Sermon Cloud

I Peter 2:9
9
   But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim
the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;
 
Revelation 1:5-6
5
   and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To
Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,  
6
   and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 
A. 1. GOD’S ETERNAL PLAN
Exodus 19:5-6
5
   Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure
to  Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.  
6
   And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to
the children of Israel."
Isaiah 61:6
6
   But you shall be named the priests of the LORD, They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the
riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast.
 
     2. MANIFEST SINCE BEGINNING
Abel
Genesis 4:4
4
   Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his
offering,
 
Noah
Genesis 8:20
20
  Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar.
 
Abraham  
Genesis 12:7-8
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   Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built
an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.  
8
   And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and
Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.
 
Isaac  
Genesis 26:25
25
  So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there
Isaac’s servants dug a well.  
Jacob  
Genesis 35:1-7
1
   Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who
appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
2
   And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among
you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.  
3
   Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day
of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”  
4
   So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears;
and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.  
5
   And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not
pursue the sons of Jacob.  
6
   So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with
him.  
7
   And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel,[a] because there God appeared to him when he
fled from the face of his brother. Job 
Job 1:5
5
   So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he
would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said,
“It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.
 
B. THE FOUR PRIESTLY PREROGATIVES
      Numbers 3:10 NIV
10
   Appoint Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; anyone else who approaches the sanctuary must be put to
death.
 
Numbers 18:7
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   Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind
the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes
near shall be put to death.
 
John 15:16
16
  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your
fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
 
The privilege of appointment.
1. Holiness
2. Perfection
3. Custody
4. Service
 
C.  HOLINESS 
I Peter 1:15-16
15
  but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16  because it is written, "Be holy, for I
am holy."
 
Called and appointed to represent God – character & nature
Sanctification – separation from (sin etc.)
Consecration – separation to (service) exclusive
 
a. Keeping the Sanctuary 
Numbers 3:38
38
  Moreover those who were to camp before the tabernacle on the east, before the tabernacle of meeting,
were Moses, Aaron, and his sons, keeping charge of the sanctuary, to meet the needs of the children of
Israel; but the outsider who came near was to be put to death.
 
I Corinthians 3:16-17
16
  Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone
defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
 
Moral conditioning 
Romans 6:13, 19
13
  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as 
being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 
19
  I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as
slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as
slaves of righteousness for holiness.
 
Fellowship with the Holy Spirit 
I Thessalonians 4:1-8
1
   Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as
you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 
2
   for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 
3
   For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 
4
   that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 
5
   not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 
6
   that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the
avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 
7
   For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 
8
   Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
 
 Psalm 51:10-12
10
  Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from
Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12
   Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
 
Receiving the inheritance  
 
Ephesians 5:5 AMP
5
   For be sure of this: that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life, or one who is
covetous [who has lustful desire for the property of others and is greedy for gain]--for he [in effect] is an
idolater--has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
 
b. The Power for Holiness
 
The Word 
 
John 17:17
17
 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
 
Ephesians 4:17-24
17
  This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk,
in the futility of their mind,
18
  having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is
in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 
19
  who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 
20
  But you have not so learned Christ, 
21
  if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 
22
  that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful
lusts, 
23
  and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 
24
  and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
 
God’s Love 
 
II Corinthians 5:14-15
14
  For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He
died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose
again.
 
Ephesians 3:19
19
  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
 
God’s Hand 
Hebrews 12:10
10
  For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be
partakers of His holiness.