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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/consecration-servant-soldier-priest/
The book of Exodus, quickly, chapter 21. Exodus chapter 21. I'd like to speak a little word this morning, maybe tie these two messages together in a word of consecration. Consecration. Exodus chapter 21 and verse number two.
If the right and Hebrew servant, six years, he shall serve and in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him unto the judges.
He shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve him forever. Second Samuel, please. Chapter 11, we read about the man, Uriah the Hittite.
Verse seven, for the sake of time and when Uriah was come unto him, David commanded of him how Joab did and how the people did and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, go down to thy house and wash thy feet.
And Uriah departed out of the king's house and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and went not down to his house.
And I guess verse 10, and when they had told David, saying Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, camest thou not from thy journey? Why then didst thou not go down into thine house?
And Uriah said unto David, the ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents. And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife as thou livest and as thy soul liveth?
I will not do this thing. And first Peter now quickly. We're reading three places to get three aspects in which it would do us well to be consecrated. First Peter in chapter two, verse five. He also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Verse nine, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word and what we've listened to already. I'd like to look at consecration being set apart. In the Old Testament, the word that we read is Kodash. It is consecrated, it is sanctified, it is set apart for God.
And you've been, had a foundation that was laid in the baptisms this morning and an instruction was given. And so if we're going to take that which we have learned and we're going to go through with it, we're going to need to be consecrated, to be set apart for God, to be dedicated.
A consecrated Christian is hard to find as I look at myself. What about you? Completely entirely devoted to the things of God. Three aspects very quickly. The servant that is consecrated to his master.
The soldier that is consecrated to his king. And the priest that is consecrated to his sacrifice, to offering up, we read in Hebrews, or in Peter, excuse me, of a spiritual sacrifice. And we also read of the royal priesthood showing forth the praises.
So very simply three things to continue on. In Hebrews chapter 21, you've got the Hebrew servant. And you'll notice in this servant, if you put yourself in the story, how would you like to be a bond slave?
How would you like to be bought and now have to serve six years for the same man day in and day out? No doubt in your mind there would be a time that would come that would be anticipated. You would look forward to the day of your release.
Would you not? Oh, it's the very beginning. I can't wait till the seventh year. Then I'm gonna go out. And I've got all these plans. And I'm going to get a farm and I'm going to farm. Or I'm going to get a business.
Or I'm going to get a family. And I've got all these plans that I want to do. That's the first year. That would be every one of us, would it not? But time would go on. And every day as days go by faster and years go by faster, the time would go by.
And as you would spend time with this one that is the master, something amazing would transform in your mind. Now we're speaking of a master like the Lord Jesus now. Not like any earthly master who's only got you there for their own good and for their own blessing.
And maybe in year two, you're given a wife. And maybe year three, year four, whatever, a junior comes along and the family comes along. And every day that you labor with the master, you learn how he thinks.
You learn how he loves. You learn about him intimately because you're with him day in and day out. And now that day comes. That you had looked forward to for so long and now there's a great choice to make.
You're gonna go out free or are you gonna stay? Tough choice. What happened in those six years? You got to know someone you never knew before. You learned to love someone like you've never been loved before.
And now you have a choice to make. I believe that consecration is a daily thing, but I also believe that there's a moment in a person's life when before God in a broken state, or maybe an appreciative state, an individual says, God, I am yours.
Use me. Whatever you want me to do, Lord, show me. This man now has a choice to make. He's gonna stay. He's going to go to the judges and he's going to plainly declare, I love my master, my wife, and my children.
I will not go out free. So he goes to the door. You see, the story isn't about the servant. It's about the master. And that's what life is about, isn't it? Life isn't about the servants of God. Life is about God.
Life isn't about the servants of Christ. It's about Christ. And here's a man and he's got the message because he's come to know through relationship every single day that the yoke is easy and the burden is light and that everything that he needed has been supplied by the master.
It's a no-brainer, isn't it? If I'm with the master, I have everything. And not only me, but my family, my wife and my children, he can do far better for them than I could ever do. And so a servant that was consecrated and he stays just for the sake of argument.
And some of you have heard this line before. The next day, another servant's seventh year comes and he goes and stays. And two weeks later, there's another one, and another one. What's going on here? You see, it's all about the glory of the master.
The glory of the master. As they would go to the judges and the judges would confirm that what they'd heard is true. Wouldn't that resonate with their mind? What is it about this master? Why everybody stays and serves him?
What is it about, I wonder if there's ever a day where I find myself that needs to have a master, maybe he would be mine. You see, in service, consecrated. The man could have went out and free. Would have been absolutely legal.
Would have been a legitimate possibility. But he was devoted and he was consecrated to his master because he knew his master. Could I ask you a question today, those of you that are facing this choice this weekend?
What are you gonna do? There's so many things in life that are appealing. There's so many dreams that you wanna fulfill and yet you know that there's a life to be lived for God. What are you gonna do?
Well, depend on how well you know the master. How well you appreciate him and what he has done for you. Saved, you know, it's a sad thing to see people saved. Not that part. But to be saved and say, okay, Lord, I'll see you in heaven.
Thanks for a wonderful life. And you never see him again. You wonder if they ever got the root of the matter. What's it gonna be for you, dear young person? Consecrated to the master, entirely devoted to the God and to the things of God, and to the assembly of God, and to the people of God.
Consecration to the servant. And then I'm going to jump to the priest because I wanna end with the soldier. You've got the holy priesthood and the royal priesthood. Every single person that is saved is a priest.
We don't have a clergy. We don't have a hierarchy in God's assembly. That's not God's plan. God is supreme. God is over all. But as Christians, as those that are saved, those in assembly testimony as well, you don't have to be in assembly testimony to be a priest.
Some people have never heard the truth of the assembly and are saved. But the holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices, to be set apart, to be consecrated morally to God, to offer sacrifice, spiritual material.
It's a spiritual sacrifice. It must be spiritual material. Where do you get spiritual material for a spiritual sacrifice? Spiritual just means not carnal. Not carnal. Are you going to get spiritual material from the world to sacrifice to God?
No, you won't get spiritual material from a carnal world. Where then do we get this material? First of all, we said what it is. It is not carnal. It is spiritual material. And when you get spiritual material, you get it from spiritual places, spiritual persons.
You get it from God, from God. I can honestly say I've never had an original thought in my life. And if you're rather than honest, you will too. You got everyone from God, from the spirit of God. You see, God teaches us.
God shows us from the word of God. And so you're going to be mining in the word of God. You're going to be digging in the word of God. And you're going to be getting spiritual material. And there's going to be the precious stones that are gonna be added to the building.
But it must be spiritual material. The carnal material, the wood, the hay, and the stubble, the things that are flammable. That's not an acceptable sacrifice, is it? And so you've got spiritual material because it is a spiritual sacrifice.
It comes from the word of God. It comes from spending time with God. It comes from experience with God. You notice the parallel to that. To the servant. It was the time with the servant, or the master.
It was from the master. Being a Christian is a tremendous thing. Everything that we have, we've been given from God. Your salvation was a gift, was it not? Absolutely. And those of you that have toiled, that have labored with your hands, and the Lord has given you something, did you, where did that come from?
There's been people out there that have worked harder than you've worked for less. You got it from God. Everything we get, we have from God to be dedicated in spiritual things, to offer a spiritual sacrifice.
Then you've got the kingly priesthood, the royal priesthood, to show forth or to publish His excellence. To publish it. To declare it forth. Have you stopped? Have you stopped serving God? I'm asking hard questions today.
Why did you stop? Have you stopped offering spiritual sacrifices? Have you stopped offering the fruit of your lips, giving praise to God? Have you stopped digging for the material? Why did you stop digging?
It's one thing to know the truth and to be instructed in the truth, but to continue, to not fall out by the way, but to continue in the word of God. Spiritual sacrifice. And I know I'm just skimming the surface, but brethren, let us continue.
Have the things of God come to a screeching halt? Have we wasted a year? Why? The things of God have not stopped. Maybe your sphere of service has changed. And maybe you can't work like you used to work, but the work still needs to be done.
It still needs to be done. The Lord still must be obeyed. The gospel still must go forth. Maybe we need to be creative in our methods, but the work hasn't stopped. The sacrifices, have they stopped? How about your own personal worship?
Let me go there. Has it stopped? Well, if you've stopped digging for spiritual material, how has it affected your worship? Searching question. My time is about gone. I wanna go to the soldier. So you've got the happy Hebrew servant.
You've got the humble Hittite soldier in 2 Samuel. I wanna focus on here just before lunch is this. The battle. The battle. Uriah was a mighty man. He was a lovely character in the word of God. I think of this man as one of David's mighties as he's listed twice.
David would have loved this man. David would have appreciated this man, but we know the story in the earlier part of the chapter that we didn't read of David's sin against this man. And now David with all the plan of a cover up, he calls this man with a fake vacation.
And he says, come with the excuse of tell me how the battle is going. I wonder what Uriah thought. What's the matter, David? You call me from the front lines to come and tell you how the battle is going.
You know how the battle is going. Uriah was no fool. Maybe he didn't know why, but something wasn't right. And so he goes there to the king and the king sends him home. But you see this devoted man, he sleeps at the door of the king.
He wouldn't go home. Why wouldn't he go home? Well, he says why. He said in the David verse 11, the ark. Where was the ark? Take it it was at the battlefield. And then he says in Israel, if the ark wasn't at the battlefield, I know this speaking to me of the presence of the Lord.
In Israel and Judah, they abide in tents. So the ark was in a tent. The battle wasn't over. That's the point. Here's a man and he's dedicated in what God had given him to do. He was a mighty man. He was a rare man.
He was someone that God was using. And he was a humble man. And the battle wasn't over. And he wasn't going to go home on vacation. Well, there was still a battle to be fought. And his brethren were still there.
And the honor of God was still to fight for. He was dedicated as a soldier for the king. Because the battle wasn't over. It wasn't over. He couldn't bring himself to do it. He says as the king lives, as his soul lives, he would not do it.
He would not do it. Such was his dedication. Not only to David, but to God. And to the things of God. And to the purposes of God. And for the glory of God. Because Israel was God's people. And this man had a grip.
He had a grip of his purpose in this life. Brethren, the battle's not over. It's not over. It soon will be over. But it's not over yet. And this dedicated man, he finds himself in the heat of the battle.
Did he know he was too close to the wall? He knew he was too close to the wall. But that's where the battle was the hottest. And that's where he was put. You see, he was dedicated. How dedicated are you today?
And you understand that this has been a personal word to me long before today. Am I a dedicated servant of Jehovah, of God? Am I a dedicated servant to Christ? The one who has brought me with his blood?
Am I a consecrated priest in holiness? Offering spiritual sacrifices to God? That which God has given you, can you give it back? Am I a dedicated soldier today? The battle is not over. You and I have fought.
And as I read this this past week, I thought, you know, it reminds me of the martyrs of whom the world was not worthy. The martyrs whom the world was not worthy. Those who went on for God. And those who served God.
And those who fought God. And brethren, it's a marvelous thing to have a conference. But I wanna say this. If we miss out on something to challenge us to go on for God and God himself, we've missed it.
Fellowship is important and it's absolutely necessary. We need God. And we need God today. Lord bless his word, we'll pray.