Speaker 1
This tape is the first of six in a series of teachings entitled, The Priesthood of All Believers, delivered by the Rev. John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this teaching is, God's Original Intent.

Speaker 2
If you've got your Bible, turn to Exodus chapter 19. I'm going to be dealing tonight with some things that I've touched on lots of times, not usually this completely or this fully, but it may be somewhat familiar to some of you and maybe brand new to others. But I need to sort of lay a foundation tonight and then we'll be building on it in the next few weeks.

Exodus 19, starting right at the beginning. On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. And when they set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness, and there Israel encamped before the mountain.

And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. This is after the Exodus itself has taken place. They've gone out three months into the Sinai.

They've crossed over the Red Sea, of course. That was their first thing. Chuck Irish tells a delightful story about that, by the way.

This is just parenthetical, but he had a student when he was a pastor out in Ohio who had come to love the Word of God very much, and he went off to a secular university and immediately hit a religion class the professor tried to dismantle everything that he'd been taught about the supernatural dimension of God's activity and came to the story of the Exodus. And the professor immediately started in with all of the stuff you've heard. Of course, it wasn't really the Red Sea.

It was the Sea of Reeds. And, of course, the water wasn't all that deep anyway. It was probably only about ankle deep.

And they just walked across. It was no big deal. And this particular student, You've got to picture this.

He's a freshman in college, right? And he's sitting in the front row and he said, Oh, thank you, Lord. Bless you, Lord.

What a miracle. Thank you, Lord. And the professor said, Wait a minute.

Wait, I just explained to you. It was no big miracle. The water was only six inches deep.

They just walked across. And the kid says, What a miracle. Thank you, Lord.

And he says, What do you mean? He says that God drowned the entire army of Pharaoh in six inches of water. it was a mighty deliverance and the odd thing about it if you if you just stop and think of your map crossing the red sea had they headed northeast folks have estimated that a casual walk they could have made it in nine to eleven days to the land of canaan at a very comfortable pace that the women and the children could have kept up with without any problem.

This is not a fast hike. Instead of that, they turned southeast into the desert, into the Sinai. Folks have wondered about that. Why did they do that? We'll find out in just a moment.

They headed into the Sinai Peninsula. They traveled south along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez and about 65 miles inland they came to a mountain. Mount Horeb it's called in some places and elsewhere Mount Sinai.

Back in Exodus 3 you don't have to turn to it but that's when Moses receives his calling. And God meets him in the burning bush and says I've appointed you to deliver my people from bondage in Egypt. And if you look at it sometime go back and see what he says he says when you have led them forth out of the land of Egypt you shall serve me on this mountain that's why they turned south rather than north they had an appointment with God a rendezvous with destiny Moses is about to receive the ten commandments he does so in chapter 20 and then that takes about 15 verses for God to give him the ten commandments Then he spends 15 chapters laying out all of the incredible detail about building the tabernacle and about the worship, the ceremony, all of the rites and ceremonies that go into worshiping God.

I just mentioned that in passing. It tells you something about the priority that God places on worship. It is not insignificant.

15 chapters worth of detail about how they are to worship Him. that's what this appointment is all about but before it takes place before all of that law giving and instruction takes place we have this very brief very important interchange Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God the Lord called to him out of the mountain and says this is what you should say to the house of Jacob and the people of Israel notice what he says you've seen what I did to the Egyptians you didn't do it, I did it I did it all by myself. How I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

I did it. God takes total credit for delivering his people. And then he says, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine.

Isn't that a strange thing? Everything already belongs to me. you're going to be mine in a special way.

It already belongs to me, therefore you already belong to me. You get it? But if you obey my voice, you're going to be mine in a special way.

You see what he's saying? This is a conditional promise. If you do your part, then certain things will follow.

Some of the promises in Scripture are not conditional. They're unconditional promises. God's promise to Abraham is without conditions.

He says, I will make you a great nation. I will appoint one of your offspring, and through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. There are no conditions attached to that.

God just says, I'm going to do it. He doesn't even ask Abraham what he thinks of that. But here, and as is most of the time the case, he says there are some strings attached.

You've got to do certain things. And if you do, then other things will follow. So that's a major key to understanding a lot of Scripture.

Hold your finger here. We're going to come back to it in just a moment. But I want you to look at Jeremiah 18.

Just about the middle of the Bible. Jeremiah 18. And let me start with verse 5.

The word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done, says the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, I make a declaration.

But if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it. And, if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will build and plant it, I make a declaration. But if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will repent of the good which I had intended to do to it.

So in other words, the majority of the time, sometimes it's spelled out and sometimes it isn't, the majority of the time, there are strings attached. I will do certain things if, but only if, you fulfill certain conditions. Do you follow what I'm saying?

That's this kind of promise. You might underscore that in Jeremiah. That is a major key.

You can go through Scripture and you'll find all kinds of declarations and promises that God has made that are never fulfilled. And you say, how can that be? And the answer is, his people have failed to fulfill the conditions.

Okay? This is a conditional promise. If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then then you shall be my own possession in a very special way out of all the earth, which already belongs to me.

And what does he promise specifically? Verse 6 You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This, I submit to you, is God's original intention.

When he called his people, when he delivered them from bondage in Egypt, it was with this in mind. I call you to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That's their calling.

Deliverance and destiny go together. I called you for a purpose. I delivered you for a purpose.

I delivered you to be my chosen people, but that is not a people that keeps their relationship to God to themselves. It is exactly the opposite. They are to be a priestly people which gives away their relationship to God. Do you follow that?

They are called to be a kingdom of priests, every man, woman, and child among them, representing God to the rest of the world, proclaiming him, and bringing the rest of the world to their God. They're chosen, in other words, not for exclusive privilege to be God hoarders, but they're chosen to be priests, God sharers. And by the way, that harkens back to Abraham's call. I already alluded to it.

When he calls Abraham, he says, I will make one of your offspring, one of your posterity, a blessing to the whole world. God calls Abraham, he calls Isaac, he calls Jacob, he calls Israel to be a priestly nation. They're chosen in order to share.

They're blessed in order to be a blessing. And in a word, they're to be a nation of evangelists. That's Israel's original calling, to be a nation of evangelists or a nation of priests.

They never really entered that calling. They never did that. By and large, the history of Israel is one of attempting to stay away from those dirty Gentiles.

Keep our lines pure. We don't want any intermarriage with those dirty outsiders. They were not evangelists.

They were not a priestly nation. They did not fulfill God's desire for them. what did he do he turned to plan b a lot of folks say god doesn't have a plan b he always has a plan b i used to say that god doesn't have any plan b you know god only has plan a that's not true god has plan b plan c he has as many plans as he needs what i'm saying is that if we are not obedient and responsive to god's calling it's not going to frustrate his purposes he's simply going to turn to somebody else to fulfill them.

And that's exactly what happened here. Turn over to the book of Numbers. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.

Chapter 18. So the Lord said to Aaron, brother of Moses, both of the tribe of Levi you and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear iniquity in connection with the sanctuary and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity in connection with your priesthood and with you bring your brethren also the tribe of Levi the tribe of your father that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony They shall attend you and attend to all duties of the tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar, lest they and you die. They shall join you and attend to the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no one else shall come near you.

And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, that there be wrath no more upon the people of Israel. And behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting.

And you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and all that is within the veil, and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and anyone else who comes near shall be put to death. Now that's the priesthood that we associate with the Old Testament covenant.

the priesthood of Aaron and his sons or more broadly we sometimes call it the Levitical priesthood you see it was not a priesthood of all of the tribe of Levi what we've just read is that the tribe of Levi mainly will be helpers to the priests and one family within the tribe of Levi and only the male members of that family namely Aaron's family his sons and their sons will be the priests So it's the priests and the Levites. That's what we think about when we think of the Old Testament priesthood, isn't it? But do you see what I'm saying?

This is not God's original intention. This is plan B. His original intention was that the whole people, not just one tribe, not just one family, not just one gender, every man, woman, and child of Israel shall be a priest. They failed to fulfill that calling.

and so he turns to Aaron. Notice God again chooses him. He doesn't ask Aaron, what do you think about that?

He says, I choose you. You and your sons shall do this. And it's hereditary.

You don't make a decision to go to seminary and start the process and meet with your rector and go before your vestry committee and then come before the commission on ministry and go through all the hoops that we go through today. There's no standing committee. There's no commission on ministry.

There's no general ordination exams. If you are a male member of the house of Aaron, you are a priest whether you like it or not. And if you're not a male member of the house of Aaron, there's no way you can become one.

You follow it? I suppose that someone born into the priesthood could ignore that and do something else, but that's how you become a priest. You're born into it, and there's no other way.

You don't decide to run for the job. Notice, secondly, this very strange language. He says, you shall bear iniquity in connection with your priesthood.

That's added. Priesthood by itself, in the very earliest sense in which we encounter it, back in Exodus, it doesn't have anything to do with bearing iniquity. It has to do with evangelism.

You shall represent me to the nations and the nations to me. Now in this plan B, there's a new dimension. You shall bear iniquity in connection with your priesthood.

And so we begin to get into the whole story of the offering of sacrifices and the preparation of the animals for that sacrifice and so on. This is added. You shall bear iniquity in connection with your priesthood.

Let me just ask you, if it says in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, that Christ abolished the priesthood of Aaron in order to establish his own priesthood, what do you think it was that he abolished? It's what's added. Exactly.

Exactly. The whole system that is at this point added, Jesus fulfills on the cross and therefore abolishes this priesthood, this Aaronic priesthood. I'll put it to you another way.

If the people as a whole had obeyed God's original call, there would never have been an Aaronic priesthood. That is a staggering statement. I don't know if you can feel that.

I mean, as central to everything else in the Old Testament, as is this Levitical system and this Aaronic priesthood, it would never have been instituted had the people come up to that call that they received on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. Well, I don't think you can say that. I think it would have been a very different history, a glorious history.

Well, that's probably true of most of us. The third thing I want you to notice is he says, I give you your priesthood as a gift. And you are to exercise it, and nobody else may.

It is an exclusive priesthood. Nobody else may. On point of death, nobody else may.

If you look back, just two chapters, there's a story of Korah, K-O-R-A-H. It's called The Rebellion of Korah. The whole chapter tells that story. It's an awful story.

And in a way, it sort of gets ahead of the story. It anticipates what is coming in chapter 18. But I'll just give you the sort of outline of it.

Korah comes up against Moses out of jealousy for his privileged position. and Aaron's with him. And it says in verse 2, He took men and they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation.

They assembled themselves and he says to Moses and Aaron, You've gone too far. For all the congregation are holy, every one of them. Where did he get that idea?

From God Himself. Only the congregation had blown it by this time. All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them.

Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? Who do you think you are, Moses? See, that's what he's saying.

Who do you think this guy Aaron is that you're about to institute as high priest over us? We're just as good as he is. You know what the end of this story is?

The death of 15,000 people who support the rebellion of Korah, who are saying, we can be priests just as well as Aaron can. And God says, sorry about that, it's too late. And he wipes them out.

Read the story for yourself, I'm not going to take the time to go through it. The 250 are consumed with fire from heaven in verse 35, and by the end of the chapter, verse 49, now those who died by the plague were 14,700 besides those who had died in the affair of Korah. God is very serious about this.

He says, I'm choosing Aaron and his sons, and they're going to be the priests and nobody else. There's another story somewhat like that in 1 Samuel. Why don't we take a quick look at that?

1 Samuel chapter 13. It's a really poignant story. Saul is the king at this point, and Samuel is the priest, And Saul is waiting for Samuel to come to offer the sacrifices before they're due to go off to battle.

And Samuel doesn't come, and he doesn't come, and he doesn't come. 1 Samuel 13, verse 8, it says, Saul waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel didn't come to Gilgal. And the people were scattering from him.

He's beginning to lose his troops. And so Saul said, Bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offering. And he offered the burnt offering.

Do you see the frustration? He's the king. And he said, we've got to have the sacrifice.

We've got to do this thing. I'm losing the battle before it begins because we can't get on with the ceremony. He says, I better do it myself.

And he offers the burnt offering. Verse 10, As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came, and Saul went out to meet him and salute him. And Samuel said, what have you done?

And Saul tells what he's done. And verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you.

For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but instead your kingdom shall not continue. And God takes away the kingdom from Samuel. You don't grab the priesthood.

You don't exercise priesthood unless you're a priest. Okay? Everybody together?

But this is plan B. Alright? Turn to Isaiah. A very familiar passage, because this is the one that Jesus, He read and referred to Himself at the beginning of His ministry when he went to the synagogue in Nazareth, you remember?

And they handed him the scroll and he opened up and he read this passage and then he said, this day these words are fulfilled in your hearing. And he very clearly applied this to himself sort of to say, this is the passage which outlines what I'm about. Isaiah 61.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. That's evidently where he stopped reading, or at least that's where Luke leaves off the quote, but that's not where it finishes.

It's not even the end of the sentence. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he, the Lord, may be glorified. That's what Jesus' ministry is about.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to do all of these things, to bind up the brokenhearted, to deliver the captives and so on, in order that they might be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, in order that they might be established, in other words. I'm coming under the anointing of God's Spirit in order to do these specific things, in order that the people of God might be firmly established, the planting of the Lord.

You know, not everybody is the planting of the Lord. You know, Jesus said in Matthew, I think it was chapter 15, He said, every tree that my Father has not planted will what? Be rooted up and thrown into the fire.

God's interested in what He plants. He has no commitment to anything else. I come in the anointing of the Spirit of God in order that you might be the planting of the Lord and that He, the Lord, may be glorified.

They, those who are affected by this ministry, They shall build up the ancient ruins. They shall raise up the former devastations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

They're going to build up that which has come crashing down when the work of Messiah is complete. And then it goes on to say this fascinating thing. Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks.

Foreigners shall be your plowmen and vine dressers. In other words, that exclusivity which Israel has always known is going to begin to be opened up, and Gentiles and aliens are going to be included in what God is doing amongst His ancient people. And verse 6 says, And you shall be called, what?

Now wait a minute. The very thing that Moses said, nobody else could aspire to unless they were the sons of Aaron on point of death Isaiah says is going to be opened up to everybody through the work of Messiah. Do you get it?

What was lost through disobedience is restored through God's grace in the coming of Messiah. Should I say that again? What was lost in the broadest sense that's true what was lost through the fall is restored in Jesus but in this specific sense it's also true what was lost in terms of God's original intention that his people be a kingdom of priests that was lost they lost it to the point that if you try to be a priest when you're not one you're killed what was lost is restored in the work of Messiah.

Spirit of the Lord God is upon me in order to make you all priests of God. Get it? It's even broader than that because in the New Covenant, the New Israel is made up of men and women not just from that historic genetic strain, but from every tribe and language and people and nation.

We spent a lot of time during the Pentecost season asking what's new about the new covenant. And the answer was, over and over, that they shall all know me. Remember that?

Look at Jeremiah chapter 31. Almost exactly in the middle of the Bible I find that significant. This is the passage on which the whole thing pivots.

Jeremiah 31. starting with verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke.

Right? Even though I was their husband, says the Lord, I'm going to make a new one. The old one didn't succeed.

They broke it. It wasn't a problem on God's side. It was a problem on the people's side.

I made a covenant with them. But the covenant got broken. I'm going to make a new one, and this one isn't going to get broken.

It's going to be different from the old one. This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law within them, not just on a tablet of stone out there for you to read and sort of come up against, but it's going to be inside you.

My desires for you are going to be written on your insides so that they begin to become virtually a second nature to you. I'll write it upon their hearts, and I'll be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, Know the Lord.

You won't have to go to your friendly neighborhood priest to get it because they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest. I'll forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more.

What's lost through the people's disobedience is restored through Messiah's obedience. There's no more need in the New Covenant for that exclusive male priesthood in one man's family. Now it's going to be open to everybody.

There's a lot of confusion here. I think the sort of popular understanding of the priesthood of all believers is that we don't need any priests. That's not what's being said.

It's not that we don't need any priests. It's that we all are priests and all function in a priestly capacity. We approach God on each other's behalf.

We intercede for each other. We counsel and minister to each other. But there's no sort of first class citizen and second class in which you have to rely on somebody else to get it second hand.

Do you see? They shall all know me. They'll all have that personal intimacy with me.

On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, This cup is my blood of the new covenant. Jesus instituted that night what this is about. This cup is the new covenant of my blood.

And the point of reminding you of that is this. From the moment that Jesus instituted the new covenant, we don't hear one single instance in the New Testament of the word priest being used again for what we would popularly refer to as the clergy. Not once.

Not once is it used that way. But it's not abandoned. The word priest continues to appear.

It's used in two ways. It's used first and principally of Jesus himself. That's the great theme of the book of Hebrews.

Just take a very quick look. We're not going to get into this tonight. We're going to be coming back to it in a couple of weeks.

But just see the sort of thing that is said. chapter 4 verse 14 since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens who is he? Jesus the son of God let us hold fast our confession verse 15 for we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are chapter 5 for every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relationship to God and so on similarly verse 5 so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest but he was appointed by him who said to him thou art my son today I have begotten thee over and over and over and over again in the book of Hebrews Jesus is spoken of as the great high priest in a in a unique sense.

He did what nobody else could do, what nobody else had ever done before him, and because he did it perfectly and completely, nobody else ever has to do it again. He offered the sacrifice that overwhelms our sin and reconciles us to God. It said in the old prayer that we used to use, on the cross for our redemption he made by his one oblation of himself once offered A full, perfect, sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.

He is our priest. He is our sacrifice. He offers himself.

He did it perfectly. He did it completely. It doesn't need to be repeated.

It can't be added unto. He is the great high priest. But there's another use of the word.

And that's applied to us four times. 1 Peter 2, verse 4. An invitation.

Come to him. To who? To that living stone, rejected by men, but in God's sight chosen and precious.

And like living stones, be yourselves built into a spiritual house to be what? a holy priesthood now who's the living stone Jesus clearly we could go back and unravel all of the imagery that he's using here he's picking up on various phrases from the Old Testament Jesus is himself the living stone who was rejected by men but in God's sight is chosen and precious he's the cornerstone he's the one on whom the whole edifice is being built Hold your finger here and turn back to Ephesians 2, verse 19. He says, Paul is writing here, and he says, So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, or the head of the corner, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Paul and Peter are saying exactly the same thing. Remember when Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again, and the Jews are scratching their head, and they say, what? He's got to be crazy.

It took 46 years to build this temple. And he's saying he's going to build it up again in three days after we knock it down? And John's comment on that is, but he said this about his own body, and they didn't understand it until after the resurrection.

He wasn't talking about the temple in Jerusalem. He was talking about himself. Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again.

And this temple of my body is in one sense already complete, but in another sense it's not at all complete because it's a living temple and it's going to grow as we add other stones to it. And what you see before you right now is going to become the chief cornerstone and all the other stones are going to be built upon it. That's what Paul says and that's what Peter says here.

Back in 1 Peter chapter 2, Come to Him, to that living stone, rejected by men, but in God's sight chosen and precious, and like living stones, be yourselves built into a spiritual house, a living temple, to be a holy priesthood. And we've come full circle. A spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The very same thing that God announced to ancient Israel as his original intention for them, that the whole nation of you, every man, woman, and child, will be priests, a kingdom of priests, is now restored, and we're invited to come to the Lord Jesus and to be built into the living temple which is built upon himself, and to be exactly that. Priests. Notice that it says to offer spiritual sacrifices.

You know what that means? The old covenant is gone, so we're not offering sacrifices for sin. What are spiritual sacrifices?

Ourselves. Where do you find that? What are spiritual sacrifices, and where do you find it?

Romans 12. Good for you. Hold your finger here.

We're not done with it, but look at Romans 12. I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. So we're called to be a priesthood, a royal priesthood, a holy priesthood, and we are called to offer sacrifices, but they're not sacrifices to atone for sin.

Why? Because that's been done. He did offer Himself to be a full, perfect, sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.

We can't add to that. We certainly don't need to. But we offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

and we offer ourselves as living sacrifices not for sin, not to atone for sin but a sacrifice of thanksgiving you see? you know that in the Old Testament there were two different kinds of sacrifice there were the blood sacrifices the animals which were offered for sin and there were the thank offerings which were cereal and drink we're thanking God for what He's already done well we go on doing that We don't offer sacrifices for sin anymore. We do go on thanking God for what He's done.

And that's a real thin line. You've got to follow that through very carefully. If you don't make that distinction, you're going to misunderstand the prayers in the communion service.

And here we offer and present them to you ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice. Right? Not for sin.

for thanksgiving because He's offered Himself for sin. We're giving ourselves back to Him. At the bottom of the...

Well, let me just read it. We'll take a moment to read it. Back in 1 Peter again.

For it stands in Scripture. Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in Him will not be put to shame. To you, therefore, who believe He is precious, but for those who do not believe another quote from the Old Testament the very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner and still a third quote a stone that will make men stumble and a rock that will make them fall you either build your life upon Jesus or you stumble over him he is a rock set right in the middle of our path you are either going to build upon him or you are going to trip over him and fall headlong a rock that will make them stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood that's the second use of it a royal priesthood a holy nation God's own people that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light once you were no people but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. That's a reference back to the book of Hosea. Hosea was given the extraordinary calling of God to enact his prophecy.

He didn't just proclaim it verbally. He had to live it out as a kind of a living parable. And God said to Hosea, I want you to go and marry that woman named Gomer who is a prostitute.

And Hosea was horrified. Prostitutes are supposed to be put to death. God says, you marry her.

I want you to live that out because my wife, Israel, has become a prostitute to me. And I want you to father children by her. And he fathers children.

Two of the children have these fascinating names. No mercy How would you like to have kids with those names? You know, it's time for dinner, and you go to the back door, and you say, Not my people!

No mercy! He's living out. See, God is saying, because my people have so prostituted themselves, they're not my people anymore.

And I can have no mercy. But that's not the end of the story. Because God reaches deeper inside Himself and finds mercy for them.

And He says to Hosea, we're going to rename those kids. And the one that was called, not my people, I want you to now call my people. And the one that was, no mercy, I want you to call mercy.

Go back and read it. It's a marvelous story. It says, once you were no people.

But now you're God's people. once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy we fulfill that all of us not just the children of Israel the new Israel fulfills that once we were no people in the old covenant it was the people of God and everybody else we were nobody we were no people now you are God's people once you had not received mercy now you have received mercy who according to this passage are the members of the royal priesthood the believers okay what according to this passage what does it say Israel more than Israel verse 4 all those who come to him who are the priests all those who come to him are a royal priesthood a holy nation and how do you get to be that? by coming to him not by anything else that we've done.

We haven't earned it. We haven't achieved it. We didn't run for it.

We didn't in any way make it our own. We simply came to Him and He gave it to us. Twice in the book of Revelation, the word priest is used and applied in the same way.

First time in chapter 1. right in the middle of verse 5 if you have the RSV it's a new paragraph it's a new sentence and a new paragraph but it's still the same verse verse 5 we break in and it says the greeting here is from John to the churches in Asia the seven churches of Asia grace to you and peace from him who is was and who is to come, that's the Father, from the seven spirits who are before his throne, that's the sevenfold spirit, the Holy Spirit, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and has made us a what? A kingdom.

Priests to His God and Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Who are the priests? According to that passage? Yeah, I know you keep saying us, but give me the words.

Who are the priests? According to that passage. the ones who are loved by this Lord Jesus and what else?

the ones who have been freed from their sins by His blood those are the priests and once more in chapter 5 verse 9 we've got this incredible scene of the Lamb who had been slain and is now alive He's the only one in all of the universe heaven and earth and under the earth, who has the authority, the right, the privilege, of going and opening the scroll that God holds in his hand. He goes and takes the scroll from him who is seated on the throne, and as he does so, the four living creatures, representing all of creation, the 24 elders, representing the redeemed, fall down before him, each holding a harp with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song. I like that.

There's warrant for singing new songs. Worthy are thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain, and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God. And they shall reign upon earth.

This is the song of the redeemed. Here's what you've done, Lord. You've taken us from every possible background, drawn us together, made us one people, and that's not enough.

You've made us kings. You've made us royalty. And that's not enough.

You've made us priests. You've restored to us, not just to one man's family, not just to one tribe, not even just to the twelve tribes, not to ancient Israel, but to all of us, to everyone who has been redeemed by Your blood. you've made us royalty and priesthood.

You've restored to us what was your original intention, only so much grander and more glorious than it was in the beginning. What was lost has now been recovered and exploded to include all of us. That's what this Lord Jesus has done.

He's fulfilled God's original intention and included every one of us in it. let's stand and pray together Father this has been a sweeping overview we've looked at a lot of scripture and a lot of history pray that you would just help us to see the wonder of who you are and the wonder of the redemption that is ours in Jesus thank you for calling us to be priests help us to fulfill that calling to share you to magnify your name to bring men and women to you for Jesus sake Amen