A Priest Before God
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5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: And the government shall be upon his shoulder: And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: because the Lord hath anointed me. These are the words of Jesus in Isaiah. As the fruit of His work, all redeemed ones are priests, fellow partakers with Him of His anointing with the Spirit as High Priest. Like the precious ointment upon Aaron’s beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. As every son of Aaron, so every member of Jesus' body has a right to the priesthood. But not everyone exercises it: many are still entirely ignorant of it. And yet it is the highest privilege of a child of God, the mark of most extraordinary nearness and likeness to Him, who ever liveth to pray! Do you doubt if this really be so? Think of what constitutes priesthood. There is, first, the work of the priesthood. This has two sides, one Godward, the other man-ward. Every priest is ordained for men in things pertaining to God
1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
or, as Moses said (Deut.x. 8
8 At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.
see also xxi. 5, exxi. 10
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, And iniquity was not found in his lips: He walked with me in peace and equity, And did turn many away from iniquity.
The Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to stand before the Lord to minister unto Him, and to bless His Name.'
On the one hand, the priest had the power to draw nigh to God, to dwell with Him in His house, and to present before Him the blood of the sacrifice or the burning incense. He did not do this work on his own behalf but for the sake of the people whose representative he was. This is the other side of his work. He received their sacrifices from the people and presented them. A priest is thus a man who does not at all live for himself. He lives with God and for God. His work is as God's servant to care for His house, His honor, and His worship, to make known to men His love and His will. He lives with men and for men (Heb. v. 2
2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
His work is to find out their sin and needs, and to bring it before God, to offer sacrifice and incense in their name, to obtain forgiveness and blessing for them, and then to come out and bless them in His Name. This is the high calling of every believer. Such honor has all His saints. They have been redeemed with the one purpose to be in the midst of the perishing millions around them. God's priests, who conform to Jesus, the Great High Priest, are to be the ministers and stewards of the grace of God to all around them.
The priesthood’s walk is in harmony with its work. As God is holy, so the priest was to be especially holy.
This means being not only separated from everything unclean but holy to God, being set apart and given up to God for His disposal. The separation from the world and setting apart to God were indicated in many ways.
It was seen in the clothing: the holy garments, made after God's own order, marked them as His (Ex. xxviti.). It was seen in the command as to their unique purity and freedom from all contact with death and defilement (Lev. xi. 22). Much that was allowed to an ordinary Israelite was forbidden to them. It was seen in the injunction that the priest must have no bodily defect or blemish; bodily perfection was to be the type of wholeness and holiness in God's service. It was seen in the arrangement by which the priestly tribes were to have no inheritance from the other tribes; God was to be their inheritance. Their life was to be one of faith: set apart unto God, they were to live on Him and for Him.
All this is the emblem of the character of the New Testament priest. Our priestly power with God depends on a personal life and mock. We must be of them of whose walk on earth Jesus says, They have not defiled their garments.'
In surrendering what may appear lawful to others in our separation from the world, we must prove that our consecration to be holy to the Lord is whole-hearted and entire. The bodily perfection of the priest must have its counterpart in our too being without spot or blemish; the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, perfect and entire, wanting nothing (Lev. xxi. 17-21
17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
19 Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,
20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
And above all, we consent to give up all inheritance on earth; to forsake all, and like Christ to have only God as our portion: to possess as not possessing and hold all for God alone: it is this marks the true priest. This man only lives for God and his fellow men.
And now the way to the priesthood. In Aaron, God had chosen all his sons to be priests: each was a priest by birth.
And yet he could not enter upon his work without a particular act of ordinance-his consecration. Every child of God is a priest in light of his birth and his blood relationship to the Great High Priest, but this is not enough: he will exercise his power only as he accepts and realizes his consecration.
With Aaron and his sons, it took place thus (Ex. xxix.): After being washed and clothed, they were anointed with the holy oil. Sacrifices were then offered, and with the blood, the right ear, the right hand, and the right foot were touched. And then they and their garments were once again sprinkled with the blood and the oil together. And so it is as the child of God enters more fully into what THE BLOOD and THE SPIRIT of which he already is partaker, are to him, that the power of the Holy Priesthood will work in him.
The blood will remove all sense of unworthiness; the Spirit, all sense of unfitness.
Let us notice what was new in applying the blood to the priest. If ever he had, as a penitent, brought a sacrifice for his sin, seeking forgiveness, the blood was sprinkled on the altar but not on his person. But now, for priestly consecration, there was to be closer contact with the sanctified for God, And so, when me believer, Who Doo De" content to think chiefly of the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat as what he needs for pardon, is led to seek full priestly access to God, he feels the need of a fuller and more abiding experience of the power of the blood, as really sprinkling, and cleansing, the heart from an evil conscience, so that he has no more conscience of sin' (Heb. x:2
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
as cleansing from all sin.
It is as he gets to enjoy this that the consciousness is awakened of his extraordinary right of most intimate access to God, and of the full assurance that his intercessions are acceptable, And as the blood gives the right, the Spirit gives the power, and fits for believing intercession; He breathes into us the priestly spirit-burning, love for God’s honor and the saving of souls. He makes us so one with Jesus that prayer in His Name is a reality. He strengthens us to believe, and pray importunately. The more the Christian is truly filled with the Spirit of Christ, the more spontaneous he will give himself up to the life of priestly intercession, Beloved fellow Christians! God needs, greatly needs, priests who can draw near to Him, who live in His presence, and by their intercession, draw down the blessings of His grace on others. And the world needs, greatly needs, priests who will bear the burden of the perishing ones and intercede on their behalf.
Are you willing to offer yourself for this holy work? You know the surrender it demands--nothing less than the Christ-like giving up of all, that the saving purposes of God's love may be accomplished among men. Oh, be no longer of those who are content if they have salvation and do work enough to keep themselves warm and lively. O let nothing keep you from giving yourselves to be wholly and only priests- nothing else, nothing less than the priests of the Most High God. The thought of unworthiness, of unfitness, need not keep you back.
In the Blood, the objective power of the perfect redemption works in you; in the Spirit, its full subjective personal experience as a divine life is secured. The Blood provides an infinite worthiness to make your prayers most acceptable: The Spirit provides a Divine fitness, teaching you to pray just according to the will of God. Every priest knew that it was accepted when he presented a sacrifice according to the law of the sanctuary. Under the covering of the Blood and Spirit, you have the assurance that all the beautiful promises to prayer in the Name of Jesus will be fulfilled in you. Abiding in union with the Great High Priest, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.' You will have the power to pray the effectual prayer of the righteous man that availeth much. You will not only join in the general prayer of the Church for the world but be able in your own sphere to take up your remarkable work in prayer--as priests, to transact it with God, to receive and know the answer, and so to bless in His Name. Come, brother, and be a priest, only priest, all priest. Seek now to walk before the Lord, fully aware that you have been set apart for the holy Ministry of Intercession. This is the true blessedness of conformity to the image of God's Son.
LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!
O Thou my blessed High Priest, accept the consecration in which my soul now would respond to Thy message.
I believe in the HOLY PRIESTHOOD OF THY SAINTS, and that I too am a priest, with power to appear before the Father, and in the prayer that avails much bring down blessing on the perishing around me.
I believe in the POWER OF THY PRECIOUS BLOOD to cleanse me from all sin, to give me perfect confidence toward God, and bring me near in the full assurance of faith that my intercession will be heard.
I believe in the ANOINTING OF THE SPIRIT, coming down daily from Thee, my Great High Priest, to sanctify me, to fill me with the consciousness of my priestly calling, and with I believe that, as Thou my Lord Jesus art Thyself in all things my life, so Thou, too, art THE SURETY FOR MY PRAYER-LIFE, and wilt Thyself draw me up into the fellowship of Thy wondrous work of intercession.
In this faith I yield myself this day to my God, as one of His anointed priests, to stand before His face to intercede in behalf of sinners, and to come out and bless in His Name.
Holy Lord Jesus! accept and seal my consecration. Yea, Lord, do Thou lay Thy hands on me, and Thyself consecrate me to this Thy holy work. And let me walk among men with the consciousness and the character of a priest of the Most High God.
Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins IN HIS OWN BLOOD, AND HATH MADE US kings and priests unto God and His Father; TO HIM be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
