THE RECOVERY OF THE PRIESTHOOD FOR GOD'S BUILDING
Message Five
The Two Orders of the Priesthood
Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 5:10; Exo. 29:1, 4; Gen. 14:18-20; Heb. 13:15; 2:12
I. The basic significance of a priest in the Bible is that a priest ministers God to man:
A. The first mention of a priest in the Scriptures establishes the principle of a priest.
B. The first time the word priest is used in the Bible is with Melchizedek, who was a king and a kingly priest—Gen 14:18-20.
C. The foundational story of the priesthood in the Scriptures is that of a person coming from God and ministering something of God to God's people:
1. Melchizedek came from God and ministered something of God to Abraham.
2. The bread and wine signify God as our enjoyment and God being ministered to us to nourish, refresh, sustain, comfort, and strengthen us.
D. If we would be genuine priests today, we need to realize that a priest is not only one who serves God but also one who ministers God into man.
E. If, as priests, we know only how to render service to God without knowing how to minister God to man, the situation among us regarding the priesthood will be quite poor.
II. The two orders of the priesthood are the holy priesthood and the royal priesthood—Rev. 5:10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
A. The holy priesthood is typified by the order of Aaron; the order of Aaron is the holy order—Exo. 29:1, 4; 1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 2:17:
1. To be holy is to be separated from the worldly things unto God—1 Pet. 1:16:
a. The holy order is an order separated from common things unto the di-vine things and unto the use of the Lord.
b. Theholypriests arethose whoare separatedtogotoGod, torepresent God's people—2:5.
2. The first order of the priesthood—the aspect of the Aaronic priesthood, the holy priesthood—is for the offering of sacrifices to God for our sins; hence, the Aaronic priesthood is mainly concerned with the sin offering—Heb. 10:12:
a. The Aaronic priesthood solves the problem of sin; Christ's purifying of sins is typified by the work of Aaron—1:3; 7:27; 9:12, 28.
b. Christ put away sin by offering Himself to God as the one sacrifice for sins—v. 26; 10:10-12.
c. The Aaronic priesthood was not part of God's initial intention but was added later because of the problem of sin—1:3; John 1:29; Rom. 8:3.
B. The royal priesthood is typified by the order of Melchizedek; the order of Melchizedek is the royal, the kingly, order—1 Pet. 2:9; Gen. 14:18; Heb. 5:10:
1. The second order of the priesthood—the aspect of the priesthood typified by Melchizedek, the royal priesthood—is for ministering the processed God into us as our enjoyment for our supply—v. 10; 7:1-2.
2. Christ's sitting down on the right hand of the Majesty on high is according to the order of Melchizedek—Psa. 110:1, 4; Heb. 1:3; 8:1.
3. As the kingly High Priest, Christ ministers to us whatever we need, dispens-ing the processed and consummated Triune God into us as our life supply to fulfill God's eternal purpose.
4. In our experience today, the kingly priests are those who come from God to care for God's people, just as Melchizedek came from God to meet Abraham to minister bread and wine to him—Gen. 14:18-19.
5. As we serve in the practical church life, the real priesthood comes into being when we minister God to others so that eventually they will be God's expression—1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Cor. 3:18.
C. The Aaronic priesthood solves the problem of sin, and the kingly priesthood fulfills God's eternal purpose; the Aaronic priesthood took away sin, and the kingly priesthood brought in God as our grace—Heb. 1:3; 4:16.
D. On the one hand, in the Lord's recovery today we are holy priests, going to God to represent God's people and bring their needs to Him; on the other hand, we are royal priests, coming from God to the people to represent God and minister God to them—1 Pet.2:5,9:
1. The holy priests offer something to God for the sake of the people, and the royal priests declare the things of God to people.
2. We are the holy priests and the kingly priests, going and coming in two directions.
III. The holy priesthood offers spiritual sacrifices to God—v. 5:
A. The spiritual sacrifices that the holy priests offer according to God's economy are (1) Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament types, such as the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and tres-pass offering (Lev. 1—5); (2) the sinners saved by our gospel preaching, offered as members of Christ (Rom. 15:16); and (3) our body, our praises, and the things that we do for God (12:1; Heb. 13:15-16; Phil. 4:18).
B. In particular, the spiritual sacrifices include Christ as the reality of the burnt offering; we can offer Christ to God as our burnt offering only to the extent to which we have experienced Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering— Lev. 1:6, 9; 6:8-13.
C. God accepts no work that is not a sacrifice, that is not wholly an offering; thus, the question is not "What have I done for God?" but "Has what I have done been done as an offering to God?"
D. As priests in the holy priesthood, through the unchanging Christ as grace we should "offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God"—Heb. 13:15:
1. In the church we should offer up through Christ the sacrifice of praise to God.
2. In the church Christ sings in us hymns of praise unto God the Father, and we too should praise God the Father through Him—2:12:
a. He and we, we and He, praise the Father together in the mingled spirit— 1Cor. 6:17.
b. Christ, as the life-giving Spirit, praises the Father in our spirit, and we, by our spirit, praise the Father in His Spirit.
c. This is the best and highest sacrifice that we can offer to God through Christ—Heb. 13:15.
IV. The kingly priesthood tells out the virtues of God who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light—1 Pet. 2:9:
A. Virtue (2 Pet. 1:3) is the energy and strength of the divine life that enables us to reach God's glory as the goal; virtues (1 Pet. 2:9) are the excellencies of God, referring to what God is and has.
B. To tell out is to proclaim abroad; this is to benefit others by proclaiming abroad as the gospel the virtues of the One who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light—v. 9:
1. Darkness is the expression and sphere of Satan in death; light is the expres-sion and sphere of God in life—1 John 1:5.
2. God has called us, delivered us, out of Satan's death-realm of darkness into His life-realm of light—Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13.