The Royal Priesthood...

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Perhaps we have not given much thought to the training that must be given to each member of the royal priesthood, if he or she is to serve God successfully in the role of a governing priest. Each of us Christians, if he is to serve as a member of the royal priesthood, will have to experience long, thorough training if he is to fulfill his role properly throughout the coming ages.

9/5/2010) The basic design of the Kingdom of God is easy to understand, but it appears it is not preached very often. The Kingdom of God is in two primary parts: the Royal Priesthood, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the High Priest. Then the multitude of saved people who are the inheritance of the elect and whom God will save into the new world of righteousness.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (I Peter 3:9)

It is impossible to understand the Kingdom of God unless one realizes that the Christian Church, which is the Royal Priesthood, has been called out of the world to govern and bless the multitudes of saved mankind.

There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)

Many passages of the Old Testament refer to the rule of God's saints over the saved peoples of the earth. The saints are neither Jewish nor Gentile as such. Rather, they are the members of Christ's Church, whether Jewish or Gentile by natural birth.

For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:12)

The nation and the kingdom of the above passage are the peoples of the earth whom God has saved but who are not members of the Church, God's elect. "You" are the members of the Church, the Royal Priesthood.

And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. (Isaiah 61:6)

The "priests of the Lord," the "ministers of our God," again are the Church, the members of the Body of Christ. The saved of the nations will contribute their wealth to the saints.

This is a simple, easy to understand model, but it does not seem clear to numerous church people. They envision their future to be that of sitting in a mansion doing nothing of significance. It is no wonder they become confused when God begins to chasten them in order to prepare them for their eternal role as His priests.

In the present hour there are two kinds of saved people: God's ruling priests, and then people from the nations. The purpose of the present age, the Church Age, is to call out the elect from the people of the world, and to prepare them for their role as ruling priests who will represent God to people and people to God. They are as a ladder reaching from earth to Heaven, one might say.

It is easy to see that God has His hand on certain people, and that the Gospel of the Kingdom is first to them. Notice the following passage, for example:

"For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city." (Acts 18:9,10)

God is saying, "Spend time in Corinth because many of My elect are living here." Also:

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. (John 17:9) But then we have the following:

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:15,16)

The above passage is just as much God's Word as the preceding passages, which emphasize election.

What is going on here? On the one hand we have the Lord pointing out that He is concerned about His elect. On the other hand, He is telling us that He wants His Gospel preached "to all creation."

The answer is simple. We are in the Church Age, when God's purpose is to select and train the members of the Royal Priesthood. At the same time, everyone is to hear the Gospel, and whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, meaning, brought into the new world of righteousness when it appears.

But the emphasis during the Church Age is on the elect. God will select His elect from among all who hear the Gospel, believe, and are baptized. He will give gifts to them that they may come to unity in the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Preparing to serve as a ruling priest requires an almost total overhaul of our personality. Some suffering is involved, as necessary. We must be willing to serve the Lord when we do not know what is happening. God will give us a strong love for those to whom we will be bringing to God. There will be long periods when we are just waiting on Christ and putting one foot in front of the other.

We will be serving God as a priest for eternity. Right now we are in the process of preparation for this awesome responsibility. This means we must draw close to Jesus and listen for His guidance at every moment.

How about those who are not of the elect? God will save them, as He stated. However, it is when the Church becomes one in Christ in God that multitudes of the peoples of the earth will believe that it is God who has sent Jesus to save those who believe in Him.

Am I saying that the great ingathering of those who are saved but not of God's elect will come at the end of the Church Age? Yes, this is exactly what I am saying.

Now notice:

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isaiah 60:3) And again:

That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:21)

What is my purpose in pointing out that multitudes will be brought to God through the Church once the Church is filled with God's Glory? It is so we will know what we are doing, what we should emphasize.

Today the emphasis of many Christian denominations is to "go forth and save the world." But the Spirit of God is emphasizing that the Christian people need to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. They must confess and turn away from their worldliness, the lusts and passions of their flesh and soul, and their determination to pursue their own life in their own way without opening the door to Jesus so He can guide their decisions.

If we are not emphasizing what the Spirit is emphasizing, how can we expect God to bless us? We are as the blind leading the blind, which often is the case with religious people.

I don't know if you have ever noticed what the Apostle Paul stated when he presented the goal toward which he was striving.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Does the above passage sound like "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved"?

No, it does not. Toward what was Paul "straining"? To be saved? To go to Heaven? To avoid Hell?

Paul says, rather, he was striving to attain to the resurrection from the dead. We of today, many of us, do not have any idea what Paul was talking about. Is that true?

What Paul was pressing toward was the first resurrection, the resurrection that will take place when Jesus returns, the giving back of their bodies to the blessed and holy members of the royal priesthood.

Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)

There is a practical course of action here. We need to begin to describe to God's people what is at stake. Each of us must adopt the determination of the Apostle Paul and press forward in order to lay hold on that for which God has grasped us. If we do not, it is highly likely that we will not be raised from the dead when the Lord returns, much less be carried up to Heaven.

Any experienced Christian can see how far off we have gotten with the modern preaching of sovereign grace, an any-moment "rapture," and eternal residence in Heaven with no responsibilities.

If the Apostle Paul was pressing forward with all his might to grasp that for which God has grasped him, exactly what are we doing?

Recently a person with a true gift of prophecy addressed a fundamental Christian denomination. He represented the Spirit of God as saying that the denomination had internal problems that needed to be resolved. The response of the leadership was, "Now we must go out and save souls."

I think what is needed today is Christian leaders who are able to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. When they do hear, I doubt seriously it will be that we are to go out and save souls. I think it will be that we Christians need to get closer to the Lord Jesus as the Holy Spirit points out the areas in which we need to be reconciled to God.

It is time now to prepare the members of the Royal Priesthood so they will be ready to bring God to the saved people of the nations.

You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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