Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Our first position as a member in the family of God is our priesthood position. It is by grace that we have this unmerited favor of being individual priest before God, II Pet.2:9. This personal connection we have with God and how it is manifest to the world is the subject of our message today. This is a continuation of our last lesson of our grace relationship to God.
This priesthood relationship must be understood as our private walk with God. The operational mechanics of this part of our relationship to God is both personal and it is mostly invisible.
1. It involves our prayer life obviously, Heb.4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” You and I can converse with the Lord all we want and the more of his word we know the more we will make sense to God, and the more He will make sense to us.
2. It also involves our fellowship with God.
For the believer his life has come under new management, I Cor.6:19-20 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
By living as we should in obedience to God’s word we stay in his good favor; his grace. We do not do this to keep our position because that is forever settled at the moment we believe. This relationship to God is immutable, we will never be condemned to judgment and perdition and this will never change, but our Christian fellowship with God is mutable. We can go in and out of God’s favor by committing sin.
This does not condemn us, but it does put us out of fellowship with God. God in his grace has provided I Jn.1:9 so that we can recover from our broken fellowship with him. This is not a new salvation, it is simply adjusting to our salvation position the way God’s word prescribes.
If we desire to live the grace life we must utilize I Jn.1:9 as often as needed, that’s one reason why the verb confess is a present tense verb. We might not like to admit we have sinned, but if we say we do not sin as believers then we call God a liar.
To keep a proper grace perspective with God means we do admit our sins to him and we seek to refrain from such action, whether these sins are; (1) the dwelling on mental attitude sins, or (2) the sins of the tongue, or (3) the sins of the flesh.
James 4:7 cp. I Pet.5:9 tells us why many believers have such a hard time overcoming sin.
If the believer does not live the grace life then his life will be saturated with sinful justifications and mere human good. Satan (most likely one of his demonic pawns) will not flee from you and neither will the influences of the sin nature flee from you if you don’t flee them first. If you and I do not initiate personal responsibility in this area of our lives, that is, of controlling our sin nature, then God cannot help us live a victorious Christian life. He cannot help us if we are not willing to help ourselves. We must be willing participants in the grace plan of God if we are going to reap the benefits of God’s sustaining grace.
Our priesthood relationship with God also involves...
3. It involves our spiritual growth. No believer has a healthy relationship with God unless he or she is steadily reaching for spiritual maturity, Heb.11:6, Phil.3:14, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” That high calling is the spiritual maturity we attain as we are being conformed to the character image of Jesus Christ, and this requires a maximum intake of God’s word.
A lack of doctrinal intake leads to stunted spiritual growth; a growth that cannot be attained through glorious worship services or religious activity.
If we are not readily involving ourselves in growing to spiritual maturity by gaining a thorough knowledge of God’s word then we are living our Christian lives by default, that is, we are falling back on human viewpoint for living out the Christian life.
The default mode of humanity is the self-centered life which is controlled by either, sinful behavior or religious human good, both of which are an offense to the integrity of God.
This is why so many churches substitute human good activities for Biblical instruction. This is why so many pastors spend an exorbitant amount of time giving personal counsel to their people, because the people aren’t being counseled in the word of God from the pulpit.
4. It involves our specific calling in life and our service to the Lord. This service includes our time we give to the Lord. When a man is called into the ministry this is a priesthood function; that is, his calling is both personal and private, Eph.4:8; I Tim.3:1. That constant urging to become a pastor-teacher comes from the Lord, not a doting relative or a church member. We can take this application and apply it to every believer for the Bible says in Eph.4:1 that we are all to walk worthy of our vocation (our calling as Christ’s servants). Serving the Lord is not an avocation; it is what we are full time regardless of what we do for a living. Every believer is in full time Christian service.
5. It includes the money we give back to the Lord. I say give back to the Lord because in grace we recognize we owe all we have to God as our provider, and since God is not stingy, neither are we to be stingy not just with our offerings, but also with our time, and our spiritual gifts. II Cor.9:6-7 “But this I say, He who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he who soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, i.e. [sorrowful to give] nor of necessity, i.e. [like pulling eye-teeth]; for God loves a cheerful giver.”
6. It involves our worship seven days a week. In worship we are supposed to adore God, not one another. Too much about worship today involves admiration for the talents and personalities of people. Ps.138:2 “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth; for thou hast magnified they word above all thy name.”
Prov.8:17 “I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me.” Heb.11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Worship is a priesthood function, not an ambassadorial function though we have reversed this function today.