Kings and Priests, Part 2

Well, this is part 2, as you are well aware of, most of you that were here last week. This is part 2 of Kings and Priests. Last week, we jumped right into the Scriptures and also looked at the various places and examples of kings listed in the Bible. And we did it for one or two reasons, for us to have a better understanding and to study the Word, and not just our own perception of those.

So, I will not rehash some of that, since that will be on the website soon, that sermon. But today, I'd like to go into part 2 of Kings and Priests, and of course, that means looking into priesthood, the priest. Some of you may say, well, it's got to do with me. Well, by the end of today, you will definitely know what it has to do with you.

Most people understand priests by the Roman Catholic priests. As you know them, you see them around. They are also known as Father, which we do not use, since that is what Scripture tells us not to do. But that's probably the most well-known priest today. There are Jesuit priests, which are also connected or in line with the Catholic priests. There's Episcopal priests, and then there is Buddhist priests. I had the opportunity to work on a monastery, a Buddhist monastery, before I came here. And I got a chance to meet, as they phrased it, they're monks, because they have monks.

But they also think we would better understand it as priests. So I got to meet a Buddhist priest to spend a little time with him. A very interesting individual. But they do things quite different than the Scriptures tell us about priests. But it was very interesting anyway. So most of you understand about the priests that way. But let's go to 1 Peter, back where we were last week.

1 Peter 2 and verse 9. As Peter is talking to the church, he's talking to those who were dispersed among all the nations at the time. And he wrote this letter to the brethren. And in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9, he tells them that you are a chosen generation.

Most people can believe that. But then he goes into something a little bit different. And he says, a royal priesthood. As we talked about royalty last week. A royal priesthood. A holy nation. It's pretty broad. And then he says, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into the marvelous light.

We looked at that last week, and we looked at the royal part. Today I want to look at the priesthood part because he said, his followers are not only royalty, but they're also part of the priesthood. A royal priesthood. I'd like you to turn back with me as we go back to Revelation 5. Revelation 5. We also did this last week. Revelation 5 and verse 10. As I know, many of you have read this. We went through the whole book of Revelation a year or so ago.

But here actually is something said that needs to be explained. Revelation 5 and verse 10. It says, and he and have made, and actually the word there in the original Greek. I'll read it first. And have made us kings and priests unto our God, and we shall reign on the earth. In the original Greek, that's not necessarily how it is put.

You'll hear newer translations. Pull that in as, because it is more accurate in the Greek. I've taken this part of section apart with the Greek. And it says, and have made them kings and priests to our God. Now what's interesting there, the kings is not in there. It's a singular word.

So as you read from the New Living Translation or any of the newer translations when they translate it from the original Greek, it says, and have made us a kingdom of priests. And it also says, and they shall reign on the earth. So as we look forward to the thousand year millennial reign of Christ, it's where we will rule with him, as we looked at last week. But we're going to be guided by certain principles. Because any person that is a priest, whether you're a monk, whether you're a Catholic priest, a Jesuit priest, or Episcopal priest, you have to study certain mandates.

You're guided by a set of rules, laws, and regulations, usually. I'll put that in there. But when you go to the Scripture and you look up priests, the very first mention of the word priest happens in Genesis. And it is talking about a priest and a king.

You might say a royal priesthood there, where it actually starts. And it's given us the word or the name of the man who is the priest, who is the king. He happens to be the king of Salem, that we would know today as Jerusalem. Salem, okay, city of peace. But his name is Melchizedek. Melchizedek. It's interesting if you go to all the reference books, you hear everything from some outer space individual to somebody that came out of Seth's background to every imaginable type of explanation you could get.

But that's what I'd like to go into a little bit, since this Melchizedek, which actually the name means king of righteousness. King of righteousness. So let's go back, since it's the first mention of priest, and it says that we will all be priests, right? No. What did Peter say? You are a royal priesthood. You are a royal priesthood, which that just put a load on us in case you did not know that.

Because a lot is expected of priests, aren't they? A lot is expected of us. And our safety, our safety net would be this. If we go to this, we're okay. So when we don't go to this, that we are on very sandy ground. Let's go back to Genesis 14, if you will, with me.

Genesis 14. See the first time the priest is mentioned in the Scriptures. Genesis 14. We know Abraham. We know the story. If you've kept up with that over the years, we know that Abram and Lot split, and Lot went to live in Sodom. And a group of kings, it was thought anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 men came together from other kingdoms as three kingdoms got together. And they just decided, let's just go raid everything, because that's the way they typically did things back then.

There might be women we want. There might be jewels we want. There might be food we want. So, guess what? We'll just get together and take it. And they made a raid on the city of Sodom. And of course, we know that Abram, with God's guidance, said, let me go get my nephew and his family. So, he took with him 318 men, and it was a slaughter. He slaughtered the three kings, and they were between 10,000 and 100,000 men, according to history.

If you need to ask how he did that with 318 men, you just need to read your Bible a little more. I think you'll be able to see how Gideon did it and how many, many followers of God have slayed the bad guys and the demons with God's help. So then, after he comes back, in verse, let's go to Genesis 14, and in verse, well, we already told you about 14. Let's go to 17. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Sheba, that is the king's valley, after his return from the defeat of Kadulam, Kadam-Lomur, and the kings who were with him.

Then we come to verse 18, then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and it says he was the priest of God the most high. He wasn't a priest of God. He was a priest of God the most high. I don't think there's any doubt who it was. And he blessed him and said, bless be Abram of God most high.

So it's the same God that Abram is worshipping. And if you study the Scriptures, you find that there are many people at that time worshipping God the most high. There's a whole bunch of other gods, but this wasn't one of them that they worship. He's a possessor of heaven and earth, and bless be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

And he gave him a tenth of all. He tithed our first real sign of tithing there, and it's actually paid to this Melchizedek. And what's interesting here is this King of Salem, this priest of the most high, and as one book I actually read this week, actually said they believed it's possible that this Melchizedek was the pre-incarnate of Jesus Christ.

Was this the word?

Well, I'd like you to go with me to Psalm 110, because this is another place where Melchizedek is mentioned. Melchizedek, this royal priesthood, the same reference of royal priesthood that we will be. So is this the predecessor? Perhaps we need to be looking at.

I'd like you to turn to Psalm 110. It's amazing that David mentions this individual, like there's not a question.

In Psalm 110, I think you'll find this interesting, because this is one of the few places in the Old Testament where it not only tells us what's up there, but who's up there.

It tells us there is God, and there is another Lord up there also at the throne of God.

We read here, as David is inspired to write, Psalm 110 and verse 1, said the Lord, and I want you to understand that for my friend in the back who loves Hebrew, Yahweh.

Yes. The Yahweh.

Death in Article Thee. Thee Yahweh. Thee Yahweh said to my Adonai. Lord. Another word for Lord or Master.

So the God the Father, as He will be known later, He has Adonai, another Lord and Master, at His right hand. Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

And I'd like to go down to verse 4. It says, the Lord has sworn and will not relent that you... Who? The Lord.

The Lord has sworn and He will not relent that you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

And then He says, the Lord is at your right hand. He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath, and you can read the others.

Now, what is interesting? It says the order... order there of Melchizedek.

And it's interesting because there are different meanings to order. It can be an order of degrees. It can also be a numerical order.

But what's interesting here is Christ is... number one, either way. This is Christ.

So whether it is numerical or whether it is an order of degrees, Christ is the order and follower of this Melchizedek.

I think you will find, as we look at that, you will find something interesting.

If we follow this Melchizedek trail to Hebrew 6. Hebrew 6.

Because not only is He mentioned in Genesis, He's mentioned in Psalm, but He's also mentioned in Hebrews as Paul is trying to get the Jews at the time to understand who Christ really is.

And that He is the Lord and Savior. And He always existed. Because they understood the Melchizedek because they was part of the Torah.

But in Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6, He reveals to not only us His people, but to them at the time. Hebrews 6 and verse 20.

Wherefore the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

So Christ is just following along. Do you want to say it that way? Or I would like to say He is just continuing the priesthood that was set up.

Thousands of years before. God had a dream. God had a vision of what His people would be like.

Many of you have children. You've had children. You had dreams of what they might be, what they might become.

None of you, when they were in their infant stages, thought, boy, how great it would be for my kid to grow up and be sent to prison.

That's not what most people thought. But you had these dreams that your children would actually do better than you.

That you would be able to help them become more than you.

God had a vision that His followers, His children, sons of God, daughters of God, would actually be able to rise above where most people are or want to be.

I want you to go down a few verses to Hebrew 7 as we finish this Melchizedek theme here.

Chapter 7, verse 1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom Abraham also gave a tenth of all, first being translated king of righteousness, then also the king of Salem, also meaning the king of peace.

So Paul, the writer of Hebrews, we believe it was Paul, was trying to explain to the Jews what this is all about.

Then he goes to explain, and there's no other individual this could fit but Jesus Christ by the Scriptures that are here because it said, about Melchizedek, without father or without mother.

I haven't known a human being that didn't have a father or mother.

It said, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life.

What does that mean?

Melchizedek was eternal. He always existed and he will always exist. So we're talking supernatural. We're talking God-playing.

But made like the Son of God remains a priest continually.

So he looked like the Son of man when he was on earth. Well, we know Jesus Christ looked like a man when he was on earth. He was skinned.

He was a holy human, but then also a holy God. Melchizedek was a forerunner for a different kind of priesthood, not the Levitical priesthood, as we will see that comes on later.

We see that there is a Levitical priesthood that a lot of time has spent, which made me go back and think, I wonder why there were not many followers of Melchizedek?

But then all you have to read is the Scriptures. Why were there not many that followed God?

Why today? Because God laid it out pretty clear in his Bible, which a lot of people never read.

A lot of ministers don't read, except where they want to.

But it's basically laid out pretty clear what he wants you to do, how he wants you to act.

But then we have whole volumes and libraries written that says, now that's not what it means.

We know what it says, but that's not really what it means.

Because for most people that want to follow God's way of life, guess what? It's a big life-change.

You don't act like the rest of the world. You don't look like the rest of the world.

You're not like the rest of the world.

And it's been a hard sell for God.

And he's put his whole heart and being into wanting children.

But I've known many, many people. They just knew because they had their life together.

As soon as they had children, they were going to raise those children, and those children were going to have their life together.

It didn't happen.

Once they had the time and the freedom to make their choice, they chose whatever they wanted to choose.

And God has allowed his children to do the same thing.

Melchizedek was the forerunner for the spiritual priesthood because that's what it was about.

Your priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, was about the physical worship and fear of God.

It is.

Not only the reverence of God, but the fear of God.

Because basically, God wanted to bless people. He wanted to have this following.

And he pulled a nation of 2 to 3 million people out of Egypt, as we all know the story.

And he brought them and set them apart in a desert.

Took them so far away from everybody that there was no excuse of, well, I was influenced by this.

But here was a chance for these people, 2 million plus people, to just be out there, living, relying on God. Because they couldn't have taken a lot of food out there.

You can imagine how much food it took to feed 2 million people in a day.

And he took them out into a desert where there's not a lot of water.

It was going to require a little faith, wasn't it? What about you?

Following God requires a little faith. Sometimes a lot of faith.

But then he said, well, I'm going to put together so that you can be instructed.

I'm going to put together a priesthood, and I'm going to choose one man, and one man only.

And that is Aaron. And I'm going to set up this priesthood with Aaron and his, really, four sons, but he chose two at first. Nate Abinabayu. Only problem was, Nate Abinabayu, they weren't into, really, the priesthood thing other than we get to feel important.

We get to look pretty in our outfits. We get to have authority.

We get to feel really important. People have to listen to us.

But they forgot that they needed to listen to God, and God gave them instructions.

And they went against his instructions, and God then said, boom!

I'll burn you up. Dust! That quickly! So then, thankfully, Aaron had two more sons, Eliezer and Ethemar.

But the lineage of the Levitical priesthood had to come from Aaron.

If you've ever thought about that, there's books and books and movies and movies all about the Levitical priesthood.

And I could spend five sermons telling you all about the Levitical priesthood.

But I'm not because that is not our priesthood!

It's interesting because the only priests that could be priests all the way down, even I actually had a list of all the priests, they had to come from Aaron or Aaron's kids.

Like Eliezer, and then after him, his son Phineas, and you can see the list that goes on and on.

Moses had children. Moses was from the tribe of Levi.

What about Moses' son? Wouldn't you think he was? No!

No one! No one but from one line. Aaron could be a priest. God's rules! I don't know why.

But I don't have to. There's no what he says, he says, and what it tells me to do, I try to do it.

But you see, we, the royal priesthood, are from the lineage of God.

He's our Father, Christ is our brother.

But before we jump into that, I want to kind of show, after God had taken all the children of Israel and some mixed out of there, and took them into the desert, before he gave them the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, he made this incredible statement that most people miss today.

That incredible statement, and it's in, you know, we know the first written code for the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.

Everybody basically should know that. But he made this statement in Exodus 19 and verse 6. I'd like you to go there with me.

Because you can see this dream, as they were just coming out and he had this dream, and maybe the same dream, perhaps, that you see anybody that's played sports, and you have a young son, and you see the son grow up, and you see him about eight or nine years old, and he's throwing the ball just like you did, or he's, wow, that's a chip off the old block.

Yeah. Boy, it's going to be just like me. This is what God thought.

Exodus 19 and verse 6, and he says, And you shall be to me a kingdom of, what? Priests. A kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

God didn't set the bar real low. He set the bar extremely high.

And what happened? He didn't get a kingdom of priests, did he?

He didn't get a holy nation, as you can read the story.

But that's what he wanted. And you know, God's go for His people, that you look back, if you go back even to where He's talking to a Brahm, and He said what He was going to do for a Brahm. And He also told that to Isaac, and He said, I'm going to make this sand of the sea. People will be as often as a sand of the sea from you.

And that was His dream that maybe this could carry on.

A kingdom of priests. See, it was God's go then, it's still His go today.

With the royal priesthood that Peter talks about, that John tells us about in the book of Revelation.

Now, let's go back, if you will, to Romans. Romans 8. And we see that this is the lineage we come from, and this is the priesthood, and this is the mindset that we need to have.

If you turn back to Romans 8 and verse 5, He says, For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.

That's about everybody out there, right?

If you love ballgames, and you love to see a college football game, you're not going to be in church on Saturday.

Because then you'll miss a ballgame. And then what would you do all week to think about things like that? They say, Those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the, what? Spirit. The things of the Spirit.

And verse 7, He says, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. I mean, okay, nobody can please God. No, it's the way He's phrased. If you're living for the flesh, if the flesh is everything that you are, and everything you think about, and everything in the world is yours, you're not going to fit with God. And if you really fit with God, guess what? You're not going to fit where? Here.

Because you're going to be odd. You're going to be strange. As Chris even said, we don't think we think on a God plane about, well, I want to please my Father.

Or, wait a minute, isn't it easier to please yourself? Yes! That's easy. You just make up your own rules. That's why it's so funny when you look in the annals of history, they were showing all these gods that everybody made up down through the history of time, and they were all gods that had different wants and needs, and they all reflected human characteristics. Why? Because that's what people wanted to worship. That thing. In Romans 8, verse 16, he tells us something here about the royal priesthood, about your priesthood. He said, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. The lineage, not the Levitical priesthood, the royal priesthood, because we are the children of God. You can't be in the priesthood unless you are a child of God. That's what the book says. And verse 17 says, and if children then heirs, it means you're going to inherit stuff. And you know what stuff God has? He owns all the stuff. All the stuff that exists in the world, in the universe, is His. Even your car you drove here today, it's His. You may say, well, no, it's not because it's mine and the bank's. God owns the bank's. He owns everything. And He says that when it's time, you will inherit all things. And He says, joint heirs with Christ. That clears the road quite a bit that He's not talking about, but one line of heirs. God, His Son Jesus Christ, and us. But He does put a caveat, as I said before. He does put a caveat on 17. We can be joint heirs with Christ if we're able to do one of the things that He talks about now. And that's what so many people that dig into Christianity kind of look at and go, well, I didn't know I was going to have to do that. And what does it say? We'll read it here. Okay. If children then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. He's going to glorify us, but there's one thing. We're going to have to go through the same stuff that Christ went through. Now, a lot of people think, oh, they remember the crowds that followed Christ, and, oh, wow, He was put up here. Every time you can see that any time He was trying to teach, you had those leaders who were just mocking Him, cutting Him down, making fun of Him. Making fun of even the words He said. He said He came to personify the Father. And that's what's great about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We get to see how He lived. So all we got to do is say, follow the same pattern. Go and look and see how He answered questions. Look how He lived.

And that's how we become an heir.

But are your friends, people, relatives, bosses going to look at you and say, you are weird. You are saying, what did you guys say? Crazy? I think you told me today. People think you're crazy.

Yes. Because we don't. Christ didn't either. And then the disciples all find that out. And the ones who hit you the most are the religious leaders. The ones who go to church, different day, different church, they're the ones who go, oh, ridiculous! What's wrong with you people? Do you know? Everybody goes here.

So now you see, if you're not built, made for being able to go against the grain, chances are, God's not going to call you at this time.

Because you're going to have to be different. And most people in the world would just like to go along.

They want to be accepted by everybody.

It takes a unique individual who can stand and proclaim that I am different.

And I make no apologies for it. Quite different. Levitical priesthood, like you go back. Because even today, you know, it's so interesting, even today in certain sects of Judaism, they still are all about this Levitical priesthood.

They are so into it. And I've had discussions. And they are still carrying on.

All the stuff from the Levitical priesthood. Now, are there laws that they give? Yes.

But we have not been called to that.

Like you go to Leviticus, just a short here, because I have something I will give you.

Leviticus 8. You can also read this in 29, but I'll leave that up to your reading if you so choose.

Leviticus 8. This is where he instituted this Levitical priesthood. Why? Why did he do this? It was about the physical, because he soon found out that these people were not ready for the spiritual.

So let's see if we can teach them some physical things that can later be morphed so they can learn the spiritual.

Because they were really babes. Leviticus 8 and verse 1. And said, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull, as a sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread.

And gathered all the congregation together at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting. So Moses did as the Lord commanded, and the assembly was gathered together at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting. And Moses said to the congregation, This is what the Lord commanded to be done. Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.

We might look at that and go, That's strange. There is a purpose.

And he put the tunic on him, and girded him with the sash, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him. And he girded him with a woven band of the ephod, and with it tied the ephod on him. Then he put the breastplate on him, then he put the erm and the thumbing in the breastplate.

And in verse 10, Then Moses took the anointed oil, anointed the tabernacle, and all that was in it, and sanctified it. And he poured, in verse 12, some of the anointed oil on Aaron's head, and anointed him to sanctify him. Sanctify means to set apart, set separate.

This was what the priesthood was supposed to be.

This priests were supposed to hold themselves to a higher standard. They were supposed to be the example, physical example on earth.

I would like, if you would not mind, John, could I get you to help? If you'll take each of these. Maybe take one of them. I don't want to give all of them the case. If you don't mind distributing those half, and that half to the other end. I want you to have this, because this is by Barnes Bible Charts. They do a very good job. So I wanted you to each have a copy of this, because we're just going to fly through this real quickly, just so you kind of get the idea. But also you'll have it, so you'll understand exactly, without going through 62 scriptures, which I prefer not to do.

So the title is, Old Testament Priests and Priesthood. As you can see, I made this in color, even though it cost me four times as much. Because I wanted you to see the garb that the priest was commanded to wear. Now, I guarantee you, if you dress like that, and you walk out on the street, you are going to be set apart. Right?

You're going to have to have the bluish-purple tassel and that head dressing and everything else. Plus, you start wearing that roomin' thermon on there, with that walking down on the streets of Miami, somebody's going to take it off you. Okay? With all those jewels on there. Don't believe you'd last very long.

But it says, definition. A priest is unauthorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially a mediator between man and God. That's from Webster's. Melchizedek, King of Salem, was a priest of God. And it gives you these things down here. It gives you even the false prophets, false priests, who serve different gods.

And it went down to, I'd like you to go down to the left-hand side, where it says, qualifications for priestly service. And you can look the Scriptures up if you do not believe me or you do not believe this. And first, you must be a male. Obviously, God's a sexist, we would look at today. Of course, if you really realize what a priest had to do and how he spent a good part of his day slaughtering animals and was having blood all over everywhere and so forth, I guess that's where the original guys began to like grilling meat, because that's basically what he did, besides the other things. But pulling a big quarter up of a bull isn't something that most women would like to do, especially if you're Olivia's size. Qualifications for priestly service must be a male, must be a descendant of Aaron with a documented lineage, must be between 30 and 50 years old. That means I'm too old. Now, one of the things, you could be a high priest and be older than 50, but the priestly service, they expected because it was hard, hot work. It wasn't anything you'd sign up, oh, pick me, pick me, let me do that.

It says here, must be unblemished. You couldn't have one leg shorter than the other. You couldn't be lame, or it even says blonde here. I don't know about that one. Guess that's where the blonde joke started. But it says you must have a proper marriage, not married to a harlot, not married to a divorced woman, unless she was another priest widow, not married to the widow other than a priest widow, which it says there. The high priest must marry a virgin of his own people, must have no uncleanliness, leprosy, any type of diseases, must have an untrimmed beard with well-trimmed but unshaved hair. Strange. And then it says it must be properly dressed. And the duties of a priest on the rise, you're to what? They were to teach the people. Teach them about what? God! What else are you going to teach? What else should a priest teach them? What? Which brings us back to the point, what should a priest know? That goes back to us. God? Pretty simple. We should know God and we should know this book like no other. Right? Serve as judges to resolve controversy. How about you? Are you prepared to do that? How do you make decisions? Well, when somebody calls me and says, you know, what should I do this? Pastor, what should I say? Well, what does the Bible say about it first? Because that's what we have to go by. And that's what my job, hopefully, is I know. If I don't know, then I'll say, okay, let me get with you. I need to look this up. I need to find it. See if we can find the right answer because the Bible gives us the right answer. Offer sacrifices. How about you? When's the last time you offered sacrifices? And I don't mean burnt lunches or dinner. But offered sacrifices. And what does that mean? Also, burn incense. Assess impurity. Bless the people. Bless God. And they say, oh, wait a minute. Because I had somebody ask me, who was it? Oh, could you bless me? If you actually go back to Numbers 6, you can actually, where it says to bless people. That's why we, as priests, it says, say to them, the Lord bless you, and I will bless you. It's about God. It isn't about us. I have no power to bless you. I can ask God to bless you. He's the one that doesn't.

But we have many priests today, over the next week, who will say, except that, bless me, Father, for I have sinned. Duh duh duh. But it's not here. It's not in the book. And then you had to keep the tabernacle. You had to take care of the altar, the lamps, prepare the holy things, continue sacred fires, and blow the trumpets. So it was a very busy job. But I ask you, how many, as you look at those duties of the priest, and you think about your duties as a royal priesthood, how many of those do you do? What do you do? Do you know what you're to do as a part of the royal priesthood?

And then I want to talk about Washington. You look at the Levitical priesthood, and the Levitical priesthood actually is all about the physical, and the royal priesthood. We're part of it. It's some of the physical, but it's mostly about the spiritual. There are things that we do physically as a priesthood. We don't eat unclean food.

There are some other things that we do. We also keep the law physically, except the 10th commandment, which you cannot do physically. But these washings, if this pictured, and we know the slaughtering of the Lamb, pictured Jesus Christ's eventual sacrifice, and he would be our high priest, but why the washings?

Because they had this labor that they made, or this bowl that God spent a whole chapter telling them how to make this bowl, the hellwater, for them to wash in. And it actually said that Moses had to go wash his brother and his two sons.

Now, I like my brother, but I don't think about washing him. That's not what I, you know, I was like, ooh, no. But this was very important for God. See, washing is about cleansing, purging the filth, and letting the people see that the one representing God is dedicated to purity, to doing things right, to being, hopefully, above reproach. And so we cleanse, and I hope you not only showered today, physically, for you came, but I hope that you were cleansed spiritually by your prayers, by asking God to remove, purge you of your sins.

That's what it's about, to take away your sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. And you are, as the Scriptures say, washed thoroughly. It's interesting that you can actually read the story of Korah. And some people have actually read a commentary one time where you find Korah in number 16, and he was actually the great-grandson of Levi.

So he was in the same family as Aaron, and he got upset with his family and group and said, why can't we be? Part of the priesthood are one of those making these decisions. What makes you better? You're from the same tribe I am. And that didn't last for less than 24 hours. And God separated them because they questioned God. That's why there's sometimes people will go, well, you know, I don't really think that's what God meant when he wrote that in there about different things in the Bible. To which I go, okay, you stand over there. Because I know what happened with Korah, and it wasn't pretty for his entire family.

I'm not going to question God and say, well, maybe you should have used Judah as a priesthood. It's not our call. But you see, Levi had all these sons and grandsons. But you see, there was something missing. It was the heart to worship God. And that's where we're as we close up here today. Because God gave them 40 years in the desert. To learn to become this kingdom of priests. To become this holy nation. And he said, yes, you can do it. And you know what they said? We will not do it. They made the decision not to do it.

God gave them everything they could want to make it happen. And the flesh overruled anything. They wanted to do things their own way. And that is why Jeremiah 31, verse 31 through 33, right? As it talked about the old covenant being physical and the new covenant. Where he says, I will write my laws in your minds and in your heart. Become spiritual. Because how do you worship God? He said, if you really want to worship God, you do it with all your heart, all your soul, your might, your being.

That pretty well encompasses everything, doesn't it? It's interesting in Hebrew. The word priest is actually spelled K-O-H-E-N. You will see it today in people's names of Cohen. C-O-H-E-N. Cohen. I used to have a store where I was from, and it was Cohen's department store. And the actual word Cohen is one who offers sacrifices. That's what it meant. And in the Greek, it's interesting because it's HIRUS. H-I-E-R-U-S. And in the Greek, it actually means an elder. But it also means one who serves. One who serves. What about you? Do you serve? Who are you serving? Why are you serving? How do you do it?

It's part of the royal priesthood. A priest, especially a royal priesthood. A royal priest should be a resource. Are you a resource? What do you mean resource? Well, if you want to learn something, you can go to the library, can't you? It's a great resource! You can go to the computer. A lot of junk on there. But, it's a great resource for a lot of things.

I use it every day. Are you part of the priesthood? Are you a resource? When somebody asks you a question, is it your opinion or is it God's? When you make a decision, is it something based on God leading you? This Word leading you? And you'll see that part of the priesthood, and Paul talks about this often, because he just gives this instruction because there's no doubt in Paul's mind we are, and Peter's mind that we are the followers of God, and we are the royal priesthood, and that we need to be doing the priestly stuff today.

Are we? Are we offering up prayers for even our corrupt government officials? He says it in 1 Timothy 2. Verse 2, he actually says in Romans 13 verse 1, we're to pray for the white wife so that our lives can be better. It isn't about them. God says to pray for them that they will make laws or they will allow us to do our priestly work. How many times are you praying for people? It's amazing when someone knows that I'm a minister or even know that you go to church because you get this, oh, would you mind praying for me then? Does it come up?

Has anybody had those? If they know that you actually have a relationship with God, they're going to go, well, pray for me, which makes me want to say, pray for yourself! But I have to, because they ask. Who has a connection with that?

Whether it's relatives, whatever. This is what we should be doing. It should be a part of our lives. So what is a big part of the royal priesthood? Prayer. How do you help make decisions and you help people? How are you to be a resource that God is using? He has so few resources on this earth today. This is it. This is what we need to do. This is where we need to study.

This is what we're a part of. Also tells us we need to be praying for the Kingdom of God. And more, and more, and more. Part of the priesthood. But you know, one of the main things is that the royal priesthood, we're training and preparing to be royalty and priestly. That's part of it. As we looked last week, royalty, they're held up. They're held up to a higher standard than everybody. Well, guess what God says you are? People need to hold you up to a higher standard. Because of your conduct. He talks about, well, let your conduct.

Don't look on concordance and what it says about your conduct. And then go do it! That's what it's about. You're not yours anymore. You're like those monks that I went and visited in the monastery. They gave away everything and they lived there on that. And they just serve there. We have given up everything in the world. If you haven't, it says you're not fit for the kingdom of God. He who looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. And we have given up the world to be here, to serve this earth.

Till Christ comes back. Till the king of kings comes back. There's a process of transformation that is happening here. That transformation is you are physical. You have physical wants, needs, desires, everything. God made you physical. But He's transforming you into the spiritual, to where that is more important than the physical. Easy transformation? No! That's why it takes a lifetime.

And you understand when you're very young, you look back as you get older, you go, you know, it was different even back then. God was working with you back when you were a kid. And that transformation's coming. And it's called conversion. Like ice, I said many times in an ice cube tray. It starts with water and the end product is ice. Where are we? Got a little ice in there? As we're being converted from the physical to the spiritual. Because that eternity will be spirit, not physical. It is an elevated way of life. Elevated way of life.

Not an elevated person. That's not what it's about. The royal priesthood for the future? No. The future is now. The future is today. The future is tomorrow. 1 Peter 2 verse 9 says, you are a royal priesthood. Now you are, not you will be. And I so remember, as I even mentioned to Mary as I close here, basketball team, freshman here in high school.

We had a wonderful coach. It was his first year of coaching freshman. Went on to be a great coach later. Name was Dickie Thomas, I always remember. It was very hard, hard old school. And I remember the very first time we had a game, and we were all sitting outside and joking around and playing around. And as soon as we got in a lot of room, he just chewed every one of us out. Don't you know you represent the school?

This is a ballgame. You represent the school. Get your mind. Act like it. Act like you're responsible. Act like an adult. And I remember the first game, I got so chewed out at halftime. And he reached and grabbed me by the jersey, and he said, never called me Chuck until later, Smith, you let that guy just score over you and score. I said, I'm six foot, he's six six, coach.

You're a ballplayer. You've got Oakland High School across you. He said, you're a ballplayer. You give it everything you got. I said, I can't do anything with you. He said, you never fouled once. You never tried. He said, if you want to stay on this team, you're going to be a player.

If you want to be a player, start acting like it. Brother, we are the royal priesthood. Let's act like it.