We are Called to Be Priests: The Mystery of Aaron & Melchizedek

Now, would you be in Aaron’s line? Then you’ll have to come through the altar, through the altar, into the holiest of holies, and live in the presence of the Lord, bearing the children of God before the Lord. You’ll have to bear their burden, bear their sin, and bear their iniquities. You’re not going to gossip about them. You’re not going to talk about them.

You come as the line of Aaron, and you bear the tribe of God on your shoulders before him. As a man, you bring them to the Lord, then stay there and open yourself to the Lord. I believe two things happen there. One is that you receive holiness, and the other is that you go in holiness. Now, listen very carefully. To be in the line of Aaron, you have to be a holy priest. Whenever the line of Aaron became unholy, God cut it off and raised up someone else as his priest. He could not have such an unholy testimony before him. Have you ever had this experience? Have you ever come to the Lord and realized you couldn’t really come to him because you sensed an unholiness?

Have you ever come to the Lord as a holy priest? You opened yourself to the Lord; you were truly holy, yet the Lord dealt with you. You realize that you could get so far with the Lord, though he had come in and you could touch the Lord, and you lived with the Lord, and there was holiness to the Lord, yet you just got so close to the throne, and yet at a certain point, you sensed something. Do you know what I mean? It was like the Lord had built a wall there, and He said, ” No closer until this is dealt with.” Then you deal with it in the Lord, and He makes you more of His holy priest, and you can come a little closer to His presence.

Brothers and sisters, if you are to go home in priesthood, you will have to deal with the Lord in matters of holiness every time this happens. If you don’t, you will lose that sense of priestliness, and I believe that tomorrow morning when it’s time to light the lamp and offer the incense, you will find that it’s a good time to go out and dig a ditch about 500 feet away from the tabernacle where there’s been a gully wash or something. You don’t even really look in the direction of the altar, and you surely know you cannot come into the Lord’s presence.

Do you know when you’ll get back into His presence? I mean, the sense of His presence? You’ll be out there digging that ditch one morning, and the thing’s going to cave in on you. And you’re going to cry out, “Oh God…Oh, Lord, and then you’re willing to do anything to get back to him. Do you understand my metaphor?

Come and bear yourself to the Lord and bear the house of Israel to the Lord. But I promise you that God can be so “disgusted” that, as you come there before him, you will be dealt with. Sometimes I almost fear being touched by the Lord. I want you to understand me. I come to the Lord in the mornings and open myself up to him, and it is so rich and so wonderful. Then the Lord will just…I cannot go very far with the Lord in such richness until there comes a place where the Lord begins to. I can almost begin to hear him say (clears His throat and says ‘ahem’).

Brothers and sisters, do you want to continually walk in the lineage of the priesthood? Then, each time we come to the Lord, we will have to be holy priests. When we are before the Lord in the line of Aaron, the unholiness in us must be dealt with. Bear yourself and the church in the very presence of the Lord. This is the line of Aaron. This is your priestly place.

Now, the line of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was a priest who imparted God to man. Melchizedek comes to Abraham, and he gives him bread and wine. What is bread and wine? It’s sustenance. It’s food. It’s strength. What is the bread and what is the wine? The life. The bread and the blood. The sustenance of life. Is it human life? No, it is divine life. Separated, broken, divine life. Man could never assimilate God’s life until it was first broken, until it was first torn apart. It was like that ice that melted. It has to be separated. The wheat has to be put in the ground and die, and then He comes and brings life to man. Now, isn’t it interesting that we have always taken the Lord’s Supper as a very sad occasion? Do you take the Lord’s Supper as a sad occasion?

We always think of it as pertaining to his cross, correct? And his suffering? We have never in this church, and oh, praise the Lord, one of these days…a Lord’s Supper. But just a little point here in passing, the Lord’s Supper shows forth what? His death until what? Until He comes. Then what did He say of His bread and his wine? That He would not eat it again until He comes into His kingdom, but you are to eat it to show forth His death. To whom are you showing forth his death? You have the Lord’s Supper for many reasons; one is to show forth his death to the principalities and powers.

You ask, “Why the death? The death is the dying on the cross for us to get saved.” No! In Hebrews we read yesterday, “Let’s leave these six fundamentals: repentance from dead works, the laying on of hands, and baptisms. And what does baptism…not baptisms…what does it show for? Death. And what do ‘baptisms’ show for? Death. Not one, but many. Who died when Jesus Christ died on the cross? Adam went. Whom did he destroy in that death? Who else was judged besides Adam? Death was. The world system was. Who else? Satan was in that death. The Lord Jesus Christ took the wine and separated it from the bread; He took the blood and separated it from the life, showing death, and He said, “Show it forth; announce it.” That very same night, He said, “Now is the prince of this world judged,” speaking of His foe.

Brothers and sisters, the next time you have the Lord’s Supper, you hold up the wine and the bread and say, “Satan, the Lord’s death has destroyed your kingdom! And until he comes, we celebrate His kingdom here on earth.” Show it to the principalities and the powers; we are here to celebrate!