Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter five. Revelation chapter five, beginning in verse eight. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 20 elders fell down before the land, having every one of them hearts and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung 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 God, kings and priests. And we shall reign on the earth. Our text brings us back to some matter that we have not considered since the first chapter, namely the priesthood of all believers and the importance of every member of Christ's church. We have a tendency when we consider the church present or the church in past times to highlight the importance of various ministers and officers And there is some reason for that, no doubt. But we should never miss the fact that the church is a body and every member is important to that body and yields an important service to the body. Just this morning, I was in my ongoing efforts to make my way through Philip Schaaf's History of the Christian Church. I was in the midst of considerations of the medieval heretical groups, at least considered heretical by the Roman Church. There was a great diversity of them, but they all had one thing in common. They were very much opposed to priestcraft, the idea that the believer in Jesus Christ had to go to any other human being and a human other than Jesus himself in order to find a mediator between himself and God. We believe in one priest, the Lord Jesus Christ and the priesthood of all believers and that we have immediate access unto him. In that you have the prefiguring of the Reformation. Interestingly enough also that These dissenting groups during the Middle Ages were mostly common people movements. Indeed, I do believe that the life of the church was preserved in these common people movements. Not too long ago, we had our Scotland night and we remembered the Covenanters. Once again, largely a common people movement. The light of the truth and the light of the church preserved not so much at that time in her officers as in her members and although I hope that concerning our own former troubles that we in love will keep no records of wrong I hope that we will always remember the valuable lessons that we learned that when the government and officers of this church failed her The church yet survives largely because of the activity of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the membership. A valuable lesson and one never to be forgotten. We return to this great subject of the priesthood of all believers. And you remember we as Reformation minded people have in this way defined ourselves over against Romanism. Romanism taught that there was no access to God apart from a human priest. If you remember some of our former sermons, this is the very spirit of Antichrist. Remember that Antichrist does not mean, primarily in the Greek, against Christ, but rather in the place of Christ. And so for anyone to usurp the place, the priesthood, and put himself in the place, the unique place of Jesus Christ is the spirit of Antichrist. This is no small matter. The Reformation, however, asserted that every believer has immediate access to God through the one great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so among the Reformers, the habit was not to call their ministers priests, but rather ministers, pastors, overseers, and the like. Because the A believer has immediate access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer stands in union with that great priest and participates in his priesthood in some measure. This was a strong assertion of the universal or general office of every believer. And this doctrine continues to be largely a forgotten doctrine even in Reformation minded churches. The basic doctrine is this, that Christ as mediator is prophet, priest and king and the believer in his union participates in his priesthood, his prophetic work and in his kingship. You see this in the Heidelberg Catechism, Heidelberg Catechism 32 My wife in recent days has, through a radio program, had some love of the Heidelberg Catechism stirred up in her. Its history and its content, very rich and very early. But we see this doctrine in the Heidelberg Catechism number 32. But why art thou called a Christian? Why art thou called after the name of Christ? because I am a member of Christ by faith and thus am partaker of his anointing that so I may confess his name that is the prophetic office and present myself a living sacrifice of thankfulness to him that is the priestly office and also that with a free and good conscience I may fight against sin and Satan in this life and afterwards reign with him eternally over all creatures this is the royal office it's very difficult to pull this into balance if you look at evangelicalism broadly speaking it is at least Supposedly a very egalitarian movement. The importance of the officers of the church is downplayed. The congregational form of church government and its mentality that the officers are merely functionaries of the church. Administrators to do the congregations well. This is all so the role of officers is largely downplayed but I say that with some hesitance because this is also the age in which the great personalities tend to also dominate but this is not because of office but rather because of the power of personality and the ability of certain men to speak and to speak well so on the one hand you have this egalitarianism And now we find in our Presbyterian circles there is an overreaction that leads us back to Rome. We want to highlight the importance of officers, but this has probably for the better part of 50 years been very much at the expense of the general office of all believers. We must endeavor after a balance. egalitarianism, nor authoritarianism, but rather every person in the church functioning properly according to his place and calling. That is the great genius of Presbyterianism, the biblical model. We want to restore the universal office of the believer without losing the divinely appointed division of labor. In our sermon series on the doctrine of the Church, we will take up some of the particulars of this. My concern this morning is not the particulars, but a broader theological and principial basis that's provided for us in the book of Revelation. Our text in Revelation chapter 5 is really the renewal of a matter of praise already expressed. Don't lose your place in chapter five, but turn back to chapter one. Revelation, chapter one, beginning in verse four. John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be unto you. and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. In this precious text, we have first the apostolic benediction. The seven churches of Asia are blessed with grace and peace. In the name of the Father, Him which is and which was and which is to come, and in the name of the Spirit, the seven Spirits which are before His throne, and in the name of the Eternal Son, Jesus Christ, who is then set forth in His threefold office as faithful witness, the great prophet of the Church. As the first begotten of the dead, Christ crucified and risen again, his priestly office, and as the prince of the kings of the earth, his royal or kingly office. John moves immediately from benediction to doxology, the language of praise. He ascribes to Jesus Christ glory and dominion forever and ever, and he gives Three reasons for this ascription of glory that Christ had set his love upon a people. Second, that he had cleansed that people by his own blood. And third, that he had made that people, that elect people, kings and priests, unto God. So first, Jesus Christ himself was proclaimed as king and priest. And then you see that he is able to make for himself and for his father kings and priests as well. You notice the great similarity between this and our present passage in Revelation chapter 5. Our passage in verses 9 and 10 have two parts. First, we had a declaration of the worthiness of Jesus Christ to take the scroll to open it, breaking the seals, and to reveal its contents. And then we are told of his worthiness. That worthiness is demonstrated by three reasons. His death, the redemption by his blood of a universal church, and that he has made the members of that church kings and priests unto God, and that they shall reign forever on the earth. You see the great similarity here. What had begun with praise in John's mouth is now taken up by the four creatures and the 24 elders, representatives of the entire Church of the Living God. The praise is taken up in all of their mouths. Last week we looked at those first two reasons demonstrating the worthiness of Christ, His atoning death and is redemption by His blood of a universal church. And today we turn our attention to verse 10. And has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign upon the earth. Here we find the greatness of God's salvation because it is more than redemption. It is more than a clearing of the slate, but rather the bestowal of precious privileges. So we have not just been made clean, but we have been installed in an office and invested with privileges, kingdom privileges. And I should say that these are privileges that belong to you. every child that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll talk about the priesthood of all believers, even children who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll keep this in mind as we go. Let us work our way through this text. There's not very much new here to consider. But first, He has made us unto our God King. So the one who has been called the prince of the kings of the earth confers upon his people kingship. We have become participants in his kingship. This ought not to surprise us. Everywhere in the scripture we are portrayed as participating in his royal victory over the world, his victory over sin and death. Indeed that great victory over that great enemy of death demonstrated in his resurrection. But we live in a time in between times. Jesus was quite clear that his kingdom was not a kingdom of this world and the kingship that has been bestowed upon us as members of this church is not one that entails ruling over the kingdoms of this earth. We'll come back to this next week. There have been times when that has been an historical eventuality. It has happened from time to time. But that's not primarily what we have in view here. We have become kings in His spiritual dominion. We serve in His kingdom. And we look forward to the full revelation of his kingdom at the final judgment where we are portrayed as sitting and assessing in the judgment with him. Why would this be so important here in John's apocalypse? And this is something that we should keep in mind. We go along quite slowly in the book and yet we should never lose the scope of the whole. Most of the history of the church will involve its persecution. The people of God will be weak, despised, and they will struggle with great feelings of helplessness. If the foundation should be removed, what shall the godly do? You hear that sense of helplessness, what are we going to do given these great forces at work in the world? But we are reminded that we have already become participants in the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. His kingship cannot be resisted and is even now advancing in the world. And that kingship will be fully revealed on the last day and we will participate in its full glory with Him. We'll come back to some fuller consideration of our kingship with our Jesus next week. I wanted to focus mostly this week on the second clause that he has made us unto our God, priests. The first begotten of the dead, the high priest himself has conferred upon us a priesthood and priestly privileges. In other words, in our union with him we have become participants in his priesthood. We have the great honor, and priesthood was always a great honor among the people of God. We have been given the great honor of being priests unto God. And you notice that that language is used here. We are not the priests of some dead and worthless dunghill deity or idol. We are priests of the true and living God, the maker of heaven and earth and things that are seen and unseen. A great and precious privilege indeed. And the final clause is that we shall reign upon the earth. And we will talk about this next week. I wanted to take away from this just one doctrine that the priesthood of The believer is multifaceted. It has many aspects. And I hope this morning that we might be able to spin that great gem and see its several facets. But children, remember that if you are believers in Jesus Christ, you are also made a priest unto God. And you have all of these same important functions to play. in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are going to be looking primarily at the New Testament and what it has to teach about the priesthood of all believers. And it's very interesting that when the scriptures speak of believers being priests, it never has in view the officers. or we might say not exclusively the officers, but it has all of the people of God very much in view. First of all, when we consider the priesthood of believers, we should remember that we have been consecrated unto the Lord and to His service. You remember our discussion in recent weeks about holiness? That even the children of the church are holy unto the Lord, set apart unto the Lord and for His purposes. We all as believers in Jesus Christ have been consecrated unto Him, set apart for His service. Turn with me in your Bibles to the epistle to the Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 verse 1, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Although the word priest is not used here, priestly language is used. Who was it that presented the sacrifices? Of course, this is the priests. So this is one of those great facets of the priesthood of all believers. And we are called upon as priests of the living God to bring a sacrifice, if you will, not an atoning sacrifice that belongs to Jesus as well, but rather a sacrifice of praise. namely we are called upon to present our bodies not as dead sacrifices by the shedding of blood but as living sacrifices this is language that do you remember the burnt offerings of ancient times? the burnt offering was unique among the offerings in that it was wholly consumed unto the Lord God. With the exception of the skin, no part was given back to the priest or to the offerer himself, but all belong to the Lord. This is the language of the burnt offering. Except strangely enough, this is a living sacrifice where we have been set apart unto the Lord completely. And we are called upon to consecrate ourselves unto the Lord wholly, totally, retaining no part for ourselves. We belong completely to God. And as such, we are to be holy, that is, we are to conduct ourselves in a manner that is suitable for the priests of the living God, and as people completely dedicated to God's service, We are to have clean and holy hands, think of 1 Timothy chapter 2, and even a heart that is broken and contrived over sin, a sacrifice that is said that will not be despised by God. So we have been completely consecrated, set apart unto God's service, and so nothing of the self And nothing of sin is to remain. We belong completely to Him. A second facet of the priesthood of all believers is that we are called upon to worship Him in prayers and praises, having immediate access to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We have already seen this in Revelation chapter 1 verse 6 and chapter 5 verses 9 and 10. First John and then all of the people of God worshipping God. Not needing a human intermediary, not needing a human priest, but having immediate access to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is one of our great and high functions of priesthood. We by our prayers and by our praises show forth God's glory in the earth. Turn with me to the prophecy of Hosea and children after the great prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel you will find a list of smaller prophets Hosea would be the first, right after the book of Daniel. Hosea chapter 14. We are going to look at two texts, one in Hosea and then one in Hebrews. But I want the point to be clear. We are portrayed in these texts as priests, as we offer our prayers and our praises, which are talked about as being a certain sort of sacrifice. They are rendered up to God for God's glory. Hosea chapter 14. Oh, Israel, return unto the Lord by God, for that was fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words and turn to the Lord. Say unto Him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves of our lips. Hosea is calling the people of God to repentance. He gives them words to take to God in repentance. Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. And then they are to respond in this way, so will we render the calves of our lips. Children, do you know what calves are? They are baby oxen. Isn't this a strange way to speak? We will offer or render to the oxen of our lips every Israelite would have understood the meaning here because of course they would have taken calves, baby oxen to the altar to be sacrificed on their behalf but now here we have a sacrifice of praise here styled the calves of our lips so Hosea tells them go to God with these words of repentance Offer them in faith knowing that you will be received graciously and then promise that you will give back to God the sacrifice of praise We have a very similar expression in Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15. And here you see the most intimate connection between the unique high priesthood of Jesus Christ and our derivative and subordinate priesthood. By Him, that is by Jesus Christ, and through His priesthood, therefore let us offer this sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. We are priests in this regard. We do not offer bloody sacrifices. We cannot, by the spilling of our blood or the blood of another, take away sins. That belongs to Christ's priesthood uniquely. But because he has shed his blood, we can be received and we are called upon to do these other priestly functions that belong not only to him, but derivatively to us, to bring our prayers and our praises And because of his shed blood and his high priestly intercession, we know that we have acceptance on high. And we show forth, just like the priests in ancient times, God's glory in the earth. And I had one other aspect of our priesthood that I wanted to bring forward. We're consecrated to his service. We are called upon to bring the sacrifice of prayers and praise And also like the priests of old, we are called upon to bring the sacrifice of our alms. Turn with me to Paul's epistle to the Philippians, chapter four. Paul really had a sweet relationship with the Philippian Christians. The Philippians supported Paul in his ministry even when many of the other churches, having forgotten gratitude, did not. However, there was a season in which the Philippians, although certainly willing to contribute to Paul, were unable. We're not told what the hindrance was, but they had been hindered from continuing their gifts to him in his work of the ministry. And it's in that context that we find the 18th verse. He assures them that he is well. Verse 18. But I have all and abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. This also is one of our priestly functions to bring our gifts, our material gifts into the common storehouse of the church for the support of the work of the ministry and for the ongoing care of the poor in the midst of the people of God. Paul has received this from them, but you notice he then characterizes it in the language of the old priesthood and sacrifice. He had received these things, but he was sure as they were given in love and offered in faith, that they were of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God. So here we have these three very important lessons about Our priesthood before God, we're consecrated to his service. That means all of life. We are to retain nothing for ourselves. We are given for his worship. And in some ways we make a great mistake when we think of salvation as being the chief end of man. It is not. But rather, we should say the chief end of the salvation of man is the glory of God. God is saving worshippers for himself, a kingdom of priests to show forth his glory in all of the earth. And finally we exercise our priesthood in the giving of alms, in the support of the church, support of the work of the ministry and the care of the poor in her midst. I wanted to take away from this really just one use, very much connected to the facets of doctrine that we've already considered. Since we are made by Jesus Christ, priests let us carry ourselves in a priestly manner, or in a manner that is fitting for the priests of the living God. And first of all, this means we must live holy lives. I had a recent discussion with my wife about this. If I were to describe myself and my work in the ministry, I might use a great many different sorts of adjectives. But I'm afraid that holy would not be one of the first in my list. And really it ought to be. This is one of our primary responsibilities and ought to be one of our primary characteristics as the priests of the living God. You think about the ancient Christians and the way that they were perceived in the Roman world. The Romans might say many awful things about them, that they called them atheists, obstinate in the followers of a strange and foreign religion. they called them haters of mankind because they refused to participate in the Roman civil religion which was idolatrous refused to participate in the worship of the emperor and yet the Christians were on the other hand universally recognized as being holy they were people of sincere faith and of pure morals And most of the Romans that came into contact with them knew that. We should be thought of in this way. If the world is going to blame us for things, let it be for blaming us with respect to the following of our God. But when they search and sift our lives, they ought not to find sin in us. Wouldn't it be a most remarkable thing if we were all like Daniel, where his enemies searched his life to the very bottom and couldn't find anything wherewith to blame or accuse him? There was one way they knew they could get at Daniel, which was to make his life of prayer a crime. And then they could accuse him. It would be good if we could all be such. People could search us and sift us and only find holiness. This is what we have been called to by the Apostle in the 12th of Romans. When he says present you our bodies, this is a very common, it's called a synecdoche, a part referring to the whole, but clearly he has the whole self in view. It's to reduce to absurdity Paul is saying, if we take him to mean physically the body, that he is concerned with a holy body but not a holy spirit and mental life. Clearly he is concerned with the sanctity of the entire person. And we are told over and over again, your whole self, body and soul, belongs to Jesus Christ. You are not your own. You have been bought with a price. And so we must be a holy people even as he is holy. We are also called in that text a holy and unblemished sacrifice. You remember all of the sacrifices under the Old Testament were not to have any sort of imperfection in them. If the animal was maimed or mutilated in some way, it was unclean, rejected. If it had spots or imperfections in it. It was not to be offered up to the Lord God. The sacrifices were to be unblemished. So the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ was a holy and unblemished sacrifice. And we have been called upon to be imitators of Him, the Holy One of Israel, and to present ourselves as holy sacrifices And I will tell you a thing that is impossible. No one can be consecrated unto the Lord and to sin, to be devoted to the Lord and to his sin at the same time. This is impossible. It's as impossible as for a man to be facing east and west at the same time. So we will be consecrated to the one or to the other. the little flock choose you this day whom you will serve will you serve your sins unto death or will you be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness unto eternal life holiness is necessary for our service to him I had mentioned earlier the first epistle to Timothy you don't need to turn there just listen As Paul is describing to them some aspects of the order of the church, he says this, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. It's very interesting that this text is normally used in our current day by Pentecostals to give warrant for the lifting up of hands in worship and beloved I am not opposed to it I do think that the hands are quite literally in view but if we look at the text very carefully the hands are actually not the primary concern and consideration but rather the holiness Because you notice that the next and clarifying clause is not about the posture of the body, but rather the comportment of the soul without wrath and doubting. And that is a spiritual concern. Hands can't be properly said to be full of wrath or doubt. So holiness is the primary concern. You see here that when we engage in the worship of God, we are to come as a people that are holy. In last evening's Sabbath exercises, we read from the book of Joshua, chapter 7, and Joshua is told he is getting ready to gather all of Israel before the Lord God. And the Lord God is going to expose the sin in their midst. And what's the first thing that God tells them to do? Go to the people and tell them to sanctify themselves and prepare themselves to meet with their God. And that is to repent of their sins and turn their thoughts to their God. When we come to meet with our God, if we are going to participate in the priestly services of prayer and praise, we must do it with holiness if it is to be accepted on high. But this does raise a question. What do we do when we soil ourselves and our priestly garments? And it's at this point that we can be so very glad that our priesthood is not primary but rather secondary derivative and subordinate, because we are able in our filthiness to go to the great high priest who is able to wash us and to cleanse us from our sins. Turn with me to Psalm 51 verses 16 and 17. When the believing priest has befouled himself with his sins, David points the way and he tells us what we are to do. Psalm 51 verse 16. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. What a comfort and an encouragement David gives to us when we have soiled our priestly garments. It is a frightening thing, and we have some hesitation to make our appearance before the holy one of Israel. But to him we must go. because there is no one else who is able to help. And so we go to Him with this assurance that when we go in our sinfulness and yet with a broken and contrite heart seeking the remedy for sin, God will neither despise nor reject us, but He will receive us, cleanse us from our sins in the blood of His Son, and cover us once again with that perfect robe of righteousness, even the righteousness of the great high priest. So let us ever live in a manner that is consistent with our standing as priests of the living God. Second, if we are going to carry ourselves in a manner that is consistent with our priestly office, we must be diligent and proclaiming God's glory in the earth. We have seen that in John, Revelation chapter 1, and the entire church in Revelation chapter 5. Let it also be true in each one of us that we are diligent in rendering unto God the calves and the fruit of our lips. Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 2. and priests of the living God, if you would know how you should then live. This text is full of instruction. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so, be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an 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, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. This is the very same image that we have in Revelation chapters 1 and 5. We find the redeemed priesthood, that kingdom of priests showing forth the praises of him who had called them out of darkness into a marvelous light. And notice this same Old Testament imagery. We have become a living temple resounding with the praises of God. We are characterized as a priesthood proclaiming the praises of God. And the purpose of this great priesthood is not physical sacrifices, but spiritual sacrifices. The showing forth of this praise, verse nine. In this, not only the priestly, but the prophetic office is also brought into view. Our mouths must be open. with the word of God, both within the church and without the church, inside and outside, everywhere we go, speaking and living like Christians and telling men and women and children about the great God who has called us out of darkness unto his marvelous light. This is nothing less than the fulfillment of the great end for which we were made and redeemed which is the glorifying of God. Revelation is so very useful in this regard. In chapter 4, we saw God greatly glorified as Creator. In chapter 5, we see Him greatly glorified as Redeemer. And so let us go everywhere proclaiming the glory of God and in every conversation speak as Christians. Let us pray together.