THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD,

^[p. 400] THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD,

and their sacrifices in the house of God. The first service of the holy priesthood when we come together is to remember the Lord’s death. It should be at the beginning of the meeting; if the company were really with the Lord it would be so. The spiritual house is on the earth. The holy priesthood first calls to mind that Christ died here. This gives a true character to everything here, and enhances the fact that we are now around Him as the consecrated company, entering with boldness the holiest of all; that is not heaven, but glory and honour are in His presence. This is your beginning; but not the finish. If you come together only to break bread in remembrance of Christ’s death, you overlook that He is in the midst, Son over God’s house, and that you are there “a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2: 5). The Lord’s supper is not referred to in Hebrews. A pious Jew would know that until all the sacrifices necessary for approach to God were offered there could not be consecration. Anyone who looks at Leviticus 8 will see that there was no consecration until after all the sacrifices necessary to place the believer in full approach to God were offered. In the type, the consecration came last. As the holy priesthood we remember Christ’s death; we surround Him before God as the consecrated company, and offer up spiritual sacrifices; the heart is made conscious of the blessedness of Christ’s place in the presence of God, as is set forth by the burnt-offering, the meat-offering, and the peace-offering. But I believe the first spiritual sacrifice is the presentation of the two wave loaves, the first-fruits - the day of Pentecost has fully come. The antitype of the wave loaves was the hundred and twenty in Acts 2, the church presented unto God; and hence in Leviticus 23: 20 we read, “They shall be holy to Jehovah, for the priest”. What I am trying to describe is how the holy priesthood offer up “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. You come spiritually to what we get literally in Deuteronomy 26. When Israel were in possession of the land they brought a basket of the first-fruits of the land and offered it to the Lord, they professed that they had come into the wealthy place. Anyone who has tasted of the blessedness of being around Him, the first ripe fruit, in the presence of God with a cup running over, will worship the Father. This will give you some idea of the blessed service of the holy priesthood.