A Royal Priesthood — Duane Troyer

Greet everybody in Jesus name. I really appreciate this verse 3. It says that we have the song we just sang Redeemer Savior friend of man once ruined by the fall Thou has devised salvation's plan for thou has died for all.

And blessed be the name. Let's stand for a word of prayer. Father in heaven we thank you For all your goodness and all your kindness and all your mercies to us and You recognize you as our father in heaven and that your name is holy.

We pray that your kingdom would come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation.

Deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. I suppose you all.

Know what it's like to have a. To have a bit of a stirring inside you like a good kind of a stirring. The kind that that has you excited. To share some good exciting bit of news that's a little how I feel this morning.

Moses Recognizes His Identity Among God’s People

When Moses was born he was he was hid for three months because Because the Egyptians were were out to kill all men men men male children and. So they kept him hid they wanted to keep him and after three months they were afraid they couldn't hide him any longer and so they made this little basket and and they laid him in there and and the mama If if we have her name, it's it's it's not coming to me right now.

But her mama or his mama laid him out in the in the calm waters of the Nile back by the bull rushes and she she had his sister Miriam. Miriam watch over it and Pharaoh's daughter comes down there to to wash herself and she sees this little basket and she tells her her maidservants to go get it and She opens it up and here's a little child and she takes pity on him and Immediately Miriam comes up runs to her to her and says should I go get somebody to to nurse this child for you?

And she says yes, let's do that. And then once once once this child doesn't need to be nursed again nursed anymore. Bring him to me. It's my child. That's how Moses's life begins and So that's what happened and I don't know the age.

That that that Moses was weaned two three, I don't know. And And then and then he grew up in as as Pharaoh's daughter, I doubt that he remembered Much of his much of his life at home. But but it says the scriptures say that he grew up.

He grew up as as Pharaoh's daughter. When when Stephen recounts this when he's he's giving this story of the Old Testament before the council. He says Pharaoh's daughter nurtured him as her own son he says he was educated in all the learnings of the Egyptians and he was a man of power both in word and deed and so We don't we don't know much about Moses's life between his birth and when he was 40 years old, but but that he was raised in Egypt in that time.

At some point in his life. Whether it was gradually whether it was suddenly but at some point in his life He came to the realization. This is not where I belong. I Was not born for this. I was not born an Egyptian.

I belong to those Hebrews. I'm out of my place this is not what the Creator made me for and So as the Hebrew writer says by faith when when he had grown up He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches Than the treasure in Egypt it can have a powerful effect on us.

When when we come to realize Who were supposed to be? Mm-hmm what we were what we were created for and what the expectation is for us. Sometimes sometimes when we when we get away from just like zooming in on like, okay Here's the things we ought to be doing and we look at the big picture of who?

We're supposed to be it it has it has a powerful effect on us. I I well remember back when I was in my 20s. And I was reading I was reading through Peter Hoover's the secret of the strength and in some in some fresh way in some new Way that that that I hadn't realized before in my life.

I realized the message of Jesus is simply follow me. He is asking us to just to just follow him to be like him to walk the way he walked to do the things that he would do and it had it had a powerful effect on me like More than just like realizing like okay here here we have a Bible and it says things that God does it says things that we should do.

We're supposed to be like Jesus and it it the especially the freshness and the newness of it had a Had an effect on me like I I could tell like it it gave me it enabled me it enabled me To to resist resist sin in a new way.

I remember particularly one time when I was when all this was real fresh on my mind and I went to this grocery store. And and in this particular grocery store when you when you got done at the cashier you you had to Make a left and turn along this wall to go out the door and all along that wall was this huge rack of magazines I'll be none of them had anything good in them a half of them were probably not fit to see.

But I just I just remember when I got done with that with my groceries and I walked out there I I was not even tempted to look at the at the magazine rack. It was like Jesus would have no interest here and I was being like Jesus and it was just it it really like it really helped me like Not even be tempted because I realized who I was made to be who who we are supposed to be.

And it wasn't just like a don't do this, but we were trying I was trying to be like somebody. It has it does it can have a this this realization of who we're supposed to be can have a gripping effect on us and Convict us of evil and to help us say no to sin and to pursue what's right.

The Calling to Be a Royal Priesthood

And I want to talk today about a thing that we're supposed to be. Something that the scripture says that we are supposed to be and that is a royal priesthood. We are supposed to be a royal.

Priesthood I.

Let me just read this verse here in second in first Peter in in the second chapter in verse 9 where he says, but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the Excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

This is a pretty high calling this is a pretty pretty big position a royal priesthood and and and our our duty is to proclaim the excellencies of God of The one who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

We're supposed to proclaim that we're supposed to I think the King James says to show forth his praises. We're supposed to be the publishers of the goodness of Christ. That's what we're called for. By definition, that's what a priest is.

He is one Especially consecrated to the service of divinity and through whom worship prayer. Sacrifice and other service is offered to the object of worship and Pardon blessing or deliverance is obtained by the worshiper.

That's one definition I found of priest. A Priest is required to act as a mediator. He is the one who represents God To the people and in return represents the people to God. The priest is a he is a figure he is an image that that God appoints on his behalf to represent himself to the rest of humanity and The priest in return is to beseech God on behalf of the people to Bring God the prayers the offerings the praise and so forth.

He is like the gateway between humanity and God. God wants a chosen generation he wants a royal priesthood so that the present so that his presence would flow out over all the earth and That's quite a position and don't forget that it says a royal priesthood.

Adam and Eve as Humanity’s First Priests

That that's that's royalty. That's that's kingly in nature. We are we are with the ranks of a king who was the first priest. Anybody want to take a before Melchizedek at least not not not before him because he was maybe without Without beginning and but we read about him before Melchizedek.

He doesn't get called a priest. But he is a priest. It's Adam. He was the first priest. He was the first representative of God. He was he was made for this purpose that a priest has. Mm-hmm. He was made in the image of God.

Adam and Eve are God's priests to take care of creation as the image of God. They represent God to creation and as the jewel of his creation. They represent creation before God. Adam Means he human and Eve means life.

This is Adam and Eve are. They are they are they are the human life that God created and the whole purpose of Creating human life was to be his royal Priesthood or his royal representatives to represent him here to creation.

He put Adam and Eve in a holy place and he called the place Eden now Eden and this is something I just Came across recently, but or yeah real realized recently. Eden was not the garden Eden was. Eden was the the The region.

Eden was the region and then within the region of Eden. He planted a garden and then within the garden. He planted the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There's there is evidence that Eden Was was on a mountaintop on a highland there's There's you get the idea this is not just totally explicit but you get this idea that a river flowed out of Eden and That it and that it separated and went into four waters flowing each direction and watering Watering the whole surrounding area which which is an indication of it being up high higher than anything else.

There's also the account in Ezekiel where the where the Prophet is describing He's describing Eden and he calls it calls it the holy mountain of God. Adam and Eve were instructed to work and keep the garden.

They were supposed to rule creation on God's behalf to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill it. And here in this holy place Was the presence of God. There was there was constant communication between God and Adam and and there was abundant Blessings there was bounty and there was there was perfect.

Peace and love here the the the the Perfection of Blessing joy peace and love was right here in the garden. We know the story Adam and Eve were not satisfied with being the image of God and they took it.

They took a jab at being God and They fell into sin. They were expelled from the garden and they were driven out toward the east out of the garden and He placed cherubims at the east entrance of the garden to guard the way to the tree of life.

Cherubims are Angelic beings of some sorts. So this This garden this paradise that had been holy that had been a holy mountain where God's presence was. That this is what it was and man was no longer holy and he could not be there.

Humanity had lost its position. That God had created it to be the very thing that God had created them to be and wanted them to be. They lost it. They could no longer be it as I Understand it to start with.

Adam and Eve were not driven completely out of Eden. They were driven out of the garden and it wasn't until Cain Cain and Abel offered a sacrifice and Cain rose up and slew Abel that they were just further driven out and out of Eden altogether.

Adam and Eve or in other words human life. Lost its access to not only the tree of life, but to the garden and to all of Eden. This paradise this ultimate state of being In delight and peace and love it was lost.

But God had a plan to undo it. If we go if we go forward. And I'm talking to people who are generally pretty familiar with the with with the whole biblical account. But if we go forward to Exodus chapter 19 If I understand this correctly God God had this plan to take to take the descendants of Abraham all of them the whole the whole of Israel and he Was going to make them a priesthood.

Israel’s Covenant Calling and the Levites’ Priestly Service

He was going to have them be a royal priesthood a special priesthood. This is what he says in in chapter 19 in verse 3 says then Moses went up the mountain of God and God called to him from the mountain saying Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel.

You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you out on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant. You shall be a special people to me above all nations for all the earth is mine.

You shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation. These are the words you shall speak to the children of Israel. This was before the golden calf event and and and and God was wanting to take Israel and have them be his representatives to the whole world but then.

Then this golden calf thing happened and they started worshiping. Okay, I'm saying this is the one who brought us out of the land of Egypt and and and God was God was furious and Moses was furious and Moses came down from the mountain and he and he said to the congregation whoever's on the Lord's side come over here and the Levites came over and.

And Moses told the Levites get your swords go out and kill your neighbors and your companions and they went out and they they did. They just did a slaughter and killed 3 ,000 men. And There was something That I think there was a special zeal that the Levites had especially a zeal for for holiness a zeal for worship.

And and and to not be in not not be idolaters and so God said I'll make a priesthood out of the Levites. God gave Moses instructions in great detail about the priesthood and their duties and the Tabernacle and where they were and and where they were supposed to do it.

The Tabernacle as a Restored Eden

The the tabernacle was a very important place. It was a holy place. It was a Sacred tent that that the Israelites carried with them as they journeyed through the wilderness. It Was the place where the presence of God dwelled and So and so it was it was typically Set up in the center of the garden.

There were particular ways. It was supposed to be set up. They were supposed to well, first of all It was designed after a certain way and I think it was designed after the Garden of Eden. It had an outer court and and inside that it had a it had a tent that had an entry room and Inside the tent there was a curtain and behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies and on the curtains There was there was figures of cherubims Symbolically guarding the way into this Holy of Holies and they were always supposed to set it up with the entrance toward the east.

Whenever it was possible It was supposed to be set up on him or it was set up on high places on mountains. Only the priests and the Levites Were allowed to enter the outer court. Only the priests were allowed to enter the entry room and only the high priest once a year Was allowed to go behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies.

It was a very very holy place. The work of the priests God said is to work and keep The sanctuary of the tabernacle that is just about exact if not exact wording. That was given to Adam and Eve to work and keep the garden.

They were to work and keep this this tabernacle. They served the the the priests and Levites served as mediators between God and man and the people. They took the people's sacrifices and offered them up to God.

They interceded on behalf of the people before God. They would inquire God for the nation. They were the guards of the tabernacle. They were to seek the law. They were to be the messengers of the God of hosts.

They were the teachers. They were the scribes the judges the musicians the singers and the doorkeepers. They were to be the regulators. They were responsible to make sure that That the weights and measures were accurate that people used.

They were very active in representing God to the people and the people to God they were they were to be so dedicated to this work That they did not receive an inheritance of land. When all the other 11 tribes received an inheritance of land of land To till it and to work it and to raise things the Levites did not receive that they were supposed to be so Totally dedicated to the work of God.

I think in the book of Joshua it says for the Lord himself is their inheritance. They lived by a somewhat different standard. They they had to undergo a purification. They could not marry a divorced woman or a prostitute.

They had to be without blemish. I want to read to you in in Leviticus Chapter 21 Verses 16 to 24 it says now the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron saying no man of your descendants in succeeding generations who has any defect may approach to offer the gifts of his God.

For any man who has a defect shall not approach a man lame or blind who has a slit nose or ear. A man who has a broken hand or foot or is hunchbacked or has a defect in his eye or an inflammation with the respect of his eye or a man with a severe itch or a single testicle.

No man of the seed of Aaron that. The priest who has a defect shall come near to offer the sacrifice of your God. He has a defect. He shall not come near to offer the gifts of your God. The gifts of his God are most holy and he may eat only the holy things.

But he shall not go near the veil or approach the altar because he has a defect. Lest he defile the holy place of his God for I the Lord sanctified them. Thus Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel.

Remember the priests were the representation of God. They were the image of God to the people. That's why that's why that's why they were not. I think if you read it in the Masoretic text a dwarf is included in there.

There was not supposed to be this obvious blemish in someone who who works in the in the tabernacle. Or who enters it for that matter. So that's that's a little description of the tabernacle now later.

David, the Temple, and Sacrifice That Costs Something

Later David got this idea after the children of Israel had settled in the land of Canaan and they had. They might have moved the tabernacle a few times, but it had kind of come to settle. Settle somewhere on some mountain there, but David got this idea like why why should the Lord dwell in a tent?

And I dwell in a house of cedar and he had this idea of building a house to a temple for the Lord Solomon ended up building that but I found some of this just this information interesting. I just think I sometimes think we just we just scratched the surface on the the the richness of that the types and the.

The way God did things where he did them how to how and when these things all work. So so when David when David was King and he captured the Jebusites. He made he made their city the capital and he expanded it and and and he purchased the threshing floor and this is you're probably familiar with that story, but David had sinned toward the end of David's life.

David had sinned. He had taken a census of the people and taken account. To see to see how powerful he is. I think I think that's the mind behind it is like Look at my achievements and and he took account and it it it it really came back to him in fact I think it's a similar sin that Adam did and not being satisfied with the blessings of being in God's will and and wanted to elevate himself for his you know concerning his achievements and the result was wide spread death.

After David committed that sin there came a plague and people started dying. Unlike Adam who shifted the blame David took it upon himself. When when he can't went when he saw that angel with a drawn-out stone sword there at the threshing floor of Onan Orna, this is what he said.

He said I am the shepherd and I have done wickedly. But these sheep what have they done? Let your hand I pray thee be against me and against my father's house. And it says goes on to say in verse 18 there of 2nd Samuel last chapter and Gad came to David That day and said to him Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite.

So David went up according to the word of Gad as the Lord commanded. Now Orna looked and saw the king and his servants coming Toward him. So Orna went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.

Then Orna said Why has my lord the king come to his servant and David said to buy the threshing floor from you to build an altar to? The Lord so the plague may be withdrawn from the people now Orna said to David Let my lord the king take the offer take and offer up whatever seems good to him to the Lord look here are oxen and burnt for a burnt sacrifice and threshing implements and yokes of the oxen for wood.

And Orna gave all these things to the king and Orna said to the king may the Lord your God bless you. Then the king Said to Orna no. But I will surely buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with something that costs me nothing.

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver and David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and Solomon later made a larger offering upon the altar for a small one.

For a small one was made first. So the Lord heeded the prayer Prayers of the land and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. I find it interesting and I I think we can learn from this where David says I Will not offer burnt offerings to this this this Orna was saying.

Oh you want the threshing floor? Take it not only that I've got oxen here working here you use these and I got threshing implements use these for for for the for the for the Kindling for the fire and and David is like no I I won't offer a sacrifice to the Lord that costs me nothing.

Anyway, I find it real interesting it is it is on this Mount this this place where this happened was up from okay. So there was the city of the Jebusites, which was already up on a high land. But but on up from there toward the top of I think it was Mount Moriah Is where the threshing floor was and this is the this is the piece of ground that he purchased and There is where he built his altar to cease the plague.

It is the same spot. They say that Abraham had offered up Isaac many many years before and It is the same spot that Solomon ended up building the temple. There there just seems to be this I think typology can sometimes be taken too far but I but but there seems to be this type of Some of these particular places are on on mountaintops.

On on a high place oftentimes with a tree. I'm not not always but but I Think I think it is it is a Type of where we're literally heaven and earth meet. It is it is where it is where the earth and the heavens meet.

Which which is. Again, which is which is what was supposed to be happening at Eden? It's it's what's supposed to be happening at the tabernacle. And now this temple is being built on this high mountain.

And The temple follows this same pattern of the tabernacle which followed the pattern of Eden there's I think the temple is just yet a bigger Prototype of something there's a bigger prototype of something that we'll get to yet.

Jesus as the True High Priest and Living Temple

The the there was the outer court there was the temple inside it was facing east east within the temple was an enormous curtain. And it had cherubims on it guarding the inside of The the place called the holy of holies.

They say this temple or this curtain Was as thick as a man's arm, it was a huge thick curtain of some kind Guarding the way to the holy of holies. The temple was to be a holy consecrated a place of worship.

And Here comes Jesus The true high priest the perfect representation of God on earth faultless without blemish the perfect the perfect union of God and man the perfect coming together of of God and man is found in Jesus and he did something early in his ministry.

That was a really radical thing if you would or if you want to I'll read the account in John chapter 2 starting in verse 13. It says the Passover the Jews was near and Jesus went up to the to Jerusalem and he found in the temple.

Those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money chain changers seated at the tables and he made a scourge of cords and he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and he poured out The coins of the money changers and overturned the tables and those who were selling the doves.

He said take these things away. Stop making my father's house a place of business and his disciples Remembered that it was written zeal for your house will consume me. And the Jews then said to him What sign do you show us that your earth?

As as your authority for doing these things. And Jesus answered them destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up and the Jews said the Jews then said It took. It took 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days.

But he was speaking of the temple of his body so when he was raised from the dead the disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and The word which Jesus had spoken now it seems like It as best as I can tell it seems like this happening of this this thing of him cleansing out the temple might have happened twice.

John John records it as if it's something that happened very early in his ministry. Very very soon after he performed his first miracle at Canaan. But if if you read the other Gospels, they all kind of place it toward the end and and I assume maybe it happened twice.

But but I want to get something out of Matthew's account. Where where Matthew says it Jesus said it is written. My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robbers den. That that was after he had drove him out.

He said that and then and then it says and the blind and the lame Came to him in the temple and he healed them and when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he'd done in the children who were shouting in the temple Hosanna to the Son of David they became indignant and Said to him.

Do you hear what these children are saying? And Jesus said to them? Yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praises for yourself? I think this is just another example of of a shadow.

Or a prototype in the Old Covenant. That was that was pointing and even the laws pertaining it that was pointing towards a real thing and When the real thing came they missed it. They totally missed it.

There was meaning behind these things that were said in the Old Covenant when it says, you know. Don't don't take in those don't don't let those worse. Come to the temple who are blind and lame and all there's meaning behind that.

I think he's talking about spiritual blindness and lameness or or the ones who are hunchbacked who are. Who are under the burden of the world or the dwarfs the ones who who couldn't grow spiritually? They're somehow stunned.

The guys with a flat nose who whose senses are dull. Or Broken stones the people who are not fruitful spiritually these people should not work in the temple. There's there's meaning behind that and and.

But when Jesus comes, what does he find? What does he find in the temple? He finds it filled with people who are spiritually unfruitful. Who have dull senses who are hunchbacked who are blind who are cripples who are doing all these crooked?

Dealings and and cheatings right there in the temple and Once he had these well-clad and rich merchants cleared out of the way in the last Animals scampered down the steps and the last pigeons winged their way out.

Who came the blind the lame the cripples. The poor the children they all came up to the temple and were singing hosanna. And he healed them he restored them and he made this holy place accessible to them.

Now it's quite understandable why the priests and the Levites who who were supposed to be the guards of this place. It's kind of understandable why they became pretty livid and how they set out to kill this man.

Who defied their authority and claimed it for himself and they succeeded in their evil plot and they crucified Jesus the perfect representative of God on a hilltop on a tree. But if we can receive it if we can see it Jesus Gave his life.

They didn't take it. He gave it his cleansing the temple and inviting the poor and the needy into the entry room. Wasn't enough it wasn't a satisfactory reconciliation for God. And so something else happened when he died that thick curtain.

That that thick curtain that had the thickness of a man's arm. Try to try to try to take a piece of fabric sometime and just Try to rip it some. Some fabric is pretty easy to tear if it's thin but If you can even imagine a piece of fabric the thickness of your arm.

I Suppose we could hang two skid steers on it and not tear it. But that that curtain. Just rent as he when he died that curtain rent from top to bottom and opened up to the Holy of Holies it is accessible as The Hebrew writer says Jesus enters as a forerunner into the Holy of Holies this This paradise this Eden.

It can be restored even though it was lost. That thief on the cross who took the blame for his own sin and Was promised paradise. That's what it means this state of perfect peace and love. We can have it.

It can be restored. What shall we say? How shall we conduct ourselves? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? I think figuratively speaking Jesus is inside this Holy of Holies. And we are called to be his royal priesthood.

Living as Christ’s Royal Priesthood

We're supposed to be going in and out. Between God and the world we're supposed to be representing God to the people and the people to God. We are to be the workers and the keepers of what he created.

We're to be the rulers of it. We're supposed to fill the earth with perfect love and peace. We're to be the messengers the teachers the scribes the singers and the doorkeepers. This is what we were made for originally from the beginning.

The priesthood of Royalty of the King of Kings. You know why James calls loving your neighbor as yourself the royal law. Because it pertains to the royalty it pertains to it's a kingly thing. It's a thing.

It's something that pertains to the king of all the universe. The prophet Isaiah said you shall be a royal diadem in the hands of your God. Let me take this one step further yet. The scriptures say we are the temple we are meant to be a holy place for God to dwell in and I I hope I'm not stretching this allegory too far.

When I when I say that I I I think that these three parts this this this reading of Egypt and in it the garden and in it the tree of life this this Tabernacle and temple who have the outer court and then the entry room and then within that the Holy of Holies.

I Think perhaps The real thing is our body soul and spirit. The outer court the entry room and the Holy of Holies the true plate. The the true peace of love and God is supposed to fill our body soul and spirit.

And when the when the presence of God fills every fiber of our being it it is paradise restored. It's Eden. It's the state of perfect joy and happiness and love and peace. It's supposed to go out and multiply and fill the earth.

It's what we were created to be from the beginning my hope and the reason for the reason for what I said about Moses there in the beginning and that experience that I had is I Hope that the realization of not just these things that we should do but the realization of who We are meant to be who we are supposed to be can have the impact on us that it ought to have.

Let's take the utmost care that we don't defile this temple. It's a holy place Chosen by a king and possessed by a king. Let's not grieve the Holy Spirit. Let's not be blind to the things of God. Let's not be broken-footed and walk the wrong way.

Let's not be broken-handed and do the wrong deeds or hunchbacked under the cares of this world or slit-nosed or slit-eared and be dull to our Spiritual senses or have an itching and always restless or unfertile and bear no fruit in first Thessalonians 5.

Paul says. We urge you brethren admonish the unruly. Encourage the faint-hearted help the weak. Be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil. But always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.