In this sermon, the priest emphasizes the importance of being rightly related to God and being identified as His people. He refers to the story of Moses pleading with God to not abandon the Israelites and to continue His presence with them. Moses emphasizes that the people's significance comes from being chosen by God. The priest also mentions the filling of the hands of the priest with bread as a symbol of their role as mediators. The sermon then shifts to the book of Titus, where Paul describes salvation as being saved by God's mercy through the laver of regeneration.

I was talking about priesthood, and whenever you talk about priesthood, you need simply because I don't know everyone who is here, to be sure that we know what we're talking about, that we're using the same words in the same way. And I'm not talking about Roman Catholic priesthood, or Anglican priesthood, or Greek Orthodox priesthood. Those really, and I don't mean this in an unkind way, those are really just outward imitations of people who are trying to copy something, because they believe that is the way that certain things can be effected. There are some words in the book of Numbers, if I could turn to the book of Numbers with me, this is chapter 6, and there are some people with some kind of background, and if I were to say to them, let us say the blessing, almost automatically they would lock into a certain pattern of words in their minds, and they would be the words that you find at the end of chapter 6 of Numbers. But I want to tell you that you cannot communicate this blessing, you cannot make this blessing a reality just by saying the right words. You have to be the right kind of person, and that's one of the things I want to talk about a little bit tonight. But this is Numbers chapter 6, you'll know these words well, but I wonder whether you've ever looked at them, really to kind of think through the significance of what we're being told here. This is chapter 6, verse 22, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to Aaron and his sons. Now this blessing that God is going to give to them is uniquely given to Aaron and his sons. It isn't a blessing that anyone can just simply turn to this passage of the Scripture and say, well I'll do that, I'll say these words. These words aren't magic, this isn't a magic spell that if you say the right words you get the right results. These words only work, if that's the right thing to say, because these men who were going to use the words were people who had been uniquely commissioned by God, uniquely brought into a unique relationship with Him that set them apart for a particular work and a particular function. I often think when we're looking at the Scriptures, it's really so important that we ask these kind of questions, who is this talking about? What was the context? Can I take these words to myself? Do I fit this thing? I think I've said something like this before, if I were to invite just one of you to my birthday party, and then the person who receives the invitation drops it, and then someone decides they'll make kind of photocopies of it and distribute it all around Lanark, and you all turn up, I shall say, well what name does it say on this invitation? Because the invitation was given to a specific purpose, and the invitation will only work if it's the right person who's presenting the invitation. Now here this is addressed, not just to anybody, not even to any Israelite, this is addressed to Aaron and his sons. Now you know that Aaron and his sons were the priests. There was one man, the high priest Aaron, and then there were his four sons, and those five men worked together, and they were the heart of a wonderful priestly system that God gave to his people. A priest, like we said last night, is really an in-between man, he's a mediator. He's someone who can link two people together, two parties together, and because he's rightly related to both, he can bring the blessing of the one to the other. Now, if he isn't rightly related, if this connection is broken at either end, these are just words. And this was true for Aaron and his sons. If they weren't rightly related to God, these would just be words. But if they were rightly related to God, just listen to what he goes on to say. Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel, and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And then he says this, And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. This is an amazing statement. This is God saying to his people, I will, to these five men in particular, I will endorse the blessing that you pronounce. If you speak these words as my representative, if you say this thing, I will do the thing that you say. You say it, and I will do it. Isn't that what it's saying? This is an amazing statement. Remember, this is not magic. This is not a spell. This is because these five men were to be in a unique relationship with God. And as a result of that unique relationship, they would be able to speak for God. And what they said, it was as though God was saying it. And what they promised, God would endorse it. It's an amazing promise. I know they're beautiful words. The Lord make his face shine upon them. We were saying last night, we talked a little bit about propitiation. And we talked a little bit about the way in which God has made it possible for us to have eye contact with him. So that we should no longer need to be ashamed and embarrassed because of what we have been. But we should be able to look him in the face. And I've said that, and it's interesting, it goes right to the Book of Leviticus. This little phrase all the time, in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of the Lord. Literally it means before the face of the Lord. It's this whole picture. And these people, these priests, who lived and worked and spent their lives in the presence of the Lord. These people were now able to pronounce this blessing which has to do with the presence of the Lord. Only the people who have been in the presence of the Lord are able to communicate the presence of the Lord. It's not because they've got the right titles or labels. Or because they can produce the right word. It's not because they've got the right doctrine or the right tone of voice. It's because they're rightly related. Look what it says here. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his face upon thee and give thee peace. I've wondered for a long time whether Paul's little greeting that he gives, in fact not just Paul, I think all of the New Testament letter writers, that they give at the beginning of our letters aren't almost a shortened version of this. You remember how Paul always says, and Peter always says, grace and peace to you. These priests said the Lord be gracious to you. The Lord give thee peace. It's this double blessing, this twin blessing that comes from people who are rightly related with God. And it's this amazing thing. They shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. Let me go back a little bit and show you something about Abraham. We're going back to sort of quite basic things, but I'm using Bible pictures that we don't usually use to say these things. Come back with me to the story of Abraham. In Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12 is the beginning of the story of Abraham and the way that God called him and drew him to himself and made a pilgrim of him so that for the rest of his life Abraham was on the move. It's good to be pilgrims and not just settle down to things. It's very, very easy for a monument to settle down and suddenly become a movement to settle down and become a monument. That's the epitaph. God was here. But this is Abraham. He's on the move. He's always on the move. In chapter 12 and verse 7 it says this. It's talking about Abraham actually being at a place called Shechem. And the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto thy seed will I give this land and there he built an altar for the Lord who appeared to him. The Lord. This is the word Jehovah. This is the proper name of God. God revealed himself to Abraham. God appeared to Abraham. This is really important for us to understand that you can only really have faith in the God who has appeared to you. In the God who has revealed himself to you. This is not textualism. This is not believing the right Bible words and being able to produce the right theology. This is people who have had a revelation of God. Now have you had, have I had a revelation of God? I don't even mean can I put all the truth together and produce an evangelical consensus or something. What I'm saying is am I conscious that I know something about God. That I know something about the person of God. The character of God that I know because he has revealed himself to me. Not because other people have told me about him. Not because I've read wonderful things or heard wonderful sermons. It may have been through the reading or through the sermons that God revealed himself to me. But what I'm really saying is have I had, have you had, have we had an encounter with God? Have we had an encounter with God? Have we met him? Has God appeared to us? God appeared to Abraham and he never recovered from it. And if God appears to us, if God reveals himself to us, if we see something true of God, if we see it in our spirit, if God opens the eyes of our spirit, that was always Paul's prayer. Always his prayer. He was praying for revelation. That the saints would have it revealed to them just who God was and what God was doing. Now Abraham had a revelation of God. And this revelation of God was summed up in this name, Jehovah. How can I illustrate that to you? We're going from a tangent to a tangent here tonight. I'm not even started on what I wanted to say. I'm getting farther and farther away from my beginning and I haven't even started yet. Turn with me, we'll come back to Genesis. Turn with me to the Song of Solomon. This is Psalm, Song of Solomon, chapter 1. You know how this begins, it's a wonderful passage of Scripture. The Song of Songs which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. And then it says this. Because of the sweet smell of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth. Now we sing this, but do we understand what we're singing? What is this verse saying? Because of the sweet smell of thy ointments, thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth. I'll tell you what it's saying. What has happened here with this young woman who is singing about the beloved, who we're calling Solomon just to kind of keep it nice and easy. What's happened is that the scent of Solomon has become so identified with the name of Solomon that they're no longer separable. So that when she sees Solomon, when she smells the scent, she knows that it's her beloved. And when she speaks the name of Solomon, it's almost as though it provokes within her the scent. Do you know what I mean by that? Scent is a very powerful, evocative kind of memory arouser. In all kinds of ways, I can remember when I used to go down to Poland fairly frequently, and that's their industrial area. And it is pretty industrialized. And when you're down there, the air is pretty thick with kind of coal smoke and sulfurous fumes that are coming from the various chemical processes that are going around. And when I was there, the brothers were always apologizing to me and saying we're really very sorry that it's like this. We're sorry, but it's just like this. And I said, please don't apologize. This is wonderful. I grew up with this. Because I come from Smoke on Stench, you see, this place that was famous in the 40s for being one of the most polluted parts of the world. And I would walk to school and have this wonderful scent kind of burning in my lungs. It was like a fisherman's friend all the time on the inside. And of course it brought back to me, just every breath I breathed, it brought back to me wonderful kind of pictures and emotions and memories of childhood. And it was wonderful. Well, the name of Solomon evoked in this woman a sweet scent. And the sweet scent evoked the name of Solomon. So you said the name Solomon, and you got the sweet scent. Maybe it shocks you still when someone speaks of Jesus and uses his name as a curse word or something like that. They have no idea who he is. You see, the name Jesus has no sweet smell for them. It has no ointment. They have no experience of it. It's just a name like any other name, and there's no special significance. But how sweet the name of Jesus sounds to the believer, do you? It's not again because there's anything magic about his name. I don't want to stumble you, but you know his name wasn't Jesus. It was Joshua. Now, I'm not saying everyone switch to Joshua. That's not the point. You can't do it, in fact, because Joshua would not have the connotations now in your mind that Jesus would. The name Joshua would not evoke the sweet memories of God's goodness to you in the way that Jesus does. It's an amazing thing. There's an old story told about Padgett Wilkes, you know, the missionary to Japan. And at one point he was living in London, and some Japanese visitors came to see him, and they stepped into his hall, and they said, you've had a member of the Japanese royal family here. And Padgett Wilkes said, well, how do you know? And they said, well, there's a unique ointment that only members of the royal family are allowed to use. And when I stepped into your hall, I smelled them. And they were absolutely right. He had a member of the Japanese royal family there. There are unique scents to the name of Jesus. For the Christian, you just breathe the name, and it's saviour. It's a prayer. Just the word. I hope you don't kind of just use it as a fill-in in the gas, but that whenever you say the word Jesus, you say it thoughtfully, and with your heart open to bring back to your memory all these sweet smells, all these sweet scents that are part of who he is. Now, God revealed himself to Abraham, and gave himself this name of Jehovah, by which Abraham knew him, and later on the people of Israel knew him, in an even greater measure in some way, as a result of that name. The consequence was, that when you said Jehovah, you knew exactly who you were talking about. It had all these memories locked into it. Are you following me with this? You know how places can have memories locked into them? You know, maybe I say the Loch Lomond or something, and that was your honeymoon, and it's not just a place on the map, on the A, whatever it is, it's a whole vista of memories and pictures that flow through your mind. Now, God was beginning to build up a picture of himself, a characterization of himself that was all captured in this word Jehovah. And he revealed himself to Abraham, I've gone back to Genesis chapter 12 now, he revealed himself to Abraham as Jehovah, in verse 7, you know this word Lord, whenever you get it in capital letters, it really means just the word Jehovah. There he built an altar to the Lord who appeared to him. You cannot sacrifice to someone that you haven't met. You can't get people to give themselves to an idea, a concept. It's only the one who has seen him who can ever surrender to him. And here's Moses, he's seen him, he builds his altar, which is a kind of a picture of his own givenness to God, and then it says in verse 8, And he removed from thence to a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east. And there he builded an altar unto the Lord, to Jehovah. This God who has revealed himself, Abraham now built an altar to this God, and then it says this, And he called upon the name of the Lord. And the scripture says that those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Abraham isn't just praying a prayer, he's not going through some ritual, he is reaching out to a God who has revealed himself to Abraham. This process began with God's initiative. God appeared to Abraham, it wasn't Abraham that discovered God, it was God who revealed himself to Abraham. But God having revealed himself to Abraham, now Abraham begins to know who this Jehovah God is. And when he's in this particular circumstance, he calls not just on God, he calls on the God who has appeared to him, the God he's begun to know. Why am I saying all this? Well, sometimes I think we are too quick to get people to a place of decision. I think we try to get people to put their trust in someone they've never met, and someone whom they have no revelation, they have no idea who he is, they've just been told that they do this and this, they won't get to hell, and there's no promise in the book anywhere that such a thing will actually save people. What the book does say is that those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Those who have had the beginning of a revelation as to who God is, and then who are beginning to know who God is, reach out to him at the time of their need. These are the ones who are saved. Not the ones who pray a vague prayer, up into the ether to see where it lands, but those who pray to the God that has revealed himself to them. Now, this whole idea of, go back to Numbers chapter 6, this whole idea of God revealing himself in his name, is key right through the scripture. Maybe you remember when the Lord Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, he said, I've revealed to them your name. And he goes on, he says, now I will reveal it more to them. He is constantly unveiling what God is like to us. And each time we see him in a new aspect, it's never so that we should be better educated. It's never so that we can be better theologians. It's always so that we can call upon him. If you see some aspect of Jesus that you've never seen before, it's because God is encouraging you to call upon the name of the one that you've just seen. So, if you see that he is the one who can save you from all sin, not because the verse says it, but because the truth is revealed to your heart, that's your moment. That's your day of salvation. That's when you call upon the Lord with all of your heart and he'll do it. If you see him as the one who will sustain you, the one who will deliver you, whatever it is, if you see him as that one, call on him. Those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's no promise for those who pray the sinner's prayer, or come to the front of a meeting, or put their hand up, or sign a decision form, or make a commitment, or join a church. No promise is for any of those. But there's a promise of life for those who call upon the name of the Lord. I like the word call. There's energy in it. There's desperation in it. This isn't a pretty prayer. This isn't something carefully planned and then spoken out in some beautiful cathedral so that everyone can say, isn't the English language wonderful. This is the cry of a man's heart who finds himself in a situation of desperation and he calls out, I guess one of the most kind of profound prayers in the Bible is that one of Peter where he's sinking beneath the waters and he says, Lord save me. There's not much pretty language in that. There are no F's and shouts and wilt thou's and all the rest of it. There's desperation. Lord save me. This is the call as we call upon God. As we call from our extremity into His provision as He's revealed Himself to us. God will do it. But He'll only do what He's shown us He will do. And so it's not a question of you kind of working through a list of Bible verses and ticking little boxes. It'll have to be as God reveals Himself. And in that moment of the revelation you can call upon Him. Let me say the same thing in a different way. You know when Peter writes, he speaks about the revelation of Jesus Christ and he speaks about grace that will come to us in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now I know he's talking about the Second Coming but I don't think he's only talking about the Second Coming. I think there's grace that comes to us in every revelation of Jesus Christ. Whenever we see Him as who He is and what He's reaching out His arms to do for us whenever we see Him there is built-in grace so that we can reach out and receive what God has for us. But let's get back to these priests and look what it says here. In Numbers chapter 6 He says, verse 24 The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious. The Lord lift up His face upon thee and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them. I don't know whether this captures you in the way it captures me but this is just an amazing thing how often these men chose to say these words. God would bless them. If these men are rightly commissioned and stand in right relationship with God and speak the words that God has given them to speak it will convey a blessing. Not just a nice feeling it will convey a blessing which is the presence of God Himself. It will put my name upon these people. What does that mean, putting His name on them? Well, have you ever had something that was perhaps given to you and you think, oh that's nice but it could be mistaken for the one that my brother's got or my sister's got so you put your name on it. And putting your name on it says, this is mine. Keep your hands off, this is mine. This is the people of Israel, these are the priests and they're putting the name of God upon His people. This is God through the word of the priests this is God through His servants who are rightly related with Him identifying Himself with these people and saying, this is mine. These are mine, these are my people these people will be blessed. These people will have the blessing of my presence, of my face. Do you remember this story of Moses as they were coming out of Egypt and beginning to kind of move through the land and there was this time when they had sinned against God yet again and Moses pleased with God to forgive them and God says, well I'll take them to the land of them and an angel before them I'll fulfil all the promises I've given to them but I'm not coming. Do you remember this? God says, I'm not coming with you lest I consume you. I'm going to send an angel with you and Moses and the people are horrified they kind of take off their ornaments they go through all the acted out ceremony of mourning, grieving they're going to lose God's presence and Moses sets himself to seek God and he pleads with God and the pattern of his prayer is this and he says, Lord acknowledge, recognize that these are your people these are the people that you've put your name on they're not waifs and strays, they're not a caste they're yours this is the only thing that gives them significance and he pleads with God and God says, alright I'll come with you and then Moses makes this extraordinary statement and to me, I love him to bits for it he says, I'm putting into my words he says, God if you don't come with us, leave us here there's no point these people have come out of bondage and slavery they're now in the midst of a desert land that has nothing at all to offer them and up ahead of them is a wonderful land that flows with milk and honey and it's everything they've ever wanted and God's promised them that he will give them continual victory he'll put the land into their hands and they'll have more than they could ever dreamed of and Moses says, if you're not going I don't want to go I don't want the blessings I don't want the milk and the honey I don't want the promised land I don't want the victory I don't want any of those things if you're not going, leave us here and then Moses says this he says, what is it that distinguishes us from all the other people of the earth? he's a question for us you know, as we kind of look at our identity sometimes as fellowships or as churches what's our answer to that? what is it that identifies us distinguishes us from all the other people of the earth? I'm not going to answer that question I'm going to answer this question instead what is it that distinguishes God's people? God's presence God's presence not his blessings not his promises not his miracles his presence that's what distinguishes these people and God gave to these priests the power to speak words in his name that would bring the consciousness of his presence upon his people so that the people would know that they weren't orphans they were gods that God had put his name on them that God had blessed them now, would you like to have a power like that? would you like to have the kind of power that whenever you speak God does the thing that you say? where God builds in this absolute guarantee you say it and I'll do it, says God that's what he's saying here to these priests you say it and I'll do it you pronounce the blessing I'll bless them would you like to be like that? well, there is a way turn back with me we'll just spend a maybe not too long a time come to Leviticus and chapter 8 I know some people who when they get to Leviticus in their daily readings breathe out a big sigh I say, wow, wonderful here we are again this is this is a wonderful passage of scripture you've probably heard me say this before I sometimes think that we have three testaments we have an Old Testament and we have a New Testament and we have an Old Testament read in the light of the New Testament an Old Testament interpreted to us by the truth that God has revealed in the New and that is a most thrilling book and here what you've got in chapter 8 of Leviticus is the consecration of the priests you've got the time when five men were changed forever up until this time they were no different from anybody else they were people who had families and responsibilities and a few chickens and a I was going to say a pig but they would have had a pig and a few a few sheep or whatever it was they would have been indistinguishable from anybody else but as a result of what happened in this chapter they were changed forever there's a symbolism of it in the fact that when this consecration ceremony had taken place these five people were then required to remain in the presence of God for seven days now seven in the Bible is a picture of completeness it's really a picture of saying these people no longer have any life of their own they have no rights of their own they have no responsibility of their own from this time on these are my people I expect to be able to have them at my beck and call any moment of any day they are mine continually they are here 24 by 7 as we say now in our modern generation they are available to God remember that there was a kind of a tragedy that took place very soon in the midst of all this when two of Aaron's sons died as a result of their presumption and Aaron wasn't allowed to mourn because Aaron had another responsibility he was God's servant now his prime thing was that he was no longer his own man no longer in the world no longer of the world the only thing that mattered to him now was that he had to remain in the presence of God so that he could be available to God it's a very powerful picture let me just go through one or two things we need to blend the pictures together in this this consecration of the priests this thing that makes people priests is effected by and you can run ahead of me now and see where I'm going is effected by the mediator of the Old Covenant now I call on that particularly, purposefully so that you'll begin to think about the mediator of the New Covenant because the mediator of the New Covenant makes men and women priests in the same way that the mediator of the Old Covenant did it in fact this Old Covenant consecration of the priests with its mediator Moses is a picture, it's a type, it's a shadow of the true priesthood God said to his people of Egypt when he brought them out of Egypt you are going to be to me a kingdom of priests and they were going to be quite different to any other nation in any other nation you take a select group of people and that select group of people are your priests but this whole nation were going to be priests this whole nation were going to be mediators this whole nation were going to be people who would be able to link with God with one hand and the world with the other hand and bring the word of God to the world they were to reveal the nature, the purpose of God they were intended to be able to speak the blessing of God when God took the people of Abraham and Abraham himself he said to Abraham that he would bless Abraham and he also said to Abraham Abraham be thou a blessing Abraham was to be a blessing as a result of having been blessed and you and I are to be a blessing as a result of having been blessed as a result of being in the right relationship let me just show you one or two things we won't go into all of it and it doesn't matter whether you understand all of it if not I hope it will provoke you to read it this is Leviticus chapter 8 the Lord spoke to Moses saying take Aaron and his sons with him and the garments and the anointing oil and a bullock for a set offering and two rams and a basket of unleavened bread and gather thou all the congregation together to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and Moses did as the Lord commanded him and the assembly was gathered together to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and Moses said to the congregation this is a thing which the Lord commanded to be done and Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water if you are going to be a priest you are going to have to allow the mediator of the new covenant to bring you to water and strip you of everything that you have tried to cover your sin with and let him wash you in the tabernacle of old there was only one source of water it was a thing called the laver it was like an artificial pool available so that people could be thoroughly washed in this thing what happens here is that Moses brings Aaron and his sons he brings them to this place and he washes them now this is a thorough washing I used to say when my youngsters were younger only teenagers can wash with all their clothes on not teenage boys, not even girls can do it but boys can do it but this washing is a strong implication that obviously these people were stripped of all that they had upon them and they were washed that can be that can be a very embarrassing experience we have to allow God to deal with us we have to allow him to peel off the layers of things that we put around ourselves to hide ourselves from him we have to be honest with him everything is open and open with the one with whom we have to do as the writer of Hebrews says we have to be and allow him to do what he will he won't abuse us he won't be unkind but he will deal thoroughly and he will bring us to this laver of regeneration why do I call it that? well that's what Paul calls it when he writes to Titus he talks about salvation and he says that salvation is effected by the laver of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit which is poured out to us by the Holy by the by the Holy Ghost it's a picture keep that picture in your mind let me turn you to it we'll come back to Leviticus in a moment turn to Titus and see how the Lord, he is speaking through Paul describes salvation I don't know whether this is the way you would describe salvation but this is the way Paul does it it's a lovely passage it begins here I'll read chapter 3 and I'll read from of verse 5 verse 4 but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man has appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy Titus chapter 3 verse 5 according to his mercy he saved us is that what you put? he saved us he was merciful because he saved us now he's going to tell us how he saved us he saved us by the labour of regeneration that's what it really says and renewing of the Holy Spirit which he has poured on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord so apparently in order to have, what shall we call it, full salvation you have to have this entire work worked out in your heart, in your life you have to be brought to the labour of regeneration and have all the old stripped away and be completely washed and then you have to be renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit who is poured out from us, it says here through Jesus Christ our Lord what is this a picture of? when was the Holy Spirit poured out? when did they come into full salvation? when did they become no longer their own but God's people when did he put his name upon them? when did he seal them with his Spirit and say this is mine? this is a picture of the Spirit coming in all his fullness coming and saying this is mine because God distinguishes his people because they have his presence that's why Paul writes and he says if we have not the Spirit of Christ we are not his now the evangelical world turns that on its head and says we are his so we have the Spirit of Christ but that's not what Paul says Paul says if we don't have the Spirit of Christ we are not his it's very dangerous to turn Bible verses upside down are you following me, what I'm saying? you've got people who say well I've believed all the right things I've gone through the right processes I've been counselled I've got the assurance I've had this, this and this and this I am his therefore I must have the Holy Spirit that is what A.W. Tozer used to call a logical deduction drawn from proof texts that's not salvation that's a theological process that's not the experience of God at all what Paul says is those who do not have his Spirit are not his they don't have his name on them they don't have his seal upon them God hasn't said this is mine but those that God has sealed with his Spirit they are his and you see here the picture of it the labour of regeneration the renewing of the Holy Spirit which is poured upon us abundantly let's go back to Leviticus chapter 8 I'm not going to try and go through the whole of this passage and detail every verse for you but you can see some of the things that happen here verse 6 Moses brought air unto his sons and washed them with water and he put upon him the coat and girded him with the girdle and clothed him with the robe and put the ephed upon him and girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod and bound it to him therewith and he put the breastplate upon him also he put on the breastplate the urim and the funim he put the mitre on his head and upon the mitre even upon his forefront did he put the golden plate, the holy crown as the Lord commanded Moses so first of all the mediator of the covenant strips away all the outer clothing all the things in which we've trusted all the things that we have accrued all our own do-it-yourself righteousness that's all stripped away and then there's a thorough cleansing in the labour of regeneration and then these men are clothed and they're clothed by the mediator of the covenant they don't put their own clothes on and Aaron doesn't clothe the other priests it's the mediator of the covenant in other words it's Jesus it's Jesus who strips us it's Jesus who washes us it's Jesus who clothes us so that we can be ready and equipped to serve in the way that he's chosen and it goes on here in verse 10 and Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein and sanctified it he set it apart he made it uniquely God's so that it didn't belong to anybody else it's God's now and he sprinkled that out on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all his vessels and the labour and his foot to sanctify and he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and anointed him if you're following my picture when did this happen to Jesus? when was the anointing oil poured upon his head? are you following this? it's not just his Christ-ing in the Jordan tell them they're to Hebrews we won't go back to Leviticus although I'll refer to it because time is going on just tell them they're to Hebrews chapter 1 he refers in verse 3 to Christ like this this is where we started last night who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high being made so much better than the angels as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they for unto which of the angels said he at any time thou art my son this day have I begotten thee and again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son and again when he brings in the first begotten into the world he says and let all the angels of God worship him and of the angels he saith who make us his angel spirits and administers a flame of fire but unto the son he says thy throne O God is for ever and ever the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom he's speaking of a time when the son has sat down upon his throne from the beginning it's where he has purged our sins that's when he sat down on the right hand of the God of God this is the point of his accession it's the point in which God exalts him to the throne and then it goes on to say this that God has given him this throne in verse 8 and then it says in verse 9 thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore the Lord thy God hath anointed thee now that he is on the throne God anoints him our queen, is she your queen? well, the queen we won't get too involved the queen sat on a throne and was anointed I guess it's picked it up from this kind of pattern of things Jesus sat upon a throne and he was anointed and the oil that flowed upon his head flowed down to his garments and the oil as it says here it anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows that's a kind of an implication that the fellows received the oil of gladness but his anointing is above theirs in fact in the picture that you have in the book of Leviticus the other priests the four sons of Aaron were directly anointed they were joined to the anointed by the way in which they were sprinkled with the oil with which Aaron had been anointed this is a bit complicated isn't it? in Bible language God joins things together he joined his people to an altar by sprinkling blood on the altar and upon the people and it joined them together so that they became the people of the altar they became God's kingdom of priests the people who would serve him around the altar this is all Exodus in Leviticus as they come into this kind of particular priesthood, this Aaronic priesthood God joins the priests to the high priests by means of sharing their anointing they are sprinkled with the oil with which Aaron was anointed, now this is all very complicated but what I'm trying to say is simply this we have an anointing that we've received of him because it's his anointing you hear a lot of language about people being anointed it was an anointed meeting he's an anointed preacher he's an anointed singer, he's an anointed this or that and the other I've had lots of prayer for me that people pray Lord give him a real anointing tonight and all this kind of thing in the New Testament it says there's only one anointing it's Jesus' he is the one who has been anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, but we share in his anointing on the same day Aaron became high priest and those who were joined to him became priests on the same day that Jesus became a priest after the order of Melchizedek the Spirit of God was poured on his head and down to the garments and the people sitting in Jerusalem waiting received this same anointing that their head had just received and became what God had always intended them to become, a kingdom of priests people set apart for him people who could be at his beck and call, people whose passion now was for God, people who have no rights any longer to themselves no rights to their own moves their own sorrows, their own personal prejudice people whose first priority is now to be available to God to hear what he is saying so that ultimately they will be able to step outside the veil and speak the blessing of God speak the words that God has given to them and convey the reality of the presence of God to men and women who have not been in that place men and women who are not priests men and women who will be blessed because these men these channels of blessing are rightly related to God it's an amazing picture we're not going to go all through it now but if you look farther and look at Leviticus you'll discover that one of the things that they did is that they filled the hands of the priest with bread Moses did that this wonderful mediator of the old covenant, that was Moses you see this is a picture of feeding the people of God and where does the provision come from? well it doesn't come from the natural resources of Aaron and of his sons it comes from the mediator you wouldn't want to give people your own concoctions, your own baking experiments, you'd want to give them that that the mediator of the covenant has given us one of the things that God does in this fullness of regeneration, this fullness of renewing in the Holy Spirit and the pouring out of His Spirit is that He equips us to serve God and He equips us to serve our brothers and sisters He equips us to be able to wait in His presence in the right clothing that He has provided and He fills our hands with bread so that we have something to give to those who have no bread I said last night, some of you weren't here but I said last night that Protestants believe in a doctrine that they call the priesthood of all believers and I said I don't I believe in the potential priesthood of all the regenerate I don't believe that it's belief that equips somebody just believing it's regeneration it's the labour of regeneration, it's the renewing of the Holy Spirit it's receiving the same anointing, it's having our hands filled with bread it's being from the same source so that the one who is sanctified and those who are sanctified are all from one origin all on the same day all beginning this glorious new covenant priesthood and the implication is that if we allow Him to make us part of His purpose and plan like this and if we stay in right relationship with Him we have His authority to step outside that veil and speak His word to the world and they'll meet God in the words that the priests speak. It's not magic this is not magic, it's not getting the right words it's not going through the right formulas and rituals, it's not getting the right doctrine. These are men and women who have been uniquely equipped by the mediator of this covenant to be priests not because they've achieved something, not because they've learned some techniques, not because they know how to manipulate the congregation or to pray and produce effects but people who are in living union with God and can receive His word and speak His word in such a way that the presence of God is encountered by the people who hear the words. Does this sound anything like something you might be interested in? Yeah, me too. Oh, let's pray.