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  A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
  by Duane Troyer
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Summary: This sermon delves into the concept of being a royal
priesthood, drawing parallels from the Old Testament priests and the
responsibilities they carried. It emphasizes the need to understand who
we are meant to be, to fulfill God's intended purpose for us, and to
strive to be like Jesus in all aspects of our lives.

Topics: "Identity in Christ", "Living as a Royal Priesthood"
Scripture References: 1 Peter 2:9, Matthew 5:9, James 5:16, Matthew 6:10

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the concept of being a royal priesthood, drawing
parallels from the Old Testament priests and the responsibilities they
carried. It emphasizes the need to understand who we are meant to be, to
fulfill God's intended purpose for us, and to strive to be like Jesus in
all aspects of our lives.

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CONTENT
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I greet everybody in Jesus' name. I really appreciate this verse 3 of
the song we just sang. Redeemer, Savior, Friend of man, once ruined by
the fall, Thou hast devised salvation's plan, for Thou hast died for
all.

And blessed be the name. Let's stand for a word of prayer. Father in
heaven, we thank you for all your goodness and all your kindness and all
your mercies to us.

We recognize you as our Father in heaven and that your name is holy. We
pray that your kingdom would come and your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into
temptation. Deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever.

Amen. Amen. I suppose you all know what it's like to have a bit of a
stirring inside you, like a good kind of a stirring, the kind that has
you excited to share some good exciting bit of news.

That's a little how I feel this morning. When Moses was born, he was hid
for three months because the Egyptians were out to kill all male
children. And so they kept him hid.

They wanted to keep him. And after three months, they were afraid they
couldn't hide him any longer. So they made this little basket and they
laid him in there.

And the mama, if we have her name, it's not coming to me right now, but
her mama or his mama laid him out in the calm waters of the Nile, back
by the bulrushes. And she had his sister Miriam watch over it. And
Pharaoh's daughter comes down there to wash herself.

And she sees this little basket and she tells her maid servants to go
get it. And she opens it up and here's a little child. And she takes
pity on him.

And immediately Miriam comes up, runs to her and says, should I go get
somebody to nurse this child for you? And she says, yes, let's do that.
And then once this child doesn't need to be nursed anymore, bring him to
me. It's my child.

That's how Moses's life begins. And so that's what happened. And I don't
know the age that Moses was weaned, two, three, I don't know.

And then he grew up as Pharaoh's daughter. I doubt that he remembered
much of his life at home. But it says, the scriptures say that he grew
up as Pharaoh's daughter.

When Stephen recounts this, when he's giving this story of the Old
Testament before the council, he says Pharaoh's daughter nurtured him as
her own son. He says he was educated in all the learnings of the
Egyptians. And he was a man of power, both in word and deed.

And so we don't know much about Moses's life between his birth and when
he was 40 years old. But that he was raised in Egypt in that time. At
some point in his life, whether it was gradually, whether it was
suddenly, but at some point in his life, he came to the realization,
this is not where I belong.

I was not born for this. I was not born an Egyptian. I belong to those
Hebrews.

I'm out of my place. This is not what the Creator made me for. And so as
the Hebrew writer says, by faith, when he had grown up, he refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for
a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the
treasure in Egypt.

It can have a powerful effect on us when we come to realize who we're
supposed to be, what we were created for, and what the expectation is
for us. Sometimes when we get away from just zooming in on, okay, here's
the things we ought to be doing, and we look at the big picture of who
we're supposed to be, it has a powerful effect on us. I well remember
back when I was in my 20s, and I was reading through Peter Hoover's The
Secret of the Strength, and in some fresh way, in some new way that I
hadn't realized before in my life, I realized the message of Jesus is
simply, follow me.

He is asking us to just follow him, to be like him, to walk the way he
walked, to do the things that he would do. And it had a powerful effect
on me, more than just realizing, okay, here we have a Bible, and it says
things that God does, it says things that we should do. We're supposed
to be like Jesus.

And especially the freshness and the newness of it had an effect on me.
I could tell it enabled me. It enabled me to resist sin in a new way.

I remember particularly one time when all this was real fresh on my
mind, and I went to this grocery store. And in this particular grocery
store, when you got done at the cashier, you had to make a left and turn
along this wall to go out the door. And all along that wall was this
huge rack of magazines.

Probably none of them had anything good in them. Half of them were
probably not fit to see. But I just remember when I got done with my
groceries and I walked out there, I was not even tempted to look at the
magazine rack.

It was like Jesus would have no interest here, and I was being like
Jesus. And it really helped me not even be tempted, because I realized
who I was made to be, who we are supposed to be. And it wasn't just like
a, don't do this.

But I was trying to be like somebody. It does. This realization of who
we're supposed to be can have a gripping effect on us and convict us of
evil and to help us say no to sin and to pursue what's right.

And I want to talk today about a thing that we're supposed to be,
something that the scripture says that we are supposed to be, and that
is a royal priesthood. We are supposed to be a royal priesthood. Let me
just read this verse here in 1 Peter, in the second chapter, in verse 9,
where he says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into his
marvelous light.

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

We're supposed to proclaim that. I think the King James says to show
forth his praises. We're supposed to be the publishers of the goodness
of Christ.

That's what we're called for. By definition, that's what a priest is. He
is one especially consecrated to the service of divinity and through
whom worship, prayer, sacrifice, and other service is offered to the
object of worship and pardon, blessing, or deliverance is obtained by
the worshiper.

That's one definition I found of priest. A priest is required to act as
a mediator. He is the one who represents God to the people and in return
represents the people to God.

The priest, he is a figure, he is an image that God appoints on his
behalf to represent himself to the rest of humanity. And the priest in
return is to beseech God on behalf of the people to bring God the
prayers, the offerings, the praise, and so forth. He is like the gateway
between humanity and God.

God wants a chosen generation. He wants a royal priesthood so that his
presence would flow out over all the earth. And that's quite a position.

And don't forget that it says a royal priesthood. That's royalty. That's
kingly in nature.

We are with the ranks of a king. Who was the first priest? Anybody want
to take a... Before Melchizedek, at least, not before him because he was
maybe without beginning and end, but we read about him before
Melchizedek. He doesn't get called a priest, but he is a priest.

It's Adam. He was the first priest. He was the first representative of
God.

He was made for this purpose that a priest has. He was made in the image
of God. Adam and Eve are God's priests to take care of creation.

As the image of God, they represent God to creation. And as the jewel of
his creation, they represent creation before God. Adam means human and
Eve means life.

Adam and Eve are the human life that God created. And the whole purpose
of creating human life was to be his royal priesthood or his royal
representatives to represent him here to creation. He put Adam and Eve
in a holy place and he called the place Eden.

Now, Eden, and this is something I just came across recently, or
realized recently, Eden was not the garden. Eden was the region. Eden
was the region and then within the region of Eden, he planted a garden.

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

There's also the account in Ezekiel where the prophet is describing Eden
and he calls it the holy mountain of God. Adam and Eve were instructed
to work and keep the garden. They were supposed to rule creation on
God's behalf, to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill it.

And here in this holy place was the presence of God. There was constant
communication between God and Adam and there was abundant blessings.
There was bounty and there was perfect peace and love here.

The perfection of blessing, joy, peace and love was right here in the
garden. We know the story. Adam and Eve were not satisfied with being
the image of God and they took a jab at being God and they fell into
sin.

They were expelled from the garden and they were driven out toward the
east, out of the garden. And he placed cherubims at the east entrance of
the garden to guard the way to the tree of life. Cherubims are angelic
beings of some sorts.

So this garden, this paradise that had been holy, that had been a holy
mountain, where God's presence was, this is what it was and man was no
longer holy and he could not be there. Humanity had lost its position
that God had created it to be. The very thing that God had created them
to be and wanted them to be, they lost it.

They could no longer be it. As I understand it, to start with, Adam and
Eve were not driven completely out of Eden. They were driven out of the
garden.

And it wasn't until Cain and Abel offered a sacrifice and Cain rose up
and slew Abel that they were just further driven out and out of Eden
altogether. Adam and Eve, or in other words human life, lost its access
to not only the tree of life but to the garden and to all of Eden. This
paradise, this ultimate state of being in delight and peace and love, it
was lost.

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

This is what he says in chapter 19 in verse 3. He says, Then Moses went
up the mountain of God, and God called to him from the mountain, saying,
Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of
Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you out
on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will
indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be a special people
to me above all nations, for all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a
royal priesthood and a holy nation.

These are the words you shall speak to the children of Israel. This was
before the golden calf event. And God was wanting to take Israel and
have them be his representatives to the whole world.

But then this golden calf thing happened, and they started worshiping a
calf, saying, This is the one who brought us out of the land of Egypt.
And God was furious, and Moses was furious, and Moses came down from the
mountain, and he said to the congregation, Whoever is on the Lord's
side, come over here. And the Levites came over.

And Moses told the Levites, Get your swords. Go out and kill your
neighbors and your companions. And they went out, and they just did a
slaughter and killed 3,000 men.

There was something, I think there was a special zeal that the Levites
had, especially a zeal for holiness, a zeal for worship, and to not be
idolaters. And so God said, I'll make a priesthood out of the Levites.
God gave Moses instructions in great detail about the priesthood and
their duties, and the tabernacle and where they were supposed to do it.

The tabernacle was a very important place. It was a holy place. It was a
sacred tent that the Israelites carried with them as they journeyed
through the wilderness.

It was the place where the presence of God dwelled. And so it was
typically set up in the center of the garden. There were particular ways
it was supposed to be set up.

Well, first of all, it was designed after a certain way, and I think it
was designed after the Garden of Eden. It had an outer court, and inside
that it had a tent that had an entry room. And inside the tent there was
a curtain, and behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies.

And on the curtains there was figures of cherubims symbolically guarding
the way into this Holy of Holies. And they were always supposed to set
it up with the entrance toward the east. Whenever it was possible, it
was supposed to be set up on, or it was set up on high places, on
mountains.

Only the priests and the Levites were allowed to enter the outer court.
Only the priests were allowed to enter the entry room, and only the high
priest, once a year, was allowed to go behind the curtain into the Holy
of Holies. It was a very, very holy place.

The work of the priests, God said, is to work and keep the sanctuary of
the tabernacle. That is just about exact, if not exact, wording that was
given to Adam and Eve, to work and keep the garden. They were to work
and keep this tabernacle.

They served, the priests and Levites served as mediators between God and
the people. They took the people's sacrifices and offered them up to
God. They interceded on behalf of the people before God.

They would inquire God for the nation. They were the guards of the
tabernacle. They were to seek the law.

They were to be the messengers of the God of hosts. They were the
teachers, they were the scribes, the judges, the musicians, the singers,
and the doorkeepers. They were to be the regulators.

They were responsible to make sure that the weights and measures were
accurate, that people used. They were very active in representing God to
the people, and the people to God. They were to be so dedicated to this
work that they did not receive an inheritance of land.

When all the other eleven tribes received an inheritance of land to till
it and to work it and to raise things, the Levites did not receive that.
They were supposed to be so totally dedicated to the work of God. I
think in the book of Joshua it says, for the Lord himself is their
inheritance.

They lived by a somewhat different standard. They had to undergo a
purification. They could not marry a divorced woman or a prostitute.

They had to be without blemish. I want to read to you in Leviticus,
chapter 21, verses 16-24. It says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Speak to Aaron, saying, No man of your descendants in succeeding
generations who has any defect may approach to offer the gifts of his
God.

For any man who has a defect shall not approach. A man, lame or blind,
who has a slit nose or ear, a man who has a broken hand or foot, or is
hunchbacked, or has a defect in his eye, or an inflammation with respect
to his eye, or a man with a severe itch or a single testicle, no man of
the seed of Aaron, the priest who has a defect, shall come near to offer
the sacrifice of your God. He has a defect.

He shall not come near to offer the gifts of your God. The gifts of his
God are most holy, and he may eat only the holy things. But he shall not
go near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest he
defile the holy place of his God.

For I, the Lord, sanctified them. Thus Moses told this to Aaron and his
sons and to all the children of Israel. Remember, the priests were the
representation of God.

They were the image of God to the people. That's why they were not, I
think if you read it in the Masoretic text, a dwarf is included in
there. There was not supposed to be this obvious blemish in someone who
works in the tabernacle.

Or who enters it, for that matter. So that's a little description of the
tabernacle. Now later, David got this idea after the children of Israel
had settled in the land of Canaan.

They might have moved the tabernacle a few times, but it had kind of
come to settle somewhere on some mountain there. But David got this
idea, why should the Lord dwell in a tent? And I dwell in a house of
cedar. And he had this idea of building a house, a temple for the Lord.

Solomon ended up building that. But I found some of this, just this
information interesting. I just think, I sometimes think we just
scratched the surface on the richness of the types and the way God did
things, where he did them, how and when these things all were.

So when David was king and he captured the Jebusites, he made their city
the capital. And he expanded it. And he purchased the threshing floor.

And this is, you're probably familiar with that story. But David had
sinned. Toward the end of David's life, David had sinned.

He had taken a census of the people and taken a count to see how
powerful he is. I think that's the mind behind it. It's like, look at my
achievements.

And he took a count and it really came back to him. In fact, I think
it's a similar sin that Adam did in not being satisfied with the
blessings of being in God's will and wanted to elevate himself
concerning his achievements. And the result was widespread death.

After David committed that sin, there came a plague and people started
dying. Unlike Adam, who shifted the blame, David took it upon himself.
When he saw that angel with a drawn out sword there at the threshing
floor of Orna, this is what he said.

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

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

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

And Orna gave all these things to the king. And Orna said to the king,
May the Lord your God bless you. Then the king said to Orna, No, but I
will surely buy it from you for a price.

I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with something that
costs me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for
50 shekels of silver. And David built an altar there to the Lord and
offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

And Solomon later made a larger offering upon the altar for a small one
was made first. So the Lord heeded the prayers of the land and the
plague was withdrawn from Israel. I find it interesting.

And I think we can learn from this where David says, I will not offer
burnt offerings. This Orna was saying, Oh, you want the threshing floor?
Take it. Not only that, I've got oxen here working here.

Use these. And I got threshing implements. Use these for the kindling,
for the fire.

And David is like, No, I won't offer a sacrifice to the Lord that costs
me nothing. Anyway, I find it real interesting. It is on this mountain.

This place where this happened was up from, okay, so there was the city
of the Jebusites, which was already up on a high land. But on up from
there toward the top of, I think it was Mount Moriah, is where the
threshing floor was. And this is the piece of ground that he purchased.

And there is where he built his altar to cease the plague. It is the
same spot, they say, that Abraham had offered up Isaac many, many years
before. And it is the same spot that Solomon ended up building the
temple.

There just seems to be this, I think typology can sometimes be taken too
far, but there seems to be this type of some of these particular places
are on mountaintops, on a high place, oftentimes with a tree. Not
always, but I think it is a type of where literally heaven and earth
meet. It is where the earth and the heavens meet, which is, again, which
is what was supposed to be happening at Eden.

It is what is supposed to be happening at the tabernacle. And now this
temple is being built on this high mountain. And the temple follows this
same pattern of the tabernacle, which followed the pattern of Eden.

I think the temple is just yet a bigger prototype of something. It is a
bigger prototype of something that we will get to yet. There was the
outer court.

There was the temple inside. It was facing east. Within the temple was
an enormous curtain.

And it had cherubims on it guarding the inside of the place called the
Holy of Holies. They say this temple or this curtain was as thick as a
man's arm. It was a huge, thick curtain of some kind guarding the way to
the Holy of Holies.

The temple was to be a holy, consecrated place of worship. And here
comes Jesus, the true high priest, the perfect representation of God on
earth. Faultless, without blemish.

The perfect union of God and man. The perfect coming together of God and
man is found in Jesus. And he did something early in his ministry that
was a really radical thing.

If you would, or if you want to, I'll read the account in John chapter
2. Starting in verse 13. It says, The Passover of the Jews was near. And
Jesus went up to Jerusalem and he found in the temple those who were
selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers seated at the
tables.

And he made a scourge of cords and he drove them all out of the temple
with the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money
changers and overturned the tables. And those who were selling the
doves, he said, Take these things away.

Stop making my Father's house a place of business. And his disciples
remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me. And
the Jews then said to him, What sign do you show us as your authority
for doing these things? And Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple and
in three days I will raise it up.

And the Jews then said, It took 46 years to build this temple and you
will raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his
body. So when he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that
he had said this. And they believed the scripture and the word which
Jesus had spoken.

Now it seems like, as best as I can tell, it seems like this happening,
this thing of him cleansing out the temple might have happened twice.
John records it as if it's something that happened very early in his
ministry. Very, very soon after he performed his first miracle at
Canaan.

But if you read the other gospels, they all kind of place it toward the
end. And I assume maybe it happened twice. But I want to get something
out of Matthew's account where Matthew says it.

Jesus said, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer.
But you are making it a robber's den. That was after he had drove them
out.

He said that. And then it says, And the blind and the lame came to him
in the temple, and he healed them. And when the chief priests and
scribes saw the wonderful things that he'd done and the children who
were shouting in the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David, they became
indignant and said to him, Do you hear what these children are saying?
And Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read out of the mouth of
infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praises for yourself.

I think this is just another example of a shadow or a prototype in the
old covenant that was pointing, and even the laws pertaining it, that
was pointing towards a real thing. And when the real thing came, they
missed it. They totally missed it.

There was meaning behind these things that were said in the old covenant
when it says, Don't let those come to the temple who are blind and lame.
There's meaning behind that. I think he's talking about spiritual
blindness and lameness or the ones who are hunchbacked, who are under
the burden of the world or the dwarfs, the ones who couldn't grow
spiritually.

They're somehow stunned. The guys with a flat nose whose senses are dull
or broken stone are the people who are not fruitful spiritually. These
people should not work in the temple.

There's meaning behind that. But when Jesus comes, what does he find?
What does he find in the temple? He finds it filled with people who are
spiritually unfruitful, who have dull senses, who are hunchbacked, who
are blind, who are crippled, who are doing all these crooked dealings
and cheatings and he's right there in the temple. And once he had these
well-clad and rich merchants cleared out of the way and the last animals
scampered down the steps and the last pigeons winged their way out, who
came? The blind, the lame, the cripples, the poor, the children.

They all came up to the temple and were singing Hosanna! And he healed
them. He restored them. And he made this holy place accessible to them.

Now it's quite understandable why the priests and the Levites who were
supposed to be the guards of this place, it's kind of understandable why
they became pretty livid and how they set out to kill this man who
defied their authority and claimed it for himself. And they succeeded in
their evil plot and they crucified Jesus, the perfect representative of
God, on a hilltop, on a tree. But if we can receive it, if we can see
it, Jesus gave his life.

They didn't take it, he gave it. His cleansing the temple and inviting
the poor and the needy into the entry room wasn't enough. It wasn't a
satisfactory reconciliation for God.

And so something else happened. When he died, that thick curtain, that
thick curtain that had the thickness of a man's arm, try to take a piece
of fabric sometime and just try to rip it. Some fabric is pretty easy to
tear if it's thin, but if you can even imagine a piece of fabric the
thickness of your arm, I suppose we could hang two skid-steers on it and
not tear it.

But that curtain just rent. When he died, that curtain rent from top to
bottom and opened up to the Holy of Holies. It is accessible.

As the Hebrew writer says, Jesus enters as a forerunner into the Holy of
Holies. This paradise, this Eden, it can be restored even though it was
lost. That thief on the cross who took the blame for his own sin and was
promised paradise, that's what it means.

This state of perfect peace and love, we can have it. It can be
restored. What shall we say? How shall we conduct ourselves? How shall
we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? I think figuratively
speaking, Jesus is inside this Holy of Holies and we are called to be
his royal priesthood.

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

We're to be the rulers of it. We're supposed to fill the earth with
perfect love and peace. We're to be the messengers, the teachers, the
scribes, the singers, and the doorkeepers.

This is what we were made for originally from the beginning. The
priesthood of royalty, of the king of kings. You know why James calls
loving your neighbor as yourself the royal law? Because it pertains to
royalty.

It pertains to, it's a kingly thing. It's something that pertains to the
king of all the universe. The prophet Isaiah said, you shall be a royal
diadem in the hands of your God.

Let me take this one step further yet. The scriptures say we are the
temple. We are meant to be a holy place for God to dwell in.

And I hope I'm not stretching this allegory too far when I say that I
think that these three parts, this reading of Egypt and in it the garden
and in it the tree of life, this tabernacle and temple who have the
outer court and then the entry room and then within that the holy of
holies. I think perhaps the real thing is our body, soul and spirit. The
outer court, the entry room and the holy of holies.

The true peace of love in God is supposed to fill our body, soul and
spirit. And when the presence of God fills every fiber of our being, it
is paradise restored. It's Eden.

It's the state of perfect joy and happiness and love and peace. It's
supposed to go out and multiply and fill the earth. It's what we were
created to be from the beginning.

My hope and the reason for what I said about Moses there in the
beginning and that experience that I had is I hope that the realization
of not just these things that we should do but the realization of who we
are meant to be, who we are supposed to be can have the impact on us
that it ought to have. Let's take the utmost care that we don't defile
this temple. It's a holy place chosen by a king and possessed by a king.

Let's not grieve the Holy Spirit. Let's not be blind to the things of
God. Let's not be broken footed and walk the wrong way.

Let's not be broken handed and do the wrong deeds or hunchbacked under
the cares of this world or slit-nosed or slit-eared and be dull to our
spiritual senses or have an itching and always restless or unfertile and
bear no fruit. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul says, We urge you, brethren,
admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be
patient with everyone, see that no one repays another with evil for
evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for
all people, rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give
thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench
the Spirit.

Do not despise prophetic utterances, but examine everything carefully,
hold fast to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil. This
all starts sounding like priestly work, right? And then this is what he
ends up saying in verse 23, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify
you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete
without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who
calls you and He also will bring it to pass.

God has done His part in undoing this expelling from the tree of life.
The grace of God has made it accessible to all men. And as it says in
the last book, in the last chapter of the Bible, John saw this city
coming down out of heaven, down to the earth.

There was no temple in it, for God was the temple. God and the Lamb were
the temple. There was no darkness, for God was the light.

Nothing unclean will ever enter it. And He saw the river and the tree of
life for the healing of the nations. May the Lord be magnified.

Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we ask you to help us to let this
sink into our hearts and minds what you really created us to be and how
far we have fallen from that. But we thank you for the ability to be
restored and to have all our lameness and blindness and broken joints
and sores healed and restored.

We pray, Lord, that we can faithfully represent you here on earth. In
Jesus' name, amen. That clay was like the color red.

Yeah, blood. Yeah, earth. He was made from the earth.

But I mean, human blood. I like blood, though. Blood and life.

The life is in the blood. Another thing I thought was really edifying,
you brought it all full circle there, but when you were talking about
how these temples, and where are the temples? These temples are on the
hill where the heavens meet the earth. And then Jesus was the perfect
priest who was God the Father in heaven, in earth the man.

That was really edifying. I didn't have a whole lot to share, just that
I'm just thankful that you put that together. You started out by saying
you're stirred to share this message, and I just feel stirred because
this message is in me.

I felt really provoked and just I want to go out and do something. I
just want to use this. I feel like there is a power in just knowing why
we were created, and it's a blessing to know that.

So God bless you. Yeah, Brother Taylor, I appreciate you sharing that
because I was thinking the same. It's like when you look at the words
that spin off the same root from Adam, Adam, you've got ground, dirt,
you've got the color red, and then of course the idea of man.

And then with Eve, in Hebrew, Haba, I don't know how they get the word
Eve, King James Translates, I somehow got that from that, but it's a
Sephardic pronunciation of that, the modern Hebrew pronunciation, but
you know, life. So when you put the two together, because the two are no
longer two, but they're one, right? And just like Taylor said, oh, I
lost it. But like Taylor said, we've got life in the blood.

So you've got Eve, Haba, that means life, and then you've got, spinning
out of that root, Adamah, blood, or Adam, the color, Edom, actually, I
think is the way they would say it. And so you've got life in the blood,
you've got that idea, like Taylor said, with the two together. And I
just find that interesting.

I don't know what kind of allegory would come out of that, you know,
prophetic sort of thing, illustrated in the message, but I just think
that's interesting. Another thing I was thinking, Dwayne, I really
appreciate this message. Thank you.

Like brother Taylor said, very edifying. Is, yeah, so the Beatitudes,
one of them particularly, blessed are the peacemakers, or blessed are
the peace-doers. Like that's the idea of a priestly duty, of bringing
peace between God and man.

So one idea just occurred to me, was, you know, I think it's Matthew 18,
where it's if there's some, if there's something between you and your
brother, to go to your brother, and it seems like that function, that
act, is a priestly sort of thing, by bringing peace. Because if the
brother was struggling with you, and you go to him, obviously that's
affecting his relationship with God. And now you by acting humbly, and
helping resolution between you, is going to help him with God, or her
with God as well.

And so that seems like a priestly duty. So there's so many of these
things, that we never really think of it this way, I don't think, at
least I don't typically, that are little spin-offs of this idea of us
being a royal priesthood. And I guess one other thing I would mention
too is, I was looking at the Greek when we were reading this passage in
1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10.

Most translations will say that for us to proclaim the excellencies.
Well that word typically, I appreciate it better this way. It's the way
I typically think of it.

Arete usually means virtue. So we're to proclaim His virtues. And that's
more special to me, seeing it that way.

I guess you could see it as excellencies, but that just helps me. So I
just thought I would share that. Amen.

Brother Dwayne, there's so many typologies that you brought in, and I
wonder how many we miss. You catch the ones in the mountains, and other
ones. How many go over our head and we'll never really hear? And I
appreciate it.

Brother Tao said, he stirred up the Gospel, stirring it up. And I heard
someone say that a million years from now, or a billion, or a trillion
years from now, all the opportunities we missed. We should have done
things.

So we still have life in our blood, and we can redeem in time. All the
opportunities. We can say, if we make it up there, we say, you know, we
could have done this, we could have done that, we could have given more,
we could have reached out more.

So many things. So let's encourage one another, exhort one another, to
keep the, you know, to reach out, and to give ourselves to the Gospel's
sake. And one last thought would be, as you started out, Brother Duane,
you said that, it's good news, I'm stirring up good news.

Well, I guess that Micah and Tao went preaching last night, and I guess
the other night, some of Daniel, others Friday night, but it's good
news. Gospel means good news. It's good news to a small remnant of
people, but to the world, it's bad news.

It's bad news. It's the aroma of death to death. To most people, it's
bad news.

And let's encourage them, let's love them. Let's love them. I know my
wife, I didn't plan on saying this, but one of her brothers was divorced
and remarried, and Sarah sent a letter to the wife, and then to someone
else, the daughter, and she got two nasty letters back, saying how
hateful you are, and how mean you are.

I know my father is in heaven, and I know my husband's in heaven, and
all she did was just saying that you're not living, you're married,
you're living in adultery, and saying that. And so, no matter who it is,
let's remember that it's bad news to so many people, and it's good news
for us. And thank you, Dwayne, for the message.

The Lord be magnified. Yes, I would agree with the brother, and it was a
very thought-provoking message, thinking of the places those priests
have stood, the responsibilities they had, the judgments for their
seemingly pretty slight mistakes. If we look back on Moses, one of the
greatest, one of the most humble priests, for a small mistake, he didn't
make it across.

He didn't cross into Canaan. So, I believe that's the reason a lot of us
shrink from the thought that people shrink from this type of message
because it places huge responsibilities where they belong. And so, I
would just pray for courage to be what we're called to be, each one of
us.

Faithful in that. Believing that husbands and fathers are responsible in
their homes. They have a huge impact.

Their prayers. As Dwayne mentioned, how the priests represent the people
to God and God to the people. So is a man in his home.

And so the Lord, just help us each to be faithful where we are. Whatever
our position is, whether a leader in the home, whether an employee on a
job, whether a boss with responsibilities to do, the Lord, just help us
be faithful in those and take responsibility where we're to take
responsibility. So many times if the priest in the situation won't step
up and be faithful, it just really makes it hard for those who are
dependent on them.

If the husband isn't willing to step up and be who he is to be, it
leaves the responsibility for that to the wife who's the weaker vessel.
We're leaving the outcome of a lot of things to the weaker vessel. If an
employer isn't willing to step up and be who he's supposed to be, it
falls on his employees to make up the difference.

And they can. Many do. But it's much harder than when we follow God's
order.

And the blessing can flow as it's meant to. Yeah, thank you for all
that's shared and the reading that Rob had. And yeah, may God's
blessings be upon it.

It's been encouraging to bring it out to be like what we were meant to
be and what God intended for us. I think maybe it's safe to say that
just like Adam and Eve were intended to be doing God's will, that is
God's intent for each one of us to do His will. He started perfect and
we started imperfect.

But Christ did make it that way and I really appreciate that message.
May we be what God intended us to be. I really like personal testimonies
and I was actually just reminded of one.

This might seem a little strange, but I'd like to share it because over
the years I wondered if it was God trying to encourage me. But when I
was younger, I used to have really long hair. As soon as I found out in
the Bible that it was wrong, I cut it off.

There was a time I didn't know. But I was purposed to do something
really bad. I wasn't a Christian yet.

I was purposed to do something really bad and I looked in the mirror
because I had a beard and long hair and I kind of looked like that
famous picture of Jesus in some ways. I just felt like God was saying to
me, you could be like me. You don't have to be this wretched sinner.

You could actually be like me. That's what I got out of it. I was really
feeling like God was saying, you could put away the works of your flesh
and all the things that you're entangled with and you can follow me.

You could be like me. That's what Dwayne's message was about. That
really is the truth.

We really can be like Jesus. It's such a great hope. One other short
testimony, I don't remember where I was or what I was doing, but
somebody yelled.

It was when I was traveling around. They yelled out from somewhere. They
said, you Jesus wannabe.

And I just thought I wasn't offended at all. I was just like hallelujah.
Yeah, that's right.

That's what I want to be. I want to be just like Jesus. Anyways, I just
wanted to share this.

Thank you. It was a real blessing to hear the Holy Scriptures which can
make us wise unto salvation. And if that's not the Old Testament brought
alive, then I don't know what is.

I just thank the Lord for His work and me being able to be here this
morning and marvel at, like many of you brothers, how I could even stand
here versus just being who I thought I was meant to be was just an
American sinner. But anyway, I just praise God for His mercies and just
thinking about last night being in Sodom and downtown Springfield at the
gates of Sodom and just seeing the revelry, just the darkness. It was
just vexing as usual.

But I haven't been there in a long time, like eight months or something.
It was just so extra vexing. And just thinking about this morning how we
can revel in God and His work and Jesus and how the Son is risen and
He's brought healing in His wings.

We can wake up in the morning and rejoice in that versus they're waking
up this morning feeling terrible, hungover, having been shamed by their
debauch or sex during the evening, during the night. I just want to
press into healing because I am not there. I am not whole.

The virtues is what God wants. That was all a shadow. The physical, as
was brought out, I'm not.

As Brother Duane taught us, that was all a shadow of being virtuous,
being noble, being royal. I'm not there yet. I want to be healed.

But I'm very grateful that in James, at the end of James, Brother Brett
brought this out a couple months ago and I'm still reveling in that, how
it just talks about how the prayers of the righteous, and if anyone has
sinned and they can confess their faults, and it talks about how if
anyone's sick among you, and I forget what Brett said, if it's not
necessarily sick, weak. Yeah, it's translated sick, but it could be
translated weak. If anyone's weak among you, just let the elders know.

If you've sinned, you'll be forgiven. And I'm just really blessed that
that passage could be talking, I think it's probably maybe talking about
both, but whatever the case, I just was blessed to think that that is
the church. It's healing.

It's not worried about whether or not you have a physical illness. It's
worried about whether or not you have a spiritual illness. And in the
New Testament, we can all be whole.

And that is amazing. Thank you for the comments and stuff. I just wanted
to give maybe a little bit of a defense on my using of the word human
for what Adam means.

And I'm not a Hebrew scholar, so the information I have could be wrong,
but I think maybe to connect the dots, we should also define what human
means, which I understand the word hue means dirt or clay. It's where
the word humus comes from. And then I think somewhere there in the
meaning of the word Adam is somewhere there's man, and I'm not denying
that there's blood there.

In fact, I saw the word ruddy, which is red. So anyway, I'm just, I
think in the past even, I've been impressed with the idea that if the
word Adam means human, the word human means a dirt man. We are made of
humus.

We are made of dirt. It's humbling. It's good to think about.

But again, that does not come from someone who's, or coming from me, I
am not a Hebrew scholar at all. Yeah, just on the heels of that, Duane,
you prayed the Lord's Prayer when we started, and you said, Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done in earth. Well, you said on earth, but I think it
could also be in earth as it is in heaven.

I just always, somebody taught me sometime back there to not think of
that as like on planet earth as it is up in heaven, but rather in earth,
like this earth, this earth, in earth, or collectively we're earth here,
a bunch of living clay in this earth as it is in heaven. of the Lord of
the Lord His name above all names shall stand Exalted more and more
Heav'n from the Father's own right hand When angels close the door of
the Lord Blessed be the name Blessed be the name Blessed be the name of
the Lord. Redeemer, Savior, Friend of man, Once true and bright above
all, Thou who hast defied salvation's plan, For Thou hast died for all.

Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of the
Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of
the Lord. His name shall be the Counselor Of the mighty Prince of Peace.

Of all earth's kingdoms conferred, His reign shall never cease. Blessed
be the name, blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of the
Lord.

The ransomed host to Thee shall bring Their great and polish'd wheat.
With raptures all adore their King, And worship at His feet. Blessed be
the name, blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the
Lord. Then shall we know that we are known, and in that world of love,
forever to come out the throne of everlasting love. Blessed be the name,
blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/JsObkl3ZENw.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/duane-troyer/a-royal-priesthood/
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