lord in all the intimacies of the marriage time.
We ask You, Lord, to take us all forward in a heart knowledge of our Lord Jesus. And Lord, we pray that You would, by Your grace, as the Mediator of the new covenant, enable us to be what You have called us to be: Your royal priests.
Thank You that You are going to guide us tonight, because our Lord Jesus deserves it. We come in His precious name. Amen.
Well, again, we do not need a lot of review, but we are meditating on a wonderful theme. Whether or not the words that I bring do justice and honor to that theme is sort of incidental. The theme is wonderful, and God Himself has made it wonderful, and He can show that to us.
Our Lord Jesus, according to the Book of Hebrews, is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Once again, as a summary passage, I will quote Hebrews 7:17:
Thou art a priest for ever
After the order of Melchizedek.
That is the background for the burden that is on my heart for this weekend. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He desires to live in our hearts so that that priesthood can be manifest in we who are His people, His church, His body.
We are holy priests. Once again, 1 Peter 2:9-10:
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.
And so, brothers, we are royal priests.
Let me review the little bit we have looked at so far. In the first lesson, I simply tried to show you that our Lord Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and that was illustrated by the short historical record of Melchizedek.
As Melchizedek appeared as king-priest after the war was over, our High Priest appears—His ministry begins after the war is over. And as Melchizedek appeared refreshing, ministering, and serving his child, Abraham, the father of faith, so our High Priest ministers to us and comes to serve us.
As Melchizedek came blessing and showing that Abraham had a union with the Possessor of heaven and earth, and needed not a shoelace from this world to increase his wealth, so our Melchizedek constantly invites us to behold who we are in union with Christ.
As Melchizedek reminded Abraham who gave him the victory and the spoils, Abraham, seeing the wonder of the victory, spontaneously responded in surrender, illustrating that surrender by tithing the spoils of the enemy. That was our first lesson.
Then, in our second lesson, we looked not so much at the ministry as at the Person of our High Priest. He is King of righteousness, first of all, and also King of peace. He is everlastingly the King of righteousness and the King of peace.
Though we did not look at every part of His ministry as Priest—and it is precious study—we have not seen Him in His function as Intercessor. We have bypassed His wonderful ministry as an Advocate, a precious, precious part of His present ministry.
We focused on the fact that He is the Mediator of the new covenant. Hebrews 8:6 says:
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.
Hebrews 9:15 says:
And for this cause He is the Mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
We looked a little bit at that unconditional and eternal covenant, where He has promised, if we would ask Him, to put His law in our mind, that we might know His will; and in our heart, that we might love His will.
Royal priests are holy priests. Royal priests are happy priests. They delight to do His will. A royal priest who is a holy priest and a happy priest is that way because the One who lives in our heart is the Mediator of the covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant.
Now, what I would like to look at this evening, as I suggested earlier, is to begin to see the contrast: the old with the new, the old order with the new order, the Levitical priests—the Aaronic priests—with the royal priests, so that we might know beyond any shadow of a doubt, this is my priesthood, not this.
May God deliver us from this, for the same reasons that He is a Priest of a new order. We want to look at that. We want to begin tonight.
In order to do that, I want to give you a Bible illustration. It is a strong illustration. This Bible illustration is so large and so comprehensive, we can only look at just one little piece of it.
It is a huge illustration. I know this illustration pictures the life of our Lord and His ministry in many, many details. I know this illustration pictures His purposes for us. I know this illustration pictures the church, His people. I know this illustration pictures the Christian life. I know this illustration pictures the eternal state.
It is a big picture. I do not know of any other single picture in the Bible so comprehensive that God intended to picture all of those things and more.
Perhaps that is why our Lord was so careful when He handed down this blueprint, that He said five different times, “Make sure you keep the pattern. Make sure you do not deviate. Make sure you do not add to it. Make sure you do not subtract from it.”
By now you should know what the illustration is. I am talking about the tabernacle.
Hebrews 8:4-6 says:
Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, seeing there are those who offer the gifts according to the law;
Who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses is warned of God when he is about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount.
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.
What I would like to do, brothers, is what we did this morning. There is sort of a larger chunk of Scripture I would like to have read, and if we can do what we did and divide it up, I am going to ask you to read Hebrews 9—the first fourteen verses, please.
Now even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary.
For there was a tabernacle prepared, the first, wherein were the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the Holy Place.
And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of holies;
Having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
And above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we cannot now speak severally.
Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services;
But into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offereth for himself, and for the errors of the people:
The Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holy place hath not yet been made manifest, while the first tabernacle is yet standing;
Which is a parable for the time now present; according to which are offered both gifts and sacrifices that cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect,
Being only, with meats and drinks and divers washings, carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.
But Christ having come a High Priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,
Nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh:
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Okay. Thank you, brothers.
Now, among the many things pictured by the tabernacle, I say, we are going to focus just on a little bit. I am sure all of you have studied the tabernacle, so you know what a marvelous picture it is—not only of our Savior, but of His wonderful salvation.
But I want to focus, because of our emphasis this weekend, on the priests. That is what we are looking at: the ministry of the priests, because the ministry of the priests is in contrast to the royal priests.
If we watch the priests in the tabernacle, we will see the priesthood of the old order. That will be in contrast to what He calls the priesthood of the new order. That is what I want us to begin looking at tonight, to set that before your heart.
One has been replaced. One has been called obsolete, and one has been called ready to pass away. I wish I could stand before you tonight and say, “It has passed away,” but it has not.
Almost everywhere you look, you see priests of the old order. Actually, sometimes you have to search far and wide in order to see the royal priesthood.
May God help us as we look at this, so that we can see the difference, and so that God can deliver us from the one and enable us to embrace the other. We are royal priests.
Now, the way we will do this is sort of the way Hebrews has done it. I would like us to look at the Levitical priests as they ministered in the outer court, and then the Levitical priests as they ministered in the holy place.
Will not go beyond the veil, because I believe—this is my own approach—that everything beyond the veil applies to Melchizedek. So we are going to look just at this side of the veil.
I feel confident with this particular group of brothers that I do not have to reinvent the wheel, and I do not need to describe the tabernacle and all of that.
When we look at this order of priesthood, we must realize that the picture revolves around the furniture: the furniture in the outer court, then the furniture in the holy place, and, in fact, even beyond the veil, the furniture in the Holy of Holies.
I think you are familiar with the fact—and if you are not, it is in Exodus 27:1-8—that there were two pieces of furniture in the outer court. One was the brazen altar of sacrifice. Then, in Exodus 30:17-21, there was the brazen laver of cleansing. That was it: the altar and the laver.
Now, you do not have to be a Bible scholar, just at the surface, to see that the altar had to do with cleansing—cleansing by blood—and the laver had to do with cleansing—cleansing by water.
All the ministry in the outer court had to do with cleansing, forgiveness, and dealing with sin.
Some have compared the outer court to John 13, the foot-washing, because you have the once-for-all cleansing illustrated by the altar, and then you have the laver illustrating the moment-by-moment, or day-by-day, cleansing.
The point that I want you to see is that all the ministry in the outer court had to do with the war against sin—which is over. You follow what I am saying?
Into this court, sinners poured. They poured with every sin problem you can think of. They came with their animals, as God commanded them. When they came, their hearts were crying out, “I need forgiveness. I am guilty. I am dirty. I have sinned. I need forgiveness.”
That brings us to the priests and their ministry.
Now, the Book of Hebrews illustrates several principles, but I want to focus on one. I will mention one other, but the chief characteristic of ministry in the outer court—I want to home in on that one characteristic.
It is not the chief one, but the priests who ministered out there could easily identify with all who came for help. Do you know why? Hebrews 5:2:
Who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, for that He Himself also is compassed with infirmity.
It was easy for the priest to identify with the sinner because he was in the same boat. He had the same problems.
The priests could not do a thing for their fellow sinners until they dealt with their own sin problems. Hebrews 7:27, speaking of Christ our Priest:
Who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people.
But there was something that marked the ministry of those priests in the old order, in the outer court—something that the Holy Spirit mentions time and time again in the Book of Hebrews.
Let me read several verses and then state it very simply. Hebrews 7:27, which we just referred to, said they needed daily—every day.
Hebrews 9:6:
Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services.
Continually.
Hebrews 10:1-2:
For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh.
Else would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more conscience of sins?
Hebrews 10:11-12:
And every priest indeed standeth day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins:
But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.
Notice that wonderful contrast. The main characteristic in the outer court was that those priests could never sit down. There were two pieces of furniture, not three. There was no chair. There was no stool. There was no place to rest. They could not sit down.
Hebrews is full of the new-covenant Priest. You are only three verses deep in the book and you read, “He sat down.” He sat down. Hebrews 8:1: “He has taken His seat.” Hebrews 10:12: “He sat down at the right hand of God.” Hebrews 12:2: “He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
You, brothers, as well or perhaps better than I, know why He sat down. The work was finished. When the work is done, you can sit down.
Why could the Old Testament priest not sit down? The answer is because the work was never done. That is why there was no chair in that court, or in the next court. Their work was never finished.
They were constantly examining animals according to the law, offering animals, sprinkling blood, disposing of animal parts, offering incense, trimming wicks, crushing olives, making olive oil, and mixing ingredients for sweet-smelling sacrifices.
Then they had special things to do when a leper came, or when a special problem came.
In my home, sweet Lillian is like the priest in the outer court. We are constantly saying, “Honey, sit down. Take a break.” And she always says, “I cannot. My work is never done.”
I used to try to help her out, but then she would not sit down. She would do something else. “Thank you for freeing me from this so I can do this.” So naturally, I say, “Why help?” You know, she just—make sure she does not get that tape.
You have heard the saying that a woman’s work is never done. I do not know if that is true, but I know this is true: the work of a Levitical priest was never done. It was never done. It was never done.
That is the chief characteristic that Hebrews emphasizes. They were always busy, busy, busy—never done, working, laboring, tired, exhausting; never finished, never over, never through, never done.
Or, to say it another way, they did not have rest. They did not enter into rest, because fresh sins required fresh blood, and they were constantly offering.
What was true of our royal Priest, you know from the epistles, is true now of His children. Ephesians 2 says:
But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,
Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace have ye been saved—
And raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
This is different, brothers. This is not like the old system. He seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
In the morning, the priests were working. In the afternoon, they were working. They had night shifts. They worked around the clock—twenty-four hours a day.
Leviticus 6:12-13 says:
And the fire upon the altar shall be kept burning thereon, it shall not go out; and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning: and he shall lay the burnt-offering in order upon it, and shall burn thereon the fat of the peace-offerings.
Fire shall be kept burning continually upon the altar; it shall not go out.
Even when they traveled in the wilderness, the fire was not allowed to go out. They carried the coals in fire pans so that they could always keep it going. Busy.
I think some of you are familiar with the fact that there were five offerings. Maybe you have studied the five offerings. This took place in the outer court. That is a study all its own, and I am not concerned now with all the details of that.
There is much spiritual significance in the five offerings. You had the whole burnt offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the peace offering, and the meal offering. I am sure some of you have already studied that in detail.
But what I want you to know, to get beyond all the details, is that they were in the outer court busy, busy, busy, busy. Every problem required a different offering.
Sometimes, if you were a different person coming with the same problem, the offering would differ. If you were a priest, they would offer one thing. If you were an elder, they would offer it another way. If you were the head of a family, they would offer it another way. If you were just an everyday sinner, you had to do it this way.
The priest had to know what to offer and when. They had to examine every sacrifice—not only on the outside, but on the inside, the organs—and they had to separate. It was an amazingly busy schedule.
Each of those offerings contains a wonderful principle. We love these words. You come as a sinner, and I am the priest, and I say, “All right, you know what you need? You need to surrender.”
“Okay, now there is an offering for that. Let us get the whole burnt offering. Nothing kept back, and we will burn the whole thing, because you have to give your life over to the Lord.”
Someone else comes with another problem. I say, “Well, you do not really need surrender. You need to repent.” There is a special offering, the sin offering, because that has to do with who you are.
But let us say you know what you did wrong, and you did it on purpose. Well, that is another thing altogether. Now you need the trespass offering.
The priest would have to say, “You need surrender,” or, “You need repentance. You have got to repent.” Or, “No, you need to confess.” Some people came with another problem, and he said, “You know what you need to do? You need to make a vow to God. You need to make a promise to God.”
“You need a peace offering. You need to make a special offering where you make special promises to God.” Someone says, “Things have been going pretty well. We have had sort of a revival in our family.” “All right, then let us rededicate. You need to consecrate yourself.”
The priest was busy in the outer court, and his message was, “You have to either repent, or you have to confess, or if you do not confess, then you have got to dedicate yourself. If you do not dedicate yourself, you are going to have to make new promises to God.” It went on and on, day by day.
The Bible says in Leviticus that there were four lines coming to the priests. Guess who was in the first line? Priests. The priests came to the priests because they had their special problem, and there was a special offering just for the priests.
Then in the next line were the elders, because they had some problems too. But the priest had to deal with his own stuff first. Then came the second group, then the family leaders, and then the regular sinners.
This one comes and says, “You know, when I came last time, I made a promise to the Lord, but I broke the promise.” “Oh, another offering. You broke the promise. Now let us get over here.”
That was outer-court ministry. Constantly, over and over, they never got to sit down. One thing after another.
You know, I admire, in one sense, these priests because they did love the Lord, and they were called to this. They were sacrificing a lot. They gave up a lot.
I will tell you, brothers, my memory makes me weep when I think of this—not only because of my own life, but because of many, many dear brothers I know who have not yet understood the life of God or the rest that He offers.
For so many years, because I loved Jesus, I wanted to be His priest. I ministered in the outer court. I did not know it was the outer court.
I just knew that day and night they were calling up and coming, and they had problems. I listened to terrible tales of sin and guilt and shame. I thought I was a counselor, and I was trying to help them. I did not know how to help them.
But I understood, because secretly I had those same thoughts and the same passions. I was going through the whole thing. Then I had to listen and say, “I do not know what you—I think you better surrender. Let us pray together. We have got to surrender.”
“You have got to confess. You did this, and we need to get right with God. Let us just promise the Lord now. Let us make this vow.” I was doing all that, and I was getting worn out.
I did not know beans about the indwelling life of God. I knew about indwelling sin, all right? I was dying as a servant of the Lord.
I am embarrassed as I give this part of my testimony. At that time, I was pastor in a conservative Baptist church. My family was hurt.
We were like in a cave. We would draw the curtains so nobody would come. We needed a break. I would hide the car down the block, a few blocks away, very often.
We would take money we did not have and get a motel room just to get away—just to get away.
I even had my wife lying for me on the phone. “He cannot come to the phone right now. He is tied up with some—” I was not tied up with anything except the bondage and burden of all of this, the busy activity in the outer court.
When I finally resigned from the pastorate, my firstborn son, David, came to me and thanked me for getting out. I was killing the family. It was killing me.
I was doing it out of love. I thought, “I am supposed to be there. I am a priest of God. I represent the Lord. I have got to be there when the people come with their problem. I have got to identify. I have got to stand with them. I have got to walk with them. I have got to hear their problems. I have got to try to offer some kind of answer for their problems.”
Well, that was the outer court. The holy place was just as busy. The holy place was just as busy.
That was different from the outer court. The outer court was messy, smelly, and smoky. They were killing animals all the time, and all these carcasses—it stunk out there.
When I was looking at my ministry, it stunk. It was an awful burden out there.
I was so glad when God opened my eyes to ministry in the holy place. That was so much different than the outer court. In the outer court, everything was brass. Here, this was a golden room. Everything was gold, and everything was shining.
I thought, “Finally, God has given me revelation. I understand what ministry is. This room is not smelly. This room is not messy. This room had fragrant incense in it.”
Like the altar in the outer court, which had to be kept burning all the time, too, the holy place also required constant attention.
There were three items of furniture in the holy place. You are familiar with them: the table of showbread, the seven-pronged lampstand, and the golden altar of incense.
Everything was gold in this room. The lampstand was solid gold. It was all hammered out of one piece—even the bowls, even the branches. The snuffers were made of gold; the trays were made of gold. This was a golden room.
The table of showbread was also overlaid with pure gold, with a golden border all around it. They had poles to carry it when they were traveling, and the poles had to be overlaid with pure gold.
The things connected with the table—the dishes, pans, jars, and bowls—they were all pure gold. This was a wonderful room.
The altar of incense was the same thing. It was made of acacia wood, but it was overlaid with gold. There was a gold molding all around it, and the poles that carried that altar were also overlaid with gold. Everything was gold.
I thought, “Finally, I am in a room of gold. This is a lot better. It did not smell like the outer court smelled.”
In the outer court, when I was an outer-court Christian, everybody could come to the outer court. But now God opened my eyes: only priests could come into the holy place.
I thought, “Now I have got it. I am a priest. I am not just a redeemed sinner, but I am a priest of the Most High God, and I have come into this room to serve Him.”
So I said, “All right, Lord, tell me now: What kind of service do You want?”
In the outer court, all they knew was, “Dirty, clean; dirty, clean. I am up; I am down. I am right with God; I have lost it. I need help. You repent, you confess, you devote yourself, you consecrate yourself, have a revival, make a promise to God.”
But in this room it was different, and my activities were different because there was a table. I will give it to you in terms of the principle. God said, “Now you have got a new service, Mr. Priest. You make sure that you constantly keep fresh bread on the table.”
That is feeding them. That is a little bit better than listening to all those problems. There were twelve loaves of bread and twelve tribes, and it represented all the people. This idea of being able to keep the table full of bread for hungry people to eat—I liked that ministry.
Now I could study the Bible, gather the ingredients, make the bread, keep it warm, and have everything for everybody. That was great.
I looked over there and there was a lampstand. I said, “Lord, what is my ministry?” He said, “Well, we have got to keep the testimony bright. You have got to keep the flame from flickering. You have got to keep the oil coming.”
“This is testimony. This is getting out the work.” I said, “I like this. I like this room, and I like this ministry, and I like this priesthood: keeping bread on the table for hungry people and keeping the testimony bright and shining.”
“What is this?” “That is the altar of incense.” God says, “This is a golden room. No foul smells in this room. You make sure everything smells sweet and acceptable unto God—sweet-savor offerings unto God.”
Now, not to bore you with my testimony again, but, as I said, when God opened this room to my heart, I did not know I was still in the old system. I thought I had graduated. When I went from stink to gold, I thought, “That is a new step. That is good.”
I got so busy in this room. There was no chair in that room either. There was no stool in that room either.
Rather than thinking that I had discovered the secret to all real ministry, I got so burdened down with feeding the people. It is a busy room.
Let me describe a little bit of what I went through. It is all symbolic—you know that.
I got into Bible study because I had to constantly keep bread on the table for everybody. I can almost point to the day when I entered the holy place. It made a big change in my life.
I thought, “What do they need? They are hungry. God has called me to be the priest and to keep hot bread on the table.” So I said, “They need to hear about missions.” So I presented missions.
Then I said, “All right, now what do they need? Discipleship.” So we had a little course on discipleship. “Now what do they need? They need to understand spiritual gifts.” All right, we had a course on spiritual gifts.
The fruit of the Spirit. “All right, we will do the fruit of the Spirit.” Church order. “All right, we will have some study on church order.” Plurality of elders. “All right, let us do plurality of elders.”
They needed to know about stewardship. “All right, let us have a course on stewardship.” They needed to know about prayer and fasting. They needed to know the difference between intercession, petition, and praise; when to pray; what imprecatory praying is; and when to pray against. So we had a little course on that.
They had to study the Bible. As I began to gather the ingredients to keep bread on the table, looking at their hunger and how to feed them, I did not know that if I just gave them Jesus, they would have all they needed to know about missions, discipleship, stewardship, and everything else. That is all a byproduct.
I just thought what they needed was a balanced diet. So I would give them a little bit of this, and we would talk about chastening and show how chastening and pruning look alike, but they are not really alike.
We would talk about prophecy and the end times. I had a chart, a prophetic chart. How embarrassing. When you came into our home, you would not see wallpaper. You saw my chart.
My chart went all along the sidewall, the back wall. I had it all figured out. I knew everything about the entire—I knew exactly when Jesus was coming, give or take seven years.
As I was preparing all the food and then running out of things, it was amazing: before I put my eyes on Jesus, I ran out of stuff to share, because I was doing missions and evangelism and soul winning, and I ran out of stuff.
Now that my eyes are on the Lord in a more fixed way, I do not have time. I do not have time. I am beating it off with a broom handle. There is so much, because it is just Him. It is just Him.
But anyway, as I was preparing all that food, all of a sudden I thought, “These people are taking in all my doctrine and all my light and all I am trying to feed them.”
Then I thought about the testimony. “We have got to reach our neighbors. We have got to reach the world.” So you begin to come up with some program. Maybe if we go on a mission trip, we will get some missionary enthusiasm.
Again, I am embarrassed as I talk to you, but I did not know what to do as a priest in the holy place. So I thought, “The thing we have got to do is shock the neighborhood.”
I called up the local radio station and the newspaper, and I said, “You watch carefully. We are going to have a series of meetings like you have never seen before.”
We made it all through the neighborhood. I went out and got a sheep, and I got a pig. I dressed a little pig up. We were going to have object lessons. This was a series of object-lesson meetings.
We had them all dressed up. Dressing up a pig is nothing. I tried to pull the sheep through a mud puddle that we had all planned, and they had cameras out there. I said, “Boy, now the gospel is getting out. That is good.”
Then we hired the local morgue to come in with the casket, and we had a big funeral service. I had it all set up. The people filed by the casket and looked who was in there, and there was a mirror there, and they saw themselves.
See, this is clever stuff, right? Then they could see how much they needed. I was a priest, and I was busy doing everything that I could think about doing.
“We are going to come to our church. You have got to see all the stuff we are doing.” I had a tuxedo, and people were throwing paint on my tuxedo because it is just the outside; it is not the inside. On and on it went.
Then all of a sudden, I went, “Foul smells. Oh, I am a priest. I am failing. I have been working at the table and trying to get the testimony out, and we have allowed foul smells in here.”
“Brother A bought a lottery ticket. We have got to deal with that. Brother B—what kind of music is he listening to? Who is going here?” We have these foul smells, and this room is a golden room. It can be only sweet-smelling stuff.
Then we got into church discipline. I said, “All right, now here is how we are going to do it. We are going to follow the Bible. It said call this and go visit.” We did all of that, and we brought them in. Unbelievable.
At the end, I was saying, “God, get me out of this golden room. I am as tired in this room as I was in the outer court. I need to be delivered.”
I did not understand that there was another priesthood of another order. I was busy, busy, busy, serving Jesus, serving the people, meeting the needs—trying to meet the needs—keeping people fed, keeping the testimony burning, keeping out the foul smells.
I got into separation. I got into the wrong kind of mysticism, because we had to live separated lives. We had to be holy.
I am suggesting to you, brothers, this is the old system. This is the old system.
We did not even take it apart yet and look at their real activity. What I am talking about kept them busy, but then God had to divide the family up.
“All right, now this part of the family—the second-born son—you take care of the holy things. This part of the family, you take care of the curtains. Old Merari, you poor guy—I know your name means bitterness and sorrow—but you got the grunt work. You have got to carry all the poles. You have got to carry all this.”
Busy, busy, busy, busy.
In contrast to that fever pitch, there is a new order—a new order of priesthood.
Someone asks, and rightly so, “What is wrong with having a passion or a burden for those who are burdened with sin? Is it wrong to say, ‘You need to surrender, and you need to repent, and you need to confess’?”
“Is it wrong to say, ‘You need to get before the Lord and promise Him that you are going to go in another direction, and you need revival, and you need to rededicate yourself, and you need to raise your hand or sign a card or throw a stick in a fire or do something’?”
Is that all wrong? Listen to Hebrews 6:1-2:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
What is wrong with preaching repentance from dead works? Why is that milk and to be set aside? Faith toward God—that is so basic.
Instructions about holiness and washings and laying on of hands; prophecy, the future, judgment to come, and resurrection—in the new order, He says, set that aside. That is elementary stuff.
You say, “If I set all that aside, what is left? If it is not that, what is left?”
I will tell you in one simple word now, and tomorrow, God helping us, I will give you a little more. I will tell you what is left: the royal priesthood is left.
What was it in the royal priesthood—and I will wrap it up with this—what was it in the royal priesthood that eliminated all the activity of the outer court?
The answer is: the work is finished. All of that activity had to do with sin, and that is done. That is done.
When we see the holy priest, the royal priest, we will see how the realities pictured there—repentance and confession—do not go away. Those are realities, and we need those realities. I will show you how the royal priest really lays hold of that.
But right now, all of the business of the outer court is eliminated because of the finished work.
What was it in the royal priesthood that eliminated all of the activity in the holy place?
You see, in the new covenant, there is this one line:
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
For all shall know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
In the royal priesthood, everybody is knowing the Lord. If you are knowing the Lord, do I have to tell you the importance of, “Do not forget to study your Bible. Gather ingredients. Feed yourself”? If you are knowing the Lord, you do not have to hear about the table, because you are doing it.
I do not have to come to you and say, “Keep the flame bright, and remember, you need the oil to keep the flame.” If you are looking to the Lord, I do not need to say that.
If you are looking to the Lord, I do not have to knock at your door and say, “You know, I have noted a foul smell in your life, and you are a Christian, and you should get rid of that.” I will not have to say that if you are really knowing the Lord.
The fact that it is a finished work eliminates all the busyness of the outer court. The fact that it is the covenant of grace eliminates all the busyness in the holy place.
We need to go beyond the veil. We need to see the royal priesthood. God helping us tomorrow morning, I will show you the contrast.
You have probably already seen a little bit of the contrast, but I want to spell it out for you. Exactly what does the royal priesthood look like in my life, in my message, in my worship, in my church?
That is what we will look at tomorrow, God helping us.
Father, we thank You so much that the work is finished.
We thank You so much that You are the Mediator of the new covenant of the grace of God.
We thank You so much that You have called us to be Your priests. Teach us what that means, and deliver us completely from everything that would militate against the finished work and against the message of pure grace.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.