The Position & Possessions of the Believer #20 (Lesson 23)

Lesson 23, number 20. We're all on the same page. Partakers of the Holy and Loyal Priesthood, and the verses were 1 Peter 2.5, 1 Peter 2.9, and Revelation 1.6. So why don't we start, and let's read the verses. It's interesting that the Apostle Peter would be the one who would talk a lot about priesthood and royal priesthood and that would be because he's a Jew. Not that Paul wasn't, Paul does talk some about it, but not to the extent that Peter does.

So, let's see, Peggy, would you read 1 Peter 2.5 and 2.9?

First Peter 2.5 You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

2.9 That you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light. and has made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve as God and Father. To Him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. So let's talk a little bit about, before we get to the questions, well actually, first of all, what does it mean to be a priest? How many of you have a Schofield reference Bible?

If you have one, and at your leisure, In 1 Peter 2.9 there's a footnote that talks about priesthood, which is really a good one to read. I guess I do. What's that? I guess I do. I have a footnote there. Cool.

So a couple of things that that footnote says is that until the law was given, the head of each family was considered a priest. What is a priest? How would you define a priest? He's one of those guys who wears kind of a weird costume, conducts ceremonies, smoking mirrors. He's a lead person. He represents us to God. That's right, he represents the people to God as opposed to a prophet who represents God to the people.

So you can see why before the law was given that the head of each family was considered the family priest. Now, when the law came, God told Moses that there is going to be a whole tribe of priests, which is Aaron. Now Moses and Aaron are brothers, right? So it is described as the Arianic priesthood. Was Moses a priest? Sure he was, he was Aaron's brother. Same family. Which family is the priest family? The Levites. So Moses and Aaron were Levites. They were priests.

So when Moses goes up and gets the law, he knows that he's representing the people because there are several times that God says, listen, these people make me, I'm done with these guys, I'm going to wipe them out. And Moses says, no you're not, please don't do it, he's representing the people. So here's this whole priesthood, this tribe of priests, the biblical priesthood, that's brought in at the time of Moses under the law system. Now they had some specific duties in representing the people.

The representation primarily has to do with dealing with the sin issue. They were people that worked in the temple. They didn't do any other work other than in the temple. The other eleven tribes supported them. Their primary job was to conduct the sacrifices for the covering of sins. They did other things. They were, as a group, the ones that represented the people before God.

Now, once the Lord Jesus comes, and now everything changes. There's a new economy, and the interesting thing about reading John's gospel is that the Lord Jesus performs priestly functions, and what family was he from? Judah. And Judah is not the priestly family, but he's from Judah. So he's designated a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So the Bible talks about two priesthoods. One is the Levitical, the Arianic priesthood, which has to do with all the Old Testament saints. And then there's a new one. And the new one is order of Melchizedek.

Now this guy Melchizedek is an interesting guy. He's only mentioned three or four times in the whole Bible. One of the ways in Paul the Apostle demonstrates that the Melchizedek priesthood is superior to the Levitical priesthood is when Abraham was coming back from defeating the kings. He goes through this town called Salem, and he meets this guy Melchizedek. And the Bible says that he paid tithes to Melchizedek. And he recognized Melchizedek as being a priest of God.

And who's Abraham? In terms of his position before God, who is Abraham? He's the guy that God came to and said, I'm going to make a great nation out of you. You're going to be the man. And from you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And all of the promises to Israel were resident within Abraham.

Yet Abraham recognizes this Melchizedek to be superior to him. And so he pays tithes to him, a tenth. And in those days, you didn't give him the back ten, you gave him the top ten. So you get the pile of spoils and you say to Melchizedek, you get 10% right off the top, whatever you want. And he recognized that Melchizedek being superior was a man of God or a priest of God. So when you get to the New Testament, especially in Paul's epistles, the Lord Jesus is called a priest after the order, according to the order of Melchizedek, which immediately puts him ahead or above the Levitical priesthood. It's a really important thing to understand because the representative before God now is Christ himself and he is not from Aaron or Levi, he's different. Now there's a basic difference in the activities of these two priesthoods. The basic activity of the The basic activity of the Levitical priesthood was to do what? What was their main function?

They hung out in the temple. What did they do? Offered sacrifices. That's right. That's what they did. They offered sacrifices. You think these guys were busy? Absolutely they were busy. The sacrifices were like an all-night movie. It was 24-7. The blood ran out through that temple like a river. And the reason was the covering. The Jews didn't take Saturday off and stop sinning. They sinned all the time, so therefore their sacrifices were gone. Plus, there were required sacrifices every day, morning and evening, and that kind of thing. Now, those of you who come over to the house on Thursday night, who have been studying Hebrews, and we've been talking about Melchizedek a lot, and or Jesus, the primary function of a Melchizedek priest is to do what?

It's to bless, and the reason is why. Why can he be free to bless now? Because the sin issue is resolved. Hebrews 1, verse 1 or 2, says that when he had made satisfaction for the sins of the world, what did he do? He sat down at the right hand of God. Weren't the priests always standing? There weren't any chairs in the temple. That's right. They were always standing because they were always working. They must have had three shifts, graveyard. These guys were working all the time. So the Lord Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He, himself, offers himself, solves the sin issue before God, and now, because he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek, he blesses. And that's what Melchizedek did.

He came out from Salem, and he blessed Abraham. Abraham gave him the tithe. It wasn't, if I give you the tithe, you'll bless me. It wasn't like that. That was his function. as a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And the other thing that it says about Melchizedek, if you remember, not only is he a priest, what else is he? He's a king. He's the king of Salem. And the word Salem means peace, generally. So he's two things.

The Twelve Tribes did not exist at the time of Abraham. They did. But the Twelve Tribes did exist at the time of Moses. And the reason that the thing with Melchizedek and Abraham is so important is that If you look at the genealogy chart, you have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob has 12 sons. And each one of those sons is the head of one of the tribes.

Can I state something? I disagree because I believe that Israel was in the loins of Abraham at the time. No question about that. That triggers another thought that I need to... But there was no Levitical sacrifice at the time of Abraham? No, there wasn't. But there was the Order of Melchizedek? But there was sacrifice. So they were operating in a system of grace? Well, back before the law came, the priest was the head of the family. Like if you're the head of your family, you're also the priest for your family. You're the one that represents your family before God.

And for Melchizedek to bless Abraham, in terms of what Mike says, he blessed all of his progeny at the same time. And so yeah, a Levitical priesthood was in fact in the lines of Abraham and that's Paul makes that, the book of Hebrews makes that clear by saying that Abraham gave a tent spoiled that he paid tithes to. Now who is that? Yeah, Hebrews 7. So in the point of clarification here, which I'm glad you asked because I meant to say this. The proof that the writer of Hebrews gives that the Melchizedek priesthood is greater than the Levi priesthood was that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek in the loins of Abraham.

In the loins of Abraham were also all nations as stated in Galatians. Well, all the physical nations, but not necessarily the spiritual nations. I mean, we're all sons of Abraham from a spiritual standpoint in that we are the sons of faith. And I'll make a connection of why us being royal priests separates us from the Levitical system.

That's 430 years from before the law comes in, before all of these, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 sons, the tribes, Joseph, go to Egypt, out of Egypt, the Sinai, and that kind of thing. And when God gave Israel the law, not only did he give them the how they were supposed to behave, but he gave them a system. And he put the priests in a special place and made them the representatives of those people before God. If you happen to live in Peking, China, in 100 B.C., what relationship did you have with God? Could you have a relationship with God? What if you were a Jew?

Well, I don't want to get far away. Let's say you live in the Solomon Islands or in La Jolla, Hawaii. I don't know. You're in front of a promise. Well, if you're actually alive in 100 B.C., do you have any relationship with God at all? Most definitely not. And what is it? Was there salvation afforded you? What do you think? If there was, I want to know what it was.

It was through the nation of Israel, period. Now I know that doesn't seem fair. But if you want to talk to me about fair, you're all tuned. If God is going to act fairly, we're all going to die. We're all going to hell and that's going to be the end of it. The point being is that God dealt with the whole world up until the time of Abraham. And then he specifically chose him and the people to deal with mankind through those people. There was only salvation through the Jews. Only. So if you were the unlucky guy that was born in Solomon Island, unless Abraham or one of his offspring was a great sailor, you never heard about anything about salvation.

Now we don't think that's key. In the environment in the world that we live in today, evangelism is everywhere. The work of the Spirit of God is going on everywhere, and the Word of God is everywhere. But, you know, 2,500 years ago, that wasn't the case. Excuse me, what about the Book of Job then? Because the Book of Job is about... The Book of Job is before Abraham. So salvation could come to men like Cain and Abel. Was Abel a believer that he would be saved?

Absolutely he was. But one thing, they're still without excuse because Romans 1 says that. That's right. God reveals himself to every man. through his conscience and through his creation, and he says, man, you're without excuse, because I've revealed myself to you, and here's the problem, if you don't honor me as God and you're not thankful, I'm going to leave you where you are, in your darkened mind. So, is it clear that this system or this principle that God puts in place, not a system, but this principle that God puts in place, That Melchizedek is a greater priest than Levi, because Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek in the loins of Abraham, does that system make sense to you? That what the Father could do, that all of his offspring, even though they weren't alive yet, but because they were in the loins of the Father, God considered that the offspring did it in the Father. Where else does that principle hold true?

Doesn't that hold true in Romans 5.12? By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. For what? All men sinned. Well, I'm sin away. I wasn't in the Garden of Eden. Yeah, you were. You were in the loins of Adam. Now why is that such a really, from an identification standpoint, why is that really a critical principle? It's hugely critical if you think about it. Why is it?

Because he has promised a seed. We are the sons of that seed. Galatians talks about the promises made to Abraham and his seed. Singular. Who is his seed? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself. So now, the reason that principle is so important to us is that, how can I say, well God had a whole new principle and a whole new thing when Christ came along and he changed the game.

He really didn't. Because if you're identified with Christ, then whatever is true of him, and whatever happened to him, what happened to you? Happened to you too. Because you could say, I'm in the spiritual lines of Christ. I'm an offspring of God. So whatever is true of Christ is going to be true of me. Just like whatever was true of Abraham is also true of Levi in the lines of Abraham. You see that? It's a really interesting biblical principle and it only makes sense if you understand what identification is.

You put it to the blessing part. I thought the main thrust of being after the order of Melchizedek is the royal and the priesthood. Those are the two keys. Because when you go back, Melchizedek is only brought out in Genesis 14, 18 through 20 in Psalm 110.

And that was, it was basically, yeah, he built it. And it wasn't sacrificed. I don't know if you said that, but that sacrifice was on a blessing. Yeah, because then after his Abraham returned from the deed of defeat of Jeddah Lamar and the kings who were with him, The king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Sheba, that is, the King Valley. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Now he was a priest at the most high. So he was, I think the key is, I don't know about the blessing part as much. I mean, he did bless him.

But the unique part about Melchizedek was the king. He was a king priest. There was no other like that. In Hebrews you start tracing down this guy's genealogy and it says, didn't have a mother, didn't have a father. Now that doesn't mean that he didn't have a mother and a father, it meant that there isn't any records of it.

The unique character of this guy, and you know what always has intrigued me about that, is that Abraham recognized him as this man of God. a man of God sign on his chest? Had a really cool crown? How did he know? He knew he was. And so he recognizes him as superior.

Because look, in Abraham is all of Israel, including the Levitical priesthood. And he recognized that this priesthood of Melchizedek was superior to him personally and all of his progeny. And so when you get to the New Testament and there gets to be this language that says Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, you can see why he is. Because he has separated himself from the earthly system and the Jewish system. And the fact that Melchizedek came out with bread and wine and blessing, that was his function.

That's kind of his priestly duties. Well, What are Christ's priestly duties right now? Not bread and wine. It's blessing. That's what he does. Now, ok, we've got the priesthood kind of put in place. The cool thing about what Peter is saying is, holy priesthood means that you're sacred, you're set apart, you're blameless. You could say that he was a saintly priest. He was set apart by God for that particular post of being a holy priest. I think we have adequately discussed what it means to be a king.

Revelation 1.6 is a verse I really like. Read it again if somebody has it. It's a really interesting verse. And yet made us kings and priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. What's the tense of that verb? Has made us. Has and. So you hear me say this all the time.

If you are a king, why don't you walk like one? You know, we have a tendency to think that that we're called to walk in a kingly fashion in order that we may reach the throne. Isn't that our mentality? God's order is backwards from that. His order is that a Christian begins at the throne and his kingly manner is only the inevitable outcome of who he is. It's like when we were talking about being an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ.

How come you guys don't walk around like you're an heir, a trust fund kid? Why don't you walk around like that? Because that's who you are. See that? So the thing that comes to my mind is, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him. And how did you receive Him? By faith. So how are you supposed to live in Him and walk in Him? By faith. What are you supposed to believe?

How about this? How about the fact that you're a king? How about the fact that you're a priest? How about the fact that you're an inheritor? As you have begun, so walk. So, the point being is that as we go through these 34 things, what are you discovering? You're discovering things that are true about you. Right? Only because they're true about Christ. So they're true about you. So my question, as you have begun in the Lord Jesus, Why don't you walk like? You're not on the way team. You're the home team. And you ought to act like it. Well, maybe we are the way team in this world.

So, in question four, what are the functions of a holy and royal priesthood in blessing? For what purpose has this all been accomplished? 1 Peter 2.9, if you go back to that, and by the way, next week we will be back at these verses talking about issues of what a holy nation is, a people of his own.

And if you look at the rest of 9, why are you a priest? Why are you a royal and a holy priest? The second half of verse 9 says that we should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So when I sort of kiddingly say, why don't you function like a holy and royal priest, I'm really serious about that, because when you do function that way, you show forth the praises of him who has called you out of the darkness, into his marvelous light. See that?

Now, if you aren't a king, you can't act like one. Everybody will know. But if you are a king, and you know you are, you will act that way. So it's always, if you look at God's way of doing things, he always puts in place everything that's necessary, and then he exhorts you to live from the position you already have.

And that's why walking as we have begun by faith is so critical to us, and that's why knowing who we are is so important to us. We are kings. That's who we are. We are a royal priesthood. In other words, put it this way, we are in order that we should. Do you understand what I mean by that? We are a priest and king. For what reason? That we should live like one.

You don't live like one in order to become one. You start from what you are. My example of my dog, I didn't have to teach him how to bark so that he would become a dog. I didn't have to teach him to wag his tail, walk on four feet, and pant so I could say, oh hey, you've become a dog. You say we are in order that we should. I think there's a discernment here in order that. There is order in this. A specific order in the universe. So, what's the purpose of salvation? Why would God save you? In this context. Why did he save you?

To become a royal priesthood. Sure. We might show forth the very characteristics of Christ himself. Well, how do you know about showing them forth if you don't know what they are? We don't deal in America with royalty. We look at royalty as somebody on the tube. And they're all kind of nutty people anyway. Like if you were from the House of Windsor in England, in the United States, We tried to make the Kennedys royalty, but they weren't. The point is that we are royalty. We really are. From God's perspective. And so there's a way in which this kind of royalty functions.

And so being conformed to the image of Christ means that you're going to function like who your life is. And so what do you do? You're going to bless. You're going to be sacrificial. You're going to be everything he is. Orderly. All in order. So, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek, where does he perform his duties as a priest? Where does he do it? Right here. I got it right here. Anybody else? In the Heavens. That's right. He performs them in the holy place where God is, in the very presence of God. So you have to say, now listen, if I'm a king and I'm a priest, where am I? Or it's a position and condition question. Positionally, where am I? on there. So one guy said your ministry comes from there, you don't go there, it comes from there.

So you get your marching orders from the Holy of Holies. Now one of the things that the Lord Jesus is doing up there is performing spiritual sacrifices according to the verse. Want to tell me what those are? Now if you come from Catholicism, you've got a great answer. I'll give you the scripture to start with.

Try Romans 12.1. Sure, you get to read.

I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. So to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is, some translations say reasonable service, others say spiritual service. So, my question is, what is a spiritual sacrifice? Setting aside self. Because self has already been set aside in the cross of Christ. Why sacrifice? The world is alluring. That's a good answer actually.

The point is that the believer, as he functions by faith, and in Romans 12.1 he is commanded to present his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. What's living sacrifice mean? The high priest on the Day of Atonement was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies based on the blood of a dead animal.

Hebrews 10.19 says, by the mercies of God, with boldness, enter into the Holy of Holies by a new and living way. Freshly slain way. Old system, one guy gets to go in for one day based on the blood of a dead animal.

Here in 12.1 and in Hebrews 10.20, you go in by a living way. Can I read out of this book a translation by Colleen Baird?

I exhort you therefore, brethren, as you would acknowledge the mercies of God, to offer your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing unto God, which is your reasonable worship." Okay. So, I come to you and say, alright. You say to me, well, you know, all you do is talk about position. Why don't you give me something to do? I'd say, okay, I'll give you something to do. I want you to present your body to God as a living sacrifice.

And it's wholly acceptable to Him. He'll take it. And not only that, it's your reasonable service. I'm waiting. You understand? As you would acknowledge the mercies of God? Yeah. So, what would prompt you to do such a thing? Why would you respond to a command like that? Initially because he said it, but notice where it's positioned in Romans. Where is it positioned?

In the 12th chapter. What have you learned up until that time? You've learned the whole identification issue. dead, buried, resurrected in Christ. And it's based on all of the blessings that are laid out to you in Romans 8. So if you're a reasonable Christian guy and you're moving along with the work of the Spirit, you really do come to a point and say, Lord, what do you want me to do with this dumb body I've got? What should I do with it? He says, why don't you give it to me? Makes perfect sense. Spiritual sense. And is it a sacrifice? A living sacrifice? Sure it is. Because what's your body normally, before you were a believer, how did it normally function? Self-centered. Totally self-centered. All it did was gratify itself. Is it sacrificial for you to hand it over to somebody else? Sure it is.

Because now that somebody else is going to dictate what your body does. An interesting thing, if you look at Paul's epistles, and you get down to the end of his life in Philippians, in 2 Timothy, he talks about the fact that his body is spent. It's worn out. My thought is, well, if he hadn't handed it over, it wouldn't have been. The thing about handing your body over to the Lord is that he'll say, thank you very much, and he'll take it, and he'll use it. And because it's spiritual service, and because it's a life that's supernatural, he'll wear your body out. And you won't get tired, but your body will get worn out. And at the end, it's like the Chevy runs out of gas. You think about a spiritual life functioning in a mortal body, the mortal body isn't going to keep up long. Can't do it. But it's cool. And you know what else? It's effortless on your part.

I've got a scripture here from 2 Corinthians. But thanks be to God who leads me on from place to place in the train of His triumph to celebrate His victory over the enemies of Christ and by me sends forth the knowledge of Him, a steam of fragrant incense throughout the world, from Christ, is the fragrance which I offer up to God, whether among those in the way of salvation, or among those in the way of perdition. But to these, it is an odor of death to those of life.

Interesting. I just looked at the time, I got to hurry. Mike, go for it. Isn't there also a distinction here, too, between And to the Jews, too. The dead sacrifice, which is a one-time, versus living, which is a continuous. A continuous sacrifice. This wasn't just a one-time thing. This is telling you to continually do this, and it's a living one. So, to the Jews, I think it made a big difference to them, in that a one-time sacrifice, no, it's not, you come to the temple... Well, one time today. Yeah, one time today or whatever, but it was a continuous thing now. It's a living.

Hebrews 10.20 when it says a new and living way, what it really means is a new and freshly slain way. The way God looks at the sacrifice of Christ is that it's constant and continuous and fresh right now all the time. Does that make sense? That it's effectiveness never diminishes by time. It's always as effective right now as it was when it happened.

It's also in the vein of the continuous, but also the sacrifice part. It's also, I mean, correlated with other scripture, you know, the daily taking up of your cross, the denial, you know, giving over of self. This is all in kind of conjunction with all of that. It's kind of giving over of self and giving yourself to be a priest, a representative, all those different things. There's lots that are tied up in this, but corollary. As much as I hate to ask an experiential question, I'm going to do it anyway.

How is the spirit-wrought, not I, but Christ's life experienced? How does that happen in your life? Now you would admit that God doesn't give us a list of conditions, does he? He doesn't give us a list of no yielding called for in order to be spirit-filled. You know, you don't have to confess all your known sins and all that song and dance. The lamb-like life, which is a good way to describe it, is ministered by the Spirit of God and is to be ministered through us and out to other people. How do you experience that kind of life?

I can see you all jumped right on that one. I'm trying to put the question the way I can comprehend it. Well, let me put it. Let me make it easy. As you have begun in the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in." How do you function? By faith. So you have to find out the elements of the truth, the things that are true of you. You have to find out. You've been crucified, buried, resurrected. You have to find out that you're a priest. You have to find out that this is a sacrificial life. You have to find out all these things. That's the first step. The second thing is that you believe them.

What does your faith do? Is your faith one of those things that God isn't going to act until you believe? As a Christian? Is your faith causative? So what does your faith do then? Because you have to live that way. What does your faith do in terms of implementing this life?

It's receptive. That's right. It's the thing that opens up the door. If you walk around knowing this stuff but you really don't believe it because it's just too good a news, guess what? You're going to be what you're about, experientially. But if you say to God, I believe you, I don't really understand it completely, but you say it's so, it's so, and I trust you. Then what happens is I think that the spirit begins to transmit that work in your life, the finished work in your life. And the problem with that, with most believers, is once that begins to happen, the self-life is going to feel the cut of the cross. And when the self-life starts feeling the cut of the cross, what's going to happen?

It's going to... And so therein lies the sacrifice. Therein lies the sacrifice. Because you have two natures, right? The sacrificial life is death works in me so that there might be life in you. That's the way a king and a priest functions. I'm going to jump to question 9. Question 7 and 8 we'll talk a lot about next week. How is God showing forth the praises of himself right now? How does he do it? I mean, as opposed to people who think they have apparitions and they have all these spiritual gifts, how's he really doing it? Cheryl? Through us. Through us. And how does he do it through us? More sacrificial. That's right.

Through the Spirit of God he conforms us to his very image. to the image of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, so that he can manifest his glory for who? For you to see? Now who gets to see all this? If you're an epistle of Christ, you're a non-verbal communicator, right? But you're projecting a message. What are you projecting? the glory of God.

What's interesting, you want to talk about miracles, that's an incredible one right there, that God would even do such a thing. If you would take a died-and-old sinner, as Doug Moe used to say, a no-hoper, By his grace save him and then conform him to the image of his own son so that the life of the son of God could be manifested to a world that hates God. And he's going to use you to do it. That's really cool. I mean that's an awesome miracle when you think about it. That's better than winning the lottery. Hey, I didn't get any resistance.

What's it mean that you're a king? What does it mean for you to be a king? To reign with Christ. So if you are a king and you're reigning, what are you reigning over? The earth. Think about this now. You know, we all go to God and confess our sins and flying and all that business. What does it mean to be a king? It means that you've been made to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places.

You have received and continue to receive an abundance of grace. You have the gift of righteousness. And that you do reign in life. I got this, Richard. I want. Go. Hebrews 12, 28. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, Let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear.

And that kind of language is the kind of language that is determined by the fact that we have already been placed in our position of a measurable blessing in Christ. Do you understand that? If we're to live by faith in the facts, then these facts right here are really important to us.

How many of you really think of yourself as a king? And a king has dominion over things. Or a priest. But the Word of God says, so are you not obeying in faith if you don't think of yourself that way? What do you think? You are! Because God says that's who you are. You are a king, so what do you rule over? If you're a king, you've got to be ruling over something that isn't your pets. What do you rule over?

What's that? The world. The world? What else? How about your sin nature? How about our friend Jezebel? Satan and the lost system. You as a king and a priest rule over the world system in general and sin and all of it because you are in the king. And he has accomplished all of that. See that? No fair going to God and saying, oh well, I'm working really hard to be a king. No. What's he say to you? You already are a king. He says, I'm going to act like one. How do you act like one? You live by faith and the facts. See that? So, I mean, it almost, I almost sound like Norman Vincent Peale. The power of positive thinking. It's not like that.

The facts are laid out, and they're laid out in three easy verses, and God says, you believe them. You just believe me. And I have given you my spirit. And you know what he's going to do? He's going to implement in your life this. So that you do live above sin.

Is it pretty good news? Kind of good news? Over-the-top news? It's incredible. And we can rest in the fact that God says it's so. I love saying this because it's one of those weird questions. Do you think of yourself as a king? Do you think of yourself as a priest? You should, because that's what you are. Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your blessings. How we thank you for the position and the privilege and the intimacy we have in your son. And we also thank you for your spirit that is in the process of working into us all that we are in your son that we might manifest the life that is his. We pray in his precious name. Amen.