THE thought of a distinct priesthood of a certain class separated from their brethren and occupying a peculiar place of nearness to God is utterly foreign to the New Testament. All believers are designated priests in this dispensation. In Revelation 1:6,6And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:6) the apostle says that He “hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father,” and the us there clearly takes in all the redeemed family in this wonderful dispensation of grace. The apostle Peter, too, tells us that we are “holy priests” and “royal priests;” and he was not speaking of any special grace resting upon the apostolic company or upon any peculiar class set apart to some sacerdotal office, but he spoke of all believers. He says that we are holy and royal priests, and Paul, who I believe was the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, tells us that we are to offer up “spiritual sacrifices.”
Sacrificing is a priestly function. In Old Testament times, the people of God were divided into three classes; there were some priests others ministers or Levites and the rest were warriors. There were those especially set apart as worshipers and others as ministers on behalf of God to His people. The priest, you see, goes in to God on behalf of the people; the Levite goes out to the people on behalf of God. Then there were those who were called upon to contend for the rights of the people of God and for the glory of God—they were warriors. However, in the New Testament dispensation every believer is a warrior; we are all called upon to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” (Jude 33Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 3)). Every believer is also a minister; we all have some gift, and “as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:1010As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10)). We are called upon to labor for the blessing of a lost world. Then, thirdly, we are all priests; we are all worshipers, and it is the privilege of each one of us to enter where the ordinary priests of old never could enter, into the holiest, where we come in all the infinite value of the precious atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now worship is the very highest exercise of the human spirit, but it is that of which we know the least and to which most of us give the least attention. We all know what it means to fight for the Truth, to contend for the Word. I take it that most of us realize the tremendous responsibility resting upon us in these days of declension and apostasy to stand firmly for the Truth of God, to be ready to defend that Truth even if it should mean to lay down our lives for it. We know something of real ministry, to serve our brethren or to serve by carrying the Gospel to the world. But some of us, I fear, imagine that when we have stood valiantly for the Truth and ministered to the needs of others, that is about all that Gad is looking for from us. He said to the woman at the well. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:2424God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)), “for the Father seeketh such to worship Him” (John 4:2323But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (John 4:23)). Have you ever thought very much about that?
You recall that wonderful word in Luke 19:10: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Our blessed Lord, a Seeker! and whom is He seeking? He is seeking after lost men and women to bring them to the knowledge of redemption. And where does He seek? Out in the world, everywhere wherever man is found. But now we see that God the Father is a Seeker. For whom is He seeking? The Father seeketh worshipers. And where does He go to seek worshipers? Out into the wide world? Oh, no! Men talk, you know, about public worship. Why, the public cannot worship; the greater part of the public are lost sinners trampling on the Saviour’s blood and going on to endless judgment. They are not worshipers. It is not out in the world where the Father is looking for worshipers; but where does He look? Among the redeemed! When people have been washed from their sins in the precious blood of Christ; when they have been cleansed from sin’s pollution, then, think of it, among them the Father is seeking worshipers! After all, there are so few even of the blood washed who rise to the height of their privileges and responsibilities and take their rightful place as priests before God.
You know the priest is the worshiper. Men are often content when they come into what is called a religious service to let the man in the pulpit do the praying and the preaching, and the choir do the singing, and they just sit and look on and then go away and say, “We have been worshiping God,” and perhaps all the time God was seeking all through that audience for worshipers and hardly finding any.
You remember the ten lepers that came to Christ in their need, pleading that they might be healed. He said, “Go your way to the priest and offer the sacrifice.” What was the meaning of that? In Leviticus 13 and 14, where we have the regulations in regard to leprosy, we are told that when a leper was cleansed, he was to go and show himself to the priest. But do you realize that in all the fifteen hundred years that had rolled by since God had inspired Moses to write those chapters, there is no record that they had ever been acted upon? No man at any time ever came to a priest in Israel and said, “See, I was a leper, but I have been healed and I have brought my sacrifice.” So that part of the law of God had become a dead letter to the priests in Israel; but how astonished they must have been when the people began coming, first one and then another, and said, “I want you to examine me; I have been a leper for years but I have been healed and I have come to bring the sacrifice.” I fancy some of the priests must have been greatly perturbed I fancy some of them were so astonished that they did not know what to do. They probably went back to consult the Book, as they said, “Why, we have never heard of this before; of course it is in the Bible but we have had no occasion to look into this particular instruction. Who healed you?” They would ask. And to their amazement and perhaps chagrin, the answer would come, “Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth; He touched me and made me whole and I have come to bring the offering according to the law.”
What a wonderful thing that was those ten lepers pleaded that they might be healed, and Jesus said, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” What did that mean? Here they were covered with leprosy. “Well,” one might say, “He told us to go and He must mean that by the time we get there everything will be all right,” and so they had faith enough to go, and they were healed.
But one of the lepers suddenly felt a strange sensation come over him and he looked at his hands and said, “My word! I have not seen my hands look like that for years, these hands that were so covered with leprosy. Did you notice anything different about me?” “Why,” they might have said, “you were never so good looking in your life. We are healed; we are well; the leprosy is gone!” And nine of them went off to the temple in accordance with the Word, but one of them, a Samaritan, said, “Why should I go to that temple; there is one here greater than the temple. I am going back to Him,” and back he went and fell down at the feet of the blessed Lord, a worshiper—a worshiper! Do you get that? He fell down to adore, to bless, to thank the One who had healed him, and how the heart of Jesus was touched as He exclaimed, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger” (Luke 17:1717And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? (Luke 17:17) and 18).
This is the picture of a worshiper, and that is what the priest is, and when the Word of God tells us that we are all priests, it means that we are all set apart as worshipers.
After Aaron and his sons were first thus consecrated ever son in their families was born a priest. And dear friends, there is no ordinance or ceremonial service that will make a priest of you today; you must be born a priest. “But,” you say, “it is all up with me then; for I was born into an ungodly family.” Oh, but that is where the Word of the Lord comes in. “Ye must be born again,” and when you are born the second time, you are born into the priestly family. Aaron was at the head of his family and all his sons were called “his house.” Now Christ is the head of the priestly family today, and all who receive life through Christ are called “His house.”
But before the priest could enter upon his service there were certain ceremonies through which he had to go. First, he was brought to the door of the tabernacle; and that is typical. Jesus says, “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)). The priest is a man who has a personal acquaintance with Christ. Dear friend, do you know Him, that blessed One who is the way into the very presence of God and who says, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me”? Come to the Door!
Next, he was stripped of all his secular garments; and for every one of us there has to be the stripping. Saul of Tarsus, in his unconverted days, thought he was well-dressed. In Philippians 3, he tells us of the many things in which he used to glory and then when he had a vision of the Saviour, and stripping took place. “What things were gain to me,” he says, “those I counted loss for Christ” (Phil. 3:77But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. (Philippians 3:7)). Some of us remember when we labored pretty hard to get “well-dressed” in order to fit ourselves for God. We did not like forswearing all these things but when Christ filled the vision of our soul, then we could say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jus Christ” (Gal. 6:1414But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14)). You know, Paul says that I may “be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:99And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:9)).
I was talking to a large group at a college one day and an illustration came to my mind which will probably not fit you quite so well. I said, “Just imagine one of you girls working your way through college. You have very little with which to do; your parents are not able to provide for you; possibly you have no parents. There is going to be some great affair and all are supposed to be nicely dressed for this occasion and you do not Like to be shabby, but you have so little to go on. Then you see that at the five and ten cent store, there is a splendid sale on material for ten cents a yard. You have only a few dimes but you go down and get a few yards and try to make a nice little gown so that you can go to that function. But you have never had much training as a seamstress and you have a lot of trouble. However, you work away on it trying to make it look respectable. Then one day Lady Bountiful visits you; you have always dreamed about her but never expected to see her. She takes a kindly interest in you and says, ‘Look, I want you to go down town with me.’ You go, wondering why she should be interested in you, and then she takes you into one of the most beautiful establishments of the city. You are stirred as you walk up and down those aisles, and as she stops at the dress section, she says, ‘Now, my dear, pick out any dress you please; a gown for yourself, any one that you like.’ ‘Well, really,’ you say, ‘that seems too good to be true, I am afraid my taste would lead my to pick out something too expensive.’ But she says, ‘Go right on—anything you want.’ And so your fancy for color leads you to select a certain one and you say, ‘Well, I think that would be very becoming.’ ‘All right,’ she says, and to the saleslady, ‘How much is it?’ The answer is, $75.00. ‘Oh,’ you say, ‘that is altogether beyond a poor girl like me.’ But that is all right, you like it and you are going to have it.’ Imagine the girl coming back to her little room seeing the poor old figured goods at which she had been working so long. She gets the new one out and tries it on and parades up and down before the glass. Finally she calls in the others girls and says, ‘Oh, now I shall be found not having my own dress, this poor inexpensive thing, but this beautiful gown, that has been given to me so freely!’” Do you see it?
Paul looked at it that way. He had been trying to work out his righteousness himself, trying to make a beautiful garment in which to stand before God; but when he got sight of the risen Christ, and learned that every believer is made the righteousness of God in Christ, he said, “Away with that thing of my own providing, now that I can be dressed up in the righteousness which is of God in Christ.”
Yes, we have to be stripped, but before we put on the new clothes there is something more. We find the priests were bathed all over. That speaks of cleansing, every whit. When I come to the place where I am willing to let go my own righteousness and put my trust in Christ, I am washed from every sin stain and made clean. “Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:33Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. (John 15:3)). The Word tells me of atoning blood shed for my sins on Calvary’s tree— “And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). I am not only made clean but I am clothed; now it is that God puts upon me this robe, a divine righteousness, and I can exclaim with Isaiah, “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:1010I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)).
Now I am ready to enter upon my office as a priest. What do I do? The priest was a worshiper. Of old he offered sacrifice for sin, but we have no sacrifice for sin to offer because our great High Priest settled that when He offered up Himself. But what do I offer now? The priest offered the gifts of a grateful people as well. The people came bringing their gifts, and he presented them before the Lord, and so you and I come bringing our gifts. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” (Heb. 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)).
Did you ever notice that rather odd expression in one of the minor prophets, “By Thee will we offer the calves of our lips”? The people of old presented their cattle to God but the prophet looking on into the future sees that we will have no calf to burn but exclaims, “We will offer the ‘calves of our lips.’” We are coming to God pleading the infinite value of the Lord Jesus and praising Him for the grace that led Him to stoop so low as to save us. We bring Christ to God as the praise of our hearts.
In Deuteronomy 26 there is a lovely picture. When the people of Israel came into the land, they were to take a basket of the first-fruits and set it down before the Lord; and the priest (you see they could not go any further), was to bring it in and set it in the presence of the Lord and the people were to confess that they themselves were poor sinners but God had dealt with them in loving kindness. And so we come today bringing our baskets of first-fruits.
And Christ Himself is the “first-fruits” we are told. He is the sample sheaf of the coming great harvest. We shall all be like Him some day. Meantime we come to God bringing to Him the One in whom He delights and we now delight in Him too.
But now it is not just this one side. Peter says that we are holy priests and royal priests. “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:55Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)), that is, to offer the praises of thanksgiving, of adoration to God “acceptable by Christ Jesus.” And that is not all.
He not only says we are holy priests, (not in any holiness of our own) but in 1 Peter 2:99But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9) he says, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should Show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” As a holy priest I go in to God to worship; as a royal priest (linked up with my Melchizedec Priest-King), I go out before men to show forth the praises of Him who has called me “out of darkness into His marvelous light.” And how do I do that? By manifesting Christ to men. I bring Christ to God and come into His presence as a worshiper with a heart enraptured with Christ, and then I take Christ out to men and show to others what God has given me.
First, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)). Now look at the other side, “But to do good and to communicate (to share what you have with others whether in things spiritual or temporal) forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased (Heb. 13:1616But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:16)).
Thus, we have the two sides to our worship. We honor God by offering the sacrifice of praise through Christ. We prove that we are true worshipers by manifesting the love of God to those in need.