Believer-Priests | Offering Sacrifices (05/02/2004)

Park Meadows Church

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Well, we're going to begin a new, well, a new point, I should say, along our road.

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We've been studying the great doctrines of the finished work of Christ, and we diverged the last two

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Sundays and took a different topic, but I'm going to go back to that series now of the finished work of Christ.

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We've been talking about the many things that were accomplished while he was on the cross and that are finished, and that are things that we cannot add to or take away from.

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And many of the beautiful concepts of salvation, such as justification, sanctification, reconciliation, propitiation, and so forth, we've covered.

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Today brings us to the topic of the fact that one of the things that Jesus accomplished with the cross was he made us to become believer priests.

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Now this particular topic will certainly take more than one Sunday to cover. Most of my topics do, but this one will take several

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Sundays, the Lord willing, to cover this idea of the fact that he has made us to be believer priests because of the work that he did on the cross, not because of anything we do.

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And we'll study what it means to be a believer priest. We'll go back into the Old Testament and look at the physical priests of the

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Old Testament people, which are nothing more than a type or a symbol of the spiritual truths that teach us what we are supposed to have in our lives as believer priests.

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So this is an in -depth study, and I want to just introduce it this morning. So let's have a word of prayer and we'll begin.

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Father, we thank you so much for each person here today. We know you are a sovereign God and that nothing happens by accident, that you have called us together, each individual, each child, each teenager, each adult that's here.

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You've called us together for the purpose of sitting at your feet today and hearing you teach by your

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Holy Spirit and by your word. We pray that you would enliven us and quicken us, that we might hear your words today and that we might leave this place more equipped to meet you someday, for surely we shall.

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And we thank you for the Lord Jesus and his finished work and your beautiful plan of salvation.

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And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. We're going to end up in Hebrews chapter 13 eventually, but I'm going to give you some introductory remarks.

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We're going to go into some of the Old Testament and the book of Exodus. There are at least eight points to this study on the believer priest.

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Today, we're going to begin to talk about the first point, which is obviously that the believer priest offers sacrifices.

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But let me go ahead and give you a fore view of what the points are. The first point is that the believer priest, just as the

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Old Testament priest, and remember, we're going to take the Old Testament priest as a type or a symbol, a physical example of the spiritual truths.

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And so the very things that they did sometimes to us, if we if we just look at it in a physical human way of what they did, it almost seemed strange the way that they took care of the tabernacle and the different duties that they had almost seemed strange to us.

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But when you look beneath those physical activities and understand that they picture spiritual truths, all of a sudden they bring to life our role as a believer priest.

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So obviously the priest offered sacrifices. So we'll begin there today. Then secondly, they had to keep the charge of the tabernacle.

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It was up to the priest to take care of the actual tabernacle that they worshiped in and where they went to meet

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God. Now, we know that our body is the temple of the living God. And that tabernacle was a picture of the body of the of the born again

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Christian. And then the third thing is they had to keep the sacred fire always burning in the temple.

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All of this picture is very important things in our lives. The fourth thing was they had to place and remove the showbread.

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The word showbread. Fifthly, they had to offer the first fruits, which was a picture of resurrected life.

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And then six, they had to trim the lamps and keep the incense burning into the Lord. It's a picture of prayer.

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Seventh, they had to bless the people. And eight, they had to judge in cases of sin.

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So those are the places we're going. Today, we'll start with the first one, offering sacrifices to the

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Lord. As we go into the New Testament, we can get a view of what

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God says that the Old Testament sacrifice is pictured as with regard to us.

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There are three sacrifices that are listed that the New Testament believer offers to God.

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One is praise of God with his lips. The praise of his lips that's found in Hebrews chapter 13, where we'll go in just a moment.

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Secondly, the giving of substance. In other words, when we give an offering from our heart to the

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Lord's work in any fashion, that is pictured as a sacrifice.

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And then third, the giving of our bodies. We offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Those are the three sacrifices mentioned specifically in the

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New Testament. Now. Let's go into Exodus chapter 19,

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I want to begin to just introduce this concept of the believer priest, and then we'll end talking about one of the types of sacrifice that we offer today.

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The praise of our lips. But turn to Exodus 19. And let's start for sake of time, let's just start with verse three.

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I want you to see something that some of you have seen before, because I know

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I've talked about it before in the past, but I'd like to remind us of it is the fact that God made the same offer to the

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Old Testament saints while they were still in the wilderness that he has made to us. He offered to make them be believer priests.

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The problem is that they rejected the offer. And so then God, in his sovereignty, had foreordained that we would be the believer priest, that the church would be the believer priest, but he offered it to the

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Old Testament saints, you might find that interesting. Exodus 19, three, and Moses went up unto

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God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountains, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what

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I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself.

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Now, as we read this passage, you're supposed to get the idea of all the miraculous things that God had already done in these people's lives before he makes the following statement to them.

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He's making them remember the deliverance, the salvation. In the Old Testament, the word salvation is seldom used.

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It's the word deliverance. And the truth is in the New Testament church today in modern Christianity, if we would use that word more often than the word salvation, we'd be better off because we we have strange ideas of what salvation means and we've lost the concept that the word above all things means deliverance.

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But he's pointing out the deliverance that he has brought to them. He says in verse five,

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Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be.

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Now, look at this, a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

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These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. As history points out, they never became that kingdom of priests, but the church became the kingdom of priests later in God's time.

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But it was offered to these people. Now, verse seven says in Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words.

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He told the elders these words. He told them God is offering to you to become a peculiar people unto him and a kingdom of priests.

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And all the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

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And I have the word do underlined or circled in my Bible because that shows that they missed the point.

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Because God was not offering them something to do, he was offering them himself, he was offering them a relationship.

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And they rather than focusing on the relationship, they focused on the works and the doing of things.

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And then drop down to verse 14, Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people and they washed their clothes and he said unto the people, be ready against the third day and come not at your wives.

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And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount.

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Remember how we've talked in recent sermons about how when man looked at God, man viewed him as if he dwelt in darkness.

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That's after the fall, of course, after the fall of sin in the Garden of Eden, mankind has looked up to try to view

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God and he cannot see God. No man had seen God at any time. All he sees is darkness. It's as if to man, it's as if God dwells in darkness.

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Many scriptures from man's viewpoint, it says that he does. And so God has placed a separation between himself and man because of sin.

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And we see this pictured, this thundering and lightning in a moment.

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We're going to see the earth trembling and it pictures the holiness of a holy

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God as he descends upon this mount in the presence of God's people. And yet with the warning for the people to stay back, to stay clean, to even stay away from their wives and to be ready and separated on the third day, all of this pictures the fact that they were supposed to be separated from the world, from the flesh unto

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God. It pictures for us today that there ought to be a place in our heart that is totally sanctified or that sanctifies

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God unto us, a place that sets him apart as the most important thing in our lives.

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And we should not allow anything to come into that place. All of this pictures the holiness of God.

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Now, remember, the word holy in the Bible does not carry foremost the connotation of cleanness like we think it means today.

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It carries foremost the connotation of separation, being totally separate from sin.

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And let's pick it back up as they view it. The third day, verse 16, the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of the trumpet.

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I want you to to be here now while we read this, be here and begin to hear this trumpet. It may be a small sound at first, but it gets louder and louder to the place where the sound of this trumpet is louder than a freight train.

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What? Think of anything in your life that you've ever had scare you to death just because of the sound.

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I remember one evening I was headed home to Mahalia and going down I -45. And some of you may realize that there's a train track that gets pretty close to that highway down right about where Brother Clarence, where y 'all's turnoff is.

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That train track gets pretty close and I didn't notice there was a train going along right beside me, 70 miles an hour.

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I didn't know he was there, wasn't paying attention. And all of a sudden he came up to one of those little crossings and hit that horn.

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And I swerved my car over to the other lane. If there'd been a car there, I would have hit it. It scared me so badly.

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I didn't know where was this sound coming from. And I had remembered this scripture and I thought, it's the trumpet of the

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Lord. So I just let go of the steering wheel. I found out

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I didn't make the rapture in that case. But this trumpet, the voice of the trumpet was exceeding loud so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

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The noise was frightening. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God.

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And they stood at the nether part of the mount. The fact of them going out of the camp is another picture of being separated under God.

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You're leaving the world behind. You're leaving those things behind and you're going out into the nether part of the mount.

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And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke. Don't you think sometimes the

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Bible speaks in Texan? Especially when it talks about vittles and things like that.

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The mountain was altogether on a smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire.

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And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly.

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And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, it started out loud, but it just got louder and louder for a long time.

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Moses spake and God answered him with a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount and the

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Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount and Moses went up. Now let's go to chapter 20 and skip down to verse 18.

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We don't have time to read all of this beautiful passage. Magnificent passage. Great passage to read with your children at home.

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Allow them to see the awesomeness of God. Exodus 20, verse 18.

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And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountains smoking.

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And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. This is where they began to make their decision that they didn't want to take up God with his offer for this personal relationship.

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They moved away and stood afar off and they said unto Moses, you go speak. Speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not

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God speak with us lest we die. And they made their choice right there.

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Now, this, of course, was a choice that God had foreordained that they would make, but they made this choice because it's what they wanted to do.

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They did not want to have a personal relationship with God. They want to have a man stand between them and God.

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And verse 21 says, and the people stood afar off and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

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And so we see symbolically the beginning of the Old Testament dispensation, as we know it, where the people were at a distance from God, so to speak, they were not able to come into the holy of holies, they were not able to cross through that veil and go into the direct presence of God.

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Only one of them once a year could do that. And that was the high priest. The rest of the people had to stay away.

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And it's as if in this passage they made the choice. From their viewpoint, they did make the choice.

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Now let's go into the New Testament. We see now that the people of God in the Old Testament rejected the idea of becoming a believer, priestly people.

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Later on, then, because of that, God set up the Levitical line as to be the priests on behalf of the people.

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But go to First Peter, chapter two and verse five, and let's shift gears now and talk a little bit about us on this side of the cross.

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After the finished work of Jesus Christ was completed on our behalf, but also on the behalf of God the

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Father. Remember when Jesus died, his blood not only reconciled us to God, not only redeemed us from the slave market of sin, but also propitiated the

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Father. It satisfied his wrath and his justice perfectly.

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So that so that then God was able to show mercy to his people.

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This is all pictured in the Old Testament by that thing called the mercy seat. It was the

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Ark of the Covenant that had the law in it, which was not a place of mercy, by the way, it was a place of judgment.

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All that the law could do was show how exceedingly sinful our sin was. And yet when that priest came in with the blood and sprinkled it on that ark, it became a mercy seat.

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That is a picture of what happened in the true heavenlies when Jesus Christ ascended and presented his blood before the father at the throne of God.

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And God was able to show forth his mercy to all of his people, both in the past, the

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Old Testament saint and the New Testament saint. Now, let's look at first Peter two, five. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house.

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Now that that contrasts us with the physical house of the Old Testament.

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You see, the Old Testament saints, the people of God were a physical people in a physical world with an earthy, physical religion.

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It contrasts us with that. We are a spiritual house with a spiritual religion.

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And it says that we are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual offerings that is contrasted with the physical sacrificial system that they had in the

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Old Testament. That was merely a picture or a type of the true spiritual offerings that you today can offer up to God.

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We'll learn more about it as we study what the Old Testament priest did, because it gives us a physical example what the spiritual things are that we are to be about.

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But it says that we're a holy priesthood designed or created by God and ordained by God to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by or through or better in Jesus Christ.

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Now, look at verse nine. But you are a chosen generation.

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See, it doesn't say you may become a chosen generation like it did with the

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Old Testament saints because they rejected it. This one proclaimed that we are. This gives our position.

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Always remember when you're studying positional truth in the Bible, that is something you can't change. Positional truth is something you can't change because it has to do with the finished work of Jesus.

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You played no part in it. You can't add to it. You can't take away from it. It's positional.

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The fact that you're a believer priest is a position that you just came with.

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We joke about that because, well, I don't have time to go into why, but it truly is something that you came with.

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You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, all of that that he offered the

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Old Testament saints, he has given us. That you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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When the children of Israel looked up on that mount, they saw darkness. They could not see God. We being born again, we have been called out of darkness.

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And when we look at God, so to speak, through our faith, we see light. We see him as dwelling in light.

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They did not see God that way. Which in time past were not a people, that's us, the

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Gentiles, we were not a people, it's as if we had no access to God seemingly, but are now the people.

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Don't you love the words, the little words in the Bible? He says once upon a time you were not a people, but now you are the people.

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That means there are no other people of God other than his own. So you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

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Why? The finished work of Christ, the giving of his blood as a sacrifice on our behalf and as a propitiation, a satisfaction to the justice of almighty, holy

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God. Dearly beloved, I beseech you now because this is true, because it is true that your position is a believer priest.

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Your position is one of a person who was not a person of God. But now you are the person of God.

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You are a child of God. You were not under mercy. Now you have obtained mercy because of this.

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I beseech you to be as strangers and pilgrims and to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul.

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You see, God does not make a bunch of rules for us to follow in the New Testament. He says he's placed his law within our hearts, but he does show us the cross.

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He shows us the very cross that called us to the position of being a believer priest.

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And he says, because of that, then abstain from fleshly lusts, woe be unto us if we go the way of the world on this particular issue.

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You say, well, all sin is sin. Well, all sin is sin from God's viewpoint. But from our viewpoint,

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God points out one sin right here that he says to abstain from fleshly lusts.

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I'm not saying that's only one sin, but it's it's from the source of it.

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It comes from lust and it comes from that seat of our existence called our flesh in the negative sense, that part of us which is not saved yet, that part which will be changed in the air at the rapture that has not been changed yet.

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The Bible says, I beseech you, because of this glorious position that God has given us because of the finished work of Jesus, all that he has done because of this, be as strangers in this world, don't be of the world.

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Don't be of the flesh, don't walk in the flesh, don't dwell in the carnal flesh as other men do.

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I beseech you that you abstain from fleshly lusts because they war against the soul.

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Think about that for a moment. Picture a raging battle going on inside yourself, a battle between your flesh, which wants to do every evil thing that the world has presented.

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Satan is the little G God of this world, which has set up the systems and philosophies that are around us, set up the billboards, set up the marketing, set up the ways of the world, all of these hierarchies that are found in some of the evil parts of government, some of the evil parts of even colleges, universities and even seminaries and Bible colleges and even churches.

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Those evil parts are set up by Satan himself. And we are called as believer priests to step out of that and away from it and to abstain from the way that this world system attracts our flesh, to cut that flesh off, which is pictured by circumcision, by the way, to count it as dead, which is pictured by the cross, by the way, and to carry and bear our own cross as Jesus did and say no to what

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Satan in the world offers us and what our flesh craves. We cannot afford to dwell in that realm because your flesh has not changed one bit since before you were saved.

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It's the same as it was. It is every bit as evil and capable of doing anything that anyone in the penitentiary today has already done or could do.

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Your flesh is that evil. The greatest Christian that ever lived, the Apostle Paul said in my flesh, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

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So we can't dwell in that realm. What is the place where we have to dwell? We have to dwell in the realm of a believer priest.

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We have to be continually keeping the fire burning. That is all of this. We're going to get to it.

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I don't want to jump ahead. It's a it's a tremendous study, but we have to stay one with the spirit of God, our spirit and his spirit, where there is no distinction.

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Hardly. We do not lose our individuality by that. In fact, we become as we studied the last couple of Sundays, we become what we really were meant to be when we become one with the spirit of God.

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I've got to to go back and review last Sunday just a little bit. But do you remember how

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Jesus said the words that I speak are not my words, but I have heard the what the father speak them, the works that I do?

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They are not my works, but the father has shown them to me already and will show me more works. He never did a word and never said a word that didn't come from the father.

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And we ask the question, did he therefore lose his individuality as the man Jesus? No, he did not. He became all that he was supposed to be.

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And the same is true of us. Now, that's review. Now, let's get back here. So we have to dwell there.

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We need to dwell one with the Holy Spirit so that the very words that we say are the words of God and the very walk that we walk.

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We're different than Jesus in this sense. He had all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and without measure.

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We have the Holy Spirit, but with measure, if you know why that's true is because if it weren't true, you would you would be able to speak to the tree and have it go into the ocean.

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If he gave the Holy Spirit to you without measure, like he did Jesus. But the point is, the principle is there.

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We don't know. We're not shown as many works ahead of time as Jesus was.

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We're shown not even the next step in time. You know, you talk about the present tense, it's a strange thing because it vanishes the minute you step into it, it becomes the past.

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But we don't know beyond that, but one thing you can do is if you dwell in a oneness with the

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Holy Spirit, you can be assured of the fact that the next step you take will be God's step for you in your life as he works in you in this world.

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The Bible is pleading with us, beseeching us that because all of these things are true, walk this way, because if you walk in a oneness with the

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Holy Spirit, you shall abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your soul.

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And you will not commit sin during those moments. Verse 12, having your conversation honest among the

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Gentiles to God, it is important that our lifestyle is what conversation means, our outward walk, be honest before the eyes of the lost people.

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Because they're confused anyway, and when they see a born again believer fall into a fleshly sin that makes the newspapers and be sure your sin will find you out always when you do marriage counseling as a pastor, which

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I don't do a lot of, I try to do nearly all my counseling right here from this pulpit. But when you do have occasion to do it, it's amazing that you find out that adults, adults get into that kind of sin thinking no one will ever find out.

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There has never been a case in human history and never will be a case when everyone doesn't find out, everyone finds out because God exposes it.

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And the Bible says here that because we're believer priests, we ought to have an outward walk before the lost that is honest.

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What is honest to me? It means it's the opposite of hypocrisy. Do you know that it is a fact with the position that God's given you because of his finished work, because he died for us on the cross, he has given us the position of a believer priest because that position, it would be hypocritical for you to walk a sinful walk in front of the world because that's not who you are.

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The real you is the new man and you do not sin. Now, when we let the guard down somehow, and I have not figured out the mechanism of this, but I know it's a fact that Satan can tempt us just as surely as he tempted

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Eve when she was in a perfect state in the garden and pull us out of that oneness down into the flesh and we can sin before the world and they see it.

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It's confusing. It's confusion to the world. And therefore, God beseeches that we not do that.

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He says, I beseech you that you abstain from fleshly lust, that you have a walk an outward walk that's honest among the lost, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, you see, isn't it true?

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They like to pick on the church anyway, don't they? The world will find every mistake we make, point out and say, well, see,

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God's not real. If God were real, they wouldn't live that way. Isn't that what they like to say? And the

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Lord is beseeching us that we minimize this by abstaining from fleshly lust. Listen, when

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Satan comes to you and shows you a fruit that is forbidden and it begins to look good to you, you had better run as fast as you can run.

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You know, the Bible gives three different ways to approach sin and to fight warfare.

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And it depends on which enemy is attacking you. And you cannot fight the three the same way. They're different.

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Satan himself, if he comes to you either himself or through demons from hell, putting thoughts in your imaginations and attacking you between the ears, which is where he'll hit you.

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The Bible says that you stand against that with the whole armor of God. You never turn your back to him.

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On the other hand, when the Bible talks about the flesh attacking you, it says you flee. It says to flee youthful lust.

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You run. Now, you don't run from the devil. It won't work. But on the other hand, you don't stand against the flesh.

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That won't work. Folks that think they are so strong in the Lord that they can just stand right there and just do whatever they want to.

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They're going to fall because it's not the proper way. When you see something that titillates your flesh, turn and run from it, turn your back on it, run as fast as you can run.

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That is such a simple principle. Children, you can learn from this. When you are tempted to do something that's wrong that your mom and dad said don't do, whether it's an object or something, you're going to go do something with this thing.

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Just run away from that thing where you're not even looking at it. Get as far away from that cookie jar as you can.

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If mom's told you to stay out of it, don't sit there and look at it, because if you look at it long enough, you're going to want one of those cookies.

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Adults, it's the same for you, but the cookies change. And God is beseeching us to be strangers and pilgrims.

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We are not of this world, so we cannot act like we are. This world, the television is full of preachers today that live just like the world.

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They look like the world. They use the same marketing strategies and salesmanship that the world uses in business.

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They dress the same. They have the same flashy rings and Rolex watches and skinny lizard shoes.

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And they like to flaunt that. To them, it's success. And there's a new gospel out there that if you're right with God, he'll make you successful and wealthy in all cases.

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And yet our Bible tells us we are strangers and pilgrims to all of it. The Bible says they're going to come and attempt to speak evil against us.

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But God says, keep our lifestyle honest before them so that they may buy your good works, which they shall behold, glorify

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God in the day of visitation. Now, go to Revelation one five.

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And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kingdoms of the earth and to him that loved us and look at this and washed us from our sins with his own blood, that is the finished work and hath made us.

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You see, this is not something we did to ourselves. We can't add to it or take away from it. It's our position because he gave his blood.

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He has made us kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

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Do you know that your life is a calling to bring glory to Jesus Christ and that when we fall down into the flesh and we partake of the fleshly lust, we do not do that.

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We don't bring him any glory. Now, I'd be say that a sovereign God is is a big enough

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God to gain glory from all of it, and we know that he does from the whole picture. But from our viewpoint, the

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Bible is teaching us it is our duty as who we are to not be hypocritical.

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We should not live like we're not a believer priest. We have to live like priests, you know, biggest part of the problem with the modern church, they think that the pastor, the pulpit here is the one guy that has to live that way.

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The rest of us, we just out in the world, we come and hear him speak. You know, the Roman Catholics began that when they made a division between the laity and the clergy.

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That's where it started. There's a division between the clergy and the laity, so they expect the clergy to walk a holy walk and the laity, you know, just confess when they mess up.

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Well, the truth is we are all in the same position as believer priests. If we visualize ourselves as priests standing between God and the world, but not to be part of the very world that we're standing between.

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It will change the way we walk, and that's exactly the line of reasoning that the

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Holy Spirit has brought to us through Peter, he says, because all of this is true, therefore I beseech you to not sin, fleshly sins that the world can see.

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Don't do any of them, but they're specifically talking about here the kind that the world can see. The biggies, the one we call the biggies, fornication, adultery, uncleanliness.

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Stay away from these things. You teenagers, young people, you're a believer priest already.

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You don't grow into that if you are saved. If you have received Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, like Matthew did just a few weeks ago, you're a believer priest.

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So we have to live like one. He made us to be kings and priests unto

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God and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

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Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds. To remember this, every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.

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Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the

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Lord, which is and which was and which is to come. The almighty.

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Chapter five, verse nine says, And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our

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God, kings and priests. It is a position. And we shall reign on earth.

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And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousands times ten thousands and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

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Worthy is the lamb. That's what our life should say. Every moment of our life, as it's viewed by this world, should say worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

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And every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard

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I saying blessing and honor and glory and power. Being to him that said it upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever and for be said,

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Amen. And four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that live it forever and ever.

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Chapter 20, verse four says, And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given to them.

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And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands.

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And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until a thousand years were finished.

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This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power.

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But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.

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There is your destiny. There is your future, but it's also your present.

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It has begun the moment you were saved, your role as a believer priest began starting next

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Sunday. We'll begin to examine specifically what this role entails. Let's pray together.

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Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have called us by your finished work.

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And by your voice, as you come to us in time in our lifetime and you call us to yourself.

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Thank you that the very moment we were born again. That these truths became part of our lives, you made us to become believer priests, father, we ask it as we go out into this world, you would remind us of these very words.

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And cause us to have the strength to forsake the sins of the flesh.

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To walk as pilgrims and strangers in this land and not to count this world as our home, but to seek another.

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Lord, we thank you that you give us with salvation. You also give us deliverance, which means we have the power to turn away from any temptation that would be brought into our life.

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Father, give us many victories of turning away from these temptations so that we may truly have a conversation that's honest before this city that we live in.

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Lord, we ask you to go with us into our time of fellowship, bless our meal together and our afternoon service a little later on.